The Curse of Oak Island S04E01

Synopsis

“Rick and Marty Lagina return to Oak Island and begin preparations for a major excavation in the Money Pit.”

What I thought

The Lagina brothers are back for a 4^th Season. Some watching this programme for the last three seasons might feel like they’ve been through six seasons of the TV show LOST, having been been drip dropped answers but thinking they’ll never get a thorough understanding of what is going on. Thankfully, judging by the trailer for this season, it looks like the brothers might actually be getting something tangible for a change. It’ll certainly be good to not see superfluous chases down blind alleys and digging up bits of mud and wood. But we don’t watch this for results do we? Unlikely you’d still be awake right now if you did. This is all about a long dragged out mystery and the promise of, well, not getting any answers.

The brothers return to oak island ready to plough more money into the project than is likely to be ever discovered deep below the surface. If these guys have this much money, I’m left wondering why they’ve never employed any experts of excavations and archaeological digs. Oh well. So, new this season is a researcher who has insights into the island. I know what you’re thinking – not another one! Yes, but as the episode progresses, it at least becomes likely that this lady actually has something tangible that stands up to scrutiny more than all the previous island theorists we’ve seen before. Although they don’t state where she got all her information from, she’s got an old map of oak island that the Knights of the Templar had something to do with. The map looks pretty detailed and accurate but also shows elements of the island the brothers had never known about, such as an hatch. Yes, I know, that was in LOST too. So, they go to where on the island this old map suggests a hatch is and Dave Blankenship says something along the lines of “Oh yeah, there’s a depression in the ground there” making you wonder why no one though that was worth checking out decades ago. Seeing it on camera, there’s certainly something there but if it’s a hatch, bog or ancient toilet is hard to tell from first glances.

The side story this week, but potentially very related to oak island is a place 20 miles away that the brothers visit where another researching couple have purchased a property they believe is situated where an ancient castle once stood, which was used by the knights of the Templar. They all investigate a well on the land, and draw conclusions that I find hard to be convinced by, especially when they saw a Templar cross on a stone but I saw something else. Oh well, they all seemed convinced that there was enough similarity between the well and stuff on oak island to go into some sort of cooperation.

There’s no doubting that from the trailer and this opening episode, there’s serious potential this season of something substantial being discovered that you can look and point at, and say “yup, ok, that’s definitely something tangible” rather than the usual “Yeah, but, that’s not really anything much”. I’m looking forward to finding out more.

Rating: 6/10 (Good)

We spend a good 5 or more minutes watching a pipe being pulled out of the Money Pit, which isn't the most fascinating TV.

At least the engineers seem to be having fun ...

Maps! Yes, the only thing missing is a big X marks the spot on any of the maps although there is lots of information.

Yeah, if it wasn't for this artificial impression of the cross, I wouldn't have got this shape from the stone.

Well, well, well. We spend some time down a well some 20 miles away from Oak Island which has some similarities to excavations on the island. i.e. stones, wet, and few answers but curiosity

Umm, Dave, why have you never mentioned this ground depression before?