18x07 - Choose Your Own Misadventure

[bunniefuu]

To make beautiful music,

all instruments need to play in Harmony.

The same is true in gold mining.

The grounds, crew and equipment

all need to work together.

If just one piece is out of tune,

the whole symphony falls apart.

So which miner...

Good luck, buddy. Get that gold, baby!

Can hit the right notes...
We're in the money.

I'm not gonna kick that out of bed.

To make their operation safe?

Ship it!

We've got lots of ground to work

check is the air compressor going?

- All right, I'm telling you.
- -Why are you yelling at me?

- Just listen!
- Idiot!

It feels really hot.

For Vernon adkison,

the sweetest music the captain can hear

is a full band of divers.

Plenty of gold right here.

You've just gotta find it.

So, today he's bringing
a rookie to the stage,

hoping his premier performance
strikes just the right chord.

I'm gonna jump in,

I'm gonna grab that nozzle,

I'ma go under here
and I'ma start dredging.

And I'm gonna find gold.

So far this season, we've
only been using one diver, Gary.

But it's never a good
idea to rely on just one.

If anything happens to
him, even just for one day,

we'd be shut down.

The last time I was under
the water was six months ago,

so I'm super excited.

He's enthusiastic.

He's got an eye for the gold.

And he's done quite a bit of dredging.

That's why I'm breaking
in our rookie, Chris.

I know you've done a lot of dredging

in the rivers and creeks,

but this is a whole
different ballgame here.

And for one thing, you're
gonna be about 25 feet deep.

Deeper than you've ever been.

And for another thing, a big thing is

you're gonna be under the ice.

And so, if you've got a problem,

you've gotta beat it back to that ice hole.

You can't just pop up

like you can in the rivers and creeks.

It might be a little bit stressful

until you've done it a couple of times.

He's gotta listen to
what we're telling him,

otherwise, that safety is gonna be at risk.

Are you on bottom?

He tends to be a little bit excitable,

but hopefully he doesn't get
into the panic mode down there.

Panic is what kills.

Yeah, okay.

Well, yippee ki-yay.

That's what I like to hear.

You can definitely tell that
he's been dredging before.

I think he's gonna do okay.

What is it?

What's he saying?

Come back... Come back on that.

Okay.

I know. I know.

It went around that twice. It's my fault.

I shouldn't have done that.

- I'm learning...
- that's the kind of that'll k*ll you.

If we had to pull you up,
we couldn't pull you up

I realize that.

Chris got his umbilical
tangled up with his hose,

and instead of staying
calm and untangling it,

he panicked.

That kind of thing can
cost you your life out here.

He's gotta understand
that he needs to relax

before he goes back down.

Chris, when you get under there,

it goes without saying,

- get that damn umbilical unwrapped first.
- -I will.

And as from now, that's
number one priority.

- Don't get that thing wrapped.
- -Okay!

All right, I'm telling you!

- Why are you yelling at me?
- -Just listen!

- Just listen.
- Just listen, will you?

- Are you kidding me?
- I'm telling you... I'm telling you

- that's number one priority.
- Get that thing off of me.

Idiot.

Well, Chris is done for
the day, maybe for good.



Put the dive hole right here.

We're moving to a new spot.

We've got a new motor, a new diver,

I'm feeling good about this.

As the back half of winter gets underway,

the current gold count leader

is fine-tuning his operation

to get the perfect pitch.

He's bringing in top of
the line new equipment...

It's gonna be the real deal.

And a top of the line new diver.

Yeah. Get back after it.

Jeff orzechowski is one of
nome's premier dredgers...

Good ground, buddy.

Yeah, that's as good
as that's ever looked.

Who's served time with
numerous teams in the fleet.

It's all coming in place. Like...

The gold gods, once
again, are looking over me,

and I'm quite blessed.

So let's get to it.

I ended the first half
of the season strong,

and I'm only getting stronger.

I've got a stronger pump engine,

and I've got Jeff orzechowski.

He had other plans this winter,

but I was able to convince
him to come work with me.

- Sweet. Yeah.
- Sweet.

After what happened
earlier this season...

You guys don't even know
how to put a spark plug back on.

I couldn't be working with better people.

I might have to go
through a crew change.

I wanna make sure I bring two pros

to replace the crew that I had earlier.

With Wilson and Jeff, I've got it.

With this crew and the
equipment that I have right now,

I'm aiming for more gold

than I've got any day this season.

I've got the whole crew
firing on all cylinders.

I'm pretty confident today
that everything is gonna work,

including the motor
that we just got out here.

There's a lot more water
in the box, so I'm happy.

I'm gonna go down first

and then I'm gonna send Jeff next.

We are on a great pay streak,

and our equipment's gotten super sized,

so we are gonna k*ll it.

Get it, bud!

- All right.
- See what we got here.

Well, let me know if
you're ready for the pump.

I mean, he's down there,
he's moving material.

Whoo!

We're making money now. Whoo-hoo!

Did you guys figure
out what the problem is?

No, dude. So, I'm not really too sure.

It sounded like it kind of
knocked because it got too hot.

- So... so, I think...
- Okay.

Yeah, so I I have the fan running, but...

But what I'm assuming is the
load we're generating on that motor,

- that radiator is too small.
- Too much?

- Too small.
- So.

I think we need a bigger radiator.

Yeah, man. I was just...

- Having a good time.
- I know, dude.

You were so stoked, man.

We went with a big pump
engine and a longer hose,

so it turned out

it was too overwhelming for the radiator,

so we had to shut it down.

So we're gonna have to go back to town

and see if I can find a bigger one.

You know, I was hoping for
the biggest day of this season.

Now I don't even know
if I can mine today.

Damn, dude.

Special delivery.

Entering the back half of winter,

Shawn pomrenke's season

has been playing like a broken record.

This'll give us a couple
more days in the hole.

Down to his final royalty free days,

the golden maestro is going deep

to get his operation singing.

Hopefully, we'll make some money today.

Get the hose in the water.

It's the only way you
make money around here.

We need to get on to
something real quick here.

Vernon says 56 is loaded,

but I haven't seen it yet.

Let's try this new hose out. Whoo!

We only have two more
royalty free days left,

so here's my plan.

I moved away from
Vernon into deeper water.

Yeah, baby!

Which should have more gold.

I also picked up 35 feet of extra hose.

We can search a wider area
without cutting a new hole

and moving the whole operation.

So we should be able
to cover more ground.

- I'm nowhere near my goal.
- This better work.

I need gold to get the
inland project going.

Right on. Have a good dive, Joe.

How's it going, bud?

Air is good.

Water is good.

Yep. Throttle up.

Hell, yeah.

As the pomrenke team
starts warming up...

Look, for me, diving is
mental, and I'm focused,

and when someone starts screaming
at me, it throws me way off, man.

I know you're trying to
keep me safe. I know that.

It's just real hard for me, mentally,

when you're screaming at me,

to focus on getting back in the
water. You see what I'm saying?

No. I was trying to tell you
something and you weren't listening.

But you told me a bunch of times

that's the most important thing

- is to go under...
- -Yeah, but you didn't do it.

I'm not gonna be nice about it.

Either do it or get the out of here.

That's critical.

If we gotta haul your
sorry a*s off the bottom

I know.

And that damn thing is
wrapped, we can't do it.

- That bothers me.
- Okay.

I don't want any dead bodies
on the bottom of the ocean.

I know I up about that part. I know I

yeah, all right. All right. So, you know...

So are you done for the day

- or are you done forever or...
- No. I was gonna let Gary go poke...

- No. I wanna dive. I love it down there.
- All right.

I just... i'ma let him poke a few holes in

- and maybe I'll go back down.
- That's fine.

I just... I gotta get my head in the game.

Are you good?

Well, I'll go down. I'll see what I can do.

Okay.

My plan was to have two divers

every day for the rest of the season.

But I'm having second
thoughts about Chris.

- The guy's emotional.
- A bag of nerves.

He did get us on gold right away.

Are you good?

So I'll let Gary go down
on this pay streak for now.

And if Chris can calm down,

I'll give him another shot today.

Hell, he was only down
there for a few minutes.

- All right.
- Whoo!

Yo, Gary, just keep
moving. You know what to do.

All right, you're seeing gold. Okay.

You're my favorite nozzle man.

While team adkison changes their tune...

All right, Chris.

I got this radiator done, bud.

Pump, pump, pump. Pump it up.

Here we go.

Nice!

It's working.

Yeah! That's what I'm talking about.

All we gotta do now is get wet.

We've got the upgraded hose.

We've got the upgraded pump engine.

Now we've got the upgraded radiator.

We've got the best team on the ice.

Time to get the highest
gold count all season.

Yeah!

Ship it!

- All right.
- Here we go!

All right, bud, you got it. Full throttle.

Attaboy.

Whoop! Whoop!

Everything looks to
be running really good.

You've got really good suction.

The engine's running really good.

The temperature's low.

I mean, just hear that.

That's the sound of money right there.

Okay. Ready?

Okay, start the engine.

I'm done. That's it. It only
takes me a second and bam!

You hear that, ladies? It
only takes him a second.

The optimism may seem premature...

Okay, we're ready to start the day

and make a lot of gold.

But after a disastrous first half,

kris Kelly is aiming to finally
get his instruments humming.

Okay, you know what to do.

I don't have to tell you your job.

- Nope.
- Okay.

- I'm good. I know where I'm going.
- Yeah.

You know where you're
going? Go and get me gold.

- That's where you're going.
- I will.

Okay. I know you will. Okay.

Get changed.

The first half of the season sucked.

It took us forever to get on good gold,

but when we finally did,

we have equipment
problems that screwed us.

We're leaking gold out
of the front of the box.

We had a sluice box
that leaked like a faucet.

And we had a janky air compressor
that kept shutting us down.

I could feel that air
compressor running out.

Okay, the air problem is fixed.

So we did some MacGyver
fixes on both of those,

so now we should be
firing on all cylinders.

Now we need to start
making up for lost time.

We need to see double
digits on the scale.

Good luck, buddy. Get that gold, baby!

- Let's see.
- Where's my nozzle?

Ok, that's beautiful. Are you
seeing a lot of gold over there?

Okay, put a number on it.
You're making me happy.

I'm not putting a number on it, d*ck.

Okay, well, keep up the good work.

I'll talk in, like, 20 or 30 minutes.

We've got lots of ground to run

hey, are you okay?

Check, check, check.

Can you hear me?

Say again?

Check is the air compressor going?

What happened?

What happened?

I can't breathe.

Are you okay?

Okay.

I heard you.

Okay. Come and sit over here.

Andy got a freeze in his regulator.

It's the valve inside the
mask that creates the airflow.

Sometimes moisture from your breath

causes the valve to freeze up.

When that happens, you have no air,

and it can be terrifying.

To fix it, you have to pour
hot water on it to thaw it out

and hope it doesn't happen again.

Don't worry. Don't worry about anything.

If you wanna come up


Any problem, let me know.

Okay.

How's your air feeling?

Everything good?

Okay, so are you ready
to put a dollar figure on it?

- Nope.
- Put a number on it!

You know what? He's
lucky he's my brother.

I would have fired that a long time ago.

Four miles east...

Yeah. Hey, Gary.

- You got your time in.
- That's four hours.

Copy that.

After Chris's brief
dive got them on gold...

It's going good in the direction
you're stretched out in, right?

Yeah.

Gary's been working the
pay streak all day long.

All right. Well, come on up.

Copy that.

And now it's time for
what will undoubtedly be.

Chris's triumphant
return to the diving stage.

- What happened?
- I put some of this in my right ear.

I don't know what the... Holy.

Yeah. I was fine down there.

This one doesn't hurt. But
I put some of this in my ear

and it felt like someone
just stuck a spike in my ear.

Yeah, I cleared multiple
times down there.

My ears were having
a little bit of a problem

when I came up kind of fast.

Chris is complaining about pain in its ear.

Believe me, I know what this is.

On his dive this morning, he panicked.

He rushed to the top too fast.

Man, it hurts so bad.

That can cause
pressure in your inner ear

and stretch your eardrum
to the breaking point.

I've seen it enough times
to know his eardrum is shot.

It can take weeks for that thing to heal.

And that, my friends, is the end

of the shortest diving careers

in Bering sea history.

He blew out an eardrum.

It's... It's unfortunate.

We're only at about


but you've got to come
up at a controlled rate.

I don't want him in any
pain and discomfort,

but bottom line, I need two divers

to make this operation,
the wheels go round.

I cannot die for weeks.

It's just how it says. You cannot dive.

And I'm letting these guys down.

I'm letting myself down.

Like, this is what I wanted
to do, you know? I love it.

- I'm sorry about that.
- No, no.

All right. All right.

So, we'll have to work around it.

It's just part of the drill up here.

All of what we're doing
is hard on equipment,

it's hard on people.

And I'll have to get another diver up here.

How's it going, bud?

After three hours
covering expanded ground,

Shawn's starting the
second half of the season

on a sour note.

Well, that sucks.

Joe, just come on up.

Let's get the hell out of here.

Frustrating.

We moved to deeper water,
we've got a longer hose,

and we've searched the
whole area we can reach.

We did everything we could
and we still came up empty.

This isn't good.

The royalty free days are ending,

and we're still not on gold.

This hole's a dud.

It may be time to move on from 56

and find something else.

Tired of it.

It's not going well at all.

Three miles west...

Everything's going great right now.

Andy's underneath
the water doing his dive.

He's on gold. I don't know how
much yet because he won't tell me.

But other than that, everything's on gold.

Reaper nation has
avoided any more freeze ups

and the band's played on.

How are you feeling?

Feeling icicles, ice chunks
hitting him when he's breathing in,

which means the air system
is freezing up a little bit.

It might break free. It might close up.

Okay, well, don't k*ll yourself.

Come up any time you're ready.

We're gonna have to do
something about the system.

- I'm on my way.
- Okay. Come on.

Okay. Andy's done his dive.

He did a great day.
He found a lot of gold.

It looks like we found a
home for a couple days.

Yeah, it's really good down there.

There's gold all in between the
boulders, underneath the boulders.

I'm happy with the ground.

The regulator kind of screwed us,

but overall, a nice long dive,

and a good way to start
the back half of the season.

I just need a big number on that scale.

Good job!

As reaper nation calls it a day...

Such good ground, man.

Look at that. Wow.

Whoo-hoo!

Things are getting hot for
team mccully under the ice,

and above the ice too.

One-sixty-five.

One-seventy-five.

Obviously, we're still just getting too hot.

But the day is not over yet.

There's still a bunch of ground left.

I mean, these lines are just hot.

Everything's hot.

There's so much gold.

What the?

I've got no suction.

Holy.

Hey, you need to come up.

Always happens every
time I get on the good ground.

All right. I'm coming up.

What the, man?

First, the radiator overheated.

Now the high pressure pump hose

blew off the pump engine.

I don't know if the pressure's
too much or it just got loose.

So now we're not gonna have
the biggest day of the season.

Dude, I don't even know anymore, dude.

What is this? What is
this I'm experiencing?

I couldn't even put a word into it.

I think this is the cue
for me to call it a day.

Meet Vernon adkison.

Bering sea baller.

- Harry.
- How's it going?

Well, I got something here for you.

Harry. My new best friend.

I like the look of it too.

- Nice coarse, chunky stuff.
- Yeah.

That's the chunkiest, coarsest gold

I've seen around here in a long time.

Five ounces there.

You're a gentleman and a scholar, Harry.

I'm kinda on your team.

I want you to make more
because I like those royalties.

This has been a tough one.

I mean, at least we're making money.

- True.
- Doesn't hurt, you know.

Down to a single diver,

Vernon adkison is looking
for good news on the scale.

You know, it's talking to me here.

I love you too.

My plan to have two
divers for the second half

just got thrown in the garbage.

At least Gary had a strong dive on gold,

so hopefully, we'll see a big number.

Okay, let's see what we've got here.

Come on, baby.

One...

Two,

three, four,

five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten...

No!





banks the salty skipper nearly 23 grand,

and despite losing his rookie,

Vernon starts the back
half on a good note.



- I'm not gonna kick that out a bit.
- -No.

- All right, so we're in the money.
- -Yep.

Across town.

I'm looking at the gold and...

It could look a little better.

Looking for a big haul
from their thrifty operation.

Kris and reaper nation
are about to face the music.

There's nothing you could say
at this point, so it is what it is.

I'm hoping for 10 oz,

but it's looking like we're gonna be light.

Maybe the quick fix on the sluice box

didn't quite cut it. We'll find out.

Okay, here it is.

Okay, there's one, two,

three...

Where's those chunky pieces?

Here. Here we go.

And so, with the big, big chunky piece...

That didn't do, really.



with our chunky gold.



and reaper nation is still not in Harmony

to start the second half.

I don't know how to
make this sound good.

I'm a whiny b*tch when I don't get gold.

But I'm trying to keep
that all inside right now

because we don't need a lot of negativity.

What we need to do is just get
out there and just work harder.

This is not how I wanted to start

the second half of the season.

Number one priority is
inspect this sluice box

and see what we missed.

But I'm not gonna lie.

We're gonna have to pack it
in if we can't turn things around.

To cheer everybody up, we
could go for Chinese food, on me.

Bring up morale.

Some fried rice, pork ba*ls.

By the harbor...

Getting to this point
isn't easy, I tell you that.

But since we know that
there's big gold in that spot,

we've pushed everything
we can do and...

Wow, look at that.

Job well done for us.

I didn't think that I would get
this much gold, to be honest.

That's insane.

I'm surprised at the amount
of gold that we're seeing.

I was on great gold for a long time today,

so maybe we're in for a nice surprise.

Let's try it out?

There's five.

There's ten.

Nineteen.

Yes, we hit 20.20.9.





And despite the hiccups,

team mccully has bagged
their biggest day of the season.

Wow. This new team
and the new equipment...

This is the real deal.

And we're just gonna
get stronger as we go.

We're gonna be putting up numbers

that I wouldn't have even
dreamed of this season.

Take the whole hole next time?

Yeah.

Sweet, man.

Chris mccully speeds
away from the pack

and Vernon pulls ahead of Mr. Gold.

Next time on Bering sea gold...

Today is tj's make it or break it day.

Words of encouragement.

Don't die.

This is boden Jupiter tenhoff.
He's gonna be hanging out.

About 6.56.

I don't know where
the hell Shawn's going.

Maybe he's done for the season.

Let's roll the dice.

Take in the slack!

Yeah, baby!

Ride that.

I think we can finish
this ice season strong.

That's a nice one right there.

Awesome.