16x04 - Ice Mission: Impossible

[bunniefuu]

Good morning, fleet.

As you know, ice
mining is never easy.

And now, your new missions,
if you choose to accept them,

will push you to the brink.

Testing out new equipment.

And here it is,

your first glimpse of
what I'm trying to explain.

Breaking in rookie divers.

I'm pretty nervous 'cause
he doesn't know how to swim.

You got this, dude.

And battling record thick ice.

Some of these chunks are moving.

Will you ultimately succeed?

This is gonna be the
game-changer for us,

our million dollars in mining.

Or will you find these
assignments... All right.

Impossible?

Pull him up.

By the way... Eddie!

This episode will self-destruct.

Today's the big day
I've been waiting for.

Finally, my crawler gets in.

Honestly, it's better
late than never.

Yeah, at least it's got here.

About time.

After a brutal
summer campaign...

It's gonna be amazing,
everything's gonna work,

everything's gonna be great.

The special delivery
could be the game changer

for kris Kelly.

Man, I hope this works
about as much as I want it to.

That would be nice.

I'm not gonna lie.

This winter has sucked so far.

I'm looking to get
50 ounces right now

to make up for
last year's -show.

So far, we got nothing.

But now, that's
all gonna change.

Here we go, baby! This is it.

This is gonna be the
game-changer for us,

this is gonna make us
our million dollars in mining.

We just gotta make this work.

It's time to unleash my
master plan for success.

The gold trawl is finally here.

This thing is gonna drive
across the ocean floor

and suck up gold.

Moving, like, five
times more efficiently

than a human ever could.

And it never gets tired.

Now that it's here,

it's time to get this top
secret weapon ready.

Okay, we got that taken care of.

He's gonna bring the forklift

and just drop it off for me.

I am very excited

and I'm very worried
at the same time.

This is gonna revolutionize
mining as we know it!

Here it comes!

I gotta go!

Do, do, do, do,
do, do, do, do...

Thank you very much,
guys! Thank you very much!

There it is, baby!

It's really here.

This is, um...
Really put together?

It's really put together, dude.

We need a screw g*n
and we need a ratchet.

Man, all my tools are at the.

If we had a crowbar...

- You know?
- If we had a crowbar...

Take all this apart.

If we had a crowbar right now.

Okay, let's just go get this.

Let's go.

Let's do it!

And here it is.

Your first glimpse of
what I'm trying to explain.

Pretty amazing.

That's actually...

Pretty nice.

Let's get this
thing out of here.

A little bit of
assembly required.

It's gonna be a little
more of a process

than I thought.

It's gonna be a pain in the a*s.

This is where you
do a time-lapse.

What I'm trying to do,

I'm trying to
take this red thing

out of this black thing.

Okay? And it's impossible

because it's really,
really, really heavy, dude.

It's a puzzle.

Watch out, Andy.

Do not go, everybody.

Okay, hold on.

- It's perfect!
- Now, what?

So, good news and bad news.

The good news,
the crawler's here

and reaper nation is
absolutely gonna dominate.

The bad news?

Getting everything unpacked,

getting the crawler set up,

that's gonna take a few minutes.

Or more.

Hey, hold on.

Hey, we're bringing
it c*ck-eyed.

Let's straighten it back out.

Maybe a lot more.

Ready? One, two, three.

- Okay, stop.
- Yeah!

That's gonna be a cinch.

We got the crawler unpacked.

We got the cage off.

We exposed the gold trawl,

and everything's moving great.

So far, so good.

Damn!

Look how big this thing is?

While kris readies
his secret weapon...

Heck, yeah! Beautiful day out.

Mr. Gold's arsenal

is already deployed
for his latest mission.

I took a gamble
coming to the east tract,

but it's been paying off nice.

I'm on a great pay street

that I'm hoping we
get to ride out all winter.

But I'm gonna
gamble a little bit more.

We gotta move to
follow this pay street,

and it's moving us into some of
the thickest ice I've seen in years.

With the old ways
of drilling holes,

there'd be no chance in
hell of getting through this.

Hopefully, with
this mini excavator,

we have a chance.

Whoo!

Yeah.

Ice this thick presents
all sorts of challenges.

It's hard to see the dive hole

because the ice is
so thick all round it.

There's jagged chunks
of ice that could snag you,

there's sheet ice
moving at the bottom

that could come off
and block the hole

and prevent you
from getting back out.

We're definitely
rolling some dice here.

With other guys like Chris
mccully doing well out here,

I really gotta push
to stay ahead.

All right, some big
chunks down here...

God, it's sketchy.

I made it to the bottom.

What do you think
of that ice up top?

Wow.

Some of these chunks are.

I feel like they're only
10 feet away from me.

It's not the most
ideal situation to be in.

A lot of people would see that
ice and turn around and run.

But I best...

Best try not to think about it.

Yep, just gotta keep
your eyes on the gold.

I've had that happen before.

Looks like there's
some fresh ground

out in front of us here, Joel.

Looks pretty
promising out there?

Yeah.

I see all these big
rocks over here,

I wanna get into them.

See what the hell's
underneath them.

Quite a few big rocks down here.

Man, they're packed
in here pretty good, too.

All those big, round
rocks resist movement

like to hold the gold.

Yeah, they do.

, yeah.

Attention, miners.

Each of you will be getting
your own assignment.

If you fail to deliver,

you will be left
out in the cold.

Zeke tenhoff's got
his plan for the today.

And he can't
afford any cracks...

Or leaks.

I'm super stoked.

Just melting the hole, you know.

We know that there's a goal
on this hole that we're on now.

It's possible that this hole
is pretty close to being done,

so I wanna try to
finish it out this dive.

It's taking time to get this new
operation and this new crew on its feet.

So I'm gonna be extra careful
about every move that I make.

My intuition tells me
that the gold's gonna be

quite a bit better as we move
down this pressure Ridge.

But I don't wanna
move until we've gotten

every last flake

from this hole
that we're on now.

That's why I'm
gonna do it myself.

It's gotta be done
really efficiently,

and I'm not sure if
the rest of the team

is quite at that level yet.

Hey, how's the vis
down there, Zeke?

Yeah, it's really
murky right here.

I just gotta scout it out
and see where it looks best.

There's a lot of
patches of frozen gravel

that are kinda difficult, but...

This is the stuff
I like, this gravel.

Are you seeing any
greasy little flakes?

I've seen some
gold here and there.

Yeah. Right
there, right there...

Yeah, there's gold in here.

Nice.

The sheer volume
that Zeke can move

it's intense, like

Nate and I are just
novices comparatively,

and Zeke is like a powerhouse.

I mean, he could probably do an
entire hole by himself in two days.

So, I'm really stoked
to get on the new hole.

I mean, we're starting
to get frozen in here a bit.

I know there's a lot
more gold down here.

I wanna put in some hours.

Awesome, man.

Across the ice...

Everything's working.

Yeah.

Captain in training Jane
kilcher's on a mission...

All the way down, Eddie!

Yeah.

To bring one of her crew members

up through the ranks.

'Excited' is not the
word I'm thinking of.

It's my job to run
this operation,

because that's what
Emily asked me to do.

So far, no go.

So I'm sticking
my neck out a bit.

I'm gonna have Eddie
join the dive team,

so hopefully we can have
more hours on the box

moving forward.

Eddie has some
diving experience.

But when it comes
to diving into the ice,

he has about as much
as me, which is zero.

It'll be cool finally to...

To get down and get
some more dive time for us

and put more gold in the box.

I mean, I feel bad

'cause I've been making
Jeff do all the work.

But now it's just, get
down there already.

It's gonna be fun.

Basically, it's a big day.

I'm pretty nervous 'cause
he doesn't know how to swim.

And we haven't really had,
like, a dive go without a hitch.

Like, there's always
been a little something.

I'm sure he's nervous,
but he's acting all tough.

We're just gonna do our best.

Hopefully get a good dive.

And hopefully he feels
comfortable under there

so we have two
divers instead of one.

We just gotta get
him in the water.

Here we are.

First dive, so...
It's time to get it.

Keep your hose steady...

Slow, hang out on
the chain, you know...

Since Jeff is such
an experienced diver,

I wanna have him
take the lead with Eddie.

Talk to him, prep
him, get him ready.

Because if it were
me, I would be like...

"Why are you
diving under the ice?

Are you insane? Do
you have a death wish?"

And that would be very,
very counterproductive.

I'll drop down in
and see how I feel.

We got all day,
we got all night.

Take it slow and steady,
and we'll go from there, bud.

Okay.

- Whoo!
- Come on!

I'm ready!

You're here.

I don't know.

Maybe do just a couple hours

and then come up, grab a bite,

see how I feel.

Well...

Right.

How's the air
feeling? Pretty good?

Okay, copy.

Step, step.

My goodness.

Yeah.

All right, go ahead, Eddie.

Nice and slow, bud.

You got this, dude.

Grab the chain.

Remember, go down
about six, seven, eight feet.

Don't go any farther.

You good?

Take your time, man. Don't rush.

Going down a little further.

Copy. How's it going?

It's okay, it's... I feel
a lot of pressure, man.

Just working my
head back and forth,

just testing if I can

all this damn pressure, man.

Yeah? Then just
come back up a little bit.

Atta boy!

Going to work, jefe!

Yay!

You're okay?

He's on the nozzle.

You see the big tailing pile?

What's that?

You see the tailing pile?

Your water's 122,
your air's at 115.

Okay.

Hang on.

We're getting gold, boys.

Atta boy!

All right, that was a pretty
good, tidy little nugget.

I feel like this mask
is climbing off my face.

What'd you say, bud?

Man, I think this mask
is slipping off of my face.

You okay?

Is this supposed... Eddie!

Pull him up.

Is this supposed...

Eddie!

Pull him up.

Eddie!

My gosh.

You okay?

Hold on, just give him a sec.

It's a lot of pressure.

You just couldn't equalize?

I mean, I got there.

That was close.

And it's definitely not
something I'm used to.

Having Eddie have, like,
an emergency situation,

that's pretty scary.

Luckily, nothing bad happened.

It could have been a lot worse.

I'm telling you!

It goes from here...
To here pretty quick.

That's, it was...

And I kept trying
to adjust the top

and it wouldn't...

'Cause what you're doing, if
you're pulling the top too tight,

- then it's pulling it forward.
- I know, I know.

So...

Yeah, you gotta
have a different mask.

Obviously.

- Isn't it?
- Holy.

I could see it.

It was working, I don't...

And I mean, I got to the bottom,

I'm like, "okay, cool."

And then I, like, I
stood up, I'm like, "."

The mask don't fit,
the mask don't fit.

One size fits all, my a*s.

What!

Yeah!

Safety first.

A lot of bad things could happen

if the mask, you
know, slid off his face,

you know, or anything like that.

And it definitely
puts you in a...

Pretty panicked situation, so...

We just need to find some
different gear for Eddie.

And...

Being in charge of an
ice-mining operation is no joke.

I'm honestly not sure of
how I'm doing at this point.

We have no gold, and there's
been major issues with both dives.

It needs to get better and fast.

The whole time, I just felt like I was
fighting my mask to keep it on my face.

It was just... it was slipping right
off, and it was kind of freaking me out.

I gotta find a mask that'll fit
this handsome face, you know?

God. I was not
happy today at all.

I was nervous for Eddie.
But no one got hurt.

That's good.

Hopefully, tomorrow's
a better day.

So, yeah. Let's just
get things buttoned up.

We'll get out here early in the
morning, and we'll hit it again.

Give the old call a try.

Back in nome...

Anything could happen right
now. What will happen next?

The Kellys are completely
revolutionizing their operation...

How?

Ff they can only figure
out the instructions.

Very strange. Very strange.

Well, if we have to drill through
it, we have to drill through it.

The issue is the map is
off on all of the pole holes.

The skis are gonna go together.

It is what it is.

Skis are gonna help us
transport the operation on the ice.

But the instructions
don't make sense.

I'm sure when secret agents
get their schematics in blueprints,

they don't get it
right on the first time.

And that's all that's
happening here.

This weapon will take
us straight to the top.

We just gotta figure
out how to put it together.

We're gonna get
the plastic on the skis.

The hose has a 75-foot radius.
That's half of the diameter.

So you gotta do some math right now
'cause this is where it's gonna excel.

75 foot radius. So
that's times 3.14.

That's, like, 230 feet of area

that we're gonna
clean out per hole.

Yeah, baby!

- Hey, Vernon.
- Howdy.

Vernon came by to
check out my crawler.

I know he's just
drinking the haterade.

He actually had one in
the past, and it was a joke.

Man.

Vernon's the last guy I really
want advice from on this subject,

and mine's, like, ten generations
more advanced than his was.

But, hey, I'll show the guy
some top-of-the-line technology.

So what do you think
of this badass little thing?

I like it.

It really got a bunch of bells
and whistles-extras-on it.

Hydraulic rams, water jet...

So, you know, like, the
nozzle will have two jets.

Just, like, spray-down
jets at the same time.,

and I'll have a
camera right here

- looking down on my nozzle.
- Yeah.

So everything's exactly
the same thing as last winter,

except that instead of a diver going
underneath the water, moving the nozzle,

this thing's the nozzle.

Get him a little saddle
and a control station.

Saddle?

I'm staying right here.

Anyways, that's a
sweet-looking rig. I like it.

Thanks, Vernon.

- I'll see y'all later.
- Okay, Vernon.

Hey, do you think
it's gonna work?

I think it'll work.

You know why he
didn't really joke around?

He's pissed that
we even got this.

- Give me some love, baby.
- Yeah, some of that.

Yeah.

You know, everybody
knows this is gonna work.

Everybody knows it.

All I have to do is put the
cameras and lights on this thing,

and I'm ready to go.

So I'm, like, that close.

My camera is right
here at the nozzle,

and I hope to god this camera
right here can see chunks of gold.

We're supposed
to get this bad boy

up and running today,
but that's not happening.

We still gotta put
her back in the cage

and pull her all the
way down on the ice.

Hopefully, we can
pull this off tomorrow,

and when we do, hopefully
we get very, very, very rich.

Trust me.

I don't have time to
test everything out.

I just gotta get there
and make money.

I need to make money.

Sometimes I just have
to check the social media

and see what all my friends out
there in cyber space have got to say.

And now another episode
of social hour with Vernon.

Well, that was pretty drunk.

It was in Hawaii, in waipahu.

I remember sitting and
drinking a bottle of 151.

And then I drunk
another bottle of 151.

And then I got pissed off
'cause they were out of 151,

so I went on down the road, walked into
this other bar, and they wouldn't serve me.

I got into a fight with three
Samoans, but refrigerator-sized.

Needless to say, they won.

Then that damn.

Whopped my a*s-I mean-royally.

Jumped up and down on it.

I was just... I was
discoing my a*s off.

Flowers and paisleys
and waterbeds...

Same thing with bears.

On tu do street in
Saigon, back in 1966.

And then they was
all coming in to.

They took me to the hospital.

And that was my car-the
whole front end caved in.

Then somebody told me, "Vernon, do
you remember what happened last night?"

Well, no. I didn't remember.

But then, I thought I went back
down to the bar where it started.

I'm sitting there at the
end of the bar all beat to.

And the lady that ran the
place-big mama-yama Gucci

she walked by, and she said, "you
poor soul. Vernon, do you need a job?"

So she put me behind the bar,

and I ended up bar tending in
this little strip joint bar a year.

One of the best years
I've ever had in my life.

This has been another episode
of social hour with Vernon.

How's it going down there?

Everything's going well.

I like the ground
that I'm looking at.

Four hours in,

and Zeke's mission to clean
out the first hole of the season

is nearly complete.

Well, that's good to hear, man.

I don't think I'm gonna have

that much more time
under here, though.

That sounds good, man.
You should come up.

All right. I'll see you up top.

It's been a long day.

Yeah, man. Zeke's the champ,
dude. He's the man of the hour.

We finished this out.
So, yeah. We're done.

We got all the gold in this
spot. We're off to the next one.

Bit out of breath.

Yeah.

That was a good...
That was a solid one,

and I'm not in, like,
the most great shape.

Dude. Just needs
a long haul with this.

Ice-mining's no joke.

It punishes your mind and body,

especially when
you put in long hours.

And, yes, I've got a great team.

And that'll be perfect
for this next hole.

We'll get hours
around the clock.

But today, I just had to
put on my big-boy pants

and go clean out
this hole myself.

And that's exactly
what I did, so I'm stoked.

I still expect
myself to, like...

To physically be at the level
that I was at when I was 24.

When I was 24, I would be
able to, like, go and do, like,

eight hours, like,
pretty easily, you know.

Now it's, like, I do, like,
five hours, and I'm, like,

but, like, there's no reason
why I think that as we get older,

we can't just be in the
best shape of our lives

and get in better and
better and better shape.

There are people that do that.

There's no excuses.

You just gotta do it every
day, and keep doing it.

Drink lots of water.

This may have
been a brutal push,

but I could tell that this
cleanup is gonna make it worth it.

And then we'll be
on to the next one.

We keep on moving
forward, day after day.

I've gotta make this my
biggest winter season ever.

I was just crashing down
there. Crashing hard.

I wanna get on another
hole, and as soon as possible.

Five miles east...

Wow. The gold's
good down here, Joe.

It's looking good.

Pursuing his mission under
the thickest ice in years...

Yep. I'm clear.

Pomrenke, Shawn pomrenke,
is right in the thick of it.

Come on, gold.

I need gold cutlets.

So what do you think of that
ground out in front of you?

We got a day or two running?

Yeah. Looks like there's some
fresh ground out in front of us.

Yeah. Yeah.

I'm excited to see
what's in there.

, yeah.

It's pretty dark down here now.

We got about 15 minutes
of daylight left up top here.

10, 4.

I'll work my way up.

When you get down on
the bottom and you look up,

you're in 30 feet of water,
and you can touch the ice,

scares the out of you for
a second. That's for sure.

But then you see that gold,
and all that fear goes away.

I have to stay on top this way.
I can't let anything rattle me.

This spot-it's loaded.

Looking good, boys.
Getting some gold.

We'll be rich by summer.

Gotta grab the gold.

We don't wanna
forget that tub out here.

Precious cargo.

Good day. Good day.

Now it was worth it.

I remember my first time up
in nome. It was December time.

I remember the first time I got
my mask sucked off my face.

When it came off my face, I mean, I
did everything I could. I couldn't find it.

I remember hitting
the bottom and pushing

myself back up to the
top. I almost drowned.

I said my hail Mary,
and I closed my eyes.

I mean, my legs were tired, and I
just whoop. I mean, I went under.

And my tender jumped off the
boat, you know, pulled me up,

threw me on the
boat, you know, so...

Here, you can't do that. I
mean, if something's going wrong,

you have to get out
of the hole, you know.

I can't make it 30 feet
to get him, so, you know,

that's just a realistic thing about
being in the ice is, you know,

you air is number one.

And your mask is your air, so...

Everybody has that situation
happen to them, you know,

and it happened to Eddie today.

I'm gonna go set up
the cleanup sluice.

We got the stash.

Now that the book has been
closed on the crew's first hole,

it's time to see
what's in the box.

I got my little cleanup
sluice out here.

My idea just is burn through
these cleanups as quickly as we can

so we know how we're doing.

Like I said, I'm trying
to be fast and efficient.

That's why while I'm doing
this cleanup here with Nate,

the rest of the team is
out scouting our next hole.

I don't wanna waste any time this
winter because I just can't afford it.

I'm gonna light up this torch
and dry this gold out outside.

Nice.

What have we got?

Exciting stuff.

Okay. One ounce.

Two.

Three. Three ounces.

Four.

All right. Should have
five ounces, six ounces.

6.56.

6.66.

6.66 ounces is worth
a devilish $12,500.

All right.

And thanks to Zeke's hard work,

the team has bagged their
biggest clean out of the season.

Good start.

- It's a great start.
- Yeah.

I'm happy with it.

Okay, this makes
me feel pretty good.

That's a stellar number,
especially for a solo dive.

Honestly, I think the gold
is gonna be a lot better

as we follow this
pressure Ridge.

And then we can get all four
of us working one after another,

and we can just light it up.

I think we're headed
in the right direction.

But we need to get
more ounces than that.

The only thing to do is
just get on to the next hole.

We're just getting going.

Back in nome...

- What up, sucker? Howdy.
- Hello.

Jane checks in with headquarters

to give the lowdown to a
very pregnant Emily riedel.

I hope I don't
send you into labor.

Give me the bad news, and I'll
be ready to, like, call my midwife.

Emily, one of my best friends, is in
homer, and she's eight months pregnant.

So there's a lot on her mind, and
there's a lot for her to deal with.

So the last thing I wanna do is
to make her, like, worry even more

about what's going on with
our ice-mining operation.

But I do have to let her know
some things that are going on.

Well, first we had Eddie go down,
but he had a little trouble equalizing.

And then when he did make
it down, he came right back.

He was having mask trouble.

The mask just didn't fit him.

- He's got a big old head.
- Yeah.

But it makes me nervous
just because he can't swim.

If you can't swim, it just means you
haven't spent any time in the water,

and you're probably
not the most comfortable.

And panic is, like,
what puts you in danger

much more often
than anything else.

So we pulled him out of the
water quick and called it a day.

- Yeah.
- It's, like, you know,

two steps forward,
one step back.

Soon, like, hopefully,
we'll just be diving

'cause I feel like
we're working...

Literally every kink out that can
happen, we're working them out.

The obvious thing is that
everything's frozen every day,

and we have to unthaw
everything every day, for hours.

But I guess that's
par for the course.

That's ice mining.
It's, like, everything.

It's, like, Murphy's
law but, like, expanded.

So, like, everything that
can go wrong does go wrong.

- Yeah, that's happening.
- It's like...

It's the reality of
ice mining. My gosh.

Luckily, talking to Emily-she, like, was
able to put our troubles into perspective.

That's just the nature
of the beast up here

when you're
dealing with the ice.

There's times where
nothing's gonna go right,

but I need to start finding locations
where, like, something goes right.

Like, a lot.

Especially soon because
we don't have any gold.

Well, I hope everything's okay.

Yeah. I mean, you know.

Every time I, like, have
to roll over in bed, it's, like,

operating a forklift on myself.

You could actually have your
baby at any time right now.

I know.

I'm so excited for you.

See how it goes. I mean,
how much harder can it be

than gold-mining
up in the north?

No. It's... no. You'll find out.

- Let's keep in touch.
- All right.

- Gotta go.
- Okay. Over and out.

Gotta get to work.

Just outside of town...

Yeah. We need to do a cleanup.

See what the Bering sea's
provided us this go around.

After diving under
shifting sheets of ice,

Mr. Gold's hoping
to ice the competition.

Got the cleanup shack
all ready to rock and roll.

Got the dirt.

We gotta get her done.

I don't want anybody getting
more gold than me this winter,

but I got Chris mccully
breathing down my neck.

I don't care how
thick the ice is.

If there's gold under
there, I'm gonna get it.

And by the looks of it, it's
gonna be worth the risk.

Throw it out on the scale,
and see how we've done.

Five. 10.

14.85.

14.85 ounces is worth
over $28,000... Money.

And proof that Shawn's
mission was a success.

Heck, yeah!

That will put a
smile on your face.

That's what I'm talking about.

We're gonna be able to get
a lot out of here for a while.

That's a good thing 'cause right
now, there's no time to let up.

Nice.

You gotta keep the pedal to
the metal to the very last day.

- Not bad.
- No, dude.

Shawn climbs back
to the top of the heap,

while agent tenhoff makes
some noise of his own.

Next time on Bering sea gold...

It's pretty beautiful?

My little brother on the
way to make me money.

I love it when a
plan comes together.

It's time to show everybody
I'm gonna make this work.

It's really sketchy. There's a lot of
big pieces of ice hanging overhead.

We're on to gold.
That's what's important.

What you gotta do is just
keep plugging away until you hit.

With two divers
working together,

we should be able to
increase productivity quite a bit.

I really can't wait to find
out if this is a good ground.

It's gonna be a long night.

This is the hole.

Getting close.

I'm sorry? Can you repeat that?