00x09 - Behind the Gates: The Rocky Road Ahead

[bunniefuu]

Yeah, I'm up against
something pretty hard right now.

What is that? It
definitely looks metallic.

MATTY: Of all the hot
spots for high strangeness

on Skinwalker Ranch...

ERIK: This is not something
I would've expected

to encounter hundreds
of feet into the mesa.

Wow, look at all the metal.

MATTY: there is one,
that by its very nature...

What is that thing that
flew into the mesa? Wow!

MATTY: is the hardest
for the team to investigate.

ERIK: What the hell
are we looking at here?

TRAVIS: Whatever this
is is as tall as the mesa.

MATTY: So, tonight,
I'm meeting with them

to get a deep, insider's take...

Now we realize we've really
got something special here.

MATTY: on just what...

What we found was
absolutely amazing.

MATTY: lies buried
in the rocky mesa.

It could be something
incredibly important to mankind.

That's unbelievably fascinating.

MATTY: It's great to be
back on Skinwalker Ranch,

in the command center, no less.

We all watch you
do so much here.

This is where we
bring it all together,

put it on the table,
or on the screen,

and try to make sense
out of what is going on here.

- Right.
- Yeah, it's-it's incredible to watch you guys work here.

And if you could
come up with one word

to define what you have
discovered in season five,

what would that word be?

Validating.

Mmm! Excellent.

- Astounding.
- [chuckles]

- I would say groundbreaking.
- MATTY: Wow.

Look at that scapula!

That is a tooth that
bit all the way through.

It would have to be
larger than a wolf.

That is a dire wolf, which
is an extinct species.

Watch what happens here.

- TRAVIS: Wow.
- ERIK: We have several objects moving in unison.

TRAVIS: Look how
fast they're moving.

That's not natural.

They got them coming
down right on top of the tents.

- Yeah, they're coming at the tents.
- [drone crashes]

[bleep]

THOMAS: Heads up,
they're coming down!

PRESTON: Everybody stay back!

Well, all those words sum
up what you have found

and I'm here tonight to
really drill down on the mesa.

I'd like to go back if we could,
and talk about its genesis

in your investigation
of Skinwalker Ranch.

Well, you know, we
inherited a-a legend

or a narrative of there
being underground bases

or a vast tunnel system
being under the ranch.

I have to say, from
my very first experience

of coming out here
on the property,

the first indication of anything
strange that I observed

was on top of that mesa.

We saw regions of the
mesa possibly illuminating.

And in the context of
something technological,

potentially under the ranch,

this all starts to
become very interesting.

We had a guard
from the Bigelow era

that had indicated
he'd found a spot

that could have been a
caved-in entrance to a cave.

- You mean the visit by Chris Bartel?
- Yes.

Hey, I found what
looks like to be a cavern.

CHRIS: Let me take a look.

Oh, yeah.

I'm pretty sure this
is it. Or it looks like it.

THOMAS: You can tell that
at one time it was a lot larger.

And it's collapsed
down in on itself.

CHRIS: You can tell
that this whole area...

it looks like a sunken-in area.

- THOMAS: Like it was all caved in. Yeah.
- CHRIS: Yeah.

So strange.

After Chris Bartel
showed us the spot,

we started to explore
the area around it

to see if we could
find any clues

that might lead to more answers.

And we did find
some pretty deep holes

that we couldn't
see the bottom to.

And we determined that
we'd take some smoke bombs

and drop 'em down these holes

and see if we could see
smoke coming up anywhere else.

Maybe clues into
where these holes

are going into the mesa.

Thomas and I have found
a couple of holes up here.

I think we're gonna throw our,
uh, smoke grenades in there.

So, keep an eye
out, see if you see it

coming out anywhere on the mesa.

Copy that. Thanks.

Right here.

TRAVIS: It goes as far
as you can see down.

Let it get smoking good.

Oh, that's good. Orange
smoke, orange smoke!

Oh, I'm gonna step back.

Yeah, definitely we got smoke.

PETE: A little bit. Yeah.

TRAVIS: There should be a
lot more smoke coming out.

THOMAS: Actually, look,
look, it's getting sucked in.

TRAVIS: Yeah, the
smoke's going down!

THOMAS: Look,
it's completely gone.

We should be seeing smoke
everywhere, there's no smoke.

[laughing]: There's
nothing here.

- Yeah.
- No smoke?

BRYANT: I don't see anything.

TRAVIS: Where did it go?

There's a opening
underneath the mesa out there.

The interesting thing is

when I dropped
the smoke b*mb in,

the smoke started to come
out and then almost instantly,

as if someone
turned on a vacuum,

it sucked all the way
down, and-and disappeared.

And we repeated
that multiple times.

- Sure did.
- Yeah.

Yep. And then that
led to the exercise of,

okay, well if there's
truly a void in there,

- can we get a camera down there?
- Right.

- The hole's right here.
- Okay.

So we got one of these
snake cameras, actually...

I think we're live.
I'm gonna hit record.

And we did get some
really interesting footage.

A good 30 feet
down in the mesa...

What the hell is that?

BRYANT: we saw some
metallic object down in there

that absolutely
shouldn't be there.

-Nope.

The rocky mesa on
Skinwalker Ranch

has been shrouded in
mystery and rumor for years,

but when this team
literally looked into it,

what they found in
this imposing feature

might just be out of this world.

Gentlemen, let's go
back to the very first

drill operation you did at
the mesa and how it went.

Our idea was to bring
in this horizontal drill

and actually drill into the mesa

where we approximated
this cave to be.

Right.

THOMAS: We brought out a driller

who is probably one of the
top drillers of the United States.

So, he's had a lot of experience

drilling through landscapes
that are almost identical to this.

And he gets into the mesa

and immediately encounters
something that will not let

his directional drill bit
start to turn upwards.

I'm up against something
pretty hard right now.

So, we're coming up about


It was-it was directing
you downward

and now you're still on it,

but it's allowing
you to go upwards?

- Right.
- ERIK: So, that-that tells us something

about whatever this
impenetrable thing is.

So, it sounds like you're
describing kind of a V.

May not even be a
V, it could even be...

maybe a dome.

- We're looking for a void.
- Right.

We weren't looking
for anything else.

And he hit something
hard, shaped like a dome,

- that would not allow his drill to turn up.
- That's incredible.

And of course, we hit
the-the metallic material

- that appears in flakes.
- Yeah.

Those drilling spoils...

THOMAS: Okay.

- What is that?
- What are you seeing?

Oh, my.

- THOMAS: It's brittle.
- ERIK: This is really thin.

I wondered if it was, like,
metal flakes or something.

That's exactly the
same impression I got.

So, was it a fact of
that drill bit knocking

pieces off of
whatever this object is?

We don't know,
but it does correlate

in the timing as to when
the driller hit something

that was hard enough
that it drove his drill bit down

and he could not
turn it to go up.

THOMAS: 180 feet in is where

we first started
bringing those spoils up.

How'd they get there?

- That's the question.
- ERIK: Mm-hmm.

Yeah, Matty. We took those
spoils to the University of Utah

to have analysis done on them.

And what we found
was absolutely amazing.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

The way I understand it, there
was also trace elements of, uh,

europium and
tellurium in the sample?

Okay.

This material was manufactured,

as opposed to a
natural occurrence?

Yeah.

ERIK: Well, That's interesting.

That's actually
very interesting.

When you get
scientific corroboration

like that from a lab, that
it is something strange...

Historically, do we know

of any space shuttles
parked in the mesa? Anyone?

Uh... not that I know of.

- No.
- TRAVIS: How did it get in there?

That's the big thing.

How did that material
get into the mesa

and to what purpose?

And that set you up for
a second drill attempt.

Literally and figuratively,

you guys were looking
for a breakthrough.

First, we're
looking for a tunnel.

The second time, we were looking

for a metal object
inside that mesa.

And so we actually

did the GPR on top of the mesa

and discovered that, in fact,

there was some type of
anomaly. So, whatever it was

that we were getting pushed
down by, maybe we could

- come in and catch it above.
- Right.

And this second one, the
goal was to go into the mesa

and as soon as he
got into the mesa,

his instructions were
to turn that bit and go up.

TRAVIS: We set up
our spectrum analyzers

and we're watching the
frequency that they were using

on their drill bit beacon.

And when they hit whatever
they hit inside there... wow.

It changed the signal
and rebroadcast it.

What's going on, Thomas?

The drill has
encountered a hard object

that it cannot penetrate.

Wow.

Whoa, what is that?

Hey, Thomas.

Tell Erik that
when the drill bit hit

whatever you guys
hit up at the top,

that the 33 megahertz
signal coming from the drill bit

amplified and spread out

all around it like something
was rebroadcasting it.

So, let me just put
this another way.

It sounds to me like
you're saying that

y-your drill hit the
object and every time

you hit the object,
it... it was responding.

That's one interpretation.

That is one way
to look at it, sure.

And that drill bit
was not damaged.

And you're sitting
there grinding that bit

against some
immovable something.

Right.

-It's-it's weird.

Does the mesa on
Skinwalker Ranch

contain the ultimate answers

to the bizarre phenomena
that happens on the property?

Thus far, your efforts in the
mesa have been incredible.

Talk to me about your
approach this season.

This time we got much more

of that ground-penetrating
radar data that

gives us a partial
three-dimensional image

of something quite large.

Something that runs quite deep.

TRAVIS: You've probably
seen this before, where they take

- the ballistic jelly.
- Yes.

And they'll fire a b*llet at it.

And it shatters and creates

- a shrapnel field inside the jelly.
- MATTY: Yes.

TRAVIS: That's exactly
what this three-dimensional,

ground-penetrating radar
image looks like in the mesa.

It's almost as if
something had come...

down really fast
and hits the mesa,

goes into it,

gets stuck in there and creates
a debris field on the inside.

Something that happens
to be saucer-shaped.

Something that happens
to be saucer-shaped.

MATTY: I know with
your science minds

and everyone
here is very rational,

this could be natural.

We're not gonna throw
that possible solution out.

But the ground-penetrating
radar expert told us

that this is not a naturally

occurring fissure

or object that he's
ever seen before.

And you can't get
away from the fact

that we pulled metal

- out of the mesa.
- That's a great point.

So, Matty, the
emphasis has shifted.

You know, whereas before we
were trying to drill into something.

- Right.
- Now we realize we've really got something special.

- Yeah, yeah.
- ERIK: Clearly, this is

something not to be destroyed

if we can avoid it,
but to be studied.

So to study whatever
this is in the mesa,

we drill boreholes that
go right up beside it...

not into it, but beside it...

so that we can
insert instruments

that are side-looking
that may give us

a more complete
picture of what it is

we're dealing with in the mesa.

And almost right off the bat,

when you guys
begin this operation,

things get weird again.

Absolutely.

TRAVIS: What's going on?

So we keep losing communication

with our transmitter.

- TRAVIS: Wow!
- THOMAS: We start having

equipment failures.
And by that, the beacon

that should be transmitting
the drill bit location,

that's how we steer
this thing around.

JARED: When you start drilling,

I lose all
communication with him,

and he loses
communication, also.

- Yeah.
- THOMAS: Quits transponding to the receiver.

And so that caused us to have

to stop work and try to
figure out what's going wrong.

And they were attributing
it to a dead battery,

but we pulled the battery out.

And what did you guys find?

I put a volt meter
to it, and it was

completely full
as if it were new.

There was something
else that was causing them

to lose signal between that
beacon and that receiver.

And things got
even more shocking.

I mean, what
happened with the cow?

We were, uh, looking
at the spectrum analyzer.

What?

What is that signal?

There's a signal at 919...

megahertz that's going
nonstop on every antenna.

What?!

And while we're watching it,

we saw a strange signal
just appear, and that's

when we all turned
around and we saw the calf.

[cows mooing]

KALEB: Hey, guys, you see that?

TRAVIS: Look at this cow, guys.

Hey, guys, look at this cow!

ERIK: What's going on?

BRYANT: It's
spinning in circles.

What the hell's
wrong with that cow?

Literally 45 minutes
or less before that,

these calves were coming

toward the operation
we were doing.

So I went over to shoo
them back to their mothers.

I specifically
looked at this cow.

It looked perfectly normal.

And then, within 45 minutes,

we see this calf just
absolutely spinning circles,

like as if it doesn't
know where it is.

And then, Thomas, you tell
'em what else you witnessed.

This calf's eyes were white,

like almost solid white.

As if there was a lens
or a cover over 'em.

TRAVIS: That's a telltale sign

of being exposed to
microwave radiation.

Where the calf was
running around in circles,

all of our compasses were off.

- North was moved off by about 20 degrees.
- MATTY: Wow.

That's weird.

THOMAS: Hey, Travis, you seeing
any elevated readings over there?

I've got a, uh, an old-school
compass standing right here

where that cow was
running around in circles.

North is about, oh, I'm gonna
say 20 degrees to the east.

THOMAS: That's interesting.

TRAVIS: It was weird.

ERIK: And all of
this is happening

just feet away from
where we were stationed

- during our drilling activity.
- Yes.

But it does
correlate in the timing

as to when the
driller hit something.

Yeah.

Do we have an
update on the calf?

Yeah, we immediately
removed the calf and its mother

from the property as soon
as the vet got done doing

an examination, and...

it's doing much better.

Great.

Could the legends
of a secret base

or otherworldly object
buried deep in the mesa

on Skinwalker Ranch
actually be true?

Guys, I put the question to you.

It sounds unbelievable,

but given everything
we've talked about,

everything we've
seen in season five,

it might not be that crazy.

You know, we're taking the data,

we're being led by those data.

And the further we
progress in this work,

the more we find seems
to align with the idea

of something technological.

You know, for every
underground base,

there has to be an
entryway somewhere.

- Right. Oh, right.
- Right?

BRYANT: Could that possibly be

what we're tapping into in
the mesa? We don't know.

If that's where
a base might lie,

is this dome structure, um,

what other plans for that?

Will that be in play
moving forward?

You know, we've described,
uh, a strategy for studying that.

Uh, you know, we want
to get in as close as we can

to whatever that structure is
so that we can insert instruments

into the mesa and build
a more complete map

to characterize
whatever that artifact,

perhaps, whatever that
structure turns out to be.

This is essentially,
like, uh, what you do

when you're trying to
gather information on, say,

if you're in the military
and you're trying to get

more information, you do recon.

- Right.
- And we're trying to get as much information

as we can before we
make a really big decision

about what we're
gonna do with that object

inside the mesa.

TRAVIS: Right now,

we really only have a
few data points here.

We have the data
points of a drill going

under the bottom profile

of whatever this is and...

- a drill profile going over the top...
- Right.

Of at least something.

We don't know that they're
even connected because they're


from each other.

But we also have the
ground-penetrating radar

that suggests
that the top profile

looks like something
and it's so wide.

But it's hard to say from that

if it's a solid object that
goes all the way to the bottom.

And until we can look
through this, this pathway,

now that we're
drilling alongside,

and-and put
instruments side-looking,

as Erik's talked about,

only then will we
be able to really start

looking at what this
thing might actually be.

BRYANT: And I really appreciate

the approach that Erik
and Travis and the team

has taken of...

really doing it very carefully

with the biopsy
type of approach.

You know, we've heard
so many people just say,

"Well, why don't you
just blow the mesa up,

or just go in there
and demolish it?"

Well, first off, we don't
know what's in there.

- Right.
- It could be something

incredibly valuable or
incredibly important to mankind.

And by demolishing it, you
could ruin whatever's there.

I'll tell you, our
intent obviously is

to find out as much as we can.

But whether the ranch lets
us or not is another question.

Our drilling exercises
have proven over and over

unforeseen
obstacles that keep us

from achieving what it is
that we're wanting to do.

It's amazing how
many roadblocks are

constantly being
thrown in our way

in our efforts to find
more information.

But I can tell you, Matty,

there's a lot in store,
and I can't wait for you

to see what else we find

- as we're moving forward on this.
- ERIK: Yeah.

Well, we can't wait to see
what you guys discover.

Thank you so much for letting
us in the command center.

It's been very exciting.

- Thank you, man.
- Thanks for joining us.

Is the mesa simply testing

our understanding of nature,

or will it ultimately change

our understanding
of the nature of our world?

Maybe the next episode

of The Secret
of Skinwalker Ranch

will reveal that and more.

Thank you so much for watching
and have a great night.