Gold Rush: The Dirt

No, no, no, lie down. Lie down, lie down.

Lie down.

"My ass is on fire" special, take one.

Okay, here we go.

It's that magical time of year again,

and of course I'm talking about the halfway point of "the dirt."

And to celebrate, we're gonna open the vault

and take a look back at our favorite moments

so far this season

like the first time Parker told Fred

what he really thought about his new status as mine boss

I've gone... I've gone... I've gone far enough.

Go ahead, christo, before I get myself in trouble.

And kruse's crazy talk show.

How many eggs do you think you could fit in your mouth?

And it turns out, despite the pandemic,

we got way more great stuff

than could fit in our shows this season.

- Rock stacking excavator. - Rock stacking...

- Championship. - Rock man!

If Rick ness wanted to go out on a date, Angelique,

would you say yes?

I'm not a fool.

I would say yes.

Did I go too hard?

No? Okay, good.

No, Parker, I still love you.

Rick ness shares memories of his football glory days

and the tragic way they came to an end.

That's the real legend of Rick ness.

After three games, he got in a bar brawl at 19 years old

and got his skull fractured.

And that's how it ended.

I check in with dear old friend Tyler mahoney

from down under.

We got a lot of big gold nuggets.

Is that a cat?

It's a crow.

It's a crow?

And so much more that's never seen the light of day.

Quarantine, border closings, and a global pandemic.

Geez, that's not awkward at all.

I'm gonna do it again.

Time to make the season bright with shiny gold.

This is "the dirt."

captions paid for by discovery communications

please don't make me look at myself.

Very upsetting.

Hello. Can you guys hear me?

If you just yell at me, I can be back in three seconds.

- Parker, can you hear me, buddy? - Yeah.

- Can you hear me, Fred? - I can hear you.

- Tony, can you hear me? - Say it again.

I need just a couple minutes here real quick.

Just lost Parker.

Hey, Rick, ready for you.

And we're just waiting on Rick.

Rick, that is a great shot. I love everything about it.

Let's start it off

with one of our favorite moments this season...

When Parker, Rick, and Tony

gang up on rookie mine boss Fred Lewis.

We even have never-before-seen footage from the vault.

Rick, you kind of started a bit like Fred...

You know, working for somebody else

and then eventually getting your own mine.

Can you give him any advice on how to deal with the microscope

of the cameras when you're struggling?

I put in a lot more time, though.

That's true.

Christo, you got to be a little careful making...

Drawing a comparison between Fred and and Rick,

because Rick put in probably about 20 times more hours.

Probably 100 times more hours.

I mean, all the time in equipment.

Well, I was being generous to Fred on that.

Learning the ropes, learning how to move dirt,

and more importantly, Rick and I learned all that together.

- Right? - Yep.

When Rick first started working for me,

we were pretty well at the same level, I'd say,

and... in terms of knowledge

and, you know, we had a lot of really good mentors,

gene cheeseman being one huge one.

And we went through the growth

from a five-, six-man operation in Haines

to a 20-man operation in the Yukon.

You know, Rick and I went through that together.

And so, you know,

Fred doesn't have nearly that kind of knowledge

to feed off of, you know,

and a lot of the mistakes in mining,

you only will learn them the hard way.

And, you know, Rick and I learned those together,

and I lost money learning them,

but it was in those early stages of the business.

And that's where I think Fred's taking a huge risk,

is there's a lot of mistakes

that you will only learn the very expensive way.

It's, you know...

The college degree in placer mining is a lot more expensive

than Harvard or Yale.

Fred, I'm sensing some tension here.

Are you hearing that Parker and Rick are saying

that you didn't really pay your dues

and that you're kind of... You're kind of in for it?

Yeah, that's exactly what they're saying.

And they're exactly right.

But it took me three years to earn my green beret.

I think I can figure this out.

Rick, you... go ahead, Parker.

Go ahead, christo.

I've gone... I've gone... I've gone far enough.

Go ahead, christo, before I get myself in trouble.

- No, it's great. - How are you enjoying it?

How is the hot seat?

So listen to this little...

So I agree with everything they're saying,

but I've been in deployments before

where we're stuck 13 months, you know, away from home,

24-hour days, you get like two hours of sleep a night.

And I understand what camaraderie does for that.

So I'm bringing that to mining

because I understand the production you get

from a really bonded, cohesive team.

And I'm not calling out their teams at all.

I'm just making comparisons to like a special forces o.D.A.

Where it's 12 dudes that have only worked together.

That's all they do is work together, they train together,

they party together, and they kick ass together.

Parker, I can tell...

No, no, but you can't compare this to a deployment

is my issue.

Okay, how?

This isn't a deployment. Fred's not fighting...

Fred's not fighting for his country anymore.

That's a good point. There are some parallels, though.

How is it different?

He's fighting to make a buck.

Like, this is a business, and it will fail

if he doesn't make money, right?

None of that stuff is off my...

Like, I'm focusing on all that stuff.

I just feel like it's more than that to me.

But it won't be more than that when you lose money

and you have to figure out how to pay your mortgage

or else you and your wife are gonna not have a home.

Right?

I have a sneaky suspicion that when we check back in

on your mine in a few episodes, Fred,

there might be a little bit of a different vibe.

- Am I wrong? - No, yeah, you're wrong.

The vibe's gonna stay the same.

Alright. We're gonna hold you to that.

Did I go too hard?

No? Okay, good.

No, Parker, I still love you.

My microphone fell off, so hold on.

What, does he... Does he have food in there?

Probably.

My microphone fell off. Do we got a piece of tape?

I got too big of muscles.

Don't stop rolling. Please don't stop rolling.

Johnny.

Fred, I don't care that you're okay looking like crap.

I'm not.

Is Johnny single?

I don't know. Johnny, are you single?

I...

He has a baby on the way.

Well, I do got a baby on the way, but...

It's clear Fred will go to any length to keep morale up.

Here's a perfect example where he combined mining skills

with team building

in a never-before-seen package from the vault

we're calling "rock man."

- This is it. - What are we gonna call this?

- Rock stacking excavator. - Rock stacking...

- Championship. - Rock man!

- Tell me when to heckle. - I'll tell you when to heckle.

It's a five-minute time cap.

Three rocks in front of you.

If you don't get all three stacked,

it's gonna go down to the fastest person

to have stacked at least one rock.

- Who's going first? - Alex.

- Okay, I guess I'll go first. - Can I heckle, can I heckle?

Heckling commence.

You can't even stack rocks. You've never even seen a rock.

Your head's a rock, you dumb piece of rock!

Alright, you ready?

Go!

Fall, fall, fall!

Fall!

- Yeah! - Yeah! One more!

You got one lucky. You got lucky once.

You ain't getting that to stick. You suck!

Pathetic!

Your whole life is pathetic!

You can't even stack a rock!