Ghost Mine – Supercharging the Supernatural – S02E08

When we last left the miners things were heating up, quite literally. Jamol finally got to have his turn on the mucker and things turned to disaster. After all the other malfunctions of the equipment, this one catches on fire with Jamol still at the wheel. Dingus hauls him out of there while Mikey goes for help and a fire extinguisher. Luckily everything is brought back under control in mere moments and no one is hurt. They later discover the hydraulics caught fire and shot fluid onto the hot turbo. A plain mechanical failure, but the last in a series of about half a dozen for the day.

Kristen and Patrick return from their visit to the site where the Chinese miners where reported to have washed up from the river. When told of all the odd events, Patrick feels it might be to their advantage to give the entity all the energy it can handle. To that end he pulls a Tesla coil out of his pocket and sets it up in the mind. Seriously, where the hell did that thing come from? Was he just waiting for the right moment to spring it on the group?

Anyway, he fires it up inside the mine and the sparks begin to fly. It’s a beauty of a machine and Tesla would be proud. It releases 500,000 volts into the mineshaft so whatever is in there can "feed". In actuality, that sounds a little ominous and dangerous.

While the device is pulsing away, Kristen sees what she feels is a shadow figure on the monitors. It moves from one location to the other. There does appear to be some black blog on the screen so they turn off the device and head in for a look. The tunnels are silent but then ring out with what sounds like miners tools striking rock and metal. This is the same set of sounds that Duck and Greybeard heard previously. Again, there is some sort of tinging sound that makes you feel there are workers still in the mine. Additionally, there is a rumble that travels from one end of the mine to the other. It seems to pass right through Kristen and Patrick.

Kristen and Patrick show this evidence to the guys along with some footage they took while they were out by the river. They have thermal imagery of something moving across the screen. They also have a recording of something growling in the mine. Stan and Eddie both agree this is something they’ve heard before.

In trying to gather more evidence, Kristen gets a meeting with the Mayor of Sumpter. He explains that most people don’t want to talk about the Chinese immigrant and the Chinese influence because of how badly they were treated. Then goes right into yet another story of abuse, this one details 18 miners being chased into a cabin and the cabin set on fire. All 18 miners died in the fire. He also said it was common to take the Chinese miners, walk them into the mine and blow up the entrance so the owners wouldn’t have to pay them.

Armed with this new information, Patrick and Kristen head to the location where this cabin would have existed. During the night the ask questions in Cantonese and Kristen feels something is tugging at her back and leg. Is she making contact or is she feeling the touch of pine cones, leaves or pine needles?

Meanwhile, back in the mine, Mikey, Jamol and Dingus keep working on the raise and make their final blast to push things higher in search of gold. This exposes a new "shaft" that Jamol might fit into. He’s incredibly nervous and says it doesn’t feel right. So much so that he hears a growl and bails out.

In an attempt to see what’s in this space they bring in RIPA. Everything seems to be going well and they hoist the beast into position. But just as they do, it once again goes haywire and throws itself into motion. Patrick has no control as the thrashing device threatens to break it’s harness and cause harm to Jay who’s got it right next to him on a makeshift platform. So we have to ask, is RIPA under the influence of some force or was it just not quite ready to go back to work? Either way, they have another malfunction on their hands that could some serious injury.

Other than the fact that Patrick just happened to have a Tesla coil laying around, things are getting pretty weird in the mine.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Mine – Wandering Spirit – S02E04
• Ghost Mine – Town Wide Terror – S02E09
• Ghost Mine – Phantom Intruder – S02E03
• Ghost Mine – Ghosts of the Geiser Grand – S02E05
• Ghost Mine – Massacre at Hell’s Canyon – S02E07
• Ghost Mine – The Final Barrier – S02E12 Season Finale
• Ghost Mine – Disturbance at the Inn – S01E02
• Ghost Mine – Shadows in the Drift – S02E11
• Ghost Mine – Phantom Wind – S01E04
• Ghost Mine – Return to Darkness – S02E01