The Curse Of Oak Island 2 Hour Season 13 Premiere THE COMEBACK Episode 1 NO CAP RECAP #coin #lot5

Hello everybody.
Video here for today. This is the no cap recap of The Curse of Oak Island season 13, two hours season premiere, episode 1 called The Comeback, originally aired November 4th, 2025.

If you missed any of my recaps of previous episodes, there’s a link to my Oak Island playlist in the upper right. Let’s get into it.
[Music]

Previously on The Curse of Oak Island, people have been looking for an incredible treasure for 230 years.

On the ride to Oak Island for the new season, former skeptic Alex Lagginina says that he now believes that something happened on Oak Island that is outside history as we know it. Rick says he thinks they will be very successful this year.

His group arrives at the interpretive center, which he calls the museum. Almost every person that appears on the show is gathered inside. Narrator Robert Clotworthy recaps last season’s money pit happenings, including these two Quesan digs collapsing.

And because of that and so much digging in the area over the last 230 years, the team firmly believes what had been suspected previously: that any treasure would have sunk deeper than it originally was, specifically into a solution channel, which is a geoscientist term for a natural cavern formed by water.

Surveyor Steve Guptto reveals the money pit area plan for the year that he and Rick have come up with. These green circles are a borehole drilling program designed to more fully explore the solution channel. And once they locate something of interest, there is another plan for recovery that was previewed in the Drilling Down episode that preceded the season premiere, which I’ll also be recapping.

The white circle is the Toot1 Quesan, one of the two that collapsed in season 12.

As if the money pit wasn’t enticing enough, Oak Island always has more to give, especially on lot five. Archaeologist Lar Nan has five of the multitude of artifacts found there in front of him. He says that it is especially huge to him finding soil on lot five that matches soil found in the money pit, linking the two.

Having acquired lot five from the Robert Young estate in 2022, they still have much more work to do there. The team previously found two structures on lot five that were both purposely buried and have found many artifacts in them as well as the money pit soil.

The artifacts include these two buttons which are the type worn by Knights Templar offshoot, the Knights of Malta. Fiona adds that there is nowhere else in Nova Scotia that has similar features or artifacts than those on lot five.

Lar says the starting plan this season is to start excavating on all sides of the larger feature for artifacts and to see if there is more to the structure.

The Solution Channel borehole drilling program starts in the money pit area, and Marty says that they will be going at least 200 ft down in every hole, maybe even lower.

Meanwhile, on lot five, Lar tells metal detection expert Katcha Drayton that most of the artifacts have been found on the two structures’ west sides. So, he is interested in what might be on the east side.

The first find of the new season is made of iron and is likely a fastener.

Marty, Craig, and Gary arrive at Smith’s Cove where Billy is spreading out the spoils from last season’s later drilling. They were not able to fully go through those boils, but Gary did find this chisel that dated to the 1600s.

Gary shares with Marty, Craig, and the rest of us some metal detection knowledge. He says that sometimes iron masking happens. That is when an iron object signal overrides other types of metal. So, there could always be a piece of precious metal lying with a piece of iron.

Gary detects this iron cribbing spike that looks just as old as the chisel. Cribbing spikes are used to fasten large pieces of wood together to build structures such as shafts and tunnels. Gary also detects what he thinks is another chisel.

Marty says, “The other chisel and the other finds that date older than the discovery of the money pit depression means that there was someone underground other than searchers.”

While drilling the first borehole of the season continues in the money pit area, the team meets with Steve Solomon, who is a descendant of a man that attempted to buy the eastern end of the island.

After the Truro company in 1849 drilled in the money pit for the first major exploration since it flooded when the 90 ft stone was removed in 1804, Foreman James Piplato oversaw the operation which resulted in the company drilling down through the water to 90 ft, hitting a hard surface, then drilling through what they thought to be one wooden box on top of another, both containing loose metals.

When the auger was brought up, Piplatto took a shiny object off of it and would not tell anyone what it was. Piplato then contacted Steve’s relative Charles Archibald, and the two attempted to buy the eastern end of the island together. That would seem to indicate that whatever was on the auger was very significant.

It’s further revealed that they even approached one of the original money pit finders, John Smith, to buy it for them in exchange for a considerable sum of money. That proposal was refused.

After that, Charles filed a request to the town of Lunenberg for permission to dig on the island, which Steve brought an excerpt of. He reads: “Having been represented to me that certain persons have discovered a situation of certain hidden treasure beneath the surface of the earth on Oak Island.” It then goes into legal stuff and is signed by Charles Archibald and dated 1849.

Steve then says that he would like to show them what the cause for that application was, and he thinks it is the one thing that Rick has been looking for for years. Marty says via video conferencing from his office in Michigan that he is on the edge of his seat.

As you can see, he presents this Portuguese coin that he believes is from 1367. It has been passed down through his family. Doug Crow did research over the offseason and confirmed that a coin of this size, close to an American quarter, would indeed be able to be brought up by a pod auger.

Doug further reminds that they had taken a field trip to Portugal in 2021 to investigate the known history that the Knights Templar took refuge there and later evolved into the Knights of Christ.

This is the other side of the coin. Doug says that Archibald was given permission to dig on Oak Island, but only on unoccupied land. The Truro Company maintained ownership of the money pit area. Doug also checked the family tree to verify that the coin could have been passed down. He checked out and he also found that members of the Piplatto family married into the Archibald family.

Marty confirms that the drilling power used at that time would generate enough heat to cause the slight bend that is in the coin. The group then discusses the possibility that the money pit could also be hiding coins or other treasure, both older and newer than the 1367 coin, if the multi-generational use of the island by the Knights Templar and their descendants actually happened.

Steve consents to having Emma investigate the coin in the lab to get more information on it.

The transition shot back from the commercial is the money pit area, where you can see that the garden shaft area has been cleared except for some of the yellow rails and the hatch cover to the shaft itself.

The team thinks the drill has hit the ledge that stopped them in season 12, after which they turn to airlifting spoils in the last days spent filming on the island. They drill through that ledge and into the solution channel at 178 ft down and then into something hard, but either drill through it or push it lower. At 213 ft, they hit bedrock with nothing in any of the core samples. They will end this borehole and start on the next one.

On lot five, Gary and Peter are metal detecting some of the spoils from the large feature from season 12. Gary gets a non-ferris hit here and calls Fiona over to oversee the recovery, which is required in archaeology permit areas.

Fiona says it looks like it’s in between spoils piles, so it’s likely something in situ. It ends up being a tiny piece of lead shot. They have previously found a ramrod and musket shot that date back as far as the 1600s. This area is to the east of the structures that Lar was interested in. Peter thinks this find might be a door hinge. Gary has no idea.

The next detection is a bigger piece of iron between two tree roots, but Fiona first brings up this piece of glass. She says she is also seeing earth and ware pottery. And since it’s multiple types of items in the same spot, she wants to leave it as is, since it may be just a pile of things put there. But it could also be part of the foundation that will require careful excavation by the archaeologists.

Feeling them points perhaps four or five feet away nearby, one way and then the other, saying that the Malta buttons were found in those locations.

Emma is still analyzing the 1367 Portuguese coin but has a report on the chisel Gary found in this episode. It has no manganese or other modern alloy components. So, she is comfortable saying at least 1700s, but it could be older.

In the money pit area, the second solution channel borehole apparently didn’t hold anything interesting until this metal object was brought up from 178 ft. Choice Drilling employees emptied it into a core sample sleeve, but then saw another piece.

They appear to be older drilling rods, and the hope is they are older because in the early to mid 1800s, they would have been drilling in the original money pit shaft, the location of which was lost over the years. There’s still 30 ft to go in this borehole.

On lot five are original team members as well as several new faces, which were much needed since lot five will take years to completely finish.

Lar and Fiona are in the new area of interest. Lar tries out the iron object that Gary detected and decides not to try to clean it since he has no idea what it is. In this case, it’s best to leave it dirty and let Emma work her lab magic on it.

Just inches from that, Fiona finds a piece of ceramic that Lar identifies as Staffordshire slipware, and Nivan dates it 1675 to 1770.

New to Oak Island, archaeology assistant Tanzy Rudiki finds this blue seed bead. Lar thinks it’s Venetian. They found quite a few Venetian beads on lot five, including this forest glass bead that could date back as far as the 900s. Lar will take it to Emma for analysis.

The next core sample in the money pit area contains several small pieces of metal that will be taken to Emma, who may need an assistant this season. Scott, Charles, and the others always run a pinpointer metal detector over the money pit core samples.

Terry has the great idea of bagging up some of the solution channel mud/soil to take to Emma because she can test it for precious metal content. She has previously tested money pit wood positive for gold, for example.

Speaking of Emma, she has completed analysis of the 1367 coin. She confirms that one of the inscriptions on it indicates that it was minted between 1367 and 1383, which coincides with King Ferdinand’s first time as king, and it is called a de escudo.

During this time, the Knights of Christ held several strongholds in Portugal. Judy notices something and asks Emma to enlarge the image. There’s a Templar cross on the coin.

Rick notices a star on the coin that matches one they saw in a church during their field trip to Portugal. It’s enhanced here in blue on both sides. It also shows a symbol that matched one on the 90 ft stone.

Next time on an all-new Curse of Oak Island, season 13, episode 2, called Billiondoll Baby. The synopsis reads:
“After the team makes an ancient discovery on lot five, they learn that the fabled treasure could be worth more than anyone imagined.”

Episode three is called Medieval Intentions. The synopsis: New discoveries in the swamp and money pit area lead to potentially history-changing revelations for the new team.

Episode four is called The Smoking Gun. As the team drills deeper than ever into the money pit area, a find in the swamp could have explosive implications.

Also, I’ll be recapping the Drilling Down episode that preceded the season premiere, and that will be uploaded within 3 days of this one. Work is a thing.

I’ll also continue, of course, the season 13 recaps as the new episodes air in 2025 and 2026. I’ll be finished with the retro recaps of the last two episodes of season 8 this month, most likely.

All of the other seasons and episodes are done and are in my Oak Island playlist if you want to catch up.

I’ll also be putting out retro recaps of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, seasons two through four. Seasons 1, five, and six, and the first five episodes of season 2 are already done and are in that Skinwalker Ranch playlist.

Thanks so much for watching. Please subscribe, like, and comment. Simpant.

And about the episode, I just want to say… wow.