‘Curse Of Oak Island: About Face’: Reviews, Commentary And Spoilers

Curse Of Oak Island: About Face aired Tuesday night, and for those who missed it, or those who enjoy reading recaps, here’s what went down on the latest episode of the popular History Channel treasure-hunting show.

For those not familiar with the show, Curse of Oak Island follows the adventure of Michigan businessmen the Lagina Brothers as they dig for buried pirate treasure on Oak Island, off the coast of Canada. Legend holds that the pirate Captain Kidd buried treasure on the Nova Scotia island, and then cursed it.

The lore says that the Oak Island treasure won’t be found until seven men have died searching for it. As of this writing, six men have died searching for the mythical treasure.

For the past 220 years, teams have poured countless money and resources, and in some cases their lives, into the Oak Island Treasure, only to come back with naught but disappointment. Several promising leads have turned up: supposed maps here, bones there, a few links of gold chain. But mostly all the two centuries’ worth of expeditions have turned up is mud and seawater.

The Lagina Brothers hope to turn that 200-year string of bad luck around. On Curse of Oak Island, you can watch as the men and their team explore the island for the mythical treasure. Specifically, they focus on two areas: the so-called “Money Pit” and a nearby swamp. Depending on whom you ask, the “Money Pit” (named so because so much money has been poured into it, to no avail) is either a sophisticated contraption rigged with booby traps (to channel in seawater) and other failsafes to keep treasure hunters away from the treasure. Or it’s a natural sinkhole that draws in seawater due to naturally-occurring caves in and around the island.

On last week’s episode of Curse of Oak Island(“Echoes From The Deep”), fans were treated to one of the most tantalizing clues yet. The team sent a diver down the 170-foot-deep, 40-inch-wide borehole, with an underwater metal detector. Once the diver got to the murky water on the bottom, his metal detector went bananas.

According to TV Over Mind, that set up an argument between members of the team over how to proceed. Brother Rick wants to send a diver back down there to have a look, while brother Marty doesn’t want to waste any more time or money on that particular lead.

Unfortunately, “About Face” did next to nothing to advance the storyline of the show. In fact, the episode was almost entirely a summary of what’s happened up to this point, interspersed with scenes of the Lagina Brothers arguing with each other. The team unearthed no more clues and is no closer to finding the mythical treasure than they were before the episode.

Fans of the show are not happy. On the Curse of Oak Island Facebook page, several commenters are taking the show’s producers to task for giving them next to nothing on the “About Face” episode.

Kendel W Houts: They have done nothing but recap things from previous shows from the beginning. Too little progress.

Kip Cannon:I have watched since day one and now after last nights [sic] episode I feel that the History Channel is starting to rob me of my time!!!!

Dan Auxter: Sorry, been a fan since the beginning but 1/17/2017 episode was the worst yet. Not a lot of progress. More questions/theories. 50% re-hash of previous episodes + 30% commercials.

Needless to say, Curse of Oak Island: About Face was a complete disappointment to fans, and until next week, the mystery of the Oak Island treasure will remain just that: a mystery.

[Featured Image by Adwo/Shutterstock]