In the War Room, the team meets with Vanessa Lucido from ROC Equipment and Adam Embleton from Soletanche Bachy Canada to plan the next phase of drilling in the Money Pit. Rick Lagina asks both to review the problems encountered so far and recommend a course of action. Vanessa explains she does not want to set up equipment on shafts they have recently drilled because of settling, and Adam suggests repositioning the rig to avoid the compromised area. Marty Lagina proposes Aladdin's Cave as the next target. When Vanessa asks about dimensions, Steve Guptill reports the cave measures roughly 20 feet by 20 feet with a depth of about 12 feet. The team agrees it is the best location for the next dig.
In the northern swamp, Rick, Tom Nolan, Jack Begley, and Katya Drayton continue searching for features. Rick identifies red flags marking where more survey stakes are expected. Alan Kostrzewa begins digging, and Rick quickly finds a wooden plank followed by a stake. Additional stakes appear, but these are not aligned with earlier finds. Rick wants Steve to take measurements before the board is removed for deeper excavation. The following day, Tom, Jack, Gary Drayton, and Alan resume work. A fresh scoop of soil reveals more rocks and cobbles, though the feature appears to end. Tom wonders whether a platform was built to bridge two sections of cobble. Gary scans and recovers a piece of iron, and Jack pulls out a large metal pin the team believes could be a wharf pin.
On Lot 5, Jack, Helen, Fiona, and Ethan work in a 15-by-15-foot test pit south of the rounded stone foundation. Fiona recovers a piece of glazed brick with glaze on all sides, which will help determine the brick's original dimensions. Jack asks if they can trace the brick's origin, and Fiona tells him the team is building a database for that purpose.
Digging has begun on AC1, and the shaft is approaching a depth of 100 feet. The hammer grab brings up large pieces of wood at 96 feet. Vanessa confirms they have hit something. Rick and Gary believe the timbers are hand-hewn and that the dig has intercepted a tunnel. Gary scans the wood but detects no metal. The next grab also comes up full of wood. Scott arrives with a spike found at the wash plant. Gary examines it and estimates it could date to the 1600s or earlier. Rick requests dendrochronology on the wood and analysis of the spike. Vanessa reports a depth of 115 feet. The following day, John tells Vanessa that pressures are spiking before dropping off. Vanessa suspects they are breaking into the cave and relays this to Rick and the team. Rick instructs them to lower a camera down the shaft and to use flocculant to clear the water overnight.
In the lab, Rick and Scott meet with Laird Niven, Emma Culligan, and Moya MacDonald to hear test results on brick artifacts collected from across the island. Moya reports on two bricks from Lot 5, one from Smith's Cove, and two from the swamp vault. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the Lot 5 and Smith's Cove bricks are very similar in composition and also match a sample from Brick Hill, a local kiln operating in the 1600s. Laird notes the Lot 5 bricks appear to be in backfill rather than part of a built feature. The swamp vault bricks, by contrast, align more closely with other local 1800s brick samples provided by Helen and Laird. In the War Room, Emma presents XRM and CT scans of the spike recovered from between 90 and 110 feet in AC1. She identifies it as a hand-forged wrought iron rosehead spike containing elevated sulfur and phosphorus, likely indicating English origin. Potassium throughout the piece points to production in a charcoal furnace rather than coal. Emma places the most recent possible date at the mid-1700s, possibly earlier. Doug Crowell notes that several theories fit that timeframe, including the William Phips theory.
