In the War Room, the team takes stock of the Shaft 6 caisson results. Marty Lagina acknowledges they had hoped to find "the one thing" this season. Rick Lagina notes that all three caissons produced wood and revealed two different types of construction, suggesting a collapse, but none yielded any indication of treasure. The collapse around TB1 led the team to conclude that a solution channel roughly 200 feet deep lies beneath the area and that the Chappell Vault may have fallen into it. Reaching the channel will require a deeper dig, and repairs to the Money Pit pad will be needed to support the heavier equipment. The team selects a spot seven feet south of TB1 as the target. Scott estimates it will take time to prepare the pad for more than 300 tons of machinery. Marty proposes naming the new shaft "The One Thing," or TOT.
In the northern part of the swamp, Rick, Tom Nolan, Gary Drayton, and Alan Kostrzewa continue searching for clues. Gary picks up a signal, and Tom digs out a metal tip that appears to carry a stamped mark and a small plate. Gary suspects the piece may be gun-related, possibly a ramrod guide. The following day, Tom uncovers a brick that Gary compares to those found at the vault. Peter prepares to run the OKM scanner near the line of boulders in the northern swamp, and the results reveal an object buried four feet deep measuring 14 feet in length. The team plans to have Moya MacDonald review the data before deciding on next steps.
On Lot 5, Fiona and Jack Begley work at the round feature, where Fiona reports that her test pit has reached the artifact layer. While the majority of finds fall within an expected date range, some artifacts do not fit. As they dig deeper, Fiona recovers a square, tapered nail whose bubbling surface suggests the metal is older than typical examples. She then finds a green glass bead with visible striations and identifies it as a wound bead, made by winding molten glass around a metal rod, a technique that could date it as far back as the 1400s.
In the lab, Rick, Scott, and Doug Crowell join Emma Culligan and Laird Niven to hear test results on the glass bead. Laird explains that earlier beads from Lot 5 were drawn beads, while this one is a wound bead, predating the others. Emma reports a potassium content of 26 percent with no sodium present, indicating the glass was derived from forest greenery such as ferns. The technique, known as forest glass production, is associated only with northern Europe and dates from the medieval period through the 1700s. Laird adds that finding such a bead in North America is rare. In a follow-up War Room session, Doug, Corjan Mol, and Emiliano Cataldi present research on the Knights Templar and the Knights of Malta. Doug highlights symbols in 19th-century books studied by John Edwards that appear to connect Oak Island, holy relics, and Malta. Emiliano describes a 1630 manuscript titled "The Treasure of the Holy Relics Which are in Malta" and notes that the Knights of Malta maintained a strong presence in Canada during the 1600s. Corjan outlines clues and symbols found on a recent scouting trip to Malta that connect to Oak Island, and the team agrees that a full expedition to Malta should follow.
