The two-hour Season 8 premiere opens with the COVID-19 pandemic having shut down the US-Canada border, forcing the American treasure hunters to coordinate operations remotely. On June 17, 2020, Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, Alex Lagina, and Jack Begley meet in Marty's Traverse City, Michigan, office and connect via Skype with their Canadian partners: Laird Niven, Scott Barlow, Gary Drayton, Terry Matheson, Billy Gerhardt, Tom Nolan, Paul Troutman, Dan Henskee, Dr. Ian Spooner, Charles Barkhouse, Steve Guptill, and Doug Crowell. Dr. Spooner describes an anomaly in the southeastern corner of the swamp identified by comparing aerial photographs with Season 7 seismic data. Drayton reveals he has acquired an OKM eXp 6000 metal detector capable of sensing underground cavities to 60 feet. Crowell reports that among Dan Blankenship's archived files he discovered a survey map drawn by Fred Nolan and the 1988 Barringer Survey, a geophysical study indicating an underground tunnel on Lot 15, another connecting the Money Pit to Lot 15, and four deposits of non-ferrous metal on the island, none of which were ever investigated.
On Oak Island, Charles Barkhouse and Doug Crowell meet with professional diver Mike Huntley at Borehole C1. A new HD Multi SeaCam lowered into the shaft reveals three gold-coloured anomalies in the cavern walls. Geologist Terry Matheson notes there is no known natural mineral that looks like gold in anhydrite, the rock comprising the island's eastern bedrock. In Traverse City, Rick and Marty Lagina and Craig Tester meet via Skype with David Irving and Matt Kingston of Irving Equipment Ltd. to discuss the Big Dig, a massive proposed excavation using caissons sunk in a honeycomb pattern rather than the square grid used in previous seasons.
Diver Tyler Newton, assisted by dive master Brad Conrad, descends Borehole C1 in a cylindrical cage to 40 feet before continuing manually into the cavern below. Newton scrapes shiny material from the anhydrite wall, but while working a coin-like object dislodges and falls to the cavern floor beyond his reach. The recovered samples prove to be anhydrite with shiny crystallization, and the team is unable to retrieve the fallen object.
When travel restrictions ease, Rick and Marty Lagina, Alex Lagina, and Peter Fornetti fly to Halifax to begin a mandatory 14-day quarantine. In a War Room meeting conducted partly by video conference, Laird Niven introduces archaeologist David MacInnes, a direct descendant of Money Pit co-discoverer Daniel McGinnis, who will lead the excavation of the stone formation on Lot 15 alongside fellow archaeologist Aaron Taylor. MacInnes and Taylor dig a preliminary trench on the site, uncovering old nails, charcoal, and a piece of slag, leading MacInnes to suggest the stone walls may be the remains of an iron foundry. Blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge examines the structure and concludes it is an English tar kiln dating from 1550 to 1620, prompting Marty to observe that such an operation would require government or military backing.
After completing their quarantine, Jack Begley and Gary Drayton head straight to Lot 15 with the new OKM eXp 6000. Scanning about 100 feet west of the stone walls, Drayton discovers a ring of cracked stones and the device picks up significant metal signatures including non-ferrous targets. Switching to his CTX 3030 detector, he and Begley unearth a ship's rigging axe head and a coin with a square hole punched through its centre, which Drayton calls a top-pocket find and tentatively dates to the 17th or 18th century. Meanwhile, Doug Crowell and Steve Guptill stake out the Barringer Survey data at the Money Pit area and discover that the Lot 15 structure sits exactly 500 feet from both the Paved Area and the Money Pit. At the swamp, Dr. Spooner and diver Tony Sampson conduct a sonar scan of the southeastern corner using a SyQwest HydroBox Echo Sounder, which indicates a 1 to 2 metre wall buried beneath two metres of mud. The episode closes with a memorial to producer Kevin Burns, who passed away on September 27, 2020.
