TV
How ‘Torchwood’ Formed an Unexpected Gateway to Horror
As a repressed teen with a burgeoning interest in horror and a big lesbian awakening coming her way a decade later, Torchwood was something of a foundational show for me. It was one of the first pieces of media I can remember watching that made me question the concept of heterosexuality as the default setting. It was far from perfect in its presentation of this concept, but it was better than I was getting elsewhere.
And best of all, it could be scary. I was hooked.
Like a lot of nerdy kids growing up in Britain in the early 2000s, I had a major Doctor Who phase. During showrunner Russel T. Davies’ first tenure (2005–2010), I watched each new episode religiously, had action figures lined up along my windowsill, and even got some artwork featured on the kid-friendly companion show Totally Doctor Who (2006–2007). Yeah, I was just that cool.
My dad, a life-long science-fiction fan, was fully supportive of this phase and didn’t bat an eye as I rolled seamlessly into watching Torchwood, Who’s adult spin-off show, when it arrived on BBC Three in 2006. But while he would occasionally sit down with me for an episode of Doctor Who, he wasn’t particularly interested in Torchwood, so I watched it alone in my bedroom, unsupervised and unexamined.
How Torchwood Led Me to the World of Horror
I’m grateful for that. If my parents had looked a little closer at the show, I doubt I would have made it past the first episode, because Torchwood started as it intended to continue: splattered with blood and pretty damn queer.
As a repressed teen with a burgeoning interest in horror and a big lesbian awakening coming her way a decade later, Torchwood was something of a foundational show for me. It was one of the first pieces of media I can remember watching that made me question the concept of heterosexuality as the default setting. It was far from perfect in its presentation of this concept, but it was better than I was getting elsewhere.
And best of all, it could be scary. I was hooked.
“Modern” Talk and Subversive Stereotypes
When Doctor Who made its triumphant return to British screens in 2005, I was 12, living in a small, insular town on the east coast of Scotland. Homophobia ran rampant in my high school and the community at large. When I look back on my lonely, confused teenage years and wonder why I didn’t realize I was queer sooner, the answer is painfully clear. It was easier to hide, even from myself.
The British television landscape didn’t help. Queerness was largely absent on mainstream TV at the time; where it did appear, it was typically presented for laughs. Some of those jokes are still funny. Many cut deep, even now.
Openly gay showrunner Russel T. Davies certainly wasn’t afraid to insert queer jokes into Doctor Who and, later, Torchwood. But the humor tended to stem from the absurdity of homophobia, rather than coming at the expense of the queer characters themselves. In the Who episode “Gridlock” (2007), for instance, an elderly lesbian chastises Thomas Kincade Brannigan (Ardal O’Hanlon) for insisting on calling her and her wife “sisters,” with Brannigan responding that they should “stop that modern talk — I’m an old-fashioned cat.” The episode is set five billion years in the future on the planet of New Earth and Brannigan, a humanoid cat, is in an inter-species relationship with a human woman with whom he’s had a little of kittens. But two women being married? Still considered “modern talk.” Good fun.
But Davies’ queer influence on Doctor Who went much further than jokes. With the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) in the very first season of the revival, Davies gave Who not only its first-ever openly queer character, but a horny “omnisexual” who subverts stereotypes by looking and acting like an archetypal masculine hero, all while flirting with everyone in sight. Harkness even kisses both Rose (Billie Piper) and the Doctor (played at the time by Christopher Eccleston) on the mouth before his heroic self-sacrifice in “The Parting of the Ways” (2005).
As Davies told Pink News in 2020, he was “thirsty for that kind of material” growing up — and he clearly wasn’t the only one. Captain Jack immediately grew a fan following, making him the obvious candidate for a spin-off show.
That show is Torchwood, which continues Jack’s story following his death, resurrection, and realization that he has become accidentally immortal. Believing the Doctor can “fix” him, Jack hunkers down in Cardiff to await the Doctor’s inevitable return, joining and later leading the Torchwood Institute — an organization set up by Queen Victoria to defend the Earth against alien and supernatural threats — along the way.
With a presumed adult audience, Torchwood was able to turn the queer dial up several notches. But it also leaned harder into the horror elements that the more family-friendly Doctor Who could only flirt with.
Blood and Bodies (and BBQ Sauce)
After a brush with Halloween (1978) when I was far too young, it took me years to build up the courage to start watching horror movies again, despite my growing fascination with the genre. To ease the transition, I read a lot of scary books, looked at the pictures on horror DVD cases, and watched Torchwood.
Torchwood is not a horror-forward series, but it certainly has its moments. The debut episode, “Everything Changes” (2006), sees an alien creature with a face “like Hellraiser” ripping a custodian’s throat out with its teeth, sending gouts of blood spurting in every direction. The third season, known as “Children of Earth” (2009), deals with an alien threat demanding that the human race hands over 10% of its kids, claiming they will “live forever.” When we get a glimpse of the fate that awaits them, the image is truly nightmarish.
And then there’s “Countrycide” (2006), an early episode that feels like a Welsh folk horror take on The Hills Have Eyes (the remake of which was released earlier the same year), complete with corpses stripped down to bloody skeletons and a fridge full of human meat. The true horror of the episode? There appears to be no alien influence at play. When the traumatized Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) demands an explanation for the murder and cannibalism, the all-too-human ringleader provides one that offers no catharsis or comfort, saying he did it “‘cause it made [him] happy.”
Sure, Torchwood could also be supremely silly — see the sexy Cyberwoman slathered in BBQ sauce getting pecked at by a pterodactyl (“Cyberwoman,” 2006). But I can’t deny that the series sparked my creepy curiosity. Episodes like “Countrycide” made me eager to seek out the films that influenced the writers. I also tracked down several of the series’ tie-in books, which could be even more explicit in their gore. Andy’s Lane’s Slow Decay (2007), involving an alien tapeworm that makes its hosts so hungry they’ll eat anything — rats, other humans, even their own flesh in a pinch — has always stuck with me.
What I appreciate most about Torchwood in hindsight, however, is not its willingness to show blood, which Doctor Who has always been squeamish about, but the way it challenged my small-town understanding of sexuality as a teen.
Quaint Little Categories and Problematic Queers
Jack Harkness’s sexuality was no secret going into Torchwood, so it’s no surprise that showrunners Chris Chibnall and Russell T. Davies seized the opportunity to delve deeper into this aspect of his character. In the second episode, “Day One” (2006), Torchwood’s medic, Owen Harper (Burn Gorman), comments that the only thing they know about the mysterious Jack is that he’s gay, because “period military is not the dress code of a straight man.” Tech wiz Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori) challenges this narrow notion, noting that Jack will “shag anything if it’s gorgeous enough.” Jack, who was born in the 51st century, later teasingly chastizes his team for their limited 21st-century understanding of sexuality: “You people and your quaint little categories.”
Like Davies’ Who before it, Torchwood does not relegate Jack’s queerness to mere words. Throughout the series, we see him engaged in a will-they-won’t-they flirtation with Gwen in between making out with multiple men, from the closeted World War II captain (Matt Rippy) whose name he stole, to former-lover-turned-enemy Captain John Hart (Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s James Marsters). By season two, Jack is getting hot and heavy with Torchwood team member Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd). In the final season, “Miracle Day” (2011), he has same-gender sex scenes that were heavily edited for the UK broadcast and lambasted by bigots.
And Torchwood isn’t content to place all its queerness in Jack’s basket, though it struggles to handle its other characters’ sexualities with as much nuance. Owen, Toshiko, and Gwen all have queer encounters throughout the first season, with some even resulting in sex. None of these are what I’d call particularly good representation, however, especially by modern standards; all involve predatory elements and none are ever mentioned again, with the characters going back to exclusively heterosexual relationships afterward. The show’s understanding of gender was also limited, with the episode “Greeks Bearing Gifts” (2006) even shoehorning in an uncomfortably unfunny joke at the expense of an unseen trans character.
But it wasn’t all bad. By far, Torchwood’s best representation outside of Jack comes in the form of the aforementioned Ianto Jones.
Ianto Jones and Coming Into Your Queerness
Ianto undergoes a major evolution during his run on Torchwood, starting out as the unassuming “tea boy” and gradually growing more emboldened, funny, and heroic. At the same time, he’s coming to terms with the idea that he’s not as straight as he (and the audience) originally thought.
At the outset of the series, Ianto is trapped in a doomed relationship with a woman partially converted into a Cyberwoman. But as Torchwood’s first season progresses, Ianto begins to flirt with Jack; the two are implied to have hooked up in “They Keep Killing Suzie” (2006), with season two’s debut, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” (2008), making their relationship official as Jack asks Ianto on a date. Gwen later walks in on a steamy, shirtless moment between the two in the episode “Adrift” (2008).
By the time the third season rolled around in 2009, Torchwood’s already slight core cast had been decimated, creating more space for exploration of Ianto’s relationship with his newfound queerness. The season opens with Ianto nervously exhilarated by the idea that people recognize him and Jack as a couple. When Jack asks if it matters, Ianto admits it’s “all a bit new to [him].” Later in the same episode, in response to his sister asking him if he has “gone bender” (a British slang term for gay, usually used as an insult), Ianto explains that “it’s weird. It’s just different. It’s not men, it’s… It’s just him. It’s only him.”
While I know plenty of bisexuals who aren’t thrilled by the trope of a character only being attracted to one specific person of the same gender, the idea that you might not know you’re queer until you know really struck a chord with me. Years later, when I came to the gradual realization that I was a lesbian in my early 20s, I thought of Ianto Jones. There was no singular dashing Captain who unlocked my queerness. But it was all a bit new to me, too.
Ianto sadly did not survive the season. Following the grand tradition of burying your gays (and Torchwood’s own compulsive need to murder most of its cast), “Day Four” ends with Ianto dying in Jack’s arms, heartbreakingly telling the immortal man that “In a thousand year’s time, you won’t remember me,” with Jack promising that “I will.”
Fans remember him, too. A shrine to Ianto Jones exists in Cardiff Bay to this day.
Torchwood was Flawed Yet Formative — and Often Very Fun
I never finished Torchwood. By the time the fourth and final season rolled around, I was preparing to leave for university, had already dropped off Doctor Who, and was slowly graduating to more explicit horror media. Torchwood wasn’t what I needed anymore, especially in its newly Americanized form. I watched a few episodes but never found out how it ended.
A few years later, I would kiss a woman for the first time, and a few years after that I would finally admit to myself that yes, I was queer (duh). Another deeply queer, horror-tinged TV series, Hannibal (2013–2015), would play a crucial role in that self-acceptance, helping me find a queer community that made it easier to finally come out.
But for all its flaws and problematic tropes and BBQ-slathered sexy Cyberwomen, I can’t deny that Torchwood played a role, too.
Welcome back, fellow ranchers! We’ve finally made it to the end of Season 7 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. Can you believe it? It almost feels like nothing really happened! As discussed in our coverage of Season 7 Episode 13 “Heating Up”, the final episode of Season 7 is a full data review episode that will inevitably show us/tell us things we’ve heard thousands of times over this season. And since I just got married and don’t feel like wasting my time with that episode, curator of all things Horror Press, James-Michael, thought it would be a better idea for us to cover our favorite and least favorite moments of Season 7.
Before we get into it, let me just make one thing clear. As much as I crap on this show time and time again, it is still one of my favorite television shows. I’ve long been deep into the Ufology/cryptid/mysterious world. A show like The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch and, to a slightly lesser extent, Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch does help relieve some of the stigma that comes with being involved in these worlds. Dr. Travis Taylor and Mormon millionaire Brandon Fugal’s constant bloviating don’t necessarily push the ‘D’isclosure conversation forward, but it does help elementarize the conversation. Simply put, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch makes these conversations easier to have, even if it does have some ethical concerns we may get into later.
The Best and Worst Parts of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch S7
To put it lightly, we did not get any closer to uncovering The Secret…of Skinwalker Ranch. But it will be fun for us to take a look at the moments that shaped the season, for better or for worse. Without further ado, let’s just dive right into it.
The Worst Parts of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch S7
One of my main issues with Season 7 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch is how supremely unfocused it felt. There used to be some rhythm to this show before it turned into a cookie-cutter series of talk, test, data reveal. But now it is basically a series of something weird happens during an experiment, they spend the next episode looking into it, something weird happens that episode, the next episode is spent looking into it. A perfect example is how The Triangle became a focus. And then it was The Mesa. And then it was The Bubble. And then it was the magnetic anomaly. And then it was ceramics. And then it was drilling.
I just wish the show didn’t feel a need to cater each episode to a new viewership base. When it comes to television, I understand that you must make sure someone who is flipping through the channels can be caught up if they catch the middle of an episode. But that completely negates the existing fanbase who catch each new episode the second it is available to them.
Drilling Issues
Speaking of drilling, let’s talk about Triple A. One thing I’ve noticed about Skinwalker Ranch and Blind Frog Ranch is how there always happens to be a drilling issue at the most pivotal moments. Sure, it creates drama and interesting television. But it makes the reveal feel less interesting when nothing happens. When Triple A blew a hydraulic line in Season 7 Episode 8 “Rocket Men”, it did create fun drama. And when Triple A became operational again…nothing was found. Of course, this led Dr. Travis Taylor to question if the 400-foot-long object in The Mesa was morphing or moving to avoid physical detection. But it’s almost a slap in the face to the audience. Oh, you’ve been here since Season 1 Episode 1? Great, here’s more of nothing.
The Most Baffling Episode of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch
But what was most egregious about Season 7 was Season 7 Episode 5 “Home Sweet Homestead”. Where do we begin with this should-be-Razzie-nominated episode? Let’s start with the non-racist part first. The team invites Retired Navajo Nation Ranger Jonathan Redbird Dover and Medicine Man (or Shaman, as Dr. Travis Taylor refers to him) Art Hardy to the ranch. Not only are they brought here to practically debase themselves, but it just feels wrong from beginning to end.
Not only did the property of Skinwalker Ranch (and hell, the entire US) belong to indigenous people, but they had to watch as the land was taken from them, turned into public land, and then watch as billionaire after millionaire came through and slowly started extending the boundaries of what was “their” land. It’s almost a slap in the face to those who died to attempt to save their land from the Mormon people to turn around then and use them as fodder to “instigate” whatever may be happening at the ranch. We should want, as a community, to retrospectively understand and appreciate how we got to where we are today, and why we are here. The lives of the Native Americans are fraught with sadness and death at OUR hands. But sure Travis, let’s bring them out here to instigate spirits and then tell them to leave. Fucking nonce.
A Questionable Doctor Makes an Appearance
And what makes it even weirder is when they introduce Dr. Haleigh Lundgreen. Now, every time they bring someone who is a doctor onto the ranch, they refer to them multiple times as Doctor BLANK. But not in this episode. Dr. Travis Taylor refers to Haleigh Lundgreen as Doctor once and then completely drops it (and that she’s a neuroscientist at UVU).
But what really gets my goat about this whole thing is why she is there. They refer to her as an EEG specialist. Tell me why she immediately misuses an EEG headset, which leads to the team chalking this whole thing up as anomalous. It’s single-handedly the most disingenuous thing this show has done since their misuse of the KRACKEN device. But hey, Brandon Fugal wants to pay his way into the history books, and he’s doing a damn good job at it.
The Best Parts of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch S7
I don’t want to end this season of Skinwalker Ranch on a bad note, so let’s talk about some things from this season that ARE fun. Now I don’t understand a single iota of what/how Doppler radars really work, besides from this show’s explanation. But including some Doppler experiments did bring a sort of levity to this whole season. It’s a unique way to attempt to find answers, and what is science if not multiple unique ways of understanding life? I only know that the team misused the KRACKEN device because my friend Jeremy McGowan told me how they actually work.
UAPs!
One thing that I greatly appreciated about this season is that rather than the usual screams of “UAP!!” and us not seeing anything, we see tons of UAPs. Most notably, Season 7 Episode 11 “On The Radar” and Episode 12 “Hot Pursuit”. The most undeniable proof of UAPs is when Technologist Dave Mason captures clear evidence on his FLIR camera of UAPs playing chicken with not only Jim Royston’s thermal drone, but with Cameron Fugal’s freaking helicopter! To be honest, it was those moments of the season that kept me engaged and coming back every week (well, that and because I told James-Michael I would cover this show).
Equipment Malfunctions
Continuing with our talk of Season 7 Episode 12 “Hot Pursuit”, we have SFX experts and smoke specialists Steve Bolan and Jeff Ference out on the ranch for a night experiment with Nu-Salt Laser. Like many experts who visit Skinwalker Ranch, Steve Bolan’s smoke machine epically breaks. It’s not just one thing that goes wrong; it’s multiple things in tandem. One of my favorite things about The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch is when these experts, who have decades of experience, come onto the ranch and they see their tools break in ways they have never seen before. Whether you believe what goes on at Skinwalker Ranch or not, it’s hard to refute that kind of evidence.
Paranormal Investigations
Finally, my number 1 moment of Season 7 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. Except for the Art Hardy/Haleigh Lundgreen experiment at Homestead Two, I loooooove how many paranormal-esque experiments we had between Homesteads Two and Three. It felt like a way for them to get back to their roots of what this show was initially about. Moreover, these experiments resulted in some fascinating data. Like how Homestead Three (which the team rarely even steps foot on) lit up in Jim Royston’s thermal drone like a Christmas tree AT night–Pete Kelsey compares it to a house whose furnace had been on all day. Hopefully this means that Season 8 will take more time to look into these two homesteads to see if there is anything funky going on. Maybe they’ll get Dr. Jan Francke to run some GPR scans!
Final Thoughts Now That Season 7 of the Secret of Skinwalker Ranch Is Over
Unlike The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, I won’t end this piece reiterating what you all have just read. And just because there is so much wrong with this show doesn’t mean I’ve completely written it off. There’s a unique balance of great versus awful with this show, just like how there is a balance of it with regular science. Experimenting and exploring is part of how we got to where we are today, and that’s okay. What I don’t like is how Brandon Fugal seemingly attempts to continually pull the wool over our eyes and use labs that he may be personally funding. That has to be an ethical line that shouldn’t be crossed.
But…what do I know? I’m just a fan of the supernatural who likes to see weird things. Will I cover Season 8 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch? Most likely (if I’m allowed to). Though the question is, how far can this show Oak Island itself before they completely lose their fanbase? Who knows. Thanks for joining us on this journey and we hope you tune back in with us for Season 8! And maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally get to uncover The Secret…of Skinwalker Ranch.
Welcome back, fellow ranchers! We’ve nearly made it to the Season 7 finale of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. Can you believe it? Just a few short weeks ago, we were welcomed back to the ranch via Kaleb Bench, longingly looking towards the Command Center’s helipad. And now we have explosions, smoke, and lasers! As stated last week, I don’t plan to cover anything Ufology-related, especially since they’re in the midst of a full-blown civil war.
Apologies for the delay on this piece; I’m finally off the graveyard shift after seven years, and it’s been quite a transition. Before we get into everything, I want to discuss how this may be the last coverage for this season for a very specific reason. But we’ll get into that later. For now, let’s take a trip to our second favorite ranch in Utah to see if we get any closer to uncovering The Secret…of Skinwalker Ranch.
Red Devil Pyro and FLÜG Join the Skinwalker Ranch Experiment
The Skinwalker Ranch Corral – 10:17 AM
We join Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Thomas Winterton, Jim Royston, and Technologist Pete Kelsey at The Corral. Kaleb Bench joins the team with a coterie of people for a giant experiment. As winter is closing in fast, Dr. Travis Taylor and his team plan to try to find out just where the hell these UAPs are coming from and whether or not they are related to The Bubble, The Blob, or The Mesa. So, who all is here and what are they going to do?
Firstly, there is Kevin and James Devoll of Red Devil Pyro. Secondly, we have John Engstrom (owner), Charner Ramsey (3D Technician), Isabella Dominguez (3D Technician), and Marlo Irani (Array Director) of FLÜG. The team from Red Devil Pyro will set off multiple fireballs within The Bubble boundary near the western edge. The fireballs will send massive amounts of smoke and energy into the Bubble, which will then create perfectly formed smoke rings. These smoke rings should pass through the side of the boundary at around 50 feet.
While Red Devil Pyro sets the sky ablaze, FLÜG will use 48 cameras to fire simultaneously. Once post-processed, each capture will create a two-second video playback of one frozen moment in time.
The Bubble Experiment Produces Strange Smoke Rings
Dr. Travis Taylor leads the respective teams to a spot near The Bubble boundary. We learn that Red Devil Pyro will be igniting 25-gallon fuel mines. And they’re glorious. The teams start setting up, but that doesn’t mean Travis is going to sit around twiddling his fingers.
While Red Devil Pyro and FLÜG are prepping, Travis sets up a signal generator on a post inside the boundary. The signal generator is taped to a post, and Travis sets it up to generate a 1.2 GHz signal. Erik Bard, who is in the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center, immediately picks up a strong peak at 1.2. Suddenly, FLÜG runs into a gigantic issue; 12 of their cameras stop working. John Engstron says that this has never happened before and that the trigger boxes are losing connectivity. Thankfully, they’re still able to go forward with 36 cameras.
Red Devil Pyro now has the first series of explosions ready to go. Once given the go-ahead, Red Devil Pyro sets off the first explosion. The fireball engulfs the air, slowly fading into a near-perfect ring of smoke. After the smoke has cleared, the team sets off the second explosion. But the ring doesn’t form properly. Weird, because there isn’t a single bit of visible wind.
Did the First Explosion Activate the Bubble?
This leads Travis to ask a very leading question: did the first explosion turn The Bubble on? Giggity. Erik radios to Travis that his 1.2 GHz signal is getting stronger. But what’s even weirder is how Travis has NOTHING on his spectrum analyzer. Mind you, Erik is all the way across the ranch in the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center (inside The Bubble); Travis is roughly 50 feet away (outside of The Bubble). Coincidence?
For explosions three and four, Red Devil Pyro plans to do them in quick succession.
Red Devil Pyro sets off the third explosion. While the fireball proper looks great, the smoke ring doesn’t. It seemingly looks like it’s getting squished by something in the air before escaping the invisible thing’s grip and turning into a perfect smoke ring. The fourth explosion goes off and doesn’t even form a smoke ring, squished or not.
Red Devil Pyro sets off the fifth explosion, and a smoke ring is not formed. Marlo Irani tells the team that he will be able to provide the raw footage immediately, but the processed footage from the bullet time will take about a day. Travis wonders if The Bubble is getting stronger and expanding with each explosion.
Skinwalker Ranch Bullet Time Footage Reveals a Possible UAP
Skinwalker Ranch Command Center – 10:11 AM
Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Jim Royston, Kaleb Bench, and Thomas Winterton sit around the Command Center table. Erik Bard pulls up some of the processed footage from Marlo Irani. To be honest, it looks amazing. Erik notes that one of the smoke rings looks as if it grew fangs as it began to form. But I don’t necessarily see it.
What I do see is a damn UAP in the background! Erik zooms in on the unidentified flying object, and it does look interesting. Dr. Travis Taylor says, “[It] looks like a spaceship from sci-fi…man.” Riveting stuff, doctor!
GPR Scans Search for Anomalies Beneath the Mesa
Next Day – Top Of The Mesa – 1:36 PM
Dr. Travis Taylor, Thomas Winterton, Jim Royston, Technologist Pete Kelsey, Kaleb Bench, and Dr. Jan Francke are at the top of The Mesa. Dr. Jan Francke is back with a larger GPR device, which will be let down into the first vertical borehole. Dr. Travis Taylor says this hole was picked specifically due to its proximity to where the Type A ceramic (plaster) material was found. Dr. Jan Francke says he will be using a stronger surface radar to scan the side of the borehole with a much higher resolution.
The rest of the team leaves, but Thomas Winterton stays back to lend a hand. Thomas thinks they should start on the east side of the vertical borehole as it’s closest in proximity to the original anomaly found within The Mesa. They begin, and Dr. Jan Francke is very optimistic about this, saying that it will give us direct access into the heart of The Mesa.
Once the east side of the vertical borehole is completed, they move on to the south side of the borehole. As Thomas pulls the surface radar scanner, Dr. Jan Francke notices something very bright at the 25-foot mark. Travis, Jim, Sam Deriso, Pete, and Kaleb join back up with Dr. Jan Francke and Thomas. Dr. Jan Francke reveals to them what he saw around the 20- to 25-foot mark and that he’s excited to post-process the data.
Lasers and Explosions Return for Another Skinwalker Ranch Experiment
Next Day – Skinwalker Ranch Command Center – 5:38 PM
We join Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Jim Royston, Kaleb Bench, and Dave Mason outside of the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center. But that’s not all! Also joining the team are
Jason Holmes (Display Operator with Red Devil Pyro) and Adam Scott (Nu-Salt Laser). If you thought the previous day’s experiment was huge, then get ready! Adam Scott is back and ready to go with eight 300-watt space cannons!
The Triangle – 6:27 PM
The teams make their way to The Triangle to get things all set up for the night’s big show. Dave Mason will be running his stationary FLIR throughout the entire experiment. And one thing that’s important to note is how windy it looks. Because later on someone will say, “There’s no wind at all!”
Eight Lasers and Multiple Explosions Target the Triangle
The Triangle – 9:14 PM
Red Devil Pyro is finishing setting up three 20-gallon explosion mines and one 35-gallon one. That’s when Dr. Travis Taylor says, “there’s no wind at all,” as his hair is currently going eight different directions because the wind won’t stop blowing.
Nevertheless, Adam Scott gets the lasers going. Rather than the lasers pointing at a single spot on The Mesa (like in Season 7 Episode 12 “Hot Pursuit”), the lasers are pointing straight up. With the lasers going, Red Devil Pyro begins their controlled explosions.
The first explosion goes off, and looks great set against the pitch-black night sky. Unfortunately, the smoke ring fails to form. Dr. Travis Taylor, who just minutes ago said there was no wind at all, wonders if the smoke ring hit The Blob and failed to form. After the smoke clears, Red Devil Pyro sets off their second explosion–no smoke ring.
Equipment Failures Coincide With 1.2 GHz Signals
As they prepare to set off the third explosion, Nu-Salt’s lasers flash on and off. Suddenly, Jim Royston’s computer and video feeds mysteriously go down. AND THEN all of Dave Mason’s equipment goes offline. Thomas Winterton joins Travis as they go check all generators and circuit breakers to see if anything tripped. But they find nothing.
What is important to note is what Erik Bard reveals. From his spectrum analyzer within the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center, Erik sees four incredibly strong peaks at 1.2 GHz. And then, as if nothing had even happened, all of their equipment comes back online.
Red Devil Pyro refuels the fuel mines. They set off the third explosion. And again, while it looks great, there is no formed smoke ring. That’s when Dave Mason notices something odd. Once the smoke clears from his view, he notices multiple spots on The Mesa that appear to be heated. There is no reason why these rocks should be hot. In fact, they aren’t even close enough to The Mesa for the rocks to retain any heat from the explosions!
Strange Heat Signatures Appear on The Mesa
Red Devil Pyro sets off the night’s final explosion. Who would have guessed…the ring doesn’t form. At least, not right away. From Erik’s perspective, the smoke forms this anomalous figure-eight pattern in the sky. But that’s not all! Dave Mason reveals that the rocks on The Mesa continue to retain heat from the explosions!
Final Thoughts on The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch Season 7 Episode 13
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about this proxy-season finale. Nor am I sure how I feel about this entire season. It felt incredibly unfocused and lazy, though parts of it were unquestionably entertaining. But this finale just seems…like nothing. Why can we not get a final data review before next week’s big finale?
And the “big finale” is something that also needs to be discussed. Every season ends with one of those “this is what happened this season” episodes. And while that’s not inherently awful, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch spends about 25% of each episode’s runtime rehashing things already seen or discovered in previous episodes (or in that episode, too). It has become a show that penalizes recurring viewers so that the people who are casually flipping through channels don’t feel lost when they stumble upon it.
I loved what they did with the bullet time capture with Red Devil Pyro, and wish they would do more fun stuff like that. I know science/exploration isn’t always supposed to be “fun”. But it’s supposed to keep someone entertained when you’re MAKING AN ENTIRE SHOW ABOUT IT. Will I cover next week’s episode? My answer is like a UAP; it’s up in the air. All I know is I can confidently say that Season 7 didn’t get us any closer to uncovering The Secret…of Skinwalker Ranch.
