Brendan Jesus
Welcome back, fellow ranchers! Can you believe we’ve nearly made it to the end of Season 6 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch? Now, my goal isn’t to end our season coverage on a sour note, but we have to have a real talk about scientific integrity and how this show has gone completely off the rails. It’s gotten to the point where my goodwill towards Brandon Fugal and Dr. Travis Taylor’s efforts may have hit rock bottom.
Over the course of this season, we’ve visited Utah Valley University three times (including this episode). I didn’t notice something the first two times we went there, but I noticed it this time. The side of the building that hosts the science lab has a very interesting name — it reads “Fugal Gateway”. After doing some research, I discovered that Brandon Fugal made a hefty donation of $5 million to Utah Valley University. Now, I attended Penn State, so I am no stranger to the cult-like feeling alumni have for the school that spent four years drowning them in debt.
Maybe I was overreacting when I saw that. But a quick search through the Skinwalker subreddit and other groups revealed that I was not the only one to be taken aback by this. There is nothing wrong with donating money to your college, but it’s the implications that come with it all. Doesn’t it all feel a bit too perfect that the man who donated millions to his alma mater just so happens to own this specific ranch? And now the show is relying on scientific information from the school with his NAME ON IT to say that. Basically, Brandon and his team are making history.
There seems to be a disconnect between Brandon Fugal and how he is perceived; he is a self-proclaimed idol of disclosure, doing nothing more than attempting to pay his way into the history books.
That being said, I’m not entirely sure about my future with covering The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. There’s a level of entertainment and understood dramatization that The Curse of Oak Island has that this show does not. Fugal and his team beg you to take what they say at face value without disclosing the important aspects of their wallets. I felt a similar way, as many in this show did, when we learned that Dr. Travis Taylor was secretly working for the UAPTF in earlier seasons. However, I didn’t feel that Travis’s overall position within the task force affected his work on the ranch.
With all of that being said, I don’t feel comfortable going forward to “analyze” anything that happened in this episode. As usual, this episode gives us about 15 to 20 minutes of new content and about 15 to 20 minutes of rehashing things that have been said already in this and previous episodes. They do one final big experiment and don’t even give us the data reveal. They just want to continue edging us with the possibility of something, just to try and make us come back one last time.
I’m not stupid. I know every single show must craft a level of intrigue to make audiences come back each week. Unfortunately, I think I’ve had enough. So, fellow ranchers, this is my coverage for Season 6 Episode 13 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. To be a completionist, I may do one final article for the season finale. From there? I’m not too sure.
You can watch The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch: Fire in the Holes (S6E13) and previous episodes on The History Channel. And check out more of Brendan’s coverage from this and previous seasons.
(Skinwalker Ranch: Fire in the Holes)
