The Biggest Letdown That Ever Happened On The Curse Of Oak Island
"The Curse of Oak Island" has had its share of peaks and valleys along the path of its chronicled treasure hunt. The documentary TV show, which focuses on brothers Rick and Marty Lagina in their quest to uncover the truth behind the legend of buried treasure on Oak Island, has enticed viewers with the prospect of one of Canada's oldest and biggest mysteries being definitively solved once and for all.
Despite this exciting treasure hunt hook, any supposed trove of riches on the island remains undiscovered and unproven, and while the nine (and counting) seasons of the show have seen the team make several meaningful breakthroughs and new discoveries surrounding the mystery, there have also been just as many setbacks, obstacles and dead-ends. But one moment in particular from the show's earlier seasons stands out as perhaps the most deflating development in the entire series and served as a tough lesson for viewers to not get their hopes up about any potential big leads.
Borehole 10-X's mysterious flooded chamber was a dead-end
Much of the show's earlier seasons were focused on mapping out Borehole 10-X, an abandoned shaft on the island dug in the 1970s that was thought to potentially contain secrets relating to the mystery. As the team gradually made progress around the shaft, speculation about its supposed importance grew rapidly. All of the excitement came to a head in the Season 2 finale episode "The Big Reveal," when the Lagina brothers used sonar technology to map out the flooded bottom of Borehole 10-X and discovered that there were indications of an unexplored chamber deep underwater with man-made objects. At the time, the discovery felt like a turning point in the series — a display of definitive progress. Viewers of the series even held it up as the best moment from the show, with "The Big Reveal" standing as one of its top-rated episodes on IMDb.
Unfortunately, the excitement was not meant to last. After several failed dive attempts, the team hired professional diver John Chatterton to explore the submerged chamber at the end of Season 3. The inspection concluded as a bust. Chatterton didn't find anything in the chamber and instead suggested that the location, which the team and hopeful viewers alike had suspected to be man-made, was actually nothing more than a natural underwater formation. What many fans expected to be the culminating moment of the show up until that point actually turned out to be its most disappointing dead-end to date.