Deadliest Catch Recap: Week 12

Week 12: Empty Throne (premiered June 29, 2010)
“I ain’t leaving you yet.”
~ Captain Phil Harris 

Well hell, I didn’t even make it to the theme song before I was choked up this week. We begin, of course, by checking in on our beloved Captain Phil, who is coherent if ragged-looking at the port clinic. They need to get him somewhere with better care, and as fast as they can—a trip to Anchorage is planned, and poor Josh is torn between wanting to be with his dad and wanting to take care of his dad’s legacy. “I feel really, really lost right now,” Josh says, but in the end he sends Jake off to Anchorage with Phil while he stays behind to take care of the boat. I can’t even imagine how much that decision must have sucked, and as we’ll see later, it (predictably) doesn’t stick. 

Meanwhile, over on the Time Bandit, Captain Andy is getting ready to show new heir-apparent Mike Fourtner the crab-captaining ropes. While telling the crew Mike is in the engine room, Andy has Mike set a string of five pots—a test, if you will, to see how closely Mike’s been paying attention to what Andy’s been saying about pot placement. It’s apparent that Mike knows exactly what he’s being given, and exactly what he’s up against in gaining it—he’s not a Hillstrand, he’s young, and he’s going to have to work through a lot of jealousy and discontent to earn the crew’s trust. Good call, Mike. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the next couple of seasons. 

The Northwestern is pulling in good numbers on a 15-hour grind, but it’s painfully obvious that Jake Anderson has other things on his mind. Apparently it’s the episode for impossible father-son-responsibility conundrums, because Jake feels like he should be back home helping to search for his missing father, not out on a boat crab fishing. Captain Sig is worried about Jake’s focus, but knows there’s not much to be done about it. “I don’t want him to be a danger to himself or anybody else,” Sig says, sounding torn. Then, a bridle snaps and a pot goes flying into the Bering Sea without anything linking it to the deck. The crew runs away to avoid the swinging hook over their heads, but Jake jumps in and saves the pot. “Next time, let me buy a new pot,” Sig tells Jake in an effort to emphasize the danger Jake didn’t know he was in, but all Jake hears is that he’s made yet another mistake—this is no doubt not helping his state of mind. 

Wild Bill reappears with his boat Kodiak (I know! I’d forgotten about them, too!) in a much better state than they’ve been since season 6 started. They’re 36 hours from their first opie delivery date, but the numbers are solid and everyone’s happy. Everyone, that is, except for deckhand Clinton, who is throwing around negativity like it’s going out of style and generally ticking everyone off. Finally, Captain Bill can’t take it anymore, and basically tells Clint to shut up or shove off. Amen, Captain. Enough with the whiny 5 year-olds masquerading as Kodiak deckhands! Where does he find these people, at the local bar’s daycare center? 

Back on the Time Bandit, the crew is ready to pull Mike’s test string. Apparently, the Discovery Channel cameramen are feeling experimental, as well, as they bust out a grapple-cam to follow the hook as it speeds towards its first pot. When the hook pulls a whole lot of nothing in (not helping Mike’s status with the crew, for sure), the camera angles get even more creative, bobbing around underwater as the pots come in and generally being completely random, though pretty cool if you ignore the fact that these are not the angles the show usually goes for. I was torn between raising my eyebrow and enjoying the novelty. I’m all about new and interesting views of the show, but it seemed like a really odd time to bust them out. Maybe they were trying to distract from the fact that Mike caught jack nothing on his first string of pots—oops. Hang in there, Mike, you gotta start somewhere! 

Jake calls Josh from anchorage with an update on Captain Phil—it’s confirmed that he suffered a massive stroke, and they’re going to open up his head and remove part of his skull to release the building pressure. Josh, naturally, is out of his mind with indecision. Does he go be with his dad (what he wants)? Does he stay with the boat (what he thinks Phil wants)? “This is his legacy. I owe him to be here, to make sure things get done the way he would want them to get done,” Josh laments. Deckhand Freddy tries to counsel Josh, telling him in the voice of a man with first-hand experience that he will regret it if Phil dies and he’s not there. Freddy’s own father died while Freddy was out fishing with Phil years ago, and he’s regretted it every day since. Getting the call and not being there, Freddy says, was the worst moment of his life. He quietly leaves the wheelhouse to let Josh work it out in silent agony. Just when I think the show can’t possibly make these people any more real to me… 

Meanwhile, the Kodiak pulls into port on time, and with (Bill hopes) the proper amount of crab. Of course, since his crew can’t count accurately beyond what they can manage on their fingers and toes, there’s a bit of breath-holding until the crab are unloaded and the numbers are confirmed. But all is well, Bill is happy, and decides to grant the crew some shore leave for the night. He informs them of their midnight curfew, threatening dire consequences if they break it. Of course, the crew takes him quite seriously, responsibly watching the clock and marching back to the boat in time for…oh, wait. No, they don’t. They blow curfew by HOURS, getting completely trashed and not even leaving when Bill marches into the bar to see what the hell they think they’re doing. The deckhands stay in the bar until 3:30 AM, finally stumbling back to the boat with only an hour to sleep it off before they have to help launch the Kodiak. 

Amazingly, everyone is up on time except for deckhand Jake, who gets a rude and abrupt awakening from Bill. I found myself completely baffled by the whole scene. With Wild Bill’s temper firmly established by this point, I am wildly confused about why he allowed this nonsense. I expected a major smackdown when he showed up in the bar, and he basically did the Bill equivalent of shaking his head silently and wandering back out again. This is a pack of the most irresponsible men I’ve ever seen, and Bill is usually all over them. He says midnight, they stay until 3:30. He says no liquor, they get trashed on the hard stuff. Dude, Bill, what’s the deal? 

The last fifteen minutes or so of the episode are completely devoted to the information of Phil’s stroke spreading through the fleet. Josh calls Andy to let him know what’s happening, and Andy’s obviously at a loss. “Oh, my god. That’s terrible. I’m sorry to hear that, Josh,” he says, and you can tell he finds his own words completely inadequate. Andy calls brother Johnathan, who is close friends with Phil, to let him know what’s going on and to tell him that if he’s passing through Anchorage he should stop by and see Phil. 

Andy then calls Sig to fill him in. “Oh, man. What do you do? What do you say?” Sig is also at a loss, and then becomes angry. He holds up his cigarettes with a flourish and throws them across the wheelhouse before slamming off the wheelhouse light so the cameras can’t film him. Those actions right there were my personal breaking point, and I pretty much cried for the remainder of the episode. Keith finds out about Phil and is obviously distraught. “Cut him some slack, big guy. Cut him some slack,” he prays. The rest of it is a heartbreaking montage of the captains telling their crews the news interspersed with scenes of Josh landing in Anchorage and meeting with Johnathan, who obviously went straight to his friend’s bedside from wherever he was fishing. 

It’s the looks on everyone’s faces that get me. It is painfully, heartrendingly clear that Phil’s status as the consummate good guy is not limited to Deadliest Catch viewers. These are hardened fishermen who face down the possibility of death every single day, and they’re all completely devastated by the thought of losing Phil. The captains are crying, the crews are in shock, and no one seems to know what to do. If you’re sticking around to watch After the Catch, you’ve seen all the captains lose it as they talk about Phil months after his passing. What’s going on here is more than cameras and TV shows and saying good things about a man who has passed away. This is a real-life look at the aftermath of the death of a man who was loved by pretty much everyone he came into contact with. And, as we’re all finding out, it’s a tough thing to watch. 

My predictions for next week’s episode: Phil starts to recover from his stroke, giving everyone around him (what we know to be) false hope. I know this for a fact because they have released the synopses for the remainder of the season. It’s not going to get better, folks, and we all know how this is going to end. I almost think next week’s episode is going to be worse to watch for the very reason that he shows signs of improvement. If you want to prepare yourself, here’s the link to the season guide: http://www.corneliamarie.com/featured/capt-phils-story-continues-on-deadliest-catch/