Mine Hero

Mine Hero is the fourteenth episode of the second season of Gilligan's Island. It first aired December 23, 1965.

Synopsis
The Professor and the Skipper are building a raft with a time-release anchor to get them rescued, and everyone is donating all unnecessary metal to melt down for it. While fishing in the Lagoon, Gilligan catches and reels in an old World War Two Mine. He tries to tell the Skipper, who doesn't have time to listen to him. However, when he tells the Howells, Mr. Howell misunderstands and thinks Gilligan has found an iron ore mine, going into a partnership with him over it. Meanwhile, the Professor is running out of metal to make the anchor for the raft. Ginger has a gold mesh pocketbook to donate and Mary Ann has a gold slave bracelet that turned her wrist green. When she checks on Gilligan, he has surrendered all of his unnecessary metal except his prized heirloom solid gold lucky charm, which he refuses to relinquish to her. When Mary Ann tells Ginger, she tries to sneak it off him, but Gilligan magically gets it back. Meanwhile, the Professor still doesn't have enough metal for the anchor, and Gilligan tells him about the mine. No one believes him so he takes them to see the mine in the lagoon. Once the realize what it is, the Professor discovers its ticking, panicking Gilligan who runs screaming through the island. The Professor reveals that because the island is built of coral and volcanic ash that the mine could set off a chain reaction through the subterranean underground gases that could blow up the island. The Professor tries deactivating the mine, but its interior is so rusted that it can't be deactivated. Their only recourse is to carry it out to sea and away from the island. As they're drawing straws, Gilligan eavesdrops, and believing it's all his fault, he runs to the lagoon to take the mine out to sea, but he forgets about the metal on the raft to which the mine is attracted. The Skipper and Professor find him paddling at forty knots through the lagoon with the mine following behind him, eventually losing it at the last second as the mine drifts out of the lagoon. Several moments later, everyone is cheering Gilligan's bravery, but the tide brings the mine back into the lagoon where it explodes, sending a shower of fish over everyone and allowing Gilligan to catch a swordfish for dinner.

Message

 * "Once again, a heroic deed is done by the unlikeliest hero."

Highlights

 * Gilligan's reaction when he heads to Ginger and Mary-Ann to pick up a gold mesh pocketbook and a gold slave bracelet for the Professor's anchor
 * Gilligan outsmarting Ginger with "white magic"
 * The Professor, Skipper and Mr. Howell running over Gilligan
 * Gilligan going out the Girls' "back door"

Credits
Main Cast
 * Bob Denver as Gilligan
 * Alan Hale, Jr. as The Skipper
 * Jim Backus as Mr. Howell
 * Natalie Schafer as Mrs. Howell
 * Tina Louise as Ginger
 * Dawn Wells as Mary Ann
 * Russell Johnson as The Professor

Guest Cast
 * None

Trivia

 * When the Skipper is cutting back the tree, there's a an obvious rope hanging from it.
 * Gilligan "magically" gets his charm back, but he could have caught it behind his back if it slipped through a hole in Ginger's purse.
 * The Professor mentions that the island is composed of coral and volcanic ash with subterranean gases, but iron nitrate is found in Marooned/Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk, gold in The Big Gold Strike and scheelite phosphorescent rocks in Gilligan Goes Gung-Ho.
 * The Professor should have more than enough metal including the cannon balls from Plant You Now, Dig You Later, remnants of the satellite from Smile, You're on Mars Camera and the old camera equipment from Castaways Pictures Presents.
 * When Gilligan lies on the ground with the men running over him, the camera goes in and out of focus.
 * After running from the mine, Mr. Howell reappears having changed his striped sweater with a red one and returning with a civil defense shelter cap.
 * A World War II mine does not have enough magnetic force to pull Gilligan and Mr. Howell to it by their jewelry against the pull of their weight.
 * The Professor reveals the mine is magnetic, but during the episode, both Gilligan and the Skipper show up near it with metal, such as Gilligan's belt buckle when he lands it and the Skipper's key chain and ring when he's lifting it.
 * The streaks of rust on the mine change position during takes.
 * The Professor's plan to disrupt magnetic waves with radio waves is clearly one of the most far-fetched theories he has made in the series.
 * When the Professor is trying to dissolve the rust on the mine, he neglects to realize that Wrongway Feldman had some rust remover on the island.
 * The Professor claims that any explosion in the lagoon would set off the underground gases on the island and destroy it, but there's actually been several explosions in the lagoon, such as in Forward March, Splashdown and Bang! Bang! Bang!.
 * Gilligan seems to be particularly strong. Not only does he pull he 600-pound mine ashore, but he gets the raft launched by himself without disturbing the metal on it and also catches a 350 pound swordfish flung out of the lagoon by the mine. (Actually, a prop.)
 * This episode has the fewest costume changes in it; Ginger, Mary Ann and Mrs. Howell wear the same outfits clear through while Mr. Howell changes his sweater once then goes without it altogether.

Quotes
Ginger - "How can you bear to part with it? Doesn't it do something to you?" Mary Ann - "Yeah! It turns my wrist green."
 * Mary Ann - "Oh, here's an old slave bracelet, an old boyfriend in high school gave me."

Mary Ann - "Yes. He just went out our back door." Skipper - "You don't have a back door." Ginger - "We do now."
 * Professor - "Mary Ann, Ginger, have you seen Gilligan?"

Gilligan - "Yeah, I landed it real good." Mr. Howell - "We'll see that you get a medal... posthumously, of course,"
 * Professor - "That mine isn't going to go away!"


 * Mr. Howell - "If we're going to have a blast, I'd like the kind where you live a little."