On a special edition of "Gold Rush" the show gets real with an episode called. "Gold Hard Truth." Basically on this bonus episode Discovery finally loosens the leash and gives Parker, Todd and Tony permission to get brutally honest about the last season. Season six was the most successful season of gold mining ever on the show and as it comes to a close a few shocking and never before seen moments are brought to light and some dark secrets are exposed.
Plans for next season
For Tony, his plans for next season are to continue with the dredge he has and to resurrect a second dredge.
Parker faces a crisis of crew and doesn't want to be held hostage by Tony for ground. We'll see what crew Parker has next year. Todd plans to uproot once again and go back to the USA and see what sort of life changing gold he can find. Todd wants nuggets that he hopes would be "World class." Oregon and not El Dorado will be next for the Hoffman crew, who prospected for 3 days in the snow and later with Freddy and an excavator, but found no gold in their El Dorado hunt. Oregon, however, seems promising for Todd, his crew and his family.
Parker and Todd are still rivals
Parker rebuilt his crew this season, and despite the fact he hired 21 people at the start of the year, only 11 employees made it to the end.
A key member of Hoffman crew, Brandon Unsworth, was hired and fired by Parker early in the season. Brandon was an excavator operator and hired for that duty, but Parker said in the end he was not an operator and had no time to teach people how to do a job. Parker fired Brandon after 5 days but Todd hired Brandon, and felt obligated to give him a chance.
Parker said that Todd is good at pushing buttons and went on further to say that, for his attitude, Brandon fit well over at The Hoffman’s crew. “It doesn’t mean a thing to me,” said Parker on a final note.
Jerry and Mike get fired
When Tony needed a captain for his dredge, he got Gene Cheeseman for the job. It was tough in the beginning because Jerry and Mike didn’t respect Gene and thought it was a conspiracy to get rid of them.
Jerry and Mike knew their days were numbered when they were relegated to the night shift. The only way to make money is run at night, says Tony. Trouble brewed when Mike and Jerry thought they had a percentage deal in their eyes, worth 10% of the gold. Tony says they didn’t produce anything and, in fact, were holding him back. Minnie Beets also steps in and says they were never promised 10%. Not wanting to be grunt employees, Jerry and Mike say on film that they are done and they drive away. They may try to make it seem like they quit, but Tony Beets fires them, telling them both he is done with them.
It was Todd's season to lose
Todd thought he would beat everyone, not just Parker, this season,.
For a while, Parker thought Todd was going to beat him, so he went on a spy mission at Todd's mine around the season midpoint and saw that he needed a new concept and new cut. The Boundary cut eventually cost Parker a half million dollars just to remove the overburden. The first sluice of the cut was worth almost half a million dollars, and paid for the site prep. That cut and the creek bed cut turned out to be quite lucrative for Parker, who won the season. Todd’s secret project of recording a song is also shown as he ponders taking his skills to the next level. Parker refuses to comment on that situation.
Why didn't Parker fire Derek?
Also explored is Derek, Carl and Mitch at Parker’s camp and the mutiny that ensued when Rick returned to the site.
Parker still feels that Rick was in the wrong, despite the video footage that suggests Derek Antoniuk was causing problems at Scribner Creek. Rick finally shakes Derek’s hand and Chris admits that if Rick were to be fired he would also leave. Parker gets on film to say that it’s not so easy to be the mine boss when millions of dollars are on the line. Derek's final take on the matter was, "The crew didn’t like me at all, but Parker sure did."
