Gold Rush Season 12: What Happened In The Finale (& Why Was It A Waste)?

There have been numerous ups and downs on "Gold Rush" over the years. It comes with the territory, as sometimes these mining operations uncover a treasure trove of gold; other times, they come up pretty much empty handed. The latter scenario doesn't always make for engaging television, and it's a big reason why the "Gold Rush" Season 12 finale is seen as a letdown by many fans. 

It's natural to ask, "What happened at the end of 'Gold Rush' Season 12?" However, a better question would be about what didn't happen. Parker Schnabel put everything into excavating Mud Mountain, but the amount of gold he ended up with did not match what the drill maps indicated. At the end of the day, his team got roughly $100,000 worth of gold out of the area, which was a significant letdown. 

Schnabel is an experienced miner, but everybody — even the best in their respective fields — can experience downturns. Redditors have discussed the anticlimactic finale, and u/cpttimerestraint has a theory for why it wasn't as exciting as it could've been: "Parker says early on that there was a chance he was going to just grind it out and break even in an early episode, but it was worth it to keep his team employed and the business growing. Parker is a logical business man which isn't always exciting for TV. I believe that watching Parker mine is probably the most realistic representation of a professional gold mine." In contrast, someone like Todd Hoffman views mining as a treasure hunt, which leads to more TV-worthy moments.

Parker Schnabel just couldn't get a handle on Mud Mountain. A heartbreaking moment for Schnabel came in Season 12, Episode 1, titled "Ground War." He realized he needed to finish mining at Mud Mountain before his lease ran out, which could cause him to miss out on digging up a ton of gold. He made the tough call to move operations to the new site, and by the end of the week, Schnabel's operation had lost $310,000 due to shutting down the wash plant for several days. 

Facing that kind of setback early in the season would've set up an entertaining redemption arc for Schnabel and his team. But the finale simply didn't deliver the goods. The other storylines didn't fare much better, as redditors also had criticisms about the rest of the season finale. Redditor u/bearlybearbear thinks "Gold Rush" got too big to fail. "I love the show but the direction it has taken is just meh," they wrote. "The big, well funded operations are just making it and there's not much jeopardy while the hardship is just normal maintenance. I long for the days where it was about startups and f***ups."

The lack of tension, even when Schnabel's team underperforms, means there just aren't the same stakes there used to be. That comes with the territory of these kinds of reality series. But as long its popularity remains consistent, there will inevitably be more "Gold Rush" — hopefully the next season has more of an arc.