'Deadliest Catch' season finale: The Cornelia Marie returns!

It was an emotional Deadliest Catch season finale last night, as two members of the Time Bandit crew prepared to move on: Mike Fourtner, the consummate deckhand and quote machine, got teary-eyed telling the camera he’s retiring because he wants to be known as a good husband and father rather than “Mike from the Time Bandit.” And the Hillstrand Brothers informed Josh Harris, eldest son of the late Capt. Phil Harris, that he won’t have a job on their deck next season because they wanted to give Josh a final push to make the leap fans have long been rooting for: It’s time for him to get his father’s old boat, the Cornelia Marie, back.

Watch the clip below, and tear up as producers cut from son to father to son as Josh quotes Phil: “My dad always said, ‘There’s three types of people in the world: There’s people that watch stuff happen, there’s people that make things happen, or you can wonder what the hell happened.'” As Josh says, “I’m gonna make something’ happen. I won’t fail because I know I have to do it. That’s just all there is to it. It’s a huge, huge moment, a huge move for me. Puttin’ it all on blue. Cornelia Marie blue.”

Phoning in to the TV Recap hour on Entertainment Weekly Radio/SiriusXM 105 earlier today, David Pritikin, Deadliest Catch executive producer for Discovery Channel, said both the network and Thom Beers’ Original Productions are obviously hoping the Cornelia Marie is there this October when the fleet leaves Dutch Harbor for king crab season. The final shot of the two-hour finale was of the Cornelia Marie back in the water. “But was it [symbolic of] Josh heading out to sea on his own, or was it heading out to sea for next season? That’s to be determined still,” Pritikin said. “We are certainly hoping that Josh is with us next season. I think it’d be a great story for us. We’d like to see him continue that legacy of his father’s with the Cornelia Marie, for sure.”

Also unknown at this time, Pritikin says, is where fan favorite Jake Anderson will land come October. After leaving his sea family on the Northwestern for the Kiska Sea in hopes of logging hours in the wheelhouse, the move didn’t pay off as expected. “His future on the Bering Sea is still up in the air, and his future on the show is up in the air. That’s up to Jake,” Pritikin said. “There’s potential for him to return to the Northwestern, if [Capt. Sig Hansen] allows it. And there’s potential for him to try to stick it out with the company he moved to or find a new one… We hope to be telling that story for season 10.”