Mountain Monsters Team Discovers Doors to Nowhere Chasing Coyote King

When we last saw the team, they were chasing the Cherokee Death Cat, and had come upon a barn with a giant grapevine wreath, that must have cost at least $200 at Hobby Lobby, framing the entrance to a door stenciled with the visage of the Death Cat. The door is free standing -- like it just grew up out of the ground, they note. As they investigate this structure, off in the weeds, they spot a little girl. And so the team does what they seem to repeatedly do best: they chase a little girl through the woods in the dark. Honestly, people are going to start to talk.

She runs off as Buck and Jeff give chase, while Huck goes around the back of the barn to investigate a noise. Much growling is heard, and when they get close to the girl, she stops -- back to them -- and points off into the distance with a bloody arm. Then, another growl, and while they're distracted, she disappears.

When they reconvene in the barn, the door way has been opened. But who could have opened it? With another roar, we see a black-cloaked figure run through the door and out the other side -- but he doesn't come out the back of the barn. He just disappears.

Anyone else thinking we should be looking for Mike and Sully at this point?

Meanwhile, Willy and bill are still scaling that menacing 15 foot rock wall, and just when they reach the bottom, they spy a torch at the top. Then, quick as a wink, the torch is out in front of them, further downhill. Occam's Razor suggests there are two people carrying torches, but let's just jump to the notion that it's the same guy and he's on loan from a CW superhero show about a speedster. Bill and Willy track the guy, but he gets away from them.

Buck, Huck and Jeff go to meet Bill and Willy, and cannot find them, as Wild Bill gets his Wide Behind stuck betwen grapevine as he tries to crawl downhill. It's a Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree moment.

They find the cloaked figure with the torch standing outside the trap they built. But he doesn't go inside. Maybe because he's not an animal and recognizes trap structures. And when coyotes start howling the figure turns and takes off toward the howls, disappearing from sight.

When the team all reunites, they realize they all saw the cloaked figure, and Huck figures out that the Coyote King -- another cryptid/skinwalker on their list -- just happens to be in this same area where they're hunting the Cherokee Death Cat. They decide to talk to a local who has had an encounter with (you guessed it) a giant coyote, who stood 7 feet tall on his back legs. That's a good reason to have another night investigation on the spot of the sighting.

This night investigation, however, they actually tree something -- literally. They have the Cherokee Death Cat up high in a tree. You can see the limbs moving. Their guns are drawn. They're going to try to scare it toward the trap (as opposed to, oh, shooting it while they have their guns pointed at it?) But then, Robe Guy shows up and it's just so much more tempting to leave a cryptozoological mystery behind in pursuit of a guy in a Spirit Halloween gown. Good call there, Buck!

And, of course, this shambling figure gives them the slip again. Maybe if someone on the team would, oh, I don't know, jog, perhaps? They might just catch up to him. He's only twenty feet ahead of them, after all. That's when they run into another standing door, this one stencilled with the Coyote King's sigil. Buck walks around the door and nothing is there. But then he opens it, and there stands the guy with the torch, moving off and away. Buck is freaked out, which must explain why he didn't walk the seven steps it would have required to overtake the man.

The team decides to modify the trap, since Robe Guy seems to like to visit it all the time, whenever he's not walking off toward coyote howls. The modification is a zip line from a tree stand, designed so that Willy can zip up behind him and kick him right into the trap. This is just the sort of trap Fred Jones would build for Shaggy and Scooby to set off. Buck wants to make sure it works, so Jeff is set up as a target, and Willy ziplines down and into him, knocking them both to the ground. It's declared a success, but I can't help but notice nobody made it into the trap.

That night, Buck uses his coyote call to lure the cloaked figure. Lots of coyotes answer, but the figure appears. The problem is, he wants to follow the real coyote calls when they respond, so Buck lets out a distress call, which draws the figure right to the trap. But there's no need to zipline into him -- he enters this time of his own volition, torch and all. But the trap does not spring -- the floor does not give way. They think he's going to get away, when suddenly the door shuts and the roof closes on top, just the way it's supposed to.

For once in the history of the series, a trap has been sprung, and we can see something is in it. Even if it is just a guy in a robe.

Wanna bet he manages to get away before next week?