While Gilligan fishes, he pulls up an unexploded mine from World War II. Unfortunately, the mine is still very live and once it's set off, the Castaways have to figure out how to get rid of it.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Affectionate Pickpocket: Ginger tries to seduce Gilligan so she can pickpocket his lucky steel four-leaf-clover necklace for the anchor the Professor is making. She fails.
- Agony of the Feet: Irritated at the mine, Gilligan declares he's going to kick it. The Skipper, trying to stop him, gets kicked instead and suffers a massive pain in the shin.
- Brick Joke: The opening has Gilligan trying to catch a large fish to cook and wondering if he caught a marlin when he hooks the mine. The end has Gilligan also planning to go fishing. When the mine explodes in the lagoon, he ends up holding a marlin and tells the Skipper he finally caught something big for dinner.
- Eat the Bomb: Gilligan recognizes the mine as such and tries to tell the Skipper what he caught. The Skipper isn't interested in listening and tells him that he'll eat whatever Gilligan hooked.
- Fingore: Distracted by Gilligan, the Skipper accidentally hammers his own hand.
- "I Can't Look!" Gesture: Gilligan and Mr. Howell, who are still wearing metal jewelry, find out the hard way that it's attracted to the mine. The Skipper hides his face when they get pulled against it.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction:
- Gilligan puts together a donation of metal items. When Mary Ann asks if he has any more metal, Gilligan swears on his steel lucky charm that there isn't.
- Mr. Howell happens on the Professor and the Skipper drawing cards. He tells them to deal him in...and immediately changes his mind upon learning they're figuring out who will tow the mine.
- Impact Silhouette: Gilligan leaves a person-shaped hole in the girls' hut in his panic.
- More Hero than Thou: Upon concluding that someone has to use the raft to tow the mine out to see, the Professor and the Skipper immediately decide that the married Mr. Howell and the Skipper's little buddy should be left out of the running. They argue back and forth about who's more expendable for a few minutes. When they can't agree, the Skipper suggests the more chance-based method of drawing cards to see who does it.
- Pre-emptive Declaration: Panicking about the mine, Gilligan races around the island, yelling for everyone to run. In the process, he leaves a hole in the girls' hut. When the Professor and the Skipper come looking for him, the girls say he went out their backdoor. The Skipper says they don't have one, and Ginger quips that now they do.
- Superstitious Sailors: Gilligan keeps a solid steel lucky charm, which he refuses to give up for the anchor, claiming that it protects them from all manner of things, like frostbite.
- Trampled Underfoot: The men come to take a look at the mine Gilligan found and realize what kind of mine it is. When the Professor hears it ticking, Gilligan gets trampled into the sand in the resulting stampede.
