'Deadliest Catch’ Season Finale Sneak Peek: Jake Back on the Crab

Season 11 of Discovery’s Deadliest Catch comes to an end Tuesday night with a two-hour finale that finds the Bering Sea fleet facing tough decisions as the polar ice descends. At the end of last week’s episode, Jake Anderson broke the news to his crew that the Saga was going to have abandon the best grounds they’d found and head south.

As our exclusive sneak peek above shows, tensions still run high between the new captain and his men, but Jake does land back on the crab. But is this before or after the drama teased in Discovery’s description of the finale: “The Saga is in danger of sinking and Jake must act fast to save his crew.”

Expect to be stressed watching the Cornelia Marie as well. We’ve seen Josh Harris and Casey McManus butt heads in the wheelhouse before, but Josh will take a huge gamble and head toward the ice despite Casey’s counsel against it. Meanwhile, both the Northwestern and the Time Bandit will race against time to save their gear from the approaching ice. “Ice is a like a great white shark, just swimming out in the dark, just off your lights. You can’t see it. Scary,” Johnathan Hillstrand says in the clip below.

One crew that you won’t see in a fight with the ice is the Wizard, which wrapped its Opie season in the last episode. Capt. Keith Colburn and Amy Majors, who was the Wizard’s first female greenhorn in the boat’s 70-year history, stopped by Yahoo TV earlier this month for Periscope and Facebook Q&As. Here’s some of what we learned:

• The most civil parting of ways between a captain and greenhorn in Deadliest Catch history really was that amicable. The two laughed a lot, especially when Amy was asked whether she would have quit had Keith not initiated the conversation about her leaving the Wizard. “I can only wish that the greenhorns that I’ve had over the years were as tenacious and resilient and stubborn and tough as she is mentally, and physically,” Keith said, while acknowledging the fact that her size and strength did have limitations.

As Keith noted on the show, Amy’s stint on the Wizard started out well, but there was a shift and her productivity suffered. “I came down with a really, really bad flu when I was out there on the Bering Sea. So I’ve never been so sick in my entire life. Even the simple task of breathing was almost impossible at some point,” Amy said. “It was so cold out there. I just kept telling myself, ‘I can do it. I can do it.’ Then it just reached a certain point when we were off-loading in St. Paul that I realized I wasn’t going to be able to make another trip, that I was done.”

Related: ‘Deadliest Catch’: First Female Greenhorn in the Wizard’s History Makes Her Debut

“In amy’s defense,” Keith added, “we did have a major flu bug run its way through the boat. If somebody brings the flu on the boat, everybody’s gonna get it. And in varying levels. I got it — I wasn’t hardly sick. She got it, she could barely walk. And you throw that on top of someone when it’s their first time on the boat? Your first trip is always your worst as a greenhorn. It gets better. But to throw that on top of the workload she already had, it made it really difficult for her to continue to work at the level that the boat continues to work at. So it was unfortunate.”

For the record, the loudest laughs during the Q&A were when they revealed that the only life jacket small enough to fit Amy on the Wizard came off the blowup doll that first mate/deck boss Gary Sopher had on the boat — “Soper’s got a blowup doll and she’s got her own life jacket, of course. Safety first!” Keith cracked — and when someone asked what the hardest part of being the only girl on a crab boat was and they simultaneously answered, “Being the only girl on a crab boat" before joking that her panties kept going missing.

Related: 'Deadliest Catch’ Favorite Capt. Phil Harris Voted Greatest Reality TV Personality of All Time

In truth, about the only thing Keith said he did special with a woman on the crew was, “close the door when I went to the bathroom. Up until Amy, it was a locker room.” Asked if he would hire her back for king season, Keith said, “Wait and see.” If he doesn’t, he’ll at least be an excellent reference. “I would give her five stars,” he said. She thanked him. “Four and a half,” he joked. “Four. Amy’s making comments right now. Sinking fast.” More laughter.

• Keith and Freddy are cool. Yes, he essentially abandoned ship and left Keith’s brother Monte shorthanded when he decided to stay in town instead of returning to deck, but they’re working through that. “A little tidbit that wasn’t shown on the show was that his wife was eight months pregnant at the time that Freddy pulled his little stunt. Mama was screaming a little bit more than the boat was at that moment,” Keith said. “He had a baby girl in early January. I could read you a text from Freddy here. I sent a thing, and he said, ‘I appreciate that boss man. I can promise you I’ll never let you, Capt. Monte, all the Wizard family and fans, my wife, my kids, my parents DOWN EVER AGAIN. You can always count on me.’”

Related: 'Deadliest Catch’: Jake Anderson and Sig Hansen Play 'Who Said It?’

Does that mean we may see Freddy back on the Wizard? “I don’t know. We’ll see,” Keith said. “Freddy’s my guy. I’ve loved him and known him for 20 years. Sometimes family comes first, and it’s a tough thing. I mean, look at Jake Anderson this year. He was fortunate that he was able to be home for the birth of his child and that he was still able to get up there to fish, and I have to hand it him. It’s a commitment that makes it really difficult on people, drawing that line between family and the job. It’s one thing when it’s a 9 to 5 job and you’re at home every night. But when you’re 300 miles offshore, up near 59 degrees north, and the only thing you have these days, at least, is sat phones to talk on, it can be difficult when the family’s calling or things are happening at home and you really need to be there.“

• Don’t ask Keith how you can apply to be a greenhorn on the Wizard. “Go to MyNorthwestern.com and ask for Sig,” he joked.

The Deadliest Catch Season 11 finale airs Aug. 18 at 9 p.m. on Discovery.