[sig hansen] when you put two a-type personalities together...
...You're taking a chance
With information and trust back and forth.
That's part of the game.
So, there's decades here
Of paranoia and competition.
...Here say and rumors,
And you throw it all in there,
And this is what you get, right here.
But this ain't the past.
We're here today.
[crew cheering]
The fleet and the ice...
...Are meeting together.
You got breakdowns and mechanical failures...
Watch out! Watch out for that line!
[exclaiming]
What the hell's going on with this thing?
[crew member speaking]
-...Injuries. -[screaming]
For all the guys out here,
It is a little touchy situation.
[rip carlton] we need every pot to fish.
[crew member] wah-wah-wah.
[cell phone ringing]
[automated voice speaking] please leave a message at the tone.
[keith colburn] I'm already in a position where I can't trust him.
Last thing I need is sig turning his back on me.
-[cheering] -[crew member] yeah, buddy!
Whoo!
[keith] but we should be abl to pull it off together.
I've turned over a new leaf. I'm a new man.
[laughs]
Be interesting to see how that pans out.
[laughs]
[narrator] 110 miles north of dutch harbor,
[crew member] yeah!
Dude, that's [bleep], that's some money, baby, right there.
[exclaiming]
-[laughing] -[josh harris] oh, my god.
[narrator] on the bairdi grounds...
[josh] last pot coming to the board.
[crew member] there's one more?
Whoo!
Yeah, baby! Yeah!
-Yeah! -Dude!
[crew member] yeah!
[josh] all right, dude. First time making an allianc with mr. Sig.
I think he was right.
[both laughing]
[josh] this trip is signed, sealed, and delivered here.
[crew member] looking good!
[casey mcmanus speaking]
Whoo!
Going under!
[josh] hey, thanks, sig, this really helped us out,
And this probably saved our season, dude.
[over radio] it's one of the fastest trips I've ever done.
No problem, buddy. Good luck.
Oh, yeah. Oh, he's happy.
[crew member] whoo! All right!
There we go.
[sig] he's jumping up and down, so that's good
And then we can work on doing what we're doing.
We can't get any farther because of the closure zone,
But it looks to me like these crab are west and deeper,
And so that's the direction we're moving.
[narrator] after closing ou a successful partnership
With the cornelia marie,
Captain sig hansen tracks a bairdi school
Fleeing the western border of the restricted area.
We've got an upcoming opilio season,
And so you want to get this done.
[narrator] but with the ice advancing 15 miles a day,
Time is running out to catch his final 9,000 pounds
Before turning to the opilio hunt.
[crew member] here we go.
These crab are valued.
The value's gone up and up.
Hopefully, we can get a good take out of it.
[crew member] come on, baby!
No.
Not seeing a lot of volume.
[crew member] oh, man.
Smalls and a little bit of females, they got mixed in there.
Jus we want better than that
I don't like any of these.
Sometimes a band of crab can go one way and turn.
I mean, you just never know.
It's doable to go and prospect,
But trying to do it alone just takes so much more time
It wouldn't be a bad idea
To see if we can't get a little help
And make this thing go faster.
[narrator] just four miles south...
[keith] yeah, it's coming up
[narrator] ...On the wizard
[crew member] here we go, boys, whoo!
[keith] I'm right on the 166 line.
You know, we got gear stretched out...
...10, 12 miles up and down the line here.
[narrator] sputtering at the gates
Of his 37th winter on the bering sea,
Veteran captain, keith colburn,
Looks to his next 30-pot string
To kick his season into gear
[keith] the ice is gonna be at st. Paul soon,
And every bit of fishable area is gonna be covered.
[narrator] and with 20,000 pounds still to catch,
Come on.
[narrator] ...Keith scours the grounds
For a bairdi highway south of the descending ice pack.
[crew member] get it on.
[groaning] ah!
[keith] uh, not seeming too excited.
[crew member speaking over radio]
All right, seven crab, sand fleas.
Let's not panic.
Two things that are a part of any kind of fishing
Are intuition, basically a gut feeling,
And two, luck.
[bleep]
[crew member] wah-wah-wah.
[crew member speaking]
And there were sand fleas?
[crew member speaking]
34 and flea'd out again, right?
[crew member speaking]
[bleep] fleas.
[keith over radio] there's crab here, man. I mean, we can fish this.
These fleas can't be wiping us out.
-[crew member] roger. -[bleep] me.
[cell phone ringing]
Wizard.
[sig over phone] well, I'm glad you picked up
At least that's a start.
Sig, I don't think you're very trustworthy right now, dude.
You know?
[narrator] two days ago...
[keith] I don't even want to hear it!
Let you guys... No, you're gonna talk in circles.
Enjoy your season, I'm out.
[narrator] a game of he said, he said
Left keith low on crab...
There's no reason I should've ever trusted sig hansen.
[narrator] ...And high on suspicion.
I can see how the lines got crossed.
I get it.
But the only way to get this crab, obviously,
Is to cover some ground.
And you and I can do that, that I know.
And I will be honest from here on out.
[crew member speaking]
[crew member] oh, not good.
Sig, you know what? I get it, okay?
But the thing is is this.
When you're partners, you can't have secrets.
No, and I agree, and I mean it when I say
[over phone] that I'm not being sneaky.
And... And... And you know,
I honestly apologize.
I should've told you about that second load of gear
But I didn't get a chance to say anything.
So this is honest to god, I'm telling you.
We're starting with a clean slate.
[over phone] we both have big loads of gear out here,
And we both have more basically ammunition
To cover a wider area of bottom.
[sig over phone] agreed, make that grid,
And then we'll squeeze them in.
That's not a problem.
I'm out to the west, southwest of you.
Which is a 60-10.
You guys wanna head out that way, we can hook up.
No, I'm all for that, man.
[keith] I'm all for catchin every crab we can catch as fast as we can
And get back to town as soon as we can.
Roger, roger.
All right. I'm out.
Me too, I'm out.
[sig] wow.
A little apology goes a long way sometimes.
Now, he has to wonder if I meant it.
[laughs]
[narrator] 360 miles southwest...
[rip] guys.
[narrator] ...On the patricia lee.
[rip] I got some news for you.
There was some horse trading going on.
So here's the deal. I got 400,000 pounds
-Of golden crab we can catch. -[crew member] boo yeah.
-Yeah. -[crew member] boo yeah.
Four hundred.
And over 10 or 12 bucks a pound,
That's $8 million.
The most we were gonna make from opilios was 1.5.
[narrator] captain rick carlton
Capitalizes on soaring price trading his opilio quota
For the seven dollars more per pound golden king crab..
So, this is gonna be a lot more work.
I know, this is patty lee style.
[narrator] ...Enticing his crew
With a $130,000 increase.
We just gotta mind our ps and qs
-And go get it done. -[crew member] yeah.
It's hammer time.
[crew member] going over!
So this set, it's called sea wall knife edge
Because it's a knife edge to set on.
It's so sharp and so steep.
Trying to keep it right on the edge without draping it over.
[narrator] to begin his winter crusade,
The skipper sets a 50-pot string
On a razor sharp ridge.
While a hit means he's golde
A miss could shear off his long line
And $50,000 worth of gear.
Current's pushing us in.
So bad if you miss this.
[laughing] it's so bad.
You never see the buoys because you put them too deep.
[crew member exclaiming]
Going over!
Our exposure to risk right now
For this boat and all my partners is huge.
[crew member speaking]
If we don't produce...
...I hear unemployment's pretty good these days.
But...
...I have a lot of faith in what we do.
I got a lot of faith in the crew, in the boat,
Me, we're gonna do it.
[crew member speaking]
Okay, here we go!
Whoa! [bleep] hold on, rip!
Watch out. Watch out for that line. Don't hold onto that.
Don't grab that, no!
[crew member exclaims]
[narrator] on the patricia lee...
[crew member speaking]
Whoa [bleep]!
Watch out. Watch out for that line. Don't hold onto that.
Don't grab that, no!
[exclaiming]
I'll stop. I'll stop. I'll stop.
[over radio] cameron, it's a hook in the line
That's in the water, pull it in.
Hold on tight!
[crew member] come on, baby! Let's go! Let's go!
Get in the block. Get in the block.
Let's go!
Okay, here we go.
[cameron] [bleep] it.
Where's the other end of it?
Cameron did a good job on that one.
Cameron's a good fit for me and the boat.
He doesn't start screaming and get all freaked out when p] goes on.
[bleep]
[sighs] I did not
Need this to happen, I'll tell you that.
[bleep]
[narrator] halting the operation in its tracks
The crew must sift through a half-mile quagmire of line
Find the snarl, untangle it.
That whole set was [bleep],
The whole thing. It's embarrassing.
[narrator] ...And then nest the entire run foot-by-foot
This is not gonna be a 10-minute solution.
Oh, [bleep]!
[oliver speaking]
Why does it have to happen now? I don't know.
It doesn't help the pressure situation we're in.
There is no back up plan.
There is no plan b, we're already there.
We need crab.
[narrator] 320 miles northeast...
...On the cornelia marie.
Well, we're pulling into akutan,
And we're getting ready to offload our bairdi.
[casey] it took a minute to get on them,
But man, we got on them. Holy smokes did we ever.
[josh] we're very fortunate very lucky.
Had some help from sig. That was really nice of him.
[narrator] captain's josh and casey
Make their first scheduled delivery day of winter baird
We'll drop this crab off and hit the dusty trail
Ready?
[narrator] but for the skippers and their crew to turn a profit,
The ever-shifting take home price
Must hit two and a half buck
[josh] I didn't think this was gonna happen at the beginning of this tri
Some strife,
Penthouse to the outhouse and back to the penthouse.
Wake me up when the crab are off.
[josh] dude, we got five bucks a pound.
[casey] no [bleep].
-Oh, yeah. -Dude.
-[casey] I think you should call sig. -[josh] yeah.
[over radio] hey, sig, you on this one?
Josh, how are you?
[josh] last year, we got what, $2.50 a pound, right, at dock price?
-[sig] yeah. -[josh] well it's five now, so it's damn near double,
[sig] oh, wow. That's a big deal.
Well, get in there and get some.
Well done. Beautiful.
[keith] our bairdi price is double.
As a team, we could find the crab really fast,
Get them on here quick.
We just got paid what's our highest price ever for bairdi.
Right now, the crab market is going crazy.
Make good money for the crew, this is a good way to start the season.
[over radio] all right, guys go ahead, and, uh,
Let's throw them. Let's go bairdi fishing.
Roger!
So far, it's worked out pretty good.
We're gonna get out to get our bairdi caught.
[narrator] 106 miles north of akutan...
...On the northwestern.
[sig] just setting this dow a little bit west of where we were.
You know, things change overnight, especially bairdi.
I could see that they're moving around a lot,
But we'll just try to box these in.
This will go pretty quick
'cause we wanna get moving on it.
[narrator] while just 50 yards away...
[keith over radio] all right, sig, I'm gonna come in
And tail by your course here
[narrator] ...On the wizard
[keith] we should create a bait cloud
That will bring these crab into a feeding frenzy.
-[sig over radio] perfect, that's a good way to start. -Bingo, okay.
If you're ready, let's dump it.
[crew member speaking]
Going down there!
Yeah, just set it if you're ready.
[crew member] going over!
[indistinct shouting]
[keith] we are carpet-bombing and building a bait cloud.
Basically, we are chumming the crab into this area.
[narrator] captains sig and keith bet on,
Well, bait. A lot of it,
Using their combined arsena to pack twice the herring in half the area,
Saturating the sea with a pungent odor only a crab could love.
[keith] we set our gear,
So then it's as tight as we can get it.
We can share the crab.
You know, not a big fan of setting gear right next to somebody,
But hey, if my numbers double, I'll take it.
Between the two of us, we should be able
To mop up our crab and get out of here.
That's all we're after, man,
Just get this boat to the dock and get rigged for opilio.
[sig over radio] it just tak one good set, you know,
And then we can make this happen.
Roger that, roger.
Well, we'll see how this partnership works.
I'm still holding my breath.
[sig] I don't want any more bad blood.
No more of this stuff.
Put the gear together and then make it happen.
Don't want to be done.
[alarm beeping]
What the hell's going on with this thing?
Steering's gone.
-Clark! -[clark] yeah?
[sig over radio] I got no steering.
What the hell?
[narrator] on the northwestern...
[sig] the hell's going on with this thing?
Steering's gone.
Clark, I got no steering!
Alarm steering compass missing.
Is there a seagull in my mast?
[clark speaking]
[sig over radio] throw some food out there, maybe he'll eat it.
That's disrupting the signal. So we're losing auto-pilot.
So I'm gonna try to be patient.
Now I'm feeding eagles with, uh, with our bait right now.
[sig] well, we know that they want the herring.
Nothing.
For some reason, the autopilot's not working.
This is not good.
[clark] satellite on top of the mast is broken in half.
Go poke your head out there and see it.
Ha!
Half of it's gone!
Oh, my god.
Oh, my god!
[clark speaking]
That's what it looks like to me.
[narrator] with a patriotic fowl doing the northwestern autopilot
Foul.
Everything's gonna be by hand from now on.
That's the way it looks.
That means you can't leave this thing for one second.
Unbelievable.
[narrator] captain sig relie on his own bird's eye view..
...Old-fashioned charts...
...And a compass to stay the course.
[bell ringing]
Starboard auxiliary, low oil pressure.
Anything else?
[in a frustrated tone] really?
Okay, tell me what's going on with the engine rooms,
'cause I'm kind of getting scared.
[clark speaking on radio]
[sighs heavily]
Okay, now we stop again.
I can't take this anymore.
I'm serious. I'm getting tired of it right now.
This bull[bleep] .
This bull[bleep]! That bull[bleep] alarms!
[bleep]! Bull[bleep]!
I really, I wanna get out of here.
What was it?
[clark] it was for the hydro cooler.
It was just leaking on top of it,
So the starboard was just sucking water right into the air filter.
We just changed the air filter and stopped the leak.
We just closed it.
Okay. All righty.
We need to be right and tight for opies.
Bottom line, you know?
This isn't working.
Hey, you got me?
Yeah.
I got no autopilot.
Damned eagle hit the thing and smashed it.
[keith on radio] never a dull day.
All right, so...
Let's just find a way to cat our crab and get the hell out of here.
The crab will find a way into the tank.
[crew member] go, go, go!
We need our good luck.
We'll get it done.
[narrator] 340 miles southwest...
The current's starting to run up against that weather,
So the seas are gettin' a little bit sporty.
[narrator] on the patricia lee...
[rip] we got a long ways to go.
But we gotta start here, so let's start this morning
More concerned, is, we wanna get it up safely.
We're just coming up to this knife edge set.
We landed right on that freakin' edge.
If you're over the edge, goodbye.
If you're up on top of the edge,
You got a lot of crab.
So...
...Big risk, big reward.
[on radio] all righty. Comin' up.
[crew member] pull, pull, pull.
Okay, pull that up.
Let's hope this one puts us on that path to getting our job done.
[narrator] with an extra $130,000 of crew share on the line,
Captain rip wagers his set on the knife's edge will make quick work
Of his now 400,000 pound golden king quota.
[rip] you would not want to have an easy night of hauling
With good weather and good tides.
That'd be too easy.
This has gotta hit big.
[crew member] watch it, watch it!
[bleep].
[rip] that doesn't sound goo
It's very tight now. I'm concerned.
[pulley straining]
[rip] and I don't wanna tear the block out.
We got maximum pulling power on it right now.
What is that?
[pulley creaking]
-[crew member 1] ah! -[crew member 2] oh, yeah.
[crew member 3] oh, my god!
[rip] that's a tangle.
Oh, no. Not again.
We're pulling up four or five pots.
[crew member] I might be able to slack it off...
Nah, you guys should cut it.
-[rip over radio] cut it. -[crew member] you can cut down with your hands.
[bleep].
[rip] we're gonna tear this [bleep] off.
[rip over radio] okay, cameron.
Cut it.
[cameron] ah!
Got it?
[cameron] oh, dude.
[crew member] all right, now you... Are we clear?
[crew member 2] what's going on?
Damn it.
[crew member] that's why we're gonna get all that untangled.
Hey, I got myself pretty good, rip.
How bad?
[cameron] I could definitely use some stitches.
[crew member] watch out, watch out. We can't have all that.
They're gonna have to deal with that without you.
Where's the first aid kit, here, man?
It's right by the desk to the left.
You'll just see it. Orange and white.
All right, man.
[rip] cameron cut his thumb
Cutting the snarl out.
Gotta get cameron, he's gotta... Somebody's got look at him.
[cameron] it's really [bleep]ing bad.
I can't leave here right now. There's no way.
To keep these guys safe, it's taking everything I got
I gotta keep this bow into I
And with a man down nobody else can leave deck.
We're at the minimum right now.
Everybody is doing a job and a half.
It's just [bleep], damn it.
[narrator] on the patricia lee...
[cameron] [bleep].
I can't leave here right now. There's no way.
[crew member] we're gonna peel back the tangle.
Now, with a man down, nobody else can leave deck.
We're at the minimum right now.
We only got one option, uh..
It's pretty much you, if you can do it.
[rip] all right, thank you.
[narrator] with rip unable to leave the helm,
Veteran deadliest catch producer todd stanley
Administers first aid to injured crew member cameron myer.
[rip on radio] listen, be careful. It's [bleep] out there.
[cameron speaking]
Cut right through the glove and the line.
Sharpest knife that's on the market.
[rip] we're big on the suffering right now,
Not so big on the things going our way.
And, I can't step away.
[crew member speaking]
Thinking about these stitches makes me want to [bleep] pass out.
[rip] this has gotta hit.
[shouting] and it's got crab
All right!
[todd] whoa!
[crew member 1] we got crab we got crab.
[crew member 2] whoa, come on!
[crew member 2] whoo!
[groaning]
All right. Here we go.
[crew member 3] oh, baby!
[crew member 1] toss it here.
Sweet baby jesus.
-[crew member 4] o-ho-ho! -[crew member 2] yeah!
[crew member speaking]
[rip] we're on the knife edg and we got some crab.
There are [bleep] miracles.
All right!
-[rip] dude. -[cameron groaning]
You stay inside for a few days.
Good, we got crab, dude.
Like 30, average.
[cameron] I just...
Hey, it's... It happens.
I'm just [bleep] grateful that's all it was.
The main thing is stay off-deck,
Keep it elevated.
Yeah, it's fine.
Dude, you know us. We're fine.
Well, we got a string, and it had a lot of crab in it...
...Which we need desperately, but...
You know, cameron cut his thumb, so,
It's not really a victory.
It's just... We got it up.
Cameron is my guy too, right
He's, like, the main guy on deck.
These boys...
...They're gonna have to step it up.
[narrator] 350 miles northeast...
[casey] he wants what percen
[narrator] ...On the cornelia marie...
[woman on phone]
[casey] we will make sure we go for that.
-[woman] okay, good. -All right, thank you.
[casey] sweet.
Ah!
All right! Hoo-yah!
-[casey] we'll catch that, huh? -[josh] nice job, buddy.
-Yeah. -[josh] all right, cool.
[casey] that's how business is done.
[josh] it's got some extra quota.
You need all of it.
And a good price.
Probably already got up the gear.
[narrator] committing to mor crab at $5 a pound,
Captains josh and casey negotiate a larger slice of the bairdi pie.
[casey on radio] just picke up a few thousand more pound
We're just gonna get a bigger paycheck.
[narrator] netting the boat an additional 75 grand...
...If they can find it.
[josh] we got some high hope in this town, so...
Come on, gettin' nervous.
[casey] oh, that ain't good
Uh, ooey.
That one not looking too promising there.
15, well that one kind of sucked.
What'd I go and get more quota for?
[crew member] not good.
Are you [bleep] me?
We need every pot to fish.
Wah, wah, wah.
It's all dropping off pretty damn fast over here.
What are you thinkin'?
Might not be good.
Might've whiffed.
It's no good to strike out.
[crew member speaking]
[casey] we're losing money by the minute, by the pot.
I think we should call sig, josh.
There are more and I ain't seeing nothing here.
That's from peak countin' days.
[phone dialing]
[phone ringing]
[sighing heavily]
Cornelia marie.
I'm not gonna answer it.
-[phone ringing] -[sig] I don't have an autopilot.
You let your hand off of this for one second, you know,
In an hour, I mean you're just making a giant circle.
[answering machine] please leave a message at the tone
[crew member] aw, man.
[casey] we don't know where the crab are.
[crew member] not good.
[casey] never know until you haul 'em.
[narrator] 15 miles west...
[keith] so you know how we'r actually working together,
And that there gear tight.
[narrator] ...Aboard the wizard...
We're creating this huge cloud of bait,
And chumming these crab in.
You know, with any luck, we'll get our bairdi on board here
And get on to the next fishery.
[keith on radio] guys, this the northwestern wizard chum string.
See if this partnership actually works.
[narrator] just one mile southwest...
[sig] everybody's focused here.
[narrator] aboard the northwestern...
Hopefully, we'll box 'em in.
If there's bairdi here, we're taking 'em home.
Whoo!
-[clark] here we go! -[crew member] haul her up!
Right now, you know, we're looking for averages.
The numbers look decent enough.
We should be able to hit our mark.
I really took the autopilot for granted.
You have to monitor this jog stick every single second
Till we get into town.
Let's hope we lure the crab in together.
[knocking]
[keith] here we go, baby!
First pot's coming up.
Just cross your fingers this crab is in the rest of the gear,
That's all I can say.
[keith] been having issues with my chair.
Pedestal's screwed up.
It won't lock in place to where it's supposed to right now.
[narrator] in need of lumbar support...
[narrator] ...Captain keith calls on a little...
...Muscle.
[keith] we're just gonna have to get by with it the way it is.
Chair is officially not fixed.
[groaning] down you go!
Dang!
Yup, that's it.
Fixed.
[narrator] you just wait, ri
When keith gets that chair fixed, you're all in trouble
[narrator] on the bairdi grounds...
[knocking]
[crew member] here we go, get ready!
First pot is coming up.
-[crew member 1] crab? -[crew member 2] yeah!
[sig] well, that will work.
That's what I'm looking for, right there.
-Whoo! -Yeah!
That, just from here, I can tell by the size of the legs wiggling around,
That, you know, that's a good pot.
Come on in, little basils.
[crew member speaking]
45, 45.
[crew member] whoo!
Good volume.
[crew member speaking]
[crew member] yeah!
I need to look it up here.
[crew members cheering]
[crew member] yeah, baby!
Seven zero, right on, man. Right on.
Seven zero.
The bait cloud's working.
The bait cloud's working, sig!
[crew member 1] whoo!
[crew member 2] yeah, baby!
Boom! Untz, untz, untz.
-Yeah! -Whoo!
There we go.
What'd I say? What'd I say?
[laughing]
-[crew member 1] whoo! Whoo! -[crew member 2] yeah!
Looking good.
[sig] how many?
[crew member speaking]
Bang, I told ya! Triple digits.
It's just gettin' better and better.
We're stronger together, and that's all there is to it.
[crew members cheering]
[keith] we've got our gears set super tight,
And the crab are just gravitating towards it.
I'm benefitting, sig's benefitting...
We're taking every little scrap we can.
[keith on radio] hello.
Whoo!
[keith] we're on a hot mission here.
Amazing when you work together as a team,
You partner up.
[sig] I'm real glad that we, uh, came out here to do this.
[on radio] man, it's to coexist. And that's a good thing.
Untz, untz.
[chuckling]
[sig] working with keith,
Some things haven't changed.
But you know, at the end of the day,
Knows what he's doin', uh, we got the job done,
And that's all that matters.
[crew members cheering]
[keith] after all the headaches, the sand flea
The bad start to a partnership with sig...
...Things are finally working out.
The northwestern and wizard are gonna get their crab.
[crew member] whoa!
Well, that sucks.
You know, I guess we just keep cruisin', man.
Well, we don't have a choice. We have to pick the pots up no matter what.
We gotta move 'em somewhere else.
At this point, we're taking after this fishery blind.
[josh] god help us.
[rip] you all gotta step it up.
Cam's gonna be down, because that wound is deep enough.
We cannot have it open up.
You guys are gonna be doing more,
And this is where you're gonna shine, right?
But the main thing,
Don't get your hands in the wrong place.
Be careful.
We got this.
[rip laughing]
[sig] I wonder what keith wants.
So...
See ya, man!
You know, I'd say hey.
I figured, to a successful partnership, there's nothing better than a cheers.
Ah!
[keith] the spirit of the tradition
-Of northwest luck. -Ah!
-All right. -This is for opies.
-Here's to opies. -Cheers.
Cheers.
[both retching]
[both throwing up]
[gagging] norwegians...
-Ugh! -[spitting]
I'll see you out there for opies.
I'll see you out there, sig. Right on.
Ugh.
Breakfast of champions!
[sig laughing]
[sig] we managed to, uh, make amends,
But, uh, there's years of each guy thinkin'
He knows the other guy's next move.
Paranoias set in.
You always want to have that ace up your sleeve.
It's hard to change a zebra's stripes, right?
[chuckling]