This premiere episode for the second half of Destination Truth's third season might actually be perfect.  It highlights all the show's strengths, with only one small thing I would have done differently if I was in charge.

In the first half of the show, the team travels to Israel to investigate reports of general hauntiness at the Masada fortress.  This World Heritage Site is possibly home to the most unsettling backstory of any Destination Truth location so far.  

In the year 66, a group of Jewish rebels took shelter in Masada.  The Roman army lay siege to the stronghold, from an encampment on the desert floor.  The Romans slowly built a giant earthwork ramp by hand.  When they finally ascended the ramparts, they discovered that all 960 of the Jewish rebels had committed suicide rather than be captured.

Continuing with the long-running theme of "unreliable transportation," the first vehicle the Destination Truth team travels in is an ancient yellow Jeep which refused to go faster than 10MPH on the interstate, before dying completely.  Once they finally make it to Jerusalem, the team has fun at the tourist market, which includes an astonishing variety of hilariously tacky religious trinkets.

The team's time at Masada emphasizes the show's strength as a travel show with an odd spin.  As the team investigates the oldest known synagogue in the world, after dark, high atop a desert mountain top, the effect is both tragic and chilling.
 
They capture a truly eerie apparition on the FLIR, debunk a lot of the auditory claims as being the effects of echoes in the canyons, and hear what sounds like drums in the very far distance.  This is the only point when the show failed, because the intrusive soundtrack put an actual booming sound effect over this scene.  Oh, how I loathe the intrusive soundtrack.  

Next the team travels to Ireland, to investigate claims of leprechauns.  For all its silliness, people do seem to genuinely believe in the existence of leprechauns.  (It is in Ireland that Josh Gates has a truly universal experience: faced with a spinner rack of souvenir name keychains, he is unable to find one that says "Josh.")

I note that in response to one recent leprechaun sighting, the Irish government set aside the area for "special protection."  In the words of the leprechaun spotter, this means "no development, no more cutting of trees and destroying the whole environment here."  I wonder if this will start a trend of leprechaun-spotting in areas people want protected?

After more amazing Irish scenery and travelogue, the team sets up in a surprisingly forbidding forest for the night.  Despite the tongue-in-cheek banter you would expect ("Fine, we'll call General Mills.  Explain to me what a purple horseshoe is.") this investigation slowly creeps from "unsettling" to "terrifying."

The crazy-haired local expert had talked about the difference between our world and "the underworld" but I kind of thought he was kidding.  I also didn't realize that the Irish countryside had a cave system.  But Destination Truth stumbles across a cave and the team rappels down, in what turns into the second most frightening thing I've ever seen on this show.

(First being the island with the creepy dolls, obviously.)

Luckily everyone survives the surprisingly dangerous trip to the Irish woods.  They return to the States only to learn, to no one's surprise, that the pub doesn't really have a leprechaun's skeleton on display.  Better luck next time?