'Deadliest Catch' Captain Phil Harris Had Stroke After Making Peace ...

View full sizeAP PhotoPhil Harris, late captain of the crab boat Cornelia Marie.

Even before his popularity grew in death, crab boat Captain

Phil Harris

was arguably the most memorable fisherman on Discovery's "

Deadliest Catch

."

The reason: likeability.

Never was that more evident than in tonight's episode of the hit program, which ended with Harris being removed from his Cornelia Marie after suffering a stroke.

Harris was stricken, we learn tonight, less than a day after finding his son

Jake

taking prescription pain medication from Phil's bunk. The discovery leaves Phil trembling, and the tension is heightened by Jake's stunning admission to his dad that he's an addict.

Phil could have tossed his younger son from the wheelhouse. He could have shunned the boy, or gone into seclusion himself.

Instead, he confronted the crisis, right then and there.

You get the feeling Phil knows a thing or two about that.

He goes on to explain that, ultimately, no one will help Jake as much as Jake himself.

Blunt. Frank. And honest. How can you not appreciate that?

For months, "Deadliest Catch" viewers have speculated how the show will handle and portray Phil Harris' death. He died in early February not long after the stroke as his boat delivered $400,000 worth of snow crab at St. Paul Island, Alaska.

With this sixth season winding down, more and more details are emerging.

Tonight we learn:

• Cameras weren't rolling when Harris suffered the stroke, but they were when his crew went looking for him. The boat's engineer,
• As quickly as Phil learned of his son's addiction, he made peace with him and pledged to help. It happened in a matter of minutes in the wheelhouse, all captured on camera. With Jake unburdened, Phil cut short his fishing trip and headed for St. Paul.
• Phil enjoyed some light moments with his boys looking through family snapshots while docked at the harbor, as crab was being offloaded.  He couldn't have suffered the stroke more than a couple of hours later. The boys bust on a picture of a young Phil, wearing a mullet.
• In the minutes after Phil is found, Jake is in tears and Josh is taking control. After the crew and rescuers lift Phil from his cabin up to the boat deck, where a crane is then used to lift him onto the dock and into an ambulance, Josh is aboard the ambulance. He assures Phil he's staying with him.

Elsewhere in the fleet, less dramatic but compelling developments are unfolding.

On the Northwestern, deckhand

Jake Anderson

finally learns in a phone call with his mother that his father is missing. His pickup truck was found abandoned along an old logging road, and relatives are searching fruitlessly.

On the Time Bandit, brothers

Johnathan

and

Andy Hillstrand

have anointed a crewman to run the crab boat -- and it isn't a Hillstrand. Andy tells deckhand

Mike Fourtner

, another incredibly likeable guy, that he's the man. Says Mike:

"I would really enjoy the challenge."

The Hillstrands provide an amusing, albeit cruel, segment in which they discuss the future of deckhand J.J., who at 54 might be on his last fishing trip on the Bering Sea. Andy likens getting rid of a deckhand to putting down a sick dog. And in J.J.'s case, he says, he probably sees it coming.

I'm not sure what's funnier. Andy's line, or Johnathan's resultant cackle.

After all, however, the storylines are mere sidelights to Phil's plight, which is what has viewers hooked.

Can't wait to see what comes over the rail next week.

See Jim Deegan's other 'Deadliest Catch' episode reviews:

'Deadliest Catch' Captain Phil Harris' son has a drug problemLatest episode of 'Deadliest Catch' fails to deliver a knockoutTo 'Deadliest Catch' captains Phil Harris and Sig Hansen: What were you thinking?Northwestern captain Sig Hansen battles brother Edgar'Deadliest Catch' Season 6 opens with words from Captain Phil Harris -- and a fight