The hitchhiker effect was briefly mentioned offhandedly in maybe one or two episodes I think, where they warned some people that some had seen things off the ranch they thought were related. But the mention was very quick and very oblique.
Since I assume you are curious about the series, it was not that ground breaking or shocking. There was one guy who got hit with something a year before they started filming and they showed the X-ray of his head, with the skin coming away from his skull with a hematoma swelling under it. A couple of times he started to feel ill and they hustled him out. A lot of electronic sensors buzzing and them saying the readings were weird, people feeling dizzy, a guy got little burns on his fingers, a couple of times orbs were in the sky, they saw something but didn’t get it on film, and so on. There seemed to be something weird going on, but as the other commenter said, it was reality TV, so who knows.
I think you can watch it online for free, at history channel’s website if you want. It was fun, it was like being in high school and getting to go on an adventure with a camping trip, and I am thinking there is something weird there, but it never really blew everything open. It seems like it would be a lot more fun to spend a month there with a bunch of heavily armed freepers and a bunch of steel plates to shoot at in the event nothing happened.
https://www.history.com/shows/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch
I did watch a couple of episodes but got the impression, as you said, that this being reality TV, the blockbuster event was always in the next episode...stay tuned.
Though I couldn't hang with the TV series, I did read an excellent book on the Ranch called Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (about the DIA involvement with and analysis of the goings-on at the Ranch).