Legends: Rebirth-The Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo

[The Bandit King]

Episode 60: The Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo

The camera winds and twists its way through a thick jungle of strange and exotic plants.  After a few wrong turns, it finally stops in front of an ancient Mayan temple.  At the base of the temple, a giant stone head sits.  Suddenly, a torch on either side of the head begins burning.  The head’s eyes light up, and it begins to speak:

“Legends of the Hidden Temple: Rebirth!”  The words appear on the screen, along with a picture of a Pendant of Life.  “With your guide, Kirk Fogg!  And here he is now!”

As the Pendant of Life shatters, the camera cuts to a middle-aged man wearing a denim shirt and blue jeans riding in on an ATV.  He dismounts the vehicle and runs up the Steps of Knowledge, microphone in hand.

“Thank you!  Thank you very much!  Nice to see everyone!  Nice to see you, Olmec!  Welcome to Legends of the Hidden Temple: Rebirth.  The rooms are filled with lost treasures protected by mysterious Mayan Temple Guards.  Only Olmec knows the legends behind each of these all-new treasures in his Temple…which one are we gonna hear about today?”

“The legend of the Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo,” Olmec replies.

“Ah, the Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo,” Kirk repeats.  “Well, the legend is set, and one of these six teams will have a chance to retrieve the Ruby Pendant—will it be:

“The Red Jaguars?”  The camera zooms in on each team as they are introduced.
“The Blue Barracudas?
“The Green Monkeys?
“The Orange Iguanas?
“The Purple Parrots?
“Or the Silver Snakes?

“They’ll have to pass some tough physical and mental tests, but in the end, only one team will earn the right to enter Olmec’s Temple.  But first, they have to cross that Moat, and Olmec will tell them how they’ll have to do that today…”

Olmec begins to explain the Moat Crossing:
“Before you are three rods which stretch the entire length of the Moat.  When Kirk gives the signal, one player from each team will jump into the water and wade out to the first rod.  Then, lean backwards and walk forward until you pass under the rod.  Once you’ve passed under the first rod, wade out to the second one and do the same.  Both players must cross in this way; but if you touch the rod with any part of your body, you must go back and start all over again.  Once both players reach the other side, run over and hit the gong.”  Kirk hits the Silver Snakes’ gong to demonstrate.  “The first four teams to hit their gongs will go on to the next round!”

“All right, let’s get started,” suggests Kirk.  “Teams, are you ready?”
All six teams scream and cheer in response.
“And Olmec, are you ready?” Kirk asks.
“You know it,” Olmec replies.
“On your mark,” Kirk begins, “get set, GO!”

On “go”, the six teams’ first members step into the Moat and begin wading out to the first rod.  Everyone bends over backward in an attempt to pass underneath the first pole, limbo-style, and they all make it.  “They’re all doin’ great so far, but they’ve got two more to go if they wanna make it,” Kirk narrates.  “And those are even further down than that first one!”  All six players make it to the second rod and bend over to pass under it, but the Red Jaguars’ boy falls in the process and has to go back.  “Red Jaguars have to go back—everyone else is looking okay!” Kirk observes.  The third and final rod comes up, and everyone except the Silver Snakes’ girl passes under it.  As the Silver Snakes’ girl is sent back and the Red Jaguars’ boy passes under the first rod on second attempt at crossing, the other teams’ first members make it across, and their partners then begin crossing as well.  They all come to the first rod and successfully pass under it as the Silver Snakes’ girl slips and falls trying to make it under the first rod on her second try.  The Red Jaguars’ boy makes it past the third rod with a little difficulty as the Silver Snakes’ girl goes back to start again.  Meanwhile, the other teams’ second members have all made it under the second rod.  “Oh, it’s neck-and-neck—I think I know who our four teams will be!” Kirk narrates.  As the Red Jaguars’ girl and the Silver Snakes’ girl bend over to pass under the first rod for the first and third time, respectively, the other team members start to cross under the third and final rod, with the Purple Parrots’ girl and the Green Monkeys’ boy making it first.  These two teams scramble out to hit their gongs as the Blue Barracudas’ boy and the Orange Iguanas’ girl slowly pass under the rod.  The Red Jaguars’ girl makes it under her second rod in the meantime, but by then, she’s too late—the Orange Iguanas and Blue Barracudas hit their gongs to end the Moat Crossing.

“That’s it—we have our four teams!” says Kirk as he rushes over and stands beside the Purple Parrots.  “Purple Parrots were over in a flash, didn’t see many problems out of them at all, and going on to the Steps of Knowledge are the Purple Parrots…and the Orange Iguanas…”  Kirk pauses between each team’s name to allow for applause.  “…and the Green Monkeys…and the Blue Barracudas!  The Red Jaguars and the Silver…Snakes were great, too—they aren’t goin’ home empty-handed.  We’ve got a great gift for ‘em, and here’s what it is!”  They receive a $50 gift certificate from GameStop.

[The Bandit King]

Kirk and the four remaining teams are now standing atop the Steps of Knowledge.  “As the quest continues, it’s time now for Olmec to tell us about the Ruby Pendant of Princess Caribou.  But teams, pay attention, because your knowledge of this legend could bring you a step closer to Olmec’s Temple…”

Olmec begins to tell the story:
“One of the oddest people in history was a woman who called herself ‘Princess Caraboo.’  In April of 1817, a shoemaker happened upon a disoriented young woman wearing strange, exotic clothing on the streets of Gloucestershire, England.
“‘Interesting getup, m’lady,’ the man said.  ‘On your way to a costume party, p’haps?’
“‘Hindi ko maintindihan mo, ginoo…’
“‘Come again, m’lady?’
“The shoemaker took the young lady to a translator, who told him she was speaking in a form of Polynesian.  The lady, who called herself ‘Caraboo’, wore traditional Polynesian clothing and a long, teardrop-shaped ruby pendant around her neck.  According to the translator, Caraboo was a princess from a small island in the Indian Ocean, who had been kept captive by a band of pirates for several years before she escaped and swam to nearby English shores.  The shoemaker and his wife took Princess Caraboo in, where she lived for several months, but eventually, someone came forth with the true story.
“‘That ain’t no Polynesian princess—she’s Mr. Baker’s girl!’
“The person told the shoemaker that the woman wasn’t a princess at all, but Mary Baker, a young girl who had been banished from her home and was looking for a place to stay.  When the man confronted Mary, she came clean—but legend has it that her Polynesian story may have had a touch of truth to it.
“‘Yeah, I’m not Polynesian,’ she said, twirling her ruby pendant on her finger.  ‘But I’ll have you know I got this pendant from me’ grandmother, who was attacked by pirates, an’ had ta’ swim five hundred miles to the shores of Kent to escape ‘em!’
“Although no one ever found out if the story of Mary’s grandmother was true, her Ruby Pendant later found its way to the Temple.  Your quest is to find the Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo and bring it back here.”

“Thanks for that, Olmec,” says Kirk.  “But please, tell us, where is the Ruby Pendant?”

“The Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo can be found in the Geographer’s Study,” Olmec replies.  The camera zooms in on a small necklace, consisting of a black string with a drop-shaped ruby attached to it, hanging from the guardrail in the room, and then cuts back to Kirk.

“Alright,” says Kirk.  “Teams, you’re now standing on the Steps of Knowledge.  In just a moment, Olmec’s gonna ask you a question.  If you know the answer, stomp down on that ancient marking in front of you.  If you’re right, you’ll move down to the next level, but if you’re wrong or run out of time, I’ll give the other teams a chance.”  Kirk begins descending the Steps.  “The first two teams to make it to the bottom level will be one step closer to Olmec’s Temple.  Olmec…they’re now ready for your first question.”

Olmec begins:
“Was Princess Caraboo’s real name: Sarah, Mary, or Susan?”
The Purple Parrots ring in.  “Mary?”
“That is correct,” Olmec replies.  The Purple Parrots proceed to the second step.
“Step down, Purple Parrots,” Kirk instructs.  “Next question, Olmec.”

“Did Princess Caraboo claim to be: African, Australian, or—”
The Green Monkeys cut Olmec off.  “Um…she was, uh…from, uh, Polynesia?”
“That…is correct,” Olmec replies.  The Green Monkeys join the Purple Parrots on the second step.
“Green Monkeys can step down now,” Kirk instructs.  “Next question.”

“Was Princess Caraboo actually from: England, Spain—”
The Purple Parrots interrupt Olmec this time.  “England.”
“That is correct,” Olmec responds.  The Purple Parrots proceed to the penultimate step.
“Purple Parrots are just one correct answer away from the Temple Games,” Kirk informs us.  “Remember, though, we need two teams—next question.”

“Was Princess Caraboo taken in by: a doctor, a shoemaker, or a baker?”
The Purple Parrots ring in.  “A shoemaker?”
“That is correct!” Olmec booms, and the Purple Parrots leap down to the bottom.
“The Purple Parrots are going to the Temple Games,” Kirk affirms as the first team’s members high-ten one another.  “Only room for one more team.  Is it gonna be the Green Monkeys, the Blue Barracudas, or the Orange Iguanas?  Olmec, next question.”

“Did the translator hired by the shoemaker deduce that Princess Caraboo had been brought to England by: a whale, an exploration team, or a band of pirates?”
The Green Monkeys stomp down.  “Um…pirates?”
“That is correct,” Olmec replies.  The Green Monkeys descend to the next-to-last step.
“Green Monkeys are just one step away now,” Kirk says.  “Still time for the others, though—next question.”

“According to our legend, after Mary was exposed, did she claim her Ruby Pendant once belonged to: her father, her grandfather, or her fiancé?”
The Green Monkeys stomp down again.  “Her grandfather…”
“That is correct!” Olmec exclaims, and the Green Monkeys join the Purple Parrots on the bottom step.

“And just like that, we have our two teams,” Kirk says as he rushes over and stands between them.  “They are the Green Monkeys, and the Purple Parrots!  Very impressive, you guys!  Blue Barracudas and Orange Iguanas, come down here…you guys were great, too, and we’re not sending you home empty-handed.  We’ve got a great gift for you, and here’s what it is!”  They receive Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules on DVD.

Kirk is now seen standing between the two advancing teams.  “These two teams will be playing for the right to enter Olmec’s Temple, and they’re gonna do it right after this!”

The camera zooms out from Kirk and the teams and cuts to the right, where we see the tiebreaker pedestal, with a pair of rubber spiders on top of the left-side gong.  The title then appears onscreen, and we fade to a commercial.

[The Bandit King]

We return from the break and see Kirk standing in front of the Temple with the two remaining teams.

“Hey, welcome back to Legends: Rebirth,” he says.  “Now, of course, the glory goes to the fastest and the strongest…”

“So let’s hear it for Greg and Chloe of the Green Monkeys!”  The audience applauds for the pretty green-eyed girl with short blonde hair and the taller brown-eyed boy with slicked black hair.

“And Josh and Isabella of the Purple Parrots!”  The audience claps for the short Hispanic girl with very long brown hair and brown eyes and the tall brown-haired boy with blue eyes hidden by thick glasses.

“All right, are you guys ready to play?” Kirk asks the two teams.

“Yeah!” they reply.

“All right—go get ready for the Temple Games,” he says.  “Now, in these Temple Games, our teams are competing for…”  Kirk retrieves a Pendant of Life from a pouch at his side and holds it up to the camera.  “…Pendants of Life.  The winning team will need these Pendants to protect them from those dreaded Temple Guards as they make their way through Olmec’s Temple.  There are three Temple Games, and Olmec—tell us about Temple Game #1…”

The black lights and torches under Olmec come on as he begins to explain the first Game:
“When Mary Baker dressed as Princess Caraboo, she wore elaborate Polynesian clothing along with her Ruby Pendant.  In this game, you’re going to help assemble Princess Caraboo’s outfit.  When Kirk gives the signal, run out, grab a piece of the outfit, come back, and place it on the mannequin behind you.  Along the way, you must avoid the swinging obstacles—if you’re hit, you must go back and start again.  The first team to get all four pieces on their mannequin, or…the player with the most pieces of clothing at the end of thirty seconds…wins.”

“All right, we’re playing dress-up today,” Kirk remarks.  “Let’s get started—set the clock for thirty seconds!”  The clock slams down in the bottom corner with a loud gong sound effect.  “Get the sandbags in place, please…”  The spotters grab the sandbags and ready them for swinging.  “On your mark, get set, GO!”

Chloe and Isabella rush out to the first item of clothing, a headdress, without being hit.  Both girls then bring it back to their boards, which have silhouettes of torsos on them, and place it on them with 24 seconds left.  Both girls rush out to get their second piece, a collar of feathers, without getting hit as well, and they both bring it back to place it on the board within seconds of one another.  With about 15 seconds remaining, both girls employ a bit of strategy, running out to get the third item—another collar of feathers—again, both without getting hit.  They both remain neck-and-neck as they place it on their board.  Both girls run out to get the last item of clothing, a large scrap of cloth that probably represents a dress.  However, Chloe gets hit trying to bring hers back, allowing Isabella to barely make it back in time to place her fourth and final piece with two seconds to spare.

“That’s it!” Kirk shouts as he runs back onscreen.  “That’s it—come over here, you guys!  That was neck-and-neck all the way, but the Purple Parrots just barely beat out the Green Monkeys to get their outfit all done—that means the Purple Parrots get the half Pendant of Life!”  The audience applauds for a few seconds.  “Green Monkeys can catch up in the next game, though.  It’s worth a half Pendant as well—Olmec, tell us about it…”

Olmec begins:
“Princess Caraboo lived with the shoemaker and his wife for several months, during which time she would only eat tropical fruits.  You are about to gather some food for Princess Caraboo.  When Kirk gives the signal, jump up, grab a piece of fruit, come back down and place it in your bin.  Then run back around, grab another piece of fruit and do it again.  The first player to get all their fruit into their bin, or…the player with the most fruit in their bins at the end of sixty seconds…wins.”

“All right, guess we’re making fruit salad later,” Kirk jokes.  “Let’s set the clock for sixty seconds!”  The clock slams down in the corner, set for the correct time.  “On your mark, get set, GO!”

Greg and Josh each jump up with their rotating lever and grab their first piece of plastic fruit Velcro-ed to the platform.  They both then roll back around and drop it in their bin with about 54 seconds to go.  As the game progresses, however, Greg’s attempts at timing his jumps correctly, and over the course of about fifteen seconds, he’s way off and has to readjust his up-and-down motion to adequately reach the platform to grab the fruit.  By the time he gets his rhythm back with 10 seconds left, however, Josh has noticeably more fruit than Greg, it’s too late for Greg to catch up, and time expires soon afterward.

“That’s it!” Kirk says as he hurries back onscreen.  “Stop it right there!  Bring over the bins; we’ll count it up and see how you did.”  A spotter brings both bins over to Kirk, and he kneels beside them.  “Let’s start with the Green Monkeys.  They got one, two, three—four pieces of fruit.  And the Purple Parrots got…one, two, three, four, five, six—seven pieces of fruit!  That gives the Purple Parrots the half Pendant of Life!”  The audience applauds for a few seconds.  “So now, the Purple Parrots have a full Pendant; the Green Monkeys don’t have any yet.  But now, it’s time for the third and final Temple Game.  It’s worth a full Pendant of Life—Olmec, tell us about Temple Game #3…”

Olmec begins to explain the final Game:
“According to Mary, she pretended to be Princess Caraboo to honor her grandfather of Polynesian descent, who escaped from pirates off the coast of England many years before she was born.  In this game, you’ll be helping Mary’s grandfather escape to England.  When Kirk gives the signal, propel your boat off the dock and sail toward your destination—England.  Once you reach England, get out and unload Mary’s grandfather.  Then, turn the boat around and pull yourself back to the dock.  If you touch the floor, you must both go back and begin again.  The first team to reach the dock, or…the team that’s further along at the end of sixty seconds…wins.”

“Looks like we’ve got a long journey ahead of us,” Kirk remarks.  “Let’s set the clock for sixty seconds!”  The clock slams down in the bottom corner, ready to go.  “I’ll just get out of the way here, if you don’t care…on your mark, get set, GO!”

Both teams propel their “boat” off the platform and roll toward their destination.  With about 48 seconds to go, they both reach their platforms (each of which is marked with a little Union Jack flag) and unload the giant, bearded doll in their boat that represents Mary Baker’s grandfather.  They both then climb back in their boat, and grab the rope to pull themselves back, but the Purple Parrots experience a bit of trouble when their rope slips out of Josh’s grip, allowing the Green Monkeys to pull slightly ahead.  Josh regains his team’s rope and frantically pulls the boat toward the dock, but the Green Monkeys still barely edge out the Purple Parrots and make it back to the dock with seventeen seconds to spare.

“And they’ve got it!” Kirk says as the Green Monkeys rush over beside him on the dock.  The Purple Parrots appear on his opposite side about two seconds later.  “The Green Monkeys made it back first without touching the, uh…the water, so they get the full Pendant.  That gives the Green Monkeys a full Pendant; that gives the Purple Parrots a full Pendant—we’ve got a tie!  Let’s bring in the tiebreaker pedestal!”

A spotter wheels in the tiebreaker pedestal, and our teams position themselves behind it as Kirk begins to explain the rules.

“All right, teams, here’s how the tiebreaker works.  In a second, Olmec’s gonna ask you one final question.  If you think you know the answer, I want you to hit the gong in front of you.  You have three seconds to answer, and I must accept your first answer.  The first team that buzzes in and answers correctly will be going inside the Temple in search of the Ruby Pendant.  All clear?”  The teams nod in affirmation.  “All right—Olmec, we’re ready for your final question…”

Olmec begins to ask the final question of the day:
“In what part of England was Princess Caraboo found by the shoemaker: Cheshire, Gloucestershire, or Worcestershire?”

The Purple Parrots gong in first.  “Um…Cheshire?”

“That is incorrect,” Olmec replies.

“All right, Green Monkeys, do you have a guess?” Kirk asks as he holds his microphone up to Greg’s face.

“Uh…Glouch—Gloucester-shire?”

“That…is…correct!” Olmec booms.

“The Green Monkeys are goin’ to the Temple!” Kirk exclaims as Greg and Chloe high-ten one another.  “Purple Parrots, you guys were great, too.  It came down to the wire with that last question.  We’re not sending you home empty-handed—we’ve got a great gift for these guys, and…here it is!”  They receive a $100 savings bond provided by Skechers shoes.

As the prize disappears off-screen, we see Kirk standing beside the winning team.  “We’ll see if the Green Monkeys can make it through Olmec’s Temple; retrieve that Ruby Pendant of Princess Caribou—right after this!”

The camera zooms out from Kirk and pans in on the Geographer’s Study, zooming in on the open door at the back of the room and the ladder leading up to the Lookout Tower before the title appears onscreen, and we go to a commercial.

[The Bandit King]

We return from the break to find Kirk standing in front of the Temple with the winning team.

“Welcome back to Legends: Rebirth,” he says.  “Greg and Chloe have proven themselves worthy, and now have earned the right to enter Olmec’s Temple.  But first, here’s Olmec to give them some information about how to retrieve the Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo…”

Olmec begins to explain the Temple layout as the camera gives us a first-person tour of the Temple:
“You could start…by running up the stairs to the Crypt!  Grab the book from the skeletons, and pass into the Bottomless Pit.  Swing across the gap, and climb into the Lookout Tower.  Focus the telescope to read the ancient print on the far wall, and a door may open into the Geographer’s Study.  Find the missing pieces of the map and correctly place them, and pass into the Shaolin Dojo.  Place the yin-yang on the correct suit of armor, and open the door to the SHRIIIINE of the Silver Monkey!  Assemble the statue and you may be headed toward the Lightning Ball Room!  Connect the power cords to create your own lightning, which will blast open the door to the Pharaoh’s Secret Passage.  Slide down the tunnel to the Dungeon, where you could smash through the wall into the Dark Forest…but beware of the Temple Guards that may inhabit the trees!  Find the key in the tree, and you’ll enter the Chamber…of the Four Elements.  Place the elements in the correct order, and you’ll gain entry to the Jewel Mine!  Place all the jewels into the mine cart, then…race through the Pit, climb through the Ledges, rrrrace down the stairs and back through the Temple Gate!  The choices are yours and yours alone!”  Olmec pauses.  “You won 1 Pendant in the Temple Games.  Who’s going first?”

“I am,” says Greg, raising his hand.

“Very well, Greg,” Olmec replies.  “When Kirk gives the signal, you’ll race through the Gates into the Temple and make your way toward the Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo.  Hidden inside the Temple are Temple Guards assigned to protect three specific rooms.  You can trade your Pendant for an extra life and go on, but…if you’re caught without a Pendant, you’ll be taken out of the Temple, and it’ll be Chloe’s turn to enter and try her luck.  If you can reach the Ruby Pendant, all the doors of the Temple will instantly unlock, and the Temple Guards will vanish.  Return through the Gates with the Ruby Pendant in three minutes, and you will both be handsomely rewarded…and here’s how!”

• Just for making it to the Temple, they’ll get a Kodak digital camera.
• If they can reach the Material within three minutes, they’ll also receive a 4-in-1 game table.
• And if they can bring the Material out of the Temple before three minutes expires, they’ll win a trip to Waikiki Beach, Hawaii.

“All right, they wanna go to Waikiki, I know,” Kirk says.  “Let’s see if they can do it.  Chloe, what kind of strategy do you and Greg have to get to the Ruby Pendant?”

“Um…we’re just gonna stay on the top, and go back around the first chance we get, then try to go back up and get the, uh…Pendant,” Chloe explains.

“All right, they’re doubling back around,” says Kirk.  “That’s worked before; let’s see if it’ll work this time.  Mouthpieces in, you guys…set the clock for three minutes!”  The clock slams down in the corner with a loud gong sound effect.

“Olmec, lower your gate.”  Olmec moans gutturally as the gate is lowered, and the black lights and torches under him are turned off.

“On your mark,” Kirk tells Greg, “get set, GO!”

Greg darts up the stairs, tightly clutching his team’s only Pendant.  He enters the Crypt (2:53), where he pulls all three books, opening the door to the Bottomless Pit.  Unfortunately, it also opens the secret door at the back of the room, revealing the first TEMPLE GUARD (2:47)!  “Whoa, Temple Guard, right in the first room!” Kirk says as Greg reluctantly hands his Pendant to the beckoning Mayan Guard.  “That cost his team the only Pendant they had—what’ll they do if they meet two more Temple Guards?”  Undeterred, Greg heads into the Bottomless Pit, where he grabs the rope and swings across.  He hits the actuator for the door leading to the Geographer’s Study, but of course, it doesn’t open (2:32).  He tries the actuator for the Lookout Tower door, and this time, the door opens (2:28).  “He’s in the Lookout Room,” Kirk narrates as Greg enters the room.  “He’s right above the Pendant!”  Greg heads to the front of the room and looks through the telescope.  “This guy’s strong—he plays football!” Kirk explains.  “But now, he’s gotta focus the telescope and yell out what it says!”  Greg turns the knobs every which way to focus the telescope, and after several seconds of fiddling with them, he yells out “I have not yet began—begun to fight!”  After Greg says this, the door to the Shaolin Dojo opens (2:00).  “That’s it—did it open?” Kirk asks before Greg takes off to the Dojo.  “No, he’s still gotta go back around—into the Shaolin Dojo!”  Greg looks around for a second or two before grabbing the yin-yang symbol at the front of the room and bringing it back to the middle suit of armor.  He places the symbol on the armor’s chest, but nothing happens (1:50).  Greg goes to the stage-right suit of armor and places the yin-yang on its chest.  The doors to both the Shrine of the Silver Monkey and the Dark Forest open, but the armor’s gauntlets also grab Greg, indicating that it’s possessed by a TEMPLE SPIRIT (1:44).

“Whoa, Temple Guard—go, Chloe!” Kirk shouts, and Chloe takes off up the stairs.  She enters the Crypt and quickly begins to retrace Greg’s path exactly.  “She’s fast and furious—she runs track!” Kirk says as Chloe swings on the rope across the Bottomless Pit (1:35).  “And she’s gotta be fast if she wants to reach that Pendant!”  Chloe makes it to where Greg was taken out and begins to enter the Shrine before she notices the door leading down to the Dark Forest, which she takes (1:23).  “All right, she’s headed down—down into the Dark Forest,” Kirk narrates as Chloe appears in the room soon afterward.  She reaches into the stage-left tree, but comes out empty-handed (1:11).  She heads over to the stage-right tree, where she pulls out a key (1:05) and takes over to the right-hand side of the room.  She inserts it into the magnetic slot that leads to the Chamber of the Four Elements, and the door opens (0:59).  “All right, into the Elements Chamber—less than a minute left!” Kirk narrates as Chloe squeezes her way through the door and into the room.  She heads to the back, where she studies the tiles for a few seconds.  The camera cuts to Greg, clapping and cheering, before panning back to Chloe, who has grabbed all four tiles.  She assembles them in the correct order—fire, water, air, earth—and the door to the Jewel Mine opens (0:43).  “Into the Jewel Mine—she’s only one room away!” Kirk excitedly proclaims as Chloe makes a beeline for the room.  “She’s just gotta find all those jewels and put ‘em in the cart!”  Chloe scrambles into the room and looks around, immediately finding two jewels on the ladder leading upward, which she grabs and places in the mine cart (0:32).  She finds two more jewels on the back wall (0:28), two on the mine cart itself (0:21), and three more on the stage-left wall (0:13).  She looks around for the last jewel, finding it on the wall leading to the Chamber, and places it in the mine cart, opening the door up to the Geographer’s Study (0:09).  “That’s it—the door’s open!” Kirk exclaims as Chloe hurriedly climbs the ladder up to the room.  “Go, Chloe!  Climb, climb!”  The audience down as Chloe scrambles into the room (0:03!)  She hurries to the front of the room and rips the Ruby Pendant off the guardrail just before time expires!

“She got it!” Kirk shouts as Greg smiles and claps.  “Just in time, she got the Ruby Pendant!  Wow, what a nail-biting finish!  They got the digital camera, and now they got the game table for getting the Pendant!  This was a great team; I’m glad we had ‘em on the show.  But now, we’ve gotta get out of here.  We’ll see you next time, and remember: it’s not just Legends, it’s Legends: Rebirth!  Buh-bye, everybody!”

Kirk and Greg wave to the audience as the credits start to roll.  The camera gives us a first-person run-through of the top rooms of the Temple, starting in the Lookout Tower.  As we get to the Lightning Ball Room, a Temple Guard jumps out from behind the secret door in the room, revealing where the third Guard was located.  Chloe exits the Temple, holding the Ruby Pendant, and she, Kirk and Greg wave to the crowd before the Stone Stanley logo appears onscreen.

[The Bandit King]

The Ruby Pendant of Princess Caraboo
Season 2, Layout 2
Artifact Location: The Geographer’s Study
Team: Green Monkeys (Greg Guarneri and Chloe Stephenson)
Pendants: 1
Result: Ran out of time (acquired artifact)

This was quite the exciting episode from start to finish: the Moat, Steps of Knowledge and Temple Games were all very, very competitive.  In the long run, though, two incredibly determined teams, the Green Monkeys and the Purple Parrots, battled it out in one of the closest rounds of Temple Games I’ve ever witnessed, and the Green Monkeys managed to pull it out in the tiebreaker, sending them to the Temple.

Greg wasn’t that bad of a player; his main problem was that he was quite slow.  He was quick to hand his Pendant of Life over in the Crypt, but he took an insane amount of time trying to complete the Lookout Tower’s objective.  He was taken out in the Shaolin Dojo with only 1:44 remaining.

Fortunately, Chloe was a better contestant than Greg.  Kirk mentioned that she ran track in his Temple Run commentary, and she was certainly quite fast.  She smartly chose to go down into the Dark Forest from the Shaolin Dojo, a very time-saving move since she would have had to assemble the Shrine’s statue otherwise.  (She also would have encountered the third Temple Guard in the Lightning Ball Room, so it’s probably even more of a good thing that she didn’t enter the Shrine!)  She completed the Chamber of the Four Elements’ objective very quickly, and found all the jewels in the Jewel Mine in almost-record time.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to score a full victory for her team, even though she did grab the Ruby Pendant with one second remaining!

When the artifact is located in the very center of the Temple, it’s a dead given that the team will have to take a convoluted path to get to it.  Fortunately, though, this team’s frontrunner didn’t screw it up too badly by wasting time, and the second runner was able to take a time-saving shortcut that allowed her to score the second-prize victory for her team.  Definitely not a bad Temple Run at all…

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Notes and Trivia: This is one of only two times that an artifact is reached in the Geographer’s Study.

What seemed to be “gibberish” spoken by Princess Caraboo during the legend is actually Tagalog, a language spoken on some Polynesian islands.

[The Ancient Warrior]

Wow, before I read the notes at the end, I thought the dialogue fell under "As Long As It Sounds Foreign." The fact that you did the research and used an actual language was a nice touch.

I will admit I was starting to root for the Purple Parrots, considering they dominated everything up until the last Temple Game.  But the Green Monkeys still managed to make the Temple Run a very exciting read.  It's not often that the girl on the team is the better player (not to be sexist, of course, but that seems like the trend on the show), but the role reversal was used well to make this run more suspenseful.  Nice work!