This run has been on my mind lately and I think I have come to a reasonable conclusion about the temple guard placement and the wall being breakable. I believe that the wall would have been breakable AND the passage to the shrine would have opened. The outcome of this run was likely based on two factors that occur around the same point in the run. The first is whether the Renee grabs the half-pendant or not. The second is if she searches for the Dark Forest key or breaks through the wall.
- As we know, Renee did not find the half-pendant and opted to search for the key, and as a result the run ended in a triple capture. This is the only scenario where this occurs.
- If the half pendant was grabbed and she looked for the key, she would safely encounter the guard, find the key, take the passage up to the Shrine and then go left into the Lightning Ball room to get the crown.
- Regardless of she found the half-pendant, if she had busted through the wall, I think she would have had to take he diagonal passage into the Shrine. The screenshots posted by PP319 and I show that the elevator was not in the Mine Shaft during the run, so Renee would not have been able to take it up to get the crown. It could be argued that the wall would not have broken down because of this, but I don't believe that's true. I can't recall many half-pendant runs from season 2 that forced all 3 guards. The forest guard in Nzinga was notably place in the right tree, which means that Renee likely could have completely avoided even the chance of the temple guard trying to grab by just breaking through the wall.
The only thing I could go either way about is if the Shrine/Forest passage would open or not. I think it would open to reward the player for finding the half-pendant by letting them avoid the Mine Shaft and the confusion that would likely ensue when they see that there's no elevator. However, I could also see it being locked to force the 'no elevator in the Mine Shaft' scenario because it was never done before and would have made for a good TV.
All that being said, what the hell was up with the Medusa's Lair door opening?