My turn to review another episode. This time it's "The Mush Pot Hat of Johnny Appleseed."
THE MUSH POT HAT OF JOHNNY APPLESEED
MOAT: 7/10
MOAT: 7.5/10 (TRJ)
For this moat, the players had to balance on a shaky log. If you fell in, you had to go back and start all over again. This was a solid round and this was literally the only group of kids that did NOT struggle with this moat. And it's by far the shortest moat featuring the shaky log. The Orange Iguanas and the Silver Snakes were the first to cross, by gonging in simultaneously. The Green Monkeys were third to finish, and the Blue Barracudas rang in last not long after.
(TRJ's description)
The infamous "shaky log" moat! This moat is memorable for having one of the longest moat crossings on the show. It even took 45 minutes to complete one moat crossing! How did it work? The first player had to cross the moat while balancing themselves on a log that tilts. Their partner had to hold the log steady for them so they could cross. When their partner made it across, then the second player had to cross the same way. When both teams made it across, then they could hit their gongs to move on. What made this crossing so difficult? It was hard for their partners to balance the log because it required a lot of strength. As for the moat in this episode, it was actually... pretty decent! The Silver Snakes and Orange Iguanas got across on their first try, and the Green Monkeys followed closely in third, and the Blue Barracudas not long afterwards. It surprisingly looked like a decent moat crossing despite the fact that every other episode during this day had a long ass moat. For this reason, I am going to give this moat extra credit for having good teams and for having a unique moat objective.
LEGEND: 7/10
LEGEND: 7/10 (TRJ)
The legend centers around John Chapman, who often went by the name Johnny Appleseed. The reason for the name was because of his love for planting appleseeds. He wore mush pot for a hat, a coffee sack shirt, and he did not wear shoes. About a week after his introduction, Johnny came back to warn everyone of Indians and settlers fighting in a close by town. Some people wanted to fight, but Johnny convinced everyone to just hide. Fortunately, the Indians left town when they found the place to be deserted. As a reward, the town gave Johnny a new mush pot hat, and threw out the old one. Decent legend in my opinion, though it could've used more detail.
(TRJ's description)
On a hot summer day in 1812, a strange looking man walked into Mansfield, Ohio. His name was John Chapman. He wore a Mush Pot for a hat, a coffee sack for a shirt, and walked around barefoot. He introduced himself as Johnny Appleseed because he wanted around the country planting nothing but appleseeds. He reached into his sack to hand people his seeds and went on his way. About a week later, Johnny returned to town and warned the townsfolk about a battle between Indians and settlers in a neighboring town and told them to "get out of town". Some men wanted to stay and fight, but Johnny convinced them that the best thing would be to stay and hide. When the Indians came into town, they found it deserted and rolled on. Legend has it, the people of Mansfield gave Johnny a new Mush Pot Hat and he threw away the old hat before it made its way to Olmec's Temple.
In my opinion, Johnny Appleseed was a pretty interesting historical figure to talk about. He was somebody we heard about a lot as children, so it was an appropriate figure to talk about given the target audience were mostly little kids. They did a good job sticking to the original Appleseed story on how he was a kind and simple folklore hero. I liked how they describe his clothing in detail to show how simple he was. The legend was kind of short, but it got to the point with no crazy plot points or stupid characters. On the downside, this legend sort of sounded exactly like a Season 1 legend with how short it was and how the intro started. But it was still early Season 2, so it is understandable.
STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE: 6/10
STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE: 8/10 (TRJ)
This was a pretty average round, apart for the letting three answers slide. The question was "How far did Johnny run to warn the settlers?" The choices were 30 miles, 30 kilometers, and 300 days, in which the Green Monkeys got the correct answer, 30 miles. The Orange Iguanas however, were the first team to reach the final step, with the Green Monkeys joining them not long after. Close match, as it was a three way tie on the second to last step, and it was only a matter of who rang in first.
(TRJ's description)
This Steps of Knowledge round was pretty interesting for several reasons. First off, this was one of the very few times where Olmec accepted 3 answers for the same question. The only other time this happened was in "Missing Eye", which was filmed a few days after this episode. Another interesting part about this round was the close competition. There was only a couple of wrong answers given out in the question I talked about earlier with Olmec. Other than that, the teams got their questions correct and there was even a 3-way tie on the second to last step between Green, Orange, and Silver. Orange Iguanas came from behind to be the first temple to win this round, and the Green Monkeys followed suit. Overall, this was a pretty eventful and close SoK round which was interesting for the close competition and the multiple answers allowed by Olmec.
TEMPLE GAMES: 7/10
TEMPLE GAMES: 8/10 (TRJ)
The temple games were average, and had a pretty neat sequence. In the first game, Angela and Andrea had to climb up a mountain and plant appleseeds with their pegs. Not much else to say except Angela won that game. In the second game, Chris and Jamal used the zip line game to transfer apples to the opposite side. Jamal was kind of sloppy, but Chris got a good rhythm down. In the end, the game ended in a 4-4 tie. In the third game, the teams had to harvest apples by using the rotating lever game. Both teams were pretty sloppy, and Angela kept missing the buckets. The game also ended in a 4-4 tie, but the Orange Iguanas go to the temple after beating the Green Monkeys 2-1.5.
(TRJ's description)
The temple games featured
Angela and
Chris of the
Orange Iguanas facing off against
Jamaal and
Andrea of the
Green Monkeys. In the first temple game, Angela and Andrea had to climb a mountain with pegs in order to plant appleseeds. In order to score, they will have to find the correct hole with their peg that will shoot out debris from the top. The player that finds the most correct holes after 60 seconds will win. The temple game between these two lasses were close, but Angela came out on top with a 3-2 score. In the second temple game, Chris and Jamaal had to transfer apples between platforms via a zipline. Basically, the boys had to grab apples from one side of the platform, put it into their sack, and transfer it to the other side and put it in their bin. They then had to go back and repeat the same process. The player with the most apples in their bins after 60 seconds would win. Despite Jamaal always being ahead in for almost all of the game, Chris managed to score at the last second to create a 5-5 tie. The Pendant score was now 1-0.5 moving onto the team game! In the team temple game, the two teams had to work together to harvest some apples. One player had to jump up and grabbed an apple from the pillar and then jump down and put it into their team bin. Their partners had to jump up next while the other player was dropping off an apple. The key to this game is coordination and both players had to work together to stay in synch or else they could be missing their apples. The team with the most apples in their bins after 60 seconds will win. The temple game ended in a tie, but the temple game was pretty sloppy as both teams were missing their apples and everyone was off-balance. Also, Kirk had trouble keeping track of the score because he kept saying that the Green Monkeys were ahead even though Orange was tied with them all along. In the end, the final score was 2-1.5 in favor of the Orange Iguanas. With 2 Pendants, Chris and Angela are granted the right to enter Olmec's Temple!
This was an exciting temple games sequence that featured close competition and some unique temple games. The two individual games were some of the most uncommon games of Season 2. The "zipline" one was one of my personal favorites too. In addition, this episode was VERY close to being a 2-2 final result. If Andrea had found another hole in her temple game, it would've been a 3-3 score and all of the temple games would've been tied. That would've made this episode even more unique!
TEMPLE RUN: 6/10
TEMPLE RUN: 7/10 (TRJ)
The Orange Iguanas in this run faced a rather tough layout. It reminded me a lot like "The Medal of Sir Edmund Hilary," only no Troubled Bridge and one less temple guard encounter. Chris doesn't last too long in the temple, as he is removed from the King's Storeroom, his fourth room, with 2:10 remaining. Angela races in and she does an okay job. She wastes about 10 seconds climbing out of the Pit, but she eventually makes it to the King's Storeroom, or "The Pottery Room" as Kirk calls it. -_- After assembling the monkey, she's forced to take the Shrine/Shaft passage, ride the elevator to the Viper's Nest, where she grabs the Mush Pot Hat with 21 seconds left! She doesn't take a bad exit out, but she does trip up the King's Storeroom/Observatory stairs, and breaks the Mush Pot Hat handle in the process. Alas, she jumps into the Pit, and races to the Ledges, where her time runs out there. If Chris had started in the Ledges instead of the Crypt, they probably would've had a better chance at winning.
(TRJ's description)
Angela and Chris were a fast team in the temple, but they did not taste victory due to a long layout and slight hesitations by the second runner. Chris entered the temple first and met his first temple guard in the Crypt. After a sweet dive into the Pit, he chose the higher route by taking the Observatory on the top most floor. He is eventually removed from the King's Storeroom with 2:10 on the clock. Angela follows Chris' path, where she performs another nice jump into the Pit.
After hesitating a little bit in the Pit and the Observatory, she quickly picks up where Chris left off in the King's Storeroom and is allowed entry into the Shrine. Now being one room away, she finishes the Silver Monkey with 0:52 seconds left! Only to find out...that only the Mine Shaft door opened. After losing a lot of time with the slow elevator, she grabs the Mush Pot Hat with 21 seconds left! While running out of the temple, Angela trips and breaks the handle off the artifact in the Observatory. With time winding down, she makes a last ditch effort for the Ledges but time ends while she is in the crawl tube. Overall, this was a pretty exciting temple run featuring a strong team. The main reason they lost was due to the slow Mine Shaft elevator and hesitations by Angela. Other than that, this temple run was fun to watch and Angela breaking the artifact was pretty memorable too.
FINAL VERDICT: 6.6/10
FINAL VERDICT: 7.5/10 (TRJ)
This was a pretty average episode. Every round was close and the temple games featured good competition. But other than that, there's really nothing noteworthy that goes on in this episode. The Orange Iguanas however, were a strong team all day, and they almost reached the Mush Pot Hat. The layout they got was just lengthy, and it diminished their chances at winning. When an artifact is in the top corner of the temple, and the players are forced to use the diagonal passage, you know the team is gonna have a tough time winning. Nonetheless, it's still a watchable episode and I definitely recommend it, especially compared to all the other episodes on the "shaky log" filming day.
(TRJ's description)
Overall, "Mush Pot Hat" was the shining star on a production day plagued with average and horrible moats and episodes. From start to finish, every round was enjoyable and eventful. The moat was above and beyond the best crossing on this production day and it actually made the "shaky log" moat look like a good idea. The Steps of Knowledge and temple games were also very close and featured some interesting details like Olmec allowing 3 answers in the SoK and some unique games featured in the temple games. The temple run ended in a failed escape, but it was a good effort by Chris and Angela and the majority of the loss can be blamed on the slow Mine Shaft elevator. Overall, this was a high quality episode and I definitely recommend it for viewing. Especially since I am not a big fan of the Orange Iguanas myself.
Topic: Legends Episode Ranking System - COMPLETE (Read 87670 times)
