Interesting Photos from Various Episodes

[The Red Jaguars]

Just a random picture:




This image was taken from "The Golden Jaguar of Atahualpa". Notice that there are two giant rocks covering the top of the coffin in the Tomb of the Ancient Kings. Usually, these rocks are only there when there is an artifact located in that room. But the Golden Jaguar was located in the Treasure Room, so they should technically not be there. My guess is that those rocks are from "The Mask of Shaka Zulu" where the artifact was located in the Tomb, and Shaka Zulu was taped directly before Atahualpa. Since Bobby hardly entered any rooms of the temple, the producers probably didn't bother "cleaning up" the temple much for the next team, so they just left the rocks on top of the sarcophagus. It's nothing special really, I just wanted to point it out though.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

That is a very interesting photo. Good observation. Perhaps the producers forgot which run they were taping next and the path they wanted the team to take, so instead of locking the door from the Holes of Python to the Tomb of Ancient Kings for the "Shaka Zulu" run, they left it unlocked, thinking it was time to create the path meant for the "Atahualpa" run.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

This photo may have come up in other topics in the past, so I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned elsewhere. I was watching the King Tut's Cobra Staff recently, and during the announcing of the prizes, they showed the following camera angle. Photo courtesy video posted on youtube.com by ChargerTheWolf.




A temple guard can clearly be seen squatting in the corner of the Cave of Sighs. Eusinia and David entered the temple through the Room of the Royal Gongs and avoided the Cave of Sighs altogether. However, given Eusinia's ability to backtrack from the Throne Room to Wheel Room, it seems as though there was a second viable path along the bottom floor that would have merged at the Heart Room (similarly to the "Treasure Map of Jean Lafitte" run). The team encountered the other two guards in the Heart Room and Shrine of the Silver Monkey, and the half pendant was located on the actuator leading from the Treasure Room to the Shrine. Therefore, they entered the temple through the Cave of Sighs, Eusinia would have been taken out in the Heart Room, and David would have been the one to hit the actuator to the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, more than likely grabbing the half pendant and using it in the following room.

Do you think that this team would have fared better and been more successful if they took the alternate route, causing Eusinia to be taken out of the temple sooner? Or was this run destined to end as an "artifact reached" run no matter which route the team took?

[Purple Parrots Fan]

It was pretty obvious that the Cave of Sighs temple guard was put there as a "direct path trick." However, I think the team would have had a better chance at winning had Eusinia been taken out sooner. Just as long as David grabbed the half pendant and used it in the Shrine. Even though the Cave would have been a useless detour, a win could have still been plausible.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

It was pretty obvious that the Cave of Sighs temple guard was put there as a "direct path trick." However, I think the team would have had a better chance at winning had Eusinia been taken out sooner. Just as long as David grabbed the half pendant and used it in the Shrine. Even though the Cave would have been a useless detour, a win could have still been plausible.

I'm not so sure about the guard being a "direct path trick." There were plenty of times where the temple guard was housed in the entrance that was opposite to a "direct path" (as much as I dislike the term), such as the "Star of Sultan Saladin" run. And it does not seem that the Cave of Sighs was necessarily a useless detour. Given the fact that the doors opened from the Heart Room to the Throne Room and from the Throne Room to the Wheel Room, it would make sense that there were two viable entrance paths that converged at the Heart Room. Such an occurrence would not have been out of the question, as it happened in the "Treasure Map of Jean Lafitte" run.

[The Red Jaguars]

I think the "King Tut" Cave of Sighs guard being a direct path guard makes perfect sense. The Cobra Staff was on the lower level of the temple and if the team did make a break for the direct path, the consequence would've been an additional temple guard. In this case, the Cave of Sighs was on the lower floor of the temple, and a lot of S1 teams loved to use this room. It was just like the "Sir Edmund Hillary" run where the Medal was on the top floor and the encountered an additional temple guard in the Gargoyle Room as a result for trying the direct path.

[The Red Jaguars]

Someone needs to get a shot of the Cave of Sighs in the " " run though. I am really interested if there was actually a guard in there that Jeremy and Erika might've avoided.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Someone needs to get a shot of the Cave of Sighs in the " " run though. I am really interested if there was actually a guard in there that Jeremy and Erika might've avoided.

This shot is from the Silk Ladder episode, while they were announcing the prizes. Notice the lack of a temple guard in the Cave of Sighs. Photo courtesy video posted on youtube.com by ChargerTheWolf.




I also did a frame-by-frame analysis of the Observatory when Jeremy was exiting the temple to see if there was any indication of a temple guard in that room. I don't know how clearly the photos below show the Observatory, but upon watching the episode at 0:58-0:57, there appears to be a brief, shiny blur moving across the open wall in the back of the Observatory. I have marked the areas in question with red boxes. This easily could be a temple guard's headdress. If you watch the video for yourself, it may be much clearer to see. In the upper left photo, the headdress is not yet in view, and by the lower right photo three frames later, it is already out of view again. However, the other two photos (the two frames in between) show an out-of-place glint.

[The Red Jaguars]

Thank you for the pictures, that cleared up the Cave of Sighs guard for me.

As for the Observatory, its hard to tell if the temple guard was in there after rewatching the run. To me though, the Observatory seems like the only logical place for that last temple guard. Unless there was another alternate route in the Treasure Room to the Holes of Python. But that doesn't make sense though because the Shrine door was unlocked anyways. Its a really weird layout and I wish the producers would've revealed the temple guard locations at the end of every temple run. That would've been pretty neat.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Thank you for the pictures, that cleared up the Cave of Sighs guard for me.

As for the Observatory, its hard to tell if the temple guard was in there after rewatching the run. To me though, the Observatory seems like the only logical place for that last temple guard. Unless there was another alternate route in the Treasure Room to the Holes of Python. But that doesn't make sense though because the Shrine door was unlocked anyways. Its a really weird layout and I wish the producers would've revealed the temple guard locations at the end of every temple run. That would've been pretty neat.

I doubt that there would have been an alternate route through the Holes of Python. The door was clearly closed from the Throne Room, and there was no need for the Treasure Room to be unlocked to the Holes of Python since the Shrine opened directly. Not only does that narrow down the possible final temple guard location down to the Observatory, there was also the glint of a headdress in the Observatory.

There were three guard costumes used throughout all of Season 1: one with a gold mask and a necklace with several golden pendants; one with a black mask and a leopard-print shawl; and one with a green mask and a feathery red and green headdress. All three guards were encountered in the Medal of Sir Edmund Hillary run, and all had relatively clear screenshots (photos courtesy video posted on youtube.com by ChargerTheWolf):







Some of the guards tended to reside in the same rooms, as Micheal Lupin disclosed during an interview regarding being a temple guard during Season 3. As shown in the bottom left photo in the lower set of photos, in Season 1, the gold-masked guard was always housed in the Cave of Sighs. That photo was taken from the "Lawrence of Arabia's Headdress" run.

However, in the "Silk Ladder" that guard was placed in the Throne Room (upper left). If a guard were to have been residing in the Cave of Sighs during this run, that guard would have been stationed there; however, since that guard was in the Throne Room, the Cave of Sighs was clear. The other guard in "Silk Ladder" run (upper right) was the black-masked guard. The only guard left was the green-masked guard.

The bottom right photo is a very clear, up-close shot of this guard from the "Codebook of Mata Hari" run. As you can see, this guard had a very distinct, shiny, gold pendant-shaped emblem on his headdress, surrounded by green and red feathers. If you compare the other, earlier photo of the Observatory from the "Silk Ladder" run, the glint could very easily have been from that emblem. Additionally, there is a faint, dark shadow around the glint that could have been from the feathers on the headdress.

[The Red Jaguars]

Here's an interesting shot:




This is a camera shot of the entire audience in "The Plumed Headdress of Cosa Rara". I thought this image was interesting because I don't recall the show ever giving us a close-up shot of the audience. This was taken right after the final temple game for reference.

And while we are talking about "Cosa Rara", did anyone else notice that Kirk kept calling Jessica as "Jessie" throughout the temple run? I don't recall her ever saying that was a nickname. Not even Olmec called her Jessie at all. Oh Kirk, you are too much sometimes. 

[The Red Jaguars]

I have a question, but I can't provide an image at this time because Youtube is not working.   

During Christina's temple game "The Secret Battle Plan of Nathan Hale", the two players had to spell out "Attack Philadelphia" by climbing a web and placing the letters next to each other in order to spell the phrase out. When Kirk is counting up the letters that both players got, he counts four complete letters apiece for Christina and Green Monkey boy. But then he rips off one of Christina's pieces and says that it doesn't count. Why did it not count at all? I am pretty sure she got the piece in time. Had he counted it, then both players would've tied the temple games. And with the temple game tie, the Silver Snakes would've went to the temple with two pendants. So what exactly happened during the Attack Philadelphia game?

[Purple Parrots Fan]

It didn't count because the sign/piece was apparently on backwards. And it had to be in a perfect/readable spot for it to count. Which I thought was a very stupid rule. If the game was at least a tie, the Silver Snakes would have gone to the temple with 2 pendants. And then a triple capture wouldn't have happened when it eventually did come time to film their temple run.

EDIT: Here's the upside down sign. And I don't know what everyone's problem is with YouTube. It's working perfectly fine to me.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Indeed, the "IL" card in "Philadelphia" was upside-down, so Kirk did not count it. As bad of a rule as it was, the same thing sort of thing happened during the team game in "Elizabeth I's Golden Ship." The contestants had to pull themselves to the center of the slippery plane, then transfer sections of a flag from one partner to the other. In order for the flag segments to count, the pieces had to be oriented properly. The Red Jaguars got one piece in the correct position, while the Purple Parrots got none. This allowed the Red Jaguars to go to the temple with 1.5 pendants, but like the "Nathan Hale" run, this run ended in triple capture.

Had the Purple Parrots oriented both of their flag segments correctly, they would have gone to the temple with a score of 1.5-.5 pendants. But had both teams gotten credit for all of the pieces they got to the other side, then the Red Jaguars would have still won that game.

[The Red Jaguars]

Yeah, I just rewatched the "Nathan Hale" episode and the "IL" sign was indeed on backwards. I totally forgot about that detail. But Olmec did say during his temple game description that the pieces had to be in the exact order. Technically, Christina's piece was in the correct order but not in the correct position. I agree that it was a pretty stupid rule and they should've counted that temple game a tie. There have been plenty of other temple games where the player put a certain piece out of order and the producers still counted it. And with two pendants in the temple, the temple run wouldn't have ended in triple capture. But I also think that the temple guard layout would be different if the Silver Snakes actually entered the temple with two pendants. Not to mention, Christina should've found the half-pendant either way.

As for the "Golden Ship" episode, the Purple Parrots would've gone to the temple with two pendants if they tied the team game. The Purple Parrot boy beat Joe in the dragon tunnel temple game while Gabby tied her wig game. So if the Purple Parrots at least tied the team game, they would've won 2-1.5 pendant score. But I can forgive the triple capture in the Golden Ship run though because the half-pendant was no where in sight for the Red Jaguars. Although they were kind of slow anyways, so I am not sure how far they would've gone if they found it.