Jay and the Jester's Court error during the "Good-Luck Watch" run...

[The Red Jaguars]

During the "Good-Luck Watch" run, Jay and Janeen had a very favorable layout that really should've been a bottom of the central shaft win. They came close to reaching the artifact, but it was a failed escape because Jay did not have enough time. The primary reason they lost was because of Janeen moving too slow and hesitating way too much. But at one point during the temple run, Jay enters the Jester's Court and align himself with the middle painting with 31 seconds left. For some reason though, the painting does not work and he loses a lot of time trying the other paintings. Finally, Jay tries the middle one again after a spotter and Kirk tells him to give it a second go. It is successful for him, and he even grabs the Watch before time was up. But that is the best he could've done.

My question is do you think Jay might've won if the middle painting was successful the first time? If it worked, he should've grabbed the Good-Luck Watch with 25 seconds left. That should've been enough time to bring the artifact out with a couple of seconds to spare. I mean Kristen grabbed her artifact in the "Polynesian Girl" run with 14 seconds and finished in the Ledges. With a little extra time and his fast speed, do you guys think he could've pulled it off?

[Purple Parrots Fan]

He probably would've pulled off a win, yes. I'm pretty sure the whole painting in the Jester's Court not working was a production error. Too bad, because both Jay and Janeen really should've won. And Jay seemed like the type who would be fast enough to pull off a win in 20-30 seconds.

[The Red Jaguars]

I think he could've done it too. Rewatching the temple run, he really made up a lot of time. He entered the Shrine with 1:06 left and 34 seconds later he is trying the middle painting in the Jester's Court! Without the Jester's Court error, Jay should've had more enough to take the bottom route out of the temple. I don't think he would've had enough time to take the upper route like Nate did in Queen Boadicea. But the majority loss is to be blamed on Janeen for sucking for half of the run. At the same time though, I have to say that Jay ranks up there with other Season 3 boys like Zac, Gator, Jarrid, and Travis.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, Jay was a great player. He only had 1:30 to himself, and look at how much time is left on the clock as soon as he reaches the Jester's Court. Granted, the Shrine/Forest passage was literally forced on Jay and Janeen. But even then, Jay did a very impressive job making up for lost time. If it wasn't for the Jester's Court holding him up, (or Janeen), they would've won for sure.

[AimYourBrent]

It would have been one of those thrilling last second victories. Shame that the painting didn't work the first time.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

It's also a shame Janeen didn't move faster either. Had it not been for both Janeen and the production errors, they probably would've won with about 5 seconds left on the clock. And it would've been a 4-on-4 day for the final production day of the show.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Had the door to the Tomb of the Headless Kings been activated on Jay's first try, I think he would have had enough time to make significant progress in escaping from the temple.

I hope I don't sound pessimistic, but the middle painting not working on the first try may not have been a "production error." There were plenty of instances where contestants tried the correct painting, moved on to another painting, and then had to go back and try the correct one again. Season 3 episodes where the same painting was tried more than once include Secret Map of the Bandit Queen, Snow Cone of Mount Kilimanjaro, Marble Armrest of Xerxes, and finally Good-Luck Watch of Empress Eugenie. While Jay is thought highly of and the contestants from the other runs not as much, we really can't discredit the idea that Jay didn't properly trigger the door to the Tomb of the Headless Kings on the first try.

[The Red Jaguars]

Here's a shot of Jay trying the middle painting for the first time during his run:



It looks like he actually did push all three buttons. It is possible that he missed a button, but I see that his body is in the correct position though. Maybe his left hand didn't push the button all the way? Although it sounds like someone off-screen is telling him to try the second one again as well as Kirk. That is why some people think it was a production error because it should've worked the first time. I agree that Jay would've won if the middle painting was correct the first time. As for those other runs, those players had no idea how to align their bodies with the paintings. It must've took Casey 2-3 times to try each painting. 

[Frogger49]

Just watched the episode for the first time in a couple of years. My opinion is that Jay missed hitting the head actuator in the middle painting the first time.  However, it is quite difficult to tell.

Also, echoing what others have said, Janeen's performance is rather irritating.  It's like someone turned up the volume on the sound effects in the Crypt, it just got to her, and she never recovered.  Didn't help that the temple guard in the King's Storeroom decided to mess with her even when she was holding her pendant out for him to take.  She did get lucky with the first suit of armor in the Room of the Ancient Warriors opening the door.  That's rare.

[The Red Jaguars]

It's possible that he missed one of the buttons too considering was in a jam in trying to get the artifact with as much time as possible. If he did miss the button though, technically that would've been his fault and a spotter wouldn't have had to point it out. Of course, Janeen is the one to be totally blamed for this loss. This is one of those runs where it was good that the front runner went in first, but sadly Janeen took too much time. This really should've been a bottom of the central shaft win. The Queen Boadicea team had a slightly longer layout, and Nate still grabbed the artifact with more time. But that's because Lissy got taken out of the run earlier than  Janeen did.

[PurpleParrot319]

This team definitely would've won had the Jester's Court error not occurred. Jay was fast from start to finish. He knew what he was doing. I still believe this was a production error because Jay pretty much tried the same method on the middle painting both times. This happened in 1995. In my opinion, technology failed during that moment.

I too have problems with Janeen's performance. She was way too slow and hesitant. It doesn't help that the Crypt sound effects were louder than normal and the Storeroom temple guard got up in her face for no good reason. Those two things probably scared her badly and as a result, made her more hesitant.

[The Red Jaguars]

Yeah, I always felt that Janeen was a little "frazzled" during her temple run. She was very hesitant in pulling the books in the Crypt, and flinched when she encountered her temple guards. I'm sure a lot of contestants were the same way. Miriam in the Bandit Queen run was also scared of the Dark Forest in her run. Luckily Zac was super fast and saved the day. Janeen even cowered in fear when she came across the second guard in the Shrine. Which I thought was pretty funny. Either way, it cost this team some time and that could've been used to get the artifact out of the temple. Jay was wicked fast though. If he didn't lose some time in the Jester's Court, it would've been a very close win. I don't think he would've won, but it could've been a Zapata type of ending. Still a fun run to watch though.