Temple Guard Locations

[PurpleParrot4Life]

The penultimate Season 1 episode is "Snake Bracelet of Cleopatra."

Encountered Guards: Room of the Fallen Columns, Treasury of Golden Orbs
Number of Unencountered Guards: 1
Rooms not Entered: Well, Tomb of Ancient Kings, Holes of Python, Throne Room, Cave of Sighs

Notes: The final guard was spotted at the bottom of the Cave of Sighs during the credits. A photo is provided below, courtesy video posted on youtube.com by ChargerTheWolf. The temple guard is in the lower left-hand corner of the image, and the camera was tilted at the time, so his head is slanted. He is facing to his right (our left).

[PurpleParrot4Life]

And to finish off Season 1, last up is "Treasure of Anne Bonny."

Encountered Guards: Room of the Royal Gongs, Throne Room, Room of Fallen Columns
Number of Guards Unencountered: 0

All of the guards were encountered, so there shouldn't be a question of where they were.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Even though all of the Season 1 episodes were already mentioned, please feel free to go back and comment on those episodes if something was missed or if you have any thoughts or opinions not mentioned already. It would be really helpful to quote the past episode, so that all of the information pertaining to the same episode stays together.

In the meantime, let's get started with Season 2!

[PurpleParrot4Life]

The first episode of Season 2 was "Silver Horseshoe of Butch Cassidy."

Encountered Guards: Dark Forest (left tree)
Number of Unencountered Guards: 2
Rooms not Entered: Crypt, Observatory, King's Storeroom, Shrine

Notes: When Paula was exiting the temple, the King's Storeroom temple guard door was ajar. I have provided an image of the door below, courtesy video posted on youtube.com by ChargerTheWolf. It was not like that during Olmec's temple rundown. Because of this, people in the past thought one of the guards was in the King's Storeroom. The other guard was suggested to have been in either the Crypt or Observatory, though no reasoning was provided.



My Thoughts: This 1 pendant run needed to have at least one avoidable guard. As we can see from Paula's run, two were avoidable.

-- I agree that the opened King's Storeroom door seems very out of place. It would not surprise me if there was a guard in that room.

-- As far as the other guard, it very easily could have been in the Observatory. During Olmec's temple rundown, they cut back to Olmec's face when he started to describe the Observatory objective. During the run, they never zoomed in very well on the room and used the stationary camera in the back of the room, so we can't see if there was a headdress peeking out from behind the Observatory wall. To some, this may seem suspicious.

-- Even so, I think the final guard was in the Crypt. It was quite common for one of the guards in 1 pendant runs to be stationed in one of the entrance rooms; in fact, I believe all of the 1 pendant runs in Season 2 had an avoided/avoidable guard in an entrance room, but we'll get to that as we progress through the season. For this reason, I think the other guard for the "Silver Horseshoe" run was in the Crypt.

[The Red Jaguars]

I don't recall many details from the "Butch Cassidy" run, but didn't Paula try the King's Storeroom door from the Heart Room and it was locked? The temple layout would be a little bit unusual if the guard was in the King's Storeroom and one was in the Dark Forest. Unless the King's Storeroom was meant to be a deadend. But I agree, the temple guard door being open in the King's Storeroom is a little unusual. I say that the other guard was in the Crypt because at least one temple guard had to be avoidable.'

And I can't believe we are into S2 already.  I plan on making a "completion list" out of this list though by keeping track of all of the episodes where we know where all three temple guard locations were. Then we can update the list as we move along in the topic.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

I don't recall many details from the "Butch Cassidy" run, but didn't Paula try the King's Storeroom door from the Heart Room and it was locked? The temple layout would be a little bit unusual if the guard was in the King's Storeroom and one was in the Dark Forest. Unless the King's Storeroom was meant to be a deadend. But I agree, the temple guard door being open in the King's Storeroom is a little unusual. I say that the other guard was in the Crypt because at least one temple guard had to be avoidable.'

Paula did indeed try the King's Storeroom from the Heart Room, and it was locked. Another thing that is worth mentioning is that when Kirk was commentating as Paula entered the Heart Room, he said that the only ways out of the room were by going up to the Observatory and down into the Throne Room. Kirk's failure to mention the King's Storeroom is a little out of place.

Perhaps the guard was not in the King's Storeroom, but was rather in the Observatory. The door from the Heart Room may have led to the Observatory, which would have led back to the Pit, creating a path identical to the very next episode's run, "Golden Stallion of Ali Baba." Had Paula began at the top of the central shaft, she would have encountered the guard there, then would have been forced down the central shaft and across the bottom floor. This path and having the last guard in the Observatory would have been very similar to the "Silk Sash of Mulan" run.

[The Red Jaguars]

The Observatory makes more sense too IMO. It would follow the "Ali Baba" layout in a way and I think the King's Storeroom being locked from the Heart Room might be enough proof that the King's Storeroom was a locked room, unless it was unlocked from the Observatory. I guess the Shrine is also a possibility, but it seems kind of useless if the King's Storeroom was not entered.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

I can't think of any Season 2 episodes off of the top of my head where the Heart Room was locked to the King's Storeroom, but the Observatory allowed the teams through to the King's Storeroom. I also can't imagine how or why Paula would have been allowed to enter the Shrine during the "Silver Horseshoe" run, so I don't believe a guard would have been in that room.

The paths and series of unlocked doors tended to be similar across each production day. In "Golden Stallion of Ali Baba," the team got caught in an endless loop by heading up the central shaft. All of the doors from the Pit opened, but the only way to progress passed the central shaft was through the Swamp. The "Silver Cannonball of Grandy Nanny" featured the artifact in the Swamp, so the only way passed the central shaft was by going from the Heart Room to the King's Storeroom. But we saw in that run that when the team completed the King's Storeroom, the door from the Observatory also unlocked. Therefore, when the King's Storeroom was meant to be entered, both the Heart Room and Observatory were unlocked and would allow the team into the King's Storeroom; this was not the case for the "Silver Horseshoe" run.

If the guards really were in the Crypt, Observatory, and Dark Forest for the "Silver Horseshoe" run, then the guard placements would have followed the common entrance room/central shaft/inner temple pattern. The Observatory guard could have been encountered if the team began at the top of the central shaft. Additionally, the awkward camerawork in the Observatory during the temple rundown makes me think that perhaps they were stationing the guard there at the moment the camera was panning over the room, so that had to be edited out; they covered over that edit by cutting back to Olmec.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

I'll skip "Secret Battle Plans of Nathan Hale" and come back to it when we move on to that layout's runs.

Up right now is "Golden Stallion of Ali Baba."

Encountered Guards: Heart Room, Throne Room, Dark Forest (left tree)
Number of Unencountered Guards: 0

All of the guards were encountered, so there shouldn't be any question of where they were.



And to complete S2, L1, let's do "Silver Cannonball of Grandy Nanny" while we're at it!

Encountered Guards: Ledges, King's Storeroom, Shrine
Number of Unencountered Guards: 0

Yet again, all of the guards were encountered, so there shouldn't be any question of where they were.

[The Red Jaguars]

Here is my "Completion Tracker" for the Season One episodes and their temple guard encounters. All episode titles in bold are ones that we already know where all three temple guards are located at, or have enough evidence to pinpoint where all three temple guards are located at. I will do season 2 and 3 once we get closer to finishing them and make the list a little more fancy.

Season One: Completion Tracker
1x01 - Blackbeard's Treasure Map
1x02 - The Golden Cup of Belshazzar
1x03 - Galileo's Cannonball
1x04 - Wild Bill Hickok and the Dead Man's Hand
1x05 - John Henry's Lost Hammer
1x06 - The Golden Cricket Cage of Khan
1x07 - Elizabeth I's Golden Ship
1x08 - John Sutter and the Map to the Lost Gold Mine
1x09 - The Star of Sultan Saladin
1x10 - The Keys to the Alhambra
1x11 - The Helmet of Genghis Khan
1x12 - The Trojan Horseshoe
1x13 - The Pendant of Kamehameha
1x14 - The Lost Logbooks of Magellan
1x15 - The Moccasins of Geronimo
1x16 - Henry VIII's Great Seal
1x17 - The Lucky Pig of Amelia Earhart
1x18 - Ponce de Leon and the Lost Fountain of Youth
1x19 - The Treasure Map of Jean Lafitte
1x20 - The Oracle Bowl of Delphi
1x21 - The Paintbrush of Leonardo da Vinci
1x22 - The Golden Chains of Zenobia
1x23 - The Belly Button of Buddha
1x24 - The Stolen Arm of Shiva
1x25 - The Stone Marker of Leif Ericson
1x26 - The Helmet of Joan of Arc
1x27 - The Medal of Sir Edmund Hillary
1x28 - The Mask of Shaka Zulu
1x29 - The Golden Jaguar of Atahualpa
1x30 - The Silver Saddle Horn of Hannibal
1x31 - Alexander and the Gordian Knot
1x32 - King Tut's Cobra Staff
1x33 - The Dragon Lady and the Blue Pearl
1x34 - The Codebook of Mata Hari
1x35 - Pecos Bill's Lost Lariat
1x36 - Robin Hood and Marian's Ladder
1x37 - Lawrence of Arabia's Headdress
1x38 - The Collar of Davy Crockett
1x39 - The Snake Bracelet of Cleopatra
1x40 - The Treasure of Anne Bonny

Completion %: 26/40 = 65%

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Let's move right along with S2, L2.

First up is "Walking Stick of Harriet Tubman."

Encountered Guards: Crypt, Throne Room, Shrine
Number of Unencountered Guards: 0

All of the guards were encountered in this run, so there should be no question as to where they were.


And next is "Lost Love Letter of Captain John Smith."

Encountered Guards: Throne Room, Medusa's Lair, Shrine
Number of Unencountered Guards: 0

Yet again, all of the guards were encountered.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Up now is "Diary of Dr. Livingstone."

Encountered Guards: Throne Room, Dark Forest (Left Tree)
Number of Unencountered Guards: 1
Rooms not Entered: Observatory, Medusa's Lair, King's Storeroom, Ledges

Notes: Past comments included the belief that the final guard was in the Ledges. They were unsure as to whether the door from the Throne Room to Medusa's Lair opened, which would have allowed the team to access the upper central shaft. Additionally, some people claimed to have "spotted" the guard, providing the image below, courtesy video posted on youtube.com by ChargerTheWolf. The golden blur at the bottom of the Ledges was believed to be a guard.



My Thoughts: While I find the photo to not provide the best evidence for a temple guard spotting, I believe that it would have made the most sense to station a guard there. Most of the other early Season 2 episodes had a guard stationed in one of the entrance rooms. Also, since there was already a guard stationed in the Throne Room, I don't think they would have had another guard in the central shaft; they didn't seem to do that unless multiple rooms in the central shaft were meant to be entered, or if there was a one-room-long dead end in Medusa's Lair. Look at the other episodes from the "Dr. Livingstone" day: Walking Stick of Harriet Tubman (guard in the Crypt), Captain John Smith (two guards in the central shaft, both part of the forced path), and Bone Necklace of the Blackfeet Chief (last guard most likely in the Crypt). These runs all followed the scenarios mentioned above, while none of those scenarios were met in the "Dr. Livingstone" run. Therefore, I believe the last guard was in the Ledges in the "Dr. Livingstone" run.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

I always thought the last guard in Dr. Livingstone was in the Heart Room. For a possible dead end, ala "The Golden Stallion of Ali Baba," another run that also had temple guards in the Throne Room and Dark Forest.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

I always thought the last guard in Dr. Livingstone was in the Heart Room. For a possible dead end, ala "The Golden Stallion of Ali Baba," another run that also had temple guards in the Throne Room and Dark Forest.

That is another very good possibility.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Next on the list is "Bone Necklace of the Blackfeet Chief."

Encountered Guards: Swamp, Dark Forest (left tree)
Number of Unencountered Guards: 1
Rooms not Entered: Crypt, Observatory, Medusa's Lair, Viper's Nest, Mineshaft

Notes: All of the rooms were considered to be possibilities. No one was sure whether the door opened leading from the Throne Room to Medusa's Lair. Even though there was rarely a guard in the Mineshaft, everyone was hesitant to believe that room was safe as well.

My Thoughts: During Olmec's temple rundown, the temple guard door in the Crypt was slightly ajar, and as the camera swept over the room the door closed. I have provided a photo below, courtesy video posted on youtube.com by ChargerTheWolf. It reminds me of the original photo I posted in the "Interesting Photos from Various Episodes" thread, where someone was behind the temple guard door in the "Moccasins of Geronimo" run.



-- While I highly doubt the white object was a guard, since nothing on their outfits was that color, I believe the Crypt would have been the most likely place for the guard to have been.

-- I don't necessarily think the door leading up to Medusa's Lair opened. Leah did not even turn her head in that direction when she got up from the Throne, which was unlike most contestants who had the option of going either way.

-- Considering the two encountered guards were in back-to-back rooms, I don't think the last guard would have been in a third consecutive room. Even though it occurred in "Crown of Queen Nzinga" and "Missing Eye of David," I honestly can't see why the producers would have done it in this run. The temple guard in the Dark Forest was blocking the wall, so it's doesn't seem likely to me that the team would have avoided the temple spirit by plowing through the wall, only to meet a temple guard in the very next room.