The Room of the Golden Doors

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Since we're on a trend here, I thought I may as well continue by asking: What do you think caused the discrepancy between between the number of victories in the Tomb of Ancient Kings in comparison with the lack of victories from the Dark Forest?

The Tomb of Ancient Kings was used throughout all of Season One, housing six artifacts: John Sutter's Map to the Lost Goldmine, Stone Marker of Leif Erikson, Paintbrush of Leonardo da Vinci, Mask of Shaka Zulu, King Tut's Cobra Staff, and the Trojan Hoseshoe. Three of these runs were wins, and one other artifact was reached. The other two runs featured teams get trapped in a dead-end Swamp space.

In Seasons 2 and 3, the Dark Forest housed a total of seven artifacts: three in Season 2 and four in Season 3. They were the Lost Love Letter of Captain John Smith, Sacred Ring of Sultan Suleiman, Missing Weather Maps of Charles Lindbergh, Upside-Down Compass of Henry Hudson, Useless Map of the Chibcha Chieftain, Mysterious Manuscript of Mary Shelley, Mummified Hand of the Egyptian King. None of these artifacts were even reached, and three of these runs ended in triple capture.

What do you think was the cause for the discrepancy between reaching artifacts in the Tomb of Ancient Kings and the Dark Forest? Was it the difficulty of the rooms, the paths, the contestants' abilities, or something else?

[PurpleParrot319]

Actually, four of those seven Dark Forest runs ended in triple capture.

I think it's a combination of tough paths (Upside-Down Compass), temple guards (the four captures), and player ability (Brian, Gracelyn, Kim, and Larry ) that prevented us from seeing anyone grab a Dark Forest artifact. A lot of factors played into these failures.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, basically the tough layouts and players incompetence is what caused all those Dark Forest failures. Same deal with the bottom of the central shaft runs. At least with the Tomb of the Ancient Kings, the other rooms and layouts weren't so time consuming.

[The Red Jaguars]

I swear, the golden door room temple runs were probably the most lackluster runs on the show. Most of them are either just plain average or ended in disappointment. The only run I like on that list is "Map to the Lost Gold Mine" and maybe "The Trojan Horseshoe".

But yeah, the golden door runs seemed to have the trickiest layouts. They usually forced the team to move up the entire central shaft and then across the entire top floor of the temple. That meant the teams had to get stuck with taking the Mine Shaft elevator or Well bucket. Even "Map to the Lost Gold Mine" had a pretty lengthy layout for season one. And not to mention, the "Leonardo Da Vinci" and "Stone Marker" runs featured impossible layouts.

And the Dark Forest runs were the most disappointing ones on the show. It is funny that this room featured 3 triple captures (Captain John Smith, Egyptian King, Useless Map). And the layouts that didn't end in triple capture were so damn hard and impossible. Although we know how big of a failure that the "Charles Lindbergh" run ended in. 

[PurpleParrot319]

The other run that ended in capture was Sultan Suleiman. Like I said, there were actually four runs like that.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Do you think that the Dark Forest runs might have had more success if other teams (from their respective episodes OR other episodes' players) went into the temple, or were these episodes "doomed"/"cursed" to begin with?

[The Red Jaguars]

Well, this is how I see it:

Captain John Smith: Whitney was slower than Derrick, so she should've gone in first and get taken out in Medusa's Lair. Derrick might've had more time by the time he entered the Shrine. He also might've found the half-pendant. But still, both players were just average and I don't they would've won at the end of the day.

Sultan Suleiman: They were a pretty lost cause team IMO. Both were slow and didn't know what they were doing. Perhaps if Brian went straight to the Troubled Bridge though and entered Medusa's Lair from the Observatory, then Gracelyn would've followed suit and avoided the King's Storeroom detour. But they were both slow and the layout was kind of weird.

Charles Lindbergh: There is no reason why this shouldn't have been a win. Obviously if Kim went in first, then Nick would've reached the Dark Forest. But she was so stupid and slow that I don't know if she would leave him enough time. Really, this should've been a Dark Forest win if Kim wasn't so awful.

Egyptian King: It was a tricky path no matter what route Maggie and Josh took. I actually thought it was smart for Josh to go up to the King's Storeroom. If he continued from Maggie's route, I would say it would force the team up the central shaft. Had Maggie went up into the King's Storeroom herself and didn't lose her pendant, then they might've reached the Dark Forest. I don't hold the pendant drop against her though.

Useless Map: Hallie and Jared looked like a good team, but their run got cut short due to the lack of a full pendant. Perhaps if they won their individual games, then they would've gone to the temple with two pendants. Or if Hallie went up into the King's Storeroom, then they would've had more than enough time to reach the Useless Map.

Henry Hudson: This was a tough layout, and both players moved at an average speed. Maybe if they moved a little faster, than this would've been a close encounter. They still made it far though.

Mysterious Manuscript: I honestly don't know what to say about this one. Kate and Larry weren't really a good team at all. Perhaps if Kate went into the temple second, then she might've done better than the Shrine. Judging from the other layouts that day, I am not sure if the Shrine would open to the Dark Forest.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

The golden doors proved to be confusing or troublesome for many contestants. In the Keys to the Alhambra episode in Season 1, every single golden door was either opened or somehow left ajar. Several other times in Season 1, the magnetic key was able to open up both doors leading to the space on the right, even though most teams had to go up or left in order to make progress. In Season 2's Bonnet of Dollie Madison run, Ashlie had difficulty using the magnetic key. Tess in Season 3's Dried Ear of Sojourner Truth run had a similar mishap. These circumstances have all been pretty well-established.

One other observation that I want to mention that occurred in this space was contestants prying the door open that led to the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. It has been mentioned on many occasions that Heather may not have used the key to open the door leading to the Shrine during the Snow Cone of Mount Kilimanjaro run. While she held the key, she never transferred the key to her left hand to place the key on the magnet, nor did her posture suggest that she tried the key with her right hand. There has been some controversy as to whether this was actually the case or not. Well, it just so happens that Pat did something similar in the Marble Armrest of Xerxes run, which occurred three runs later, during the same production day. Noelle tried to find the key in both Dark Forest trees, but was unable to find it. She got removed from the temple in the Quicksand Bog, leaving Pat to follow her path. When he entered the Dark Forest, he tried to go directly into the Shrine, manually opening the golden door without a key at all (when there was 0:35 on the temple run clock). Kirk then commented something to the effect of, "No, that door won't open." He probably recalled the same issue Heather had from the Snow Cone run from earlier that day.

[The Red Jaguars]

But Heather also didn't have the Dark Forest key with her at the end of her run either. Unless she dropped it in the Dark Forest towards the end of the run, she definitely didn't have it in her hands when she came back to Kirk. And she definitely grabs it also. I always assumed that she did use the key, but after she opened the Dark Forest door. Another interesting note is that when Heather opens the Dark Forest door, there is a sound effect made like the door actually opened. But this is not the same sound effect as it usually makes with the Dark Forest? Either way this team had no chance of winning. Casey left his partner with very little time, and Heather was way too slow and clueless to make up lost time. Even if they were allowed entry to the Shrine, she would've grabbed one or two pieces of the Silver Monkey.

As for Xerxes, it wouldn't surprise me if Kirk was assuming that the Dark Forest door wouldn't open for Pat because of the Snow Cone run. I am surprised that they didn't find the Dark Forest key though at all? Did this happen in any other runs? I think Ivan the Terrible is the other run this happened.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

There were a few other instances where the key was clearly not placed in the trees- Battle Flag, Ivan the Terrible, Xerxes, Mystical Spellbook of the Imperial Wizard, and Belle Boyd being examples from Season 3. I'm sure there were other cases like this, but we don't know exactly which ones since the contestants bypassed trying to find the key in the tree.

As far as the sound effect during the Snow Cone run goes, it is a different sound than that used for that door during the rest of Season 3. But there were some other episodes where different sound effects were used for the same door.

EDIT: And come to think of it, there were several episodes with production errors or improperly-opening doors (the first to come to mind is the War Fan of the 47 Ronin run). In most cases, editing would cover these issues up with dubbing over Kirk's commentary and/or by introducing sound effects.

Heather's opening the door to the Shrine of the Silver Monkey probably was manual. Not only was the sound effect different and the blue cabinet door in the Shrine unopened, but Kirk's commentary saying that she was heading into the Shrine was not dubbed over. This, to me, suggests that that doorway was intended to be accessible; Heather just failed to correctly open it up. Additionally, her posture suggests that she did not place the key on the magnet to open the door, since she neither transferred the key to her left hand, nor did she pivot her body enough to allow her to try the key using her right hand.