Treasure Hunters - Air Date July 10

Before getting into the episode, I'm sure many of you are wondering how Jessica of Team Grad Students is doing since her injury. From Miss USA's Melissa over on the Team Miss USA message boards...
"She tore some ligaments in her knee. It was pretty bad. She is still dealing with surgeries and doctors visits. She used to be a marathon runner, but now the doc isn't sure she'll be able to do that ever again."
Judging by the fight Jessica had in her after hurting herself, I wouldn't be surprised if she runs another marathon at some point.
***
What can I say? Wow? Dang? Damn? Whatever exclamation, the show has really taken off and carved it's own niche with this episode!
It started off at the same Diamond District Breakfast Inn as the last episode, which I'm sure will get some people grumbling how how after a whole show they're still in the same area. Here's the thing... It's not The Amazing Race! Amazing Race is a race around the world. Treasure Hunters is a hunt for treasure. Entirely different goals. Not to say there isn't any travelling in TH, but it's all about collecting clues and artifacts.
But enough of that, what about the important stuff? Like, for example, how does sweet Laird mess with the hunters this week? With a 5:45 a.m. wakeup call, that's how! I wouldn't be surprised to see teams start trying to finish first if for no other reason than to get a little more sleep. He tells them that to get the next clue, they'll have to unlock the code that protected "America's most secret journey". The search would begin right outside their doors.
I know what you're thinking, but no half-dressed John from the Southie Boys ran outside his room. Damn. A much more solemn and forlorn explicative than the one used above.
Outside their doors were copies of the "Brooklyn Times". Ah, a trip to New York. Too bad Cats closed on Broadway, suckers! What? You have tickets for Conan? Damn! The disappointed and envious use of the word!
Everyone piled out of their doors, picking up their papers and struggling with luggage on their way - here's another example of how it's not The Amazing Race, people with actual luggage.
Pa Fogal explained to us that the paper contained an essay written by Walt Whitman that talked about the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in Brooklyn, New York and that was the next destination.
In the Miss USAs' truck (in first place, whoo hoo!), Kristen was reading from their laptop an article that can obviously only be found on Ask.com with the help of a Visa card and a Motorola Razr phone. Speaking of product placement, I am currently enjoying a refreshing Watermelon Soda from the fine people at Jones Soda Company. Mmmmm, love that Jones Soda!
So the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel was closed shortly after it opened and forgotten until it was discovered by Bob Diamond in 1981 who entered though a manhole on Atlantic and Court Street. And there's their destination! Step on it, Miss USAs! I really do like this time, but I just wish they decided to participate in the hunt wearing tiaras and sashes at all times. That would have been awesome. Especially if Team Ex-CIAs decided to do the same thing. Not that they would, but their name hasn't come up too much 'round these parts so far
In a nice touch, Kristen called the Ex-CIAs whom they've worked with before and let them know they'll go down into the tunnel right away but didn't want to do it without advising them. It's refreshing to watch people playing one of these games nicely for a change, and enjoy it while you can because if this comes back for a second season there's bound to be a lot more fogaling going on.
Taking second place in this journey at this point was Team Brown, and Tonny connected the clues to the Underground Railroad. "Most secret journey." It made a lot of sense, but at this point wouldn't matter much to the hunt yet.
The third place team were the Geniuses, where Genius Charles was talking about how they might have to go down into the tunnels at some point, which might be true but I suspect we missed the conversation leaving up to that where he was talking about possibly being able to touch a girl at sometime in his life and it turns out "go down into the tunnels" is just his awkward euphamism for sex. He then spent the next three hours quoting Lord of the Rings and Star Wars before he realized how wasted his life has been, put away his comic book, and started badgering Genius Sam. "Sam, are you at least going to be able to jog some, because we're going to have to go with that."
Yeah. Nothing makes more sense than getting to go on a competitive reality adventure show and choosing teammates who aren't exactly athletes then complaining about it. Not everyone can be the star quarterback of the football team you are, Chuck! I like that. Henceforth on these pages, Genius Charles will now be known as Chuck. Maybe Genius Chuck sometimes, but Chuck nonetheless. I would also like to point out that Genius Sam might not have to run so much if Chuck doesn't keep getting the team lost like he did in the first episode.
Anyway, Chuck asks out loud what's the point of Sam going down into the tunnel. Sam feels belittled by this, and so he should, and he asks the same question of why he would be chosen for the team if they are worried about him physically as his flat feet and asthma existed well before participating in the hunt.
Chuck blathers away a little more to Sam, but I start tuning him out. The Fogals were nice last episode, even if they were shocked that people didn't take kindly to their previous dirty playing ways, and they've been good so far. I think it's time to start laying off them for now as a team. As individuals, well, that depends on if any of them decides to throw a childish tantrum. But for now thanks to Chuck, we have a new face of evil.
Hmmm. I'm finished my Watermelon Soda. Luckily I happen to have a delicious Green Apple Soda in my fridge. Thanks for making such refreshing beverages, Jones Soda Company! My e-mail address is at the bottom of the page if you'd like to send me any other flavours to sample!
One of the nice things we're seeing here is that there hasn't been much in the way of flying. No, all the teams had to drive from Boston to New York, and I don't want to spoil things too much but they have to drive to their next destination after that which is a much longer ride. How great is that? Now you wouldn't want to actually watch the long journey all the way through, but the results of it are great. A very nice way to wear the teams down.
Which brings us to another kind of delicious, the Southie Boys, who we find having an argument in their truck. Now we know this is one of my favourite teams so you'd think this fighting would distress me. Hey, it led to more screen time for John, so it didn't bother me in the least. John, my e-mail address is at the bottom of the... Ah, never mind. But I'm telling you, John, you wouldn't regret being with me! Once you've had circus freak, you never want someone "normal", "pretty", or "human looking" again!
The only other team we peek in on is Team Air Force, where they are in Motorola contact with the Fogals who took some bad detours and are behind. See? No snark. I told you I'd be kind to the family as a whole this time around. Don't worry, Chuck will make up for it.
Still in first place, Team Miss USA found the entrance to the tunnel. Now we're treated to a gentleman sitting on a box playing a guitar and singing. This would be great if it was just a totally random shot, he was pretty darned good, but you know this will mean something later.
Our favourite pageant contestants climbed down the manhole and even though underground, still got fantastic reception when my fair Laird gave them a call. More history about the tunnel, then he said that somewhere along those long forgotten tracks, Walt Whitman left a message. Dug into the walls with his bare nails when he was buried in the tunnel alive! No, we were shown a shot of a package of some sort. It's just not the same.
As the women were walking down the tunnel (about a 15 minute walk - really, click on the links and sign up on the forums there and with the Southies, you'll get all sorts of inside information as they are able to talk about it) we cut to the Browns who get one word under their name in the graphic. Lost. I can laugh because I can honestly say I've never gotten lost driving in New York City. Or Paris or Rome or blah blah blah. My life sucks. Then the incredible happened. Three men stopped for directions, and I made a comment on a sexual stereotype.
Then more face time for the Miss USAs. I tell you, without the Wild Hanlons around and Pat's mullet crowding everyone out, suddenly there's a lot more room to meet the other teams. At first they were looking along the walls, which made sense considering some of the grafitti and such we've seen previously, until one of them saw an American flag. They ran towards it and saw a bunch of replica (you know it was) Civil War memorabilia. This is how much of a lead they had, that they were doing all this digging but there were still no other teams around. They did see a message on the wall, "The river ends between two hills, follow the Drinking Gourd", but at the time it didn't make any sense. There was more, but frankly the way it was being filmed made it hard to read.
Then it happened. Melissa had the package in her hands, examined it, said "It looks like there is a book inside", then put it back down! OOOOOH! That's literally what I said. OOOOOH! They decided they were overanalyzing and decided to each memorize part of the written clue on the wall, figuring that was it. Now I made a little bit of fun of the Wild Hanlons, but one thing they did right was that they carried a notebook with them. Future teams would do well to learn from this. But maybe I'm basing this on my own short term memory that is spotty at best. Why do you think I have this on tape and keep pausing it?
So after the 15 minute walk to get to the clues, the Miss USAs left and we're shown another shot of a package of the very same sort they just had in their hand.
Click here to read Melissa's words on what had happened. She also tells just how grueling a later part of the show got, but don't read that part until you've reached the end of this recap or you'll just spoil everything, just like Genius Sam once ruined a game of Dungeons and Dragons that Chuck was the Dungeon Master in. How did he ruin it? By asking how they ever expected to meet girls by slaying imaginary monsters in his parents' basement. Oh, Sam. You know that's the Forbidden D&D Subject! Get thee to a sanctuary before thy Dungeon Master doth smite thee from above!
Speaking of the Geniuses, coming back from commercial they were tied with the Southies and Air Force for second place as they were all approaching the tunnel. Someone was asking about the Fogals, not aware of the new evil in their midst. As the camera came in, we did get one shot where Sam was using his inhaler. I might not have even noticed if it wasn't for Chuck's hectoring of him.
In an interview moment, Sam talks about how Chuck thought it would be better if it was just the two fastest members of the team who'd go into the tunnel, and how throughout the experience he's done so much of the driving but gets left out of the physical side of the game. Don't worry, Sam. I can think of something physical you'll get to experience well before Darth Chuck, Dark Lord of the Sith.
The guys found the pile of fake stuff, and they found more of the packages and opened them up. It turned out to be a Don't Tread On Me flag wrapped around a hollowed out book containing glasses with red lenses and a copy of what appeared to be a poem entitled "Follow the Drinking Gourd". They quickly figured they should look at the flag with the glasses on, and sure enough the words "Beneventum" and "Georgetown, SC" appeared. Remember the driving mentioned earlier? From New York to South Carolina! For some reason I can picture Kayte Fogal asking "Are we there yet?" for the entire drive. I don't know why. Could it be the superfluous Y in her name? Longtime Realivision readers will know just how much of a fan I am of creative spellings of names.
Back outside the tunnel, the man we heard singing before is obviously performing the Drinking Gourd song, and with such heart and depth. Why isn't he singing on the So You Think You Can Dance results show?
The guys climb out of the manhole and the Miss USAs see this. One little mistake and it appears to have cost close to a half hour lead. Ouch. But don't be sad, because what is yet to come probably would have erased that lead for any one of the teams anyway. Melissa notices that the guys all grabbed the same packages that she had in her hand, and they kick themselves all the way back to the tunnel.
While the girls are going back to get their clue and the guys are about to hear from Laird of the Dance, I'm off to get a cool, nutritious glass of milk. Got milk? (Just watch. All this shameless product placement and I bet the only thing I get is a milking cow.)
Yum. That is delicious.
Anyway, foxy Laird throws out the first great wrinkle of this leg. Somewhere before the next elimination, the first team to arrive at a specific location will win $30,000 in treasure. Ah, things are going to get real now! Chuck talked to the camera about how there is now a reward for moving a little bit faster (foreshadowing!) and the game changes. He then whipped out his lightsaber
and screamed maniacally "Soon! SOON! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The Miss USAs found their clue, and despite their mistake were still just the fourth team to leave the tunnel. But not without punishment, as Melissa - who has been very good to us here at Realivision - was forced to say the line, "We received a message on our Motorola phone..." Booooo, producers! Booooo! Just for that, I'm going to stick with my Audiovox phone!
The other teams start arriving, but there isn't too much to say. I'm actually thankful I'm being nice to the Fogal Family this week, as now I don't have to make yet another joke about them descending into the dark bowels of the earth.
During the 708 mile drive to their next destination, we got to listen in on the Miss USAs talk about needing showers. What I don't understand is that the audio was fine, nobody on the team has a particularly heavy accent, so why was the entire conversation subtitled?
Up in the first place position we find ourselves in the Southie Boys vehicle. They too are having a conversation, but no subtitles despite having fairly heavy Bostonian accents. They're easy to understand, but I still don't get the random subtitles. We do find out that it's a 14 hour drive.
The Fogals now are using their time to look up information on "Follow The Drinking Gourd" which turns out to be a song used by escaping slaves to help lead them to freedom via the Underground Railroad. I know I blah blah over some of the history stuff, but this is actually quite interesting, so I will give you that link to learn about the song one more time - Click here. They even learn about quilts being made as secret maps, something that actually comes into play pretty soon. The smart, studious Fogals are nice. Unfortunately they're not as funny as the evil, dirty Fogals. If only one of them would snap or something.
The Southies were the first to arrive at the Beneventum plantation, were an ancient record player is playing the Drinking Gourd song.
Being the first team means something special, because they're the first to be greeted with a new message featuring the dulcit tones of one Laird Macintosh. I'll brush over the history because despite recent links, this blog is not about learnin', dadgummit! Least of all not no book learnin'. We leave that to the fancy folk. Plus it's getting late and I need to go to bed soon. Some of us to work in the morning for our treasure. Don't let the time at the bottom of this recap fool you. That's when the first draft was saved.
The contestants had to look for a flagged trunk containing a quilt (well done, Fogals!) that has a map, and a key. These will only help if they follow the drinking gourd.
The teams must now make their way into a huge swamp where six boxes are hidding. The map shows the locations of these, but they will only find them in the right order if they match the symbols to words in the Drinking Gourd song. That sounds easy enough. You would think. Ha! It's a swamp! The sixth and final box contains the next clue and $30,000 in what appears to be gold coins.
The Southies started looking around in a decrepit house, but that didn't last long and they headed off to the swamp. A graphic at the bottom of the screen gave the temperature as 101 F and the humidity as 98%. I know that's hot, but I'm Canadian and "101 F" means nothing to me, so as a service to my fellow Canucks a quick check with a temperature conversion website and we find that's over 38 C. Holy crap.
Other teams started arriving and going out into the swamp. The Fogals were recognizing the symbols on the quilt from the lyrics to the song. Good for them! I hope nothing happens to jostle this newfound good will!
The Ex-CIAs were the first to find a box, but were unable to open it. That's when they figured there would be an order in which to find them.
Back to the Fogals, there did seem to be an issue brewing with Kayte... No, nothing too bad. It's all still good.
Watching these teams in that humid heat trying to make their way through the swamp with the water and mud and plants and bugs, and they had to do it well clothed to protect themselves from insects and snakes and the plants. It just looked tedious and painful, and that made it fun to watch.
Genius Frances said to his teammates that the key to this is to not get lost. Because, you know, they haven't done that yet.
The Browns arrived last, and as a result were made to say, "Let's see what the Motorola has to say."
Here's the thing. I've been ragging on the product placement on this show for a while now, and frankly with good cause as it does tend to go overboard. But you can't call yourself a "reality" show or an "unscripted" show if you're going to make the contestants say things that nobody ever in real life says. I will bet you that not even employees of Motorola say, "Hold on, I'm getting a call on my Motorola."
If you can fit the placement in seemlessly, fine, but these forced comments just don't ring true and so they're likely to just pull the audience right out of the moment.
The problem the Browns had was they started doing what cost the Hanlons, they didn't really look at the clues they had and just randomly walked around trying to find things.
Meanwhile, the Ex-CIAs found the first box on the trail and opened it up to reveal keys for the next box.
Kayte Fogal was complaining about the heat, but when offered water started to get upset and said that she was fine and didn't want to stop for water right now. This caught the attention of the nearby Southie Boys who went up to the Fogals who started sharing their notes. The two teams then decided to work together.
Uh oh. Don't do it, Fogals! I've been nice to you this week!
The Miss USAs caught up with the Air Force, and they too decided to work together. Despite the 30 grand, this was hard work and people just wanted to be able to get out of the swamp.
The Southies and Fogals were the next to find the first box and they got their keys, the CIA's found their next box, then the USAs and Air Force found their first box.
Okay, there was a lot of this going on, and really there's no point in doing it step-by-step like this, so let's just get to the highlights. If you didn't watch then you missed some of the most grueling times ever on one of these shows. Teams were struggling very hard and getting extremely frustrated. The swamp alone made this the best episode yet, and yet it had all that other great stuff before!
Ma Fogal pointed out a dry spot to Kayte, who started complaining that she couldn't go any further. And by "complaining", I mean she started whining and moaning and yes, she acted like a child having a tantrum. This 25-year-old teacher.
I'd like to point you to the top of this recap with the update on the condition of Jessica of the Grad Students who wrecked her knee but still fought through to the finish. Now come back and look at Kayte who is acting childishly petulant. Not a nice comparison for Kayte.
How the Southies stuck with her I don't know. If you think I'm exaggerating with the word "tantrum", she was literally screaming "I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE!"
We also get a Chuck interview where he said they're trudging along and he likes to keep a fairly decent pace, but once again Sam... oh shut up! You're a GENIUS! Why the hell did you not think your team selection through more carefully if it bothers you that much?
The Ex-CIAs found their third box, and the phone rings. It turns out that Laird is a lot more devious than he previously seemed. Listening to this again, I caught something I missed before and I thought it only applied to this leg, but no. "From now on if at anytime you feel you are stronger as a two person team, you can choose to eliminate a team member for the rest of the hunt." OOOOOOOHHHHH!!! Damn! And I use it this time in a shocked and very pleased way! This could get good!
Right now they had to get to their next spot in a boat, but the boat can only carry two of them. They had until the end of the ride to decide if they were going to come back for the third team member, and in doing so that would cost them a three hour delay. OOOOOHHHH!!!
Oh. That sucks for the Grad Students. That would have meant Jessica could have gone home while the other two kept playing. That just made their bad luck worse.
This had to be very hard on the teammates who were left behind. Despite their assurances there had to be that sliver of doubt that maybe they might not come back.
Kayte continued to be shining example to her students by crying and wanting to give up, but her mother didn't want to hear of it in a not wanting to leave her daughter behind. While Kayte's tears were like searing drops of whiny pain, Margie's tears were touching and made me feel bad about the mean things I said. (Remember the canoe! Remember the canoe!) As for the Southies, dropping one of them was the furthest thing from their minds.
The Browns in the meantime still hadn't found a box when tragedy struck. Keith got stuck in some mud and in trying to remove himself tore a muscle.
Before that storyline went any further, back at the dock the two Air Force members that were going first said "Let's decide in the boat" about the dropping of the third member, and that had to have made him feel on top of the world. However, on the boat it was quickly decided that leaving him behind wasn't even an option.
For the Miss USAs, Kaitlyn was willing to sacrifice herself if the others thought it would be best for the team and she admitted to us that she did have that doubt they would come back.
The Ex-CIAs were the first to come back, but we wouldn't find out about the others until later. Why?
The Geniuses. Sam was struggling in the swamp and had to stop to catch his breath, which irked Chuck to no end. "This isn't the place to stop!" Can I smack him now please?
You know how "fogaling" someone is screwing them over, especially after they helped you out? There is a new word now. "Chucked", disparaging a friend and making them feel useless.
"Dude, you totally chucked me back there! Not cool! Now I feel like crap!"
"Hey, you fogaled me first, you useless jerk!"
"At least I didn't melissa the clue!"
I'm kidding on that last one.
At the dock the Southies came back for Matthew, then in a move I wouldn't have predicted an episode or two or three ago, the Fogals came back for Kayte and that seemed to have lifted her spirits. In a camera interview, she said that she won't give up now. We'll hold judgement on that, but it was still a touching scene. Of course the Air Force came back too.
Now there was a race. The Ex-CIAs had a good lead, but the Southies were next and these are very fit men. That made it a race to the treasure and...
Commercial.
Back to the race to the box! The winners are Team Ex-CIAs! They are told to take the coins with them and to procede on to a safehouse.
This really only leaves two teams now to look at.
The Browns had to get Keith into a canoe that took him to dry land where a medical team and ambulance were waiting. Two game-ending injuries in four episodes? This show is dangerous! Not even Survivor has that kind of record in such a short space of time. The thing is, even though they haven't found any boxes yet and so are unaware of the twist, would the remaining two Browns be allowed to carry on? I like these guys, but can't help thinking how this sucks for the Grads.
More importantly though, I hope Keith is doing okay. If he's not back on next week, I will try to have an update on his condition. But wait? Don't we know what's happening yet?
Well, in the next scene the Geniuses have arrived at the third box and get the Laird Call explaining about the twist and the opportunity to dump a team member. Chuck and Francis got in the boat while Sam waited at the dock.
In the boat, the two "Geniuses" started rationalizing leaving Sam behind, then in a camera interview Chuck talked about Sam being a hindrance and how it would be logical to drop him from the team.
Back in the boat, Chuck and Francis kept talking about it, how Sam would hate them for the rest of their lives, "but it's the most logical decision we have!"
We see Sam sitting under a tree looking pensive and worried, then those magical words - TO BE CONTINUED.