S01.E07: The Final Escape

[MarkHB]

Something just occurred to me: what if, so far as the producers are concerned, the game ends when they pick up the money? The contestants might be told they have to escape, but maybe the hunters are just acting at that point.

[Nashville]

3 hours ago, MarkHB said:

Something just occurred to me: what if, so far as the producers are concerned, the game ends when they pick up the money? The contestants might be told they have to escape, but maybe the hunters are just acting at that point.

Dunno -  but every attempt was made to convey the impression the runners could be nabbed at any point up to/until their air transport made it into free flight.  I was half-expecting one of the final teams to get caught in that manner - the EscapeBros' jet to get blocked on the runway before it could take off, or the seaplane blocked by a boat.

[waving feather]

I like that the hunters have no lead whatsoever on the Escape room dudes the whole time on the run (except that one time they taunted them with the Instagram post). It looks like they didn't withdraw money either? And they didn't show English and Steven much either because I think they had no idea where they were. 

English and Steven used the same tactic as the frat bros in solicitating strangers for help. But they picked better strangers who help them out without blowing their cover. That's a good strategy for future contestants. I like how English pulls out the sad puppy dog look whenever she is asking for help.

[teo47]

4 hours ago, waving feather said:

I like that the hunters have no lead whatsoever on the Escape room dudes the whole time on the run (except that one time they taunted them with the Instagram post). It looks like they didn't withdraw money either? And they didn't show English and Steven much either because I think they had no idea where they were. 

English and Steven used the same tactic as the frat bros in solicitating strangers for help. But they picked better strangers who help them out without blowing their cover. That's a good strategy for future contestants. I like how English pulls out the sad puppy dog look whenever she is asking for help.

I am thinking you're right, and the hunters were really never anywhere close to catching either of the two winning teams.  It does pose a bit of a challenge to the editing team to make it look dramatic when there wasn't really any drama there.  My guess is that the whole bank/run/plane scenes at the end were totally fabricated and filmed after the game had ended in order to add more excitement for TV.  I saw a photo on Twitter of Lee & Hilmar posing with the hunter Griff (all wearing their clothes from the finale episode) that would appear to confirm this.

[TheRabbi]

4 hours ago, teo47 said:

I am thinking you're right, and the hunters were really never anywhere close to catching either of the two winning teams.  It does pose a bit of a challenge to the editing team to make it look dramatic when there wasn't really any drama there.  My guess is that the whole bank/run/plane scenes at the end were totally fabricated and filmed after the game had ended in order to add more excitement for TV.  I saw a photo on Twitter of Lee & Hilmar posing with the hunter Griff (all wearing their clothes from the finale episode) that would appear to confirm this.

This just irritates me more, and stays in line with my comment of the fakest reality show I've ever seen. That whole finale was entirely for the audience. I'm guessing if they survive 28 days, they are guaranteed the prize and just recruited to act out a scene for added pretend excitement at the end.

[kaygeeret]

An interesting concept not completely thought out or ineptly written and executed.

Major changes need to be made b/4 I would waste my time again.

[millennium]

Bad beyond awful.

If the Hunters are told exactly where the fugitives are going to be picking up their money, why waste all that time and effort trying to find them during the 28 days leading up to the cash withdrawal? 

To all home invasion enthusiasts, head on down Georgia and South Carolina way.   Folks there open their houses to perfect strangers, make you pizza and listen attentively while you rave about burner phones or probably even UFOs.

It amazes me that a TV show can get faster and more direct access to CCTV feeds and highway license plate detection cameras than authorities could even during an Amber Alert.   Especially loved the alleged CCTV feed from the gas station.   They didn't even have to ask the owners, just tapped right into the feed.    Unless they shot the footage themselves after the fact to make it look like a CCTV feed.

And Theresa, God love her, she wore the same boring outfit during all 7 episodes of this show.

It kind of bums me out me that I will never have a cool nickname like "Ry-Phi." 

Edited March 4, 2017 by millennium

[Skyfall]

On 3/1/2017 at 9:24 PM, wings707 said:

Terrible.  This will never see a season 2 but someone else may take the idea and make a better one.  

It's been steady on Wednesdays at 1.2 and CBS has a lot more to worry about that than this show. It'll return.

Re: Seaplane hunch

Remember that the war room bits were all filmed afterwards so they already knew what had went down and had to fill in the rest of the story.

[dstann]

17 hours ago, millennium said:

If the Hunters are told exactly where the fugitives are going to be picking up their money, why waste all that time and effort trying to find them during the 28 days leading up to the cash withdrawal? 

They caught 7 of the 9 teams, even being told where the fugitives were picking up the money they weren't able to catch either of the final 2 teams.  Pretty strong evidence as to why you should waste the other 28 days looking.

 

17 hours ago, millennium said:

It amazes me that a TV show can get faster and more direct access to CCTV feeds and highway license plate detection cameras than authorities could even during an Amber Alert.   Especially loved the alleged CCTV feed from the gas station.   They didn't even have to ask the owners, just tapped right into the feed.    Unless they shot the footage themselves after the fact to make it look like a CCTV feed.

This is actually based on a British show and at the start of the British show they say that some of their powers of state are simulated.  I am guessing the producers film fake CC tv footage and if the hunters actually have good intelligence that the fugitives are at the location they can get the fake CCTV footage.  Similarly if they have the license plate of the fugitives car then I think the camera man with the fugitives sends in location info when they pass a license plate scanner. 

[jumper sage]

20 hours ago, millennium said:

If the Hunters are told exactly where the fugitives are going to be picking up their money, why waste all that time and effort trying to find them during the 28 days leading up to the cash withdrawal?

Exactly!  I only with the 3rd final team made it too.

[waving feather]

I think it's obvious that if the hunters can't find them within 27 days or have no trace of where they are, it's almost impossible to catch them on the last day even when they logged in for their final instructions. Unless the hunters really lucked out and they are somewhere in the vicinity of the bank. Though, I wouldn't count that out in the next season that the hunters somehow are nearby "by chance". 

Besides Ry-Phi having a cool name, he is one of the hunters in the war room I could tolerate because he doesn't give snide comments. The British guy is OK too. The rest they should replace if they have another season, especially the dude who pulled the seaplane Intel magically out of his ass.

[Charlesman]

22 hours ago, millennium said:

It amazes me that a TV show can get faster and more direct access to CCTV feeds and highway license plate detection cameras than authorities could even during an Amber Alert.   Especially loved the alleged CCTV feed from the gas station.   They didn't even have to ask the owners, just tapped right into the feed.    Unless they shot the footage themselves after the fact to make it look like a CCTV feed.

And Theresa, God love her, she wore the same boring outfit during all 7 episodes of this show.

 

 

All the CCTV footage was staged.

All the scenes in the "bullpen" full of investigators was staged. They shot all that in one day, after the hunting part was over, just to fill in for the audience what the techniques and strategies being simulated were.

[Gregg247]

This show started out so good and then completely fell apart due to vague rules. questionable "hunches" (that always turned out to be right) and sudden leaps in logic that were never explained.  

I was 100% pulling for the Hunters until David (red beard) and his girlfriend almost got caught because -- let me get this straight -- David had mentioned a woman's name in the acknowledgements of the book he had written several years earlier, and that woman happened to be driving to Vidalia, and the hunters surmised that David and the girlfriend were with her at that very moment, and somehow then figured out that they were in a cabin in the woods owned by the boss of the former middle school boyfriend of David's girlfriend!!!!!  (That sounds even worse when I write it out like that than it seemed on TV!)  

Anyway, from then on, I just wanted all the fugitives to win the money.

I hated the "new rules" that said the Hunters get the exact location of the fugitives on Day 26, plus the general (Atlanta region) area of their finish line.  Plus, the fact that they will travel by plane AND that they will make their way to that airport on foot from a local bank.  And THEN, that one Hunter correctly guessed Blue Ridge, GA and a seaplane!!!

I loved the "friend" of English who sold out her old college chum for $500.  Do you think she was invited to the victory party? LOL

[SVNBob]

On 3/2/2017 at 7:14 AM, MarkHB said:

 But does anyone remember which of those two teams was the one that was using Tor to connect to Gmail, etc. at the start of the run?

It wasn't either of the winning teams.  It was the Muslims.

A theory that occurred to me in watching the finale.  According to the timeline we were able to put together, Stephen and English were the actually the first team to start, right?  Them being the first to start and then succeeding would explain why the hunters were cracking down on everyone else that much harder.  They'd already been beaten once.

[MarkHB]

1 hour ago, SVNBob said:

It wasn't either of the winning teams.  It was the Muslims.

Thanks.  I looked back and saw that I was unclear in my original post; the "two teams" I meant were the escape room guys and the Muslims.  I knew it wasn't Stephen and English. :)

[RedheadZombie]

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 6:46 PM, Puffaroo said:

Isn't this the first time we've seen them do that, the bribe?  And WOW, I wonder what the future relationship will be like with the snitch!

The woman is a physician.  The only way she took a bribe was if it was written in the script. 

[Tabasco Cat]

On 3/12/2017 at 9:29 PM, RedheadZombie said:

The woman is a physician.  The only way she took a bribe was if it was written in the script. 

Audiologists are not Medical Doctors. They're doctors because they have PhD degrees, but they're not physicians.

[Matt1]

On 3/8/2017 at 5:16 AM, SVNBob said:

It wasn't either of the winning teams.  It was the Muslims.

A theory that occurred to me in watching the finale.  According to the timeline we were able to put together, Stephen and English were the actually the first team to start, right?  Them being the first to start and then succeeding would explain why the hunters were cracking down on everyone else that much harder.  They'd already been beaten once.

I thought they all started the same weekend, since it was raining on Day One for a bunch of the teams.

[Nashville]

2 hours ago, Matt1 said:

I thought they all started the same weekend, since it was raining on Day One for a bunch of the teams.

Teams started out from all different places in the containment area, though, ranging from South Carolina to Florida.  Doubtful the same rain would be falling everywhere in a 100,000 sq. mile area at the exact same time.  That would be a bit much for a hurricane, even.  :)

[Matt1]

16 hours ago, Nashville said:

Teams started out from all different places in the containment area, though, ranging from South Carolina to Florida.  Doubtful the same rain would be falling everywhere in a 100,000 sq. mile area at the exact same time.  That would be a bit much for a hurricane, even.  :)

It was Tropical Storm Colin, according to when Stephen and English started, which did affect most of that area.