The Browns Are Back in Town

After being eliminated last week, the Brown family returned to Treasure Hunters and actually did something quickly for once. They found their artifact first and sent the Hanlons back to Texas.

Without explanation, the contestants started the episode in Boston, even though they finished the last leg in Montana. The Grad Students tearfully announced that they'd be leaving the race to spare Jessica's knee further injury, after her stumble last week.

The next morning, the teams learned that the Browns would be replacing the Grad Students. The contestents' newest clue instructed them to find the old Burke School in Chelsea, MA. Five teams decided to follow Boston natives the Southie Boys; team Air Force and the Fogal family headed in different directions. However, Air Force reached the school in first place, while the Fogals got lost.

Old Burke was a creepy, abandoned school with graffiti on every wall and Revolutionary War facts written on a chalkboard in one of the classrooms. In one room, graffiti read, "Look until you can see no more." For some reason, this hint prompted the Air Force team to focus on one of the facts on the chalkboard, which mentioned "the shot heard round the world." They headed out to find the location of the shot, just before all the other teams, except the Fogals, were arriving at the school.

The real clue was actually graffitied on the classroom's walls in glowing ink. Though none of the teams currently at the school had seen the graffiti hint, Kid Hanlon decided to turned off the room's lights. Written in glow-in-the-dark paint on the wall were the next two clue locations: Old Newgate Prison and Wentworth House.

Teams were forced to pair up. Each team in the pair headed to a separate location, and then compared their clues over the phone.

As the six teams at the school paired up, the Fogals called the Geniuses for directions. Francis the Genius told them that his team was lost as well. The six teams split up, with three teams driving to each location, and leaving the Fogals and Team Air Force to fend for themselves.

Eventually realizing they'd missed a clue inside of the school, Air Force drove back to Burke. Upon figuring the clue, they called the Fogals, a team they'd helped on previous tasks. They told the Fogals to skip the school and drive to Old Newgate Prison, while the Air Forcers made their way to Wentworth House.

Ex-CIA, the Hanlons, and the Southies went to Wentworth House, where they were instructed to look for a hollow bullet with a message inside, an old soldiers' trick for concealing information. The bullets were under a board in the floor. Each message had only half of the information needed for it to make complete sense--the corresponding messages from the prison would complete the clue--though it did hint that the teams should head to the Old North Church. In case you didn't know, many things are "Old" in Boston.

Air Force arrived at the House just as the other three teams were leaving. They then deduced that the other six teams were all working against them and the Fogals, so they rushed to find their clue and called their partners.

Because they'd been so off-target searching for the school, the Fogals were actually closer to Old Newgate Prison than anyone else. They found their hollow bullet in the old copper mines underneath the prison, with flashlights providing their only light.

Combining clues, the Fogals and Air Force concluded that they needed to go to the cemetery by Old North Church and look in a clocktower for lights. The Revolutionary code "One if by land, two if by sea," would determine where they needed to go next.

The remaining teams found their clue under the prison and called their partner teams to collaborate. The Hanlons were already resentful of the Browns readmission to the game and refused to work with them, making fake static noise over their cell phone. But the Browns were able to get the correct information from other teams and drove to the Old North Church.

In the cemetery, teams saw two lights in the tower, which meant they were to catch a ferry to Boston's famous lighthouse, Boston Light. The teams raced to Pemberton Pier to get tickets for their ferries, which would leave the following morning.

The ferries were to leave in fifteen-minute intervals, and each ferry could carry a maximum of two teams. The teams who arrived later--the Geniuses, Miss USA, the Fogals, and the Browns--negotiated with the faster teams to share ferries. Unfortunately for the Browns, the Hanlons refused to share their ferry, meaning the Browns would arrive at the lighthouse last.

At Boston Light the following morning, teams had to unlock boxes to find this episode's artifact. However, they weren't given any clue as to the four-digit combinations of the two locks on each of their boxes. The contestants from the first two ferries--Southie Boys, Geniuses, Miss USA, and ex-CIA--unsuccessfully tried numbers associated with the Revolutionary War, until one of the Geniuses noticed many small white stones laid out on the ground in what seemed to be a pattern.

From atop the lighthouse, Charles the Genius realized the rocks formed Roman numerals. The first four teams helped each other unlock their new artifact, an engraved box. Before leaving the lighthouse, they made sure to relock each cluebox before the third boat--with Air Force and the Fogals--arrived.

Air Force and the Fogals unlocked their artifacts just before the Hanlons arrived. Kid Hanlon went to the top of the lighthouse, while Dad and Uncle Hanlon searched the lighthouse museum for clues.

The Browns arrived on the island, and at the top of the lighthouse, Kid Hanlon apologized to Tonny Brown for the scene at the dock. Tonny accepted, and both guys made their way down the lighthouse with the Roman numeral combinations.

Although Kid Hanlon got the combination to his team first, none of the Hanlons knew what the Roman numeral 'L' stood for. The Browns, who knew that 'L' stood for '50,' opened up a box to find that one of the earlier teams had capriciously replaced the artifact with a rock.

Once they realized that the Browns had sussed out the lock combinations, a desperate Dad and Uncle Hanlon tried to look over the shoulders and under the legs of the Browns as they entered their combinations. The Browns played successful defense, eventually finding a box with an artifact, and the Hanlons wound up being eliminated.

Though I'm still not sold on the show, this episode was an improvement over previous weeks. We still know next to nothing about the teams, but this episode had some competitive tension. Teams are still mentioning the sponsored products throught the show, but it's easy to tune out the brand names after three weeks. The only things that are still annoying are the Genworth Financial ads/clues that are photoshopped into certain scenes. Since the teams never seem to notice them, it's obvious that they were added later, making the show look a little amateurish.

Next time, teams search for an artifact in New York, and the Fogal girl freaks out in a swamp.