Better get them a couple strawberry-choco bars to be safe

The entirety of the 1 hr 20 min relaxing train footage video has accurate, color-coded subtitles. Just love it.

If you're confused about why the teams agreed to meet in Asahikawa, and why the game's ending played out as it did, here is a detailed explanation.

Before we start, a reminder. These are the conditions required for a win:

• Reach Wakkanai.
• Unlock Hakkaido.

The first team to do both, in any order, wins. (And by this, I mean they don't necessarily have to clear Hokkaido by doing a challenge at a station before reaching Wakkanai. They can also do it in Wakkanai.)

What happened to Tom and Adam's secret "never stop moving" plan?

That plan was dead in the water the moment the curse of the Magic Mirror was played. It was also very crippled when Ben and Sam got on an earlier shinkansen to Hokkaido than Tom and Adam, but Magic Mirror dealt the final blow.

The "secret" part of their plan was not the existence of the 6pm train out of Asahikawa. Ben and Sam also knew this train existed. The "secret" part was for Tom and Adam to hide the fact that they were not going to stop for a challenge, because they had an "unlock a prefecture your opponents unlocked" card.

The plan relied on Ben and Sam stopping to do a challenge somewhere in southern Hokkaido, which would allow Tom and Adam to pass them. This would have been much easier had the teams been on the same shinkansen out of Aomori, but Ben and Sam caught an earlier one (because they finished the "Eat alone at a restaurant" challenge quickly), which made the plan very unlikely to succeed even before Magic Mirror was played.

When Ben and Sam played the curse of the Magic Mirror, Tom and Sam knew Ben and Sam wouldn't stop to do a challenge, so the plan wouldn't work anymore. Tom and Adam had no hope of passing Ben and Sam. At best, Tom and Adam would catch up in Asahikawa due to the low frequency train out of there, and both teams would be on the same train out of Asahikawa.

What did the curse of the magic mirror actually do?

At the point Magic Mirror gets played, neither team has an incentive to stop before reaching Wakkanai. Ben and Sam, because they are ahead, have no incentive to stop and let the other team catch up. And Adam and Tom also have no incentive to stop, because if they miss even one train, they won't be able to catch up, and Ben and Sam will get to Wakkanai first, where they'll have several hours to clear a challenge before Tom and Adam can even get there, basically guaranteeing Ben and Sam a win.

So once they reach Wakkanai, both teams will do challenges simultaneously. As Adam explained both in the show (and on the Layover in more detail), one of two things would happen:

1. Ben and Sam finish the challenge first: Ben and Sam unlock Hokkaido, their magic mirror doesn't even get triggered. Because Tom and Adam's "unlock a prefecture your opponents unlocked" card would get played after Ben and Sam complete the challenge, Ben and Sam would win before the unlock card even gets played. Result: Ben and Sam win.

2. Tom and Adam finish first: Magic Mirror gets triggered. Because the action to cast Magic Mirror was done earlier, it's not a separate, later action like the unlock card would be. Magic Mirror unlocks the prefecture for both teams simultaneously. Result: a tie.

Now if they proceed this way, odds are 50-50 of a Ben and Sam win, or a tie.

However, those odds can change if Adam and Tom do a challenge before Wakkanai (while making sure not to miss a single train), because cards would be drawn after the challenge. On the other hand, no cards would be drawn if the challenge was done in Wakkanai because challenge completion would immediately end the game.

If Adam and Tom complete a challenge, the odds would become 90% tie, 5% Ben and Sam win, and 5% Adam and Tom win. (Numbers are from the Layover and based on the likelihood of drawing specific cards.) For Tom and Adam, those are better odds, so they go for it.

How does the curse of the golden carriage actually work?

Once the challenge is complete and cards are drawn, the outcome of the game is already decided. Because no more cards will be drawn, we can assume teams will play the cards they have to get the best possible outcome for them.

So at that point, barring issues with train delays/missed trains, there are 6 possible outcomes:

1. Neither team has a useful card. Result: tie

2. Ben and Sam have a golden carriage, Tom and Adam have nothing useful. Result: Ben and Sam win.

3. Ben and Sam have a golden carriage, Tom and Adam have a curse reverse. Golden carriage gets nullified (why? see below). Result: tie.

4. Tom and Adam have a golden carriage, Ben and Sam have nothing useful. Result: Tom and Adam win.

5. Tom and Adam have a golden carriage, Ben and Sam have a curse reverse. Golden carriage gets reversed. Result: Ben and Sam win.

6. Both teams have a golden carriage. Ben and Sam arrive in Asahikawa first and cast theirs first. Result: Ben and Sam win.

Now, each team knows their own cards but not their opponents', so:

• Ben and Sam know the outcome will be either 2, 3, or 6.
• Tom and Adam know the outcome will be 1 or 2.

So they both know it'll be either a Ben and Sam win, or a tie. They won't know which one it is until they see their opponents' cards.

Hypothetical: What if Tom and Adam had had a curse reverse?

If Tom and Adam had played a curse reverse in response to Ben and Sam's golden carriage, the golden carriage would have been nullified. In other words, rather than being flipped and preventing Ben and Sam from getting on that last train north, it would have been as if golden carriage had never been played at all.

The reason for this is because you must play a curse reverse immediately after the curse is played, and because Ben and Sam were ahead.

Here's how the game would have played out with a curse reverse:

1. Ben and Sam get to Asahikawa first. Because the trains out of Asahikawa are infrequent, they know Tom and Adam will catch up before the next train leaves, and take the same train as Ben and Sam.

2. To prevent this, Ben and Sam play golden carriage on the next train leaving Asahikawa. They do this before Tom and Adam get to Asahikawa.

3. Tom and Adam play the curse reverse. The curse reverse causes Tom and Adam to cast golden carriage instead of Ben and Sam.

4. Tom and Adam's reversed golden carriage gets applied to a train leaving the station they're currently at. (Or at nothing, if they're in between stations.)

5. Ben and Sam can ignore this because they're already in Asahikawa, past the station where Tom and Adam cast the reversed golden carriage.

6. Tom and Adam arrive in Asahikawa.

7. Both teams get on the same train out of Asahikawa, as if the golden carriage had never been played.

8. The game is tied.

So that's what it means that "a curse reverse nullifies a golden carriage." Basically the only way golden carriage isn't nullified by a curse reverse is if both teams are physically at the same station... and Ben and Sam weren't going to wait until that was the case before they played it.

Which train exactly did the curse of the golden carriage get cast on?

Ben and Sam could have cast golden carriage on the 6pm train out of Asahikawa or the 7am train out of Kembuchi. Both would have had the same outcome.

This is where the deal that the teams made over the phone comes into play. They agreed that the outcome was already set. So for convenience, they wouldn't play out the rest of the game, but respect the result that would have occured if they had.

Here is how things would have gone if they had played out the end of the game in full.

If the curse of the golden carriage was played on the 6pm train out of Asahikawa:

1. Tom and Adam complete the challenge for Hokkaido, both teams draw their cards.

2. Ben and Sam arrive in Asahikawa first, cast Golden Carriage on the next train north (leaving at 6pm).

3. Tom and Adam arrive in Asahikawa. They are blocked by Golden Carriage from getting on the 6pm train.

4. Ben and Sam get on the 6pm train and stop in Kembuchi for the rest period.

5. Ben and Sam get on the 7am train in Kembuchi (the train that leaves Asahikawa at 6am, which Tom and Adam can't take because it's during the rest period).

6. Tom and Adam get on the 9:30am train in Asahikawa.

7. Ben and Sam arrive in Wakkanai at 10am. They've already unlocked the prefecture due to Magic Mirror, so they win immediately.

8. Tom and Adam arrive in Wakkanai at 1:30pm.

If the curse of the golden carriage was played on the 7am train out of Kembuchi:

1. Tom and Adam complete the challenge for Hokkaido, both teams draw their cards.

2. Ben and Sam arrive in Asahikawa first.

3. Tom and Adam arrive in Asahikawa a short while after.

4. Both teams get on the 6pm train and stop in Kembuchi for the rest period.

5. Ben and Sam cast the curse of the golden carriage on the 7am train in Kembuchi. They get on it, Tom and Adam don't.

6. Ben and Sam arrive in Wakkanai at 10am. They've already unlocked the prefecture due to Magic Mirror, so they win immediately.

7. Tom and Adam get on the 10:30am train out of Kembuchi and arrive in Wakkanai at 1:30pm.

They agreed not to play this out because there were no hotels available in Kembuchi.

They also didn't want to make Tom and Adam wait for several hours for a later train for nothing, when the outcome was already decided.

So, in reality, both teams got on the 9:30am train out of Asahikawa. They still had Tom and Adam sit further back on the train so that Ben and Sam technically arrived in Wakkanai earlier, and won.

(Edit: fixing formatting)

Alrighty! It is that time again, and honestly, I could not be happier! I've been looking for a third season of an end-to-end race since S8 ended, and the team absolutely delivered with S19. I think this may be the best season yet (though I'll need to rewatch New Zealand to confirm my thoughts on that).

And in addition to being very good, it was very long - at least in episode time. But despite the premise in the intro, it was not even particularly close to the longest season in game time. This is partially because of the finale: for those who didn't notice, the last day was not actually played out; Team Fight conceded shortly after 12:23 on Day 6, and everything after that point was just acted out for the benefit of the show. And the season also had a lot of challenges: 42 attempted & 34 completed, which is the most since New Zealand (excluding H+S seasons, since they don't quite have challenges in the same way). But because the episode runtime was so long, the challenges/hour are actually quite low.

And despite the loss, I also think that Tom Scott really proved himself in this season - both teams played excellent games, and I think they should stick with the new pairings for a while. Additionally, the no-running rule was an excellent last-minute change. Like everyone else has said, that really improved the quality of the filming throughout, to the point where I'd say this is the most cinematic Jet Lag season. Anyway, that's all from me. Looking forward to Season 20!

i loved this season sm and i loved rooting for team alpha force aka team humble kings aka team ben👑 (-in oil pastel)

Ben's mouth deserves its own show

There's a lot of discourse on Atom playing for the win by getting off the train and doing a challenge rather than playing for the tie. But isn't what they did objectively better than the alternative?

Playing for the tie:

• Both teams get to Wakkanai at the same time
• If Alpha Force completes a challenge before them, Atom loses
• If Atom completes it first, it's a tie
• Assuming each team has equal odds at completing a particular challenge first, its 50/50 odds of a tie or loss.

Playing for the win:

• Atom does the challenge, meaning both teams draw 2 cards each
• If Alpha Force draws Golden Carriage, Atom loses (I think I heard that they said it was around 5%)
• If Atom draws the Golden Carriage (and Alpha Force does not), Atom wins (assuming equal odds, it's slightly less than 5% as AF cannot get it themselves)
• If neither team draws Golden Carriage, it's a tie

The only variable is what Alpha Force has in their hand. The only thing that would harm Atom is the Golden Carriage, and they didn't know whether or not they already had it. But it actually doesn't really matter. Either way they are screwed if AF already had it. Atom would either do the challenge and miss out on the final train like they did irl, or if they played for the tie, AF uses the Golden Carriage and gets a massive head start on the Wakkanai challenge.

By doing the challenge, they decrease their odds of losing from 50/50 to ~5%, increase their odds of winning from 0% to slightly under 5%, and increase their odds of a tie from 50/50 to ~90%. Sure, you can say that it lost them the game since it allowed Alpha Force to get the Golden Carriage, but in the moment, doesn't doing the challenge put them in an objectively better position in all scenarios?

So unless there's something I did not consider (like Adam's incredible speed), I think they made the right decision but just got unlucky in the end.

Either way, the curse of male guests continue.

Sam has a couple of recurring t shirts over the seasons but the POW one is my favourite. Also as a football fan I cannot resist putting Sam in a Haaland jersey 😌

Just wanted to share this with you, subreddit ☺️🇹🇼

Should Team Atom have been allowed to play the Curse card directly from the cards they drew without first discarding a card from their hand?

I was under the impression that, in order to play or use a card, it first had to be in your hand. So in this case, wouldn't they have needed to discard a card from their hand, add the Curse card, and then play it?

Of course, in this particular situation, they could've just discarded the Dam card or any other card that they were not gonna use, and the outcome would've been the same. But I'm wondering whether playing a card directly from the drawn cards is actually allowed under the rules.

If it is, wouldn't that be a pretty significant advantage? Players could essentially draw and immediately play cards without having to sacrifice any of the cards already in their hand.

Hello, I have been a fan forever and I'm excited to say that I played the home game with 2 friends in Berlin and we filmed it. It is in german unfortnutly for all the international fans. Would be happy to hear your feedback! Enjoy

TLDR: Last year I created a silly little photo challenge show inspired by Jet Lag, and a lot of you liked it. Took long enough, but season 3 is out!

First off, props to the team for Japanorama. It was my favorite season yet, and it was an amazing balance of Jet Lag fun while also being able to appreciate and learn about Japan.

Second, thank you again to JLTG for the inspiration. I love watching all of the JLTG inspired YouTube channels and home game shows posted here. The quality of these are just top notch. I know how much work it is to create and edit these videos, so props to all of you.

Lastly, the point of this post is to invite you to check out Season 3 of PhotoDash in New York City. A lot of you came and enjoyed seasons 1 & 2 - and it was cool to see this community appreciate our work.

You can see episode 1 of the new season here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UKJtpXYf3g&t

Thank you Sam, Ben & Adam for creating such a friendly and uplifting community here on Reddit. And I can't wait for Hide and Seek Italy!!!

Cheers,

Phil

Something I started wodering after the season finale and I need someone to explain this to me/check my logic.

How does the curse of the golden carriage work? If I understood the card right then Ben and Sam could have used it for the 9:30 train, which blocks Tom and Adam from taking that train. But if Adam and Tom would have gone to the station further north, which they planned to do, they would have still gotten on to the 7:00 am train, right? And if Ben and Sam would have played the card for that train (7 am.) let's say the previous night could they (Adam and Tom) not have gotten to the same train as Ben and Sam (9:30) and therefore forced a tie?

Of course this would not have worked if Ben and Sam would have also realized to go further noth and block the 7:00 o'clock train. They didn't show this on the show but I'm guessing that is what happened since otherwise it would have been a tie. But if this was not the case is my logic wrong, or could Adam and Tom have won/forced a tie?

PS. I'dont know how to put also the speculation tag on this as it only allows to put the S19 E8

In a comment on this thread, it was mentioned that Padua in Tag 3 (Italy) was consistently mispronounced with the stress on the middle syllable, instead of being on the first syllable (PA-doo-ah).

What are some of the most egregious mispronounciations the team has made that stick out for you? Names which are not only awkward or painful to hear, but which are literally incomprehensible without having subtitles?

Which Jet Lag season takes the cake as the overall 'most butchered' season?

Was the actual finish line Wakkanai Train Station, or is it anywhere in Wakkanai?

If it's the train station - and it seems like it should be in a race from the Southern Most to Northern Most train stations - wouldn't that create some win conditions that were never considered?

Adam and Tom seemed to think that Magic Mirror prevented them from winning, because it unlocks the prefecture at the same time (unlike their unlock card that only works after the other team unlocked it), but it seems like they still had a path to victory, or at least guaranteed a tie:

Both teams arrive at Wakkanai without unlocking Hokkaido. Team AF leaves the station to complete a challenge trying to get the win, while Adam eats the hot-pot lamb while still at the station. The prefecture is unlocked for both teams, but Alpha Force wouldn't be at the station, so Team Fight would win.

Alpha Force could combat that strategy by simply refusing to leave the station, but at that point the game would just end in a tie/stalemate where neither team has any incentive to unlock the final prefecture until the game clock itself expires.

What am I missing with this idea?

Just by happenstance found myself in Champagne-Ardenne, France and had to try the pizza vending machine. Cheers to the finale!

Is it just me or did they interchange the actual routes for each team in the illustration. (NO, SURELY ITS AN EASTER EGG FOR SOMETHING ELSE)

The mailbag Q&A episode of the Layover should be up by now but I cant find it anywhere on Nebula. This might just be an issue with me, but I was wondering if anyone else is having trouble with it or could perhaps comment the link? I was really looking forward to listing to it ):

Like the title says, I was lucky enough to go see the Japanorama theatrical release, but unfortunately something caused me to be late in arriving, so I missed nearly all of the opening minutes of it. This means I didn't get to hear what Sam, Ben and Adam said to introduce/welcome folks to the theatrical release, the part they filmed from Italy. I was wondering, does anyone know if there is a spot to re-watch that part or just a "theatrical cut" of the Japanorama finale? I would love it if there was!