In this third episode arc of “Destination X” reality competition travel show, the game will change at the end when the players receive a curve ball.  In this episode, it’s one week later after the contestants’ Lake Geneva guessing game, that the bus is headed for France.

Pictured: (l-r) Christian “Biggy” Bailey, Allyson “Ally” Bross, Rick Szabo, Shayne Cureton, Kimberly Conner, Mack Fitzgerald, Tai Lowry, Rachel Rosette — Photo by: Matthieu Joffres/NBC

Ironically, for a location that’s known for “passion” and “affairs of the heart,” Shayne and Ally continue flaunting their show-mance in front of the other players.  Shayne and Biggy are continuing their bro-mance, and Rachel has become aware of the error of her ways and proceeded to do some back-peddling.  Mainly with Rick in her attempt to patch things up between them when she lashed out at him last week.

Rachel said she’s trying to build stronger alliances between her and the group.  Their next stop was a maze where they were placed in pairs to face the next challenge.  Part of this challenge is to hit three major check-points within the maze that would give them clues as to what the destination is.

The Real Clues Please Stand Up!

Only the first pair of players to hit the clues first would be given the REAL clues.  The rest would be “hood-winked,” or given red herring clues.  One really important announcement that host Jeffery Dean Morgan stated during the challenge to the players is that there are some people he wanted them to meet.  This tidbit comes in handy at the end of this episode.  

The fastest team would indeed reap the benefits of finding out where Destination X is. Shayne and Tai were paired-up and had the most advantage in that Shayne was a track star.  Their strategy was to have Shayne run ahead to feel out the correct navigation of the maze with Tai trailing closely behind. 

The first clue was a drawing of a windmill and an actor dressed as a statue motioning a projector.  This was the “correct clue” while others had red herring clues.  The final portion of this challenge was when Tai and Shayne reached the center of the maze.  This is when everything changed.

Great Power and Consequences!

Because the two actors dressed as statues held final clues.  One was a red rose (for Peter Weber from “The Bachelor”), and the other one was a cell phone (for JaNa from “Love Island”).  Only, they didn’t know it yet.  The note card attached to these clues read: “you now have the opportunity to win huge power in the game…”  With each item they chose, came with it “consequences.”  Tai went for the phone and Shayne grabbed the rose.

Because the duo won this challenge, they were rewarded with advantages in the overall game.  JaNa delivered the first advantage to Tai on a note card with a heart image.  That advantage is that Tai has the power to choose one player to save from the Map Room. Whereas Shayne received his power delivered to him on a note card with a broken heart image by Peter Weber.   That was to choose one player to SEND to the Map Room.

Unfortunately, Shayne and Tai both missed the biggest clues to Destination X of all, that was what JaNa and Peter represented — love and romance (associated with Paris, France).  But, they only would have caught on to that if they knew who they were!!  They didn’t have a clue who either Peter or JaNa are.  So, that was a major bummer.

Key Clues Left-Out!

When Shayne and Tai got back to the rest of the players on the bus, they told them about their advantages in the game, but no mention of meeting JaNa nor Peter who delivered those notes to them.  What a major mistake that was!  If only they had told them maybe one of them would have figured it out.

Later that night, Tai and Shayne were brain-storming their correct clues with Ally and Biggy.  They immediately thought they were in Cannes due to the clue of the statue dancing a can-can alongside a drawing of a windmill.  However, those were a clue nods to the can-can in “Moulin Rouge.” 

While Ally is becoming more unavailable due to her new relationship with Shayne, Tai was setting-up back-up alliances with Rachel and Mack.  

THE NEXT CHALLENGE:

The players got to pick their partners this time before finding out what the challenge entailed.  Host Jeffery Dean Morgan told them it would be a “head-to-head” challenge.  Tai had the fortune of randomly being seated at a place with an “X” on the bottom of her plate.  This meant she got to chose her opponent first.  Tai chose Rachel, Shayne chose Rick, and Mack chose Kim.  That left Biggy and Ally as the final pairing.   Rachel felt it as a personal attack when Tai chose to pair with her.   She was kinda right.

The challenge was revealed as a game of croquet.  The losing partner would face the map room.  Rachel lost her game to Tai.  When it was Mack and Kim’s turn, they were all surprised that Kim is an actual expert croquet player.  Thus, just another secret that Kim was withholding. She’s definitely the one to watch, and they are all aware of it now!  

Episode 103 — Pictured: Kimberly Conner — Photo by: Matthieu Joffres/NBC

When the croquet games were over, it was Rachel, Mack, Shayne and Biggy who were facing the Map Room.  After that challenge, the players reconvened on the bus, and a private conversation was shown between Tai and Rachel.  

Pictured: (l-r) Allyson “Ally” Bross, Christian “Biggy” Bailey — Photo by: Matthieu Joffres/NBC

Was This A Set-Up?? 

Tai was telling Rachel about the Can-Can dance the statue was doing and the filming motion it was doing.  At first Rachel associated it with “Moulin Rouge” until Tai insisted the clue stood for the Cannes Film Festival.  Rachel fell for it, and that was followed by Tai telling her not to tell anyone!  Yeah, so not notes to compare with other players!

Before heading into the Map Room, Tai and Shayne’s advantage cards were in play. Tai chose to save Shayne since he was a big part of the reason she won that first challenge to get the advantage. It was Shayne’s turn to use his advantage. He most definitely wasn’t picking Ally.  So, that left either Rick or Kim.  Kim is too much of a wild card.  He chose Rick.   

THE MAP ROOM RESULTS:

Biggy, Rick, and Mack were all within the city limits of Paris.  Rachel was the only one who dropped her “X” in Cannes, and was sent  home.  She felt that she had been “duped” by Tai, and said you can’t trust anyone in this game.  

BUT, THAT’S NOT ALL!

After Rachel’s elimination, the group on the bus were reflecting on how there’s seven players left. But, not for long!  Right after Jeffery unveiled that they were in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, two new players were joining them.  It was the perfect official introduction to Peter Weber and JaNa Craig. 

Everyone lost their crap when Peter and JaNa got onto the bus.  Although Shayne acknowledged his previous meeting with Peter, Tai pretended that she had never met JaNa before in her life.  Not a good look.

In his confessional interview, Peter pointed-out that he has a clear advantage, being Pilot Pete and all, and after not winning “The Bachelorette” or “The Traitors,” he’d like to win this game.  JaNa’s advantage is that she was a Military Brat and has already visited a lot of countries.

Oh! It Gets Better!

Tai got herself in quite the debacle when Peter revealed that he delivered Shayne’s advantage to him. When Rick asked Tai if she had met JaNa, Tai lied and said she did not.  Tai stated in her interview that she worked hard to gain a lot of people’s trust, and now that was up for question.  This exposed JaNa to Tai being shady and seeing that she’s a player she can not trust.  

If we go back to the very beginning of the first challenge in this episode, Jeffery stated that they would be meeting some people.  Hmmm….let that sink-in. The players never thought to ask Tai and Shayne about this.

Pictured (clockwise): Peter Weber, Tai Lowry, JaNa Craig– Photo by: Matthieu Joffres/NBC

WHERE THE X ARE THEY IN EPISODE 3:

Paris, France.

“Destination X” airs Tuesdays at 10 pm ET/PT on NBC and streaming on Peacock.