All the Clues & Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed in the Destination X Premiere
Host Jeffrey Dean Morgan is the players' greatest ally and worst enemy in Destination X.
Do you have what it takes to suss out Destination X? In the premiere episode of Destination X, hosted by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 10 players were tasked with sussing out where the X they were based on a series of hints and challenges — but it's not as simple as it seems.
Welcome to Destination X
In this bold new travel competition series from NBC, Europe is turned into a real-life gameboard as complete strangers are invited to participate in the trip of a lifetime and the ultimate geo-guessing contest. These adventurous players will traverse Europe in a blacked-out Destination X bus to figure out where the "X" they are each week.
In each episode, the players disembark the bus to visit unique and unfamiliar tourist attractions that have been gamified into experiential challenges. They'll rely on their knowledge of pop culture, history, geography, and observational skills to win clues to their current location and earn an all-important advantage. Contestants must tap into their own personal expertise, identify hidden clues that are disguised as artifacts, and discern intentional misdirects from competitors to ultimately determine their whereabouts.
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Read on to learn more about the premiere episode's location, and the many hints and Easter eggs the players saw (or didn't) along the way.
Player Clues:
The player clues were the most obvious, but there were a lot of them, so let's do a full rundown before we get to the more advanced ones:
Mack & Ally's Clue
Mack and Ally were gifted a brief look outside the bus at the Roman ruins at Volterra, an arena that resembled the Colosseum in miniature.
Mack & Biggy's Riddles
While racing through the cobblestone streets of Orvieto, Italy, Mack and Biggy solved a series of riddles, which involved Pinocchio, Olives, and Roman Numerals, all of which could have clued them in on their general locale in Italy.
Well Riddle Coins
While Mack and Biggy were busy at street-level in Orvieto, their teams were deep in St. Patrick's Well, sussing out riddles that freed their above-ground counterparts from their black-out goggles. The two riddles the teams had to figure out led them to coins depicting Romeo & Juliet (get it? ROME-eo...? Yeah, you get it. Not to mention that the classic Shakespearean tale takes place in Italy) and Wine (a major export of Italy).
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Town Coins
Throughout their challenge, Mack and Biggy earned more coins every time they figured out a riddle first.
Mack killed it, earning four gold coins that had images of Ninja Turtle Weapons (all four of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named after Italian artists: Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo), "1492" with an Outline of Christopher Colombus (Christopher Colombus was Italian, and sailed to the Americas in 1492), Thumbs Up/Down (a hint to the famous scene in Gladiator, in which Joaquin Phoenix's ruthless Roman Emperor Commodus determined gladiators' fates with a thumbs up or thumbs down in the Colosseum), and Swords Crossed with Swiss Cheese (a hint at the Swiss Guard, who protect the Pope in Vatican City, which is located within Rome).
Meanwhile, Biggy managed to get just one coin, which showed Ballet Slippers (ballet originated in the courts of Italy).
A Hint from Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Our host Jeffrey provided the audience with a big clue at the end of the episode's second challenge, saying in his voiceover: "The ancient hilltop town of Orvieto, to be exact, renowned for its stunning cathedral, rich olive oil, and of course, St Patrick’s Well, built in the 1500s by Pope Clement VII, who fled to Orvieto from a city 90 miles away, a city which also happens to be our first Destination X."
Pope Clement VII fled from Rome to Orvieto in the 1500s.
Visual Clues & Easter Eggs
Hidden among all the sweeping visuals of rolling hillsides and extravagant architecture were images of Vespas (famous Italian scooters; plus, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck famously rode one during Roman Holiday) and Vineyards & Cyprus Trees (landscape-based hints at the Italian countryside).
Destination X: Colosseum in Rome, Italy
By episode's end, several players had correctly guessed that the challenges and clues had all hinted at one final location: Rome, Italy — specifically, the famous Roman Colosseum.
Who went home in the Destination X premiere episode?
However, Josh Martinez placed his X in the Map Room in Milan, resulting in his excommunication from Destination X.
"Destination X, you got me!" Josh said in his final moments. "Wildest, craziest game I've ever played. This bus was insanity."
New episodes of Destination X premiere on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, and are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
