Bust out of prison

Task notes

• The lab has been converted into a prison cell with bars on either side of the entrance, a large bed with pillows and a duvet, a single wooden chair and desk, a toilet, and a sink on a plinth. There is a piece of paper and a pencil on the desk, and a bar of soap on the sink.
• The contests arrive handcuffed together in their teams, wearing Taskmaster-branded overalls with long number tags reading ‘777766627’ sewn onto the back.
• On the underside of the desk lid, there are five-bar gate tally marks indicating the number 5446.
• There is a dramatic photo of Paul attached to one of the walls. On the back of this, there is a small locked box with a four-digit combination lock. Inside the locked box, there is a piece of fabric with text on it which reads ‘IN CASE’.
• The number 237 is written on the inside one of the pillowcases on the bed.
• There is a locked box with a three-digit combination lock hidden inside the cistern of the toilet. Inside this box, there is a burner phone, which has no power, but its T9 keypad may be used to decode the number 777766627, which is on everyone’s back, to reveal the clue ‘SOAP’. The blue key is hidden inside the bar of soap on the sink.
• Paul walks a specific patrol route around the house, while carrying a torch. Each time he catches the contestants awake, he tells them to go back to sleep, and then continues on his patrol, regardless of where he catches them.
• Under the mattress, there is a map showing Paul’s patrol route around the house. It’s unclear whether there was a clue pointing the contestants to this location, or whether they all simply found it while searching everything in the room.
• Nine items have been lined up on the desk in the study. From left to right, from the contestant’s point of view behind the desk, there are: a ceramic MUG, a small fishing NET, a STAR, a STOP sign, a mirror, a question mark, some plastic RATS, a number 10 (TEN), and a pack of GUM. The mirror is placed on a line which divides the table in two, hinting that the names of the items on the left of the line are reflections of the names of the items on the right. The only item that is missing its reflection is the STOP sign, with the question mark suggesting that the opposite of STOP is the answer the contestants are looking for.
• There are two cooking POTS on top of one of the bookcases at the back of the room. The red key is attached to the smaller of the two pots.