Just to mildly disagree, but once they showed Nick and Don sitting at a stoplight and Nate and Jen moving, I knew that Nate and Jen were gone.
I was also going to make the same point as muldoonthief. I might buy that a subway train would be faster than surface roads due to congesion, but given that reasoning, once you go back to surface roads, taking the bus makes absolutely no sense.
They may have gotten bad instructions regarding taking the train, but Nate knew apparently immediately that a taxi might be better, and suggested it several times, so it’s hard to chalk it all up to the bum suggestion of a local.
They also had a huge advantage in being able to speak the local language for the last 3 legs. (Of course, the producers had no way of knowing that the team that spoke Japanese & Chinese would still be around when the Race got to Japan & Taiwan.)
I must agree with all who found the outcome of this episode satisfying. I was a little upset at the end, when it looked like Nate and Jen might be staying together, but then I realized it would be better if they both stayed off the market with each other. It’s such a shame that the fact that they have Thai friends at home didn’t help them in this leg.
While I didn’t much like the non-skill roadblock, I did like that there were a lot of stopping points in this leg. It gets tiresome when it’s just “go to the roadblock, go to the detour, go to the pitstop”. There were several times where teams could have gotten seriously lost (the gardens, the market).
Finally, I still think Phil never looks happy to see TK and Rachel. Why doesn’t he like them?
Loved this episode. Jen is susch a shrill harpy and a bad sport. Not that Nate is any great shakes, but she always seemed to be the one who freaked out and he was just trying to keep up.
I like Ron and Chris. I was hating him early on and don’t think, obviously he has changed completely, but I do think he is starting to get it. And they are extremely competent racers.
I also like the other two teams so I will be satisfied with whomever wins.
In earlier episodes we have seen Christina speaking Mandarin to her father, so we know Ronald understands it. I would have guessed that Ronald would speak better Mandarin and know more characters than his child, yet the person speaking to taxi drivers and reading the characters on the bottom of the tea cup was Christina. Could this be due to editing, or did they both learn Mandarin as a second language?
Although I am late to the party (couldn’t watch until this afternoon and it was killing me not to click this thread) let me add my halleluias to the chorus over the departure of Nate and the She-Beast. I was thrilled to learn early in the episode that it was the She-Beast’s birthday because it was at that moment that I knew they would be Philiminated. My only wish is that BCS could have saved up showing the episode until her actual birthday so as to fuck up two in a row for her.
Did no one else hear Jenn’s rant after getting Philiminated about how, “We didn’t work on our relationship at all!” Well, no, presumably you were busy racing. It’s not called The Amazing Relationship Repair, after all. And poor Nate seemed so defeated when he just sighed, “I know, Jenn. I know.”
Anyhow, if I weren’t so damned sick, I’d be doing the happy dance over here, too.
I heard, lorene, and I seem to recall that my list of Racing tips included something about making sure the relationship can survive the stress. Teams going on the Race to fix their relationship / make sure of each other / build up under pressure make for sickeningly amusing entertainment when they collapse. Teams that are solid collapse, but can pull themselves back together.
I’ve read the application for the Race, and it focuses at least as much on interpersonal team dynamics as it does on travel savvy. I think they look for, and perhaps encourage, teams that can “work on their relationship” to give them storylines as the Race progresses.
Does it seem to anyone else that the racing tasks haven’t really amounted to much this time? On that taxi-driving Roadblock in Osaka, when Nicholas finished Don said the other teams had left ten minutes before. “Learn this flag routine”, “count these fenceposts”, “jump over this six-foot ditch” there hasn’t been anything really epic yet; and except for major travel screw-ups, the gaps at the mat have been around 10-15 minutes.
There hasn’t been a height-based challenge this time around. No rappeling down a building or skydiving.
Nicholas and Don were the first team in line at the immigration checkpoint. How were they the last to leave the airport?
Did Chris and Ron get the free upgrade on the flight to Taipei? Being one of the first off the plane would have been huge. There were probably passengers from that flight still in line when the next teams arrived. That was the key on this leg, more than the flight itself.
Interesting taxi situation this episode. They found drivers who could take them to a jeep obstacle course out in the boonies, no problem; but later they had to ask around to find someone who knew there was a huge freakin’ plaza in the middle of Taipei.
Did you miss the episode where they had the choice between the zip line into the water, then rowing, or rappelling down the side of the fort? Leg 6 in Croatia.
I would say that in a way it could have been contrived. Not the hours themselves, as they seem to be real hours, at least in this case, but the producers would know when the place opens and could adjust the start times as needed. We know from past series that it isn’t always a set 12 hour rest period.
They could just make the first team start 3 hours (adjust for whatever lag there may be) before opening.
Oh, I heard it. I also heard her claiming she’d grown. I don’t think Jen has learned anything from this experience; I hope Nate has the sense to dump her as soon as they get back to wherever they’re from. He seems like a nice guy; she still seems like a narcissistic, spoiled brat, especially with the birthday whines. By the way, I think she honestly believed it wasn’t her idea to go by subway. After all, in her world, she doesn’t make bad decisions.
It’s not possible for them to have known TK and Rachel were going to be 3 hours behind soon enough to get things set up at a completely different venue than they were going to use, based on hours of operation. They’d have to get permission from the building’s owners, possibly a shooting permit from the city or national government, have the initial clues reprinted to the new venue, get the set-up crew to the Floating Garden after-hours to set up the cluebox…and all of that within 12 hours. I don’t think that’s likely. The hours of operation was a fluke that TK & Rachel were just lucky enough to have fall their way.
I’m not sure it’s a fluke, either. I think the designers of the race have some general idea when certain things will be happening. On this leg, both flights to Taipei landed in early afternoon. Flights between Europe and the U.S. are all the same, eastbound is overnight, westbound is during the day; other places may have similar patterns that the planners are aware of. Add in the Roadblock and Detour, taxi rides, and the high-speed rail (trains seemed about 20-30 minutes apart, no big deal) and they had to know this leg would end sometime in the evening. If they need a bunching point on the next leg (flights or HoO) they know what to look for.
My dream if I were ever to get on the show would be to arrive someplace just before it closed. That could give a lead of 10-16 hours. It seems like if you could catch another break and stretch that to 24 hours, you’d be home free.