I suspect shenanigans as well. Especially in light of the scene where the train conductor tells them there is nothing she can do to help. The cameraman had to be backed against the wall of that small train cabin at that moment to get that shot. That reeks too much of set-up or, at the very least, re-creation to me.
A few legs ago, in Africa, the teams had to get trucks to carry them and their beds. It didn’t look like the truck drivers were asking for money, and a few teams left without paying and Phil sent them back to square things up. So how is a truck driver not asking for money any different than a train conductor not asking for tickets?
Again, shenanigans. I think the rules are flexible at the producers’ discretion. Not intervening on Cindy and Ernie’s behalf would have put them on a later train and probably out of the race.
If the train conductor was a real tight-ass about it they could have payed for two new tickets or played him or her the tape of them buying and even loosing the tickets. Although you have to know that any shots of lost items are ‘fake’ in that they are done after the fact. If they didn’t, a team member would say, “Hey where’s our cameraman? Oh, there he his, back there shooting something on the ground. We better go check that out.”
A truck driver is an independent contractor who sets his or her own rates and payment rules; a train service is a business with known fees and procedures. It is quite plausible for the racers to assume that the truck drivers had been hired and paid already.
So are you saying that all the teams should be forced to go back and track down the conductor so they can hand in their tickets? What’s the difference between buying a ticket, keeping it with you, and never having to turn it in to anyone, and buying a ticket, losing it, and never having to turn it in to anyone?
Look at it this way - if you take a cab somewhere and stiff the driver, there will be legal implications - the cabbie will take it out of your hide and/or have you arrested. But if you take a train somewhere without a ticket and no one ever asks you for one - as soon as you leave the train you’re home free. If they don’t collect your ticket onboard, how can they prove you didn’t throw it away 5 seconds after you left the train?
I think there were some producer interventions too. But if there weren’t, I don’t think they need a rule that if you lose your ticket to something but no one asks you for it, you should be eliminated anyway.
If there was Shenanigans, why would they even show it?
They could have edited the entire drama out of the show!
Here in Chicago, it’s not uncommon to ride a Metra train and de-board without having the conductor come through collecting your tickets. But that said, I’d think that with the extra excitement of having Amazing Race being filmed on your train, you wouldn’t “miss” that car unless it was on purpose.
Frankly, I think they edited the entire drama INTO the show. They may have found the tickets within minutes of dropping them, but that wouldn’t have been very interesting. Like someone said upthread, that compartment scene was so staged it was almost middle-school quality. The cameraman had to be absolutely scrunched back into the corner to get that shot and the conductor was about as convincing as my 5-year-old cousin Ronnie playing the Angel of the Lord in the Christmas pageant. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll really be able to assess the situation until we see if E&C are going to swing a penalty for that. So I’m deferring judgment until next Sunday.
Being from Denmark and having lived in Hamburg, I have been following this season with unbridled enthusiasm. Looooved the shot of the Great Belt Bridge, that’s a neat piece of engineering.
The entire train & train ticket drama setup seemed rather forced. Spending a few minutes on Deutsche Bahn’s website shows a ton of possible connections Hamburg-Bruxelles - looks like the route and departure was pre-chosen. Besides, the Thalys train is reservation-only (or was when I roamed the European rails) - how would they know where their seats were?
As for penalties, if I were to become a Rules Lawyer for just a second, I’d argue that they had in fact paid for their transportation - they just didn’t have proof of it.
Lots of laugh-out-loud moments in this one. I loved the snowboarder’s second dramatic rendition of the poem, when for “remote” he pretended to be looking through a telescope. Marcus and Amani’s reaction to the bodybuilding task was awesome–Amani was clearly uncomfortable but faked it well, and Marcus predictably fed off of the crowd reaction and rocked it. Each of them actually rocked a task this time around, and got a well-deserved first…although how did they leave Legoland in 2nd and hit the train station in 4th? That got lost in editing, and I’m curious. I like them and I’m glad to see them finish a leg in first, since I don’t think they’ll win.
I can say that I’ve been on trains in Europe when they don’t check for tickets. I’ve gone on toll roads without buying the toll sticker. I don’t see it being a huge problem.
I really enjoyed this ep for a change. They had some good tasks and they seemed to be really out there. I just wonder how often they run trains from Hamburg to Brussels, I would have thought more then every 4 hours or so.
I also agree that the challenges have been great this season. The Lego challenge was both appropriate and sufficiently challenging. The poem/biking challenge taxed memory, map-reading, stamina, and drama skills while also introducing Hans Christian Anderson and the free Copenhagen bikes.
The Belgian stuff was a little random. I’m not familar with JCVD being a body builder. I thought he was a martial artist. And I don’t like the use of cabs because of the random luck factor of getting a good or bad cab.
Finally, I’m surprised that they didn’t reveal the elimination (or not) this week. Is this the first time or has it been done before? I know they’ve done two-parters before, but I don’t recall if they had everybody finish the first leg or not before ending the show.
I know it’s just a silly game show, and there is no reason for me to look for too much rhyme or reason to any of it, but when the average traveller thinks of Brussels, I would bet that there are probably 500 things that would spring to mind long before any possible tenuous, tangential association with bodybuilding…
Jean Claude Van-Damme. maybe?
Agreed on the quality of the tasks this season. Though I wish the hot twins were still in it for that bodybuilding task, heh.
The interesting thing about the posing task is that a LOT of those demonstrators/teachers made professional NFL football player Marcus look SMALL! Even the ones who were shorter than him.
It was probably just the best reason for getting them into something that showed a lot of skin. A couple seasons ago the contestants had to run a mile or two in their underwear (??), and the producers had to blur the butts of a couple of the female runners who were wearing thongs.
Speaking of blurring, several shots of Amani showed a big blurred area on the side of her torso, sort of under her armpit. It didn’t look like her boob was falling out of the bikini top, so I was wondering if she had a raunchy tattoo there, or something. Doesn’t seem like her but it made me really curious.
There was also the finals with Tammy & Victor, Margie & Luke, and Jaime & Cara (the hot redheaded cheerleaders) where they had to change into Producer-provided swimwear (bikinis for the women), then carry a pig several hundred yards down a beach. I’m guessing if it was Mel & Mike instead of Jaime & Cara, they would all have been in street clothes.
I had assumed she had some massive side-boob action going on and that CBS is overly cautious about blurring that sort of thing in this Post-Wardrobe Malfunction World. It could have been a tattoo, but I think they blurred from both sides.
Jean Claude Van-Damme, “The Muscles From Brussels,” was specifically mentioned by Phil as the reason for the bodybuilding task.