55 minute delay tonight folks. Set your DVRs accordingly.
About the slalom portion of the Mustang driving challenge. Did Phil ever say what the time limit was? They showed a timer during the footage but everybody seemed to come in at 15 seconds plus. Was the time limit 16 seconds?
I also wondered how anyone could figure out how to construct that waffle stand (uumm, waffles), including setting up the waffle irons without some instructions. From what we were shown, the teams did it on their own. I’m still dubious.
Hated to see the older couple go. They made a good showing and, as far as I could tell, their age was not a factor in their loss.
Agreed. Hate to see Bill & Cathi go. I was really cheering for them to win.
They made it much farther than any 50+ team ever has. I don’t think they had a realistic chance to win, but they ran an excellent race. I’m glad to have been able to root for them and sorry to see them go.
Now just get rid of Cindy, who is getting on my last fucking nerve, and I’ll be happy.
It seemed like Ernie’s driving instructor was kind of an asshole in his demeanor and attitude, especially when compared to all the other instructors, who were very enthusiastic and encouraging.
My money is on the Snowboarders for the win, who seem (as a team) clearly the most intelligent, cool, calm and physically able of the remaining teams.
I am on the fence with Ernie & Cindy as well as Jeremy & Sandy. To me, Cindy and Jeremy are both “Glass Half Empty” personalities, seemingly letting the little frustrations encountered along the way take their heads completely out of the Race, and obviously defeatist attitudes are not going to win anything when the going gets really tough. (For example, Jeremy was more than ready to simply give up on the waffle task and jump right into the raft making when things didn’t go perfectly for them, which probably would have gotten them eliminated tonight).
I really like Amani, and have even warmed to Marcus (his constant football analogies notwithstanding) but I don’t think he has the intellectual stamina to go all the way; He seems, much like Cindy and Jeremy, prone to quitting when the going gets tough, and I have a feeling that there will be some serious “Thinking Man’s” challenges coming up before too long.
Anyone else craving a waffle and a few chilled lambics about now? (kriek, peche)
Excellent leg tonight, I thought. No bunching, but still lots of shakeups in the order. It seemed just about everybody had the lead at some point, except Bill & Cathi. Sorry to see them go, but it was a fair elimination. The snowboarders started fourth but finished first, so the opportunities were there to move up. And the tasks weren’t anything that was too physically demanding. They just never quite kicked it into high gear.
They have been pretty good at the tasks; it’s their navigating that’s been atrocious. But the last leg is always done in taxis (or some other means of travel where the Racers can’t kill somebody). If they can survive one more week and make the final three, then get a cab driver who knows what he’s doing, they’re still in with a chance.
With Marcus and his football references, try to remember that a lot of what we hear was elicited by questions from their production team. Remember the guy who was stationed in Iraq a few seasons ago? Remember how everything out of his mouth seemed to be about how their current location reminded him of Iraq? Not really his fault…the production team kept asking him about the comparison and he was just answering them. I’m pretty sure a lot of Marcus’s NFL talk is like that, too.
Yeah, this was a nice racing leg for once. The tasks seemed somewhat tougher, and I think a fair amount was edited for time from the set-up.
Absolute favorite moment? Bill: “This is our first date.”
The time limit was 16 seconds. I’m pretty sure he said so when doing his overview of the task.
I dunno, I kind of enjoyed Ernie’s instructor’s deadpan delivery. Again. No.
I thought the young guy in the waffle task was sweet—it was so hard for him to keep telling Sandy and Jeremy that they had it wrong.
I, too, hated to see Bill and Cathi go, although I think we all knew it was inevitable. I loved the clips they showed of them, particularly her hooting about the great view she had when she was watching him do the rock climb.
I was really gunning for Bill and Cathi. It’s about time an older couple had an actual shot at the finals, and, IMO, they were the ones to do it. They played wonderfully, though. I’d love to see them on an All-Star or another Unfinished Business version.
The rest of them?
The Snowboarders are beginning to annoy me. Yes, they’re playing a good game, but it’s rankling me because they’re squarely in the finalist/winner demographic.
I couldn’t help laughing with Marcus’s hooting during the racing task. Somebody upthread said that he and Amani’s main issue is navigational. I agree – together they strike me as the types who would get lost in their own neighborhood.
Cindy, shut up. Same to you, Jeremy. Speaking of Jeremy, for some reason I just cannot warm up to him and Sandy. I look at them as “filler”, which is an awful thing to say, but there you go.
I basically like Cindy and Ernie, except when Cindy’s competitive streak gets the better of her.
A mere 10 minutes after last night’s episode ended, my husband and I were talking about the teams. We needed a small bit of prompting to come up with “Jeremy”, and couldn’t get “Sandy”. My husband defaulted to “Jeremy and Forgettable”.
Marcus is the only name of any of them I can remember without help.
But I suck at names.
Last night’s episode was all that interesting (though I am glad they actually had to drive the cars instead of being driven around like when they did Formula 1 in Dubai) but it was a fair slog for all involved.
Now I really want to take a Mustang out on the test track and floor it. Product placement goal accomplished, Ford Motor Company!
A mustang each is a pretty nice prize!
And I agree that Ernie’s instructor had a bit of attitude. It was like he was trying very very hard not to sneer at him for being such a rotten driver but it was leaking through.
Not that I’m saying Ernie is a rotten driver, except by the standards of a professional.
It’s just that when some people are really good at something, when it comes effortlessly to them, the cannot conceive that it can be hard for anyone else. Which means they must be a total idiot to fail, not just once, but over and over and over and over.
You know, the attitude of many IT guys towards the hapless user?
I’d bet anything that Cindy must be a genuine pain in the ass to be with. I bet she’s the kind of person who often sends back food because it’s not perfect and pouts when she doesn’t get her way.
I finally figured out who Ernie reminds me of. He’s the secret love child of John Barrowman and Dave Foley.
I’m going to miss Bill and Cathy but I loved the montage on their drive to the pitstop. I particularly liked Bill’s comment that the race had made their relationship better. I think one of the reasons that they’re so good together is that they do still view their relationship as something they work on.
Geez, has everyone already forgotten Meredith & Gretchen? They were in their 60s when they ran the Race, and came in 4th. Somewhat amusingly, it was a driving Roadblock (parking a double decker bus) that did them in.
We refer to the non-hairy Snowboarder (again—names! :smack: ) as “Dana Carvey” in my house.