Just settling in to watch it after building up some DVR credit time to skip commercials.
The Metalheads are six hours back with a speed bump. They are wayyyyyy overdue to bite it and I think tonight is the night. And I am so hoping that she tells that whiny little asshole to drop dead at the end of the show.
Pretty anti-climatic episode. It was obvious who was coming in last in the first 15 minutes. Glad they are gone.
I want either of the all-girl teams to win. I don’t care which. I don’t like Jill and Thomas (does anyone else hear “Dylan Thomas”?).
There was a 5.5 minute (yes I timed it) commercial break after Brooke and Claire reached the pit stop and told about the penalty. 5 minutes and 30 seconds!
Yeah, it was a foregone conclusion that the Metalheads were gone. I just really, really wanted to see her kick that jerk to the curb.
I wonder if Team Taatoopid actually did the detour. The Speed Bump was not as lame as some of the speed bump. At least they were doing something other than literally freezing their ass off.
Oh. What a shocker.
Brooke
Jill
Claire
Kat
Nat
Any other lonely/shallow Dopers have opinions on who you think is the most attractive Racer left?
(if not, just ignore me and I will slink away in shame)
My rankings, starting with the hottest, would be:
Brooke
Kat
Jill
Claire
Nat
Brooke
Jill
Blonde Doctor
Dark hair Doctor
Claire
I’ve been watching this show for years and I seldom know which name goes to which player on a same sex team. And I am convinced if they had boy/girl team by the names like Pat/Terry, that I would not know which person belonged to which name.
That said, I have figured out who is Brooke (Blonde) and who is Claire (not blonde).
Before making my first post above, I had to look up who was who on Team Doctor. (Nat is the blonde, Kat the brunette)
And I hope I didn’t hijack this week’s thread with my silly little observation; It seems like this episode was mostly uneventful and I then realised that 5 of the 6 Racers left were all attractive women, and I haven’t had a date for months—;))
It was one of the more uneventful races to the Top 3 in recent seasons, I think. Team Tattoopid didn’t have a chance whatsoever, but I think we all knew that, including them.
Either the doctors or Brook/Claire for the win – I like both of them equally. Although she’s amusing, Brook has been steadily grating on my nerves.
She had been growing on me until her passive-aggressive commentary when they almost chose the full bottle task. “Well, you say you can’t ice skate, so I’m going to be a team player and do the delivery task…” Dang.
Leg 11 turns out to be a preview of the final three, as Nick & Vicki drop themselves out of contention.
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Ron & Tony and Andie & Jenna and Connor & Jonathan and Katie & Rachel and Michael & Kevin and Gary & Mallory and Chad & Stephanie - See you next week.
Nick & Vicki (moved from “Drawing”) - So Team Irrelevent missed the flight everyone else was on, badly enough that the Amazing Editors didn’t even bother to pretend the team was still in the race, and this whole episode was rendered pretty much moot, because the top three teams were decided by default. Thanks a lot, Nick.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one this week.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
No one this week.
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Jill & Thomas (holding steady) - I still have the impression that Jill & Thomas are the weakest of the remaining three teams, but looking at the last few legs, I’m not so sure that’s a supportable conclusion. Jill & Thomas have finished either first or second for four legs running, which is considerably better than the other two teams in the finale. In this leg, they opened up a slim lead over the other two teams and maintained it throughout (ignoring Brook & Claire’s clue-reading, taxi-taking snafu), which shows they can beat the competition. However, in the last leg, I think the other two teams have the edge. Given the constant drumbeat of references to the historicness of an all-female-team win, it looks like the Amazing Editors agree with me.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Brook & Claire (holding steady) - This was the third or fourth time a team received a penalty for not R’ing TFC-which, as has been pointed out before, is about the most fundamental rule TAR has. Jill & Thomas seemed to have learned their lesson, and carefully re-read the same clue that tripped up Brook & Claire–maybe Brook & Claire will learn the same lesson. In any case, Claire, who was looking pretty ragged a couple episodes ago, seems to have gotten enough rest to bring her back to form.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Nat & Kat (holding steady) - I still think Nat & Kat are the team to beat, but really the final three is a tossup. This leg, with Nick & Vicki out of the picture, was essentially a preview of the final three, and Nat & Kat limped home in third place. Nat & Kat have one small advantage over the other two teams, in that they skipped a Roadblock way back in leg 5 by eating their way through a Fast Forward, and they’ve each done five. That means Nat & Kat get to choose who does the final Roadblock, where for the other teams it’s pre-determined. That’s not much of an edge, particularly when Nat & Kat are roughly equal in a lot of ways. However, the final Roadblock is likely to be a memory task, and it seems to me that a good memory and attention to detail would come in handy in medical school.
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Rating[/sub]
Not a surprise once Tatoopid missed the plane.
If anyone ever wants to know what “killer fatigue” means, point to Brooke and Claire’s performance at the Detour. That is killer fatigue.
The Doucheback of Notre Dame: “Don’t ask him, he’s oooold”. What a tard.
I’m still rooting for Nat and Kat winning and would be satisfied with Brooke and Claire winning–an added bonus is that the Amazing Equality-Of-Outcome Tards in Production who’ve been wanking about an “All-‘Girl’ Team” never winning will finally shut the hell up–they’ve been whining about it since season 8 or 9. Sadly, if either team wins, it’ll still be with a * by their names, since tasks like “Sit on a block of ice” and the incredible lack of competition (where are the bouncers/frat-boy/young studly lawyers group that’s ALWAYS included for instance) means that this race doesn’t really count as a ‘real’ race.
That said, a perverse part of me wants the Doucheback of Notre Dame’s team to win, just to make the Race Producers crack.
The Amazing Fenris Predicts:
In order to make sure a “girl” team wins, there will be no grueling physical tasks (that reverse rappel up the bridge, for example) on the last leg. Nor will there be any binge/purge or gross-food eating contests.
I know that the metalheads being so far behind made the leg suspense-less, but they had no business being competitive after last week’s meltdown. When the first team left the mat around 4:30 pm and learned that the first flight was at 12:30 am, I cursed the producers for waving away the six hour penalty. I was happy, and pleasantly surprised, when Nick and Vick missed the flight anyway.
I noticed that N&V completely skipped the river rafting (maybe it was too late in the day?) and there was no footage of them doing the roadblock or the detour. I wonder if they just cut that out because it didn’t affect the outcome, or if they employed the “mercy rule” and let the team skip those tasks. I mean, why make the soliers do Tae Kwan Do in the middle of the night…
I think that purely for reasons of perceived personality, a lot of people are pulling for Nat and Kat, but they have not done as well as the other two teams in the last few legs. I happen to really like Brooke and Claire’s chances. And, of course, I’m rooting for them over Jill and Thomas purely for personality reasons. Jill and Thomas have a real shot at winning whether they’re likable or not.
All 3 teams are good so it should prove to be an interesting finale. Looking forward to it.
I notice there’s a heights challenge next week. Wonder if Blondoc will freak?
Despite the attitude, I think his reasoning was quite sound - it is probably more likely for younger South Koreans to speak English. Anyone care to refute?
If there had been any indication that he had rubbed that many brain cells together, I might give him a pass – but it came across as straight ignorant douchery to me.
Did anyone else notice some subtle meddling by the producers, regarding when each team started this leg?
The first three teams all left between 4 and 5 p.m. – definitely not a 12-hour pit stop, since they all arrived on the mat in daylight last week. They all had plenty of time to catch the 12:30am red-eye to Korea, and apparently no other flights were available.
When Jill & Thomas left, NO departure time was given…however, they did leave early enough to just miss the 12:30am Korea flight.
Last week, they arrived several hours behind the other teams, AND were docked six hours for skipping the Detour. But unless they were more than 24 hours behind the other teams (which I guess is possible) there’s no way they could have made the 12:30 flight, let alone arrive at the airport soon enough for the flight agent to tell them, “Sorry, you just missed it!”
Hmm…dunno what to make of that.
I don’t think they’ve kept the pretense of the 12-hour pit stop for the last few seasons, but I did notice that they did not give a departure time for Nick & Vickie last night. Was it dark when they left the mat? Because with the six-hour penalty, even if they had arrived at the same time as the third-place team it should have been quite dark with the six-hour penalty.