Quibble:
Second order.
Flo is a jerk of the first order.
I think Flo has transcended jerkiness into something even more supremely annoying.
I want them to come in second. I want to see Flo suffer. Zach deserves it,too, for not standing up to her. I liked him at first, but last night he just sat there and took it! I was yelling at the TV: “Just tell her shut up and calm the f*** down!” It may have made her take a step back and realize she was being unreasonable, buuuuut…I doubt it.
If there were no second prize (I assume there is though), I would LOVE to see the following scenarios:
I want them to be ahead and for her to think they’re winning and then have Ken and Gerard pass them at the last second.
Or, they would be ahead by about 2 yards and she tripped on her shoelace right before the finish line. She, of course, would blame Zach because he didn’t remind her to tie her shoes before she started running (or something like that).
Or, they could skip a task and not realize it, come in first and THINK they’ve won. But Phil could wait to tell them until K & G get there 10 minutes later, making K & G the winners by 20 minutes (considering the 30 minute time penalty).
OR, I could get a life. Whichever…
:o
[Actually had this done and ready to go yesterday…stupid board froze up again. Here it is now; all comments to be put in proper perspective, of course.]
First off, I was thinking of bumping this just before the episode went on, but I had a bunch of errands to run at around 7:00 (don’t want to talk about it…it was a stressful evening). My bad. Will try to do a better job of keeping this thread current for the finale.
Commenting on what’s been commented before:
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I wasn’t surprised at all that Vietnam was a safe place…mainly because no one there ever had any special dislike for Americans. The Yanks were just a misguided group of foreigners trying to force their will on the Vietnamese, like the French and Chinese. They won, too, which of course lessens the hard feelings even more.
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I’m not quite clear about the exact rules regarding time penalties. I remember David and Margaretta finishing the second leg without either of them making the walk up the Eiffel Tower (even though David got the right location). This was a Roadblock, but they were allowed to finish with just a time penalty. Nancy and Emily skipped one task in the early going of their swan song and got penalized far more than 30 minutes. I do know, however, that if you haven’t found the last marker, especially if the Roadblock hasn’t come up yet, the last thing you should do is stumble blindly to the finish and pray that it’ll somehow work out. That’s just bad thinking.
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And speaking of which…did I already mention something about reality show contestants’ brains slowly falling apart? Specifically, what the FRAG was Flo thinking when she gave Ken & Gerard the final marker location?? Okay, maybe she would’ve done the same for “the Wonder Twins” (am I the only one who actually hopes some teams will be eliminated early so they don’t have time to develop stupid nicknames?), but why would anyone in her right mind give it to any of her OPPONENTS?? Oh yeah, don’t forget Teri politely pointing out the misplaced route info to the twins.
If I’m ever in, you know, a competition, against people who are on other teams and thus me out as much as I want them out, I would hope that “courtesy” or what-friggin’-ever wouldn’t somehow compel me to HELP ANY OF THEM BEAT ME.
All right, all right…I suppose she could’ve been using “Survivor strategy”. You know, helping your weaker threat to get a slightly better chance of winning it all. Since physical ability definitlely counts in the end, it may actually be preferable to face the fun brothers rather than the models. But this is a huge, huge gamble…one which, I might add, rarely pays off even in Survivor…and definitely not the kind of thing you can reason out in the 20 or 30 seconds it takes for the ferry to pull away from the station.
I say no free rides. If they’re gonna beat you, at least make 'em earn it.
- Ian, Ian, Ian…
Well, the Vietnam War unquestionably had a profound impact on his life. Note that he repeated the party line about “defending freedom” verbatim (any reasoned analysis of South Vietnam’s record will resoundingly debunk this) which, to me, indicates that he still hasn’t fully come to terms with the truth about this terrible war. I must say that I was pretty impressed with the maturity and good grace with which he handled this entire leg. As I mentioned before, the thing he had going for him the most was steadiness. He’s annoying, but he doesn’t get more annoying. He grumbles and snarls, but never screams. He rambles way too much, but can be counted on for a critical task when needed (note that when he made the wrong fuel blunder, he immediately took action to correct it) And Teri’s done a fine job of taking everything in stride and never losing her temper, which is definitely more than I’d be capable of.
You know what…I actually wouldn’t mind at all if he was the first person past the finish line. Oh, sure, I’d never make him a drinking buddy or anything, but he deserves this as much as anyone.
- Danny and Oswald were fourth in the last race, paving the way for Chris and Alex’s heart-stopping, down-to-the-very-last-wire victory.
End responses. I’ll have the big wrapup thread…mmm, maybe in a couple of days. I’ll have even more to say then.
I’m glad I wasn’t in their shoes, but Ken and Gerard made exactly the right call here – there’s no way they should’ve given the younger, physically stronger team the information they needed to kick their ass in a last-ditch cyclo race. Hell, Derek and Drew have lied to other teams before – pretending to Teri and Ian that they didn’t know where the haystack was – and that’s exactly what you should do in this game. Early on, it probably makes sense to help out teams that you could get favors from later. This late in the game, though, it’s too easily fatal to be generous with your information.
Yes, Flo, I’m looking at you. Criminy. In the abstract, I feel sorry for her, because she’s so obviously way beyond her comfort levels, and I’m sure she’s a nicer person when she’s not racing for a million dollars. But she’s hard to take in practice.
I’m rooting for Ken and Gerard, no question, but I’m not going to cry if Teri and Ian make it. I don’t particularly like them, but they have a dynamic that works for them, and they don’t whine.
I go the feeling that Flo wan’t even thinking that her telling K & G where the clue was would help them, I think she just was so freaked out about them being on the same boat as her (they thought they were last, so maybe she figured the twins were already ahead of them), that she panicked. It seemed like she wasn’t trying to help them, she was trying to get them the hell off the boat “you can’t be on the boat! you need your bike!” much as a child would react to someone trying to cheat in a game. I think it was only after she said it that she realized they hadn’t found the roadblock yet and she had just told them about it.
Wouldn’t surprise me, anyway. She tends to shriek about things without stopping to consider if it makes any sense all the time, I think she was just yelling at them that they were doing it wrong, as she does constantly with Zach. That’s all she knows how to do anymore: “you’re doing it wrong! Do it this way!”
One other thing: while Zach did not deserve the unrelenting whinefest he got after clearing customs, why did he stand in a separate line in the first place if he wasn’t willing to switch? That seemed odd to me, or at least short sighted.
I’m rooting for Ken & Gerard.
Teri & Ian annoy me too much. One thing I’ve seen in this thread repeatedly is, “I guess it works for them.” I think it works for Ian, but I’m not so sure it works for Teri. I think she’s a saint. Maybe Ian has a really big dick or something… who knows.
I hate Flo as much as everyone else here does. However, in Zach’s defense, he did say something about, “If I didn’t keep my cool, our team would be sunk.” I don’t think he’s being passive-aggressive. I think he believes that smacking Flo in the face won’t help them win or be productive in any way. I think he’d like to slap her, but I think he’s trying to be the voice of reason and sees that arguing with a shrew like that will really get you no place in particular. After they lose… I like to think he’ll never speak to her again. Damn sure won’t be taking any road trips with her in the near future!
I think standing in a separate line was in keeping with Zach’s passive-aggressive approach to dealing with Flo. This was effective only in the sense that it annoyed Flo probably as much as her constant whining and ranting annoyed Zach. It didn’t actually get her to stop whining and ranting, though. The two feed off each other in a viscious feedback loop. Flo whines, Zach smiles and nods and ignores her, which causes Flo to whine even more. How these two got into the top three will ever be one of the great mysteries of the Amazing Race.
Ah, Dogzilla’s post wasn’t there when I was composing my post.
Whatever you call Zach’s approach to dealing with Flo, it clearly isn’t working. Bitch just needs a good slapping.
Notice that the twins start the leg with some of the best sportsmanship ever shown on the show–they passed up the opportunity to steal K&G’s taxi. Then they wind up getting eliminated, by K&G. So much for instant karma.
I think Velma is right about the “Flo and her big mouth” incident – I read it as her not realizing the implications of the Oppisibs not having their cycle. I wish they had shown a better view of the area, or a map or something – it’s still utterly unclear to me (and five of us spent about 10 minutes talking about it this morning) why the clue box was so hard to find.
Yeah, who’da thunk we’d all be contemplating the idea of a Terian win with such equanimity? And I’ve got a suggestion for the next edition – let the viewers vote on how to divvy up the prize money for the winning team. I’d be okay with Flo and Zach winning if we could give her 1% of the money and Zach the rest.
Re: prizes – IIRC, all teams get some money – the first team eliminated gets a small amount, the next team a little more, etc., just like on Survivor. Sorry, don’t know where I came up with this – no cite.