Amazing Race 5/10 - "I Think This Monkey Likes Me"

Cafe Society
21

Yea! The only team I still like, RaYo, made it to the final three! And they won the prize. Good for them.

Was it my imagination or did that monkey jump right on Eric’s crotch? Hee!

That was one big ass bowl of bugs. Is that really a single serving?

Gee, Monica did two of the hardest things she’s ever done in her life on this race. Hauling a sword fish and carrying clay pots. I think we should all bow down to her and her courage. :rolleyes:

It looks like the race is going to end where it began. Didn’t it look like Phil (who seems to have overcome his pants problem this season, thankfully) was standing in Red Rocks?

22

Wee Carissa, who is indeed 10 now, is in truth writing the columns herself. I’m not sure if she actually writes them down herself or if she tells her mom her comments and she writes them down, but in any case they’re definitely her own creations. This week’s column nearly didn’t get written because she was so upset over Eric & Jeremy’s taxi-canceling; her first broken heart by a guy. Aww… Even if they didn’t get a penalty for it this week, which I still think they should have. But I’m not the race rules lawyer.

Anyway, I am so glad whiny Monica is gone! Absolutely loved the way the hippies came back from nothing – that was so smart of BJ to check the lost and found at the pit stop resort for stray clothing – and by the end of the episode he was quite nicely clothed. Which definitely answered the question of whether he’d be allowed to keep his shoes.

And, to join the chorus: Monkeysmonkeysmonkeysmonkeys!

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Annieclaus doesn’t love monkeys. Or clowns. Yetch!

Pretty good show tonite!!! Because of (or in spite of) creepy crawlies, my BJ and the Bear were #1. They shoulda had the golden Roaming Gnome, too! And good-bye MoJo. Get off my television screen FOREVER!!!

Should be a pretty good finale! Bring it on!

24

“I’ll give you money if you take your shirt off . . . ok, put it back on!” I love that begging bit. Yes, they really want to win. Will beg for clothes. Nobody wants to see a near-naked hippie. They both are starting to look deranged and glassy-eyed. This should be a fun final!

Anyone else having a hard time trying to handicap the final three?

25

Didn’t you forget that digging up the buried-food-in-a-basket was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life?

26

Well, if it wasn’t going to be the dirty filthy hippies going home, of the three other teams I guess I’m glad it was MoJo. They kinda plummeted for me after Joseph’s busted out the “I know this guy’s gonna rip us off” bullshit.

Heh heh. Yolanda gives up the purple pants to the dirty filthy hippie. Heh heh heh. You know her pants were loose through the thigh on him too. I hope Gonad is happy with themselves for giving up the shoes to the hippies. Way to help out the strongest team you’re facing for a million damn dollars, idiots. I see that as stupider than giving up the pants because whatever he was wearing below the waist it looked like he could get away with them as shorts so pants didn’t really help them that much. But there’s a reason why all the signs mention no shoes as part of the no service bit.

And seriously, Team Hippie, fuck you. “Monica and Joseph aren’t giving people.” Assholes. No, Monica and Joseph are racing against you for a million dollars, and that kind of overrides any obligation they may have as human beings to contribute to your clothing needs. And speaking of which, where the bloody fug are the damn hippies getting all the damn hats?! Are they begging for hats? Are they taking the money they’ve panhandled off people and buying fucking hats with it? What the hell?

It seemed like all the teams were going out of their ways to make as many mistakes as possible. Team Hippie goes begging before booking their flight and almost get stuck. Figures they’d luck into an earlier flight, even if it turned out that the other flight got in ahead of schedule anyway. MoJo takes the word of some random bus terminal guy instead of just walking over to someone else and asking. Never take anyone’s “no” as the final word, dumbasses! YoRay did a FF reversal but didn’t pay too bad a price for it because of the time involved in choking down those crickets (return of the grossout food challenge! Ah grossout food challenge, how we have missed you). I think only Gonad didn’t have some kind of fuckup.

One of the Gonads finally got another living creature besides his teammate near his junk on the race. But think of all those germs that probably got passed! I hope they had some antibiotics for the monkey.

Hard Detour choices this time. I think i would have had to go for Altar It. I don’t think I’d do much better than Monica at hauling pots around. Good on Joseph thinking to take extra pots on the last load, but damn son, only four? That’s not leaving yourself much of a margin for error. Take ten extra at least.

27

Tonight’s altera-title: "B.J. Has No Pants!"

Buh-bye, Team MoJo. Don’t let the pots drop on the ground on the way out. At least Joseph redeemed himself a little bit with that Iron Chef reference. And Monica’s tropical storm-sized breakdown was nothing, compared to the Category Five Raging Flo In Vietnam. They’re getting married? Good…they deserve each other!

Guess it’s either Gonad or YoRay for the win. I looked closely next week’s preview, examining the position of the shadows to see who gets to the Pit Stop earliest, but apparently it was overcast that day. :slight_smile:

Oh, and me no like monkeys. If the Roadblock was to catch 10 monkeys, crack their heads open, and feast on the cold brains within, I am so there.

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I was mostly amazed that the previews for tonight’s ep didn’t lie.

After they showed the Hippies and the Frat boys arriving at the mat, I would’ve sworn that Ray and Yolanda were going to be kicked because MoJo was shown losing it in the preview.

Next week the finale! I’ll have to tape it though, I have class. But soon as I get home it’s turning on.

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I know I am. I mean, I want Ray & Yolanda to win, and I think they actually have a shot at it, but a good argument can be made for any of these teams to take home the million, depending on the time of day and how the winds are blowing. They’ve all run pretty good races – sure, they’ve all made questionable calls about Detours or whatever, but arguably only BJ & Tyler made a truly bad racing call, and that was when they used the Yield out of spite (and they actually paid the price for it, anyway [although, so did we, by having to watch BJ run around, even for a second, with no shoes and no pants – shudder]). So, I don’t think I’ll be terribly dissatisifed with any outcome. Any of the available options are better than Freddy & “Breeding” Kendra, anyway.

I am very much looking forward to next week’s finale.

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The last elimination leg.

Taxi Assessment

Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
John & Scott and Lisa & Joni and Danielle & Dani and David & Lori and Lake & Michelle and Fran & Barry- Outta here.
Joseph & Monica (down from “Passing Lane”) - a few mistakes this week were enough to do them in. The first was not checking the bus schedule themselves–that put them behind at the Roadblock. The second was getting lost on the island. The third was dropping so many pots on the Detour–that cost just enough time that Ray & Yolanda slipped into third place. A good idea to take the pot Detour instead of the shrine one the other teams were working on, but it didn’t quite pan out. Little errors this

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.
Ray & Yolanda (holding steady) - The weakest of the final three teams, but the performance of this team has been getting steadily better week-to-week. They were third this week only because they bailed on the FF. That wound up being a chancy choice on their part, because it put them in last place, but I don’t think it was necessarily a bad overall strategy: since Monica and Joseph hadn’t showed yet, they had a good chance of being able to check out the FF, bail if need be, and stay in third. Anyway, I expect Ray and Yolanda to wind up third overall, but all it takes is one lucky break and they could win it all (and if they do, remember they were my preseason pick).

In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Joseph & Monica (holding steady) -
BJ & Tyler (holding steady) - Mental mistake to go to the airport, not book a flight, go begging, then come back hours later to find the flight they wanted was full up. The hippies are lucky – they caught a comparable flight – but what were they thinking? I hate to say it, but BJ & Tyler don’t seem to be quite as smart as purported dimbulbs Eric & Jeremy. Unless Eric & Jeremy make a huge mistake, the hippies will finish one place behind them.

Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Eric & Jeremy (holding steady) - Still looking like the overall winners–a little bit smarter and a little bit facter and a little bit luckier than everyone else. but we’ll see next week.

Next week: The finale. I actually had a dream about the finale last night, and if you believe that dreams can predict the future, then apparently the Bowling Moms will come roaring back from a disappointing finish three seasons ago to take a suprising first place this season. Go figure.

[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]

31

Well, then you’re quite lucky that this episode didn’t feature a sacred clown temple. I think the sight of a troop of ravenous clowns shaking the clue box and jumping on Jeremy’s crotch would be far more disturbing than monkeys doing the same.

Sure. Remember Chip and Kim arriving dead last in the middle of the final episode and discovering fog was delaying Vancouver flights? One little bit of luck–dicovered only because they were so far behind–and they win it all.

32

I am honestly not sure if I’m amused or horrified by that image.

Bye bye, MoJo. I am not sorry to see you go. Good luck with that getting married and having a family thing. As my roommate said last night “God, I hope they don’t move in next door to me.”

33

I’m not sure how this was a bad move at all. Say they chose not to yield anybody. What does that gain them? I don’t think they would get that much good will from MoJo. So MoJo remains right behind them at the sky dive and presumably makes the same choice for the didgeridoo, finishing well ahead of the Hippies. Sure, the Hippies lost a three way footrace, but using the Yield gave them the chance to beat two other teams (and arguably the one they should have been able to beat in a footrace) instead of having to beat Eric and Jeremy. The price they paid was the same, but using the Yield gave them a better chance of not coming in last than they would have otherwise - seems to me that’s the primary goal of the race, at least until the last leg.

34

Or… It could mean the hippies will win it all, since they had Bowling Moms T-shirt earlier in the race.

35

The choice isn’t between yielding MoJo or no one. It’s between Yielding MoJo and one of the other teams. Play the leg out exactly as it played out, with the exception of putting, say, Gonad 1/2 hour back. Either YoRay or MoJo finishes first (not sure how far ahead YoRay were), the other of those two finishes second, Hippie third and Gonad last and takes the mugging. How different does the next leg play out then?

36

Favorite shot: Monkey shenanigans with a Monica voice-over of “Dirty monkeys”, immediately followed by a shot of Monica shoving a fistful of food in her mouth.

Proof that the producers where just as fed up with her as we were. :wink: DeHusband, on seeing her awesome display of putting her entire fist + food in her mouth at the same time, turns to me and says, “So that’s why that guy puts up with her!”

37

Yes, of course… My bad. Nevermind.

38

Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease…

39

Absolutely! I saw that and yelled, “I wanna kiss an editor right now!”

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When don’t you want to kiss an editor?