Here’s a question - the team that got eliminated got in trouble in the first place because there were no economy tickets left on the flight they wanted - only business class. Could they have bought the business class tickets and swapped them with people that had economy class tickets?
In the first season, Frank and Margarita were able to negotiate flying in business class while only paying the economy class fare. I don’t think there’s any problem with riding in first or business class, such as if the airline decides to bump you up. However, you’re not allowed to buy business class tickets.
There have been a lot of comments as to people losing time to taking the hockey option over the vodka. It seemed to me that the two options were really roughly equal in time length. The hockey option really didn’t take that long considdering it was maybe two minutes to put on pads and then go out in front of a bunch of guys lined up to take the shots. Not including driving time you’re looking at maybe fifteen minutes to do that detour and that’s if you’re pokey. Now that would have piled up if more teams had opted for that direction as it was clear that only one team at a time could do this. Note that with the teams that were bunched at the ship and split up to do the different tasks they came back together pretty close in time at roadblock.
I’ve been disappointed with the eliminations in the past two episodes, the teams I’ve been liking the best have been eliminated. While everyone knows that it helps to be a buff supermodel to win typically in previous races a much less fit team hasn’t exactly been out of the running even at the very end so I had hope that those teams could hold on. They were having fun, they knew how to play the game (except airports 
) and they were nice to watch unlike the majority of the rest of the whiny babies that were in the race.
Finally, I do want to say that at first I thought that the people who were having problems with the caviar should have just sucked it up. Then I remembered how much salt is in it. Considdering these teams are probably exhausted and potentially dehydrated (“Don’t stop for a drink, you can get it at the pit stop!” ) it is a small miracle that no one didn’t get into serious medical issues from eating that much of it.
I actually thought that, too, at the time. “Just eat it, it’s a million dollars!” But 2.2 pounds of anything is harsh, let alone 2.2 pounds of caviar.
My husband caught one of the morning talk shoes where the interview the eliminated couple. Joyce admitted that she pretty much barfed caviar all over Russia after that. I can only imagine what the night in the pit stop was like.
I don’t really have much else to add, except to say that as a hockey-watching Canadian I was annoyed by the sound effects they added to the hockey detour. My reaction to one of the teams getting all excited about blocking a shot was “Come on! They just got lucky. It went off the post - I heard it!” Then I realised they were adding the sound of a puck hitting the post for every save the teams made, which is just cheesy.
Oh, and there are no words for how disappointed I was when Charla and Mirna managed to get on a decent flight to Russia.
Well, the Roadblock only said, “This task is for someone with a taste for the good life,” or something like that. While the clue obviously called for some sort of eating task, they had no idea what they were eating or HOW MUCH of it they had to eat. The racers didn’t have the benefit of being spoiled by ad promos and internet boards like we did. 
I was mostly disapointed with those week ass shots. I doubt most pf them were more than 20 MPH. I didn’t expect them to go for a Bobby Hull slapper, but I doubt most of those guys ever sent a pass that weak. I wonder how much the had to prompt those ‘spectators’ tp cheer the ‘saves’ Then again probably they just got them Vodka’d up and spliced the cheer shots in radomly.
I’m sad to see Bob and Joyce lose out, especially after Charla and Mirna had such difficulty getting out of Buenos Aires.
But I’m getting truly irritated with the Xian Bobbsey Twins. Their brand of unalytical religious fervor is just fricking annoying-- especially after they lie repeatedly to get ahead.
BTW, I can’t even get away from them when I’m not watching. Brandon is on posters everywhere as the face of Point Zero…
Even so, one could surmise that the eating task would not be simple and would probably require either a) a lot of something or b) something gross. The chances of the eating task being something like “nibble on this green salad” were pretty slim.
well, the Brandon/Nicole team seems to be getting a lot of flack on this board, mostly for Brandon’s refusal to drink vodka. (I have a bigger problem with his inability to explain the problem to his teammate). I’ve got to say, at risk of being flamed, that I would have made the same decision. Drinking alcohol for non-medicinal purposes is expressly against my religious beliefs. I would have dropped out of the race rather than violate that belief. I don’t know the code of conduct advocated by Brandon’s particular flavor of Christianity, but sheeesh, if it really is his deeply held religious belief, of course he shouldn’t compromise it for a tv show, or even for the money. Imagine if the show asked an Orthodox Jew or observant Muslem to eat a bacon sandwich, or a Hindu to eat a Big Mac. (My apology if I misunderstand anybody’s dietary restrictions).
I wonder if this TAR takes into account the beliefs of the contestants in creating the challenges. I would have been in a distinct disadvantage in Russia were I on the show. If it would have been a roadblock, I woould have been out.
Speaking for myself, I have no problem with Brandon not drinking if that’s part of his religious belief system. But aparently God has no problem with him lying to the other teams whenever he feels like it. If he really want’s to be a Christian role model, he should stop playing fast and loose with the Christian tenants. It is possible to play this game in a moral way. Brandon just occasionally decides not to.
Just an off topic question- do Christians who do no believe in alcholic consuption drink real wine as part of Communion?
Clearly my religion has restrictions on proper spelling and grammar.
Not all Christian denominations make a big deal out of Communion; of those that do, not all offer wine in addition to bread; and of those that offer wine and frown on alcohol (Baptists come to mind, but I’m way out on a limb)–non-alcoholic grape juice is offered.
FWIW, I don’t drink (not for any particular single reason; more than anything else I just never got into it when I was younger) and I think trying to balance a shot glass of on a sabre and downing a shot of vodka would be a very bad way to start. 
And that, I think is why it was at a detour. There’s a lot of people out there for a variety of personal reasons would not be able to drink the vodka. And as I mentioned before, I don’t think the hockey detour was any slower than the vodka. Brandon and Nichol showed up at the restraunt a little after the team that was ahead of them and went to do a shot. Mirna and Charla showed up as the teams were just starting into the caviar. Bob and Joyce… well by the time the editting showed the twins with a half eaten bowl and them on the road I knew they were hours behind anyway.
We use water.
I saw Bob and Joyce on The Early Show on CBS the morning after and Joyce said that they begged the airline staff to switch their tickets for Economy class… they could have upgraded people who already had economy tickets and switched out… but the airline just adamantly would not.
Well this maks it sond like the airline was being unreasonable, but in fact I don’t think they were. It seems that Bob and Joyce were really begging to allow them to buy Economy Class tickets (exchange their First Class and pay economy class fare) and upgrade someone to First Class without anyone paying for those First Class seats…
That’s why I have contempt for Brandon–if he’d said “Hey Nichole, you know my (our) religion prohibits any alcohol whatsoever. It’d be immoral for me (us) to drink.”, that’d be one thing.
But given that
A) Nichole is almost certainly the same religion as Brandon (I can’t picture him marrying outside his sect, can you?) and she didn’t have a problem with it, it seems likely that it’s a personal thing.
B) IF it’s a personal thing, fine, but you’d presume again that Nichole knew about Brandon’s deeply-held anti-drinking beliefs before this…they’re engaged after all. Also, you’d think, if it was a long-standing belief of Brandon’s, and not something he made up on the spot, he’d have said “Hey, c’mon Nichole, you know I never drink.”
C) This means either Brandon is a prig who made up rule on the spot OR Nichole is a rampaging bitch.
Given that all evidence points to Bradon being an irrational lying, control-freak (and sissy…*) and Nichole to being a basically decent person, I know which of the two scenarios seems more likely to me.
Fenris
*Sissy. Lookit his behavior with the caviar. Colin had the balls to say (more or less) “Look, I hate caviar and if I eat it, I’ll barf. We’ll lose.” (and kudos to him for knowing when to back the hell off when Christine was getting sick). Brandon did another of his wussy “Jeepers! You’re soooo good at this gross task. You do it.”. My guess is he didn’t want to drink simply because he was scared that he’d puke. But didn’t have the nads to just say so right out front.
It seemed to me that Brandon’s reticence about the shot may have been couched in the fact that it was going to be televised, hence sending a particular message he may not want to send. While he may not view having a drink in a social situation among friends who are aware of one another’s convictions as a problem, it’s another thing altogether for the entire world to see it.
But since I clearly missed something, what lie(s) did he and Nicole tell another team?