I was all set to give Colin & Christie some more stupidity points for not knowing what a scarab looked like. But then it became clear that none of the teams knew what a scarab was either. :smack: Props to Colin for showing the other teams present what it looked like. Not that it helped them any.
If she had been present, Mirna would probably have interpreted Colin’s action as a sign of arrogance; as if to say “I found it and you haven’t. See you later, suckers!” Mirna has officially passed Big Brother girl (what was her name?) in terms of sheer obnoxiousness. She is rapidly approaching Flo stature as the biggest bitch of The Amazing Race. What the bleep is her problem anyway?
I am really liking Chip and Kim(luckily the storm died just in time so I could get it on my dish)
Rather than the standard team lipservice bullshit about how they ‘do for each other’ and ‘draw strength from each other’ I think those two really do and don’t need to talk about it. They just both work their asses off, use their brains, have fun and keep perspective. I think Chip has jumped into the lead of the all-important “all time reality guys people wolfman would love to have a beer with” category.
Of course I just gave them the kiss-of-death by liking them and you can expect them leaving next week.
Actually it’s probably better they didn’t know what a scarab was. I would have wasted loads of time sifting through each scoop of dirt, looking for a quarter-sized scarab.
The Pyramid decent made me laugh. Perfect for Charla and she just ran right on down, and knew it.
Don’t know what her problem is, but I’ve taken to yelling “Shut up” at the tv in order to drown out everything she says. Hopefully my neighbours won’t think I’m crazy. Actually, I think the crazy one is my mother. She likes Charla and Mirna for some strange reason, and is impressed by their language “skills”, whereas I was hoping Mirna’s claustrophobia from last week would prevent her from making the Pyramid descent and they’d have to forfeit.
Chip and Kim are officially my favourites too, which almost certainly doubles wolfman’s kiss-of-death, just as my hatred of Charla and Mirna guarantees they’ll win. Chip seems to be a genuinely nice guy, and they’re enjoying themselves, which will hopefully help stave off burnout as fatigue sets in. The rest of the teams are still kind of meh, though I don’t seem to be quite as creeped out by Colin as a lot of other people are. Maybe that fact that Mirna can’t stand him has increased my opinion of him.
Yeah, knowing what a scarab was would have hurt them; they’d have wasted time sifting everything. The real key was knowing what this scarab looked like, and particularly, how big or small it was. Did I see Brandon consider showing the other teams his find (following the good example of Colin, of all people), and then decide not to?
Most of my hatred for the Pizza Brothers evaporated tonight. They were merely pathetic, worthy of sympathy because of the injury. And I really liked how they each handled that, emotionally. It’s ironic that they technically quit the race, because ordinarily I would have mocked them for being quitters, but in this case I would have done the same thing. That task was pointlessly hard, anyway, much worse than the chocolates. Still, I’m surprised no one thought of dragging the edge of the shovel, instead of actually lifting the sand. (Knowing the size of the thing would have helped, but a couple of teams had no excuse on that score.)
Twins finding buried poo – yay! I want them to come scoop my litterbox.
Mirna, Mirna, Mirna. Did you actually yell “Come on, Charla” in the shaft, when Charla was not only ahead of you, but vastly outrunning you? It’s like that phrase is reflexive with her; she says it compulsively whether or not it even makes sense. That taxi maneuver was priceless; if only C&C had known, at that point, to let them go ahead and steal it and go to the wrong terminal.
Love Chip more every episode. Kim, not so much. Good job on the digging but avoiding the sheep because they smelled? Not that Chip wasn’t really the best choice for toting goats, but she didn’t even herd them properly on the boat. I guess she handled the task better than Charla, though. (“Take that one off! He’s the bad one!” Hahahahaha.)
Yeah, in the past three weeks Chip and Kim have really been rocketting up my likability chart too. And since the team I really like got eliminated followed by the other team I liked the next week and the other team I liked getting hit by a non-elimination I’ve got to say they’re doomed. I liked that Kim got into it after last week people noticing that she hadn’t done much with the roadblocks, but I never got the impression that she was deadweight to the team. She was clearly doing her share at all the other tasks and Chip genuinely seemed more willing to jump into the roadblocks.
Mirna really reached a new level of unlikability in this episode, particularly her little rant about how pushy and rude Collin and Christy are. I don’t care for C&C but they don’t demonstrate one-tenth of those traits as Mirna. I did get some pleasure out of Charla screaming at Mirna to go faster.
Speaking of C&C, I predicted last week that bunching would make their lead pointless. I can’t believe they didn’t realize that the hours of operation were going to catch them. It wasn’t a bad thing to be several hours ahead of the other teams; they were at the pyramids when they opened and had an oportunity to catch an earlier flight which they missed by minutes but unless you somehow manage to pull a full day ahead you’re not going to be able to hold on to it.
Good riddance to the Brothers; I can understand being in pain but in this episode they clearly weren’t even racing any more. Even before they reached the dig it was clear that they weren’t even going to try. Compare that to Jim who was also clearly in pain with his knee but also was clearly doing his best to not slow things down. I did like that we got to see someone actually quit racing.
I couldn’t believe that the Bowling Moms almost got screwed on the airport again, particularly when they were clearly paranoid about that this time.
Did anyone notice that their start time was 10:11am compared to a bit after 8am for the twins. They had been following the twins and the rock pull clearly took about an hour and half (less for the more athletic teams, a bit more for the weaker). Did they spend two hours wandering in the desert? Could a time penalty have been imposed at some point? I was surprised at how close teams 2 through 4 were in the pitstop. Chalk it up to the editting that made it look like Mirna and Charla were an hour ahead of everyone else instead of three minutes.
Given the lighting as teams finished up the dig we’re probably looking at a fairly tight spacing of teams as they leave next week. Remember how fast it got dark last week? It appears that all the teams finished within half an hour of eachother at the dig except for the Brothers. Even the Bowling Moms still had some natural light left when they finished it.
And chalk me up to another person who couldn’t beleive no one knew what a scarab was.
You’ve got to give credit to C&C for coming in first again, even after the bunching. I think that’s pretty telling, though I’m not really sure what it is they’re doing that keeps them in the lead so well. I can’t WAIT to see them and Charla & Mirna really go at it again next week. I believe they showed Charla calling Christie a bitch to her face. Awesome!
Chip and Kim are great. I’d love to see them win.
Does anyone on the board speak Arabic and can tell us if Mirna’s Arabic is as horrible as her Spanish? To my untrained ear, it sounded like she actually knew what she was saying.
Good on the moms, too, for staying in it. They could easily have come in much sooner, if they hadn’t had such bad luck at the end.
I’ve got to agree with Just Some Guy about the twins. They irritated me. OK, so they’re going to lose, and I can see how that could bring you down. Still, they were just plain sulky the whole episode.
Jim’s knee hurt, but Marshall looked like he was in agony for most of this episode. Just watching him walk was painful; they seemed to take longer to get from goat guy to dig pit than it took Bowling Moms to find the scarab.
Saddening to see that no one knew what a scarab was; the closest was Colin, who was appararenty thinking of a scabbard. Not that it really mattered; what they were really looking for was a paperweight, and no team – not even the Twins – had any trouble figuring it was what they needed when they got it.
Dumbass of the week: Charla and Mirna. Just what was the point of the whole taxi stunt, again? Mirna’s interview distaste for Colin was pathetic. Hell, I don’t like Colin, but it was his damn cab.
Has anyone taken a look at the Leaderboard before today? If so, please go look and tell me if it’s changed. If it hasn’t, it seems to indicate when the next non-elimination rounds are going to be.
Colin and Christie annoy me no end, but I can’t find fault with how they’re actually playing the race. At one point, though, Colin made some comment about how he was the one doing all the tasks. What about the freakin’ kilo of caviar? And is there a reason why he couldn’t let Christie ride the donkey on the way back to get more water?
Much to my chagrin, I was also feeling badly for the pizza brothers when they gave up. All those weeks when I wanted them to fall on their faces, and then they just seemed so sad and pathetic when it finally happened.
And count me as number 100 or whatever that no one knew what a scarab was.
OOOOOhhhhh. “Scarb”=“Scabbard”=“Sword”. I couldn’t figure out what the hell he was talking about when he thought it was a sword.
I thought that task was too hard as well, given that there’s two sizes of scarab–the paperweight size and the jewelry size. If they’d known the size (even in general) the task wouldn’t have been too hard.
I still hate the bullsh*t editing. Look at the dig. The intercuts of the moms digging at twilight with the Pizza Guys arriving in the dark didn’t add any suspense. It was just annoying. The race is a lot more interesting without stupid editing tricks.
I can’t figure out how the Pizza Guys lost all that time. Even if it took them twice as long in the pyramid as it took the others, I can’t figure out where the missing hours went.
Brandon continues to annoy–“Hey God? A little help here?” :rolleyes: What a dick. C’mon lightning bolts! Zap him!
I honestly think that Minra is nuts. She’s scared of everything (this time, claustrophobia, part 2 and fear of sheep. And calfs. And meat. And chocolate. And heights. And at least one I’m forgetting) I wonder if you can be a hypocondriac about mental issues rather than physical ones? Plus, have you noticed that everyone who gets in her way instantly becomes an “enemy”? AND her mood swings? Plus her whole “maniac” speech. (And was anyone else just laughing at Mirna’s assertion that everyone hates her 'cause they’re jealous? )
I still have no feeling for the twins. I don’t care about them at all.
On the good side, damn Colin and Christie make a great team. They mesh well together, and they’re smart. I pick them as the likely winners (Team Blue Lagoon is another contender, I’m sorry to say).
Chip and Kim keep showing that they’ve got smarts and class. Kudos to them!
And I give huge props to the Bowling Moms. They made a comment that had me out of my chair applauding. I find it extremely distasteful for Americans on a game-show to beg from poor locals. Apparently so did they and they limited their begging to tourists. Kudos to them. I still think they’re doomed.
One other question–the (probably deceptive) promo showed (I think) Mirna actually shoving Colin. I thought there was a written in stone, no exceptions, “no intentional physical contact” rule.
Anyone know if one exists and what the penalty is for breaking it?
I’m not sure C&C taking the fast-forward last week was a bad idea, even though their lead dissolved at the airport. By their taking it, they prevented another team – one that might have really benefitted from it – from taking it. Since it’s a finite resource in this particular race, it might have made a difference to that other team. (Apologies if someone made this point last week – I never read last week’s thread. And credit to my coworker and poolmate Tina, who pointed this out to me.)
Chalk me up for yet another who would have been looking for the wrong size of scarab – and who didn’t get the scarab/scabbard connection.
It seems to have been updated but that’s kind of moot; we know when the rest of the non-elimination legs are. Since there are four there are now one every other week since they won’t put two non-elim legs back to back.
I’ll grant you that Marshall (is that the one?) could have been in a lot of pain and genuinely unable to continue, but they still came across as having given up through the whole episode. And giving up on the course did make them look like bad sports in general. He couldn’t have made it back to a taxi just to get to the pitstop? I kind of suspect that there may be a bit more to this (if he was carted off in an ambulance, for example, then I can’t blame them for their behavior in this episode), but what film we have doesn’t bear that out.
That dig roadblock would have been a lot more entertaining if the plot had been seeded with other Egyptian “artifacts”. “Is this a scarab?” “No” “Is this a scarab?” “No” “What about this?” “No” I think in that situation knowing what a scarab was wouldn’t affect me any more than I wouldn’t be poking around with the junk looking for anything. It was kind of cruel giving them sifting screens for the task.
I’ve got to ask this now that we’re outside of languages that I may not be able to speak but I also know enough not to pretend I do unlike a certain pair of racers: how was Mirna’s Arabic? Was it just as mangled as her Span-tallian and the editors doing her a favor with coherant subtitles again or does she actually speak a language other than English?
After watching Mirna and Colin go at it for the cab … well, I would love to see that woman try to get a cab outside Port Authority.
Why would God help Brandon find an indeterminate object in a pile of sand? What does God get in return for that? I’ve pretty much limited myself to begging God for help only when I’m in immediate danger of going to see him very soon.
I think Colin was confusing scarab and scimitar. Although it may have been scabbard. But, as DeVena said, I found myself yelling “Haven’t any of you seen The Mummy??” Nice job showing the others, but I guess you can afford to do that when you’re in first place.
Did anybody catch the moment when Colin pushed Mirna? I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that it was in slow motion, but I was looking at my dinner and I missed it.
I could be mistaken about this, but I got the impression that Mirna was standing in Colin’s way as he tried exiting the ticket purchasing area, and he was simply trying to get past her (between the narrow rails that defined the ticket queue). Of course, Mirna interpreted the contact as violence. :rolleyes:
Mirna has officially crossed the line from annoying to outright psychotic. I hope any of her potential clients are taking notes, since she’s clearly unhinged. Calling Colin a “bully” for not letting her drive off to God-knows-where with all his stuff (not an unrealistic risk given Charla & Mirna’s history of getting hopelessly lost) was beyond insanity.
The Brothers Pizza were, ironically, the least annoying they’ve been in losing. I agree with those who say they were just sad at the end. As someone whose knees have been injured and operated on more than once, I sympathize. But it was ironic that the episode in which they were eliminated was the only episode that they did not disparage the country they were in or any of the people they encountered (at least not on camera).
I like Chip, but am not sold on Kim. Chip is genuinely engaging and seems thrilled to be playing and seeing the world. Kim has been borderline useless throughout. She finally did one of the challenges, but it’s been how many weeks? Also, Kim, for better or worse, seems to hold Chip’s normal tendency to be helpful in check - note how she was the one who urged him to hide the scarab from the others. Colin gets the props for niceness this time. I wonder if Team Blue Lagoon is taking notes, or if they just figure that mentioning God and faith every few minutes will validate their credentials as Christians.
Props to the Bowling Moms for getting out of a tough jam, though I am totally convinced that CBS held the charter flight.
Actually, I think the crazy one is my mother. She likes Charla and Mirna for some strange reason, and is impressed by their language “skills”, whereas I was hoping Mirna’s claustrophobia from last week would prevent her from making the Pyramid descent and they’d have to forfeit.
What about the freakin’ kilo of caviar? And is there a reason why he couldn’t let Christie ride the donkey on the way back to get more water?
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