Can I just say that when you’re on a single road that goes straight to the location you want the team behind you is not “following on your coattails”. Art and JJ annoyed me more in this episode than they ever have before. Only Bopper and Mark and possibly Nary and Jamie were actually innocent of the drama crap but when Art and JJ stood on the mat and said “Were just going to try and minimize our involment in the drama” it’s a good thing they were in Africa because if they were in front of me I’d have washed their mouths out with soap for being lying liars who lie. They were the biggest shit disturbers of all, egging on everyone and stirring the pot whenever things started to settle.
I didn’t care for Bopper and Mark in the beginning, but they (or their edit) has me rooting for them more and more. I think part of it is that they are black and white and from the south (US) and are, apparently, good friends. I’m not saying that this is unusual, but it does seem to paint a better picture of southern culture than the old stereotypes for a national audience.
Also, “White men CAN jump!” made me laugh.
Their bios sound like they’re DEA:
"Describe what you do: Enforce the controlled substance laws and bring criminals who grow, manufacture and distribute controlled substances to the criminal and civil justice system of the United States. "
Yeah, I like(d) Art and JJ because they’re a strong team, and no one likes Big Brother team, but that complaint is just silly. Of course you’re going to follow the team ahead of you. Of course you’re going to ask the ticket counter person for the same flight. And the one time they didn’t follow them they actually got ahead (when Art and JJ couldn’t find the Simba site).
Was wondering what types of Federal Agents Nary and Jamie are too, because they don’t seem too impressive. Art and JJ definitely have the cop vibe, but Nary and Jamie don’t seem cut out to be field agents. (Especially since one of them admitted to pulling a Plaxico Burress). I did like that they refused to tell Border Patrol what they did though - you could tell Border Patrol was frustrated.
And boy, was that non-elimination telegraphed or what? As soon as I saw the task was “set up your campground” I figured it would be non-elim, and nothing in the direction/production of the show after led me to believe otherwise.
Agreed 100%. Even worse is when only one of the challenges requires strength but a U-Turn is in play, meaning you can effectively eliminate a weak team.
Last season has an almost ridiculous strength check, where you had to wade out into the ocean and unload all the luggage and people from a boat and carry them to land on your shoulders. Only the NFL guy did it so it wasn’t a huge fail, but if the little hot chicks hadn’t already been eliminated, U-Turning them into that one would have been guaranteed elimination.
At least the tent-building strength check was mitigated by the NEL.
I loved when Bopper (or Mark, still not sure which is which) was in the Serengetti jeep telling the driver that “your country is beautiful, just beautiful”, then turned and hawked a loogie (or his gum) out the window. Stay classy, Kentucky.
Nary & Jamie acknowledging that the guys they work with have always wanted to see the two of them in the shower together, and now they have. Cute.
I have to give Vanessa some props- she can be a real bitch, but she doesn’t shrink from a fight and she has some good come-backs at Rachel, who irritates the fuck out of me.
You know why I find that Big Brother girl so off-putting? She keeps looking at the camera! I feel like she’s making sure we’re watching, like a toddler who doesn’t cry unless she’s sure a grown up will comfort her. Ugh.
I noticed that on the plane. She made sure she found the camera for her comment on how beautiful it all was. She’s like one of those child actors who finds their best side before they turn it on for the camera
Well, the woman who didn’t know was a beard was, knew where the Serengeti and Tanzania are, knew what going there would mean, and knew that the Masai jump really high.
While I find their internal interactions annoying, I don’t actually have a problem with them as racers.
If the schoolteachers/agents are going to lie, you’d have thought they’d put more effort into it. The obvious lie to get out of being caught knowing too much is “oh, my husband/father/mother/etc. is a DEA agent.”
Considering the amount of help teams have given each other before, if setting up the tent frames was difficult I’m surprised no teams paired up to knock that out for each other. Unless they weren’t allowed.
I do like that they were provided with drivers but still had to do their own navigation. More of that please.
Yeah, she had those locked and loaded.
Having several cops in my family, that was my exact thought…
“So, what do you really do for a living? You knew that ‘UC’ meant ‘undercover’, and only highly trained law enforecement officials can decipher such cryptic jargon.”
“My brother is a cop. Fuck off.”
Although Kindergarten Cops have said a lot of stupid, non-teachery crap this season. “Oh, you can do this – you’re really great at targets! Ummm…from the…spitball fights…in the…classroom…thing.”
By the by, did Art and J.J. mention having wives in this episode? Knock me over with a feather…I’d have sworn that they were a couple.
Why can’t it be both?
There was a quick shot a RBFB in camp, and a quick search makes me sure it was a Marabou stork. They could have had a roadbock in this episode called ‘fight to the death with this bird’ and we could have wrapped up the season right here.
I’m not sure how fierce a Marabou stork actually is, but I wouldn’t want to find out first hand.
I, for one, am getting pretty sick of Ralph calling Vanessa “Angel”.
“Great job, Angel!”
“You can do it, Angel!”
“Angel, I’m just trying to help you…”
yuck.
Meh. It’s just the “baby” of this season. At least Rachel isn’t calling Brendon “Boooookieeeee!” all the time.
(No, seriously. That’s her pet name for him. I found that out watching Big Brother. Do you realize now what kind of entertainment you’re missing not watching that show?)
I found it odd that neither Vanessa nor her partner seemed to know not to try and sit on the seat. At least downhill it ought to have been easy to do, but I guess if you have little to no experience on bikes, it might be hard to control.
Does anyone else think the conflict between Rachel & Dave is getting way overplayed? They’re shown to be continually arguing and sniping, but they end up working things out and moving ahead relatively quickly. I’m not saying there’s nothing to be worked out there, but it doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem (as with, say the other Rachel who seems to break down completely for a little while).
Actually, since they’ll probably be sticking around, we might be shown less of that as the season goes on, and by the time they go (or win) it’ll be a story of how much the Race has brought them together during this difficult time of transition from the military.
Ralph tried to tell her that a couple times but she wouldn’t listen.
[quote=“panamajack, post:36, topic:618203”]
Does anyone else think the conflict between Rachel & Dave is getting way overplayed? They’re shown to be continually arguing and sniping, but they end up working things out and moving ahead relatively quickly. I’m not saying there’s nothing to be worked out there, but it doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem QUOTE]
I don’t think they’ve played it out of proportion. The fights are in the context of the tasks. It’s not like they’re taking fights that occur in airport waiting lounges or during flights.
They argue during times of high stress and they probably need to work on it, but they also appear to get over the petty sniping once they’ve gotten past the stress of the moment. They seem like two people who love one another, but aren’t used to being with each other quite yet.
They do seem great at focussing and working hard when the chips are down, which bodes well.
That’s one thing I’ve noticed this year. There might be fighting between the couples, but it seems like everybody is in a healthy relationship. Big Brother may be annoying, but they do seem to genuinely love each other.
Disagree. Based only on what we’ve seen and that’s clearly not the whole picture, Big Brother is a sick, sick relationship.
Two codependent morons feeding each other’s delusions: he’s a (metaphorically) small-dicked little-man who NEEDS to have someone to feel superior to, she’s an emotionally retarded girl-woman who’s spoiled, narcissistic, none-too-bright and no emotional control.
With her, he gets to be a Big, strong, man/daddy giving him a sense of power and authority he can’t get in real-life because he’s a whiney, ineffectual douche. And so he feeds her helplessness, because the more helpless she is, the bigger he feels.
With him, she gets to have someone to blame for EVERYTHING: because if things don’t go right, it’s Daddy’s fault, not hers, because she’s such a helpless-little-muffin (and none-too-bright). Plus, because she’s a helpless-little-muffin (and none-too-bright), he has to pay CONSTANT attention to make sure she doesn’t light herself on fire or wander into traffic while following something shiney. And there is nothing (sex, jewelry, money, nothing) that Rachel like more than attention.
Plus, they’re both such losers that they cling to each other like passengers on a sinking ship–they go out of their way to be obnoxious to everyone else so that they can use their mutual feelings of paranoia to cling together more desperately (the “Everyone’s against us! We can only trust each other” mentality)
And once again, yeah, I know we’re only seeing about 10 minutes out of about a 72 hour period for each couple. And yeah, you can make anyone look bad. But what we’re seeing is not, IMO, a healthy relationship.
My .02c
Sigmund Fenris
As someone who DID watch these two on Big Brother on both of their seasons (including quite a bit of the 24-hour live feed), I completely concur with Fenris on the healthiness of Brendon & Rachel’s relationship. With the added note that Brendon is really, REALLY good at looking like the nice, put-upon one in the relationship while subtly but constantly reinforcing Rachel’s dependence on him. Some of the conversations they had on the live feed during both BB seasons are textbook passive-aggressive emotional abuse.