Isn’t it sad that we now wish we had COLIN? Yeah, he wore that dorky headlamp all the time, but at least his ass was covered.
Was the Godlewskis meltdown the most spectacular in TAR history (excluding Flo’s?)
They started off so well and it turned into such insane bickering/sniping.
I’m not 100% sure they did choose the wrong detour. The wagon building had some parts that appeared to require some brute strength, which the sisters just don’t have. Getting the heavy wheels over there & jacking up the wagon for instance. I think it would have taken them a lot longer to get it done. It seemed like the Weavers were fairly far into building their teepee when the Bransons got the wagon together and it could have taken them quite a bit longer if Wally hadn’t stepped up and provided the muscle, just like he did with the railroad detour last week. In fact, I think the railroad one was the reason the Godlewskis chose the one they did. They may have realized they don’t have the muscle for some of the more physical tasks.
I think a big part of the problem was what one of them said; something along the lines of “I think we’re making this more complicated than it really is”. Measuring the pole spacing? No. Just No. I forget, didn’t they do that sort of thing painting the wheels as well? And they wasted a lot of time arguing about stuff. Plus, that one sister looked kind of beefy; why couldn’t she boost somebody up? 
Then the golf course breakdown.
The Weavers are certainly vile and may in fact be Evil Incarnate, but at least they have a clear chain of command and will pull together when need be. The Godlewskis? Not so much. And they were the only ones left with that kind of disorganized dynamic. The Branson’s have Wally, who has shown he will corral the girls if the task needs doing, even though he defers to them a lot otherwise. And the Linzes just seem more used to cooperating. They seem to come up with a plan fairly quickly and get together to carry it out. More team sports in their background maybe? Much as I’d have preferred to have seen Mother Weaver and her spawn left by the side of the road to die in the heat, I think the Sisters just had too much strife working against them.
Concerning the Weavers: It’s been said that when the Schroeders were out of their house during Katrina, every other team in the race pitched in to help them except the Weavers. If that’s true, and they did end up winning the money, would that make them even more vile?
IMO, Colin may have been nuts to one degree or another, but in terms of sheer skill and understanding of the game, IMO, he’s the best racer ever.
My vote for Best Racer Ever goes to Boston Rob. He had the skill and understanding of the game, plus he knew all the angles and was able to sweettalk locals into helping him. And his refusal to eat the 4 pounds of meat in Argentina was perhaps the Best Game Play Ever, IMHO.
He can torture me anytime he wants. [sub]Did I say that out loud?[/sub]
I knew they wouldn’t be eliminated when I realized they were pulled over heading for the mat. I’m really hoping they don’t win though. My money is on the Branson’s right now. Mostly because the editing seems to paint them as the underdog. I’d be just as happy to see the Linzes win, just as long as it’s not the Weavers.
You know, maybe they won’t realize that the traffic signs in Canada are in km/h and they’ll get busted for dangerous driving when they’re flying down the freeway at 100 miles per hour. Either that, or maybe trying to process the metric system will send their poor sheltered minds into complete meltdown. We can only hope, eh?
“No, no, kids, a meter is equal to four feet, and you double the kilometer speed to get miles per hour. And that’s Lake Superior. It’s big, alright, but not Great.”
No. If they ran screaming through the streets of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve tearing off the limbs of children, they would not be more vile.
I agree - the “hold the plane” moment for Uchenna and Joyce was a load. Had that not happened, Rob and Amber would have won by several hours.
Eh. I disagree, but mostly because of semantics. Boston Rob ran the Race like the former Survivor contestant that he was, I think: he did what had to be done to stay in the Race (game), and not much more. Although the Race Rules do stipulate the penalties for failure (or refusal) to complete a task, to me it seems somehow wrong to let a team continue racing if they’re not going to do what’s required of them. As much as I hate Flo (HATE!), at least she got in the round boat or put on the bungee harness or whatever. She finished the tasks (even if it was because of Zach dragging her along). Rob and Amber didn’t finish the Meatblock. IMO, they barely even tried - they (he) just knew how to get out of doing it. I hated the Meatblock and I thought it was disgusting, but other people did it, and some people who actually completed the task got eliminated. That doesn’t seem right or fair to me. And being a “rules lawyer” doesn’t seem right, either. Knowing how to avoid doing something isn’t really in the spirit of things, I don’t think. It’s kind of the same way I view saying “I quit” - once you say it, whether you mean the whole race or just a task, for whatever reason, that’s it. You’re out. Next team up. Bring back one of the teams that wants to try to win, you know?
But … that isn’t really Boston Rob’s fault. It’s the way the Race Rules are written. And while I think it’s kind of cheap to use the Rules so you don’t have to do the tasks, still … it’s allowed, because the Rules say so. Boo Rules!
Anyway, and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but - I do think Colin was pretty darned good as a Racer. He was a total turd of a person, but he was a good Racer. The only person better might be Kim McAllister*. Chip did a lot of the physical work, but I really think Kim was the mastermind behind the Chip-and-Kim win. She knew what she could and couldn’t do and more importantly, she knew what Chip could and couldn’t do. She had a strategy and stuck to it, and she kept that team on track. I think I only heard them bicker once or twice, for like 10 seconds, about money (when Chip was on his over-tipping bender), and then again at the very end.
- Although, on second thought, Rob and Brennan were pretty good too, as were Frank and Margarita, but they were totally “package deals,” so it’s hard to evaluate them individually.
We’ll never know for sure, of course, but I suspect that the wagon task looked harder than it was. The wheels are heavy, yes, but they’re round and they roll. Jacking up the wagon’s just a matter of a big lever and a lot of mass. Nothing else was all that hard, and I think four wheels is easier than a whole bunck of spikes.
I suspect that the Godlewskis wouldn’t have beaten the Linzes or the Bransens in the wagon task, but I bet they would have beaten anyone (read: the Weavers) doing the tepee task. Note that the Linzes and the Bransens got to Buffalo Bill’s place at near the same time (the Bransens having to wait), but the Weavers didn’t show up until after the after the Bransens had already skedaddled (OK, so there was some driving time in there, but still…).
But he *did * do what was required of him. He waited the required time. If the show wants the penalty to be expulsion, then that’s what the rule should stipulate — which, of course, would have changed Rob’s decision. I agree that he is the best player ever, and a damn good game player generally. If he plays chess, I bet his style is similar to Tal.
Y’know, they curl in Minneapolis too. Heck, I’ve even been on a curling rink in the twin cities.
So they may not actually head North. Besides, this was filmed in the summertime. No ice even in Canada, eh?
But if they do curl in Canada, it’d be great if they get the guy with the pink cowboy hat from the Tim Horton’s commercials.
My best for next week is: The Bransens! The Linz’s have been coming in second because they tend to misread the clue (this week, it specifically said to look in the holes). Yes, they’re energetic and enthusiastic, but all it takes is one goof to come in second by five minutes.
And the Weavers can’t win, because nobody who worships a guy who threw moneylenders out of church is allowed to win a million dollars.
I’m pretty sure they curl in Washington State, too. That whitewater boating thing could be on the Snake or Columbia, and there would be some sense of closure if the race ends in Seattle, so that’s my guess. No idea where that stadium is, the one that Wally Bransen runs out of gas in, though - a lot of them have yellow seats.
I’d be disappointed if God’s will is that His servants, the Weavers, win it, but that’s all. After seeing a couple of genuine psychos in Colin and Jonathan come close, they only manage to irritate me moderately, and no more than the whiny blondes did.
Actually, I thought the Weavers showed up while the Bransons were still changing. They were told to go to the other side of the table and wait. Like I said, I could have sworn that the Weavers already had their canvas (or whatever that was) wrapped around the frame and partly secured when the Bransons rolled by. They weren’t that far behind, and that’s with Wally doing the heavy work.
Every girl doing the wagon task (including Meg who may have been the strongest of the bunch) was shown really struggling with those wheels, even rolling them. And Wally looked like he was putting some muscle under that lever. Just getting the pole with the canvas attached up was a problem for the sisters; which one of them do you think was going to lift that wagon? It may not have been as physical as the spikes, but I just think it would have been tough enough to really take them a while.
I think it was just their infighting that cost them. The blow-up at the golf course cetainly couldn’t have helped much.
Since there’s so much mention of past racers (given that we can’t bring ourselves to discuss the fact that we can not now be certain the Weavers didn’t win the dough), why don’t you all join me over here?
I see this as just a different strategy in the game - learning the rules and knowing how to play them to your advantage is another skill in the game. It’s not a part of the game really when a baseball team intentionally walks someone to try and get the next person out instead. It’s not a part of the game when a football team lets the clock run out instead of starting a new play. Same with basketball players who intentionally foul the other team to stop the clock. They’re all examples of using a strategy that is based on playing the rules in your favor.
The most impressive part of Rob’s “performance” in that task wasn’t his strategic quitting - it was the way that he was actually able to convince others to do the same so that no matter what, another team would be behind him when they left the task. That was damn impressive. He basically engineered the other teams to take second place, at best. That was fantastic gameplay.
… if you like that kind of gameplay. Which I don’t, obviously. I can understand why some people do, but I don’t. If I wanted to watch people working the system instead of working hard physically, I’d watch poker or chess.
His ability to get locals to help him was based on his fame connected to Survivor most of the time, IMO. Lots of the people who helped him recognized both him and Amber and were more than willing to help them based on that.
And I’m with rockle on the whole MeatGate issue. He didn’t complete it. He really didn’t even try. He ate about two bites and then then just quit. His strategy was brilliant, sure, but it wasn’t quite in keeping with the rules.