You know, this was rather a lackluster episode. The basketball game, I thought, was the best part of it 
Regarding the use of the Double U-turn, it was used the exact same way the first time we saw it. One team turned the team behind them, and that U-turned team turned the team behind them before going off to do the second half of the Detour.
From a gameplay perspective you can argue that it makes sense to let people use the U-turn when they get to the map after completing the first Detour, even if they then have to go back. But more important, it makes more sense dramatically. If the first team to be U-turned could not use the second U-turn right away, they would probably never get a chance to use it and most of the finish line drama would be gone. We’ve never seen a team be the only ones U-turned and then not get eliminated.
Yeah, I just think it loses something when you say to someone “You must take *this *flight” and then their penalty is a lousy 30 minutes. This is one of the few times the actual flight was prescribed, so there must have been a reason for that, right? 30 minutes is nothing. Players in the past would get 4 hours for opting out of a Roadblack. That’s more like it.
If they’d gotten to the airport, done some scouting, and found a faster, earlier flight, I could see a more stringent penalty. But because they took a different flight out of desperation and necessity and there was no way for them to take the designated flight without a time machine, I’m ok with only a 30-minute penalty.
My daughter and I were arguing/discussing how the U-turn works – whether each team that passes through somehow is removed from the pool of teams that can be U-turned (or W-turned in this case). Argument was resolved when they recollected how somebody wound up U-turning a team ahead of them.
I liked the GT’s sorting the costumes: “Mop…Bucket Head…”
And sweet irony that Ron & Christina wound up with a cab taking them to the wrong destination…which can’t be attributed to the language barrier.
Agreed. Initially, my wife and I thought that they might really struggle, but when I heard their strategy, I had to give my forehead a smack. These guys were college guys and remain involved in a large male group activity! Is there anyone better at immediately categorizing people by superficial physical characteristics than college guys? Rather than struggling, this task was right in their wheelhouse.
Excellent point.
That’s the way it’s always been. I fully agree with you that it’s not enough of a penalty, but at least they’re being consistent.
IIRC, the rules have been:
Cheat on transportation and either go back and do it right or 30 minutes plus any time advantage gained as a penalty wait time. (First introduced in Season 3 with team Heave–or Season 2 with some guys who sped.)
Miss a Roadblock and 4 hours plus…something…there’s some wonky sub-rule that the 4 hour penalty starts when the next person arrives at the roadblock or something (See Rob at the Meatblock). I’ve never understood that part. (IIRC introduced with Rob at the Meatblock)
And the freakin’ crazy one: skip a Detour (“a choice between two tasks, each with it’s own pros and cons”) and get a 24 freakin’ hour penalty! (Introduced in Season 1 with Momily. 
)
I’d like a skipped detour to be like a 6 hour penalty and skipping transportation to be more like an hour plus any time advantage. Or 30 minutes plus your time-advantage x3 (so save 30 minutes, have to wait 120 (30+90) minutes).
Also, why weren’t Ron and Christina penalized for taking a jeep/van thing half-way down the mountain (and then throwing rocks at it)? Shoulda been a 30 minute plus however many minutes it would have taken for the next bus to arrive penalty)
What was with the missing taxi cabs when teams got back from the clue boxes? Seems like it happened twice- at the flower market, and later at the “gate” (or whatever it was called). They were specifically showing teams telling their drivers “wait here”, and yet they get back and their taxi is gone - so they take another team’s taxi? I was surprised there weren’t penalties for that. Are you allowed to take another team’s taxi?
It’s usually considered bad form, but there’s no rule against it. Taxi drivers are free agents and if you can hire them away from another team, that’s up to the driver.
I do wonder what happens when the original team that had the taxi leaves their bags in the trunk while they’re doing the task. Does the driver just dump the bags at the curb? It didn’t look like anyone ended up at the mat sans bags.
Yup–taxi theft has always been ok (fans tend to hate it but it makes good TV so the producers don’t mind. What I don’t get is why it happens. Tell the driver, “I gotta stop here, wait for me and I’ll pay you when I get back” or “I’m tearing a $20.00 in half–here’s half. you get the other half if you’re here when I’m back”. Problem solved. No-one ever does this though.)
Car-theft is not ok–sorta. If you take off from a roadblock or something in someone else’s car (someone drove off in some cranky old couple’s car and then had to bring it back–the old couple got a time credit (IIRC) and the car-swipers got a penalty). However, if you crash your car but it’s still drivable to the Pit-Stop, have the Pit-Stop and then take a new, fresh car (leaving someone to take your damaged car) it’s ok.
Ah Amazing Race–your nuances never cease to amaze. 
In this case though, they lost a whole lot of time because they did not get the required flight, so it’s not like they skipped a task and came out ahead. Just missing the flight and being half a day or whatever it was behind the other teams was penalty enough. A 30 minute penalty at the Pit Stop is acceptable just because technically they did not follow the rules, but any longer than that would really be overkill for something that, once they got lost, was out of their hands.
At the Mat, Phil said something like “it just didn’t go your way,” and one of the Reds replied “nothing ever goes our way.”
Sweetheart, you got picked to be on The Amazing Race. Twice. Now shut the fuck up.
I completely forgot that I wanted to comment on that. Yeah, it sure seems that these NFL cheerleaders and reality TV stars have had a life of nothing but failure and misfortune.
I give, I give! Clearly I was blinded by their hotness 
I have to say, I loved seeing Kent do the most appropriate thing and U-Turn the redheads while they were standing right there. Ballsy, but awesome. They needed to do it, and they did, without more than a perfunctory apology.
All the angsting over whether U-turning someone is wrong annoys me. It’s part of the race, and I was glad to see it treated like that.