Amazing Race March 27, Spoilers ***Delays Probable***

Cafe Society
21

Were they told at the roadblock that the tea was mango and papaya. I know at least one team asked the “tea-tender” in China what was the flavor.

I wonder if it was legal to go get a slice of papaya and mango and eat it (and smell it) to get an idea of its taste and scent.

That said, I glad Luke is gone. Margie is OK, but Luke is too whiny for me.

I think I would have done the delivery detour. I thought Justin and Zev were got get dinged with a penalty when Zev intentionally tossed and broke the teacup.

22

As near as I could tell, only Ron and Mallory figured it out based on taste. Everybody else was just guessing and for them it was a lottery.

Ron had something of an advantage in that they were able to ask in China what kind of tea it was so he knew he was trying to smell mango and papaya.

Didn’t care for the episode since the rest of it was all bunching and a Detour that apparently didn’t slow anybody down regardless of which side they took, it just made the tea party essentially random chance which is boring.

Luke may be too whiny, but I do wonder how much tea he had to drink (it looked like they had to drink the full cup before they could present it). I don’t know how they were removing cups but by the end the half closest to the auctioneer was empty. It reminded me of the similar eating one in China last season that had people throwing up; eventually you’d have consumed so much water that it really would be pretty painful to press on.

Piled onto that being the last one and knowing that it will be random chance that gets you out of there and for all you know there is only one more correct cup of tea among the 400 on there and I’d feel like crying too.
ETA: That said, assuming the tea they carried with them from China was the same tea they were looking for, once I was made to transport it I would have had someone on the plane translate it for me.

23

I don’t think I could’ve done the delivery challenge. I’m not claustrophobic, but that rickshaw was giving me flashbacks of the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

24

The cowboy also figured it out by smell. Some of them at least had an idea of what it tasted like.

25

You’re right. Forgot he got it after realizing he should try smelling them. But still, it was lottery for at least half the teams and with nothing slowing anybody down once they left, it was boring.

26

Did they have to drink the whole thing before they could turn it in? I don’t know why they didn’t just take sips.

I sure hope there was a bathroom a few steps away! By the end of that task it looked like 3/4 of the table was empty!

27

Was it just me, or was Mallory looking unusually hot this episode?

28

It’s difficult not to add anything different to this thread that hasn’t already been said – the guys who applauded when Luke finally finished, how the Globetrotters tricked Mallory (I love these team interactions!), the guessing-vs-shots in the dark, etc.

Despite all that, I found myself a bit nonplussed this episode and at first I couldn’t understand why. Then it dawned on me – the tasks were all variations of tasks The Amazing Producers have used the past couple of seasons! That’s why they all looked familiar!

29

Yup–the book carrying thing was one that Rahb an’ Ambah did. The “Paint the statue” was pretty similar to the “make sand paintings” one.

And next week the “Use dung/mud to make bricks/patch a wall” thing we see the sisters griping about was used before too.
Regarding the tea thing–everyone who got out early either smelled for the right one (and it must have had a really distinctive smell)–Cowboy, Mallory, Ron or was trying to match the color (Kent, Sister). The only two who just randomly chugged cups were Globetrotter and Luke. Everyone who got out first had some sort of method.

Regarding Luke’s crybaby meltdown, it occurs to me-in an earlier race (S5? S6?) one of the dumbest tasks that the Racers have ever been given* was that they had to eat like a pound (or kilo?) of…iffy-looking caviar (it was green-grey and gooey/slimy looking. Caviar shouldn’t look like that.) Someone either here or on TWOP worked out that the racers had consumed like 5 days worth of salt in that one task One of the contestants after eating about 2/3ds of it was literally gray, trembling/shaking and crying from an overload of salt. And—despite being sick as hell didn’t throw a tantrum like Luke. Flinging himself on the ground and pounding on the floor, crawling to his mommy and hugging her legs while sobbing…etc. There’s nothing wrong with crying from a tough task (if we ignore that he does it on every hard task), but there is something wrong with over-the-top histrionics.
*Assuming you don’t want your racers dead. Which, given some racers might be an unfair assumption.

30

Because of the intentional bunching at the Town Hall, he order of finish for this episode was pretty much determined by (a) how long it took at the Roadblock to figure out that smell was important, and (b) which Detour option the team chose. Not really a lot of room for subtleties.

Taxi Assessment:

Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Amanda & Kris and Mel & Mike and Jaime & Cara - Already eliminated.
Margie & Luke (down from “Rapido!”) - I wonder if Phil offered Luke some Snapple Tea at the mat? On the one hand, that would be pretty mean, but on the other it would be kind of funny. As we saw on Margie & Luke’s original season, Luke’s temperment isn’t well-suited to tasks that he can’t figure out right away. Once he realizes he doesn’t get it, he gets into a funk and can’t pull himself out. I feel a little bad for him, as the Amazing Race is a team game, and only occasionally is a loss so clearly pinned on one team member. But he knew what he was getting into when he signed up for a second season: they had something like a 10/11 chance of not winning. And although blowing a task like this must be pretty painful, theres’s really no good way to lose.

Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one.

Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Ron & Christina (up from “Flat Tire”) - OK, I’m grudgingly moving Ron & Christina up a notch this week. They’ve held on through six legs, and truthfully haven’t done poorly enough to warrant a lower ranking. I’m still thinking they have little chance of winning, and Ron especially is unlikely to be able to act like the member of a team for so long.
Kent & Vyxsin (holding steady) - Although they were comfortably in the middle of the pack this episode, Kent & Vyxsin have by far the worst average placement this season of any team–in fact, their average finish is greater than the number of teams left. Think about that for a second.

"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Flight Time & Big Easy (down from “Passing”) - The Globetrotters are just not performing up to their potential. They’re younger fit males who are used to travelling, teamwork, and playing games, so they ought to be tearing the Race up. But they’ve only cracked the top three once, and they were consistently behind other teams this episode. It’s not that they’re terrible Racers, it’s just that they’re not winning.

In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Kisha & Jen (holding steady) - Like the Globetrotters, Kisha & Jen have only cracked the top three once. However, Kisha & Jen have finished ahead of the Globetrotters in five out of six episodes. They ought rightfully to be embarrassed by their inability to find the Snapple clue in the obvious place, but even that didn’t stop Kisha & Jen from landing at the mat only minutes behind the second-place cowboys.
Zev & Justin (up from “Rapido!”) - An up-and-down performance from Zev & Justin, with Zev getting lucky at the Roadblock, but the team choosing the right Detour to land in fourth place. I think the rest of the season will be up-and-down for this team also, so the key for them might be to just keep out of last place long enough to make it to the final. (Um, not that that isn’t the key for all teams, really, but you know what I mean.)

Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Gary & Mallory (up from “Passing”) - Gary & Mallory had one bad leg some time back, but other than that have finished in the top three every time. Another solid leg from them in this episode, and one of only two teams who both figured out the Roadblock and chose the right Detour.
Jet & Cord (up from “Passing”) - The other team to both figure out the Roadblock and choose the right Detour was Jet & Cord. Although they don’t quite have the record that Gary & Mallory have, particularly in light of their spectacular flameout on the first leg, they have come in first or second for three legs running. In fact, the only other top-three finishes in the last three legs belong to the now-eliminated Margie & Luke, and one lonely third-place finish by Ron & Christina. That’s enought to put both the cowboys and Gary & Mallory into the top tier of the rankings.

[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Rating[/sub]

31

I’m pretty sure she is going to be chosen as the new spokesperson for the Snapple Tea Amazing Race flavor, or whatever it is.

That was an awful lot of cleavage that Vyxxxxin was showing. I couldn’t decide whether to clap my hands over my son’s eyes every time she was on screen, or to just let him enjoy the show.

32

Luke and Margie were probably my least favorite remaining team, so I was glad they were eliminated instead of anyone else (now if only we could lose Ron and keep Christina…). I loved that the Indian Roadblock crew practically lifted Luke up on their shoulders when he finally got to right tea. I wonder how much caffeine he consumed? He was all sweaty but the tea couldn’t have been very hot.

33

Well, she was visibly quite excited when she finally completed the tea drinking task, so that was something.

I’m not sure how much of an advantage it was that Ron and Christina knew that the tea they drank in China was mango papaya. Given that everyone grabbed a mango and a papaya at the beginning of the task, it was pretty clear that the tea they were looking for was mango and papaya. It was also clear that everyone knew they were trying to find the tea that they had consumed in China, since all teams mentioned trying to match to the previous tea by color or taste.

I was curious why it was that some teams didn’t figure out that the smell was distinctive. It seemed that Mallory was pretty obvious about it, basically sticking her nose into the tea itself, and I would have thought that the partners watching the task might have noticed.

34

So…did Zev (in his stupid silver pajamas) throw the cup or was he trying to set it on the edge of the table and he missed?

If he flung it, again–stop being a crybaby. I don’t care if he has mental issues; if he can’t handle it, he shouldn’t be on the race. If he dropped it, no biggie!

35

No, it wasn’t you. I even remarked on it to my wife. She looked good.

36

Something between the two. He was walking off and just let it fall from his hand. He didn’t throw it, and he didn’t try to set it on the table and miss. He just let it go as he was walking away.

Mallory had the right idea back in China. She stuck her nose in the cup and took a big sniff. Of course, she wrongly remarked, “Oooh, peach!” but at least she gave herself a little boost for trying to find the right one on the table.

The description on CBS’s website says, “One team narrowly dodges a traffic collision…” It looked like several teams narrowly avoided accidents!

37

I just wanted to add that I really liked that the tea they tasted in China was a clue for later on. I hope they do more stuff like that

38

When the hell did Calcutta become Kolkata? Are they trying to play down the bad press from the Black Hole? Legs in India are always fun though - giant crowds following the Racers everywhere.

The task would have been over in 10 minutes if you didn’t have to finish the cup before showing it. Grab a handful, pour them out, and run up to the cluekeeper. I think they were supposed to do what only a few did - smell first to get a good candidate, but once you pick it up, you own it. Like the fake food challenge from last season.

39

At the same time Bombay became Mumbai, and Madras became … uh, Chennai? (WTF?) But try to keep up, dude. :slight_smile:

So after spending the day downing countless cups of tea, Phil greets them at the mat with: more tea! Is this some kind of sick joke? :slight_smile:

And Peking is now Beijing, btw.

and Istanbul is Constantinople. If you’ve a date in Constantinople, she’ll be waiting in Istanbul.

40

And yet, at one point in the airport on the way there, the terminal showing the departure said Calcutta.

Maybe that was just for those of us who didn’t keep up. :slight_smile: