Atrael - You may be right about the overall difficulty, but I think you’re missing the point…the whole idea of having these different challenges is to reward the team that can adapt to many different types of tasks. Dancing in an ill-fitting suit for spare change one day, crawling through a smelly cave with a lone flashlight the next. Nothing especially difficult about any of it, but you gotta be able to do everything…and faster than at least one other team, don’t forget.
Jeremy’s Evil Twin - There are three stages to go befor the final (3rd nonelimination, final elimination, “stretch run” before final), so still plenty of time for the two remaining “free” teams to grab the Fast Forward. Of the two, I think Tara & Wil need it a lot more. There’s been nothing but bad blood between them, and they might be running on fumes at this point.
And while I appreciate a good commedian, and I’m the most forgiving person there is when it comes to reality TV personalities (I never understood what the rap on Silas Gaither was)…yeah, Gary was really patethic. I think it’s just the frustration, the missed opportunities, all the “if onlys”, but that was as ungraceful an exit as I’ve ever seen. Hate to say this, but from a viewer’s perspective, it looks like this duo was bounced just in the nick of time.
Actually, Phil called the Sydney Pit Stop the second of four non-elimination checkpoints. Maybe he was referring to the “stretch run” (next-to-last leg) as a non-elimination leg?
I heard that, too. But there’s only three more shows, each of them only an hour. So we’ve got to eliminate one team this Wednesday and one team next Wednesday to wind up with two teams for the big finale on May 15.
Any guesses for the final two teams? I’m thinking it will be Blake and Paige and the boys from Boston.
Actually, if they do like the first race then they will have three teams for the final. So, I suspect tomorrow will be another non-elimination leg, then an elimination on 5/8 and then the two hour final with a non-elimination first leg and the final leg.
Well, I was right on last night’s episode being a non-elimination leg. Because of that, I don’t know if Blake & Paige made the right decision in going for the Fast Forward. Yeah, they were pissed at the stunt the other teams pulled but it may not have helped them that much.
I would guess that Wil & Tara go for the Fast Forward next week. They are guarenteed to get it, they are the only remaining team that hasn’t used theirs yet, and it would guarentee their being in the final three and give them a time advantage starting the final stretch.
So, who will the final three be? I’m predicting Blake & Paige will be eliminated next week.
The producers have said that the finish is very exciting and that they couldn’t have scripted anything better. I’m predicting that Tara & Wil and Chris & Alex are battling for position and are so focused on each other that Oswald & Danny slip past them under their radar and win the thing.
My favorite part was during the sheep herding. Chris (or Alex, I have given up trying to keep them straight) has 3 black and 1 white sheep left in the pen. He gently leans over and taps the white sheep on the shoulder (or, as he might say should-ah) trying to get it’s attnetion.
There was just something so subtly ridiculous about that move that I had to laugh for a while.
Oswald & Danny
Of the four, Tara & Wil is the only team that hasn’t used a Fast Forward; there’s a very good chance that they’ll be going for it on the final elimination leg (especially since there’s now an extra motivation to finish first). Blake & Pagie have a sizable lead, of course; if stage 11 starts in daytime, they could really tear it up. Danny didn’t really take too long to complete the roadblock, so “Cha Cha Cha”…gad, I never liked that one…isn’t in too bad shape.
Of the four, I’m leaning toward Blake & Paige as an ever-so-slight favorite to win it all, mainly because they’ve run their own race, haven’t gotten caught up in petty squabbles, and look very sharp mentally right now. And yes, it’d be deliciously ironic if Danny & Oswald were to sneak in front at the very end and win it…but it seems doubtful. Nothing against them, but they seem just a shade slower than the current field, and that makes all the difference in the world.
Footnote…anyone else notice that most of the race has taken place in the Southern hemisphere? Gee, I wonder if recent world events might have something to do with that. (Someday, I’d like to see the race make a stop in Nicaragua, Cuba, Zaire, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, or North Korea, just to see what happens. Yes, even my mind can get sick and twisted once in a while.)
I read that there was a huge list of place to avoid because of world tensions. Strangely, most of Europe was off limits. Also, they taped in January, so they probably felt it made more sense to go to the Southern hemisphere to bask in some summer weather.
I did find it odd that they never set foot in Europe this season. And isn’t there a civil war going on in Namibia as we speak?
As for the racers, I’m actually pulling for Wil & Tara. Wil is just so pathetic, he’s like an ugly puppy you can’t help but like. And he never would have made it this far on his own. And Tara’s still in it just because she doesn’t want to leave her lover boy Alex.
But it does look like ChaX3 is definitely toast next week. Just when I was starting to like them, dammit.
My favorite part of that sequence was when Alex pulls the Roadblock clue out of his pocket, carefully reads it, then puts it back in his pocket saying “Nope. I can’t tackle it.”
Then there was when Oswald got frustrated trying to get the last white sheep out of the small pen and simply opened the side of the fence and let it go! Not quite sure if that was a valid move or not…
Well, Blake and Wil had several high-profile arguments early in the Race but they seem to have dropped that now. They did get involved in that whole “keep them trapped on the airplane” mess last episode too so there may be some hard feelings still involved with that. And, don’t forget that Blake was one of the two who misread the Roadblock in Sydney.
I’d like to see Blake & Paige win but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Well, there’s not much left to like in this show now that Oswald and Danny have been sent home. I kept hoping for Chris and Alex to do something stupid and get lost. . . anything to keep them from making it to the pit stop third last night. IMHO Oswald and Danny were the class of the group. I loved what Oswald said about going beyond his comfort zone and it seemed through the whole series that they were the ones who were enjoying the adventure the most.
As for who’s left. . .if anyone other than Blake and Paige wins I will be very sad.
Wil’s disclosure that it was time for him to move on was waaayyyy too much information for me. He should have moved on long ago. Beware, Ladies! Wil will be on the loose. Run away! Run away!
Unfortunately for Oswald & Danny, stage 11 was a completely straightforward dash, so they never really had a chance to get ahead. They had a great run from start to finish, but somehow just weren’t quite good enough to crack the final 3.
Final (before the final) standings:
Tara & Wil
Blake & Paige
Chris & Alex
You know…looking back on how these teams have been doing all this time, it’s pretty remarkable that any of them are in the final. B&P have been incredibly lucky, first somehow scrounging up money after Blake lost his wallet somewhere in Brazil, then falling way back in Hong Kong but surviving because Mary & Peach totally fell apart, then receiving the benefit of a nonelimination point, and finally getting hot at the right time. C&A were streaky as hell in the beginning, then had the first nonelimination come up just when they hit rock bottom…after which they roared back into contention and never looked back. And T&W…no chemistry, no teamwork, no cohesiveness, no consistent plan of attack, nothing that would indicate that they’d have any chance of surviving, and they’ve been up front nearly all the way.
Add it all up, and it’s pretty much impossible to pick a winner.
But it’s not like I got anything else to do, so…
PROJECTED FINISH
Blake & Paige. Between the incredible strokes of luck, the learning process they went through, and being dissed by about half of the other teams…somehow, they just seem destined to win it all. The stupid infighting between their opponents definitely works in their favor.
Tara & Wil. Not the scrubs CBS made them out to be, but they’re going to come up short. One of them’s way overdue for a fatal blunder.
Chris & Alex. With the finish line in sight, expect the pendulum to swing back. They’re in better shape than T&W, but I’m not convinced that they can beat them.
It’s a double episode to close out #2…see you there.
Tara and Wil are frightening to watch–what was their relationship like when they were together? They just seem to constantly rub each other the wrong way.
Damn, damn damn. Wil knew San Francisco like the back of his hand. Had they not kept on sniping at each other, they would have won the race easily, instead of getting passed at the end.
