snerk
I’m seriously loving Joyce. From the moment she pulled that kerchief off and said, “Let’s do this!” THAT is a desire to win, folks. Not Brandon & Nicole’s “Our hair is our income!” twaddle.
Question: May we now and forever refer to Meredith & Gretchen as “Team Weeble”? Because they wobble, but they don’t fall down.
Their camel, on the other hand…
Whoa. I can’t believe Gretchen and Meredith are still in this thing! I’m astounded she didn’t think to get out of the elephant when 1) she saw that no other teams were doing it, and 2) how much trouble Meredith was having pushing the elephant around. I guess congratulations are in order for them being the oldest team to last this far into the Race, but their persistence is more luck than good racing, it seems to me.
Man, the head-shaving. I said to a friend of mine the other day that I would totally shave my head if it meant having a chance at winning a million dollars. I’m glad Joyce did it. Sure, there was really no other option, but I’m pleased that they’re in first. Even though I’m not sure how much further ahead they are from the other teams. No first place prize this time either, right?
Those were some gorgeous locations. Thanks, Amazing PTB!
Wow. Wasn’t sure about the whole ‘To Be Continued’ thing last week, but this turned out to be a really good episode. Joyce not even hesitating when they heard it was a head-shaving showed how into the race she is. And U constantly asking her if she was really sure and telling her how beautiful she was as years of hair came off was really touching. This is my new favorite number one team.
I actually started to like Ron & Kelly this leg. They showed teamwork and support which was refreshing coming from them. But according to the promo they might soon crumble (K: You’re afraid of commitment. R: I was committed to the military! K: But you got out of that one. R: How did I ‘get out of’ that one?!? K: You were a POW…) :smack:
I hope Gretchen gets stoned to death in the next episode for her whining. And Meredith winds up hooking up with one (or both!) of the former Blonde Bimbo Duo.
Team Gay blew the directions again (so to speak) and lost. Good. Their cockiness-for-no-reason was beginning to annoy me. Ya went to the wrong Palace? Major idiot mistake.
That. Is. Fabulous! I’m so on board.
GO JOYCE! You are beautiful with no hair! And no worries, this is why they make extensions. 
“Bye” to my fav gay race team. I loved you, if no one else did.
And finally, I happily quote my hubby aktep:
RitzyRae: That camel is mad at Ambuh.
aktep: He’s sayin’, “I don’t care what island you were on for 2 weeks, bitch!”
Hehe… possibly my favorite episode ever!!
How it should have been:
Phil: “Lynn and Alex, you’re the last team to arrive. I’m sorry to tell you, you’ve been eliminated from the race…”
Phil: :Spock eyebrow:
Phil: “BUH-BYE!!!”
I thought sure after all that head shavin’ and train ridin’ and camel drivin’ and elephant pushin’ and scrambling to get to the mat at the correct palace. . . that this was going to be a non-elimination leg. Wrong! Which proves once again that THE AMAZING RACE is probably the most surprising show on network television.
And isn’t this the first time that we’ve seen teams on a train in India actually sleeping in berths? Not crammed into a boxcar with zillions of Indian passengers with itchy pinching fingers? It was refreshing.
Sorry to see Lynn and Alex go. They were bitchy about the other teams but they were very supportive of each other. And now they can go back to their eye creams and moisturizers. Amen. Now let the serious fun begin!
I wasn’t watching super close, but those looked like just run of the mill Indian train cars to me. The top bunks flip up, and then you have two bench seats facing each other. At night, you flip the top bunks down, and you have four (narrow, hard) beds. The train wasn’t terribly crowded, but they weren’t always in my experience either.
I was just thinking; Gretchen and Meredith might actually be able to win the Race.
Look at their remaining competition:
Uchenna and Joyce - My favorite team at this point, but they continue to have “navigational difficulties”. They did manage to finish first on this leg, but they seemed to lose quite a bit of time trying to find the FF. Considering that the last two teams to be eliminated lost solely because they got lost among the way. U & J probably can’t afford another mistake.
**Ron and Kelly **- This team continues to march inexorably toward a major meltdown. Now, this is not necessarily fatal to thier racing aspirations, but it doesn’t help. Colin and Christie were able to hold things together, Jonathan and Victoria weren’t. But R & K aren’t nearly as good a racing team as C & C were. If Rob and Amber can manage to shake them off next week, they could be in trouble.
Rob and Amber - Still the odds-on favorites at this point. Right now, I can only think of one thing that might be likely to sink this team - The one remaining Yield. If Ron & Kelly get to it first, they will probably Yield Rob and Amber. On the other hand, R & A will probably Yield R & K if they get the chance.
So there you go. Rob and Amber get to the Yield first. Ron and Kelly kill each other while they wait for the sand to run out. Uchenna and Joyce take a wrong turn and wind up in the Georgia (the country) instead of Georgia (the state).
After that – a flat tire and an empty gas tank, and your winners are…
I am so tired of Gretchen. That voice! That whining! That defeatist attitude!
And lady? The reason your elephant is hard to push is because it’s at least 140 pounds heavier than everyone else’s. You realized almost immediately there was no need to be up there and yet you decided to stay up there and contribute to the load.
As much as I would like to see them (well, her) eliminated, I would also enjoy seeing Phil grab her new little backpack and tell them to start over again.
Two things: Am I the only one who was yelling at Joyce: What are you crying about? It’s hair!!! It grows back!
Would any of you cry about getting your head shaved if it gave you a better chance for a million bucks? I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. Even so, I was impressed with how sensitive Uchenna was to her feelings. It seemed as though he would have been willing to walk away if she had said she didn’t want to do it, which certainly would have cost them the race. Nice guy.
(BTW, how did Joyce know in advance that head shaving might be involved? And wouldn’t it have been great if Lynn and Alex had gotten their heads shaved?)
And I’m stunned that no one else has mentioned Kelly’s comment in the preview about Ron being unable to commit, giving as an example that he “got out” of his commitment to the Army by being a POW.
WTF?!?
The only general comment I have about this leg is about the very end: now THAT is some facial hair!
From the Leaderboard:
Uchenna / Ilia: Man, I feel for her. I had hair down past my shoulder blades in college, then got it all whacked off as a stage stunt. I thought I was fine with it until I felt where my hair used to be, and felt inexplicably nauseous. The Samson story made complete sense to me after that.
Ron/Kelly: A surprisingly civil leg from these two. had it not bee for the FF, they would have won. Didn’t see the preview, but it’s no surprise it can’t last.
Romber: I noticed on this leg that they don’t do that much that’s different from successful teams in the past, it’s just that his personality is repellant and hers is non-existent. I still don’t see why everyone is so fascinated by Rob’s abilities, though. A third place finish this late in the race is nothing to get too excited about. Their performance is still all over the map, and it’s too late in the race for that crap.
Gretchen/Meredith: I’m sorry, but weebles are cute. Doesn’t apply here. I will call them Team Slasher Film: They stagger around way slower than everyone else running ahead of them, but still somehow manage to pick off the stragglers one by one. Gretchen is obviously healed from her injuries, because I once again found myself looking for an ice pick to plug my ears up with (or something) so I wouldn’t have to hear her anymore. That’s what annoying about her, she mistakes her fretting for some sort of effective action. TWO bunching points and they were still bringing up the rear, because she wouldn’t get out of the damn elephant. Brings to mind a comment I heard recently: Winning isn’t necessarily always about doing what winners do; sometimes it’s about not doing what losers do.
Lynn / Alex: Speaking of not doing what losers do… It’s almost like one of those movie cliches: Never talk about the things you miss back home, or you will be going there soon enough. Enjoy your eye cream, Ross the Intern!
They must have seen TAR 5 when Brandon and Nicole went for the FF and couldn’t bring themselves to shave their heads (as models, they viewed their hair as integral to getting jobs).
Just my opinion, but I think Joyce is better-looking without hair. I like the Grace Jones look. 
M&G just keep going…and going…and going…but I doubt very much they’ll win. That said, it is very likely that they’ll make it to the finish line – there’s only four legs left, and only ONE of them will be an elimination. Plus it’s evident that all teams are wise enough to put on all their clothes when they think they’re coming in last. 
Oh, and Phil? Yes, M&G are the oldest team to make it this far…but they’ve held that record for the last four legs. (In fact, they may have held it since the very first leg – they are the exact same ages as Don & Mary Jean from last season.)
Biggest disappointment: NO Sexual Harrassment Train!!! How can they go all the way across India with no Sexual Harrassment Train??
Well, to me it looked like Gretchen was trying to get down but no one would help her and she didn’t want to just flop over the side and land on the ground (and no doubt break something). She did shriek at Meredith to help her down, but he was too busy looking like he was about to keel over. If I was in her place I wouldn’t want to get down without help either (yeah I’m a wuss).
Well, to be fair, it may only be hair to you (and, honestly, to me), but in some cultures and ethnicities, it’s about much more than hair. I, too, was impressed with Uchenna, and with Joyce. She was sad, let her be sad, but she didn’t back down.
Well, BrokenWind did mention it, but I agree that it is completely stunning. As annoying as he can be with the whole POW thing, that is just nasty and uncalled for and, IMO, shows her complete insensitivity to anything he went through.
I have a feeling that when she hears the phrase “Baghdad Hilton”, she takes it literally.
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Joyce rocks (and looks hot, bald). But leave us not forget Uchenna who’s the only person on this race (or maybe even the last few races) who knows the correct way to be supportive.
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I’ve come to the conclusion that team fossil MUST NOT WIN. They don’t have spunk (constant whining != spunk ), they don’t have brains, they don’t have True Grit–all they’ve got is dumb luck and incessant whining.
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So must Kelly. Assuming the comment was actually what Kelly said in the preview, and assuming it wasn’t edited out of context, Kelly can only be described as a…um…something I don’t think I’m allowed to say in CS. Sorry. But any alleged human being who tries to tell their boyfriend that he has commitment issue because he “used” being a POW to get out of the army is vile. Ron may be a dick, but dammit, he also served his country and sacrificed for it. To dismiss his sacrifice as a way of getting out of a commitment…tsk.
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Lynn and Alex at least had a classy exit. Credit where credit is due.
Fenris
I was appalled by the POW statement, too, and it surely goes down in history as one of the stupidest things ever said on TV (I would’ve voted for #‘s “Synagog” in Africa, except I think the little turd was fully aware of the correct pronounciation and did it only to get more screen time). But I have a feeling next week we’re going to see the rest of the scene next week ending with Either both of them cracking up or her defending herself with “c’mon, it was just a joke!”. I can’t stand her (although I did admire her begging the street people to help a nearly-collapsing Meredith), but I hope she’s not that friggin’ stupid. Hard to imagine anyone being even slightly involved with a former POW and being that insensitive.
But even if it is a joke, there’s not a single POW in TVland that’s going to forgive her. Her political asperations just went up in smoke.
Grace looks wonderful in her baldness! If it can’t be Romber, I relly hope it’s these two. Either team will be a very satisfying ending in the singular household.