I’m just saying the lions should never have had the opportunity to get into the truck in the first place. How about some glass shielding and little portholes to chuck meat from? Or at least some chicken wire or something. I was worried one of the kittys would smell the blood from Gretchen’s gaping head wound and decide to kibble her head to bits. 
Ray: “We gotta see what’s keepin’ us together an’ tearin’ us apart”
Fenris: “Keeping you together? The fact that Deena believes in being kind to dumb animals? Tearing you apart? The fact that you’re a dick. Not a mystery, asshole.” I really didn’t like Ray at all.
Plus, anyone else get that Ray, in another life, was the SDMB’s Ukete (“Old people suk”)? 
So…2 naughty evil teams down in the last two episodes. Several to go.
So, from most disliked to least:
-
Rob and Amber: I begin to see what’s so annoying about Rob–when things don’t go his way, he kinda gets whiney, don’t he? Plus, I don’t like that they’re getting free help from their Survivor notoriety (although a friend pointed out that it’s no more of an advantage than being strong or fast, say) Also, I don’t expect him to get out and help or anything–it is a race, but to not at least stop and ask if they’re ok is serious dick-like behavior. Bad form. It’s also bad racing to not at least stop and ask–they’ve now pissed off every team except maybe Unchenna and Joyce*–and it woulda taken them 10 seconds to slow down and shout out “Youze guys ok?”.
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Team Fossil–this is the second season in a row where we’ve got an old couple made up of a gutsy old broad and a whiney old jerk. Meridith is such a pussy. She’s not bad though, although she’s not as funny as she seems to think she is–but then, hell, Robin Williams, Bill Cosby and Lucille Ball combined aren’t as funny as she seems to think she is.
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I don’t like Team Gay, but dammit, they went way up by showing that the sissy act may be just that: an act. When the chips are down, they did the right thing. Good for them.
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Team POW-Yeah. Dood. I get it. You were a POW in the Gulf. I applaud your service and I salute your courage but…enough. And lady POW–I can’t even remember your name. And we’re down to the final 6. Grow a personality.
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Uchenna and Joyce–You’re both nice people, you work well as a team. But LEARN TO READ A GAWDDAMNED MAP!!!. Thank you.
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Surfer Brothers–You have had the suckiest luck, 'cause you’ve done most things right. I’m rooting for you over Uchenna and Joyce just 'cause you’re more competent–but only just barely.
Regarding the challenges: Caves vs Village? DUH. Village–at most there were 15 (5+4+3+2+1) possible combinations even if you were too dumb to figure out that shield=Zulu. Caves? A “needle in a haystack” challenge. The only time you take a “needle in a haystack” option is if the other choice is “stupid animal tricks”. On the food VS water challenge, not as easy, but anyone who’s ever tried to grind spices in a mortar and pestle knows that it’s harder than hell–I woulda tried the water.
Oh, and I loathe the new “non-Philimination” penalty. More begging. :rolleyes: Lovely. Look morons–everyone hates seeing fat, rich Americans beg for money from impoverished third-worlders–so why make it more important to beg? If it were up to me, a team could lose all existing money, get an hour penalty and lose all their belongings AND start with half the money next round–but any begging is strictly forbidden. They can’t accept money from everyone.
Overall, a good season and a good episode.
(And what’s going on next week? Is next week a clips show and the week after has Team Twink getting a flat tire? Or is it another two-parter? It wasn’t clear to me from what Phil said)
Fenris
- Team Gay always had a hard-on for them, they didn’t help the brothers, they refused to give aid to the old couple, I can’t remember what they did to team POW…but I think they did something. Way to burn your bridges, folks.
POW in the Lion’s Den: “If he jumps on me, Kelly, I’m throwin’ him you.”
Obviously he’s not a Veteran of relationships. Kiss this one goodbye dumbass.
Or, when she was leaning towards him, obviously wanting a kiss.
“What are you leaning towards me for?” :smack:
When they got a close-up of Ray’s face, while he was grinding the corn, he looked like a big ugly demon. As bad as Jonathan was, he would’ve never been able to look that evil. He just looked like a blue-haired dork.
But, it was awfully sweet of Ray to not give Merrideth & Gretchen money, “for their own good.” :rolleyes:
I got the feeling at some points during this ep that aliens had taken over the racers during the flight across the south Atlantic.
From the Leaderboard:
Ron/Kelly (2nd/1st): As an example of what I mean, was that Rob displaying competence and usefulness in the cave challenge? And achieving a first-place finish purely on merit? Aliens!
Rob/Amber (5th/2nd) And was that really Rob, showing chinks in the armor? I wondered what serious jet-lag would do to this team. Did you see Amber’s look when Rob demanded she decide what to do at the FF? She seemed to be saying, "Let me remind you of a few things, pal:
a) We’re not married yet
b) Only one of us doesn’t know if they’ll be sitting on a cool mil after this is over
c) It ain’t me, big-mouth"
With 6 legs under our belt, we see that Team Romber’s performance is all over the map. We also finally see what happens when Rob is pitted against others in a competition he can’t weasel his way out of: he sucks. I can’t necessarily see this team in the final three anymore.
Oh, and there is indeed a difference between a competitive nature and a complete lack of human decency. Don’t hit your head on that horseshoe, Rob.
Uchenna/Joyce (6th/3rd): Apparently, aliens don’t like doubling for people with no sense of direction. Same ol’ U/J. Is it just me, or does Joyce look like the aging illegitimate child of Eartha Kitt, Diana Ross and Nichelle Nichols?
Lynn/Alex (4th/4th) And was that the true Unambguously Gay Duo going a step beyond merely disliking and bitching about Team Romber and actually doing something Rob-like to hinder them? I liked the cojones displayed in the “full taxi” maneuver. And their racing was solid enough that they could see to the brothers without losing any net ground in the end.
Meredith / Undead Gretchen (7th/5th) We know she was possessed, because mere mortals can not do what she is doing. I am very much more impressed by this team’s staying power than I was a week ago. But there’s only so far you can go on a headwound.
Brian/Greg (3rd/6th) Notice how their cameraman nearly snapped his neck, but they were unscathed? Aliens, again, no doubt. See also the superhuman burst of speed at the end.
Ray/Deana (1st/7th) This team was actaully my first hint at the alien takeover. Was that Ray getting humbled by the cooling tower challenge and calling supportively to Deana. And was that really Deana not wussing out at the most justifiable moment? Apparently however, aliens are afraid of cooling towers, and these two were back to normal shortly afterwards, although you could see the alien’s Deana suit mask starting to sag around the right eye at the first Pit Stop. I won’t miss this team.
Again, for all that people are impressed by Rob and Amber, they can not survive these 1st/5th place alternations, so I’d have to call it anyone’s race at this point. Except for Meredith and Gretchen.
“Don’t do drugs” was better.
Best editing of the night was them imitating Lynn & Alex and then cutting straight to Lynn & Alex. Glad they’re still in it.
Still can’t tell them apart, though.
The Survivor duo are thoroughly unlikeable people. And I realize that stunt casting helps ratings, but the famous angle is a huge advantage. I’d be pissed off if I were one of the other teams.
Some serious injuries going on in this episode! I’m like George Carlin, I can’t get enough serious injuries.
What on earth was the problem at the corn-grinding detour? Too lumpy? Too dry? Not pink enough? I missed the explanation of what exactly was required there.
I was reminded of season two where they also flew from Sao Paulo to South Africa – except nobody could get a direct flight, so teams were connecting with flights all over Europe (and one through New York!) The “Amazing Yellow Line” looked like spaghetti. It seems like airplane seats have been much more in abundance the last few seasons, which is a drag…I used to love the crazy airport episodes.
Gotta hand it to the old farts, they’ve made it further than anyone else their age AND did it without money or luggage. Keep in mind this punishment will be taking place on each NEL, so we’ll probably see ALL the teams stripped to their skivvies before they reach the finish line!!
In addition to above:
I don’t like two episodes back to back. I’d rather them spread it out, let us savor it more.
- how about that Beauty Queen, when she’s shopping…‘this is so hard’. Hard??
- looks like next week she blows up at the redneck.
- so in addition to having Americans begging all over the world, now they’re gonna stank to high hell.
Yeah—the bit with the taxi stuck out in my mind–if Rob was as good as he’d seemed to be on earlier episodes, he’d have just shrugged and gone on. Maybe bitched to the camera or something, but wouldn’t have let the other teams see him have the hissy-fit he had at the train station…or he would have just talked to the bus driver: “Dude, don’t youze wanna make more money? Why won’t youze take us?”.
Either way, the “Oh, so dat’s how youze wanaa play? Ok, dat’s da kinda race we’ll have.” is a pretty pathetic retort when that’s exactly how you’ve been playing all along.
KGS–they had to grind the corn into flour–you put the corn into the pestle and mash it until it’s mostly powder. Then you dump it into a flat bowl and the woman will sort-of toss the flour lightly into the air. The lighter stuff will flip out of the bowl and into the measuring bowl and the heavier, non-ground stuff will stay behind (kinda like panning for gold). What a lot of teams (Ray and Deanna especially) were doing is spending a ton of time rushing to grind it to meal (which is coarser and wouldn’t ‘sift’) rather than taking the extra few minutes to grind the meal into flour. So, after spending, say (at a guess) 5 minutes to grind each pestle into meal, they took it to the lady who sifted it and then ditched 80% of it since it wasn’t fine enough. By the way, TAR racers: assuming that the big ones work anything like the smaller ones, the trick is to A) take turns thumping the stuff–don’t try to get both your mortars in there at once and B) twist the mortar when you thump down it’ll grind as it mashes–that’s why the pestle is rough.
Femros
scottandrsn , you cracked me up with that. I hadn’t thought of the alien angle (aliengle?), but, hell, it makes sense.
No kidding. At their exit interview, when Ray was saying something about how she lacked a competetive fire or some suck crap, I was like,
“Dude, her fucking eyeball fell out 2 days ago and she’s still going!”
KGS , the thing with grinding the corn was that it had to be fine enough to pass through the sifters that the African women were using to sift through it.
Are there any other Six Feet Under fans who kept thinking of the Grinding the Corn episode from last season, wherein Claire had her first orgasm? Different task, different result.
A double episode with a non-elim and a footrace to the finish for elimination. And injuries galore.
Taxi Assessment
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Ryan/Chuck and Megan/Heidi and Debbie/Bianca and Susan/Patrick - Do you suppose all these teams hang out together at te Loser Hotel? Rub lotion on each other’s backs? Just idly speculating.
Ray/Deana (downgraded from Stopping) - If this had been just a single episode showing only the first leg, I might have been tempted to upgrade this team. Ray worked his inimitable magic to get seated in first class. They got off the flight first. They found the Fast Forward first. They exhibited some actual teamwork – Ray even commented that they performed better when they worked as a team (duh!). They came in first. Good show all around. And the next leg they imploded. See, I loved the corn-grinding Detour (althoughthe water was a better choice, as the brothers showed), because the whole thing was about teamwork. Not getting in each other’s way. Working together. And Ray and Deana blew it. Corn-grinding seems to be a nice metaphor for their entire relationship, apparently. Who’d a thunk? And how much of a dick is Ray? “We’re not an effective team because Deana isn’t more like me.” Ass.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Meredith/Gretchen (holding steady) - Damn; could this team get any more lucky? I’ll give them props for beating out Ray and Deana on the corn meal task, but they also benefited from the brother’s wreck and from the first-half non-elim. Still, Racing with no personal possessions is harsh. I’m surprised this team is still in it, and I don’t think they will be for much longer.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
No one this week.
"Hey, Homes!" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Lynn/Alex (holding steady) - I’m sorry, but I’m starting to get bored with this team. I don’t really dislike them, but I don’t particularly like them, either. They have personalities, unlike Ron and Kelly. But they just don’t strike me as winning. Or losing badly.
Brian/Greg (downgraded from Passing Lane) - Ooooh. Terrible luck with the rollover. But they didn’t give up and Raced their hearts out, and made it to the mat just before Ray and Deana. You’ve got to love them, just a little, for that; it’s the people that want to Race – really want to Race – that makes this show great. I’m not exactly sure how this team will react to their Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, so I’m putting them here in the middle of the rankings. The next episode should be interesting.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Ron/Kelly (upgraded from “Hey, Homes!”) - OK, another first place. Time to upgrade this team. They seem to perform competently, but they’re still so… colorless. Or something. I still haven’t really gotten a handle on them yet. However, they haven’t been in danger of elimination since the first episode. Now that the competition is fiercer, I’m wondering what will happen when they’re both fatigued and trailing. Can they hold together? We might find out next ep.
Rob/Amber (downgraded from Cruisin’) - A second place isn’t bad, but I’m still downgrading this team. It looks to me like fatigue is setting in. The Fast Forward was a tactical error, and hanging around to see if Deana took a dive only compounded it. They did pick the correct Detour to jump ahead of some other teams, so they weren’t hurt too badly, but still. Following Lynn and Alex to miss the airport wasn’t so hot either. Rob was obviously frustrated at the spear-throwing Roadblock. More telling yet is that Rob is letting Lynn and Alex get under his skin. See, Boston Rob, if your strategy is to make the other teams lose focus by obsessing over you, that’s all well and good, but you can’t fall prey to your own scheme. A readjustment is needed here, methinks.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Uchenna/Joyce (holding steady) - Certainly showing promise. A wrong Detour choice in the first leg, but that’s only in retrospect. I think Joyce should have taken the shopping Roadblock, but we’ll see if it hurts them down the stretch. I’m a bit concerned about this team’s prediliction for getting lost, but they also the didn’t follow Lynn and Alex, and thus found the airport successfully. Good work. I think – and this is important – that this team has the best intra-team dynamic; at the end of the race when fatigue really sets in, that’s going to be critical. So they stay here on the top of the rankings. Unless they get really, irretrevably lost, I’m thinking they’re a lock for the final three.
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]
Those were some pretty good episodes. And before I was luke warm with Rob and Amber, now I’m really not liking them.
So lets see, I like the taking of the packs, though I still hate the taking of all the money. Quite frankly I think had I been in last place and known it I would have just given all my money to the kids. It’s not like I will need it if I get the boot, and if you would get the non-elimination round you don’t get any money anyway. I’m pretty sure that Phil/CBS/TAR doesn’t need the hundred bucks or whatever.
The gay couple, way to tell it to Rob and Amber in the cab, that was funny. Gotta love seeing the “full” bus with just the two of them. Good on you for stopping too, I don’t care if it is a race or not, people could have been badly hurt and there’s no one around.
Yo brothers, at least learn how to drive, it might be a race, but on roads like that you don’t need to be driving that fast, no one can pass you and you can see what happens. At least you were cool enough to worry about your camraman and I’ll forgive the wreck, but learn from it. And that was a hell of an ending you gave us, I’m glad you didn’t just quit.
Did anyone happen to catch Gus and Hera on WUSA 9 in the DC area? I set up my DVD recorder to record and it wouldn’t do it. It kept telling me disk error even though it was somewhat recording, so I missed them. I did catch that Gus will be in Korea next week. And for those in the DC area Gus is on the day after the show around 6:40am. I wasnted to know what he thought of the brothers and all.
Man, I love Brian and Greg. I think mostly because I am also a big fan of the word “spelunking” and any reference to Yoda. Great comeback from total disaster. They picked the right Detour and caught up to the Dysfunctional Duo, and then ran their fannies off to get to the mat. They are now both on my list of Reality TV Boyfriends, along with Ian the Dolphin Boy.
Gretchen is a tough old broad. She whines on occasion, but less than her husband, so I’ll give her props for that.
Deana seriously looked like somebody’d kicked the shit out of her by the time they got to the corn-grinding. I’m not sorry to see those two gone. Sometimes an antagonistic team is fun to watch–not this time.
Rob, Rob,* Rob*. sigh I almost hope that you end up bleeding on the side of the road, and no one stops to ask if you’re alright.
Ray and Deanna on The Morning Show today-
“We picked the wrong lady. Everyone else got through fast, but she didn’t like anything we did”
“I was a jerk, and I know it”
“They (old folks) were our competition”
and…
“We’re getting married in May”
Oy.
Aw, hell. That’s a sign of the apocalypse, I think.
(I hit enter too soon!)
LilMiss posed the thought that Uchenna & Joyce may go back to the orphanage and make a family. I like that thought, and I hope they get over the constant “I can’t have babies” and see the other side of creating a family.
Yes, Meredith is a bit of a whiner, but his concern for Gretchen was sweet. I mean, picture if it was Deana? “C’mon, stop your bleedin’ and whinin’!” I do think they would be lost without each other.
I loved watching Rob throw his hissyfits. Karma is a bitch, baby.
I think the brothers are at the end of their ropes. They are physically and emotionally wasted. Unless they can catch a break, I think they might be the next gone.
And the divorce is scheduled for. . . when???
I’m not sure how I like the giving-up-all-stuff on the NELs but you have to admit that if any team didn’t need to lug around 80 lb packs, it’s Team Headwound.
Yeah, what was with that? First, it was her eye. Then her lip looked all beat up. Everytime you saw her, she looked like she had more and more face wounds. Creepy.
Nice couple of eps, any time the most annoying team bites it is good. Also good to see the smirk wiped off Rob’s face several times, even though we didn’t see his reaction to Phil telling him they were the only team not to stop for the Bros. Best of all was his realization that all the other teams are shunning them, and if there were a Tribal Council coming up he’d be out on his ass next. Romber were also the only team not to give the Golden Oldies any cash. Loved seeing Bitch Queen and Mr. Slave shut them out of the bus.