Ah, yes, of course. That was U/J’s alien moment, failing to go in the wrong direction for once.
Thank you! I said the same thing.
Meh…I’m not sure why all the hating about Rob/Amber not stopping. There was one other team there, plus the original team, and they were basically all standing around looking at the guy on the ground. It’s just like any accident you pass on the road, if there are people already there, and you don’t have any particular first aid skills to contribute, then why stop? Sure the other teams sort of slowed down to ask if everyone was alright, but if they had been really concerned they’d have stopped, then asked if everyone was alright. That sort of slow down, but really keep going thing they did meant they really weren’t going to stop. After all, nobody was in the road flagging people down.
It’s interesting to note, that if it weren’t for the accident, the brothers would have been way ahead, and Ray and Deena would have probably been eliminated anyway.
I still hate the taking money penalty, but kinda liked the “take everything they own” penalty. I’d rather that be the penalty rather than that and taking their money.
Uh oh, folks, take another look at the Leaderboard:
It only shows the results of last night’s second leg. There are only going to be two more non-elims before the end, yet they show seven more episodes to fill(assuming ep 12 and the final are the usual two-hour extravaganza).
So I smell the stank of another No-Pit-Stop cliffhanger next time.
Actually, Ray and Deana refused to give Meredith and Gretchen any money as well. But Rob was the only one to call them “con artists.”
And isn’t it kind of beside the point if survivors of a non-elimination leg can just ask their fellow racers for money to replace what they had to give up?
They got extra clothes from U/J, too. I agree; I’d rather see the saved-by-the-bells just get an extra roadblock instead of getting mugged.
I’ve always thought that they should be given more tasks during the next leg. Like make them do both detour options. Of course, you’d have to change the legs a little bit in order to give anyone at least a chance. They need to go back to more puzzle solving tasks, rather than just physical challenges. And less helpfull clues. More along the lines of “Your next clue is by the large ardvarck in Boswana” or something. Let them figure out exactly where it is.
I liked being able to see the other teams cheering on Gretchen and Meredith at the Pit Stop; that Pit Stop, in itself, was pretty neat. Even though I’m not really a fan of sleeping outside.
I also liked the edit of Gretchen saying offscreen, “Be good, children,” and a shot of a kid bouncing a soccer ball off another kid’s head, and the kid turning around all pissed off and shocked. I thought it was a good Roadblock, in the sense that it meant something and wasn’t just a pointless task. I like it when the tasks have a cultural or emotional significance.
Everyone’s pretty much covered everything else, so I’ll just say that after this episode, I think I’m in love with the brothers. I really like their relationship; it’s honest, and funny, and their love and concern for each other is totally genuine and admirable. I hope they stay in it, and I hope they make it to the final three.
I’m triple-happy. Philiminating Ray & Deana was an extra bonus.
Rob seems to be losing his joie de vivre - it’s no fun anymore. Can’t make a decision at the Fast Forward. Decides to follow everyone heading in the wrong direction, instead of leading. And put me firmly in Rob is a Jerk camp: the decent, human thing to do was to at least stop for 10 seconds and say “everyoneok?great(screeeevrooom).”
However, best line of the night was “Boston Rob! This is soooo exciting…!” Who knew Survivor was a big hit in South Africa?
I love the brothers. “zziiipp. Go home and give your mom a big hug, and eat all her chicken enchiladas until you go into a food coma.”
I dunno about giving up the packs. Downside: stinky clothes. Upside: traveling light 'n fast. What’s in their packs that they can’t do without?
I think this stemmed from early seasons, where talented teams hitting a patch of bad luck were able to come back almost too easily from non-elimination. But the taking of the money and stuff thing isn’t doing much to make a challenge, and the spectacle of them begging leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Here’s my suggestion. There are all kinds of things that artificially add time time your finish, but nothing that subtracts time. Right at the top of the ep after non-elimination, the team is delayed by another two hours, then is given the choice to start racing or take on some difficult task to perform. If they succeed, they get six hours subtracted from their finish time for the leg, possibly catapulting them ahead of other teams, unless the non-elim challenge and the rest of the leg take too long. Their choice. Then they get to have one of those moments where Phil sits two teams down for a chat:
“Ron and Kelly, although you finished second to last, Lynn and Alex completed their Non-Elimination challenge, subtracting six hours from their time. That places them ahead of you by 45 minutes… (pause for reaction shots from teams, back to C/U of Phil) … so I’m sorry to tell you you’ve both been eliminated from the Race.”
Or they could just return the Fast Forward to the status of something that is available every episode again, and revive the usefulness of that option.
And screw the Yield. (I know it nothing to do with the rest of it, I just felt like saying that.)
Well that was one of the best, if not the best TAR ending ever. -10 points to Rob And AMber, +10 to Lynn and Alex for the Borthers. But -15 from Lynn and Alex for their stupid remarks about S.Africa.
scotandrsn that is strange, but I’m hoping that’s a goof caused by lack of sleep on some producer. And if not-- more TAR episodes!
As for what’s in their packs-- travel guides, raincoats, sandals, food, sunglasses, cold weather gear… Any non-eliminated team is going to be suffering when they get back to the northern hemisphere.
According to a recent post from Aaron of TAR6 over on TWOP, that No-Pit-Stop leg was the result of production stupidity – they didn’t learn until they were actually IN Hungary that begging is against the law there. So they just turned it into an über-leg on the spot. That was definitely not a preplanned occurrence.
The brothers definitely had some funny stuff last night. “Spelunking. I just love saying it!”
Gah! I’ve not seen that episode yet. 
Wasn’t it Ray who said to Meredith and Gretchen that he might give them some money later in the leg, once they found out how much they could spare? Right at the end, when it was clear that they were on the way out, they should have donated everything (money, clothes, everything) on the spot. (And if it’s another non-elim leg, Phil’s taking it all anyway.)
I had a question about the water challenge. Were you only allowed to suck the water up into the straw to transfer it to the egg, or could you suck up a whole mouthful? Amber mentioned that Rob was filling the eggs much faster; I’m wondering if there are ostrich eggs buried somewhere in Botswana filled with Rob’s backwash.
Hi, lorene, long time, no see.
Actually, I kind of like the current take-away-your-worldly-goods setup; the exception being that I’d like to see the non-eliminated team get the cash at the start of the next leg (but they’d still have to give up the cash they had). That gets rid of the begging, which isn’t really enjoyable to watch, but still puts the team in a bind. Then they’d have to make the decision about how to spend the money they do get. Do they save it up, or replace the maps and guidebooks and winter hats and whatnot thet they’ve lost? Decisions, decisions.
I don’t think the non-elimination penalty should be unduly harsh – it wouldn’t be enjoyable to watch an episode where one of the teams is surely going to lose because they have to do an extra task or something. But the penalty should be just enough that teams will put forth some effort to avoid it.
Yeah; amen to that. The FF just isn’t a factor any more. At least they ought to have the FF available on four or five legs, instead of just two. As it is, they might as well just can it.
Karma, sweet karma. I love you, you twisted bitch!
Ramber fell far in my personal standings this week. On one hand, it’s stupid to try to play this game with “alliances” like Patrick and Susan tried to do, but on the other hand, it’s stupid to antagonize the other teams if you don’t absolutely have to. And it seems like doing a little good turn for other teams can really pay off–they may return the favor. In the end, you have to put your own team first, but if you can afford to be friendly, why not?
Now, Lynn and Alex had a major hate on for Ramber from before day 1, but Ramber did nothing to mitigate that. If anything, they gave Lynn and Alex even more reason to dislike them. Ordinarily, I’d think that Lynn and Alex insisting that there was no room in the cab would be a fairly dickish maneuver, but in this case, I think it was entirely justified. More than justified. It was great!
Here’s my list, in order of most liked to least liked.
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Uchenna & Joyce: They’ve shot up from “meh” to favorites. They’re pretty low-key, so they didn’t get much screen time at the beginning. Also, their initial introduction segment put me off. Racing to save their marriage and to afford more fertility treatments? Ick. But as I’ve gotten to know them a little better, I find them refreshingly normal and nice. I wonder if the producers played up the baby thing in the beginning just to give them a “story.” And I was worried that they’d get really annoying with the whole “African homeland” thing this episode. But they didn’t. They just seemed to really appreciate being there. Anyway, I’m rooting for them.
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Brian and Greg: “Don’t do drugs.” Funniest line of the whole series so far. What, are you going to tell them not to take any wooden nickels, too? These guys are pretty good racers, but their consistent bad luck makes me wonder if they’re doing something to bring it on themselves. Anyway, they’re cute and nice and I just want to take them home and give them milk and cookies. And then have them take off their shirts and pound my corn. Rowr!
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Ron & Kelly. They’re not #3 because I like them so much, but because I dislike them less than the others. Actually, I’m starting to like her more and him a whole lot less. She seems like the type of person I wouldn’t want to be friends with in real life, but that I might respect. Different values and all that. But she seems like a trouper, and doesn’t mind getting dirty or looking foolish. Ron, on the other hand, is a big losery oaf. Nice to see that the military training finally paid off with the rapelling and spelunking. And overall, they’re decently good racers.
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Meredith and Gretchen: Still annoying as all-git-out, but I was impressed with the way they handled the head injury and the losing of all their stuff. They didn’t give up (unlike stinky Patrick). Good for them. Most importantly, they beat Uekte…er…Ray and Deana. Take that, you ageist pig!
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Rob and Amber: So, apparently Rob is aware that Amber rides his coattails. Heh. Their continual unnecessarily jerky behavior and obvious conceitedness has really begun to irk me.
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Lynn and Alex: Oh, how do I hate thee. Let me count the ways. Oh, who am I kidding. I can’t count that high. Look, it’s one thing to be so ignorant that you don’t know Joburg is a “real city.” It’s another to think that that kind of ignorance is okay. Jerks. And the the “catty queen” thing is so five years ago. But they’re pretty good racers, I’ll give them that.
Man. Ramber are being treated like a red-headed stepchild! Which is exactly what Lucille Ball would have been, had her parents divorced and remarried someone else (A weak joke? Maybe. But, you count all the I Love Lucy references in this thread!)
A few random thoughts:
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Ramber at least should have pulled a Ray/Deana. Take your foot off the gas. Continue to coast, roll down the window, mutter a concern and gun it before you hear the response. Rob made it tougher for his defenders this week.
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I like this season because the inter-couple tension seems natural. We saw the first rift in the Ramber relationship at the cooling tower. He almost flat-out said “The next time you make a strategic decision in anything will be the first.” Someone laid out the three things going through Amber’s head. Allow me to add one to that list:
(d) “You KNOW I don’t ever make decisions!”
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I love that the clip show is supplemental next week and not a replacement episode. Thank You, TAR Producers.
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I loved the new penalty. I only wish it would have REPLACED the money penalty. I imagine that the next team to finish last, if there is time, will be wearing everything they own.
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I loved the ongoing “Meredith is the guy” bit.
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I still don’t think Ray is that bad. She really did stink. All he kept doing was act like a coach. He may be abrasive, but his comments were not even Ass-lite. I will say though, speaking as a man that has been happily married for five years, that “the ability to compete” in a Race Around the World! is not a prerequisite for a healthy marriage. That sounds like the kind of excuse Seinfeld would use to dump a woman.
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I liked the fact that this was two seperate episodes. We had TWO conclusions to get excited about. And at the end of this one, there was finality. It really lessened the suckitude of the NEL. Because we had instant gratification the next hour of seeing Ray get bounced.
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Ron seems like such a tool. He seems like a stereotypical military guy (not a bad thing) who got thrust into the “hero” role and is acting like he thinks he is supposed to act. I doubt Ron has much personality or individuality at all. That kind of thing plays well when you are making a speech at the Rotary Club, but not in an inter-personal dynamic.
I also think he may benefit from Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Kelly was clearly attempting cute affection. He’s either blind, or in denial. I am starting to like her, if only because she is trying to be nice to him. He is now my least favorite person left on the race.
*I doubt there will be any psychological baggage hindering Team Dude. The fact that they got in the Hummer after the Detour and RACED Ray and Deanna to the Pit Stop took moxie. I would think you’d be more likely to take it slow after that wreck. I think that was very cathartic.
- Fenris, I must be dumb. The only thing I know about “Zulu” is that it is a a time zone and a word the army uses for the letter Z. I had no knowledge of their tribe. I would have totally missed any spear reference!
That is one of the single, dirtiest metaphors I have ever read! Move over, Danielle Steel!
:eek: 
You must not have seen the movie (of the same name) 185 times. As soon as I saw the spear (assegai, IIRC) and shield, I wanted to bang them together and start chanting.