Team Guido really lucked out. It would have been funny if they had made yet another boneheaded error like they did the first time they were on the show.
I admit: flounder, especially big-ass flounder like those, freak me out. And I’m a fish biologist, who handles fish on a daily basis.
I wouldn’t have been screaming and crying if I had been in that task, but I wouldn’t have been smiling either.
I am right there with you. He was cute the first time a round, and in the intervening years he got hot.
That’s not a twist. It’s been around since at least TAR 5, when in the first leg Chip and Kim and Kami and Karli had to return to pick up a clue from outside the casino where they played roulette.
I usually don’t watch the show, but I’m watching tonight. I haven’t read the thread since the show is still on.
Anyway, I noticed SOTAR on the bows of the rafts they’re using. My dad’s youngest brother works (Worked? He may have retired.) at State Of The Art Rafts down in Merlin, OR.
How many times did the woman from Kentucky hear people pronouncing Petrohué as ‘petro-hway’, and she still said ‘petro-hyoo’?
This is proof (not that we needed any), that Dave and Mary would not have gotten very far, last season, without the Cho’s.
On the downside, we also had to endure a lingering shot of Shirtless Rob. :eek: Eyyehhww!! Do some uppper body work, man! Shirtless Bill had nicer tone than you!
Speaking of the Guidos, I found it amusing how they said there was no disadvantage to being gay…and then they get passed up while changing clothes.
Guess I can accept Charla & Mirna for one more leg, since they did save the idiot Guidos from certain elimination. Hopefully their 8th-place streak will continue. 
Mirna did garner a laugh, however, by saying she learned to be rude by watching Ian’s season.
Say what you like about Rob & Amber, but they’re DAMN good racers. I’ll have to double-check, but I think this is the first time any team has taken three consecutive #1’s, ever. Certainly never in the first three legs. You can’t do that from being smug and photogenic alone!
I could’ve smacked Terri & Ian for following the blondies - didn’t they watch the last race? Those two are useless at directions half the time. And yeah, what’s so scary about fish? Big flat fish with their faces on sideways at that?
Nobody’s ever gone 3-for-3 in the first three legs before, but there have been some pretty dominating teams. In their season (TAR9), Eric & Jeremy were 1st in four out of the first six legs, and the other two times they came in 2nd. Maybe the most impressive run, though, was when Colin & Christie (TAR5) came in 1st in six out of eight legs (2nd in the others), including a run of three straight, before they were Yielded.
It really is a shame that Colin & Christie couldn’t do All-Stars. I find him personally repulsive, but he was truly an amazing Racer.
Hatless David is like ripped shirt Kirk. Too bad the magic didn’t last.
Question: What happens to Charla and Mirna’s guide or anyone guide at the end of a leg? Are they just SOL? Does the team have to return them?
Yes, that was interesting. Why even go on the show in the first place if you’re not up for doing adventurous things? She’s an idiot. I’m also not sorry to see her go, if only so I don’t have to listen to her berate David anymore.
IIRC, BJ & Tyler had three straight #1 finishes in season 9, the third of which was the Finish Line.
Now this was a well-designed leg. Granted, the tasks were basically meh, but the layout of the leg was done well. 1. An airport bunching point, so teames weren’t too strung out, but at the beginning so task performance on the rest of the leg still mattered. 2. Even though there was a bunching point, it was still a two-way split, with essentially half the teams getting an earlier flight. So hustle at the airport was still rewarded. 3. The Roadblock took long enough that there was actually a chance for the second cohort to catch up. 4. And there was still plenty of self-navigation and chance for errors.
Oddly, the “Next, on the Amazing Race” for this episode on CBS’s Web site said that “after attempting a 40 foot rock climb, two teams switch Detour tasks. Will their decision cause them to lose time and possibly the Race?” I kind of totally missed that in this episode. I guess the decision wasn’t all that critical. I would have thought the rock climb would take less time (on the principal that it looks harder), but I dunno…
Taxi Assessment
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
John Vito & Jill and Kevin & Drew - Already gone.
David & Mary - (down from “Flat Tire”) - Well, David & Mary are gone this week. No surprise there. Mary’s afraid of fish and heights and rafting, so apparently someone designed this leg just for her. It’s rather satisfying, though, that David just powered through the Roadblock and pushed them ahead of some other teams, and then Mary missed the turnoff sign despite David pointing it out. Now that’s an omen that signifies the state of the underlying personal relationship.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Charla & Mirna - (down from “Stopping”) - Oh come on. The screaming and the weeping and the drama! Always the drama! The obviously weak teams have been swept away already; Charla and Mirna are clearly the weakest of the remaining teams. There’s not a big gap here, so they could easily last a while, but their chances of landing a final three finish strike me as minimal.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Teri & Ian - (holding steady) - A little better leg than last episode, but not a lot better. This team is still looking vulnerable.
Joe & Bill - (down from “Rapido!”) - Oh, terrible, terrible mental mistake in not writing down the full clue from the Roadblock. They’re darn lucky Mirna told them. She would have been within her rights (and much smarter) to walk away and leave them to flounder (ha! get it?) into last place. That kind of mental mistake bodes ill–Killer Fatigue may be creeping up on this team.
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Uchenna & Joyce - (up from “Stopping”) - An excellent leg from Uchenna & Joyce, starting with their decision to leave the airport and try to book tickets elsewhere. Smart move, and little downside when they promised to help out the other teams in line. Powerful performance at the Roadblock, and decent navigation and they pull out second place. Overall I think they’re a little behind the teams I’m ranking above them, but I will note they’ve gone 7-5-2 in the three legs so far this season. In season 7, they went 8-4-2 in the first thre legs and never fell out of the top three again. Something to think about.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
as a disaster just waiting to happen, but if they can keep focused they could easily win it all.
Eric & Danielle - (up from “Rapido!”) - Good for Eric to have noticed the earlier 12:55 flight and sly of him to whisper quietly about booking it. Danielle seemed to have a weird fish freak-out, and Eric wasn’t really helping here, but she pushed through and got the job done. A reasonably strong performance this week; this team is starting to click and we’ll see if they do better in the weeks to come.
Dustin & Kandice - (up from “Rapido!”) - A fourth place despite being on the second flight moves them up a notch. Nice work. Now, I have to admit I really like this team. They’re smart, they race hard, and they’re game for anything. However, every once in a while they pull some really ditzy move. It’s like they’re thinking, “if we were stereotypical dumb blonde beauty queens, what would we do?” “I know! We’d lose the hat!” Or “We’d go to the completely wrong clue box!” Or whatever horns-of-stupidity caper thay can think of. They’re awfully lucky the Pit Stop was just a few miles away from the Detour and not 100 miles, but hey. Luck’s part of the game.
Danny & Oswald - (holding steady) - Fifth place is probably disappointing for this team, but I can’t justify knocking them down when they have a pair of top-three finishes under their belts. In particular, the fifth place was a direct result of not getting on the first flight; a setback, but not a major mistake, if you see the difference.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Rob & Amber - (up from “Passing Lane”) - Three first place finishes in a row should be enough to earn a “Cruisin’” label, don’t you think? The only team to think of trying to find a travel agent at the beginning of the leg, their initiative payed off handsomely with a stress-free trip to the airport. They fell behind a little on the way to the Roadblock, but whatever wrong turn they took cost them less time than similar gaffes cost other teams. Plus, Amber: “Don’t worry about the other teams, Rob.” Heh.
Next week: An ending everyone will be talking about! I can’t wait!
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]
By the way, I’m going to be in Canada next weekend. Anyone know the channel and time TAR is on in Canada?
Good moment for the Amazing Editors this week when Dave and Mary figured out they were hopelessly off course:
Mary: “I just hope someone else did something stupid.” (something to that effect)
Cut to the BQs happily rowing down the river. 
BJ & Tyler also came in LAST two times, both of which, through the apparent interventions of numerous deities of luck and/or silliness, were non-elimination legs. (David & Mary were also the lucky recipients of non-eliminations TWICE in their original season)
Both of these examples have led me to suspect that perhaps the Powers That Be don’t decide ahead of time which legs will be non-elimination. That they make those decisions on the fly to keep teams alive that make for good television.
Does anyone have firm information to either confirm or dispute this suspicion?
CTV, 8 PM. You’ll have to find out what channel CTV is on in the city you’re visiting.
Well, to be fair, half of them seem to be afraid of fish, and other TAR racers have been afraid of water, heights, etc.
Frankly, I liked D&M because they admittedly had never been anyplace else yet they were kind to (and not rude to) people of every nationality, and in every situation. I thought they were great for embracing people the way they did. And Mary would switch off her nagginess and bossiness by encouraging David and telling him how much she loved him. It’s not the ideal dynamic for a couple, but I know a couple like that and, for whatever reason, it works for them. It could well be that David realizes that she’s full of hot air when she nags him out and just lets her blow off steam. I’m guessing he may have gotten a few points at home for ‘I saw the turn; it was you who told me not to take it’.
At least she never pulled a Jonathan on him. Now that guy was hideous.
I only have my opinion. Every time a NEL is revealed, Phil says that the leg was pre-selected as non-elimination. If your suspicion is correct, then Phil’s statement might count as fraud in a game show.
Which in no way counters your observation that two of the NELs in both seasons 9 and 10 contributed to good television.
Although I do have to acknowledge that the third NEL in season 9 was placed on the wrong leg – the next to last leg. Why oh why did the producers choose that? Was it (a) stupidity, (b) randomness, or (c) they didn’t have any other place to put it to make for good television?
Wow. All these seasons and that hasn’t registered with me. I must not be paying close enough attention to what Phil actually says – as opposed to just getting the gist of whether the last place team is eliminated or not.
Thanks.
I’m gonna come out of the closet, and say it out loud: I *like * Amber. Rob…meh. But Amber rocks. She does happy dances on the mat, and she rolls her eyes when Rob says something obnoxious. And she’s cuter’n hell.
Oh my god, Jim. You’re so gay.
My thoughts exactly.
Exactly, again. I can’t stand that kind of thing. How on earth can you talk to your husband like that? You’re supposed to love and support your spouse - if you don’t, what’s the point of being married to them?
You may find that CBS is broadcast wherever you happen to be. Most likely if you’re in a city, there will be cable including CBS.