I’m not sad to see Wayland Flowers and Meghan go (his high pitched squeals were really getting to me), but I also don’t want Max and Katie to win either.
I suspect the editors included a little musical head-fake suggesting some kind of misstep right about the time that Bates proposed carrying the barrels. They didn’t go full zither; very sneaky.
Anyway, when I heard that, I rewound to the description of the task. Phil’s verbal description did not specify the manner in which they moved the barrels. So, even though the name of the task was barrel rolling, there was nothing in the description to prohibit carrying them.
I have to give credit to Joey and Meghan for their effort on the barrel rolling. I thought it would be extremely difficult and would elicit lots of unpleasantness, but they showed great character instead.
Max & Katie have not been shown to be as obviously ugly the past couple of episodes. Editing, or are they just feeling less bitchy because they are having success?
I call shenanigans, as those were clearly empty barrels. A full forty-gallon whiskey barrel would weigh about 350 pounds.
Yeah, I seem to be more of this theory than the theories obfusciatrist and jayjay explained. There’s been a big “I Don’t Want To Look Like An Overachieving Competitive Asshole On National TV” thing going on, and while yeah, that makes sense, but OTOH hand it just takes away more competitive spirit than anything else. There has to be some kind of balance there.
If I were going to u-turn a team, why would I u-turn a team that’s so far behind me to gain a few more minutes? To me, it would make more sense to u-turn the team that’s playing stealth so they don’t suddenly pull out in front of you. Maybe not the team directly behind you, but the team behind them
Because until the last leg it doesn’t matter if there’s a team in front of you, all that matters (except for possibly some relatively unimportant first place prizes) is that there is a team behind you.
But also, that requires a detailed knowledge of where all the teams are that you don’t necessarily have.
Exactly. At this point it still doesn’t matter whether you come in first. The only thing that matters is that you are assured that someone else will come in last. If that means that the weakest team not just loses but actually loses badly, so be it.
I don’t mind the Double U-turns, but I don’t like them at the end of the leg. The Roadblock should occur after the Double U-Turn.
And how did the blondes and the Hockey Players find the quicker flight. I understand that Max/Katie found when they went to the business center and did their own research.
Because Joey & Meghan and Mona & Beth got the last tickets on the flight that arrived at 1:00 (when everyone thought that was the earliest one (which is why J&M and M&B were so overconfident until they got to the cars)) and when the ticket clerk did a wider search (I assume of all airlines or something), they found out about the 10:30 flight.
Ignorance, or at least a poor memory, fought.
Maybe I saw a different show than you did, but A&B passed M&K at the detour, getting to the U-Turn first. But the hockey bro’s got lost heading to old-towne Edinburgh which gave Max & Katie the win.
As much as I hated watching Team Gay Flair, props to them for their effort this leg. Totally agree with our taxi assessment that as grating as they are to watch, they made excellent teammates. (And poor Meghan gets some shrapnel here; I had little issue with her. Joey was just so cartoonishly over the top.)
Yeah that was a nice fake-out by the editors.
This episode happened to show the actual clue: The instructions said “deliver” the barrels. No other words were used; the method of delivery was unspecified.
For those wondering, the haggis clue used the actual word haggis.
The fundamental premise of the U-Turn is flawed in that you can’t use it on teams ahead of you. That means the only logical use of it (if you even want to) is to use it on whoever is already in last. But if you’re in first place, last place isn’t a threat at all so you shouldn’t even bother.
I got a chuckle from the country girl saying she’d been blowing all day.
The question lingering from last week’s thread is definitively answered this week: You can only use one U-Turn per season. Bates & Anthony repeatedly referenced how Joey and Meghan weren’t allowed to use this U-Turn, presumably because they already U-Turned someone on a previous leg.
I strongly suspect that every team, on every leg, makes a wrong turn at some point and looks confused and argues over street signs and maps; and that footage is always filmed, but never used… except when it happens to team N-1, to give us the impression that team N still has a shot at reaching the mat first when in reality they’re 30 minutes behind.
Which is exactly my point – why would you use it on a team that isn’t a threat? That doesn’t make any sense to me. The team that isn’t a threat is probably going to be eliminated sooner rather than later…???
I don’t know why they keep casting physically weak girls on the show. At some point in the race, you’re going to get stuck having to do a challenge that requires some strength. The moms are not physical specimens, but they made pretty short work of the barrel task. The YouTube girl was incapable of doing the task without help.
It’s happened before with the poker players, and I’m sure with other people as well. It’s not fair, but a race with all nerfed tasks would be boring.
Well, your point was that it should be used on your biggest competition, which I disagree with. There’s no reason to use it on the biggest competition; you won’t eliminate them because the no-threat team will still be eliminated anyway and then next leg you all get bunched together.
You could as well as why they cast stupid people. The race has both kinds of challenges and they’re supposed to equal each other out.
StG
The moms may not be Olympic-caliber physical specimens, but they do compete in roller derby. I’m pretty sure they’re in good physical shape. I think that’s why they had an easier time doing the barrels than Joey & Megan…they have better leg muscles.
If anyone is interested, Phil Keoghan is being interviewed on this week’s Travel with Rick Steves podcast. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, though.
They did? I don’t remember that at all.
But I did like Meghan’s “Look at our U-Turn picture!” and the unspoken “Pretending to cry in the picture was really jerky of us and we probably deserved this.” that went with it.