The Amazing Race, 10/10/10

Cafe Society
1

… or, as our British pals would put it, 10/10/10.

Wow – the wheel thing and the word-search thing look equally tough. I’d go for the word-search, I think. If you’re systematic – and the way the Gleeks are doing it seems like the right way – you can do it. Rolling the hoop is tricky on flat ground, if you’ve never done it, and would be very hard on uneven ground.

ETA: Whoever it was in last week’s thread who suggested I check my closed captioning settings to get rid of that big black box in the middle of the screen I’ve had for the last two weeks – yup, that was it. Many thanks!

2

I agree with the word search. If you could let the wheel thing drop and start it again from the place it dropped, then maybe. But to have to start over? Maybe I’m wrong and you can start from the place it fell.

3

Wow the Doctors have had trouble with way too many cabs.

The father and son team are breaking my heart.

4

Spoiler!

Non-elimination! Good! I like them!

5

Pai325 – please use spoiler boxes during the period before the show has aired on the West Coast (for three hours after it’s aired on the East Coast).

Thanks,

twickster, Cafe Society moderator and reality TV slut

6

Except I think every other team didn’t look for the translation. They all seemed to pass it by. That makes it kind of difficult. Though I would have taken it too.

7

Which one actually said “Chop-chop!”? I couldn’t believe that.

Nick (or whatever tattoo punk’s name is) at least partially redeemed himself by recognizing that he was being a major ass.

Seriously…the whole time the dad was standing there clinging to the goal netting I was thinking, “Get him under a tree in the shade and get him water, you idiot! He’s probably about three minutes from heatstroke the way he looks!”

Speaking of father/son, did anyone notice how Kevin did the Ghana magnet? Right across the three or four near-identical little vertical countries at the bend of Africa. Which is what I’d do, because I can NEVER remember the order of those three or four.

8

I want to be on record as hoping that the whole “help renovate the school” activity will include taking them back to that building and rubbing their noses in just how close they all were to being able to finish that Detour. And hoping they air at least part of it.

9

Another pretty uneventful leg—I really like the way the father/son didn’t give up; they both seem like good eggs.

I that that the tattooed guy was acting like a grade A jackass for a bit there, but when his girlfriend had her asthma flare-up he obviously woke up, changed his tune, and then offered a sincere apology for his behavior.

I was also VERY impressed with how methodically the choir team solved the symbol puzzle—Look for all the ladder symbols and just go down the line until they found the right sequence. I would not have been able to do nearly as well…

10

They looked equally easy to me. The weather would be a problem for the wheel roll, maybe.

11

I was a geography geek when I was in grade school, but I did not know where Ghana was on an African map. But I am pretty sure that I would be checking my atlas, (or one in the airport magazine store) as soon as I got a clue saying that I was going to Ghana

“Do we draw chalk line circles around the African kids?”

Was Team Glee the only team that solved the word search? There were damn impressive in this episode.

12

:rolleyes: on the stupid, condescending, offensive “Help the poor, ignorant (black!) locals” feel-good crap for next week’s episode.

I didn’t notice them “giving back” to the English community last week and I’ll bet they won’t be “giving back”* to whichever Scandinavian country they end up in next week. And they’ve never done it in other non-African countries (India for one) that have ghastly levels of poverty. As a matter of fact, in the past, the show was gauche enough to show them having eating contests in a village that looked considerably worse off than this one and had the contestants begging for money in places where people were begging for food so they could stay alive.

Frankly I’d much rather be in that village where the schoolkids were than in a lot of the places in India or even a few places in Asia that we’ve seen. And it’s even worse feel-good-ism to think that 2 hours of enforced charity is going to do anything substantial for this village. If they wanted to “give back” in a meaningful way, cut the damned prize in half, give the town $500,000.00 and feed them for a few decades. I imagine the producer’s hearts were in the right place, but their heads are up their asses. Seriously–this is the worst example of “Limousine Charity” I’ve ever seen. They’re treating the locals like pets. (“O la. We will come in and spend 2 hours painting your school or digging a latrine. We have now Done Our Part.” :rolleyes: )

Again, I’ve got no problem with them doing this in every community they visit, or picking one place and saying “We’re going to make a substantial cash contribution to their well-being”. This isn’t that.

Plus it’s yet another crappy “We want two women to win, so no “alpha male” team” season. At least (so far) they haven’t noticably dumbed down or wimped out the tasks. Yet. Just wait though. I have no doubt that they will. I don’t know which idiot in the Amazing Race’s production team has such a sandy vagina about the fact that no two-women team has won, but A) they’ve already screwed up about 5 seasons dumbing down and wimping out the race to try to make a two-women team win and B) don’t they realize that if they don’t have an alpha-male team (team Wiz and team Glee don’t count as alpha-males) that it won’t be a real win anyway? The hypothetical two-women winners will have an asterisk by their win saying “Well, they won in a handicapped, wimped-out race”.

I’m still rooting for the (now doomed) Doctors, I find myself reluctantly liking the Shopping Network hosts and Moose and Midge (the jock/chick combo) and the Father Daughter. I don’t like the Asian kid–his dad rocks, but the kid’s a prick. Everyone else is

*It’s charity, not “giving back”–to “give back”, you have to be given something first. The locals didn’t “give” them much of anything except smug, Amazing Race contestant superiority-complexes (“O, we have peace and justice and soooo much compared to these poor, poor, people”) to return. There’s nothing wrong with charity–I encourage it and hope that the charity is an organic part of the race as opposed to enforced community service, but let’s not pretend it’s anything but charity.

13

Aw, c’mon tell us how you really feel.
I was hoping that the last team was eliminated AND had to work the next day.

And I guess **Fenris **might agree with me, giving a huge cash prize for the winners in this country is a big fuck up, I could read the mind of the woman at the Pit Stop: ‘$5k for these wankers and I’m volunteering for this?’.

14

I’m watching this right now, and it’s going slowly because my mom keeps rewinding the DVR.

I just found this thread to say that I HATE THESE A CAPELLA SINGING KIDS. I want to punch them in the face.

15

That’s never been a Cafe Society rule. Why is it the rule in this thread? And I guess Hawaii can go take a flying leap.

16

I know it’s sometimes hard to think when it’s hot and you’re tired, but was it really that hard to find the giant decoding key that was literally right next to the symbol cloth? And if you can’t find it, why on Earth would you randomly circle some of the symbols on the cloth? How can that possibly be an effective strategy? If only one or two teams had performed this utter Detour fail, I would have docked them for it, but when nearly all the teams have the same problem? Bizarre.

Taxi Assessment:

Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Ron & Tony and Andie & Jenna - Already eliminated.

Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Michael & Kevin (down from “Stopping”) - So Michael pooped out in the African heat. That’s not all that suprising, really. I don’t think he’s got the stamina to last for the rest of the Race, so even if this team survives the next episode (a possibility, considering that they still have some competition for last place), I don’t see them lasting much further. Hopefully some other team steps up to make the next episode a little exciting, but with the Speed Bump coming up, I think Michael & Kevin’s time is limited.
Nick & Vicki (holding steady) - Nick & Vicki actually had their best finish of the season, coming in fifth place. But that showing came with some problems: First, they again demonstrated they’re not all that bright. Granted, a geography test (or a reading test, or a find-the-HUGE-decoding-tapestry test…) isn’t the same thing as an IQ test, and other teams had trouble too, but Nick & Vicki took it to a ridiculous extreme, finding the right location only after eliminating almost every other African country. Embarassing. Nick also turned into an ass when stressed. To his credit, he was more self-aware about it than most ass-Racers are, but it shows that Nick & Vicki aren’t all that different from other couples signing up for the Race to “test their relationship” or whatever.

Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Chad & Stephanie (holding steady) - In contrast to Nick, Chad was the perfect gentleman in this episode, and this team slides into third place. Third place courtesy of an early bail on the Detour, but third place nonetheless. It’s possible I’ve unfairly tagged Chad as a meltdown waiting to happen, but I don’t think so…so I’m leaving this team ranked here.

"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Nat & Kat (down from “Passing”) - Wow, Nat & Kat just cannot catch a break. They had some pretty awful cab luck last episode, and even worse luck this ep. I still like this team in general, but I’m starting to wonder if they’re genetically predisposed to picking the shittiest cab. And not just that–they effectively caught up with six other teams when they arrived at the Detour, but still had to rely on Michael’s breakdown to keep out of last place. I still have hopes for them, but competing for last place in two episodes in a row lowers my expectations.
Gary & Mallory (holding steady) - Conversely, Gary & Mallory finally had an episode where they didn’t have car trouble, and they score a second place. However, I don’t quite know what to think here, because a major contributing factor was that Gary & Mallory were the only team to choose the bicycle-wheel Detour first, while (almost) all the other teams wasted time failing at the decoding Detour.
Jill & Thomas (down from “Passing”) - Jill & Thomas still have that powerful skip-a-task card. They have, cannily, avoided using it when they didn’t need to, but they haven’t been all that impressive either.

In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Brook & Claire (holding steady) - I thought Brook completely aced the boxing Roadblock, as she did. However, pretty much every other team had little problem completing this task, so it seems the Roadblock acing bought a couple minutes at best. After that, Brook & Claire slowly slid back to the middle of the pask, passed by teams who made better decisions. So a little disappointing for this team, but not disastrous, so I’m leaving them ranked here.
Katie & Rachel(holding steady) - Again, Katie & Rachel get little screen time. This team has been fairly consistent, and even with their mistake on the wheelbarow task they eke out a fourth-place finish.

Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Connor & Jonathan (up from “Rapido!”) - This might very well be a premature bump in the ratings for this team–I think they still overestimate themselves, and they’re not substantially better than other teams. However, they don’t have to be substantially better, just a little better. And this episode showed why, with Connor & Jonathan cruising through the decoding Detour that not one of the other teams could figure out. Granted that’s one task only, but it’s one where Connor & Jonathan were clearly better. And even had they been worse, they had a time cushion, because they arrived at the Detour site in first place. Some of that lead was due to their a capella-loving cabbie (and here I thought the “sing to your cabbie” schtick was asinine–silly me), but some of it was due to Connor & Jonathan themselves, as they did their tasks and did them right.

[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Rating[/sub]

17

It’s not a rule, it’s a matter of courtesy. And I said “three hours” because no one from Hawaii has ever squawked about spoilers in a weekly show thread.

18

It seems to happen as a result of how they cast the show: when they’re in “O jeepers! An all-girl team has NEVER WON!” casting mode, they tend to pick sheep who follow the herd no matter what–the bit where one brainless team started drawing chalk circles around the kids…in the dirt (chalk doesn’t write on dirt, guys) and then every remaining team starts to do the same thing? We’ve seen seasons like this where everyone follows the herd no matter what before and it seems to happen most frequently when they have the “We need gender-equity among the winners!” casting crap. That’d rarely happen with normal casting.

I wish, I wish they’d get over this Grrrl-powyr bullshit. It’s possible to have kick-ass strong all-women teams without dumbing down the rest of the competition: I can name a dozen two-women teams who could easy kick the ass of everyone in this season. And you get those kick-ass two-women teams by castinb for brains, brawn and determination and not deliberately casting to weaken most of your teams so you can celebrate an all-womyn victory.

19

Ha! I said the same thing when we were watching last night.

That killed me. Killed me. Especially when other teams started doing it. I did think the girls showed good humor about it in the after-interview.

I know. I can’t figure out what they thought they were circling and why. There was no discussion of strategy or symbolism or anything. Frankly, circling the 8 African children at least had some type of twisted logic to it.

:smiley:

I wonder just how disappointed Michael was not to be eliminated. Poor dude is probably thinking that he would at least have had a chance to recover if they were eliminated. To be honest, though, I guessed it was a non-elim round as soon as Phil said something about remodeling the school. For whatever reason, I doubted they would send one team away prior to the volunteer work.

20

I guess the question is is Team Glee that smart or everyone else that stupid?