While I’m glad it didn’t really hurt either team, I can’t believe the snowboarders and Lawrence and Zac actually got on a plane to Jakarta without at least trying to find connecting flights to Phuket. That’s the sloppiest Racing I’ve seen in a long time.
Cindy and Ernie come in right after that with their compass mix-up. Seriously…I know I was a Boy Scout and everything, but how can you NOT be able to read North on a compass? It’s the big “N”!
Incidentally, we got another “toe the mat” situation this episode. They must be telling them not to jump or hop or stomp or tread right on the mat like the teams used to do. I wonder why?
I know someone made a joke about this in the last thread, but I am semi-irritated that there was no delay. CBS was showing a football game until 7:30. OK, we thought, since 60 Minutes is never preempted, we’ll just turn the TV back on at 8:30. :smack: Still unsure what happened there.
Anyhow, I hadn’t noticed the ‘toe the mat’ thing until now.
I probably can’t really comment on much else until I watch the first 30 minutes tomorrow.
I’ve noticed the lack of getting on the mat and wondered why. Have to admit though that so far they’ve made the racers do a lot more this season then in the last few.
I know it’s easy for me to sit on my ass and play Armchair Quarterback (Armchair Racer?) but for some reason, I expected to see more competitive fire and fighting spirit from an ex-NFL player; Marcus really doesn’t seem to have much heart for the race, at least from what I have seen so far.
Actually to me, the Twins almost looked relieved on the boat ride back to the Pit Stop, thinking that they were headed to certain elimination (and a restful flight home). They just didn’t seem all that excited to find out that they were still in the Race.
Apparently the woman in the Brother & Sister team does actually know how to smile, as long as everything is going EXACTLY, PERFECTLY her way; I am guessing she doesn’t have a whole lot of close friends in her personal life…
The Rickshaw Assessment for “This Is Gonna Be a Fine Mess”
Ox Status: Broken
[ul]
[li]***Ron & Bill, *** ***Ethan & Jenna and Kaylani & Lisa[/li] ***
[/ul]
Unrolling Hay Bales in Sweden
[ul]
[li]Bill & Cathi - (Team 7 of 8) - Their forward momentum deserted them this leg. Someone on Twitter described them as “farmer patient” which works in life, but not on the race. To his credit, Bill kind of rocked the Roadblock, scampering up the rock face with quickness, but he can’t do everything. Do the elder racers have it in them to make it through another physically intensive leg?[/li][li]***Liz & Marie ***- (Team 8 of 8) - Saved only by the non-elimination leg, the twins melted down again on the Detour, never able to find a real working rhythm or any ability to support one another, and then it turned out that they’d misread their directions. Without a lucky break, they’re gone next leg. They just don’t have the strength, the speed or the savvy.[/li][/ul]
**Duct Taping the Bumper
**- things don’t look good, but they may eke out some improvement
[ul]
[li]*Ernie & Cindy *- (Team 5 of 8) - Still not getting better, still not getting worse. They’re just mediocre, had a fumble during the Roadblock, and really, they’ve got to do something, soon.[/li][li]Amani & Marcus - (Team 6 of 8) - Their first effort at the Detour fell apart – literally. They got through the second task only due to Marcus’s stamina. Surprisingly, Amani did good work with the Roadblock. But their lack of navigation to the Pit Stop actually cost them three places in the leg rankings. It seems only by minutes, but that kind of error is what loses Races and they’ve got to work together more and be more detail oriented if they want to move up and move on.[/li][/ul]
Andale, s’il vous plait, xie xie!
[ul]
[li]***Jeremy & Sandy *- (Team 3 of 8) - After solid legs, the drama showed up this week, and they stopped working as a team. They frayed around the edges and fell back in the rankings, even while maintaining their place in the pack.[/li][li]***Laurence & Zac ***- (Team 4 of 8) - The father-son adventurers fall down in the rankings this week because of their near-disaster on the high seas. Having been on pace for a third place finish, they ended fourth by sheer, pure luck. If they can’t get back to the front of the pack next leg, they may be one of the Race’s most impressive flame outs.[/li][/ul]
Our Driver is Awesome!
[ul]
[li]Justin & Jennifer - (Team 2 of 8) - The bickering continued (please, make it stop) but their ability to power through at the Detour when other teams lost the plot and a very solid Roadblock moved them up the ranks with a nice buffer. If they can keep working while squabbling, we may have seen the first move of new contenders in this leg.[/li][/ul]
Carried all the Heavy Stuff & Ate All the Cheese
[ul]
[li]***Andy & Tommy ***- (Team 1 of 8) - The snowboarder momentum cannot be denied. They wanted a first place finish this week and got it. A perfectly clean leg, smart thinking, strong moving, good work.[/li][/ul]
Props to zut, Mullinator, the Taxi Assessment, the Raj Rating and all recappers who came before!
Nice Rickshaw Update! Good job! Nitpick, the snowboarders did not run a “perfectly clean leg”, They were not on the earliest flight and that is an error that could have cost them.
I think he means that, for the first time, they won a leg without an asterisk, by their own work rather than because of someone else having a penalty.
Great assessment, tumbledown. Esp. appreciate your putting the finishes in.
My favorite part was English Accent Dad’s denial of ever being in Thailand. “Thailand?! Err…I don’t know…maybe…no…is that a country?..could be, never heard of it.” I exaggerate of course but it was hilarious.
My guess is there is a Sex House somewhere that is on a first name basis with him.
Although I’m not quite sure how much it affected the outcome, I have to say I kind of liked the beach-chair task. It’s one of the few where those who come later actually have it easier, leading to a more competitive leg. Needle tasks are fairly common and make it much harder on the laggards; a good balance between those kind and this kind is nice.
Personally, I’d say Ernie & Cindy ought to get one higher ranking, but only for as long as that Express Pass stays with them. They haven’t yet looked like they want to use it, which is good. One more slip probably won’t knock them out. Although it seems that the Pit Stops are leading to more rank shifting in the middle of the pack this time around, so once the weak teams are out it’s possible to lose at that point.
I also caught that; There are very, VERY few people so extensively, exhaustively well travelled that they can’t answer definitively if they have ever visited an entire, specific country, unless perhaps copious amounts of drugs and alcohol were consumed for days or weeks on end before, during and after the journey.
I kind of took it as good ol’ Dad just trying to sound more worldly and cosmopolitan for either his son’s or (more likely) the TV camera’s benefit. “Eh, Thailand, Trinidad, Tonga, Turkey, Texas; all just a blur to this real life Indiana Jones you see before you.”
They were jumping up and down and screaming. What else do you want? For them to be jumping up and down and screaming… wait.
I wouldn’t say the twins melted down so much as on paper, that looked like a precision/detail detour and it turned out to be a strength detour. If they’re both ex-lifeguards, they should have done the coral thing.
Also, Marcus & Amani, if one of your team members is/was a professional athlete that person should probably be doing the strength roadblocks. Good for her that she did it apparently quickly, but that was bad racing.
Yeah, I really didn’t understand their logic. “We have years of experience as lifeguards, so we’re gonna do the task that has absolutely no relation to being a lifeguard, other than it’s on a beach.”
I’m curious to how hard the rock wall was. Even with the easiest climbing task, there’s a always a few teams that have a hard time. But every team breezed through that challenge.
I was thinking the same thing. That was one of the best legs in TAR history that I can remember, except for the flight selection, which should be a bit of a no-brainer.
I’d like to know if there was anything behind their decision. Maybe another airline wouldn’t sell them the second leg if they weren’t coming to Jakarta on their airline. They may have also been very pressed for time to make that first flight. At first I thought this was a rare case on non-bunching at an airport, but maybe the Amazing Producers timed the start of the leg so those two teams would catch an early first flight, but couldn’t get to Phuket any sooner.
To their credit, the snowboarders talked Laurence and Zac into taking the same flights they were on. As long as another team arrives with you, and you can outrace that team, you won’t be eliminated.
I can’t remember, is he one of the ones who couldn’t pronounce “Phuket”?
hehheh, yep, Fuck It!
Is it cynical that as the twins were speeding to the pit stop I thought this leg was going to be quickly shuffled to a NAL because the hot chicks were obviously going to be last? Then they started talking about how they knew they were in last and that of course sealed it. I think that’s TAR editing 101. I like watching the twins, but they need to ease off the petty sniping. It’s starting to wear even on me.
Someone mentioned Marcus’ seeming lack of heart. Oddly, that was a common criticism of the team he played his entire career with.
Yes, that’s what she meant. 
I downranked them, keeping in mind that they do have the pass, because they’re so nonchalant and meh about racing, and because of their foible out on the water. They don’t seem inclined to distinguish themselves, for good or bad. Or at least that’s how I read them.
They definitely should’ve done the coral thing. By melting down I referred to yet another instance of one flumping down on her butt, whining and groaning in frustration about the difficulty of the task and the other twin griping at her rather than supporting or encouraging.
This is the second leg in a row when they flip-flopped the “obvious” choice for the Roadblock. I don’t know if Amani would’ve done the temple task better last leg; given how winded and out of it she was when they got there, probably not. Similarly, Marcus seemed pretty whipped leaving the Detour this leg. To her credit, Amani did much better than one would’ve imagined, after last leg, getting up that rock face.
I’m shocked at the thin line (of network standards and practices) that was tread by many of the horrid mispronunciations of that placename.
I knew it was NEL as soon as Ernie and Cindy were seen reading “may be eliminated” in perfect unison and with high emphasis on “may.”
Sorry! I’m so used to zut doing the Assessment that I forgot there were different people doing it this season.
Maybe the cameramen are trying to get all the reaction shots live, instead of recreated, and having them a few feet away from Phil makes that easier? Or maybe it was just a 3 stooges-esque placement of the mat this episode.
It looked to me that the guys on the safety rope were keeping it very taut, to the point where the racers could actually use it as a climbing aid. I think at least one time it looked like as soon as the racer got her hand up to another handhold, they actually pulled her up a few feet.