I assume that the rest periods are more than 12. Of course, I don’t really know WHY I assume that; I just do.
Yes! There was something very strange about that. Like they were warned on the way up the stairs, or there was a delay between Phil delivering the actual news and the reaction shot we got.
Maybe they were surprised but it was edited out of the broadcast? Certainly Phil’s “spiel” that they had to go back was edited – his voice changes in mid-admonishment.
Oh, I agree with the posters who’ve said that the sign “cheat” was not a cheat at all but a legitimate twist (as legitimate – and as interesting – as the double elimination) because (1) the sign was in English in a generally non-English speaking country and (2) the content of the sign was clearly Race-related as Lare noted.
I suppose the latter doesn’t rule out the possibility noted by Fenris that it was an unofficial sign. :dubious: But who else could have put it there, other than the orphans or ophanange management? :rolleyes:
I honestly don’t know what I’d say about pulling the same “trick” of a Race sign not in Race colors if it was in an English-speaking country. On one hand, teams paying attention to every single damn sign around them would be paralyzed by information overload. On the other hand, teams have in past Races been expected to spot small or obscure signs in the midst of hundreds or even thousands of signs in an urban setting.
My only complaint about the sign was the wording - it definitely made it sound like it was optional. In the grand scheme of things that didn’t matter however, everyone who saw the sign gave up all their cash.
It was very obvious, I thought, that they had been talked to about it prior to the filming of their reaction.
Second leg and already I can’t wait for them to be eliminated.
And I hate when AR has teams made up of former Survivor contestants. So glad impy and chimpy are gone.
I disagree. I took the wording of the sign from a YouTube video. (See here at 15 seconds in*.) It says:
“In addition to all money earned at the Detours you MUST give all the money in your possession to help the orphans. In exchange you will receive a clue to help you find the nextPit Stop.”
The word “MUST” was all caps on the sign. I don’t think there was any question about it.
*= Not sure why, but it seems the link has a commercial that plays before opening. Sorry. ETA: Sometimes.
Which is exactly my point. The staggered time seems whatever time it needs to be to wipe out any time advantage and make it more competitive. If you think that’s a good thing (like the producers obviously do) then they should just make all of them leave at the same time. Be honest, do you think it was mere coincidence that the last team can leave 6 hours after the first team but still make the same morning plane?
To be pedantic, according to the sign, they should not have been given the clue to the pit stop until they gave up all of their money.
Well, if you’re worried about a forgery, there’s nothing magical about red and yellow that only the Amazing Producers can create those colors. If someone wanted to fake a sign to con the contestants, they could just go to the local Kinko’s or find someone with a color inkjet printer. If they knew enough of the Race jargon to fake the sign, they’d know that Race signs are always red and yellow.
Now where’s the Rickshaw Assessment?
That struck me too. The first team in didn’t leave the money, got the badge-like thing and somehow got to the Pit Stop without any further clue.
I was expecting them to take that and wander aimlessly around until they saw someone do it right and get an envelope.
I was really surprised that they did not show any of the later teams noticing the earlier teams backtracking to the orphanage. Or even a team at the orphanage when a team returned to it.
The badge thing matched the crest on the Sultan’s gate. I saw at least one team asking what the badge represents and being given directions.
On the worry that the sign would be some sort of forgery, keep in mind that there will be crew members at the location. They wouldn’t have allowed a forgery to be on the table.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if teams played it smart, it seems to me it would’ve actually be to their advantage to not see the sign. Hear me out…
(For this, we’re going to work under a couple of assumptions – that the orphanage and the Pit Stop are about a mile apart, and that taxis are available to take players from one to the other)
Scenario 1 – Players see the sign:
They see the sign, give up all their money, and take 10-15 minutes to walk/jog the mile to the Pit Stop.
Scenario 1 – Players don’t see the sign:
They take a cab from the orphanage to the Pit Stop and are told they have to go back and give up all their money. They leave the Pit Stop, hail a cab, pay the driver in advance with enough money to take them to the orphanage and back again (plus a nice tip to ensure he doesn’t take off while they’re in the orphanage). Go to the orphanage, give them whatever they have left, and quickly ride back to the Pit Stop. Zip-zip-zip, three quick cab rides should be quicker than the one-way walk, right? Even moreso if the distance is further than a mile.
: Makes a note never to be a contestant against HalBriston on TAR. :
I don’t think TAR staff should have told them what they did wrong. Only that they failed to complete a task at the orphanage.
Two words: Inflatable sheep. Don’t take up much backpack room, if you can rig them for auto-inflate like a life raft, you’ve got instant distractions. Just throw them in his path.
How close were they together? Maybe they overheard the others in front of them at the mat? It got really confusing at the end there and if Phil was midspiel when they arrived they may have been held off from jumping on the mat and interrupting filming by production crew, and realizing what had happened they had their little freak out already. But since they were already there they probably couldn’t just turn around and go back without having to get the spiel also because they got heads up of what was wrong unofficially.
Thus the resigned looks and ‘yes Phil’.
That’s my theory.
I wonder if there is an unseen reason that no team too a cab to the pit stop from the orphanage. One team was even shown explicitly dismissing their cab driver (after using him for the entire leg) while exiting at the orphanage.
So I wonder if they were told that they had to proceed on foot from that point.
Second, it would require knowing up front what the penalty would be for failing to follow the signs. This plan wouldn’t work if it was simply a “sit over there for X minutes.”