Oooooh, I forgot about that – talk about your uncomfortable moments.
Mongolia! The teams seem to be shaking out into clear front, middle, and trailing packs. Peter & Sarah, Tyler & James, and Duke & Lauren have taken the top three spots in both episodes so far. Lyn and Karlyn, David & Mary, and Erwin & Godwin have consistently brought up the rear. Dustin & Kandice and Rob & Kimberly have been in the middle; the only team to be inconsistent has been Tom & Terry, who move up four spots this week from the rearmost tier closer to the front. This kind of predictibility makes for an easy, but boring…
Taxi Assessment
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Bilal & Sa’eed and Vipul & Arti - Already forgotten.
Kellie & Jamie - (down from “Rapido!”) - Just a poor showing all around. With all the bad luck and mistakes apportioned to and created by other teams, there’s no excuse for getting so badly lost (twice!) that they’re never better than last place. And after all that, they couldn’t even do the Roadblock. I though cheerleaders had to do handstands and stuff. Doesn’t that require at least some upper body strength? I didn’t expect much out of this team, but this showing was even poorer than I thought.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
David & Mary - (holding steady) - If Mary really twisted her ankle, it’s pretty much all over. Even if she’s just whining, this team is still my top pick for elimination next episode. They seem like nice people, but they just don’t have the skills they need to pull out a win.
Lyn & Karlyn - (down from “Rapido!”) - A near elimination this week; they’re lucky Kellie & Jamie were simply more error-prone. I have a feeling this team could be more savvy than they’ve shown so far, but they’re probably the least physically fit team (as a pair), and two bottom-tier finishes in a row do not bode well.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Erwin & Godwin - (holding steady) - This team seriously underwhelms me. Their combination of brains and brawn ought to put them in front, but instead they’re bringing up the rear. I suppose they’re having fun and so forth, but why are (for example) Duke and Lauren soundly kicking their ass? Answer: I don’t know, but if Errin & Godwin don’t figure it out soon, thet’re out of here.
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Tom & Terry - (up from “Gas”) - Eh. This team’s shown me nothing that would put them higher than this. A fourth place finish, yes, but more due to mistakes and bad luck by other teams than anything they did themselves. Still, not doing something stupid is a rare accomplishment, so this week they get a bump up.
Rob & Kimberly - (holding steady) - This team is a prime candidate for a mid-season meltdown. Rob seems keen on saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and serious emotional issues are not what you want to work through in the middle of a race. I don’t expect them to go out soon, but when they do, it should be spectacular.
Dustin & Kandice - (holding steady) - This team would have finished much higher this week except for a stupid helmet-losing mistake. Not something they can afford to do very often, but I note they recovered nicely for a fourth-place finish.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Peter & Sarah - (up from “Rapido!”) - A surprising first place after twice (twice!) switching Detours. This team is looking pretty strong. Except… except Peter seems to have this weird need to control the situation through positive vibes, like a Hellish cross between a grade-school motivational speaker and a Marine drill instructor. I wonder how hard Sarah can kick with that leg, and whether she’s got enough swing to nail him in the balls?
Duke & Lauren - (holding steady) - I’ve probably seen less of this team than of any of the others, but they’ve got another top three finish without seeming to try very hard.
Tyler & James - (holding steady) - Passed by Peter and Sarah for first, but this team clearly looks like the one to beat. Even a flat didn’t slow them down overall (although I have a sneaking suspicion they didn’t actually know how to use their jack, but maybe that’s just me).
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
No one yet. Let’s see how things shake out next week.
Next week: Drama! Action! Screaming!
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]
Peter doesn’t seem to be capable of dialing back the rah-rah motivational enthusiasm to save his soul. Everywhere they go, he’s like, “You can do it Sarah! You’re strong! Nothing can stop you! You’re faster than they are! You’re better!” And on and on, ad nauseum.
First of all, that’s just annoying. Encouragement when it’s needed is good, but encouragement all the time, needed or not, would kind of defeat the purpose. I don’t need my wife to tell me she’s being supportive every five minutes to believe it’s true; the constant repetition undermines the point.
Second of all, it seems like he thinks she needs the encouragement all the time, like if he stopped she’d just wilt under the pressure. That’s just condescending and annoying.
I noticed what I took to be an “anti-bunching” measure last night. the first was the bus ride just out of the pit stop. Instead of potentially letting all of the teams on the same bus, they were forces to sign up for the three different times. Usually we only see this when it is obviously some sort of chartered transportation.
Let’s hope that this trend continues, and we see a bit less bunching than in recent years.
It didn’t require just strength but some degree of accuracy. I’d have to watch it again to see if she was finding something approaching the right range. Does no good to be strong like bull if you can’t get the distance down.
He wasn’t being supportive, he was being jerkish in a way that he could claim was supportive.
She was trying to get something done, and he kept trying to “help” when she neither wanted or needed help. He really rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps it’s cluelessness on his part, but it came across as very condescending. And they are only recently dating - maybe they’re just a horrible match.
To be fair, though, last week in the Intros, Sarah did say something about how nice it was that Peter “can take care of me the way I need to be taken care of” or something to that effect. It surprised me, coming from someone who has obviously not let a significant disability hold her back. I think they perhaps just are a bad match—the fcat that she has a prosthetic limb and he works with prosthetic limbs doesn’t tell me anything about what their emotional connection could be like.
And, yes, that “performing for the locals” thing made me very squirmy.
I also agree that Mary can be shrill with David. It’s like she has suddenly decided that national TV is the best place to try out “some of that women’s lib stuff”. But the “I’ve never met gay people before” thing was funny, and it did endear her to me.
We were just wondering before this episode, if there has ever been a task that the contestants were just physically unable to perform – like, what would’ve happened last week if one team was unable to climb the rope up the Great Wall? I know in the past that there have been total failures, but they’ve been inability to find hidden things (like the haystacks).
I would guess it would play out like the cheerleaders flaming arrows…the team just gives up. But what would’ve happened if it had been a NEL?
One would think that Sarah & Peter need to pick their roadblocks wisely – there will undoubtedly be roadblocks that Sarah can’t do (or at least, Peter will be able to do much more easily). With that in mind…Sarah should’ve taken the flaming arrows.
She said she didn’t need to stop, but why does everyone assume she was right? When I’m that frustrated about something, the first thing I lose is the ability to see how self-defeating my own actions are.
Did they change the rules at all after the infamous Meatblock? If not, then the team would have to take some kind of time penalty for not completing the task (I believe the penalty depends on how long the task is expected to take). Whether they would make the team just stand there out at the task site and wait until they could be checked in, or whether they would just add the time to their departure time in the morning, we have yet to see.
I also wonder, because we haven’t heard anything about it for the last two seasons: did they eliminate the Chip-and-Colin Memorial Roadblock Limit Rule? Why? Because of all the rule changes that have taken place in the past few seasons, that one actually made the most sense.
Why wouldn’t we believe her? Or, to phrase it another way that doesn’t sound so argumentative: Why didn’t Peter believe her? This is a woman who has lived with only one leg for her whole life. She has completed triathlons. He’s been her boyfriend for, what, maybe six months? Who is he to say that he knows her limitations better than she does? This is definitely a “YMMV” kind of situation – I think he was trying to tell her what he thought he would want to hear, but that was clearly not what she wanted to hear.
For example, when I get frustrated about Very Important Things, I tend to freak out, rend my garments, etc. But the thing is: I keep moving. Those buckets of water fall off the back of the yakwagon? Dude, I’ll carry 'em my damn self, but you better believe that I will not quit until that shit is done. I’ll bitch and piss and moan about it the whole time, I’ll complain about karma and the grand Universal conspiracy that is my life, but I will NOT stop until I have finished the task. Because otherwise, I can’t move on. Anger and frustration are surprisingly good motivators for some people. I’m saying it’s right, or healthy, but it is what it is.
(And yes, I am aware that this makes me very much like Colin, which is perhaps why his behavior was so appalling to me – can I really be that bad? I mean, I try to be nicer to people as a regular rule, but I am very intense at competition time. It’s not just the contestants who learn something about themselves from these game shows, people!)
Substitute “Flo” for “Colin” and look for me under my desk. Notice I am not complaining about the teams who swore they were done for after one setback? Yeah, I’ll keep moving, but I do become the Voice of Doom at the slightest provocation.
Can someone fill me in on what this is? I’m new to the show.
I am exactly the same way. I would be there 'til the other teams, the guides, the horses, my teammate and Phil himself had long since moved on if that’s what it took to get that broken ox to haul a few water buckets for me.
But that’s not the way to win a race. If I were there, I hope my teammate would be smart enough to overcome my stubbornness and get some sense into me. I hope I wouldn’t yell at her, and if I did, I hope she’d forgive me for it. And I know I wouldn’t add it to some mental list of her shortcomings.
There was a rule for a while that no member of a team could do more than 6 roadblocks, to make sure that the physically stronger members didn’t “carry the team”, so to speak.
The rule was established after Chip (of Chip and Kim) performed all but one or two RBs on a race.
Despite what I said earlier about liking her attitude, I see your point. I guess I was hoping that she meant she was reserving judgment until the emotion and stress of the Race was past.
Just not a likable team to me, all around.
Not much to add (migraine all freaking day, just starting to feel normal again) other than what has already been said.
Yay for Carissa again. Gotta love that kid.
I liked Peter and Sarah, but he is grating. He’s watched too much Dr. Phil. I could understand Sarah’s point of view - I might get upset and lash out, but I’d still keep going.
Team Coalminer get on my nerves. As already mentioned, he simply asked for directions and she was shrill and not very helpful. Hey, when you’re riding shotgun (as it were), you read the map!
What else? You guys already said it all while I was lying in bed praying for Death. Thank God for Imitrex.
I had the distinct impression that all her arrows were landing short, in particular in the after-dark scene where there wer a half-dozen arrows buring the grass well short of the firebowl. However, it could be I’m just misremembering, or I’m the victim of selective editing. In that case, change my comment to something snarky about needing to aim correctly to do backflips or whatever.
Even though they knew they were last, they should have kept trying with the arrows until they got it. Because that’s the TAR way, and I really wanted to see that big fireball in the darkness.
Well, OK, yeah. But remember: these two are “recently dating” (so sayeth the offical TAR page on CBS.com), so they’re still working out all the kinks in their relationship. I think what she meant was, “Is this something that I can live with long-term, if I decide to have a relationship with this man after this Race is over?” and not, “How can I blame our team’s failures on him?” Although, we can’t know what she’s really thinking unless she explains herself, and what little exposition we have is vague at best.
(Now, me personally? I’d be making a mental list of “Reasons Why It’s Crucially Important For Me To Push This Man Out Of A Moving Train While We’re On The Trans-Siberian Railway So I Can Get Phil For A Partner Instead.” But I’m kind of bitchy like that.)
Hell yeah!