Ah, thanks. Hard to tell then how long it might have taken, but given the distance it still could have taken between two and three hours.
No kidding! And I was delighted that the producers highlighted this fact – the detour, the mat greeter, etc.
I had nothin’, but my wife who was barely paying attention quietly looked up and said “newt”.
This is the statue they showed. The statue is in the Jewish Quarter and since we don’t really know where the warehouse with the telephones were (do we?), there is nothing indicating that the racers would’ve seen this statue. I think it was just storytelling by the editors to put the task in cultural perspective. Along those lines, the bureaucrats were terrifically kafkaesque (which I had to explain to my 25 year old college grad daughter – sheesh).
Earlier this season was a task at an amusement park where someone had to go on a ride and spot an arrow on the ground. There was a height limit (6’4", I think), probably because the ride restraints wouldn’t fit anyone taller. Charla might have been too short, too.
Was that an official Roadblock, or just a random interstitial task? That might have contributed to the Globetrotters eventual defeat. If Big Easy had gone on the ride, Flight Time would have been available for the Kafka Roadblock.
During Phil’s description of the hangliding Roadblock, he said something like “The Racer must be able to follow the verbal directions of the hangliding instructor” i.e. “The deaf guy can’t do this task.”
I have a question not related to this episode in particular. In early seasons, there was much made about the money players were given for each leg of the race, and if you ran out of money, you needed to find some other way to get it. This led to scenes of teams begging for money – which always made me uncomfortable.
I know that they still spell out how much money is given for each leg, but in recent seasons we haven’t seen it be an issue for anyone (except that time those frat brothers used it to buy shoes). Have they (the producers) been making sure each team has plenty of cash?
Racers in early seasons rarely needed to beg because they ran out of the cash assigned for the leg, except sometimes at the very end of the race (final leg or two). However, for several seasons, the team that was last to arrive in a non-elimination leg were stripped of all of their possessions, and had to start the next leg with no cash at all. They were forced to beg, which lead to some of the uncomfortable begging scenes. Enough people objected that that policy was changed, and the Speed Bump was instituted for non-eliminated racers. I don’t know if they’ve specifically banned begging; otherwise we might see it in cases where a team badly miscalculated (had to pay a taxi far more than they thought, for example), but the required begging that occurred after non-elimation legs no longer exists.
Wow, I’ve watched every episode of every race since season three and I have absolutely no recollection of that team, let alone that they won. I do remember some of the other teams that season, though. Weird.
Same her, I remember the Muslim who were eliminated early, and the Kentucky couple and the girl with a artificial leg. And the Blondes, and the Lyn and Karlyn. I don’t remember the winners, but I do remember the blondes were close to winning.
:smack: How could I have forgotten the gorgeous taxi driver!
Thanks for the Museum location. It is nowhere near the Kafka statue I posted the link to earlier, so the racers would not have seen it to help them with the unscrambling task.
I do remember the addicts turned models. It’s horribly unfeeling to say, but I wondered if their addiction was exaggerated somehow, like they’re both members of the same nail-biters anonymous group or something. I know, I know, I’m terrible.
Oh, I was going to say, when they introduced that Roadblock the name of it on the TV screen was “Kafka-esque.” I don’t know if the contestant’s clues include the Roadblock name, but if they do that should have been a major clue.