The Amazing Race 11/3: "Get Your Sexy On"

Cafe Society
1

First of all, I’m really disappointed that the Twinnies, at least, did not get some kind of penalty for that. Totally against the spirit of the race, and I find it hard to believe that it’s not against the rules…isn’t there a rule that all laws of the country they’re in have to be obeyed? What…Bangladesh has no laws against theft?

Seriously disappointed.

Second of all, I’m very happy that the Rockers STILL checked in before the Twinnies, despite having their money stolen by them.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Hopefully this is enough space to prevent mouseover spoilers…

Third of all is a spoiler from the previews, so it looks like the Rockers lose everything next week…can’t these guys hang onto ANYTHING?!

2

I tuned in 10 or 15 minutes late (and didn’t watch last week at all) and so I have no idea what you are referring to as far as any theft goes, could you please elaborate?

That said, I don’t know what it is specifically, but the Twins are by far the most loathsome Racers I can EVER remember, and while it might make me a horrible, vile person for saying so, if I heard they were seriously injured during the filming of Amazing Race, I would be positively thrilled. (Seriously)

3

The Rockers’ backpack pocket was unzipped and all their money had fallen out on the floor. The Twins picked it up and kept it. Now, I know if you find $100 in American money on the ground IN THE USA, it’s almost impossible to really tell who it belongs to so a lot of people don’t feel all that bad about keeping found money. But if you’re in Bangladesh, in a travel agency at 5AM, with two other teams of Americans on the Amazing Race, and you find $100 in American money…there’s not a lot of possibilities as to who it might belong to. And the Twins were pretty sure it was the Rockers’ money. They said as much, while they were trying to rationalize the theft and joke it off with Trey & Lexi.

4

Nitpick: It was the middle of day, not 5:30 am. And not a trivial Nitpick.

What I do not understand is why the Rockers were still at the Travel Agency.

They left the pitstop at 8:30 am and the Ryan/Abbie were at least 2 hours behind them and the Twinnies were another hour behind Ryan/Abbie. I don’t know how far Lexi/Trey were behind the Twinnies.

What the heck were the Rockers doing in the travel agency and not going to the airport?

5

Thanks.

I don’t usually take an instant dislike to people, (either in real life or on a television program) but literally from the first time the Twins were shown during the little bio at the start of Episode 1, I have had an intense, almost irrational dislike for them, and it’s gotten stronger each time that they have appeared on screen.

6

I did miss that, I thought they were all there in the morning. It still doesn’t change what they did, though.

7

Twinnie #1: “I have a good conscience. Until it comes to something like this”. (As she steals the Rockers money). Hmmm…I wonder what the punishment in Sri Lanka would be for theft…

StG

8

On Twitter, lots of people have been asking Phil why the twins weren’t penalized for this. He has given no response as of yet. I would expect him to respond with (at the very least) “It’s not against the rules…” or something.

Zev Steinhardt

9

I’ve previously found the twins annoying; I now find them morally reprehensible. They should have been penalized for that.

Glad to see the end of the monster truckers. Could we get rid of the gay couple next, please? They’re almost as annoying. I find their combination of stupidity and incompetence really grating.

Hope the incident in the preview is a red herring – I’m rooting for that team.

10

Anyone think that there was some producer interference that the Rockers found someone that would give them $100? In Bangladesh?

If so I am glad.

11

Sad the two teams did that with the money, but I don’t know what exactly the rules are. Maybe it explicitly says you can keep money you find.

If it had happened to me I’d have been stuck in Bangladesh until Phil picked me up before I begged. (I would have gone to the consulate/embassy if there was one and requested help; had a friend who once lost all his money in Vietnam and the consulate gave him cash to tide him through; but if they weren’t able to help I still wouldn’t have begged.)

12

I’m not sure that I’d call it “theft” but it was definitely morally wrong and I’m completely disgusted by those two teams.

Also, I never want to see Americans with money beg in Bangladesh- there should be something that the show can do in these circumstances. If you lose your money, they should penalize the team (time penalty extra task, something) but not taking money from residents of a devastatingly poor country for a race.

13

I wonder if there is some penalty that happens in the next leg, then. It’s possible that Phil didn’t know about it at the time of check-in.

I was a Twinny fan until this, but I’m sad they did this.

14

I’ll admit it, I still like the twins. Yes, they should have given the money back, but if Phil says its cool, then I can’t entirely fault them.

Twinnies to winnie!

15

A big tip of the hat to the tourist with the pink MSU T-shirt in Istanbul. Go Sparty!

Taxi Assessment:

Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Rob & Sheila and Amy & Daniel and Caitlin & Brittany and Gary & Will - Already eliminated.
Rob & Kelley (down from “Stopping”) - Yeah, this is not surprising. Rob & Kelley weren’t actually bad racers - most of the deadwood has been eliminated by this point in the season, anyway - but they’ve never been all that good, either, with only a single finish in the top half (a fifth place in the first episode). Opting for public transport over a taxi is rarely better in terms of speed, and that happened to be the decision that did Rob & Kelley in. Or rather, the first decision - I think Rob was unwilling to re-evaluate his decision like Jaymes & James did, and the overconfidence cost them.

Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one.

Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Josh & Brent (down from “Rapido!”) - It’s not that Josh & Brent are *substantially *worse than the other teams, it’s just that they’ve kind of been the odd team out for some time. They’ve been consistently finishing about 5th or 6th or 7th place, and they no longer have the luxury of doing so. This episode kind of demonstrated their problems: they screwed up their Speed Bump task, then wasted a lot of time looking for addresses on the Detour. Yes, it’s hard to find places in an unfamiliar city, but a) that type of task has been part of the Race about forever, and being able to interact with locals and do it seperates winners from losers, and b) this was a Detour, and knowingly choosing they type of task you have problems with (cf last week’s taxi stand search) isn’t such a smart move. So boo for poor decision-making skills. On the other hand, yay for being pro-active about directing traffic, though. That might have been the difference between continuing the race and going home.

“Rapido! Por Favor?” - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Jaymes & James (holding steady) - A very astute Ja(y)mes noted that when you’re competing with the Beekman Boys and Monster Truck, you know you’re in trouble. But that’s what Jaymes & James have been doing for the last three weeks running, so the comment, although astute, doesn’t really reflect all that well on this team. This week a poor decision to take the train drops them to the back of the pack, but I do like their re-evaluation of the situation and subsequent decision to bolt for a taxi.
Trey & Lexi (holding steady) - Trey & Lexi are hitting their stride, and I should note that Lexi completely dominated the selling Roadblock. I’m sure being a cute blonde helps in that situation, but she also had a good sales pitch and was, I think, the only person who didn’t have trouble carrying the urn-and-cups apparatus. Point here is that she’s really holding up well as a Racer, which I (stereotypically) didn’t necessarily expect from someone young, petite, and not well-traveled. If any of the teams ahead of Trey & Lexi falter, I think they’ve got a great chance to make the final three.
James & Abba (down from “Passing”) - I still like this team for the final three, but I think Abba’s (James’s? I could never quite catch who was who) knees might be quite a problem. The Race does require running and carrying, and we’re only half-done with the season. They did pull out quite a respectable third place on this leg, despite clearly losing footraces at times (and losing their money). In addition, this team seems to make their own luck. So overall, I’m still cautiously optimistic about their chances, but I don’t think they’re really ahead of the rest of the teams.

In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Natalie & Nadiya (holding steady) - A decent leg from Natalie & Nadiya, and remember they still have the Express Pass. I think they’re going to go all the way to thie final.

Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Abbie & Ryan (holding steady) - Ryan’s brokerage solution to the selling task was rather brilliant, I think. Abbie & Ryan did finish second to Trey & Lexi, but it was another strong showing by a strong team. Ryan’s snark is getting a little tiresome, and isn’t really winning this team any friends, but I’m not sure they need friends.

16

Yeah; I think it was hugely unsportsmanlike, but shouldn’t be against the rules. This wasn’t theft, it was finding money out in public. It’s up to a team to keep their money safe; if you drop it, anyone at all could pick it up and walk away with it. In that case, woe is you, even if it’s another team that picks it up.

However, the more I thought about this, the more it seems really borderline. For example, what if the Rockers had dropped their passports? Would it be within the rules for the twins to pick them up and keep them? That seems obviously far over the line, but one could use exactly the same rationalization that I used above. Alternatively, what if the Rockers saw the twins pick up the money, asked for it back, and the twins refused? Would that be OK?

On the flip side, what if the twins had found money out on a public street? Should they be obligated to check in with all the other teams? Or should the rule be that you can’t pick up any money at all?

17

I could see it not being against the rules to keep the money but it seems clear to me that they couldn’t USE the money. The start off clues clearly say “You have x amount of money to complete this leg of the race”. So if they went over their $100 budget, penalize them hard.

18

The difference between finding money on the street, and a passport on the street, is that with the passport, you know to whom it belongs, who the rightful owner is. Money on the street, unless you see it fall from a person’s pocket, is largely anonymous.

If I found some money on the street and then whilst standing in line at the ice cream stand overheard a person lament they’d lost their money, I would be moved to pipe up and say “Hey, what a coincidence, I found some money on the street. It must be yours. Here you go, have it back.” This should be considered morally right. You found something that does not belong to you, and then discover the object’s rightful owner; it behooves one to return whatever it is to the rightful owner.

Sure, you can’t expect a person to search high and low and conduct an investigation to track down and determine who lost the thing that was found, but there is a level of reasonable effort that should be exerted in such a case. I believe simply asking the folks in the room “Yo, anybody drop their cash?”, would fall into this area of expected reaction to finding a wad of U.S. currency.

There was no mistaking that the money the Twinnies found was* not anonymous*; it could reasonably be assumed that it belonged to an Amazing Race participant. The only people in the office where the money was found were Amazing Race participants, and I believe there were only 4 teams present at the time of the find. The Twinnies talked to Trey and Lexi about it, so that ruled them out, leaving only two possible rightful owners of the money.

It’s pretty damned ignorant to keep that money. WTF were they going to gain by not giving it back? Nothing. They were simply being malicious by intentionally causing harm to another team’s chances, needlessly so. It’s not like they have been struggling to keep up in this race. That’s extreme poor sportsmanship, and I wouldn’t be too proud of myself winning in such an underhanded fashion.

19

I’m now disappointed that TAR doesn’t have a reunion episode like Survivor. I’d love to see that confrontation.

20

From past experience I doubt TAR producers care much that the twins took the money. Few seasons back there was a racer who was abusive to his wife and Phil never said a word about that. I’m sure its just seen as a tough break that the rockers will just have to get over.