Intra-team dynamics is one thing; doing something that could prevent another team from completing a leg is something completely different.
I kinda liked the twinnies until last night, but now they are dead to me. James and Abba are my favorites (probably because they’re my age) but James and Jaymes are growing on me. The goat farmers seem like nice guys but not terrific racers and will probably be gone soon.
As far as begging for money, and least the rockers had the self-awareness to realize how it would look to be begging for money in the streets of Bangladesh and tried to find a nicer part of the city. The woman who gave them money at least actually looked like she could afford it.
Yeah, she was in a very nice looking car and dressed well. I would also like to know how much producer and camera team involvement there was.
As for the SriLankaTwins, I feel a lot like watching a Norte Dame football game. Want them to lose, look for reasons to hope they lose, but knowing that they are probably within the rules even tho their play is douchey.
They can spend as much money as they have on any leg of the race. They are only just given $100 for that leg. Some teams scrimp and save up their money from leg to leg to make sure they have extra should they need it on future legs.
I used to be a Twinny fan, but taking the money ruined them for me. Like other’s have said, they knew who it must belong to, and kept it anyway. So morally wrong, even if not against the rules. If all the other teams had left the agency, and the money was on the floor, I say keep it.
Everytime I’m willing to write off a country as awful and lame they seemingly totally redeem themselves. The good people of Bangladesh helping out a couple of stranded first world travellers was awesome.
I also can’t defend the Twins, but I do respect them as racers. Their actions fall in the moral grey area represented by the U-Turn which nearly every racer seemingly takes personally. Yeah, it’s not nice to U-Turn a team, but it’s a RACE. Not making an effort to determine the [clear] owners of lost money isn’t nice, but it is a legit strategic move. It’s not like they were taking somebody’s baby food money.
That said, I hope that I would have done the right thing and returned the money. Winning isn’t worth selling your integrity.
Eh, I see a clear difference between using the U-Turn and keeping the money. The U-Turn is part of the race and every team has an equal opportunity to use it. People who take it personally are dumb. It’s like being mad in chess if the other player takes your rook.
Keeping the money, though, is not “part of the race” or in the spirit of the race at all. It’s poor sportsmanship.
I give them a bit of credit for their decision, actually. They knew they were behind the pack already, and instead of taking the ‘time-delay’ task they chose the one that gave them a chance of making up time. Of course, their apparent inability to read directions closely or find their way is what killed them and put them behind in the first place. This was probably one of the easiest Speed Bumps ever — “go outside and eat something that tastes good” — and they still managed to screw that up.
Those ice cream vendors were funny. I’ll bet they’re a whole lot funnier if you’re not falling behind in a race for a million dollars, though. 
I was really impressed at how James and Abba dealt with it, not only going to a nicer part of town to beg for money but I think the line from James was “yeah it sucks but it’s not going to stop sucking until we take care of it so lets do something” Very nice low drama team dynamics.
Also to the preview spoiler - I don’t think a cab driving away with all your stuff counts as losing it. Racers leave their stuff with cabbies all the time, I’m betting its a short lived clip that was included because they lost their money this leg shakes fist Curse you amazing editors!
I was somewhat baffled at the suggestion from The Twinnies that The Rockers are “annoying”, when they detailed not wanting either Abbie and Ryan or The Rockers to finish first that leg.
I have seen very little (ok, how about nothing at all?) aired to support such an opinion of James and Abba. What are the chances they are actually super-flighty jerks who overreact and go wildly overboard with drama toward the other racers in scenes not included in the aired episode?
I think Trey and Lexi should have been punished along with the twins, as they abetted the crime and then shared in the proceeds later.
I was really hoping Phil was going to say “You’re team number ONE! You’ve won a trip to Australia, and the good news is you can go there right now because you’ve been eliminated from the race for stealing.”
I can’t stand thieves, they are lower than whale shit. I want both teams booted.
What if instead of taking it, they just kicked it under a counter or something. Would everyone be as outraged?
Only slightly less so.
Whale poop floats, well for a little while anyway.
I actually believe that the twinnies knew what they were doing in implicating another team in the act. It makes it a lot harder to punish two teams than just one. So any punishment would effectively get halved, while simultaneously making the punishment less likely.
I don’t know. I know my “fairness sensor” is out of calibration compared with most people so I’m not surprised that I’m more outraged than other people in this thread.
My view is that I wouldn’t want to win by intentionally handicapping another team. They knew they were doing the wrong thing by switching languages to discuss it and seeking to “spread the blame”. Any victory obtained under those circumstances is tainted, even if it didn’t end up affecting James and Abba very much.
The one time I would have wanted the twinnies to screech out, “LOOK, SOMEONE DROPPED THEIR MONEY!” they kept their big mouths shut. (Someone did comment on the money on the floor, but it wasn’t clear who.) Since it was technically a found item, it wasn’t technically stealing and so just within the rules, I guess. Still morally reprehensible.
Incidentally, the money given to contestants is not only for transportation (except plane fare), but also for other incidentals like food and water. GO TWINNIES!
Actually I’d be a lot less outraged. That way when J&A noticed the open zipper they could have found it while looking around.
Did anyone else wonder why any team would go for the pretzel task rather than the Turkish Bath task? It seemed like a no-brainer to me. I had originally thought the pretzel task involved stacking, too, but if it did, I didn’t see it.
I am about ready for the goat herders to go home. Props to them for not going around the cart and bopping the second vendor on the head, though. I would have lost my cool about then.
The big error that Monster Truck kept making was thinking it was better to go ‘lone wolf’ than stick with the pack. Two or three times they took routes that were different from the rest of the field. They finally paid for their hubris.
Such tactics are ill-advised unless you are certain you can make up time. As has been noted many times, all you have to do is not finish last until the very last day, when you may have to take risks.
It seemed like the only mistake they made was staying on the train. Otherwise, they were at least competent
I think they did have to stack the simit.
My sister lived in Istanbul for many years. That ep made her want to go back.
StG