Aw, I’m sad. I was kind of rooting for Kentucky. Those daggum country boys had heart. Sucks that whiny-ass Rachel is still there and they’re not.
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Misa & Maiya and Dave & Cherie and Elliot & Andrew and Kerri & Stacy and Joey & Danny and Nary & Jamie - Already eliminated.
Mark & Bopper (down from “Flat Tire”) - I kind of figured Mark & Bopper were toast, but then they got an incredible piece of luck dropped on them in the form of an unused Fast Forward. And yet, they still wound up checking in behind Art & J.J. and got eliminated anyway. Now, I don’t think the dancing task from the last episode was unfair at all, and it was actually a pretty fun task, but it seems like the huge discrepancy in the finish times for that task really made these last two legs less exciting than they could have been.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
No one
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Vanessa & Ralph (holding steady) - Vanessa & Ralph have actually only had two legs in the entire race where thay haven’t finished in the bottom half of the competition, and those finishes were 5/11 and 3/8: still not exactly impressive. I still think that, when its down to the wire, they might sneak into the top three ahead of Brendon & Rachel (and, I’ll point out, Vanessa & Ralph were my original #3 team, after Art & J.J. and Dave & Rachel, back at the beginning of the season), but they haven’t exactly been lighting it up with their winning ways.
Brendon & Rachel (up from “Stopping”) - Brendon & Rachel notch another second place-and that’s actually their fourth second-place finish of the race, and I guess it’s time to move them up a notch. I still don’t see them winning the entire Race, but they have been consistently beating Vanessa & Ralph. If they do that one more time, they’re in the final three, and after that, dumb luck can’t be completely counted out. Too, the massive killer fatigue breakdown I expected from Rachel hasn’t yet materialized, so this team still might successfully get over the finish line.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Art & J.J. (down from “Cruisin’”) - Having the luxury of the video preview, I thought the ginger packing task looked way harder than the elephant task. In fact, I’ll posit one more obscure TAR rule: if you have a choice, pick the task that includes poop. So Art & J.J. just violated my new rule, and, had Mark not blown the dancing task last week quite so badly, Art & J.J. would be out. I still think they have a better shot at winning next week than the two teams I’m ranking below them, but it’s telling that, after a pretty good run of first or second place, Art & J.J. have wound up settling for third or fourth in four legs running.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Dave & Rachel (holding steady) - Dave & Rachel win yet again, and this makes five legs in a row that they’ve beaten *every single team *left in the Race. That’s not a guarantee, obviously, but this team is clicking better than most.
Eh. Rachel just decided not to do it. And although Art/J.J was generally right about the strategic decsion to use the Fast Forward, he was overstating the case. Brendon & Rachel obviously didn’t lose too much time, as they were pretty quick at the Roadblock. So the choice here is: do you want to do something that will change your appearance for well after the Race and give you a slightly better chance at maybe winning $500,000, or do you want to waste a few minutes, when you know at least one team is hours behind you, and give yourself a slightly worse chance at winning $500,000?
Me, I’d get my head shaved, but my hair’s like 3/4" long, so it would take two months tops before it’s back to normal. (Although, rereading, maybe that’s not your point. Still, some people, Art/J.J. included, are arguing Rachel’s decision to back out was a huge strategic blunder; I don’t agree.)
That’s about it. They needed an awful lot of luck to make up their three-hour-plus-one-task time deficit, and the chance of some other team providentially screwing up that badly is pretty slim. This is the situation where you pretty much have to gamble, even if the odds are low, because otherwise you’re just ceding the loss.
Yea, I actively tuned that out, because I don’t really care.
Yes! Two-hour, two-leg finale, I assume airing from 8-10 pm.
Do we know that Kentucky were only 3 hours behind? Did they show their start time? I know the first time we saw them was three hours before they started, but could that have been three hours after everybody else started?
My recollection is that their start time was around 10:30, while the rest of the teams started in the 7:00 - 7:30 range.
Considering that we saw Bopper hooked up to an IV, I’d say they needed that extra time.
I wasn’t paying close attention but yeah you’re probably right about the two hours / two legs thing. That makes more sense than a final leg with four teams.
Also, this may have been discussed before but has anyone else wondered how Army wife Rachel can still be so pasty white at this point in the race? She must be lugging a gallon jug of SPF 150 sunblock in that backpack.
Although it didn’t pay off in drama I think we saw an example of Brendon feeding Rachel outbursts in this episode. When they were leaving the FF, instead of pointing out how far behind Kentucky was or how little time they had lost he instead went on about how it was okay if they were eliminated.
On the other hand he rocked the detour. Not as much as Ralph did but he made up a huge amount of time there.
Previews were interesting too, I can’t WAIT to find out which team screwed up the roadblock.
At this point I’m not actively rooting for any team to win, I’m not really fond of any that are left so I can enjoy any bad luck that they encounter. I am actively rooting against Art and JJ however.
It was kind of mean to tease us with the possibility that Art and JJ were going home this week but it’s nice to see that killer fatigue is taking its toll on them. Bad roadblock decision and isolation caused them to turn on each other instead of the other teams.
Well, presuming Sparkle Tits had her watch set to the correct local time, it was 9:00 when she was whining about her hair. She holds her hand up and keeps it up long enough to read her watch. Which means pit stop to fast forward took them two hours. Kentucky officially got started at 10:30 (10:38?). They were four hours behind at the mat, dehydrated and injured, and had to do one of the more complicated speedbumps ever done. It wasn’t their day.
I have given army dude absolution for his attitude. Too many people have told me that is what is like when somebody gets back from deployment. He likely had no chance to readjust and get back to the person he used to be. Blondie has done a fairly decent job of taking his 'tude and throwing it back when it need to be. Maybe not the best relationship ever, but given the circumstances.
Vanessa and the guy she is with, they are ok. At least she popped back up after falling and fairly well scrapping herself.
Border Patrol - They started out decent guys, but I think they are so tired they just can’t put up the facade of dealing with anybody else’s stuff right now.
I want anybody but Sparkle Tits and passive boy to win.
Passive-AGGRESSIVE Boy, please…and I agree.
I honestly don’t get all of the hate for Rachel?
She’s no worse than at least 15% of most femail contestants on this show.
Her and Brandon are running a pretty good race, and really haven’t said anything hateful to any other team.
But they have constantly been ragged on by Art and JJ and Vanessa and what’s-his-name.
MtM
It wasn’t in the aired episode, but last week Bopper & Mark lost even more time due to their auto-rickshaw running out of gas. It seems they never really had a chance.
Almost everyone is unlikable at this point, though Dave & Rachel are the most tolerable.
I expect some of us are carrying our feelings over from seeing her on Big Brother. Although, if you’re paying attention, there’s plenty to dislike about her on the Race.
What other team has had 7 first-place legs?
StG
I don’t really like any of the teams that are left, but I dislike Dave and Rachel less than the others. My preferred order of finish would be:
Dave & Rachel
Ralph & Vanessa
Art & JJ
Brendan & Rachel
I do have some sympathy for Sparkle Rachel because she seems to attact the scorn of the other teams - but then I think I find her annoying myself, and I don’t have nearly as much exposure to her as they do.
Like St.Germain asked, I want to know who holds the record for 1st place finishes. Was it the Colin “my ox is broken” guy and his teammate?
According to this fan wiki, Nick & Starr from Season 13, and Meghan & Cheyne from Season 15 each won 7 legs (and won the Race).
Wow, I’ve seen every season but have absolutely no memory of this “Nick & Starr” of which you speak. I do remember Cheyne, though - I think he had funny hair.
Rachel started crying when they found out what the FF was. That’s pretty bad, IMO. You don’t want to do it, sure, but don’t cry like it’s the end of the world. Her later comments about the other contestant in a previous season doing it “but she’s skinny and pretty and I’m not” just shows her extreme inferiority complex.
And I think, knowing what they knew at the time, it was a bad decision. You don’t know what the future tasks on the leg will be and how long they will take. Maybe they decide to do the crate packing, or wind up with something hard like watermelon stacking and come in last of the four teams and Mark and Bopper pass them with the FF. Sure, it turned out in their favor that Art and JJ were the team in the crosshairs, but Big Brother had no way of knowing that at the time. Rachel was entirely motivated by not wanting to lose her hair.
I thought the interesting thing about The Kerfuffle on the Mat, was the implication that tasks are not closely policed. There’s no TAR producer on site counting wheelbarrows; apparently they rely on the local priest/shipping manager/whatever to keep track.
well, there was no penalty, so mean chick was wrong about team Big Baby. They have camera crews on site with them, so the ptb could always review tape if needed.