And when Brent and Caite were having problems with the speed of their cart, I so wanted one of them to yell “MY OX IS BROKEN!”
I’m pretty sure the lesbians DID look around, but the one they missed was under the cart. I wonder if someone kicked it there. 
This was a pretty good episode, everyone pretty much screwed up. I sure hope the father daughter team are smart enough, and get the time, to go back for their clothes. You would think that even if they have an hour or so they should be able to find it, at least it wouldn’t be that far out of the way unless they are on another island. Maybe the airport and their stuff is on the same island so they can get it.
I was also worried that the cowboys would be going home, that would have sucked. They may have made a lot of mistakes, but they do hustle when they need to.
Wow, that’s some serious revisionist history. Jet & Cord whined like little bitches when they were told they didn’t have all their coconuts, just like Caite.
The fruit merchant should have had any team that bitched and moaned unload the cart and count coconuts. And then when they announced they had ‘X’ number of coconuts, just smile and say “X+1. Go back please”.
Not quite accurate. They did try to argue that they did, indeed, have all of their coconuts, but they never whined about it being “unfair”. Only Caite did that.
And jsc’s original comment was accurate as well- they didn’t whine at the Philmat, they just took off running.
Pedantic nitpickery.
People ragged on Caite for not handling the coconut thing well. Then point to Jet & Cord as shining beacons of positive game-playing because of how they acted at the mat, completely ignoring the fact that they too were negative bitches when told they didn’t have enough coconuts.
We learned during the Jonathon/Victoria leg that the only place that your backpacks are “safe” is certain designated backpack drop-points. I’d assume the boat was one such. If you drop your bag outside of those designated drop-points, you takes your chances and once you hit the mat (since about season 7) you’re not allowed to leave the pit stop (which sucks. There was the one pit-stop in India where a wedding festival went by the pit-stop and a bunch of the teams went outside and danced with them. Stuff like that really added to the race for me)
I’m also worried about the Cowboys–I like 'em a lot, but except for two legs, they’ve been sloppy as hell. They’re good sports as a rule and they’ve got a lot of hustle, but dammit, attention to detail is critical and they just don’t have it.
Agree—I also remember that once they showed several teams having some snacks and beers together with some locals at an outside cafe on a beach somewhere. It looked like something that would be a great memory, and sure as hell better than eating at the airport restaurant as two teams discussed on this week’s episode…
To me, being sequestered at some sterile pit stop away from the very cultures you are trying to learn about (albeit in trivial, superficial ways dressed up as tasks and challanges) would take so much away from the travelling experience.
It was amazing to me that the Cowboys and the Lesbians both specifically talked about making sure they didn’t miss any coconuts, but neither one looked behind their cart to see if any had been missed. Thus they talked about attention to detail but ended up with the same result as the Models, who never consider details until too late.
Though getting the best seats available on the plane was surprisingly clever, coming from them.
So what you’re saying is that the racers are specifically told before leaving an area “It’s OK to leave your backpacks here - you’ll be returning here and they will be watched in the meantime.” ? And in the absence of that instruction, you should always assume you need to bring your backpack with you? Then Steve and Allie screwed up, plain and simple, and deserve to go to Siberia in their bathing suits.
APPROXIMATE TRANSCRIPTS (as best I can transcribe):
Clue-giver Dude: That’s not enough coconuts.
Caite: What are you talking about? We did the whole pile!
Brent: We did the entire pile! That’s crap.
Brent: How is theirs more than ours? [points to another cart]
Caite: It’s the same amount!
[…]
Brent: This has got big holes in it! [points to another cart] Well I quit then.
Caite: It’s the same!
[…]
Brent: I’m not driving this thing back two miles. I don’t care. I quit, but whatever.
[…]
Brent (on cart): Let’s go. Come one, get on. I just want to (something). I guess we’ve got to go for it.
Caite: I really don’t want to play anymore. This is so stupid.
[…]
Caite:This is so unfair.
Clue-giver Dude: You didn’t load all of your coconuts.
Jet: We loaded the whole pile!
Jet: Are you serious?
[…]
Cord: Let’s go back.
[…]
Cord (on cart): That’s BS.
Jet: Oh, my gravy.
Clue-giver Dude: You didn’t load all the coconuts.
Carol: Yes we did.
Clue-giver Dude: Nooooo.
Brandy: Are you kidding me?
Carol: We didn’t load all the coconuts? We loaded the entire pile.
Clue-giver Dude: Nooooo. You didn’t load all the coconuts.
Brandy: Yeah, but all the coconuts that were on the ground.
Carol: We loaded the whole pile.
Clue-giver Dude: Nooooo. You didn’t load all your coconuts.
Brandy: Are you sure about that?
Clue-giver Dude: Yeah, I’m sure of it.
Brandy: Are you kidding me?
Carol: We have to go back.
Brandy: We’re done. We’re done, we’re done.
[…]
Brandy (climbing back on cart): sigh We didn’t drop any.
Carol: Did we miss any on the pile?
Brandy: We’ll have to go back.
Carol:Unbelievable.
I think I take your point, in that there wasn’t a world of difference between Jet & Cord’s reaction and Brent & Caite’s reaction. However, the difference that is there, and, I think, what other people are reacting negatively to, was Brent’s “I quit” and Caite’s “I really don’t want to play anymore.”
I don’t really blame Jet & Cord or Carol & Brandy *or *Brent & Caite for being aggravated. Hell, I’d be pissed too, although primarily at myself. But the threatening to quit thing is a bit unsportsmanlike.
As the poster who started the pedantic nitpickery, let me elucidate: after the cumulative whining & bitching about coconuts (including Jet & Cord’s minor outburst, which frankly I’d forgotten), when Jet & Cord got to the mat I was expecting more of the same. I was pleasantly surprised at their reaction; hence my post.
Much as I love the hell out of the cowboys, they deserve to lose if they keep making dumb ass mistakes like they have been.
My favorite moment of the day was actually Allie praying to God to thank him for the beautiful scenery. It’s a rare thing to have the religious racers pray for anything but their own success. That might be just editing, of course, but it was a nice change.
I actually enjoyed Monique and Shawne, where one was praying with the other to give her strength. Had Canaan done that with Mika, they may have beaten the Globetrotters and not looked like total assholes.
This was driving me insane. Not only did the teams pay only the most casual lip-service to actually checking if they had loaded all the coconuts, but as far as I could tell, only the cops had anyone paying attention during the entire mile and a half trip to whether or not any of their coconuts had fallen out. IIRC, one of the cops sat in the back of the cart and kept an eye out - everyone else had both team members sitting up front blithely assuming that nothing would fall out of their cheaply-made-with-giant-gaps-between-the-slats wooden carts.
And would it have killed any of the 3 teams that screwed up to apologize to the guy they were screaming at who, as it turns out, was absolutely correct to tell them they had blown it? “Yeah, about me screaming at you for being wrong and unfair and all that? Um… my bad.”
I believe you’re right, but all that we know is that certain areas are designated as backpack drop points, where you can drop your backpacks and they’ll be watched if you return and/or they’ll be moved to the pit-stop for you if you don’t. I don’t know if they tell you–they may specify “Leave your backpacks here, they’ll be waiting for you at the pit-stop” or “Leave your backpacks here while you do the roadblock–they’ll be watched but you have to pick them up after the roadblock” OR they could just say “Leave your backpacks here while you do the roadblock–they’ll be watched” and nothing else. Which would be evil.
You can drop your backpack anywhere else (except in an airport–a team in the first season or three probably lost because they tried to get cutsie with their backpack in the airport on the last leg) but if you do and it gets taken, you’re on your own. This was explained by the producers when Jonathon dropped his backpack on a busy sidewalk in Germany–Victoria picked it up and they came in second on a leg where it didn’t matter–so he smacked her around a little for stopping to get his bag. The producers pointed out that his bag had his passport and would certainly have been stolen where he dropped it–so she saved them from being kicked out of the race.
Oh, my gravy is rapidly becoming one of my favorite phrases. But did no one else think that the cowboys looked like they might beat down Phil when he told them they had to go back the first time they arrived at the mat? I saw Angry Cowboy! there, strongly.