I’ve gotta say:
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Whatever Travelocity pays TAR, they got their money’s worth tonight
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That was the best job they’ve ever done integrating that gnome into the show.
Agreed. Also, that was a really well done challenge. I was bored when it looked like they just had to zipline. But trying to figure out your way from one rooftop to another by navigating narrow streets was really clever and totally fits in with the Amazing Race (more than pushing a cart of french fries).
Yes, good twist having the gnome ride the zipline and making the racers find him on foot. I was exhausted just watching running up and down the narrow streets and stairs. Now given how tired one partner was after the Roadblock, why would anyone choose another running challenge as their Detour?
I know that no matter how tired I am, I’m going to avoid any task that mentions ‘dancing’ if I can.
I wish they would post the full clues online after each episode, because it definitely seems like some teams thought they actually had to dance.
I agree. That’s the only reason I can think of for why some of the teams chose to drag a bunch of food crates around the city; they assumed that the other task would have actually required them to dance, and be judged on their dancing. Tasks where you have to learn to do something and then get judged on it can eat up a lot of time, especially if it’s something you don’t have a lot of experience with.
Did I hear right that Cedric has had three heart attacks? And he was running around Tangier in the hot sun, going up and down stairs, with a heavy pack on his back? I got tired just watching him, but now that I know about his cardiac history, I’m amazed he didn’t keel over right then and there!
We were expecting the eating team to incur a penalty because the one guy called out the other guy’s name as he was making his way back at the end of the roadblock. They even showed that he was going to walk right past the entrance and turned back after hearing his name.
An excellent episode, more than compensating for the boring French fry race.
I loved that they hid the pay phone coins in the gnome’s pouch. Brilliant.
And I was stunned that 2 racers knew a little Arabic. What are the odds? (Notice that we had racers throwing out Spanish, French and Arabic (in addition to English, of course). A very polyglot city.
And it made me want to visit Tangier.
Tangier is about a 30 minute ferry ride from Tarifa, Spain. We did a day trip there and yes it’s pretty cool. Went through one neighborhood of those crazy twisted streets and thought some little festival was about to happen because of all the coloured streamers hanging. Turns out it was the thread district and it was all thread hanging out to dry after dyeing.
Looks like the head-to-head is back next week with some pétanque. At least the early teams won’t get tired and can improve each game. I think some kind of puzzle game could be fair so the early arrivals have a real advantage.
Also next week is a 2 hour episode.
Went to Tangier after 911. Great place…took the Marachesh Express, during Eide at night…wild
Hour 1: Saint Tropez
Which team was it that didn’t know how to put their car into reverse?
Watching those landlubbers try to sail was painful. Apparently Evan didn’t know the function of a rudder. As one racer put it, it looks like there are no sailing classes in Yale.
I am disliking this implementation of the Head-to-Head. Situated right before the Pit Stop, there’s no way to make up any time. International versions that have put their equivalent task earlier in the leg, so it’s possible for the last team to still catch up.
It’s too bad Team NBA had to go. Now we’ll have to listen to Brittany whine for another leg.
Hour 2: Les Baux
Alex (or was it Conor?) had some trouble putting together the trebuchet. One would think an IndyCar driver would be more mechanically inclined, but maybe they just drive the cars and leave the mechanical stuff to the professionals. After all that, they didn’t even get to fire anything with their catapult.
Attn Brittany: Van Gogh is not super abstract. You can still recognize what his paintings represent, ergo, not abstract. Too bad her misapprehension led to them making the right choice for the Detour. And now they’re in first place and engaged. <Insert barf smiley here>
I think it was the gay guys that couldn’t put their cars in reverse. I do understand the frustration. I drive a stick and have for 25 years. I have been to Europe a number of times and always rent a stick. Once, a few years ago, I rented one and could not for the life of me figure out how to get it into reverse. I had to read through the manual, in Latvian, to figure out I had yo push down to get it in to reverse.
I’ve driven cars where you had to pull on a ring, put it in first then reverse, push a button, but never push the whole gear down. I can see it being a bit hard to figure out something that’s different.
I don’t like the head to head when it leads to elimination. There’s too much luck that goes in to something like that.
I think I would have just gotten out of the boat and swam to the clues.
I liked these episodes a lot. The sailing and trebuchet tasks were both great.
And while the head to head is still annoying, at least this time, you could expect to gain experience and improve the longer you were there, instead of just getting more tired like in the race.
No, it was the twin firemen. Who presumably are able to drive gigantic firetrucks. And had to push the car twice, instead of just figuring out not to park someplace where you have to back out.
Are Alex and Conor both Indy Car drivers? I got the impression early on that only one was a driver (Alex?) and the other one was just a couch-surfing slacker who wouldn’t move out of the house.
I’d be really disappointed if I spent all that time putting together a trebuchet and didn’t get to fire it when I was done.
Their bio says they’re both IndyCar drivers.
And you can find info on both on the (terrible) indycar website.
That was Team Chomp, the competitive eaters.
I want one of those little sailboats. I can’t believe how many people didn’t get the concept of the rudder. I’ve never sailed, but I know what a rudder does. I agree that the head-to-head should be earlier in the race to give the last team some time to recover.
StG
Watching Cedric’s boat repeatedly capsize/sink from the camera mounted in the boat was the high point of the episode. They should get an Emmy for that.
That little CGI flash/explosion they showed over and over for the trebuchets was laughable.