The Amazing Race 8/3

Cafe Society
21

I wondered about that, too. They were so far ahead, was it even worth it? Will they get an extra lead-off time when they all leave, or was it just skipping the Roadblock?

I loved when they showed the Twins making that first tug on the blocks and they didn’t even move. They may be fit, but they’re still scrawny!

This is only my second season of AR. How will the Moms get money for taxis and plane tickets? Can they still use their credit card for air travel, but maybe have to beg for taxi rides, or just have to walk? I was glad when they caught up to everyone else in the airport.

22

I’m a newbie to this show, so I might be missing something obvious. But why shouldn’t they use it unless they know for sure that they will be in first place some time in the future? “Get it while you can.” — Janis Joplin

23

Thoughts on this week’s episode:

Sour Grapes: Lance’s “sneaky cousins” remark. While Charla and Mirna’s sneaking off in the middle of the night made for entertaining TV, why did none of the other teams overnighting in Frankfurt even think of trying to connect with an earlier flight? Given that the 50 minutes extra gave C&M just enough time to do the camel & horse detour – if they had to do the rocks, they may well have finished last – it clearly was a really smart move on their part.

Dumbass of the Week: tie between Colin & Christie (“Jesus was the prodigal son”) and Kammi & Karli (“Wonder what’s in the satchel? Can’t be anything
important.”) :smack:

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Fast Forward musings: Previously, Lib, there was a Fast Forward available on every leg of the race (this season, there’s only two legs with a FF). And you can only use the FF once during the entire race. So, previously again, it made most sense to use it to ensure you wouldn’t be eliminated; i.e., when you were at the back of the pack, or a team member had some injury (a la Marshall) that needs recuperation time.

Now, though, with only two FFs, that seems to change the strategy. Might as well grab it when you’re the first one by, both because you can, and to prevent another team from catching up with you (altough it looked like Colin and Christie didn’t save that much time). One thing I wonder though: Previously, only one team could take any given FF, but later teams wouldn’t know it was taken until they actually got to the FF site. That makes taking a FF chancy: you could actually lose time if you traveled to the FF site only to find it taken. However, I didn’t see any of the trailing teams even considering the FF. I wonder if the FF option is simply taken off the table once another team opts for it?

All in all? The FF is way less suspenseful when there’s only two total. Ought to have gotten rid of it entirely.

I’ll bet the producers considered this in designing tasks for the next leg. My guess is that the first task on the next leg is something like visiting a nearby museum with 9-5 hours of operation. Walkable distance, so no cab fare. Everyone has to wait outside, so the trailing Moms don’t lose time in compparison. And… they’ve got plenty of stuff in their packs to sell, right? Bet ya some pair of Egyptian women are walking around in BOWLING MOMS T-shirts right now.

Also losing money changes strategy for other teams. With a couple more non-elimination legs, probably bunched at the end, there’s a decent chance that any given team in the final leg will have undergone a cash-ectomy at some point. For the team(s) that haven’t, their opponents have. That means building up cash reserves is less important, because a) you might lose it all, or b) your opponents will lose it all, giving you an advantage anyway. Thus, more incentive to spend now.

Oh, this ep: Good work Colin; smart, smart, smart. Neither Mirna/Charla nor the Pizza Bros. were particularly annoying. Twinkies ought to fall on their knees and worship Chip, 'cause they deserved to be wandering out in the desert. And the Moms stay around. Yay!

25

I wondered about that, too, but I did see several teams with the green FF envelope when they were at the top of the tower. I was surprised that no one else even considered using it, since some of them knew they were behind.

There was a time last season when one team used it (they got strapped to windmill blades and went round and round), and then someone else tried to use it, couldn’t, and lost a lot of time backtracking to do the Roadblock.

26

The airfare is taken care of - that’s the one thing they don’t have to pay for themselves. It’s cab fare, bus fare, ferry fare, etc. that’s a problem. And I can imagine it’s going to be a big problem, since cabs are de rigeur and on every leg they have had to take a bus, ferry, or train of some kind.

Question: Does it look to anyone else like the clock is reset at this leg or something? I can’t imagine any other possible reason why Colin & Christie could be as P.O.'ed as the look in the teaser that Mirna & Charla were squatting their cab (dislike for the other players notwithstanding). I don’t like C&C (well, I don’t like him) but I’m hard pressed to figure out how they could blow a 7-hour lead.

I have another question, too: I thought that once the teams had tickets for a flight, they couldn’t change them. Did that apply for the first leg only? Because there is obviously a lot of ticket swapping going on.

Also, on preview - zut and BiblioCat, from the official website:

Emphasis mine. My take on C&C using it this time is, they knew they were already ahead, and they wasted it on this leg. It was obvious that there was nobody close. Although you can never be sure that you’d have a chance to get it again, it seems to me that using it this time is going to bite them in the ass later, because now eveybody knows that C&C’s FF has already been used - they can’t use it again. At least, I hope so.

27

I thought using the FF was kind of a no-brainer. A take-it-while-you-can situation this season - wouldn’t you feel stupid if you didn’t use it and someone else did? Only to find that the next one comes around and the team ahead of you used it before you got there? You had your one opportunity and you blew it.

I say, if you have the chance, take it. There are only two this time, so the likelihood that you’ll be the first to try and use the next one is iffy.

28

I was really impressed with Colin and Christie this time around … I don’t know if I would have taken the fast forward, but damn, they had a nice lead. It does look like it gets somehow blown next week, but Colin appears to lose his temper with Mirna … and I can’t dislike him for that. :slight_smile:

Chip may be the nicest man on the face of the earth. I hope it doesn’t bite him in the ass.

I’m glad to see the Moms are still in it, injuries, destitution and all. They’re tough ladies, they might just make it through.

Last night, I became convinced that Charla is a victim of editing. All the “I can do anything they can do” stuff drives me nuts, but I doubt she’s as adamant about it as the show makes it appear. I also decided that I can handle Charla–it’s Mirna I hate with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. sigh Does she think speaking broken English with a pseudo-Russian accent is actually going to help? I should say, though, that sneaking off in the middle of the night after waiting for everyone to go to sleep was fabulous.

And how many teams used the universal “choo-choo” translation system in order to get to the train station? :slight_smile:

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I think the changes to the Fast Forward this season (only two of them) have made this option irrelevant to the strategy of the game and is detrimental to the tension of the show.

As others have pointed out, in previous years it would’ve been stupid for C&C to take the Fast Forward when they were in the lead. You wouldn’t have wanted to waste your chance to use it on a later leg when you might actually need it to avoid elimination. For after all, the goal in these legs is not necessarily to finish first, but to avoid finishing last.

Now however, the strategy is simply if you find it, use it. Because it’s unlikely you’ll ever get another opportunity to do so.

The problem is that it doesn’t really help anyone. If the implied strategy is “use it if you find it”, then the team in the lead will use it. But with all the bunching that inevitably occurs, whatever time the user of the Fast Forward gains by using it is lost at the next airport (or whatever). The Fast Forward would only benefit a team that believed it would save them from being eliminated.

rockle’s cite clearly says that all the teams see the Fast Forward, but it doesn’t seem to make sense to me that no one other than C&C considered trying it. After all, it would’ve made great television to see the teams agonize over whether or not to attempt the Fast Forward, not knowing if a team ahead of them already took it.

I wonder if the teams have all talked about the implied strategy of using it if you’re first. That would explain why none of the other teams even considered it.

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I find it interesting that while heavily advertised at the beginning, no one has found a Yield. Do you think they’ll start placing them in more obvious places?

Yeah, Chip & Kim! I do like them. I like the comment Chip tossed off at one of the twins- “We’re even now, right? I love ya!” His helping them wasn’t done completely out of the goodness of his heart.

Regarding the injured players (of which there seems many this season): I understand the 12 hour R&R allows them medical aid, but what if they’re still in pain? Too bad, so sad, move your arse?

31

I don’t think the clock is ever re-set. Like someone said earlier in the thread, a seven hour lead could easily be blown by scanty flights out or 9-5 attraction hours. It’s happened before.

Not sure about your second question. I thought the same thing.

32

Yeah, I thought it was a no-brainer, too. Consider: there’s only two FFs. Therefore, whenever the next FF shows up, the team in the lead will take it. Why wouldn’t they? There’s no downside. Knowing that, the teams behind won’t take it. So the only way Colin and Christie would benefit by not taking it now would be if they were in the lead during the next FF – a chancy gamble. And, even were that the case, who’s to say that skipping tasks later is more beneficial than skipping tasks now, anyway? At minimum they’re more rested now.

I think the proscription on not swapping tickets applied for the first leg only, because on that leg the tickets were pre-booked (and with the last-departing, first-arriving twist, they wanted teams to suffer for hasty decisions). For later legs, teams had to arrange their own transportation, and so were free to switch.

33

I totally agree. They could have flown through the tasks. And good little racers know that there is a bunching point that wipes out any time advantage. That’s what airports and hours of operation are for. And they didn’t even get a nice bonus prize for appearing so early. I wonder where they stayed, though. I can’t imagine that the Sphinx has nice suites with jacuzzis. They must be taken to a hotel or spa somewhere. That will probably help the Bowling Moms who would not do well walking out of the desert to hitch a ride.

I thought this was a beautiful episode. The scenes of the Catherine Palace, the Hermitage and the Pyramids at night were breathtaking. These racers are lucky to be experiencing these wonders.

I really don’t like non-elimination rounds. I’m glad that they stretch the season out a bit, but they are just so anti-climactic. Looks like the Bowling Moms have to beg to get some cash in next week’s episode.

Charla and Mirna were almost tolerable this week. And while my team, Chip and Kim, gets props for kindly assisting other racers, I hope they remember that Nice Guys Do Not Finish First! Enough with the helping hands already!

34

If you looked closely, you could see that every team had a green fast-forward envelope when they reached the Tower of Cairo, and since everyone was running neck and neck, it would have been good for at least one team to use the fast forward-- but I think they knew that a) C&C had probably already finished this leg of the race, or at least had a healthy lead, and b) it makes sense to hold onto the FF until later in the race, when you really need it.

I still think that you only need the FF in the last third of the Race, and you should only use it if you suspect you’re on the verge of elimination-- because if you go and it turns out it’s already been done (as Chip and Reichen found last year), well, you were already in a pretty rotten place.

I have a feeling that all the FF means for C&C is that they will spend another night sleeping outside, while everyone else has a 6 am wake-up call.

35

Dumb as that was, I appreciated the effort to look at the subject of the paintings more than I appreciated Marshall’s & Lance’s approach – pointing at every single picture without looking at it and asking the curator “Is this it?” “Is this it?” They made it so clear they didn’t give a SHIT about the beautiful artworks, thought this was the stupidest challenge ever, etc. Even when they found the correct painting the one who spotted it didn’t even bother to glance at it for a millisecond; their contempt for Rembrandt and all artists was transparent. They are crude philistine assholes, 100% – could not be Uglier Americans if that were the whole purpose of the contest.

And then there’s Mirna. Why hasn’t Charla killed her yet? There have been a lot of Mirna moments where Charla ought to have cracked and told her off, but the capper for me was the horses. Charla got all mounted up on her horse, and Mirna says "You look exactly like a perfect … " – and I thought she was going to say “horsewoman” – “… jockey.”

:eek:

She called Charla a jockey? Make short jokes much, O Sensitive One? She is dead to me now.

36

Great episode. Some airport intrigue that was actuallt interesting. I too hate Mirna with a white hot intensity ect. ect. But they at least were still playing the game while most of the others were taking a break.

That retrieve-the-satchel, build-the-puzzle, find-the-clue bit was the best series of tasks I’ve seen. They need more well thought out stunts like this.

Choo-choo.

37

I am totally going to hell. Charla running around saying “choo choo” to all the Russian citizens made me giggle.

Also, loved the Mirna and Charla of Arabia comment. I didn’t hate them this week. Came close to respect. Not for Mirna, though. What a tool.

38

God, Marshall and Lance SUCK. I want them gone. Much of Mirna’s blathering was drowned out by periodic severe thunderstorm warnings, which definitely made for better viewing. Lucky them, though, with getting to ride the horses through the desert, and having a chance to look around and enjoy their surroundings a little bit. I also hope Chip’s generosity won’t bite him in the ass, but I think Kim might be the one who keeps him focused on the tasks at hand. They’re still my favorite to win.

I can’t remember exactly what team it preceeded, but the quick shot of Phil and the greeter looking at each other cracked me up. I think it might have been before the twins hit the mat.

39

OK … I really like Charla, and I find Mirna hysterical. I seriously think she is annoying on purpose. She’s one smart cookie, and I think she has figured out that when she says something stupid or throws a tantrum, she’s virtually guaranteed to get loads of airtime. Don’t get me wrong: she is a complete bitchbag. But it’s deliberate, so I’m OK with it.

40

Christie’s comment was inane, but you are right, Marshall and Lance are philistines. However, given their boorishness, running around and pointing reflexively was probably not a dumb strategy. Mirna may be obnoxious – she’s certainly rubbed every other team the wrong way – but she and Charla at least seem to be enjoying themselves. Now, if Brandon had said Christie’s comment, I would have been happy beyond all measure. :smiley:

Being a film buff, the Hermitage task made me think of Band of Outsiders and Russian Ark. Did anyone else get movie-related flashbacks during the episode?