Wow, the stadium task is one of the most evil ever.
The fashion challenge was pretty devious too. I like how all the non-Dan/Jordan teams had the same reaction: “Jordan will love this!”
I do like the tasks that have a strong mental component, like both of these.
Annnnnd Cord wins by breaking out the folding chairs.
Weird to see He Pingping (world’s shortest person) since he just died last month. Smoking kills I guess.
Heard it’ll stunt your growth too.
Anyone else notice Brent’s facial expression/body language when Catie was patting herself on the back to the camera for being the last female Racer??? 
And after seeing the wind blow away his nearly completed puzzle, I almost actually felt sorry for that douchebag Brent…
He never lit it. When the last team left it was still unlit. It may have been a prop.
A regular cigarette next to him looked like a Churchill cigar.
I loved the fact that Jet got the noodle-making down so quickly. His looked perfect, too. With each leg, I get more and more fond of my cowboys.
StG
The Cowboys are the team to beat, and they’re nice guys too. I’ve never heard them say anything nasty about any of the other teams. I want these guys to win; they deserve to.
I like them and want them to win because they really seem to get into the spirit of EVERYTHING they do during the Race. They’ve made some dumb moves, yes, but most of the time they’re totally into the tasks and the cultures and the sights. If there’s one thing that really makes a team for me it’s the ability to take joy in all of these weird sights, sounds, smells and tastes that are rushing past way too quickly to completely absorb.
Their “downhome” schtick is geting old, though. They seem to me to be the most articulate, educated, and worldly of any of the remaining teams.
Did anyone else LOL when Brent said that the canals of suburban Shanghai reminded him of Sicily? I thought so.
Speaking of Brent and Kaite, I can’t stand that whiny bitch. Kaite, however, is kinda cute.
It’s anonymous!!!
The Cowboys are the only team that I’ll be happy about winning, though I don’t hate any of the other teams. I wonder if Brandy and Carol could stand to watch this episode at home. I picture them gnashing their teeth every time Kaite is on screen.
You thought so? I kick ass at jigsaw puzzles, I’d have had that one done in no time.
I thought this was a poor choice for a non-elimination leg. The teams all arrived on the same flight, there was one task for each team member and one combined, and no needle-in-a-haystack stuff[sup]*[/sup]. There are teams I’d rather see knocked out than the detectives, but if you were in last place at the end of this leg, you deserved to be in last place.
That said, I suspected something was up when they started with the bravely-soldiering-to-the-finish music earlier than usual, and I knew something was up when Phil deviated from his usual script.
Interesting twist with the two Roadblocks. It had to be the Racer who didn’t do the Noodle Roadblock; I wonder what would have happened if that racer had already been at their limit.
- There was taxi luck, but there’s always taxi luck.
I suspected it from the beginning, actually. The antepenultimate episode is almost always a non-elimination. The only thing that made me not sure was that I didn’t know if the finale was next week or the week after, or if it was next week and a double ep (which they’ve done before).
Yeah, that too.
And weren’t Louie & Michael far enough behind that it was dark when they limped in to the Pit Stop? It would have been hard to edit that finish in a way that preserved any suspense.
I’ve been to some good science and technical museums on my travels. The one at the Pit Stop looked pretty cool; I may have to put Shanghai on my list of places to see, someday.
Also, the fact that they didn’t tell the top 3 finishers they were racing for a million dollars was a pretty clue it was non-e.