I love the remote-control chariot racing!!!
I also had to :dubious: when Jessica said she couldn’t look at John fighting the gladiator. Um…he’s not going to actually slay your man there.
Don’t the Cowboys have to use the Express Pass soon?
StG
Yep, they have to use it on the next leg, or lose it.
Excellent close finish, but the Globe Trotters should’ve gone home. First rule: READ the effing clue!
Speaking of which, I did like the design of the clues tonight: Not just “go here, do this,” but “figure out where to go, do this.” And the charioteer detour was diabolical. It sure sounded like it should have been lots easier than gladiator!
I’d like to sign up to get gladiator lessons from the uomo in the black tunic, please…
That’s about the luckiest leg of the Race I’ve ever seen. Brendon & Rachel caught the first bus away from the plane in Rome,[sup]*[/sup] blocked Dave & Connor from beating them at the chariot race, they caught a cab driver who knew about the Spanish Steps, and found someone who practically did the Roadblock for them. I don’t expect that sort of performance to continue.
The chariot racing was great, but it would have been cool to see the Globetrotters do the other Detour. Here’s Mr. Roman Gladiator trying to look all badass, and up walks 6’9", 250 pounds of Big Easy.
- I thought it was common Race wisdom to get seats as close to the front of the plane as possible, so you can get off ahead of the other teams. Teams didn’t seem to take that approach on the flight to Rome.
250 lbs of Big Easy? :dubious: I don’t think so. 
I was surprised that there is a direct flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Rome.
I too was glad that the clues were not idiot proofed. Make them do some research.
Brendan and Rachel in 1st, the blondes in 2nd. Would not have picked that to happen.
The taxi drivers were pretty bad with that clue. I thought only one or two would make the mistake, but it seemed like almost all of them did. When the choice is presented, always pick the younger cabbie with the smartphone.
Can’t believe how badly Flight Time misread that clue. I can understand glossing over a word or two when you’re in a rush, but he somehow managed to not read half the entire clue. I don’t care too much about John/Jessica (well, Jessica’s cool, John’s a dork though), but they really got shafted by their cabbie.
I’m surprised by how many teams are unfamiliar with roman numerals.
Also, Brendan should not use “math-y” terms because he does not seem to know what they mean.
I got those numbers from harlemglobetrotters.com; take it up with them.
I would have killed on that task.
So essentially, the cowboys are in a footrace to get to the first detour as fast as humanly possible just to immediately use their express pass, zoom straight to the road block to finish it tout de suite before any other team can reach it to U-Turn them.
Will this make them bulletproof, or can you be U-Turned after you start your chosen roadblock forcing you to do both? If so, then they’ll be racing to finish the roadblock before anyone else finishes the detour.
Or, can they skip two roadblocks with the express pass? As in, do the detour normally with the rest of the pack, and let’s say they get to the roadblock second, just behind the afghanimals, who U-Turn them. Can they now use the express pass to skip both the chosen roadblock and the U-Turn roadblock to just move on to the pitstop?
If the latter, then they could remove one of the U-Turns from the board altogether by telling all teams to freely U-Turn them since they can just skip it anyway.
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Natalie & Nadiya and [del]Bopper[/del] Mallory & Mark and Joey & Meghan and Margie & Luke - (already eliminated)
John & Jessica (down from “Rapido!”) - The clue to finding the Spanish Steps was phrased, “make your way to the piazza of John Keats’ unhappy Roman holiday.” Apparently John & Jessica (and, to be fair, nearly all the other teams) parsed this as “make your way to the piazza of John Keats blah blah something irrelevant Rome.” John & Jessica got unlucky by having a cabbie who couldn’t figure out the clue for them, but (a) it looked like they weren’t helping him very much, and (b) cabbies are a nice resource, but ultimately it’s the teams themselves who sould be figuring out the clue. All that being said, they were still in contention at the end, and probably would have pulled ahead of the Globetrotters were it not for Jamal handing out the Spanish steps answer.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Caroline & Jennifer (holding steady) - Astonishingly, Caroline & Jennifer coast into second place at the mat, despite having to do what looked like a fairly time-consuming Speed Bump task. They (apparently) got an above-average cabbie, which vaulted them ahead of at least four other teams, going from second-to-last to second-to-first. To be fair, Caroline & Jennifer didn’t make any mistakes this leg, and certainly deserved a second place, but I still see them as least likely to finish in the top three.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Flight Time & Big Easy (down from “Rapido!”) - The Globetrotters got awesomely lucky at the Roadblock. Flight Time was completely bamboozled by the whole counting thing, enough so that reading the entire clue didn’t seem to cross his mind. He’d still be there if it weren’t for Jamal’s help, and would have almost certainly been passed by John. Looking at the last four legs, Flight Time & Big Easy have come in sixth place on every single one. Every other remaining team (even Caroline & Jennifer) has a better average finish, both over the last four legs, and over all seven. Not a winning strategy.
“Rapido! Por Favor?” - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Brendon & Rachel (up from “Stopping”) - This was just an excellent leg by Brendon & Rachel. They got out in the front of the pack coming off the plane, then arrived first at the Chariot Detour (although the Gladiator option would arguably have been better), then finished there first, got to the Spanish Steps first, and hit the mat first. Now, a lot of other teams made mistakes (piazza-finding, Detour-switching, and possibly plane-seat-choosing), but that’s kind of the point: Brendon & Rachel didn’t.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Leo & Jamal (holding steady) - Although it turned out that the Gladiator Detour option was probably the quickest, I think Leo & Jamal made a mistake in switching tasks. That landed them in last place, and they were lucky that the Spanish Steps clue was so difficult for most other teams.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Dave & Connor (holding steady) - Dave & Connor finish in the top three again this leg; amazingly, they’ve never finished a leg lower than fourth on any leg so far.
Jet & Cord (holding steady) - The cowboys finish fourth; like Dave & Connor, they’ve only finished out of the top three twice. And they still have an Express Pass, which, if memory serves, they must use on the next leg, so expect them to do well again next week.
The Wikipedia article on TAR claims, without citation, that “If a team used the Express Pass to skip a Detour and that team is U-Turned, the U-Turn is void.”
What makes you think this wasn’t the case?
The teams that were first on the previous leg, and got to the travel agencies first, weren’t among the first off the plane. Either the later teams got more forward seats, or some switching took place during the flight (which wouldn’t surprise me).
For that matter, they weren’t using a regular jetway in Rome. The passengers disembarked onto the pavement and then boarded buses. I’ve seen some airports where they’ll bring stairs to the back door, too, in which case all bets are off.
I thought TPTB made them all bunch up at Customs just in case one team is subject to the “Full Monty” at Customs.
I’ve never seen a team complain about getting delayed at Customs. (although it could easily get edited out during production)
I had heard that the producers enforce airport exit times that synch with deplaning times, so that the wait times to get through customs is effectively invisible to the viewer. (Which I think is sensible - acting like you’re in a hurry to get through customs is probably not wise, and might be a logistical mess what with the associated production staff.) Normally there’s only a small time between teams, so either we don’t notice or the producers just call it a tie, but this time the shuttle made a difference.
So a team on a later flight and gets held up in Customs is screwed?
My favorite part was how sure Rachel was that the Eternal City was in Ethiopia because why not? She seemed so positive I almost expected reality to warp around her and make it so.
Considering that the last two teams were within sight distance of the mat when Leo & Jamal hit it, I’d say they came pretty close to shooting themselves in the foot by giving the remaining teams the answer. I guess they thought the blondes were still behind everybody, but still… not a good strategy. I would have loved to see it backfire on them.
I’ll bet John wouldn’t have slagged off on that final sprint to the mat if he had thought the blondes had already finished. Of course I doubt he and Jessica would be able to beat the Globetrotters at a dead sprint; but they all thought they were safe. I loved the faces on all of them when Phil told the Afghanimals that they were team #5. Nobody was cheering!