Last week, the beauty queens couldn’t figure out cleaning products and got eliminated on the streets of Paris faster than urine behind a gendarme’s cape. Tonite, four teams vie for three artifacts before next week’s live series finale.
Air Force, CIA, and the Southies would make a great, competitive final three. The “Geniuses” have survived this far because of other teams’ mistakes, so I hope they are eliminated tonight.
Something I noticed last week that I’ve been mulling over:
Last episode, the teams had to use water to uncover instructions.
The week before, they had to use fire (candles) to uncover instructions.
The week before that, they had to use air (breath on a mirror) to uncover instructions.
So will they use earth this week? Some kind of end game meta-puzzle? Or is this just a coincidence?
“I never run this fast unless I am running towards sex or food.”
Um, by that, you mean just food, right?
Interesting observation, zut. You should definitely try to land a spot on Team Totyll Strangyrs. I’ll cheer you all on from home, with my snacks and complete privacy to have temper tantrums that are not publicized on national TV.
That is an interesting observation, zut. I hadn’t noticed that.
So as they are taking their turns walking around the outside of the building on the 22nd floor with apparently nothing but a bungee cord, and then kneeling down to read upside down an plaque on the underside of the ledge, all I could think was, I’m not overly afraid of heights, but I would much rather be the ones down on the ground giving “direction”.
Duuuuude … I hate the so-called alleged “home-town” advantage. And I hate it when teams think they’re going to have one. The Geniuses are going to get hosed – well, they’re going to hose themselves, really – just when I thought they were starting to be human. Because I can tell you … there is no Founders’ anything on Girard Ave.
I think there are a few good hoagie shops, though.
::: sigh ::: Obviously the “Geniuses” are too intelligent to wath reality TV, otherwise they never would have violated one of the cardinal rules. Never brag about how familiar you are with a destination city because it is the Kiss Of Death.
Which since I dislike them intensely I’m pretty OK with.
All-righty I will confess to being amused by the Southie Boys nearly starting a fist fight on the steps of the Founder’s Hall for really no reason as near as I could tell. Shame on me.
Nah. That was funny. Stupidity really does make for good TV. (What else can explain the continued popularity of “Big Brother”?) It was also, on some level, kind of hott. Like, “Fight Club” hott. And I think “Fight Club” is extremely creepy. But, you know … hott.
The fight was hot but there should have been ripped shirts and possibly mud.
Two things that really irk me about this show: one, the huge number of times that one team member spots something only to have another team member instantly say with absolutely no justification “that’s not it”; and two, the fact that so many of the clues seem to be solvable by random guessing. The junior birdmen at least saw something called “Liberty” but Southie Boys just started twirling words on the cryptex and happened to hit it. I mean, I’m totally OK with the hot firemen advancing but it’s the principle of the thing.
Not to mention the fact that they were sitting with a laptop right there, going, “Oh my God, how are we ever going to find it?!”
Close finish there.
Okay, were you in my living room tonight? Because that’s the conversation that took place.
Despite his occasional idiocy, I’m really starting to dig on Francis. He cracks me the hell up, especially when he’s wrong.
“Matt, don’t touch that.” Priceless. Bet she feels stupid now.
I wonder how close the CIA boys actually were. I know it was edited to look like mere seconds, but whoever normally does the checking on that, could you let me know? Thanks. 
How are they having a live finale? Did they make these poor bastards wait however many weeks before letting them at the Library of Congress, or what?
Dunno. Are you secretly one of my cats? And if you are, and you’re the bad one who keeps eating my “imported” Screaming Yellow Zonkers, could you please knock it the hell off?
Francis is an awful lot like my husband, except that my husband would have the sense to google “founders hall girard” because while I was blabbing on and on about how I totally know Girard Ave. is the right place to be, I’d see a sign for a cheesesteak shop along the way (Jim’s is my favorite, not that you asked, but that’s on South Street) and lose my train of thought. And then I’d call him a facist for not listening to me, until we win the millions and he bought me something Italian and shiny.
OK, so maybe I’m Francis. But still.
I’m not overly afraid of heights, but that ledge looked awfully small–it would have freaked me out a little to have to walk around on it.
Too bad for the Ex-CIA. I would rather have them around for the finale than either the Southies or the “Geniuses.” Air Force is breezing through this too easily. They need to be a TAR team and really get a challenge.
It’s good to know that I’ve got company in my guilty pleasure. I’ll confess too that I have a whole new, ahem, appreciation for the Southie Boys.
On the hometown “Kiss of Death”, yeah it does make you wonder if any of these people have ever watched shows like Amazing Race. All the way back to season 1 finale in New York, I don’t recall it ever paying off. Kinda like the “never run back and forth and say that the clue is **impossible ** to find” rule. It is always followed by the camera zooming directly on the clue that you’re running back and forth in front of.
Does anyone know what the actual prize is? They keep saying “millons”. And I wonder about the logistics of a live finale. What if they have trouble clue solving and don’t make it within the broadcast time? It’s one thing to award the prize live, a la Survivor, but another to hope that they cross the finish line at the right time.
A rule of thumb for watching this show - If a team is within inches of winning while the competition is right behind them, and they decide to, umm, [get a hamburger, get in a fight, go shopping for postcards] you can count on that team not being eliminated.
Lets see - Air Force will be in the Library of Congress with their hand on the book that holds the clue to the treasure, and they decide to walk down the street to check out the Air and Space Museum.
The Geniuses will make a side trip to Charlottesville to check out Thomas Jefferson’s place.
Southies will decide to enter an ultimate fighting event when they see a flier on the mall.
I must be getting cynical in my old age, but I find it hard to believe that it was as close as it appeared in the editing. I think the Geniusseses opened their round-lettery-thingy and the producers let Team Spook keep going so they’d have footage to splice together to make it look like a nail-biter. For one thing, how did The Powers That Be know exactly when each team got their’s open? Must have been observers (maybe the camera crew) who alerted HQ who then sent the Mumbojumbo-message[sup]TM[/sup], but how is that accurate enough for the near photo-finish we saw?
One of the hunters said their Thingy[sup]TM[/sup] started to open a little when he had six of the letters right. Makes me wonder if I could have cracked it. I know how lock picking is supposed to work; if that Thing wasn’t made very precisely it may have been possible to put pressure on it and turn the wheels until you felt a little give.
I also loved the “peacemaker’s” solution (paraphrased) “Let’s get this done and then we’ll beat each other up once we’re through.”
I was also hoping for a freak summer rain - some mud … are they all firefighters? or just the two giving direction on the ground?
They’d never get cast on TAR. They’re too functional and boring. And which two would you cast, anyway? The husband and wife? The husband and best friend? The wife and best friend? In any of those configurations, I see them as one of those teams that nobody remembers (Air Who?), because they’re neither particularly funny/annoying/loud nor constantly in the middle of a spectacular nuclear meltdown.
I think it might have paid off some, here, but only as an afterthought: after spending so much time on Girard Avenue looking for whateverthehell, at least the Geniuses were able to get to Girard College without too much trouble. They could have been stuck in the endless loop of one-way streets and game-day traffic that so many tourists often get stuck in.
Judging from the little bit of the Finale we saw in previews, it looks like it’s going to be a mishmosh of pre-recorded footage and a live reveal/check presentation. Maybe instead of filmed interviews, we’ll get live reaction/explanation shots from the Teams as they’re behaving badly.
I think Air Force is going to win, which … good for them, I guess. They bore the snot out of me, but they’ve hunted well, so it’s not like I can say they don’t deserve it. I just hope they cast more colorfully competent teams next time. Like, the Browns, but in shape. Or the Wyld Hanllyns, but not so Hanllynesque. (Team “Total Strangers” should clean up, casting-wise, plus we’ll have matching T-shirts.)
I couldn’t even watch that part. I just listened and shuddered uncontrollably. Which is the main reason I know not to try out for reality tv. 
Anybody notice that there was no footage of the Southies passing Yankee Stadium? Probably too much bleeping needed, so it got left out.