J-Man

Dennis Weaver died in 2006. They make so many stupid little mistakes on this show that it makes me wonder if they're getting the big stuff right. Examples: "She's in County Hospital." Have these people ever BEEN in Washington? What "county" would that be? Also, the pronunciation of both Manama and Bahraini changed within the episode, even from the same character.

I was surprised that they didn't start with the customary "... and that's what you missed" opening. Given that it's been off the air for a while, it might have been useful.

It looked like Amy and Maya were at the finish line for quite a while before Team Dentist showed up. If they hadn't bungled the "change out of your gear" portion of the clue at the stuntman task, they might have even made this a runaway victory.

From the recap here: When Maddie said that she had help from "my Dad," I assumed she meant DEACON, not Teddy. Do we really think Teddy helped her write a song? Glenn wanted to be there, but his wig was at the rug cleaners for a wash and blow-out.

This confused me as well. They kept reinforcing the fact that the teams needed to take the first jeepney to a station, then transfer to a second one to reach their destination. The editing made it look like the wrestlers and the surfers took just one jeepney directly to the final destination, and I was assuming that the other two teams were following the clue directions and getting there correctly (if not by the most direct or fastest route.) So I was hoping the first two teams would be penalized, but I guess I misinterpreted the situation.

It's called Descriptive Video Service, and it's for blind people, not those that are hard of hearing. It's invoked when you press the SAP (second audio program) button on your TV. This brings up a secondary audio track-- either DVS or Spanish, depending on what's been programmed by the originator. That's the only possible explanation for what happened. (Unless there was some malfunction that caused everyone in your market to receive DVS in place of the regular audio channel.) I had something similar happen to me on TCM a while back -- but only on the HD feed. It worked find on the non-HD version, but in HD I could not turn off the Descriptive Video Service track no matter what I did. Eventually the cable company fixed it, but it took a LONG time for it to happen.

They made a huge deal at the beginning about the different flights, but never showed what time they actually landed. A possible advantage of forty minutes is negligible with international flights (especially when connections are involved); how many of them ever arrive exactly at the scheduled time? It was ludicrous for anyone to get upset about missing out on the possibility of such a small advantage. In many cases on TAR, a flight with a later scheduled arrival time has actually arrived earlier than another one.

I'd be interested to know how long the Speed Bump took, and if it would have made any difference in TnT's placement -- i.e., if they didn't have the Speed Bump, would they have beaten the wrestlers?

I wonder how the Beekman Boys would've handled the goat butter task. After all, aren't they goat cheese makers?

I'm not sure anyone would consider "Summer Breeze," originally done by Seals and Crofts, a "soul tune." The entire assassin subplot was very reminiscent of the story in the Sondheim musical "Assassins." It's about actual (Booth, Oswald, etc.) and would-be (Hinckley, Fromme, etc.) presidential assassins. And the premise is that assassins are long remembered, and have the ability to rewrite history.

Did anyone notice how they just slapped a "Wawa" logo on what is clearly a California convenience store? The signage on the store indicated they sell liquor, which in Pennsylvania is only done at state stores.

If I have to choose a flight attendant from among those racing this season, I'll take Tim.

Dear Madam Secretary: Please advise your staff (and yourself) that the "INS" was abolished in 2003. One would expect that after more than a decade, other parts of the Executive Branch would be aware of this fact. Thank you.

I thought it was odd that Jim and Misti (of whom I will not have water-colored memories) proclaimed themselves as undoubtedly in first place after the Detour. How could they have possibly known (at least until they got to the next task and saw how many clues were there) if one or more of the teams that chose the Viking task finished well before they did? Of course, based on what was said upthread, maybe they were aware of the distances involved and that factored into their choise of Detours.

I think it was a mistake to choose the northern California coast as a setting. There really aren't any seasonal beach towns like the one in Broadchurch in the area, and it's not an area known for that kind of tourism. And while I realize the town is fictitious, it's unclear whether it's a very small town, or one large enough for a decent sized police department with its own staff of detectives, as well as a daily newspaper. If they wanted to set it in the US, perhaps somewhere on the central California coast or in New England would've been more appropriate.

I agree about not being able to remember all of the students' names (other than Wes), but I think I will take a cue from Frank and always refer to that one guy as "Douche Face."

It seemed like either Amy and Maya or Tim and Te Jay could've been called #TeamInvisible this week. I know there are still a lot of teams to keep track of but, for example, they didn't show a single one of Tim/Te Jay's rehearsal attempts at the first task (even though they were the second ones to arrive), and I think they were the only team not shown at the train station. Maybe they just don't create enough drama for compelling television, but for me, anyway, they were noticeable by their absence.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but I find it interesting that the female, lab coat-wearing scientist has the same name (Amy) as a female, lab coat-wearing scientist character on one of CBS's biggest shows, The Big Bang Theory.

Do we know when the new teams will be announced?

Using the expression "go down" twice in that sentence gave me nightmarish flashbacks to that scene between her and Ray last season ...

A lot of very valid comments about L'Oreal's horrific 'do, but I must add that Aryen's hair looked really, really nice last night. A big improvement over the top-knot she sported in the competition.

If I were Guy Fieri's agent, I think I'd be a little concerned about what might happen during the next series of contract negotiations. ("Well, you know we have Guy 2.0 under contract now, so ...")

I learned to make bagna cauda with half butter and half olive oil. And although I hate fish, the anchovies really make it work. It's good with vegetables.

I don't have kids, or even nieces and nephews, and I don't ever cook for kids, but even I know that they generally don't like really spicy food (unless they were brought up eating it) so I would know to either not include sriracha it in the dish at all or to make a separate, less spicy version for the younger eaters.

I agree about the ambrosia -- and even a 10-year old could have made that (although probably not with burnt marshmallows.) It was strange that both desserts involved marshmallow. Was there a promotional consideration fee paid by the National Marshmallow Council this week?