Lingo

In the "Bingo" thread, I asked: But I see you've been speculating about it here, and it sounds like we don't know much. I haven't seen every Breaking Bad episode (and the ones I did I don't remember completely); I'd appreciate it if someone could summarize what we found out about his past on that show. I'm with Umbelina in wondering why he didn't convince his son not to become a policeman.

Another great episode. What is it that we love about watching criminals do smart things (or smart people doing criminal things)? Jimmy's solution to his predicament was brilliant. Though Mike probably helped him concoct it. Speaking of which, I was very surprised to see Mike suddenly appear in the middle of this episode, surveilling the Kettlemans. I know he's very good at what he does, and I know he technically owed Jimmy for his legal services (assuming he hadn't just paid him yet). Yet I was surprised that we didn't see Jimmy persuading him to do this job for him. I would have thought it would have taken some serious convincing. Wouldn't Mike have been in more legal trouble if he had been caught in that house? Or does he think the Philly cops might go easier on him if they learn that he helped recover ABQ's stolen money? Another question about Mike I had after last week was, when did he leave the Philly police department? Was it before or after his son died? Do we have any concrete information about that? And how corrupt was he? We know he was taking dirty money, but was he already engaging in the likes of hired killing?

Agree. That sounds like a GOOD thing to me. I heard that and figured she's the smartest one on her tribe. She's the only one we haven't seen get involved in any of the fights. Anyway, how are there 29 posts in a thread about this mostly invisible player? ETA: In the conversation about her name, everyone forgot who I thought was the most memorable Kelly of all: Kelly Goldsmith from S3 Africa.

They're both stressed out and think they're right, and they both have pretty good reasoning for their points of view. In a website bonus clip, they fight over the cab situation and both explain (at length) what they were thinking, reasonably if heatedly. I can't take a side on that fight, but I'm with Jelani on not ditching Matt and Ashley so underhandedly. That will just paint a U-Turn target on their backs.

Well I don't think Steve and Matt look anything alike: Steve is tall and model-like, with curly hair; Matt is relatively short, with short hair and huge arms. I admit that Aly and Ashley's faces look similar at first glance, but look at their chests and you can immediately see the difference. Plus the hairdressers have that adorable accent and scramble around madly, while the Olympians are quietly competent. These two are my favorite team remaining, mostly just because I find Aly so charming. I'm afraid they're going to get u-turned because on paper they look like the perfect team.

Maaaan, all my favorites keep getting eliminated. I guess it's the Olympians next.

I think that for this season, it would be interesting to add one more gimmick: After the 6th leg, the show should offer the remaining Blind Date teams the option of switching partners. In fact, not all 4 racers would need to agree -- if just two of them decide to partner up, then the remaining two would be forced to partner up as well. This twist wouldn't make any sense on a regular season, but on this one, why the hell not? Maybe Blair and Jelani would jump at the chance -- and maybe Hayley and Jenny wouldn't mind either. (I'm not sure how they'd determined the departure times of the new teams -- average their times and start them together? -- but maybe there'd be an immediate bunch that would make it moot.) Some things of note from the website bonus clips: 1) Phil is still asking them incessantly about loooooooove. Almost all of the Mat Chats this week revolved around those questions. Surprisingly, Blair and Hayley were still able to smile and laugh about their fights (though they're swearing off love), and compliment each other, and Hayley still says she has the most attractive partner. Jenny and Jelani are also still very complimentary on the Mat. 2) Meanwhile, Jeff and Jackie have started to have arguments, though we haven't seen it on the show yet. 3) At the temple, teams like Jeff and Jackie and Hayley and Blair thought they had to enter the temple, which didn't open for another hour, so they hunkered down to wait. But Laura and Tyler snuck off and found the cluebox up the stairs, then lied to the other teams about not finding it and snuck away to the river while the others continued to wait. That's how they got such a big lead. 4) Matt and Ashley seemed to say (and Phil seemed to confirm) that it took them 4 hours to get from the roadblock to the pitstop. Or maybe they were talking about the leg as a whole. 5) I'm convinced it was Jonathan and Harley's own mistakes at the Narita airport that cost them. This week they were again discussing those mistakes and how to avoid them in the Thai airport. Too bad it didn't help. I'm going to miss them the most.

Man, Shirin was cracking me up at the top of the episode. Such enthusiasm about monkey sex! I hope she stays. Yeah maybe she should have been No Collar (Yahoo executive or not?!).

These two are so super-sweet. (I had to resist using the word "adorable" again!) I was so happy for the NEL because their my favorites out of the ones left. There's a bonus clip on the CBS website that shows more of their "Date Night" (they joke that it's really a Date Day). The clip has background music, which makes me think that it was cut out of the episode so that they could show god-knows-what. (The editing seems really jumpy this season so far, as if they don't have enough time to show everything they want to.)

Same here. I came in prejudiced, all ready to hate her, but then I got over myself. These two seem to be getting along swimmingly. One out of 5 isn't bad, TAR!

Ha, for a moment I thought you were talking about their diets. I was very confused! That should have been the name of this detour: "Balanced Meal vs. Raw Deal." I miss the rhyming names.

I think this couple is super adorable. (I've been using that word a lot today.) He talks a little cocky, but not nearly as bad as, uuuuuuuuh, last season's male wrestler (forgot his name already!). He clearly overestimated their competence as racers but that doesn't bug me. Like she said, he seems to have a huge heart and he wears it on his sleeve.

Oh I can't believe I forgot the Guidos! If by "can't tell apart" you mean "can't remember their names", or "not sure how to describe them without using their names", then I'm right there with you. I just don't think they look very similar, aside from maybe Jeff and Tyler.

There's something about Aly that is just so magnetic. I totally get Steve's "I won gold" line because I'm jealous. They seem very competent and an obvious threat to win, especially out of the pre-existing couples.

Laura seemed really interested in Tyler at the beginning, but now it seems they've cooled off toward each other. There's a new Bonus Clip on the website of Tyler making fun of Laura's insistence on fast-walking to a closed part of the Narita airport at 4 in the morning. He doesn't seem to respect her very much.

Putting aside the fact that they live on opposite coasts, these two seem very compatible: both lawyers, they seem to think similarly and have very similar senses of humor. It's too bad they seem to have friend-zoned each other. Maybe they just don't find each other physically appealing? I'm holding out hope though.

Oh I was so annoyed when Hayley said something like, "If not for this FATAL mistake, we would have been first!" Hon, it's not a fatal mistake if you come in second, it's only fatal when you're eliminated!

That article is suuuuuper-adorable. ("Adorable" is the first word I always think of with these two.) And...foreshadowing perhaps? We've already seen two dancing tasks....

TVGuide.com put together this brief, but awesome, compilation of some of TAR's most amazing animal moments. It of course includes several clips of Colin's Ox Meltdown as well as Chris's "Dude, white sheep is listening" (from S2), plus several other great ones that I'd forgotten about and some that frankly I don't even remember! http://www.tvguide.com/news/amazing-race-animal-moments-supercut-video/ "Mine keep having sex!" Forgot about that one.

I really wanted to see this team go far, if only because it seems like it's been a long time since they've even had one "token oldster" team on the Race. And they looked a lot fitter than most of the previous token oldsters. Hope this doesn't discourage the Race casters from continuing to cast older teams.

I wonder if you are my twin because you took all the words right out of my mouth (except about Tyler, I can take or leave him, lol). Yes, I was surprised and super-duper happy they were saved, because I think they're my favorite team. I think it's just because they're so obviously in love and affectionate with each other, it's just super-adorable. And I really like the Olympians (well, particularly Aly), and I love the New Yawkers who are also super-cute together, so I was happy with the proposal, and it makes sense to me that he'd want to do it in front of as many people as possible (I wouldn't, but some people are just like that). In fact, as down as I was about the season's theme, so far I'm really enjoying all of the teams so far, except HAYLEY. And yes, Blair, you're not great shakes either. We get that you're not into her at all, but could you at least try to make your time with her enjoyable? You know, like look in her eyes and try to engage in conversation? Maybe smile and laugh? I wonder if you're super-shy or just super-conceited. (And oh, yes, that shot of that runaway todder was sooo cute!) And you guys who say you can't tell the couples apart, I wonder if you're face-blind. I think they're all physically very distinct from one another. Just because they're all couples doesn't make them all identical clones (besides Kurt and Bergen anyway). They put up a Bonus Clip this week of Hayley showing Blair all the essential things she's carrying in her backpack. You know, like her bags of makeup, hair dryer, and her curling iron. But going back to Team NKOTB: I'm not gay so I'm not the best person to evaluate this, but I was just struck by the fact that the show has no problem these days showing them kissing and being affectionate with each other. If nothing else, it reflects how much our society has changed in the last 15 years. I know the show has had gay racers since Season 2, but it was kind of a big deal when Chip and Reichen won S4 and the show edited out their big smooch on the winner's mat -- and I don't remember if they showed any other kissing back then either. It's nice that things have changed. (Despite their insistence on playing up cross-dressing and "ladyboys" for laughs -- and this isn't the first time they've had Thai cross-dressers on the race.) ETA: I don't think the show's to blame for the fact that Jon and Harley had such a hard time getting to Thailand. I was under the impression that flights between Japan and Thailand are pretty routine, so that surprised me, and it seemed to surprise Phil, too, who questioned them about it on the mat. In a bonus clip, they blame themselves: their inexperience with booking foreign flights (Jonathan's flights are always booked by his handlers), plus their lack of sleep and their reluctance to book flights that would only get them partway there. This is pretty common on TAR and I don't think it needed any special handling by the producers, who usually pre-book transportation only in remote areas.

Hey, if you want to watch ALL the seasons -- or the first 22 anyway -- just get yourself a HuluPlus account. I just discovered this fact over the holidays and I've been on a rewatching binge since! Finished S2 tonight. S1 really is a different animal, especially that first episode. Actual stretches of no background music! (LOL) But I still think that jump into Batoka Gorge is the scariest thing they've ever done on the Race. Oh, BTW, does anyone know of any LEGAL way for someone like me in the US to watch any international versions? Rewatching past US seasons is great, but I'm jonesing for some new stuff.

I just watched Season 1 basically for the first time (I know!), and I was really surprised by how much I liked Sue. I had absolutely no problem with anything she said and did, right up until her jury speech (which I feel was needlessly mean to Kelly). Up until that point she was refreshingly honest, shrewd, funny, and competent. I think she doesn't get enough credit for her gameplay (and Rich gets a bit too much). I think Sue came into the game with the same basic alliance strategy that Rich did, although Rich played it better in the end. She made an alliance with Kelly before Rich even came to them with his idea for an alliance (which Rich admits to on-camera). Her big mistake (and it was big) was telling Kelly to her face that she'd try to get Kelly out before the end (and even then, Kelly still voted with her against Rich at F4 the first time). I definitely didn't think she was a blowhard or imbecile in S1. I can't remember how she acted in S8, though.

Yeah, I know, you still have to associate the numbers with the cities in order to insert the other numbers properly. It's a really hard task for sure. I just thought that would make it a little easier. Hell, I'm a scientist too (ex-chemist even) and I have no confidence that I'd be able to keep it all straight. Then again I'm older than Jim and Misti.

Yeah, you know, it's well past the time for evaluating Jim relative to one's pre-Race expectations and prejudices, and instead time to evaluate him on his actual airtime. And after all the discussion, my evaluation is ... he's a little bit of an ass. Not nearly as bad as many, many past racers, but still a little bit of an ass.