I thought the Cirie reward challenge thing was pandering as well. Jeff and the producers figured it would make great TV so they played it up. Oh look we all love you! You can do it! That's just making a big spectacle out of it. Cirie's team was os far behind they would have lost even if she aced it.
i laughed at Sarah talking about her attention to detail. Only I would notice an expired registration on a car. That's because you're a police officer and you're trained to look at it. A doctor would notice a cancerous growth on skin and an engineer would notice a failing joint on a bridge too. That's your job.