Zonk

So you hate each and every finale? :D

Since Kim can't find the tiny donkey, guess so. That's one strategy to get through this. Not the best one, but certainly one. In a normal final leg I'd say the girls got this in the bag, but the leg designers seem to have put a bit more effort than usual into this one, so maybe there is still a way to pass?

The teams that made it to Greece are probably there. Other than those, yeah crew.

Kim and Penn would be the oldest 1st place finishers? That's a surprise to me.

okay, second try in this case.

Yes. Also you have to have gotten the clue. You can't just stumble upon a task and do it. But after you have gotten it, you don't have to keep it.

"This could take quite a while". That's TAR code for "He's going to get it first try after the commercial break".

That was never a thing. You just need to have gotten them. You can throw them in the trash right after, if you are so inclined.

But it was in their picture. What difference does it make if it's in the middle. That's super inconsistent.

Arun and Natalia didn't have to paint their knob. Now that seems extra unfair.

I don't think with the other teams there was a knob within the picture, which seems a bit unfair...

uh-oh. leavign the map on a self navigating leg. not good. No. They just need to have gotten it and do the tasks. You don't need to hand them in to finish the leg or something.

It's really not that hard to figure out usually, but I think if you are under preassure, especially in the penultimate leg of the amazing race, you might get frazzled fast.

Kim and penns impression of the finish line clappers: everything I needed today.

I mean sure. But these doctors butt into things that aren't their business all the time. I think we just have to accept that as a conceit of medical dramas. I blame sitcoms, where the big hairy guy and/or old guy always has a smoking hot girlfriend or wife. If it was just one or two it wouldn't be a problem, but it's basically all of them and so a wrong picture of reality gets planted in peoples heads. But yeah, in reality it's really not desirable to date too far out of your league. I for one am a big hairy guy who likes big hairy guys, so I think I'm good. ;D

Yeah that's still the feel good Hollywood answer. Nobody likes to say it, but reality is, if you aren't super rich to compensate, you can't expect to get somebody who is much hotter than you. So when the patient asked if Park meant that he should date in his league, Park should have answered with a simple "yes". Of course there is always the exception that proofs the rule, but that's not likely. The woman even said she loves the guy but didn't want to settle. So it's clearly not about his personality. It is about his looks. That's just reality. Sugar coating it won't help him. Nope. Lim clearly has never seen the wire. Otherwise she would know: "You come at the king, you best not miss." She really should have built a way stronger case before she went to the AG and if she couldn't she should have tried to get some concessions out of Salen by way of blackmail. "Would be a tragedy if the sale of this hospital was delayed or fell through because you can't keep it running smoothly. How about we draw up some corner points about how this place should be run and put that in the sales contract?" Probably wouldn't work in real life, but in the universe of this melodramatic show, I could totally see that working. Or that time she lied to the dead babies mother. Or the time she tried to sweep her fuckup with the pharmacy under the rug, by blackmailing the pharmacist. Don't think she was honest with the AG or the public there...

I don't think we can lay full blame at Salen for her actions here. Afterall, she doesn't have a map and is making this up as she goes: (watched the cam shot by coincidence during the break and noticed it's the same actress, thought I'd share. Better audio version is here.) Lea, as always master of the spin and self pitty. She fucked up royally and somehow she turned it around on Shaun. I assume by the season finale Lim will find a smoking gun that prevents the aquisition at the last second.

You are right. It's not the same. At least with a D100 everbody would have the same chance. With a needle task the chance of winning gets exponentially lower, the more clues other teams find. So if you are not one of the first teams to find one, you are SOL. Every team goes at these tasks methodically. They all have a modicum of intelligence. Attributing success or failure to how methodical a team was, is just just-world fallacy. So in fact, just rolling a dice would be much fairer than having a needle challange. No, we get to be annoyed waiting to see which team has dumb luck. There can't be any skills with 5000 rocks. There is no way you won't overlook some if you aren't allowed to mark them. With hay bales you have no idea where the clue could be, there is no method that could work. It's always just dumb luck.

So next season we should just have a task where the teams throw a D100 and then have to wait out a number of minutes equivalent to the number that comes up? Because that would certainly "totally shake up the placement". I don't think that ever helped. In season 1 it even cost the team, that was from the final city, the win. The New Yorkers were so sure that they knew New York better than the taxi driver, that they fell behind another team so far, that they missed a train and never recovered from that. Their backstreet driving might have even been a good call, if it had been rush hour, but it was like 5 in the morning and so the main streets were way faster.

Yeah no argument there. (although it has been less and less a race around the world in recent years). I don't love it when it comes down to taxi luck, but it's something that can't be helped and if you see it as a race around the world as in "around the world in 80 days", that's just part of it. And like I said, there is even some skill to the "taxi-luck". But throwing in "challanges" that are just luck of the draw, that's where it gets super annoying. I don't want to see racers go out on what is essentially a coin flip. That's not good TV, imo. At that point we can just not do the rest of the leg at all and might as well eliminate one team at the starting line by random number generator. I completely agree that the race should be a ball-buster and has often been too easy in recent years. But just because the racers suffer while looking for the right rock, doesn't make it good TV. I want them to suffer while they are trying to figure something out, or try to find a place in a crowded city (granted that couldn't be a thing this season for obvious reasons), or go to the edge of their physical capabilities. Best case if some of those things are combined. Like when Floyd had to ride that bike for way longer than necessary because it wasn't correct how he loaded it. I don't remember that one. Were they in the back of the pack? "The judges", aka producers behind the camera, usually loosen the requirements for passing when the team is very far behind.

People keep insisting that Midge outed Shy at the Apollo. When in reality all she did was talk about how flamboyant he was and everybody already knew that. It's now been weeks or months since the Apollo, we've not heard about any news articles that speculate about his sexuality or anything like it. Only thing we saw was that he got engaged to his beard and nobody questioned it. Some just can't help but see what Midge said through a modern lense, when back then nobody would have gotten it. Still they act like she said "That Shy, boy he sure likes sucking dick and taking it up the ass!" Same thing, from todays perspective we know that Buzz's roommate is not just his roommate. Not with the special thanks and how those two looked at each other (plus the musical theater). But back then nobody would have gotten it. So yes, I may have gotten a bit sarcastic there... I assume he's going to be a love interest for Midge. The IMDB bio of the twins playing him says they are 8 years old. Of course I can't say for sure when that was written, but that seems about right. 10 year olds would be bigger.

At least bungee jumping or zip lining shows us some nice vistas. And you are right, there is no skill to it, but it also doesn't shuffle the placing, so there is also no luck involved. I don't like when winning or losing the race comes down to pure dumb luck. In some situations it can't be helped, like with taxis, and you could even argue that picking a good driver and knowing when to bail, is actually a skill. But building it into the race on purpose is just a horrible idea either way. Dancing and eating challanges require skill and fortitude. Those were a really bad example. Yes you could, but not to that extend. Dusty is always all over the place. If it was just from time to time they wouldn't have enough footage to edit it that way.

How fun. Why don't we let them flip a coin at the starting line and the losing team goes home? That's certainly unpredictable and would shake things up. Also it's not like teams didn't try to be methodical. But when you have to put the stones back exactly as you found them, you are bound to miss some. There were only 4 changes out of 5000 and at the end for Dusty it was only 1 in 4997. Just fyi, since it has been spoken about like a uniquely greek tradition before in this thread. Breaking plates before a wedding for good luck is also a german tradition. It's called Polterabend here.

Uh oh, I'm afraid Buzz just outed himself. Because we know what "dramaturg and roommate" means, it also means that everybody knew in the time this show was set. Guess his career is ruined and he'll be an outcast from society. If only he hadn't outed himself so clearly and unmistakeably!

You can't edit something that isn't there.