PurpleTentacle

I liked the occasional Fern. I think it became a problem when they started casting more famous people and so it wasn't a skill to convince locals to show you around anymore, but came down to a popularity contest. The teams / their sound guy have to get the waivers themselves. That at least slows them down somewhat and makes it a strategic decision when to ask somebody. And yeah, production likes it when teams interact with the locals. Maybe making it a rule "you may not look at a phone" could be interesting, but also quite awkward, when a local tries to show you something and there is a language barrier. Putting something like that there and making it look like an old bible would have been hilarious. Or maybe make it the next location. You know a little bit more old school tar where not everything is in a black and yellow envelope. They kinda looked like they might have been afixed to the tables. So maybe that was the problem?

The second they said that the planet was covered in diamonds I said out lout "Oh my god it's midnight!" Love these callbacks, especially to such a good episode and such an iconic monster. Very good episode. Russel is always best when he goes small and into a confined space. So Mrs. Flood is also 400.000 years in the future. Either she is a time traveler or something very powerfull. Since we had the later already last season, I would like to see the former. To mix things up.

Also, also I just learned, Nancy was 46 at the time. Melinda is 66. That's a hell of a difference. Sadly you can't do that anymore. One google on a bystander's phone later and the most obscure riddle is solved. I wouldn't call it mugging, but they weren't authentic. I think last episode and even more so this episode they were finally themselves, when they had to work hard to stay in it and even overtake some teams. I used to be a young gay man. I don't think I've ever seen anybody be so over the top, as they were in the first few episodes, and be genuine. It's always a performance. Some young gay guys just internalise that performance, so they themselves don't notice it anymore after a while. The finale is one day after the previous episode? That seems very odd. Are you sure about that one? Also the finale should be a double episode. The timeslot you are giving there is for a single episode... Would make more sense if the finale was a double episode on the 14th.

So what have they done to make you mad? I don't get it. PS: I doubt they play AD&D. AD&D is 2nd edition. Current is 5th edition... well really 5.5, but WOTC call it just 5th edition, even though there were a bunch of new rule books released in 2024, that change the game drastically. Naming nowadays is a mess. Not just with movies anymore, now also with games. /nerd rant I don't think it was much of an advantage. They were shown trying forever to hail a cab and then that also has to make its way through traffic. While other teams just jumped onto the metro that will run like every 7 minutes and got to their destinations without any obstacles. It was a massive error though and I would have loved to see them sit out a penalty. Funny and original boomer humor there...

I mean, it's no secret that they hire actors for (most of) these roles. It shouldn't be a surprise that actors tend to live in big cities. It is a bit of a surprise that they chose to include it. It isn't always like the race to break the 4th wall. Though they have done it more in recent years and this was probably too fun of an interaction to pass up. Alyssa even pointed it out. It says AR37, pretty abstractly, to be fair. But on the other hand, it was in race-colours. Well they didn't know what it was until they got there. So in theory it could have been something hard, worth going for as the second team. But in reality, the race hasn't had a challanging express pass task in like 10 seasons, so it's a pretty safe bet that the first team will take it immediatly, especially if they have such a big lead. It's a general problem with tasks being too easy for quite a while now. Especially the express pass task should be hard. I mean certainly not worth than Jonathan, but also not great, that's for sure.

There were actually enough tasks this episode to justify the runtime. I know! I'm as shocked as anybody! Mark, public transport in a european metropolis isn't going to be like your school bus in nowhere USA. They'll run like every 10 minutes and the metro will run even more frequently. Glad they figured that one out after only running to one task. A lesser team would have stuck with that strategy all the way to elimination. I really liked Carson and Jack this episode. Even though they described themselves as delusional in the beginning for most of the episode they were nose to the grindstone, no nonsense racing and yet still clearly enjoying the race. It felt a lot more authentic compared to how over the top they have been in the past. Sadly there wasn't much suspense after Melinda and Erika took their first taxi and it got less and less with every taxi they took. Had they not come in last anyway, they would have been penalised out the ass for that one. We are talking hours here. I thought there were supposed to be NELs this season? Guess I was misinformed. I don't think they are going to start having them at final 5. Overall a really fun, if predictable episode.

The camera man panned down and pointed the camera directly at it, while the team's backs were turned. Which means he saw it, knew exactly where it was and was just making sure not to alert the team to the location. Edit: Here is the clip: They wouldn't. We've seen positive edits, where teams had basically no arguments ever, in every season and every time that was the case and teams were asked about it they were like "Of course we fought, they just didn't show it." The editors are building a narrative, they aren't trying to show reality, or even just put in as much drama as possible, because that would be exhausting. They want to give us teams to root for and often go overboard with how they show them in a positive light.

I think that's the first time we've seen Mrs. Flood in the past, isn't it? So she is either some very powerfull being or she has some sort of time machine. I maintain that it would be a massive red herring if Pond -> River -> Flood didn't turn out to be a thing. River has also been known to use a vortex manipulator and borrow the Tardis. Maybe her and the doctor's daughter is doing the same...

Europe is not the rural USA. Pretty sure they thought Han and Holden had finished. They did so many trips, it was reasonable to assume that the last trip wasn't a trip but them having finished. Not even necessary, since the camera men had a few shots of the real bracelet on the ground. They could have just pointed it out to Phil.

Nobody's true self is this hyperactive positivity. We saw extremely little of them when they were lost, so I assume the editors are keeping up their image and wouldn't show the not so pretty moments. Which is a shame, since that would have made them more human and likeable to me. She's 66. That would have been a rough 49. For 66 she looks good. Exits can't be 1+ hours apart.

We saw one at the very end. And yeah it was noticably early dusk, but they were also so down, it probably would have been super obvious either way. That's a 6 hour penalty. So no. They would have still been philiminated. They showed both of those things, just really quickly. They are kinda fake in the over the top young Youtuber way. After I heard they were D&D Youtubers in the first episode I thought "oh that's my jam", went to check them out and after 10 seconds went "nope!" and shut that video off. I'll stick to my Acq. Inc, Criticial Role, Worlds Beyond Numbers, Not Another D&D Podcast, Dimension 20, etc... I had hoped they would become a bit more natural as the race went on and they were losing the energy to put up that front, but no such luck, I'm afraid. That's for a roadblock. Detours are 6 hours. I will give them a bit of slack here: If you live in the middle of New York City it must be hard to find the time to drive all the way out of the city and all the surrounding suburbs and cities, to find some actual rural area, to properly practice reading a map. I'm sure they practiced in and around New York a bit, but there you'll have signs every few meters, telling you where you are. It isn't compareable to rural Bulgaria. Detour was 24 hours before TAR 17. Now it's 6. Probably would have been a nightmare for production if ever two teams had taken the 24 hour penalty at the same detour...

Possible, but it could still ruin the plan. So why make up such a bad lie? Also I'm pretty sure the writers didn't know that. ;)

Still love this show. I do have a minor nitpick though: That whole comodo dragon saliva having deadly bacteria in it, has been disproven a while ago. Truns out comodo dragons are just venomous. That's how their prey dies a slow and agonising death, good old necrotising venom.

"Gilead has the best prenatel care in the world." Is Serena reeally this delulu? Was she deliberatly lying, or have the writers just forgotten what they showed us in season 1? Gilead has basically no prenatel care at all. I'm doubious about what the writers do and don't remember anyway. The way the characters are talking it's like there is only one Jezzebelles in the entire country. But we know that's not true and the characters did mention some debaucheries in Washington, so the writers must remember, right? This is such a mess...

That whole part of the lore hasn't made sense since season 2. In season 1 they kept it so vague that it maybe could have made sense, but that went out the window real quick. He was the protege of some very high up guy, if I remember correctly. I think that guy got murdered? It's been a while. So I think Nick was in the mix from beginning, but I don't know if he was instrumental. You remember a lot more about this show than I do. Your speculation makes sense.

There used to be a rule that you can't use the U-Turn more than once. But that's out the window with the U-Turn vote. You can be U-Turned as many times as there are U-Turns in the race.

I'm never thrilled when the race goes to places like Dubai. It's even worse when there are two gay teams in the cast...

How did Moira not see that that wasn't Mark? The lighting wasn't that bad and Nick and Mark look nothing alike. That was bizarre.

How do all these people constantly fall asleep in these stressfull life and death situations? I had some stressfull circumstances recently and I barely slept for a week. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. I guess the answer is: It makes for a nice transition.

I'm annoyed with June helping Serena out time and again. Just let it happen for gods sake. Tell the women to watch out for the baby. They are all moms, they'll be carefull... and then kill Serena. It's still better than she deserves. I mean if she at least showed some remorse, but she's still the same as she has always been.

This was about the worst possible outcome. I was so hoping that burning the express pass so early would break Jonathan's neck, but sadly it was not meant to be. There is of course some blame on Scott and Lori for getting frazzled and not paying enough attention to detail, but still. They probably should have done it before the coconuts. Can't be easy to pay that much attention after doing a hard task in the sun. Your eyes adjusting alone, so you can see the colours correctly in the shade is going to take a few minutes. Hopefully the next returning players season is going to be soon, so Scott and Lori won't be too old to be competative. I'd really like to see them go far next time. I assume it's a given they are going to be invited back.

Agreed. On top of that it doesn't even ring true. Foggy getting murdered, yeah fine I guess, shit happens. But Karen leaving, just because Matt shut down? Yeah no, not ever. She is a bulldog. She would have sunk her teeth in and dragged him out of that hole. I guess this is stuff still left over from before the extensive rewrites and reshoots that they couldn't really change, since it would have meant basically reshooting the entire season. At least according to imdb it seems Afaik they were saying that before it became clear in just how bad of a state Marvel is and they rewrote this in a panic. I don't quite remember it in Daredevil, but Jessica Jones swore like a sailor and she was in the same continuity, so they probably also had some swearing in Daredevil.

Really not sure why Jonathan & Ana burned the express pass. Sure the challange was kinda hard, but everbody had that hard challange and they were in the lead. In fact, a lot of the other teams had a far harder challange than them. Do they really play by the maxim that they have to win every leg? That's going to break their necks sooner or later. We see all these challanges in excruciating detail, because of the way too long runtime for the current state of the race (if they want to make it this long, they need more budget for more intricate legs) but we don't see how Carson & Jack overtook Scott & Lori? What gives? Were their camera teams not following them at that point?

Pretty sure that's slang from her own youth. "rad" wasn't even a thing anymore when I was a kid and I'm 40. Phil overstates how culturally significant something is all the time. If it was really something sacred, they wouldn't make a task out of it.

Weren't they back in S35 (that was filmed after S36)?