Bryce Lynch

In all the supermarkets I shop in the eggs are refrigerated and I keep them in the refrigerator at home.

Watching it again on DVR, it did seem like Whitney wasn't there when Shelley and Nici arrived. Still, she shouldn't have pushed him. The whole dispute was ridiculous, as whichever team was behind was going to get the clue about 2 seconds later. The argument probably delayed both teams by 5 to 10 seconds, plus it might have gotten them a bit distracted as they read the clue and moved on to the next task. Stupidity on both sides, IMHO. Maya might be my favorite racer this season, but I didn't have a problem with Jim mocking her sort of Polyanna like comment about the smell, in the talking head. They were both right. It was part of their culture, but "culture" sometimes smells like s**t. :)

All the racers (except Maya) seemed to think the place smelled like "poop". It was a tannery not a restaurant or a religious shrine. There are stinky, smelly places in every nation, including in America. Jim was no way insulting Morocco by saying the place smelled bad. If a Moroccan came to an American hog farm and said it smelled like crap, would he be an "ugly Moroccan" or just being honest?

Me too. I really don't like Missy. Every time they talk about her 3 divorces and say, "She's made some mistakes.", I think, no, 3 men made mistakes.

Eating too many squirrels can lead to "rabbit starvation" from a lack of fat. Humans provide a better balanced diet. :)

Looks like Bob's final and greatest victory in the "Good outta bad" game might be, "Roasted and eaten alive by psycho, Termite cannibals - I was bitten in the food bank so those bastards are gonna turn!"

Jim seemed to be seething underneath, but was outwardly very supportive of Misti. I'm not sure if what one feels or what one expresses is more important. Misti's idea of making the sandwich recipes into a jingle was brilliant. 39 years later I still know that a Big Mac is made up of "Two all beef (allegedly) patties, special sauce, lettuce cheese, pickles onions on a sesame bun." Too bad she forgot to include the numbers. I was a rabid anti-dentite earlier, but I don't really mind them much anymore. I like Jim's confidence, but dislike when it becomes arrogance. That said, his arrogance is 100%, "We're awesome and dominant!", not "Our opponents suck and are idiots!", which would be 100 times worse. They have also been complimentary of and helpful to other teams on more than one occasion. They do have great teeth. I think Dawn from Survivor should make an appointment. :) I don't like Kim and Alli much. Dodging all the reckless, rude, selfish cyclists in Manhattan has made me an "anti cylcite". I also didn't like their "We are the fun team, the rest are a all a bunch of sticks in the mud," attitude. However, they are very competent. The idea of bringing extra icing was very smart. I like the food scientists a lot, but in this episode I thought Maya was a bit over the top with her celebratory mugging. I thought the wrestlers were funny with their joking about all the head injuries they have had damaging their memory, but Robbie did quite well in the sandwich task. The cake delivery task seemed like the first one where Bethany's missing arm really hurt. They recovered nicely on the other road block task though. Shelley can get off my TV screen anytime now. She is probably the type of flight attendant who demands they make an emergency landing and call the air marshals if a passenger is a little rude to her.

Personally, I see being loud, obnoxious and unnecessarily contentious as a sign of weakness, rather than strength in both males and females. YMMV. Both of the "Twinnies" strike me as the sort of people who claim to be and pretend to be a lot stronger than they are. A true "bad ass" doesn't go around saying she /he is a "bad ass". Other people say it about him/her. I firmly believe that a man should NEVER strike a woman, and Rocker's comment that "if you were a man" expressed the same idea. But on the other hand, when women abuse that respect for their gender, buy using it to verbally (and in many cases physically) abuse men, in a way that a man would never do, unless he was prepared for a fist fight, it offends me. As a Mets fan, I always hated John Rocker...almost as much as I hated "Larry" Jones. :) At the same time, I think his infamous comments were probably about 60% him trying to be the "pro-wrestling heel" of baseball, 20% what many or most New Yorkers. of all races and backgrounds might think when they are on the subway, but would never say it, and about 20% him just being a jerk. Also, Nadiya and Natalie frequently referred to the Beekman Boys who won their first season on TAR as "the evil gays". Now, I don't think that had real hatred, but they both have sort of Michael Scott like politically incorrect sense of "humor" that they think is funny, but nobody else really gets. If they are going to call others out on their politically incorrect comments, from 15 years ago, maybe they should check their own, much more recent comments.

I agree that Natalie was way out of line. While it sounded bad, I actually liked when Rocker said, something like "If you were a man, I'd hit you.". I hated seeing Natalie claim to be a "bad ass" and insult, taunt and challenge a man, only because she knows he won't and can't do anything about it because she is a woman. It would have been much more "bad ass" for her to challenge a physically powerful woman in that way, as the woman might actually do something about it. I didn't like Rocker much, and didn't think he played all that well, but I was impressed with how he took the blindside both at TC (I think he said, "Well played") and in his exit interview.

While TPTB know who won now, they did not know who won while the race was being run. That is where they could be tempted to try to help a team that they like, or that the believe will attract more viewers. That said, from what we've seen so far, I see no efforts to make things easy for Bethany. I am very impressed by her. I think she can probably more than hold her own in any task that does not absolutely require 2 arms. As I said, I'd imagine her and Adam will (or did, since we are actually talking about the past) probably have her do most of the early road blocks, whenever a missing arm is not a huge disadvantage so they can save Adam's RBs for tasks where her missing arm would really hurt her.

I hate "mirror universe" plots. TOS did a decent job with them I guess, but I pretty much can't stand any others and the ones on DS9 were the worst, IMHO.

I agree. An OK episode, but a little slow moving. We do get to see a different side of Quark. In "The Nagus" he got to be Don Corleone from "The Godfather" with the funny homage to the opening scene of the movie, where Quark strokes the Ferengi version of a cat, while handing out favors. Here he is Rick Blaine from Casablanca. I guess it was sort of a natural fit, an expatriate bar and casino owner in an exotic location full of political intrigue. Certainly a better fit that Don Corleone. Quark strike me as more of a Fredo type. :)

I don't think there is any evidence that their was any Charlie Chaplain roadblock that was edited out. Each team was handed an umbrella and a bowler hat with clues at one point in the race. I think one of the cyclists just made the connection and did the little Chaplain walk at the mat. I can't see how the punting task could have been switched as it was a two person task. In the detour there was one task that would have been impossible or nearly impossible for Bethany to perform, so I don't think they are making things easy for her. Plus, if there was a roadblock she couldn't do (and there may well be one in the future) Adam would simply have to perform it. Knowing this, I'd expect that they will try to have Bethany do as many RBs that she is physically capable of, early on, so they can make sure Adam has enough remaining RBs to do any she cannot do. In the first leg all the racers had to climb up that rock face and then swim after jumping into the water. A one armed racer would be at a disadvantage in this task, but it certainly didn't stop Bethany. The bottom line is, while I don't doubt TPTB would love to see Adam and Bethany advance far into the race, because she is such a great story, I see zero evidence that the are trying to make it easier for her.

I think they have had so many misleading previews over so many seasons, that they can afford to throw a few in that actually show which teams are in trouble, since most viewers take the previews with a grain of salt. At this point, if I saw a preview where Phil told a couple, "You are the last team to arrive", I'd be about 95% sure it was either a NEL or some other team got a penalty. :)

I'm sure there is a LOT more to worry about drinking in that body of water than one bladder full of human urine. :)

Then again, Hank knew he was dealing with the guy who had been a meth kingpin right under his nose for over a year, had killed Gus Fring, destroyed the super lab, arranged for the deaths of 10 incarcerated prisoners, in 3 different facilities in a 2 minute period, had trashed the police evidence room with a magnet, lured him away from the RV with the hoax call about Marie and had the RV destroyed, came up with the "confession" tape to frame and blackmail Hank, etc., etc. When dealing with Heisenberg you should be expecting the unexpected and take no unnecessary risks at all, no matter how insignificant they might seem. I always wondered how Hank felt seeing Walt beg for Hank's life and offer his precious $80 million for it, after he had tried to call off the Nazi's and was also willing to give up his freedom to save Hank. For all Walt's many faults, he truly loved Hank. There were many times when it would have been much easier for him to kill Hank or let him be killed, he always tried to protect him. It wasn't only Hank's life, but his career he tried to protect. If Walt had let Jesse ruin Hank's career, instead of making him a partner in the Fring deal to appease him, he likely would have had a long, profitable and relatively drama free relationship with Fring. Of course, he probably should have sent Jesse to "Belize" when he started threatening to turn him in if he were ever caught, but he also had a soft spot for Jesse. If Jesse hadn't messed things up, with Fring and Walt's brains and Mike's muscle the three of them might have taken over the world. :)

I started out as a rabid anti-dentite, but they grew on me a little by being competent and being nice enough to show 2 or 3 other teams how to use the compass. I still don't like them, but instead of hating them with the fire of 1,000 suns, it is down to about 10 suns. :) I had a similar reaction to the wrestlers. Started out hating them, but realized a lot of their bravado was really a wrestling "heel" act. Still don't like them, but don't hate them either. I was so glad the realtors were eliminated. They were obnoxious in every way and one of them had a lazy, slurred voice that was like finger nails on a chalkboard and babies crying, all at once, to me.

I think they allow compass watches. I vaguely remember in a past season a ditzy team came to some sort or orienteering task and said something like "We don't need the coordinates, we have a compass!"

Good episode. I agree with the comments above. I guess this episode also gave birth to the "holograms are people too" ethic on DS9, that will later give us the immortal Vic Fontaine.

*LOL* - I love the way you think! I agree the Alixis didn't win in the end. I had the same thought about her being forced to eat replicated food (I'm hoping the Federation had McDonald's and Taco Bell's menus stored in its replicator database) in a Federation prison for the rest of her life. You also make a good point that her "utopian" colony would probably eventually fall apart or be "corrupted" into something she would despise. My problem was that I thought the writers let her off too easy by having the colonists sort of defend her. If they still loved the low tech society she tricked and coerced them into creating, fine. But her methods were morally repugnant, and cost many innocent lives, and they should have treated her as the con artist, kidnapper, tyrant and murderer that she was.

I don't think the joke was supposed to be at her expense, and it was pretty funny. But, i guess it was a shame that Keiko's one time being the hero was diminished by it. Nevertheless, she's still "the best damned botanist in the galaxy!" :)

I agree. Calling the Bajorans who fought the Cardassians "terrorists" is sort of like calling those who resisted the Nazi's in France and elsewhere "terrorists". That said, pre-9/11/2001 the term "terrorist" didn't have as much of a universally negative connotation. Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist and many Americans supported IRA terrorists back then as well.

I enjoyed Seyetik's character as well. His arrogance seem to be half genuine and half him being a caricature of himself. Couldn't you see him starring in "The Most Interesting Man in the Galaxy" ads?

I agree. Keiko is really nothing more than a supporting character, to give Miles someone to go home to and bicker with occasionally. Later he seems to get a lot more enjoyment (and more interesting bickering) from his "bromance" with Bashir. While I'm sure he misses Molly, I get the idea Miles isn't all that anxious to have Keiko return from her adventures being "the best damned botanist in the galaxy". (Worst line in DS9 History?) He seems much happier running the rapids or fighting ancient battles with Julian in the holosuite. (which I guess is a sort of like a 24th century man cave).

I agree that the Skrreeans were too unsympathetic and that made the episode much less interesting than it could have been. I think Haneek was so adamant that they settle on Bajor because she firmly believed it was the "promised land" their prophecies spoke of, and that it was the destiny of the Skreerans to settle there and help restore Bajor. I got the impression that she truly believe the Skreeans would be a blessing to Bajor. Perhaps if the script included a Bajoran prophecy that could be interpreted that way, the decision as to whether or not to allow the Skreerans to immigrate to Bajor would have been more complex and controversial. But, the way the plot played out, it became clear that it was pretty much a no brainer to deny them sanctuary. If this were first aired today, people might think it was a commentary on border crisis. Were the 3 young men, Haneek's sons or her "males"? I got the idea they were essentially her concubines. Didn't they all sleep with her and didn't she tell Kira that males can be "useful"? :) My favorite moment was when Quark bared his fangs and hissed at the Skrreean youth who was trying to attack Nog (with good justification, of course.), and then Nog did his feeble imitation of Quark's hiss. You'd think Quark would have seen a great opportunity to sell tulaberry skin lotion to the millions of "flaky" Skrreans.