S32.E11: Run On Your Tippy Toes

[shura]

39 minutes ago, North of Eden said:

D'Angela had a right to be bitter when he was trash talking the race but in that one moment I hope he had a moment of clarity on how Aparna was feeling last week.

I am sure he knew how she was feeling.  He is a professional athlete, he has lost many times before, and sometimes even felt it was unfair, no doubt.  But she kept blaming him for some reason and invoking karma and all that.  I don’t think DeAngelo blamed anybody. He just said (answering Phil’s direct question, actually) how he felt about the whole experience.

So, why did TAR pick Manila for this leg?  What interesting things did we learn about Manila tonight?  It has traffic, Chinatown, horse carriages and musicians!  Just like pretty much any other major city in the world.

[Netfoot]

11 hours ago, blackwing said:

 I’ve been watching this show from the very beginning (August/September 2001) and I’ve never been as disappointed in this show as I am right now.

Ditto.

11 hours ago, shura said:

I, for one, liked DeAngelo’s honesty.  Yes, maybe it was rude, and I am both surprised and impressed that the show did not edit it out.  But I don’t know if he owes it to anybody to be pleasant and polite instead of honest.

Keeping it real! Yeah! Also known as rude and tactless.

10 hours ago, speedroc said:

And for a minute when they almost got lucky with the order of the cases I actually thought they might pull it off.

I was really hoping they would. Not because I don't dislike them, but because I despise the other three teams worse.

10 hours ago, North of Eden said:

If TAR doesn't get cancelled because COVID makes world travel impossible for years to come and it does return they ABSOLUTELY must put rules into effect banning any alliances or working together.

If COVID doesn't get TAR terminated, this horrible season with the horrible alliance just might. This season certainly doesn't encourage viewers to return next time.

My takeaways are twofold:

1. Gary & DeAngelo are idiots. Did they really think the Whine Five alliance was still in effect when there were only four teams left? And after seeing what happened to one of the alliance last week?
2. Gary & DeAngelo are idiots. You are the last team left at the last task before the Pitstop, and you voluntarily take a 2 hour penalty? It's an automatic elimination! They could have kept trying! They might have got it the very next try! There might have been some horrendous taxi screwup that made another team come late! Phil should have had to come and Guido them, because they should never have given up. Lena & Kristy should spit.
3. DeAngelo is an asshole. Such discourtesy. If someone gives you a gift and you really hate it you don't tell them that to their face. I've had my doubts about him for several episodes, but now I've got the proof.

ETA: (Netfoot is an idiot.) Twofold. 1, 2 & 3. Sheesh!

Edited December 10, 2020 by Netfoot

[Cotypubby]

De’Angelo: “This season sucked!”

We’re all with you on that!! Truer words have never been spoken on this show. 
 

How depressing if this becomes the way the show ends for good. 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Cotypubby

[bunnyface]

DeAngelo:  I'll never be on this show again!

Me:  Well, thank God for that.

It was kind of hard to watch the other teams deliberately work without them, so for that brief moment, I was hoping G&D would get it just to show them all up.  But D&G had no problems using the alliance to work against other teams, so it should be no surprise when it happens to them.  Live by the alliance, die by the alliance.  There is only one winner.

But I liked Gary.  He seemed cool enough.

[preeya]

SIX FUCKING SCUMBAGS!!!!

I'M OUT AND I HOPE KARMA GETS THEM ALL. . . . . . . . .

WORST SEASON EVER.

[Lantern7]

I just realized a silver lining: the winning team will have to have waited over two years to get their money. While I don't hold any of those Racers in the same regard as the true villains of 2020,  it does serve 'em right.

Is it weird that I'll probably still be more upset at Cody & Jessica winning TAR30 than the latter half of this season?

ETA: The Challenge was indeed better, and Natalie got some fun moments. Sadly, she's only listed under Survivor, but she'll always be a Racer to us, right?

Edited December 10, 2020 by Lantern7

[Hera]

I really liked the idea of a sprint around Manila, but I don't understand why the leg design didn't include some navigation—it seems like this would have been the perfect opportunity for it, especially when it's been sorely lacking all season (save for the France leg).

If I had been Hung, my heart would have dropped at the word "sprint". It's a good thing actual running was less a factor than "sprint" would imply, because while she seems pretty fit and with good stamina, she was also up against three all-male teams, who were all younger than she is (though very slightly in the case of Gary/DeAngelo), and two of those teams were made up of professional athletes.

I don't begrudge Gary and DeAngelo their hard feelings in the moment about the other three banding together to figure out the answer to the last challenge because it sucks to be the odd man out and it sucks to lose. However, I can't help but notice that they didn't seem to have a problem with teams working together on that task in principle: they suggested it to Will/James and possibly Riley/Maddison at the same time (though that might have been editing shenanigans), which would have probably resulted in Hung/Chee's elimination. Then they tried again with Hung/Chee once they arrived. It seems like they were perfectly willing to do to another team what was done to them, so I don't think they get to claim they were treated unfairly. Basically, this:

1 hour ago, Door County Cherry said:

I think the bitterness is largely from not realizing that the other three teams had formed a smaller alliance from the five before this episode.  They likely would have made other choices.

Also, it's not like they had more of the challenge figured out than anyone else—or were even on the verge of figuring it out—only to be edged out by the collusion of the other three. There was nothing stopping them from rereading their clue at any point. If they had (or had just remembered what it said in the first place, or were certain about which legs were represented by each song), they might have finished first and forced the alliance to cannibalize itself.

I also can't respect the decision to give up on the task and take the penalty after the other teams left. To me, that's far more of a sore loser move than what DeAngelo said at the mat (although that was pretty ungracious). Jerry/Frank, Michelle/Victoria, Kaylynn/Haley, and Eswar/Aparna all knew they were dead last in their elimination episodes. None of them opted to pout for two hours instead of completing the tasks on the leg. And Jerry's case, that meant enduring a lot of physical discomfort (a bad knee and two hips that had been replaced) in order to finish the U-Turn.

2 hours ago, dgpolo said:

I really think that this alliance was serendipitous. The stars were in alignment for those teams, at that time, at that place. I don't think it will be repeated because these teams won't be there. Some teams in the future (fingers crossed) may -try- to repeat it but then one team will take a wrong turn and get lost for six hours, or one teammate will break down at a task and won't be able to finish (Mika, Jen, Flo), or a team will decide to break away (Karlyn & Lyn), or the tasks won't lend themselves to 'sharing' (swimming, diving, dancing, needle in a haystack etc.) I think this was a pretty unique set of circumstances that will be hard to replicate rather than becoming common.

I completely agree with all of this. In particular, I think this season's alliance benefited massively from the buy-in of Riley/Maddison, who have proved to be a fairly well-rounded team, and from Hung/Chee, who were the early front-runners. I think on most seasons, those teams would either pay lip-service to the alliance in the hopes that it protects them from being Yielded or U-Turned (but not actually contribute much), or decline outright in the interest of not being beholden to anyone.

I'm not surprised by the final three. Will/James, Hung/Chee, and Riley/Maddison have been running the three highest mean leg placements since Leg 3. In contrast, Gary and DeAngelo finished with a mean placement of 4.5, and were trailing Michelle/Victoria's average placement until the end of Leg 8. Hung and Chee, who have the next lowest mean, are at 2.8. And if we say that the top three's collective dominance was because of the alliance they had, then we have to discuss whether Gary and DeAngelo would have made it to the final five at all. This is not to say that they definitely wouldn't have—just that the alliance did benefit them too, even if it didn't benefit them all the way to the final three.

1 hour ago, sinycalone said:

From Gary on Twitter.  Interesting:

Gary Barnidge

@garybarnidge

·

1h

@DeAngeloRB

just for clarification we made an alliance with the Beard Bros after the 1st episode to get us two teams to the final which is why we say they didn’t keep their word.

Interesting. It makes me wonder if alliances are actually far more common than we viewers are shown. This season has been pretty low on interpersonal drama—no personality clashes within or between teams. From an editing standpoint, I can see how it might have made sense to highlight the Mine 5/Real 3 alliance because it was unusually successful and to give the season a narrative.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Hera

[Dobian]

Gary and DeAngelo get screwed over on song challenge: I'm actually rooting for these guys now

DeAngelo trash talks the race at the finish mat: I'm glad these guys lost

Edited December 10, 2020 by Dobian

[Waldo13]

If I were DeAngelo and Gary I would have taken the chance on taking the penalty up front once I saw I had no clue in solving the challenge and saw the others working together. I’m quite sure that it took more than two hours for the other teams to complete the task. 
 

Im so over Will with his rudeness and condescending attitude. Will said that they worked so hard to get to the final 3. I say bull crap. Their alliance got them to the final 3. I don’t think they would have got their otherwise. 

[Door County Cherry]

7 minutes ago, Hera said:

I also can't respect the decision to give up on the task and take the penalty after the other teams left.

Right.  I edited it into an older post but had they used taking the penalty earlier as a strategy to put pressure on the three team alliance, I would've respected it.  But just "we're going to lose anyway?"  Why not just quit the race? 

[After7Only]

15 minutes ago, Hera said:

 

I'm not surprised by the final three. Will/James, Hung/Chee, and Riley/Maddison have been running the three highest mean leg placements since Leg 3. In contrast, Gary and DeAngelo finished with a mean placement of 4.5, and were trailing Michelle/Victoria's average placement until the end of Leg 8. Hung and Chee, who have the next lowest mean, are at 2.8. And if we say that the top three's collective dominance was because of the alliance they had, then we have to discuss whether Gary and DeAngelo would have made it to the final five at all. This is not to say that they definitely wouldn't have—just that the alliance did benefit them too, even if it didn't benefit them all the way to the final three.

 

And this is why I’m so confused why those 3 conspired against Gary and DeAngelo for elimination.   They were the weakest of the 4.   In most seasons people are looking to get rid of the strongest teams at this point.  It just came across a bit mean spirited.   

W/J and R/M should have been targeting each other instead

Edited December 10, 2020 by After7Only

[Bluesky]

I fast forwarded to the end after the stupid racing with heels.  Why do they include Boring tasks that they all finish with ease?  There used to be a wider range in ages but now they skew younger.  But it seems like the challenges are getting easier physically.   Horrible season.     

[HeShallBMySquishy]

I was under the impression that we were not allowed to criticize Will and James?

[ByaNose]

They could have in theory had different music and different flags for the 4 teams. They each had the same 4 flags. They could have mixed it up a bit even if an alliance hadn’t been involved. 

[ByaNose]

36 minutes ago, Waldo13 said:

If I were DeAngelo and Gary I would have taken the chance on taking the penalty up front once I saw I had no clue in solving the challenge and saw the others working together. I’m quite sure that it took more than two hours for the other teams to complete the task. 
 

Im so over Will with his rudeness and condescending attitude. Will said that they worked so hard to get to the final 3. I say bull crap. Their alliance got them to the final 3. I don’t think they would have got their otherwise. 

According to Jame’s Twitter account they didn’t get any help along the race. I think he even typed that with a straight face. Someone tweeted at them and James tweeted back at them. Apparently, they are getting most of the hate which is a little since their was an alliance of five teams. Hung & Chee & The brothers don’t appear to be getting the hate as much. I guess it’s the edit since Will & James appear to have gotten the lions share of the confessionals. That said, I don’t have an actual count. I know there is always someone who keeps track of that for Survivor but not for TAR. Mostly, because confessionals aren’t really that an intricate part of the race. It’s just the beginning and ending of the race. Which usually spoils who comes in last. I hate that part.   

[Corgi-ears]

Madddddddison and Riley clearly jizz into each others' beards, right? And they obviously fuck the Travelocity gnome, don't they? /John Oliver voice

At the mat, Phil should have said, "You know how we normally put memory tasks in the final so that there are consequences for who figures it out? Well, for this task, we are eliminating the last two teams to arrive. Surprise, motherfuckers."

Edited December 10, 2020 by Corgi-ears

[Brookside]

 

 

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

I count Will and James among my least favourite teams ever in the history of TAR.  James is a whiny little shit and the one that’s always playing for the camera and oh so twee about everything.  But I’ve concluded that Will is a nasty person as well.  The way he was yelling at the minibus driver was inexcusable.   “Turn around!  Turn around!”  “No we just got passed!”   The guy isn’t your slave, Will.

 

Every season has countless examples of crass Americans (siblings, spouses, or whatever other permutation of racers) yelling at drivers.  And they all expect the driver to know that "Faster faster" doesn't mean "Turn around, turn around", or "We're winning, we're winning."

 

 

[Fukui San]

I wonder what would have happened if D’Angelo and Gary decided that since the others were sharing info, the only counter was to stop trying to solve the puzzle and just listen in, do not leave them alone. Pick one team and never leave their side. Probably Hung and Chee since they’d be easiest to beat if it came down to a foot race. If there isn’t a rule against it, how would that go down? The other teams might get to name calling, but there isn’t an obvious resolution. 

[ByaNose]

Even at the end Will let out a “Thank, God!” that the NFL team was eliminated. I never understood or motive for the “hate” the alliance had for G & D. Even at the airport they were acting like Mean Girls when they showed up. They kept talking all season how Gary & DeAngelo took, took, took but the rest of the alliance were helping each other and would still be at some of those task if not for the alliance....yes....I’m looking at you James. They just couldn’t handle the fact that they G & D might end up in the Final 3. Well, they got their way.
 

I’m guessing the boyfriends will win solely based on the edit and airtime. I would love Hung and Chee to win but their edit has been very quiet as of late. In the beginning they won a lot but then faded a little. Even the brothers for all of their first place finishes have gotten a quiet edit. That may be because they aren’t loud guys. They are definitely laid back beach guys. 

[jimjohnson9]

I used to really like this show. Sadly, this has become more of an Amazing Farce than an Amazing Race. This episode tonight - well DeAngelo nailed it when he told Phil "It sucked". It looked pretty much like the whole thing was scripted to turn out this way, even with Phil at the beginning telling the teams they probably shouldn't be helping each other out (wink,wink!). If this show is to continue, the time has come to penalize teams for this horrible alliance trend that has ruined some of the recent seasons. A race of this nature should be about the strongest teams finishing ahead - not the whimpering, sniveling also-rans ganging up to eliminate the strong teams that they can't compete with. I will NOT be watching the finale of this season as I really don't care which of these teams of losers 'wins'. Get it together Phil (and production company) - you can make this an enjoyable show to watch once again. Till then, I'm OUT.

[J-Man]

Has Phil ever told the Final 3 where they'd be going before the final leg begins? I seem to remember that the final leg destination has always been in a clue envelope. 

[buttersister]

Live by an alliance, die by an alliance? I hate alliances.

Not sure which is ruder--D'Angelo at the mat or those three teams of trash who willfully disregarded Phil's request to knock off the alliance?

Quote

Apparently, they [boyz] are getting most of the hate 

Good.

Edited December 10, 2020 by buttersister

[mbluecpa]

I was hoping until the end that Maddison and Riley, who seemed to be keeping the closest track of the various permutations of flag cases, would finish the task first and tell the rest “later, suckers.” But alas, I can’t have nice things.

For the first time in a long time, I don’t have a team I want to see win, though I surely have one I’d like to see in third with an accompanying meltdown. I’ll watch to see them race through the city I grew up in, and because it’ll be well over a year before we see Race again.

Wow, was DeAngelo ever bitter at the finish line. I recall at least one really pissy welcome in a prior season as the winners came in so suspect he’ll add to that list. Can’t blame him, though: he signed up for Race, not Big Brother, and no telling what went on that we never saw. 

[GaT]

Another "whoops, forgot to read the clue" episode, ridiculous. And Gary & DeAngelo should have decided to take the penalty as soon as they saw that the other 3 teams had decided to form an alliance against them. I don't understand why they just kept sitting there waiting for each team to get the correct answer, they could have made it to the pit stop by then.

[aghst]

I don't like how the collusion went down but they're completely within their rights to choose whom they will be competing against in the final leg.  It could be because they like the other teams the best or it could be that they believe they can beat these other teams.

Considering that each of these teams won at least 1 leg of the race, maybe 2 legs or more each, they were among the strongest teams left, so strategically it might have been better to have Gary and DeAngelo as one of the final 3 for the other two teams.

TAR may not be happy if it alienates viewers and hurts ratings.  Plus they can't use editing to make it seem like the last team was close to beating the next to last team.

Thing is, twice Gary and DeAngelo were off just by one.  Twice.  I don't know if they were purely guessing or they weren't taking notes like many teams do.  Usually the big memory task is in the final leg.  Maybe this was it for this season?

But they just gave up after the other teams left so they must have been guessing.

Also when they do memory tasks don't they usually tell them how many items they got wrong?  In this one they had no idea how many they missed but the Beards methodically knew at least two of answers.

 

What the alliance teams did was shitty but it's also true that DeAngelo was a poor sport.  

[Diana Berry]

I’m so bummed and been watching from the beginning.  Phil, at the beginning, practically spelled out he didn’t want an alliance on the leg.  

They should have just had 3 separate trucks and spelled out no talking amongst teams. 

Is deangelo a sore loser yes but I’m a sore viewer.  Also, been noticing the confessionals giving it away.

[mojoween]

Ok but this is cute though

 

[alexa]

Quote

Thing is, twice Gary and DeAngelo were off just by one.  Twice.  I don't know if they were purely guessing or they weren't taking notes like many teams do.  Usually the big memory task is in the final leg.  Maybe this was it for this season?

I noticed that too, and I really hoped they would come up with it.  I think the frustrating thing with this task is the large amount of options and no idea if you had 1, 2, 3, right, etc.  I think it made it nearly impossible for most teams.  Even the price is right tells you how many you have right, lol!  

I hated the alliance thing too, because the best part of the Race is seeing teams have to really work at the tasks.  It kind of ruined it for me, even though I have found that with the show not being on as much that I am a little less interested than in its heyday.  I do still like it, but it has lost some of its original wow factor.

I don't use twitter, but when I am curious about overall reaction to a show, I google that hashtag, and it appears the majority of the twitter reaction was dislike of the alliances and wanted the Race to put a stop to it.

Edited December 10, 2020 by alexa

[Haleth]

Fantasy ending for this episode:  Gary and DeAngelo figure the sequence out by themselves and sprint to the finish first, leaving the remaining three teams that had shared information scrambling to beat each other.  This would have been far more interesting to watch.  

[shura]

8 hours ago, Hera said:

I also can't respect the decision to give up on the task and take the penalty after the other teams left. To me, that's far more of a sore loser move than what DeAngelo said at the mat (although that was pretty ungracious). Jerry/Frank, Michelle/Victoria, Kaylynn/Haley, and Eswar/Aparna all knew they were dead last in their elimination episodes. None of them opted to pout for two hours instead of completing the tasks on the leg. And Jerry's case, that meant enduring a lot of physical discomfort (a bad knee and two hips that had been replaced) in order to finish the U-Turn.

It was a loser mover, of course, because they gave up knowing they had lost.  But it's simply surrender, there isn't anything sore about it, I don't think.  It's simply rational - you fight as long as there is a chance to win, and when there isn't, well, fighting further is pointless.  You could, of course, keep doing the quixotic thing and (figuratively) die with honor, I have admiration (and pity) for those who choose to do that.  But I am not going to fault those who just do what's rational either. 

I guess what a team does in this situation also depends on what their objective is. For some, the goal is simply to win, so, if they can't, they just move on.  I can totally see how professional athletes would be in that group.  For others, though, it's more important to avoid looking like quitters.  There is also the matter of actually believing that you can complete the challenge.  All the teams you named that didn't quit could, in fact, complete theirs.  I would too, just for the experience, even knowing that I have no chance of winning.  But if I were convinced that I simply cannot do it, I would do the rational thing and stop.

6 hours ago, mbluecpa said:

For the first time in a long time, I don’t have a team I want to see win, though I surely have one I’d like to see in third with an accompanying meltdown.

Thank you for giving me a reason to watch the finale!  I would like to see a meltdown!

[toodywoody]

If TAR would stop with the spoon fed everyone on the same flight to begin with,  it would not even out the playing field for everyone. Instead whoever gets to the airport first gets the best flight out, second gets the second best and so on, that way when everyone arrives not everyone will be there and have them drive themselves more, that always messes up someone and let's another team in the back catch up. Remember when the Guido were a day behind the others that were already finished. That would eliminate people sharing because they would never know where the others are or how far ahead or behind they are.

[chaifan]

I would have at least liked to have seen Gary & DeAngelo re-reading the clue, to see if they realized what the other teams did that they were all doing wrong, and give it at least a few more tries before taking the penalty.  At a certain point they're right - blind guessing isn't going to do it and they'd be there forever, or at least until Phil came to them.  But this is like the truck challenge with the horn - every team didn't read their clue carefully.  You'd think after 5-6 wrong guesses they'd thing hmmm, maybe we missed a direction, let's reread the clue. 

As for the 3 vs 1, as much as I personally hated it, it was good strategy for the other teams, and it worked.  It would have been stupid for 1 of those teams to say no at that point, even if they didn't like the game play aspect of it.  And yeah, Gary & DeAngelo tried getting teams to do the same, so their only valid gripe is that they were the odd team out on this. 

[chaifan]

7 minutes ago, toodywoody said:

If TAR would stop with the spoon fed everyone on the same flight to begin with,  it would not even out the playing field for everyone. Instead whoever gets to the airport first gets the best flight out, second gets the second best and so on, that way when everyone arrives not everyone will be there and have them drive themselves more, that always messes up someone and let's another team in the back catch up. Remember when the Guido were a day behind the others that were already finished. That would eliminate people sharing because they would never know where the others are or how far ahead or behind they are.

Yes, yes, yes!  A million times yes!  This is the main problem with this season - equalizing practically every leg by spoon fed flights takes away so much of the RACE part of The Amazing Race.  I mentioned in an earlier thread - there are ways of designing the legs so there can never be a 24 hour gap.  And I understand the world we live in now may mean every flight is preplanned and everyone is on the same flight.  But there are ways to maintain the finishing time differences and put the RACE back in The Amazing Race.

[redfish]

Ugh x 1000! God damnnit! Now it's teams that I have no enthusiasm to see win in the finale. But if I were forced to make a choice I'd pick Hung/Chee to win only because that's how much I dislike the other teams. When Hung said that he like their 3 team alliance because they were trustworthy (Will/James) I wanted to roll my eyes so hard. Trustworthy? Sure. I think the other 2 teams in the 5-Alliance would say differently. Or the sister team that was Yielded just because WIll/James wanted look "clean" to their alliance because they needed (no they didn't) to yield a team. Their real strategy was to throw heat/attention from them (a strong team) and made sure other teams resented each other. If the Beards or Hung/Chee don't realize that, they have literally gave Will/James the 1M prized. So stupid.

That last challenge. Just love how when G/D suggested solving it and Will/James said no and then it didn't take long to play hypocrite and call on the others to solve it.

That last challenge should have kept the teams in isolated corners with no way of contacting each other or peeking on each other. That would have been a true nail biter and then I would have honestly said they earned the final 3 spot.

Thanks a lot Alliance, for ruining TAR viewing. I want to forget this season, the alliance and the racers in the alliance ever existed. I see enough assholes on TVshows and the news I don't need to see them on TAR. If I wanted to see Survivor and BS like that then I'll watch Survivor. This is TAR. You're supposed to test yourself mentally/physically. If money is the only reason to be on TAR, then racers like Will/James should have gone on Big Brother or Survivor.

So close but so stupid. G/D were so close. So many times they were 3/4 correct in the last challenge. If only they read the clue. Every time they didn't pay attention to the clue they fell behind. I was screaming at the screen. Read! The! Clues!

Edited December 10, 2020 by redfish

[seacliffsal]

In my opinion, there was a significant factor in Gary and DeAngelo deciding to take a penalty versus other teams that continue racing even knowing they are in last place and that is the fact that the pit stop was there in the same square.  There would be no bad taxi incident, getting lost, etc., that would allow someone in last place to pass someone else in getting to the pit stop.

Having written that, I really did not enjoy the last part of this episode once the gang of three decided to work together.  Do I think that DeAngelo was a poor sport at the mat?  Yes.  But, I also think the other three gloated a bit too much.  I was actually enjoying the episode when Hung and Chee were behind the other teams as I thought there was a possibility of breaking up the gang of three.

On a personal note-I would have hated the high-heel challenge as one wrong move and there goes an ankle (and, yes, when I was younger I wore heels but no more...).

[Giuseppe]

28 minutes ago, toodywoody said:

If TAR would stop with the spoon fed everyone on the same flight to begin with,  it would not even out the playing field for everyone. Instead whoever gets to the airport first gets the best flight out, second gets the second best and so on, that way when everyone arrives not everyone will be there and have them drive themselves more, that always messes up someone and let's another team in the back catch up.

We had nearly identical thoughts. I posted almost the same thing in the "how to fix it" thread.

[Spunkygal]

I felt sorry for the city of Manila. I have never been there and probably never will, but surely there could have been challenges with more cultural, food or geographical tie-ins? Phil introduces the city by going on about how it’s the texting capital of the world so I was expecting some challenge somehow related to that, but nothing else was ever said about it. I learned that it’s a city with insane traffic, an animated traffic cop, high heeled shoes, people in dragon costumes and hungry horses. This episode didn’t get me interested in Manila, which is very unusual when I watch this show. Even if they are in locales that I know I’ll never visit, I’m usually intrigued by the people or the culture or the implements they use to prepare a dish or fashion or whatever. Not this time. 

All in all, I see why TPTB sat on this season for so long and I wish they had never unearthed it. Don’t know if I’ll watch next week.

[bunnyface]

4 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

In my opinion, there was a significant factor in Gary and DeAngelo deciding to take a penalty versus other teams that continue racing even knowing they are in last place and that is the fact that the pit stop was there in the same square.  There would be no bad taxi incident, getting lost, etc., that would allow someone in last place to pass someone else in getting to the pit stop.

 

I understand that, maybe, but because they weren't directly beside every other team the whole day, they don't know if another team incurred a penalty somewhere along the way.  Any number things could happen, so they didn't know for a fact there was no chance.  They just gave up, and that's crap.  To me.

G&D were so close to getting the solution, it would have been exciting to see them get it and throw a screw you salute to the other teams.  But it has been some number of legs that the other teams kind of took against G&D, saying they were all take, take, take.  So it would be interesting to know exactly why they all turned on them.  I mean if there was anything different than what was shown.  

[Browncoat]

12 hours ago, blackwing said:

 I wish there was a way to teleport these two to Antarctica.

What a terrible thing to wish upon Antarctica!

 

[shura]

42 minutes ago, redfish said:

So close but so stupid. G/D were so close. So many times they were 3/4 correct in the last challenge. If only they read the clue. Every time they didn't pay attention to the clue they fell behind. I was screaming at the screen. Read! The! Clues!

It's weird, they kept putting Trinidad first as if they actually read the clue and knew the flags had to be in the order of countries visited, not songs played.  I think they kept getting Colombia's position right, too.  If they also got Paraguay (which I am not positive they knew for a fact and not just guessed), then they could have easily simply tried out the rest of the countries in the fourth position.  Not sure why they decided they couldn't do it.  It is hard to do this kind of challenge without feedback on how close or far off you are.

[blackwing]

I feel like this was really poor Race design... I suppose they couldn't have predicted that there would be an alliance all the way to the end, but once they saw that teams were in a huge alliance from early on, they could have just tweaked the set up.  Have each team with their own individual area/truck and judge.  Or why couldn't Phil have just instituted a new rule... "you are not allowed to talk with other teams and penalties will be assessed if you do not work independently?"  He had to have assumed that his passive-aggressive "I really encourage you not to help others" wasn't going to work.

In fact, I think maybe that was perhaps the reason why we had Phil at the start of the leg, so he could tell them not to work together.  His presence really wasn't necessary, all of his instructions about the road race through Manila could have easily just been in the instructions in the clues in the minibuses.  It seems they wanted all teams to start at the same time... there could have been an instruction in the first clue box that they had to wait for all the teams to arrive before setting off.

Gary and DeAngelo clearly deserve to be on Second Chances or Fan Favourites if there ever is another one.  DeAngelo was a poor sport for sure but he had just lost in the worst way possible, I would hope that Gary will be able to convince him to change his mind.

One thing to me is clear, Gary is a great guy.  He played in the NFL, has more money than most, the money would have meant little to him, but he did it for the excitement and competition, and truly appreciated every minute of it.

As for the tasks themselves, I know the high heel race is apparently a local thing, but did anyone else find it sexist / sexual orientationist?  This task very much favoured women and gay men.  I suppose women might say this is payback for all the times there has been a strength challenge so finally there is a challenge that favours women.  I didn't hear Hung complaining about it, most of the complaints were from the guys.  And of course James just breezed through it easily.  The fact that Will and James gleefully said "it's going to be so fun seeing Gary and DeAngelo run in heels" was just spiteful... like they were saying "they are big manly men and they're going to be all ewwww about wearing women's shoes".  

The task was pretty dangerous... they could have easily had teams walk the course in heels if they wanted to pay homage to this local custom.  Much less dangerous and would have taken up more time as well.  I am a little surprised that nobody fell or turned an ankle.

 

8 hours ago, Fukui San said:

I wonder what would have happened if D’Angelo and Gary decided that since the others were sharing info, the only counter was to stop trying to solve the puzzle and just listen in, do not leave them alone. Pick one team and never leave their side. Probably Hung and Chee since they’d be easiest to beat if it came down to a foot race. If there isn’t a rule against it, how would that go down? The other teams might get to name calling, but there isn’t an obvious resolution. 

I thought about that too... there would have been no restriction on them following a team around.  But I am sure that Madison or Riley would have just whispered the answer in their ear.  What I'm wondering is if there is any restriction/rule against looking at a team's answer.  I'm not sure if there was.  Madison and Riley I think were the only team to stand their cases on end, so only the judge could see the flags and they weren't just lying face up on the ground for everyone to see.  In Survivor, contestants cheat off of each other's puzzles all the time.

7 hours ago, aghst said:

Thing is, twice Gary and DeAngelo were off just by one.  Twice.  I don't know if they were purely guessing or they weren't taking notes like many teams do.  Usually the big memory task is in the final leg.  Maybe this was it for this season?

But they just gave up after the other teams left so they must have been guessing.

Also when they do memory tasks don't they usually tell them how many items they got wrong?  In this one they had no idea how many they missed but the Beards methodically knew at least two of answers.

 

42 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I would have at least liked to have seen Gary & DeAngelo re-reading the clue, to see if they realized what the other teams did that they were all doing wrong, and give it at least a few more tries before taking the penalty.  At a certain point they're right - blind guessing isn't going to do it and they'd be there forever, or at least until Phil came to them.  But this is like the truck challenge with the horn - every team didn't read their clue carefully.  You'd think after 5-6 wrong guesses they'd thing hmmm, maybe we missed a direction, let's reread the clue. 

See, I feel like Gary and DeAngelo did in fact read the clue, because they had three flags in the correct order, they only missed on the last one.  I suppose it could have been all random (I can't remember their other guesses) but they were the only ones who I think came even remotely close pre-collusion.

And I do think there should have been some kind of Mastermind-like clues.  Black pegs, white pegs... you have X correct and in the right place, you have Y correct but in the wrong place.  But perhaps that would have been too easy.

 

[tljgator]

14 minutes ago, blackwing said:

See, I feel like Gary and DeAngelo did in fact read the clue, because they had three flags in the correct order, they only missed on the last one.  I suppose it could have been all random (I can't remember their other guesses) but they were the only ones who I think came even remotely close pre-collusion.

I, too, couldn't decide if it was random or not. They seemed to keep missing Germany and I wondered if they didn't know that one because they were playing that chicken song, and I think they chose the other task? Maybe I'm misremembering that because I'm so f'ing annoyed with this outcome. *sigh*

[Chicago Redshirt]

Phil: Please raaaaaaaaaaaaaacce!

Everyone: LOL, no.

[BarneySays]

13 hours ago, weightyghost said:

Look, I get it. Its frustrating when teams are helping each other and not you (though they begged for help for weeks and really only got through some legs because of help from other teams). But to look down on the Race as a whole and just say you could have paid for the trip yourself and not bothered?

I actually appreciated DeAngelo's reaction, as it comes close to my own disgust with the way these teams have conducted themselves.  To stand there congratulating themselves for fighting so hard- after once again failing to read the clue!- made me want to burn down the show as well.  He was perhaps not the best messenger, but the message was spot on. 

I do give the show credit for including his outburst and anger.  I guess they figured it is the only catharsis the audience will get from this trainwreck.  They really should have burned the entire footage a year+ ago. 

[SG429]

I look forward to the winning team announcing that they're sharing the  prize money with the alliance. /s

[Fukui San]

Yes, I agree with the notion that Gary and D'Angelo got the order part correct and were making a different mistake than the other teams, since they got three right and just couldn't ID the last flag. They did not know how close they were since the challenge never gave them an answer except for "Yes" or "No". They could have had the judge say the number of cases that were correct. which would have given teams information with which they could solve things logically. I know the show wants to make things hard but doing it this way makes it unsatisfying, like that final task a few years ago in which they had to assemble an airplane and the only way to do it correctly was to put a wing on backwards.

 

[blackwing]

1 minute ago, Fukui San said:

Yes, I agree with the notion that Gary and D'Angelo got the order part correct and were making a different mistake than the other teams, since they got three right and just couldn't ID the last flag. They did not know how close they were since the challenge never gave them an answer except for "Yes" or "No". They could have had the judge say the number of cases that were correct. which would have given teams information with which they could solve things logically. I know the show wants to make things hard but doing it this way makes it unsatisfying, like that final task a few years ago in which they had to assemble an airplane and the only way to do it correctly was to put a wing on backwards.

 

Agreed, as a viewer, it was thoroughly uninteresting watching teams get frustrated and just randomly throw cases on the ground.  It would have been much better watching teams use logic and deduction and figure things out methodically rather than randomly.  Really poor task design.

[lilysmom]

13 hours ago, sinycalone said:

And G/D helped the other teams, too....that's what probably really pissed him off.  The Alliance ruined the season for me, too.

 

I can't speak for where his thoughts came from, but I would imagine part of it was resentment at the realization that he and Gary had not been part of the final alliance and that people he trusted had turned on them. Again, the two of them were just not paying attention to what was going on around them. Rationally, each alliance member had to realize that as the numbers dwindled, SOMEONE had to go. Gary and Deangelo thought that after the alliance ended, it was every team for itself. So I imagine De's reaction was partly aimed at himself.

[vousviou]

9 hours ago, ByaNose said:

I’m guessing the boyfriends will win solely based on the edit and airtime.

 

You may be right, althouvh I am holding out hope that their edit is due to producers deciding their personalities are so polarizing they make people stick around to root against them.

Although unlike Justin the superfan from 27 or Brendan and Rachel, they seem to be getting a much less critical edit. I fear we are seeing a season long coronation like the All Star season won by Dave and Connor (really just Connor, with Dave along for the ride).

[Waldo13]

2 hours ago, toodywoody said:

If TAR would stop with the spoon fed everyone on the same flight to begin with,  it would not even out the playing field for everyone. Instead whoever gets to the airport first gets the best flight out, second gets the second best and so on, that way when everyone arrives not everyone will be there and have them drive themselves more, that always messes up someone and let's another team in the back catch up. Remember when the Guido were a day behind the others that were already finished. That would eliminate people sharing because they would never know where the others are or how far ahead or behind they are.

Along that line, there could have been a limited number of flights to get to the next destination. I also remember when Charla and Mirna coerced themselves on to a flight because of a fake emergency putting them around 24 hrs ahead of the remaining teams. TAR had to pull a fast one on them by saying the task, which included going somewhere by boat, was delayed do to inclement weather.  
 

In Boston Rob’s race, he used the penalty, to his benefit, on a challenge that involved eating an enormous amount of meat. There were teams behind him and talked other teams into taking the penalty. Since he was there before the other teams, his penalty expired first and he was on his weigh. 
 

In the final, I’m rooting for Will and James to come in last and TAR finds a way to disqualify them so they don’t get the $10,000 price money. 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Waldo13