S34.E09: Vamos a la Playa

[Whimsy]

Quote

Teams embark on a megaleg in Malaga, Spain, where racers become grill masters and brave rough waters.

Original airdate 11/16/22

[Quilt Fairy]

I'm really over the "Eww, fish are gross!" business.  The damn fish are dead, you're not hurting them.  Eat a pound of caviar or drink a cup of pig's blood and talk to me then.

[MerBearHou]

I was over the “ewww, fish are gross” as well … give me a break.  Also over the word “daughter” and “knee”.  Yes, I’m heinous.  

[Jodithgrace]

When I saw that people had to ride bikes after the Roadblock, I was really worried about Emily. But it didn’t seem to bother her. 
 

Those glass sheets looked so heavy. Thank goodness they had people to assist them. What annoyed me was that we couldn’t see if the person got the painting correct because either the angle was wrong or there was sun glare on the glass. Either way, I only knew when the judge gave them a thumbs up that they had done it correctly. I would have like to have seen what the judges saw. 
 

Lots of sardine angst. That seemed much the easier option, but the one pair who chose the paddle board option had way more fun, and got it done quickly, whereas the sardiners kept dropping fish and generally making a hash of things. 
 

I like sardines, but these ones still had guts, which I found unappealing. 
 

El cubo was cool…what is that? 

[mertensia]

That painting task was harder than I thought it would be.

I detest eating fish but....they're dead. Skewer them puppies. 

[Lantern7]

Meh episode, mostly because it was the first part of a Megaleg. Lots of cute comments. I think the peak was Derek convincing the guys that the statue of Picasso should be missing an ear.

How many more episodes are left? With two more eliminations, I'm thinking three, and we'll get a one-hour finale. It's been a good season. At least I've wanted to feel stuff while watching. Survivor is more or less a vacuum right now.

[aradia22]

It was tough to watch the beginning of the episode. You just had to watch Molly suffering. She wasn't really complaining, just clearly in pain.

I hate Picasso but it was also a boring task to watch because you couldn't see any of the colors on TV. I don't know if it was the time of day they shot but everything looked dark on the glass. I assume the racers had a better sense of the colors in person. 

Watching Luis and Michelle and Derek and Claire this episode I feel like every other couple BUT the motivational speakers has demonstrated how to support and encourage a partner. Derek and Claire's dynamic finally felt balanced and healthy to me during the bike ride. 

I didn't expect so many people to hate fish. It's no worse than handling raw chicken, beef, etc. to me. I get it with Claire because she's a vegan but the others were pretty squeamish. 

I've been to Malaga. I don't know if this leg was more engaging to me because my two faves were at the bottom or because of the Megaleg but I was more invested in the episode even if the tasks weren't particularly exciting. The bike ride made for better footage than watching them from the inside of the cars and they at least interacted a bit more with people around the beach. 

[Haleth]

It wasn't a great episode for the tasks, but man, another breathtaking location!  Omigosh, at the end of the leg when the early teams picked up the convertibles to drive along the coast?  What a dream!  The Picasso challenge sounded a lot easier than it turned out to be.  The fish challenge was simple as long as teams remembered to salt the fish and cook it long enough.  I'm glad one team did the supply task so we could meet the captain on the boat.  There have been some great local participants/judges this season.  Everyone really getting into the spirit of the competition and making it fun for viewers.

I feel bad for Molly Emily and hope she can stick it out without causing further damage to her knee, but I'm afraid this will be their downfall.  I like all the teams and will be happy for whoever wins.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Haleth

[Good Queen Jane]

10 hours ago, Jodithgrace said:

What annoyed me was that we couldn’t see if the person got the painting correct because either the angle was wrong or there was sun glare on the glass. Either way, I only knew when the judge gave them a thumbs up that they had done it correctly. I would have like to have seen what the judges saw. 
 

Thank goodness! I thought it was just me. I was getting ready to call my ophthalmologist to get my eyes checked.

[peachmangosteen]

9 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

How many more episodes are left? With two more eliminations, I'm thinking three, and we'll get a one-hour finale. 

The finale is December 7th, so yes, 3 eps left.

[mertensia]

7 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I didn't expect so many people to hate fish. It's no worse than handling raw chicken, beef, etc. to me. I get it with Claire because she's a vegan but the others were pretty squeamish. 

I've been to Malaga. I don't know if this leg was more engaging to me because my two faves were at the bottom or because of the Megaleg but I was more invested in the episode even if the tasks weren't particularly exciting. The bike ride made for better footage than watching them from the inside of the cars and they at least interacted a bit more with people around the beach. 

I wonder if it was because they were dealing with whole fish rather than filets. On a travel board (pre-Covid) a woman gave a nice restaurant in Bellagio a terrible review because the fish was whole, not a filet. I said something about how my father had also ordered it and thought it was excellent and got a diatribe about how in her native **England**  fish was served properly as a filet.

[iMonrey]

I'm not sure I like the new format where there are no non-elimination legs. At least with those you don't know (for sure) whether or not it's a non-elimination leg until the last team gets to the mat. With these mega-legs you know for sure nobody is going to get eliminated this episode, so there is very little suspense. 

Malaga has 30 museums? That's a lot of museums for one city. I have to assume some of them are tiny niche museums, like the museum of painted rocks, or something.

The Roadblock did indeed look confusing. Once Michelle realized she had chosen a station the furthest away from the example I wondered whether she was allowed to switch stations, since nobody else was there at that point. Apparently not. She should have looked for the example first and picked a station afterwards.

I thought as part of the Detour they should have had to each eat one of the fish. At least one each. That would have been a requirement once upon a time. Both Survivor and Amazing Race have moved away from eating challenges for the past several years, and I'd be interested to know why. Probably a lot of complaints from viewers, or maybe the contestants themselves.

Quote

I feel bad for Molly and hope she can stick it out without causing further damage to her knee

For the record: Emily is the sister with the busted knee. I know, it's hard to tell.

[Madding crowd]

I’m fine without food challenges, I hate seeing people gagging and puking. More and more people have food allergies and intolerance and what you can or cannot eat shouldn’t disqualify you from the show. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was a small child and my body cannot handle meat. Other people have seafood or gluten allergies. I do get it that you have to push yourself to do new things but having to go to the hospital as a result isn’t a risk the show should take especially since people could get Covid at any time. 

[pennben]

I wonder if the focus on Derek & Claire helping Luis & Michele is meant to highlight their downfall (in that they’ve already made the mistake of when to shutdown help) or the highlighting of recognizing it needs to stop shows they won’t blow it.  Personally, I feel like this is too late in the game to give one sided help to a clearly strong team.  
 

ETA:  Whoops, they didn’t help Luis & Michele, it was the other couple. Still not sure a great idea this late. 

Edited November 17, 2022 by pennben

[DEL901]

3 minutes ago, pennben said:

I wonder if the focus on Derek & Claire helping Luis & Michele is meant to highlight their downfall (in that they’ve already made the mistake of when to shutdown help) or the highlighting of recognizing it needs to stop shows they won’t blow it.  Personally, I feel like this is too late in the game to give one sided help to a clearly strong team.  

Did they help Luis and Michelle?   I thought those two did the paddle board and they helped the other couple. 

[chaifan]

11 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I hate Picasso but it was also a boring task to watch because you couldn't see any of the colors on TV. I don't know if it was the time of day they shot but everything looked dark on the glass. I assume the racers had a better sense of the colors in person. 

I totally agree.  It looked like a good challenge from a racer/race perspective, but from a viewer perspective it rather sucked.  I couldn't get any sense of what the puzzles looked like at any point in time.  And the pop up showing what they got wrong was 100% not helpful.  I wonder why they made it so big it required an assistant.  Did they intend for it to only be done by the racers, but realized the plexiglass was too heavy after it was too late to do them all over?  I think it would have been better for them to be slightly smaller and able to be handled by one person.  But, it was very much to Emily's advantage that an assistant was there. 

I also didn't quite get what was challenging about the sardines.  Put them all facing the same direction, skewer them, salt them, stick them by the fire.  The paddleboard definitely looked like the harder task.

I so wish Molly and Emily would be in the final 3, but I just don't think that's going to happen.

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

Did they help Luis and Michelle?   I thought those two did the paddle board and they helped the other couple. 

That's correct. Derek and Claire helped Aubrey and David with the sardines while Luis and Michelle were loving life out on the surf.

Edited November 17, 2022 by tracyscott76

[pennben]

Oh, right on the couple they helped.  My bad🤷‍♀️

[eel21788]

16 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

I'm really over the "Eww, fish are gross!" business. 

It was still better than hearing "you got this" shouted more than a thousand times in one episode. I was ready to just turn the volume off, so I didn't have to listen to it anymore.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I’m fine without food challenges, I hate seeing people gagging and puking. More and more people have food allergies and intolerance and what you can or cannot eat shouldn’t disqualify you from the show.

Eh. This is a reality competition show. People aren't entitled to be on it. The show doesn't have to make allowances for any potential contestant. I think they did have a season where someone didn't eat meat and the challenge was eating meat so they had to choose between eating the meat or taking the time penalty. And that's as it should be. Like anything else, you have to be aware of what you're getting into before you apply. If you can't drive, or you can't fly, or you can't run, or whatever - then you can't be on this particular show, period.

I do agree about the gagging and puking though. I'll never forget the spicy soup they had to eat way back when, it was a whole roomful of people gagging. 

My point is they should have made that Detour challenge a little tougher. Too many of these challenges are way too easy.

[dgpolo]

Did anyone notice that the twins only had one backpack between them? Have they always only had one? One of the couples only had one between them too, not sure which one. At first I thought maybe they were allowed to keep stuff on the plane but the brothers and one of the other couples both had their backpacks so I don't think so.

When the teams were whining about the fish all I could think of was a previous season where the teams had to buy a huge fish and some other stuff and lug it across town to somewhere else. One of the racers was complaining about all the blood and guts getting all over her, I could understand those complaints.

Could not believe Molly and Emily rode right past the cube!

[springbarb]

1 hour ago, dgpolo said:

Did anyone notice that the twins only had one backpack between them? Have they always only had one? One of the couples only had one between them too, not sure which one. At first I thought maybe they were allowed to keep stuff on the plane but the brothers and one of the other couples both had their backpacks so I don't think so.

Derek and Claire only have one backpack. I'm not sure they ever had two. Derek's the one who always carries it.

[xcrayon2215x]

The comments about the fish were a bit much. I understand it from Claire being vegan but the others not as much. I think the injury will likely eliminate Emily and Molly. 

[Quilt Fairy]

It would have been better if they didn't let the racers know ahead of time that it was a megaleg.

[30 Helens]

10 hours ago, pennben said:

I wonder if the focus on Derek & Claire helping Luis & Michele is meant to highlight their downfall (in that they’ve already made the mistake of when to shutdown help) or the highlighting of recognizing it needs to stop shows they won’t blow it.  Personally, I feel like this is too late in the game to give one sided help to a clearly strong team.  
 

ETA:  Whoops, they didn’t help Luis & Michele, it was the other couple. Still not sure a great idea this late. 

I suspect it was to foreshadow them getting some payback assistance later on, although I, too, hate the helping. Be friendly, wish them well, but raaace. (And don’t waste time going back to grab more fish snacks.) I was shouting at Derek to stop helping, but to be honest, I’m not sure if it was because of the help or who was getting it. If they had been helping a team I liked (like the actual Luis and Michele), I may have been less annoyed.

I had that Picasso painting on a poster in my first apartment, and I was wishing I could have played along and spotted their mistakes. I actually thought they were playing with black and white images for a while, it was so washed out. Oh, well. (I’d have ruled that challenge, though.)

[PurpleTentacle]

Another pretty boring episode. The contestants are great, but sadly they have to run rather boring legs. Hopefully this will get better again after COVID restrictions are lifted and doesn't become the new normal.

The talking heads were pretty spoilery again. I think you can say with pretty high confidence who the last team is, by looking at the sun.

On 11/17/2022 at 5:14 AM, Jodithgrace said:

Those glass sheets looked so heavy.

I mean it's plexiglas. They are more unweildy than heavy.

23 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Meh episode, mostly because it was the first part of a Megaleg.

There is generally too little going on in this current form of TAR. I think if they'd put a whole mega leg into a normal length episode, they might have got something. But as it is, it's mostly boring.

12 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I'm not sure I like the new format where there are no non-elimination legs. At least with those you don't know (for sure) whether or not it's a non-elimination leg until the last team gets to the mat. With these mega-legs you know for sure nobody is going to get eliminated this episode, so there is very little suspense. 

Megalegs are and always were dumb when they end in a TBC. Now even the racers know that they are going to continue racing, which makes it even dumber.

12 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Malaga has 30 museums? That's a lot of museums for one city. I have to assume some of them are tiny niche museums, like the museum of painted rocks, or something.

Eh, even Kassel has like 9 major museums (that doesn't even count the smaller ones like the Carricatura or the Film-Shop [oldest video rental store in the world, that is now museum-ish]) and 3 historical gardens and that is a boring city in germany of 200.000, with a history that isn't that long, since the romans were never there and not that much from the germanic tribes endures. Málaga is a city of 560.000 and has all that long history.

10 hours ago, pennben said:

I wonder if the focus on Derek & Claire helping Luis & Michele is meant to highlight their downfall (in that they’ve already made the mistake of when to shutdown help) or the highlighting of recognizing it needs to stop shows they won’t blow it.  Personally, I feel like this is too late in the game to give one sided help to a clearly strong team.  

If there is a downfall it won't come this leg. Their talking heads were with the sun still pretty high in the sky. I don't think they'll come in first, but also not last.

Don't look if you don't want to completely spoil yourself, but you can look at the shadow of the balustrade during the talking heads, to get a pretty good glimpse at what placement the teams got. Can't really see that for Molly and Emily and Aubrey and David, since they were interviewed in a different location, which probably means they came in at the same time as another team, but the three other teams.

5 hours ago, dgpolo said:

Did anyone notice that the twins only had one backpack between them? Have they always only had one? One of the couples only had one between them too, not sure which one. At first I thought maybe they were allowed to keep stuff on the plane but the brothers and one of the other couples both had their backpacks so I don't think so.

The twins had two packs in the last leg. But racers have often consolidated stuff in past seasons for the last few legs, when it becomes clear that you won't need some stuff. I think here it's pretty clear that they won't need winter gear, as they won't be going far out of europe or north america, for example. It's even more prudent to do that when one of the team members is injured.

[PurpleTentacle]

I'm going to make a prediction of the finishing order with the talking heads we've seen. We'll see how acurate I was next week.

Spoiler

1. Luis & Michelle

2. Aubrey & David

3. Derek & Claire

4. Emily & Molly

5. Marcus & Michael

[Skooma]

9 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Eh. This is a reality competition show. People aren't entitled to be on it. The show doesn't have to make allowances for any potential contestant. I think they did have a season where someone didn't eat meat and the challenge was eating meat so they had to choose between eating the meat or taking the time penalty.   ...

I've seen every single episode of TAR and as a vegetarian I'm super keyed into a situation like that and I never remember it happening.  What they have done is make one side of a detour about meat eating and the other not so the team has no choice which detour to take which is a penalty in and of itself narrowing their options.

With roadblocks there have been some that involved eating meat but in those cases the producers knew in advance if there was a team of 2 vegetarians or even vegans or just one member.  If both were then those roadblock types never appeared in that season.  If one member was and one wasn't (like the BB couple here) then yes the RB could/would be in that season since the one non-veggie partner could do it.  TAR producers aren't ever going to force a choice of having to violate one's lifelong spiritual principles or not after all.

And yes us vegetarians (and vegans even) are just as much entitled to be on TAR as meat eaters are or only fish eaters etc etc, thank you.  We too are part of the human race.  Live and let live for everybody.

(Side note: There was one fast forward that involved drinking animal blood in Season 6 so if a team were veggies they would have had to punt on that one but there is no penalty for punting a FF other than making up time lost trying for it.  But wrestler Bolo and his wife were not veggies and drank the blood with gusto as I recall).

Edited November 18, 2022 by Skooma

[aghst]

On 11/16/2022 at 8:14 PM, Jodithgrace said:

I like sardines, but these ones still had guts, which I found unappealing. 

Wild sardine from Spain and Portugal are popular.  They've not been fileted but packed in olive oil or tomato sauce.

Yes it's all guts though they're smaller than the ones they roasted on this episode.

They're good on crackers.

19 hours ago, Haleth said:

It wasn't a great episode for the tasks, but man, another breathtaking location!  Omigosh, at the end of the leg when the early teams picked up the convertibles to drive along the coast? 

They're headed towards Ronda, which is inland and on top of a ravine overlooking valleys around it.

I know because I just booked a trip to Andalusia which includes Ronda and Malaga.

Looking forward to the next episode.

[North of Eden]

Two revelations tonight both involving Aubrey.

I didn't know she was philipino....I thought she was a latina.

Second for some reason I never noticed before but she seems like a complete dimbulb. I had no confidence in her at the Picaso challenge.

I wonder if TAR is contractually obligated to have at least one team do one of the roadblocks. I wonder what would have happened if no one had done the paddleboard challenge.

Speaking of that challenge....guest character of the week was Blurred Out Face Guy in the innertub practically being an obstacle in his own right when hottie Michelle and her hubby were trying to make the delivery.

Derek's behaviour on the bike was cringworthy....if you put him on a Harley Davidson...okay but acting like a scared school girl was over the top. Plus the out and out helping the other team was just so stupid....I did  not like Derek this week at all.

[dgpolo]

8 hours ago, Skooma said:

17 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Eh. This is a reality competition show. People aren't entitled to be on it. The show doesn't have to make allowances for any potential contestant. I think they did have a season where someone didn't eat meat and the challenge was eating meat so they had to choose between eating the meat or taking the time penalty.   ...

I've seen every single episode of TAR and as a vegetarian I'm super keyed into a situation like that and I never remember it happening.  What they have done is make one side of a detour about meat eating and the other not so the team has no choice which detour to take which is a penalty in and of itself narrowing their options.

Nat and Kat ate a sheep's head for a FF when one of them was a vegetarian. I think Marie didn't eat meat but had to eat part of a cobra (everyone did, there was no choice)

37 minutes ago, North of Eden said:

I wonder if TAR is contractually obligated to have at least one team do one of the roadblocks. I wonder what would have happened if no one had done the paddleboard challenge.

There have been times when no one did one side of the roadblock, my understanding is that they save the challenge to reuse in another race.

[TVbitch]

Why do they tell the viewers it is a mega leg before the leg even starts? It kills any suspense for this entire episode! Phil could have just as easily popped up on the beach toward the end of the detour to announce that. And if you are going to have mega legs, why bother with all that hoopla of making it an "all-elimination leg race" only to work around it. 

Maybe they were over the top because they only had one team paddle out, but the actors on the boat need to keep their day jobs. 😁

[proserpina65]

On 11/16/2022 at 10:39 PM, Quilt Fairy said:

I'm really over the "Eww, fish are gross!" business.  The damn fish are dead, you're not hurting them.  Eat a pound of caviar or drink a cup of pig's blood and talk to me then.

I hate fish, so I get the "Eww, fish are gross" thing, but say it once and get on with the task already.  You're trying to win a million dollars.

On 11/16/2022 at 11:14 PM, Jodithgrace said:

When I saw that people had to ride bikes after the Roadblock, I was really worried about Emily. But it didn’t seem to bother her. 

Me, too, but I guess it depended on the injury.  I have arthritis in one knee, and the biking wouldn't have bothered it but that descent to the square would've been torture.

On 11/17/2022 at 1:51 AM, aradia22 said:

I didn't expect so many people to hate fish. It's no worse than handling raw chicken, beef, etc. to me. I get it with Claire because she's a vegan but the others were pretty squeamish. 

To be fair to the contestants, I'm pretty squeamish about raw chicken and beef too.  But again, $1,000,000!

9 hours ago, Skooma said:

What they have done is make one side of a detour about meat eating and the other not so the team has no choice which detour to take which is a penalty in and of itself narrowing their options.

They had a fast forward which required eating an entire sheep's head in Norway.  Nat & Kat did it despite at least one of them having been vegetarian for years.  But since it wasn't a required task, they could've declined.

47 minutes ago, dgpolo said:

There have been times when no one did one side of the roadblock, my understanding is that they save the challenge to reuse in another race.

Detour, not roadblock.

[meep.meep]

9 hours ago, Skooma said:

I've seen every single episode of TAR and as a vegetarian I'm super keyed into a situation like that and I never remember it happening.  What they have done is make one side of a detour about meat eating and the other not so the team has no choice which detour to take which is a penalty in and of itself narrowing their options.

Boston Rob and the 4# of meat in the Andes.  It was a roadblock, he knew he couldn't do it, so he took the penalty and had to convince at least 1 person after him to take it.  He ended up talking a few people into sitting out and taking the penalty with him.

The fish task here didn't look that bad, and they didn't force both members of the team to eat the fish at the end.  With the other task, I kept wondering why they didn't put one member of the team on the paddleboard to stabilize it and hold the ice bucket.

Emily is the one who put together the motorcycle, right?  She deserves to go down in TAR history just for that.

[watch2much]

love the twins and their "can do" attitude.  so sorry one is hurt so bad.  I cringe watching her try to walk and run.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Derek's behaviour on the bike was cringworthy....if you put him on a Harley Davidson...okay but acting like a scared school girl was over the top. Plus the out and out helping the other team was just so stupid....I did  not like Derek this week at all.

I can see where Claire sort of has to "wear the pants" in that relationship sometimes. And I don't think Derek really minds. Some might find Derek "cringeworthy" but I find him rather endearing. As for helping others, that's just kind of how Derek and Claire are. You could rightly say their problem is that they are too nice. It was kind of their undoing on Big Brother, too. But I still like them.

[Guest]

I think Derek just has one of those personalities that people react differently to. Like his Picasso/Van Gogh "gotcha" with David: some might see that as kind of dickish and show-offy, where others would see it as just light-hearted fun. I'm personally on the fence with him, but Claire's general way of being is hitting me right where I live in terms of my type, so I'm rooting for her; he is just the collateral beneficiary 😆 

Luis is in a similar boat with me. Most of the time I find him fun, sometimes he's way extra, sometimes he's both (like on the paddleboard) but overall he's harmless, and he's partnered with Michelle, so...he can stay lol.

But I like Emily and Molly, too (and I can't ding Emily for mentioning her knee all the time - if I were trying to do all that running around on a bum knee you can bet the editors would be hard pressed to find footage where I wasn't talking about it). And as buff guy teams go, Marcus and Michael are way, way, waaaay down the offensiveness scale.

Aubrey and David...well, they seem to be filling the "they made it far so we have to show them" role, and I don't have much opinion on them, unfortunately.

[chaifan]

13 hours ago, Skooma said:

With roadblocks there have been some that involved eating meat but in those cases the producers knew in advance if there was a team of 2 vegetarians or even vegans or just one member.  If both were then those roadblock types never appeared in that season.  If one member was and one wasn't (like the BB couple here) then yes the RB could/would be in that season since the one non-veggie partner could do it.  TAR producers aren't ever going to force a choice of having to violate one's lifelong spiritual principles or not after all.

Do you know this for a fact, or is it speculation?  Because I would have assumed the opposite - challenges are set before the cast is chosen.  Because if they're switching out a task because of one team, that would be favoring that team.  And that's against game show rules.  Just my take on it, though, I really don't know either way.

I'm ok with food based challenges if it's a detour, so there is a choice to be made.  I'm less worried about someone violating lifelong principles (be it vegan or religious based food restrictions) than "forcing" someone with a food allergy to choose between continuing on the race or dying.  I'm not a fan of eat a ridiculous amount of food as a challenge.  I appreciate the cultural ones, though.  Like the maggot cheese last season - something that is normal to the locals, but we find disgusting.  I like seeing how racers handle those types of challenges.  This bunch would not have fared well, considering how many of them can't tolerate normal little fishies.

4 hours ago, meep.meep said:

With the other task, I kept wondering why they didn't put one member of the team on the paddleboard to stabilize it and hold the ice bucket.

Luis & Michelle made the decision to stay off the paddleboard until they got past the big waves.  I think that made sense - it would have been harder for Luis to stabilize the paddleboard by himself if Michelle were on it holding the ice.  I think the even smarter thing would have been for Luis to carry the ice cooler until they were past the waves, then put it on the paddleboard.  Not sure if that was allowed or not, though.

I was all set to hate Derek & Claire even before the race began, just because of their BB status.  But I'll be the first to admit it - I like them.  I really like them.  I like their dynamic with each other.  I think Derek is funny (most of the time), and I like that he fesses up to being such a klutz and having a fear of bikes.  I'd be happy with them getting 2nd, behind Molly & Emily (which I highly doubt will happen). 

[Hera]

On 11/17/2022 at 4:26 PM, iMonrey said:

Both Survivor and Amazing Race have moved away from eating challenges for the past several years, and I'd be interested to know why. Probably a lot of complaints from viewers, or maybe the contestants themselves.

It could be a liability thing. As others have noted, if the required food has an ingredient that someone is allergic to (or something like celiac where the food triggers an autoimmune reaction), then they literally can't do it and the show would end up discriminating against people with certain health conditions. And it might be that someone is allergic to something but doesn't find out because the first time they encounter the trigger is on the race. It could also be cultural sensitivity thing—these challenges are based on the premise that the unfamiliar food will be disgusting for the contestants and hard to eat, which is potentially offensive to people from the culture where the food comes from.

I liked the Picasso task in principle, but agree with the people who have said that it was hard to see what the racers actually made. Initially I thought the plexiglass didn't have colors, but from some angles you could see that they did, and some of them were pretty vibrant. It just didn't come through the camera, I guess.

I was surprised when the twins said in their interview that they tended to take wrong turns in cities, since it seemed that they were one of the stronger teams when it came to navigation. Maybe they are and the others are just even worse. Or maybe their navigational advantage only asserts itself on long distance trips.

[mbluecpa]

Two things stood out about this week’s episode for me.  The Picasso challenge really wasn’t TV-friendly; the light and reflections made their (plexi)glass versions very hard to see.  And I assume Emily’s knee will come into play at some point, but can the Amazing Editors give us a break???

[Netfoot]

They are fish! Not strips of ocelot shit! Get on with it! I live on an island and I'm fine eating fish (I don't usually cook it because I'm bad at that, but I'm fine eating fish someone else cooked) That said, I don't much like sardines, pilchards and others of that ilk that are usually served with guts, backbones and crap-filled colons in them. But I can eat that too, if you are offering me a chance at a million dollars!

Vegan or vegetarians as well as teetotalers, etc: On the race you should expect to be instructed to eat a sardine or take a shot of Vodka. If doing so will be a true violation of your principles, don't apply for the race! TPTB are under no obligations to craft their challenges to conform to your worldview.

Molly and E-Molly, I get it. One of you has a hurt knee. We all get it. Telling us about it gets boring after about the 650th time. Do what you can to inspire your daughter. But otherwise suck it up and shut up about it! It's starting to sound like you're constantly begging for an advantage or special treatment. I know you aren't, but you sound like you are.

Derek never had no boy-days? He is freaking out because he is being asked to ride a bike? I hope they don't ask him to climb a tree next. Because after that, there can only be the dreaded throw a stone!

Overall, I enjoyed the episode. Picasso was trickier than it initially appeared, and was a good challenge as a result. It would have made better television if production hat had thought to erect awnings so the glare of the sun was less of an issue. Cooking the fish was also more nuanced than initial appearances would suggest. Someone mentioned weaving the skewer back over and under the spines of the fish, and the skewer itself was curved across it's width. And these things seem to make a difference with how securely the fish stayed on the skewer and didn't fall to the sands.

On 11/18/2022 at 1:37 AM, PurpleTentacle said:

Megalegs are and always were dumb when they end in a TBC. Now even the racers know that they are going to continue racing, which makes it even dumber.

The Megaleg can make the episode less interesting for us viewers because we know from the start that there will be no elimination at the end of the episode. Which is why I am surprised they announced it was a Megaleg right at the beginning.

For the contestants, however, not so. They aren't running an episode. They are running a leg! When the leg ends, some team will be eliminated. The only difference it makes to the racers is that they know the leg will be more arduous that usual, because it will be longer than usual and they will be asked to struggle with more than the usual number of challenges. Telling them in advance that it will be a Megaleg might ramp up apprehension and stress, but I don't see there is any real reason for them to know.

I think it serves racers, viewers and production best if everyone thinks it's a regular leg until they meet Phil at the halfway point. When he drops that next clue on them and tells them to get their exhausted arses back into gear, that will boost racer apprehension and stress. And right up until that moment, viewers will be thinking that there will - or at least considering that there might - be an elimination.

Somehow, never gave much thought as to how gorgeous Malaga might be! My thanks to TPTB for opening my eyes a little.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Netfoot

[SVNBob]

On 11/16/2022 at 10:14 PM, Jodithgrace said:

El cubo was cool…what is that? 

On 11/17/2022 at 10:26 AM, iMonrey said:

Malaga has 30 museums? That's a lot of museums for one city. I have to assume some of them are tiny niche museums, like the museum of painted rocks, or something.

Herein likes the answer.  Apparently "El Cubo" is the Centre Pompidou Malaga, a venue for art exhibitions of all kinds; paintings (naturally including the local boy Picasso), dance, film, spoken word, etc.  So it's one of the 30.

On 11/18/2022 at 9:51 AM, meep.meep said:

Boston Rob and the 4# of meat in the Andes.  It was a roadblock, he knew he couldn't do it, so he took the penalty and had to convince at least 1 person after him to take it.  He ended up talking a few people into sitting out and taking the penalty with him.

Technically, BRob only talked one person into also taking the Meatblock penalty.  It's just that a 3rd team (the senior citizen couple) overheard that discussion and the non-'Blocking teammate talked her partner into also taking the penalty.  But those were the only 3 who did.  Everyone else either arrived before teams started taking the penalty and toughed the 'Block out, or arrived later and took a long time to do the 'Block.

My question: did TPTB decide to have Malaga be part of the Megaleg because of the similarities in spelling and pronunciation?  Or are those just happy coincidences?

Edited November 21, 2022 by SVNBob

[Lamb18]

On 11/18/2022 at 9:01 AM, dgpolo said:

Nat and Kat ate a sheep's head for a FF when one of them was a vegetarian. I think Marie didn't eat meat but had to eat part of a cobra (everyone did, there was no choice)

There have been times when no one did one side of the roadblock, my understanding is that they save the challenge to reuse in another race.

Roadblocks are the same for all teams, there is no option except take a penalty. Detours have the two options.

[aemom]

On 11/18/2022 at 1:30 AM, Skooma said:

I've seen every single episode of TAR and as a vegetarian I'm super keyed into a situation like that and I never remember it happening.  What they have done is make one side of a detour about meat eating and the other not so the team has no choice which detour to take which is a penalty in and of itself narrowing their options.

With roadblocks there have been some that involved eating meat but in those cases the producers knew in advance if there was a team of 2 vegetarians or even vegans or just one member.  If both were then those roadblock types never appeared in that season.  If one member was and one wasn't (like the BB couple here) then yes the RB could/would be in that season since the one non-veggie partner could do it.  TAR producers aren't ever going to force a choice of having to violate one's lifelong spiritual principles or not after all.

And yes us vegetarians (and vegans even) are just as much entitled to be on TAR as meat eaters are or only fish eaters etc etc, thank you.  We too are part of the human race.  Live and let live for everybody.

(Side note: There was one fast forward that involved drinking animal blood in Season 6 so if a team were veggies they would have had to punt on that one but there is no penalty for punting a FF other than making up time lost trying for it.  But wrestler Bolo and his wife were not veggies and drank the blood with gusto as I recall).

My understanding is that the entire race is laid out prior to casting. 

On 11/18/2022 at 9:12 AM, North of Eden said:

I wonder if TAR is contractually obligated to have at least one team do one of the roadblocks. I wonder what would have happened if no one had done the paddleboard challenge.

No, I've seen it happen where one is entirely skipped. I always feel sad for the people working at it.

I think Derek was so freaked out on the bike because he'd had bike and scooter accidents. I'd probably be nervous too.

8 minutes ago, Lamb18 said:

Roadblocks are the same for all teams, there is no option except take a penalty. Detours have the two options.

Actually you can take a penalty on a roadblock, and teams have done that. The last that I remember, it was 4 hours, though they may have changed that.

[PurpleTentacle]

On 11/20/2022 at 2:16 PM, Netfoot said:

For the contestants, however, not so. They aren't running an episode. They are running a leg! When the leg ends, some team will be eliminated. The only difference it makes to the racers is that they know the leg will be more arduous that usual, because it will be longer than usual and they will be asked to struggle with more than the usual number of challenges. Telling them in advance that it will be a Megaleg might ramp up apprehension and stress, but I don't see there is any real reason for them to know.

Sure it makes a difference for the teams. Previously the last team would get to the Amazing Bathmat, all defeated, Phil would play with them for a bit, maybe even say "this is not a non-elimation leg", but then tell them that the leg wasn't over and give them their next clue.

That is some heightened drama, while racing to the mat, at the mat, and catharsis at the end of that section, with the team now elated and invigorated.

Of course sometimes it falls flat, but more often than not it makes for great television and it had a huge impact on the teams.

Also teams can't strategically plan to preserve their energy for the second part of the leg, like a bunch of them did this episode. That's a massive difference.

[Netfoot]

On 11/18/2022 at 3:59 PM, chaifan said:

I was all set to hate Derek & Claire even before the race began, just because of their BB status.  But I'll be the first to admit it - I like them.  I really like them.

I'm in the exact same space. Hate that show, and past recruits to TAR have been super ugh! But D&C won me over pretty early, and now I am wishing them the big win.

[proserpina65]

On 11/20/2022 at 8:16 AM, Netfoot said:

For the contestants, however, not so. They aren't running an episode. They are running a leg! When the leg ends, some team will be eliminated. The only difference it makes to the racers is that they know the leg will be more arduous that usual, because it will be longer than usual and they will be asked to struggle with more than the usual number of challenges. Telling them in advance that it will be a Megaleg might ramp up apprehension and stress, but I don't see there is any real reason for them to know.

Exactly.  For them it's just a day-ish long leg but with extra tasks.  Which makes it tougher.

[Lovecat]

On 11/17/2022 at 7:26 PM, dgpolo said:

Did anyone notice that the twins only had one backpack between them? Have they always only had one? One of the couples only had one between them too, not sure which one. At first I thought maybe they were allowed to keep stuff on the plane but the brothers and one of the other couples both had their backpacks so I don't think so.

On 11/18/2022 at 12:37 AM, PurpleTentacle said:

The twins had two packs in the last leg. But racers have often consolidated stuff in past seasons for the last few legs, when it becomes clear that you won't need some stuff. I think here it's pretty clear that they won't need winter gear, as they won't be going far out of europe or north america, for example. It's even more prudent to do that when one of the team members is injured.

Racers have even completely jettisoned their packs to run the final leg unencumbered.  I've always wondered whether Production scoops their stuff up and returns it to them, or if it's still in, like, the airport Lost and Found.

[PurpleTentacle]

6 hours ago, Lovecat said:

Racers have even completely jettisoned their packs to run the final leg unencumbered.  I've always wondered whether Production scoops their stuff up and returns it to them, or if it's still in, like, the airport Lost and Found.

For the final leg teams would usually check their backpacks and pick them up at the airport after the leg was over. Since they were usually flying out after anyway it wasn't even a detour.

Edited November 22, 2022 by PurpleTentacle

[UncleChuck]

Quote

Racers have even completely jettisoned their packs to run the final leg unencumbered.  I've always wondered whether Production scoops their stuff up and returns it to them, or if it's still in, like, the airport Lost and Found.

In their weekly podcast, Derek and Claire said that they saw Michael and Marcus tossing a bunch of stuff into a trash can before this megaleg started.  The brothers were trying to lighten their load with unneeded stuff, but Derek was amazed that M & M had been carrying a pack with extra sweaters, hoodies and even an extra pair of shoes.  Amazing that they are strong enough to carry all that extra weight and make it so far on TAR. 

Since Derek said the brothers were tossing it into the trash, it implied that they were abandoning the stuff, and no production assistants would be dumpster-diving to salvage anything.