S35.E09: In the Belly of the Earth

[proserpina65]

On 11/25/2023 at 10:59 AM, chaifan said:

I agree with you on most points, but I will admit, "PIVOT!" was screaming in my head every time people were going around corners on those stairs.  If I were there, there would be no stopping me from doing my best Ross impersonation.  Probably several times.  😁

Me, too.

[Ancaster]

10 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I thought R & C got there before S & AL.  Or at least about the same time.  But yeah, Chelsea having to redo that task started them on a downward spiral from which they never recovered.

I don't have kids but I love dragons and have assembled some model ones similar to that, on, as you said, a much smaller scale.  Between that and my ability to assemble IKEA-type stuff, I would've loved that task.

As I type I'm looking at a newly acquired and constructed 5 drawer piece called, cutely, Alex. 

(No image as it's some weird Scandinavian file suffix that Primetimer doesn't like.  I'm sure you can picture him.)

 

[proserpina65]

On 11/25/2023 at 9:44 PM, Netfoot said:

Not saying for sure, but with all those thousands of buoys out there, to have only the exact number would have been very hard on the last team to arrive.

Rather like having a set number of hay bales with clues in a field full of hay bales - 20 clues for 9 teams and one of the later teams to arrive struggled because there were so few clues left to find.

On 11/26/2023 at 11:47 AM, North of Eden said:

I think its great but as you said they didn't do it for the covid seasons and there probably weren't any episodes where the team to be eliminated was so clearly telegraphed which would seem like something Phil and the producers wouldn't want.

It used to happen all the time on self-navigation legs pre-covid.  So the producers know about the issue but clearly decided that self-navigation provides opportunities to mix up team order and are unlikely to stop making the racers drive themselves now that covid is less of an issue.

On 11/26/2023 at 3:50 PM, North of Eden said:

Yes I know this and with the over proliferation of it this season I worry the producers may want to thwart it as best as possible.

It really hasn't been any worse this season than in previous ones where self-navigation was involved.

18 hours ago, Ilovepie said:

Funny how AL's demeanor improved the closer she got to first place. She is like two different people depending on where she's at between first and last place. But kudos to them for kicking it into high gear and moving up. They are formidable when navigation doesn't take them out.

Whatever criticisms I have of AL, and I do have some, I have to admit that she really does kick ass at the tasks.

13 hours ago, Tdoc72 said:

I remember they once had to count a huge bin of little stuffed animals at Ikea. Google tells me it was the episode with the hay rolls that eliminated the sisters. 

Yeah, the detour in that leg was a choice between counting items at IKEA (pots, pans & stuffed bears) and assembling an IKEA desk.  My best friend and I would've rocked the Build It task since we've assembled a lot of pre-fab furniture over the years.

[iMonrey]

16 hours ago, blackwing said:

It's because this couple bickers a lot and Ashlie very obviously seems to always criticise him and yell at him.  He decided he already messed up once so he was going to let her make the decisions.  She doesn't seem like a very supportive person.  She expected him to do all the driving and navigating and decision making but then relentlessly badgers him when he makes a mistake.  It's no wonder why he didn't want to make the decision.  Just like with Robbin and Chelsea, this team explained their dynamic to us clearly, Ashlie said that they fight a lot but they understand each other.  Ok.

On 11/22/2023 at 11:48 PM, PurpleTentacle said:

Thank you! At least one person agrees with me that it's Ashlie who's the real pill in that relationship.

[proserpina65]

29 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

As I type I'm looking at a newly acquired and constructed 5 drawer piece called, cutely, Alex. 

(No image as it's some weird Scandinavian file suffix that Primetimer doesn't like.  I'm sure you can picture him.)

 

I love that IKEA names everything.  Even the bags of screws and the plastic Christmas ornament hangers.

[sara416]

I loved Robbin and Chelsea going out at the end and saying "Our kids will be proud. And they'll see Rob and Corey, and Greg and John, and know that we never had a chance!" it was a good note to go out on. 

[blackwing]

26 minutes ago, sara416 said:

I loved Robbin and Chelsea going out at the end and saying "Our kids will be proud. And they'll see Rob and Corey, and Greg and John, and know that we never had a chance!" it was a good note to go out on. 

It was Chelsea that said that.  Chelsea seems to be the more down to earth and realistic one in that pair.   Even when they were dead last and obviously outclassed, Robbin had to tell the cameraman that when they started the race, she thought that they would be consistently at the top of the pack.  I have no idea what kind of water she is drinking.  Kudos to them for getting as far as they did, since to me they looked like one of the obvious cannon fodder teams from the start.

Also, she mentioned that she is 40.  She's only 40?  I would have thought she was easily pushing 50.

[Ilovepie]

1 hour ago, sara416 said:

"Our kids will be proud. And they'll see Rob and Corey, and Greg and John, and know that we never had a chance!"

I think it's interesting that they pegged Rob and Corey as the other top team considering they haven't had one first place finish all season. I love them, but I am not sure that they are any more of a threat than AL & Dad, Todd & Ashleigh or the beards on any given challenge. Other than the Greg & John juggernaut, I think it's pretty even between those other four teams. I hope Rob & Corey use that express pass to propel them to at least one first place finish!

[Tango64]

Re concerns over self-navigation creating too much of a lag between teams and telegraphing who will be eliminated, I've never seen that as a concern and I doubt Phil does either. Sure, it can be exciting to see who ekes out the win or barely escapes elimination, but that's not the only appeal of TAR. I find the navigation or clue foul-ups to be highly entertaining because that's the realistic nature of doing a race like this. Otherwise, you put them all on a shuttlebus like during Covid, they arrive together, and they might as well be doing the tasks in a Hollywood studio.

[Door County Cherry]

13 hours ago, Tango64 said:

Re concerns over self-navigation creating too much of a lag between teams and telegraphing who will be eliminated, I've never seen that as a concern and I doubt Phil does either. Sure, it can be exciting to see who ekes out the win or barely escapes elimination, but that's not the only appeal of TAR. I find the navigation or clue foul-ups to be highly entertaining because that's the realistic nature of doing a race like this. Otherwise, you put them all on a shuttlebus like during Covid, they arrive together, and they might as well be doing the tasks in a Hollywood studio.

I agree.  I love the self-navigation tasks.  I'm less of a fan of the ticket buying because I think it's pretty clear TAR reserves some seats in Flight 1 and some seats in Flight 2.  It feels overly choreographed to me and I'd rather they just stick them on a charter. 

But the self-navigation, which requires skill and communication?  Now that I love.

13 hours ago, Ilovepie said:

I think it's interesting that they pegged Rob and Corey as the other top team considering they haven't had one first place finish all season. I love them, but I am not sure that they are any more of a threat than AL & Dad, Todd & Ashleigh or the beards on any given challenge.

They've had multiple 2nd and 3rd place finishes.  Their worst finish was 6th--once.  You also had the racers in this episode talk about how Rob and Corey would just sneak up out of nowhere.  

If you average the place finishes, Greg and John are the lowest with 3.1 but Corey and Rob are second with an average place finish of 3.4.  The other three teams are over 4.  Joel and Garrett are over 5.  I swear, if they win this, it'll be the biggest shock.  However, statistically (if that's the only thing that mattered), it'd be a Greg & John, Rob & Corey and either Steve & Anna Leigh or Todd & Ashlie finale.  The last two have an average finish of 4.1.

[Haleth]

All the remaining teams are competent racers.  It's going to be a matter of transportation luck or coincidental abilities/knowledge in the remaining tasks to get ahead as the race winds down.  That's what is making this such a great season.  We have no idea how it will end up.

[chaifan]

6 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

I agree.  I love the self-navigation tasks.  I'm less of a fan of the ticket buying because I think it's pretty clear TAR reserves some seats in Flight 1 and some seats in Flight 2.  It feels overly choreographed to me and I'd rather they just stick them on a charter. 

But the self-navigation, which requires skill and communication?  Now that I love.

I totally agree.  In the early days, when teams could buy multiple tickets, jockey for stand by, etc., the airport drama was truly drama.  Now, 90% of the time it just seems like a waste of screen time to me.  I liked the use of the charter plane, but wanted to see team start times correspond with actual mat arrival times, not the group bunching that they did in Covid seasons. 

I love self navigation legs!  It is a whole different skill set, for both driver and navigator, and to really test their ability to work as a team.  Again, much better than any drama created by bad taxi driver luck. 

20 hours ago, blackwing said:

 Even when they were dead last and obviously outclassed, Robbin had to tell the cameraman that when they started the race, she thought that they would be consistently at the top of the pack.  I have no idea what kind of water she is drinking. 

Chelsea explained this in a post-elimination interview:

Quote

And Robbin had gone from obviously the situation she was in to becoming a rockstar CrossFit beast. And I was at the gym, being inspired by her ,just knowing what she'd gone through. And so we're at her house one day, and we're all pumped up because we're talking about how fast I was and how strong she was.

https://parade.com/tv/the-amazing-race-35-robbin-tomich-chelsea-day-eliminated-interview

And that part they were right on - they were a physically strong team.  Their navigation killed them more than anything else. 

In this interview, Robbin was unavailable.  In Andrea & Malania's interview, Malania was unavailable.  I find that so weird.  Parade interviews every team post-exit.  You know for a year this is coming up, you know exactly what week they'll be contacting you, and you can't schedule in a 30 minute phone interview? 

One thing that popped out for me in the interview.  Chelsea commented that the elimination happened on her birthday, but she had a "36 hour" birthday due to the time difference and got to spend her birthday with her family.  I'm surprised they send the teams home that quickly!  I guess the sequester location truly is a thing of the past? 

[blackwing]

28 minutes ago, chaifan said:

In this interview, Robbin was unavailable.  In Andrea & Malania's interview, Malania was unavailable.  I find that so weird.  Parade interviews every team post-exit.  You know for a year this is coming up, you know exactly what week they'll be contacting you, and you can't schedule in a 30 minute phone interview? 

One thing that popped out for me in the interview.  Chelsea commented that the elimination happened on her birthday, but she had a "36 hour" birthday due to the time difference and got to spend her birthday with her family.  I'm surprised they send the teams home that quickly!  I guess the sequester location truly is a thing of the past? 

That is weird... even if they were at work or something, why not find another time for a phone interview that week?

It's interesting that there is no more sequester... I thought part of the reason for sending all the eliminated teams to a resort was so they wouldn't get home early and their family etc would know when they had been eliminated?  Are there still nondisclosure agreements?  Wouldn't the family be able to count the days and know they didn't make it to the end?

[proserpina65]

22 hours ago, blackwing said:

Even when they were dead last and obviously outclassed, Robbin had to tell the cameraman that when they started the race, she thought that they would be consistently at the top of the pack.  I have no idea what kind of water she is drinking.  Kudos to them for getting as far as they did, since to me they looked like one of the obvious cannon fodder teams from the start.

Also, she mentioned that she is 40.  She's only 40?  I would have thought she was easily pushing 50.

At the beginning of the Race, she wouldn't have had much of a handle on the other teams, so this actually makes sense to me.  C&R were a physically strong team.  As the legs went on, she realized how tough some of the other competitors were.

Robbin has survived a life-threatening illness and then gained and lost a lot of weight.  Both of these situations have a tendency to age one's appearance, especially the serious weight loss.

 

[SHERMDOG]

On 11/27/2023 at 11:39 AM, iMonrey said:

Anna Leigh is a lot nicer when she's doing well. But I suppose it's possible that after escaping elimination when she was convinced throughout the leg they were last, she has adjusted her attitude a bit and calmed down.

Still can't stand her!! She's a bi#$h!..

(JMO of course)...I'm pretty ok with any team winning but them. I would NEVER talk to my dad like that..

She's a botox princess!!