S36.E02: Trust but Verify

[Browncoat]

Bye, Chris and Mary, but y'know, that face plant right at the start was a bad omen.  And I'm glad he didn't throw up.

[Good Queen Jane]

Hard ass? Really, Phil?

[MerBearHou]

I’m so glad the double-Dutch team wasn’t eliminated.  I really, really like them.

This is probably for the best for Mary and Chris — this is just too darn hard for him.  

[WatcherUp2]

Dang, I'd have liked to see more of Chris and Mary. She's got this calm but caring vibe that's really nice.

[endure]

30 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

They're making allowances for the sweat.

Sunny and Bizzy should have bailed on that flag Detour.

Honestly how hot was it, because carrying balloons or applying makeup is not a work out, there was no running, climbing, pivoting mattresses up stairs etc

[nilyank]

I mean they had a good attitude but that is probably as far as they were going to get.

I liked that the music was played from the Pitstop through the credits

[iMonrey]

This was probably for the best, I don't think Chris would have lasted much longer.

[dizzyd]

Have we been to Columbia before?

[nilyank]

1 minute ago, dizzyd said:

Have we been to Columbia before?

Google says yes.

[chaifan]

The fact that Walla Walla mom was sweating was actually a good sign.  Not sweating is a big sign of heat stroke.  It was funny that the son kept on face painting as she was lying down.  Smart, but funny.

As soon as they mentioned Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton, I knew at least one team would have no idea who they were.  And I pegged the twins for that. 

 

[WatcherUp2]

1 minute ago, endure said:

Honestly how hot was it, because carrying balloons or applying makeup is not a work out, there was no running, climbing, pivoting mattresses up stairs etc

I am able to pour sweat sitting completely still. Its been a problem since I was very young. If I'm outside, I have to wring out my hair every few minutes because it's drenched.

[Browncoat]

2 minutes ago, endure said:

Honestly how hot was it,

Mr. Google tells me that even in the winter, Puerto Vallarta is in the 80sF -- in the 90sF in the summer.  So it was dang hot.  

2 minutes ago, dizzyd said:

Have we been to Columbia before?

Colombia.  Columbia is in South Carolina.  Or New York, if you're talking about the university.

[nilyank]

I missed who said "Trust but Verify"

[endure]

25 minutes ago, endure said:

Honestly how hot was it, because carrying balloons or applying makeup is not a work out, there was no running, climbing, pivoting mattresses up stairs etc

I looked it up... Filming for this season began on October 25, 2022, outside of the United States for a second time in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the temp. was 88 F but depending on the relative humidity it could be much warmer..... the body experiences 88-degree (Fahrenheit) weather with 85 percent humidity as if it were 110 degrees.

Edited March 21 by endure

[chaifan]

18 minutes ago, nilyank said:

I missed who said "Trust but Verify"

It was one of the girlfriends, I think the Navy investigator.

If The Amazing Episode Title Creator wanted to have fun this season, the first episode should have been titled "Dude."  The second episode should have been titled "Dude."  And so on, and so on...

Edited March 21 by chaifan

[dizzyd]

21 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Colombia.  Columbia is in South Carolina.  Or New York, if you're talking about the university.

Yeah stupid autocorrect. Seeing as I’ve been and have a Colombia magnet on my fridge and 2 Colombians on my staff, my autocorrect should know better. 

[Tango64]

56 minutes ago, WatcherUp2 said:

Is the father (with daughter) or mother (with son) going to keel over first?

“Tonight, on a very special episode of The Amazing Race…”  (Muted, slow version of TAR theme music)

[Quilt Fairy]

36 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I knew at least one team would have no idea who they were.  And I pegged the twins for that. 

This is probably a safe bet most of the time.

[Meowwww]

Tonight was weird.  A few teams way ahead with most behind, trying to find the bridge.  

[bunnyface]

Im beginning to understand why they weren't too worried about getting this season out late...

[Lantern7]

I like to think that after Chris, Phil declared that having a slowly and keeling over-prone father would be a thing of the past. And then we got Steve and Anna Leigh.

Too many teams to track, not enough time. The tasks were fun, but the Detour seemed like a no-brainer. I’m guessing fatigue was a factor in teams initially going for the patterns, but it was too much of a headache. The Roadblock was fun to watch, and I liked the butterfly lady more or less chilling out while Racers applied makeup on each other.

15 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

Im beginning to understand why they weren't too worried about getting this season out late...

I hope that’s not the case, because TAR is a good show. Minimum, it’s better than the past-it’s-prime Survivor, which was a disaster tonight. Not much of a bar to set, though.

I don’t have a fave or least fave team yet. I was tickled to see a young Walla Walla kid hosting his own TAR. Hopefully, this “super fan” won’t be a total pain in the ass.

[dancingdreamer]

Boy, that heat was brutal. The racers with parents were so good. Last season all we heard, was" come on dad" umpteen times a leg.
I still don't get the colour correction task, but I would have dropped that, for the balloons.

I don't know who Elizabeth Taylor is, spoken by one twin.

 

I'm officially older than dirt! I knew 

I don't know how long mum will make it, but when she lay down, I told DH the son should continue with the makeup ,and he did!

Edited March 22 by dancingdreamer

[Lakebum]

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

 

The woman in the Double Dutch couple has a length of rope in the side pocket of her backpack.  I find that strangely weird.

Maybe a jump rope?

[Demian]

I'm calling it now:  The Keanu Twins are going to entertainingly stumble their way into the finale.

(I also reserve the option of being totally wrong.)

[mertensia]

Everyone trying to find the Iguana Bridge made this episode more interesting.

Naturally the twins don't know who Liz was.

The butterfly clad judge was having a wonderful job fluttering around.

[LaDuchesse]

3 hours ago, endure said:

Honestly how hot was it, because carrying balloons or applying makeup is not a work out, there was no running, climbing, pivoting mattresses up stairs etc

Humidity I bet. I have lived in Southern Arizona most of my life, where we get to 110 at least in the summer. But put me someplace where it’s 85 degrees but very humid and I’ll be drenched in sweat and unable to breathe. 

[PaperTree]

33 minutes ago, LaDuchesse said:

Humidity I bet. I have lived in Southern Arizona most of my life, where we get to 110 at least in the summer. But put me someplace where it’s 85 degrees but very humid and I’ll be drenched in sweat and unable to breathe. 

I can sympathize.  I live in NJ where we get all.  Humid hot summer to the occasional blizzard.  Been to AZ, nice, grandma lived in Louisiana.  Worst was Houston.  Working, no AC, took smoke breaks on this covered loading dock.  It was 103 and torrentally poured straight down  All  Day Long.

Throw in that blazing sun.  I'm impressed all the teams finished.

[luv2lurk]

I can totally understand why the seasons were switched. Totally boring tasks - carrying balloons or looking for a special square coloured snowflake, then clown face makeup.

I had a hard time staying with this episode (and I did take a nap between it and Survivor) Could not wait for it to end. The teams are boring and we don't need 90 minutes of bridge confusion.

I have watched TAR since the beginning, so fingers crossed that it improves next week.

[shura]

If I read “find the string that’s different from the rest of them”, I would interpret it to mean that “the rest of them” are not different from each other.  If they are all different, isn’t any of them “different from the rest of them” then?  Or did they mean that there were several strings of most combinations and only a few that were unique (in which case it’s pretty evil to not just say ‘unique’)?  Also, where in that description is any indication that you get a reference string that you have to find a matching one for?  From the wording they gave us, any unique string should have done it.  Geez, you edit this thing to 90 minutes and you cannot take fifteen seconds to explain the task better?

In any case, the correct reaction to looking at this challenge is “Nope. The other one.”
 

[Haleth]

9 hours ago, endure said:

A lot of them were really challenged with the heat - what time of year was this filmed?

I'm curious too.  I was in PV in October (twice) and it was incredibly hot and humid.  I can't imagine how bad it would be in the summer while running around during the heat of the day.  (Oh, ok, they were there in Oct too.)  I'm not surprised some of the older folks overdid it.  I think Chris and Mary knew they were toast once he started feeling sick.  They lost their hustle (which was probably a good thing) and finished the leg at their own pace.  It was sweet that Mary didn't push despite her disappointment.

The flag challenge looked way too hard.  Balloons were so much easier and it didn't even matter if a lot of them broke.

Loved the butterfly costumes.  The judge looked adorable.  

These teams better learn how to ask people for directions and read the damn clue!

I just knew some of the younger people would have no idea who Elizabeth Taylor was.

[KeithJ]

Investigator for the special operations branch of the navy?  NCIS?

Teams at the final roadblock before other teams have even started? Were the teams that spread out?

I didn't notice in the premier so I went back and checked, Amber & Vinny only have one backpack. It looks like everyone else has two. Wonder why they decided to do that.

[chaifan]

8 hours ago, Lakebum said:

Maybe a jump rope?

Oh, yes!  That's probably it!  (referencing my question as to why one of the Double Dutch team was carrying a rope in their backpack.)  Good call!

Am I imagining things, or didn't a team long ago carry a soccer ball?  Or maybe one of the Globetrotters carried a basketball?  Something like that?  And they played with local kids on breaks. 

36 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

Teams at the final roadblock before other teams have even started? Were the teams that spread out?

If I remember correctly, there was about an hour spread from first to leave the mat to last.  Maybe a little more.  When you're staying in the same place, that's a lot of lead time. 

As far as how tired the teams were getting, remember that this episode and Ep 1 were all done in one day.  That really is a mega leg.  That's a lot of tasks, a lot of running around.  All done in daylight, with production prep before the opening shot, so that means they were all probably up since 3 or 4am.  (Racers began the second 1/2 of the leg between noon and 2pm.)  I'd love to know how many miles they ran in that one day.

I'm with others that this season doesn't seem to have the same oomph factor that TAR usually has.  I can't quite say why, though.  The tasks seem a little bland, just not that entertaining to watch.  For now, I'm chalking it up to recency bias, since last season was just sooooo good. 

 

 

 

[Racj82]

14 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I would have helped them being so far ahead of the pack. It might pay off down the road when they need help. Now, if you're lagging at the back of the pack, then sure, every man for himself.

It should be every team for yourself period imo. You are one missed clue or turn away from the bottom during every leg. You don't have to be rude about it but its a race.

12 hours ago, dancingdreamer said:

I don't know who Elizabeth Taylor is. I'm officially older than dirt! 

Do you not know who she is or did someone say that? Because being old (er) would lead you to knowing who she is. Younger people wouldn't.

[iMonrey]

It might have been a bad call to have a Mega Leg right out of the gate in the first two episodes. The top four teams from Leg 1 finished in the same order this leg: Rod and Leticia, Ricky and Cesar, Derek and Shelisa, and Juan and Shane. Yvonne and Melissa jumped one place from sixth to fifth, Angie and Danny from seventh to sixth, Anthony and Bailey remained 8th, Sunny and Bizzy remained ninth, Kishoria and Karishma remained tenth. The only real movement was for Michelle and Sean who dropped from fifth to eleventh, and Amber and Vinny who jumped from eleventh to seventh. In short, Mega Leg Part II was pretty much a wash.

3 hours ago, chaifan said:

I'm with others that this season doesn't seem to have the same oomph factor that TAR usually has.  I can't quite say why, though.

The cast isn't really grabbing me. I don't hate anybody (yet) but I'm sort of "meh" on everyone so far. 

12 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I was tickled to see a young Walla Walla kid hosting his own TAR. Hopefully, this “super fan” won’t be a total pain in the ass.

I got a kick out him doing his best Phil impression reading the final clue: "The last team to check in . . . WILL be eliminated."

[Haleth]

4 hours ago, chaifan said:

'm with others that this season doesn't seem to have the same oomph factor that TAR usually has

It may be a low key race with Covid protocols still in effect in many places. 

[Ancaster]

14 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

 

I don’t have a fave or least fave team yet. I was tickled to see a young Walla Walla kid hosting his own TAR. Hopefully, this “super fan” won’t be a total pain in the ass.

You'd think a super fan might have realized that doing some physical training is also important.

[Ancaster]

Am I the only one thinking that by the (lack of) look on her face, first-place winner Leticia and her cleavage have never heard of Lisbon?

[dancingdreamer]

2 hours ago, Racj82 said:

It should be every team for yourself period imo. You are one missed clue or turn away from the bottom during every leg. You don't have to be rude about it but its a race.

Do you not know who she is or did someone say that? Because being old (er) would lead you to knowing who she is. Younger people wouldn't.

One of the twins said it.

[Ancaster]

After a few seasons without God botherers, it seems like Walla Walla is stepping into the void.  Though given the fact that the son doesn't realize that training for TAR involved being physically prepared, I'm hoping they're not going to be around for long.

[Fukui San]

I'd like to say Hi to Danny since it seems likely that he'll be reading this.

The cast is filled with colorful characters but thus far they are not shining exemplars of quality racing.

Rod is interesting here. As a player he was the most nondescript NFL player imaginable. First round pick, not actually a bust but never actually ever very good. Out of the league after 6 years. Looking at all the NFL players who have run the Amazing Race, his career is less distinguished than DeAngelo and Gary, Chester and Ephraim (both offensive linemen, so hard to compare stats, but had longer careers as starter than Rod who was out of the league after 6 years), and Marcus Pollard (never a star, but played a long time). That said, Rod is enjoyable thus far on TAR.

Edited March 22 by Fukui San

[Dirge]

20 hours ago, chaifan said:

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I'm noticing the Racers' backpacks more than normal.  A few observations...

In general, the backpacks are smaller than I've seen in other seasons.  Lots of what I would call a "day pack", slightly larger than a school backpack. 

The pilots have the largest backpacks of all the racers.  

I always notice backpacks, so I'm glad to see some small ones. The brother and sister from last week also had small packs - they were really fans. 

I've sometimes thought it might be good to have small packs with stuff for each of them in case one pack floats down a river or something. 

Did only one team get the free map? 

[dgpolo]

11 hours ago, chaifan said:

Am I imagining things, or didn't a team long ago carry a soccer ball?  Or maybe one of the Globetrotters carried a basketball?  Something like that?  And they played with local kids on breaks. 

I want to say that Zev and Justin brought the basketball (no idea why) and they played a game somewhere like Viet Nam with the Globetrotters, Jen and Keisha and most of the other teams. I'll go look it up now.

Season 18 Unfinished Business ep 5

Edited March 22 by dgpolo
Add info

[choclatechip45]

I still haven't warmed up to this cast. 

[eel2178]

21 hours ago, nilyank said:

Hey, the nurse looked over at the mom as if he wanted to get up and help. I really like that.

He at least should have told them to elevate her feet. I was screaming that at the TV.

[Ancaster]

On 3/21/2024 at 1:43 PM, Fukui San said:

I'd like to say Hi to Danny since it seems likely that he'll be reading this.

 

Who?  Why?

Edited March 23 by Ancaster

[vousviou]

22 hours ago, WatcherUp2 said:

Dang, I'd have liked to see more of Chris and Mary. She's got this calm but caring vibe that's really nice.

I'm not surprised at all by the result, but she definitely came across as one of the most genuinely appreciative people I've seen. A lot say the right thing but it comes across as practiced. She never seem like she was performing for the camera.

[vousviou]

1 hour ago, choclatechip45 said:

I still haven't warmed up to this cast. 

I think it will take longer than usual to get to a clear sense of the pack. I think there are some interesting teams, but at this point I'm not even sure if some of them, like the firefighters, will even get past the third or fourth episode.

[Fukui San]

35 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

Why?

He's a Superfan who seems all in on TAR discussion.

[ML89]

I finally figured  out who Walla Walla Son sounds like - Leslie Jordan of Will & Grace (rip).

If Primetimer doesn’t stop with the ads that screw up iPadOS…

I don’t have a favorite team yet but at least I don’t hate any yet either.

[rr2911]

On 3/20/2024 at 8:34 PM, Browncoat said:

Aw, I miss the full version of the opening music.

Yeah, me too!  I also miss the old opening song of Survivor.