S37.E07: Be One With the Hay

[chitowngirl]

Teams face a surprise double U-Turn in Bulgaria.
 

Airdate April 16, 2025 on CBS

[Rodney]

Honestly, another good leg.  The tasks were well-structured, and it was nice to see the teams left to their own devices.

Kudos to Carson & Jack for not giving up and staying in it after putting themselves well over three hours behind.  But they do have the U-Turn and Nick & Mike giving up to thank for that, too.

Good job to Alyssa & Josiah on first place, and to Brett & Mark at getting back up near the top.

Jonathan is still . . . Jonathan.  Ana is still nice, though.

Melinda & Erika must be the strongest mother/daughter team we've ever had.  I can't believe that they're still in it!

As nice as Nick & Mike were, they were too scatterbrained to get much farther.  For an alpha-male team, they were certainly different in that they weren't dominant at all.  In fact, they were pretty lame at the race and only got through from other teams being more hapless than they were.  It was beyond time for them to go.

Nice episode.

[chaifan]

I'm trying to figure out the timing of this leg.  Someone please tell me if I'm right about the start of the leg - they all departed between 12:30 and 1:30 PM (afternoon/daylight).  Am I remembering that right?

 

[choclatechip45]

Holden was cracking me up during the sheep milking task! They are now my new favorite.

[dancingdreamer]

45 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

Holden was cracking me up during the sheep milking task! They are now my new favorite.

Me too! I can't  find the hole where the milk squirts. I'm definitely  cheering  for them, and Josiah and Alyssa,  for showing us how a couple  who love one another  act.

Jonathan  is an asshat( you chose the wrong task Ana) 

[rr2911]

Good episode today.

 

.  I was disappointed that teams didn't have to U-Turn a team.  I think it adds to the show and makes for a better show.  You're not going to win 1mil by holding hands and singing Cumbaya!

 

.  Teams shouldn't get upset when they get U-Turned.  There are One Million reasons!

 

.Too bad Jonathan and Ana weren't U-Turned.  They probably would've been eliminated!

 

Right now I'm rooting for the siblings or the husband and wife that came in first today.

[bunnyface]

I never would have willingly picked the hay. I've seen what hay does to people on this show.  Poor Lena and Kristy are probably having PTSD if they watched tonight.

And poor Jonathan.  Nothing good ever happens to him.  At least he didn't seem to blame the car on her.  That we saw.  I'm sure it's probably still her fault somehow.  I hope she has freed herself by now.

[Skooma]

I still hate the U-Turn.  Typical trash TV crap.  Yeah I really like the Green Shirts but they need to survive fair and square and not being able to read a map yet knowing you are going on the Race is a cardinal sin.

And the brothers team didn't just lose because they were 1 kilo short with the wood carrying.  The one brother was just grabbing huge chunks and throwing them away without looking.  Dude, you aren't looking for a giant beachball.  You are looking for a tiny bracelet.  But oh no he wouldn't take his brother's advice.

I like they wanted to be on the Race for years but hey didn't you watch Lena & Kristy's season?  They had to look in TONS of hay bails.  You only had 3 stacks.  They just kept making mistake after mistake on every leg. 

If only Pops & Jeff jumped on that car when they had a chance and didn't hesitate they would have knocked that wood carrying out of the park.  Maybe even gone back and Pops could have helped the wood splitter guy out some for fun.

And Jonathan no you didn't land in the ditch because of bad "luck."  YOU drove past the parking sign and then YOU drove into the ditch.  Unless you legally changed your name to "Luck" between legs, it is all on you.

[Ancaster]

15 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

I never would have willingly picked the hay. I've seen what hay does to people on this show.  Poor Lena and Kristy are probably having PTSD if they watched tonight.

 

No, no, no, not the hay!  Did they do no research before agreeing to compete?  (Well, obviously not, since there's still someone who can't drive a manual transmission car.)

Edited April 17 by Ancaster

[tinkerbell]

Jonathan blames Ana for choosing the wrong  ( he thinks) task. Then he wants her to be faster milking the sheep. But the major screw-up, parking on grass and getting stuck, was all on him. She needs a friend to point out how awful he is to her.

[mertensia]

You know, maps are not exactly impossible to find in the US. Go out on weekends and navigate. Learn to read it. If those college girls I saw at the laundromat a few years ago could sit there and plot out their summer vacation on a map (I was astonished to see this), you can too, Racers. Also, does no one figure out locations and roads on the map before they start driving?

Jonathan, you are a super jackass.

[Skooma]

OT:  Just want to mention a factoid.  In Roman times Bulgaria was roughly Thrace.  And Thrace gave us Spartacus.

To this day there are Bulgarian sports teams named after Spartacus.

"I am Spartacus!"

PS:  Update, I found this online. 

"While there are various theories about his specific birthplace, the most commonly held belief is that he hailed from the Maedi tribe, located in southwestern Bulgaria near the Strymon river."

Edited April 18 by Skooma

[Rodney]

4 minutes ago, mertensia said:

Also, does no one figure out locations and roads on the map before they start driving?

Actually, way back in TAR9, before driving to their next location, Fran & Barry were shown reading a map and marking their route on it.  I think that they were in Greece when that happened.

[Lantern7]

Good episode, marred by Jonathan being Jonathan and the Brothers throwing in the towel on the needle bracelet/haystack challenge. I don't hate those guys, but I can't see Pops & Jeff getting that dejected. And yes, I know they would have opted for hauling wood. I'm saying if they had to go through the hay, they wouldn't have quit until they got the bracelet. Or until the sun went down. The TAR6 flashbacks are brutal for us older fans.

Man, D&D got lucky after getting very lost. Goes to show where not giving up can get you.

I wondered if any of the Racers had allergies. We had hay, goats and sheep. That had to have triggered some sneezing fits.

Jonathan . . . *sigh* I know that he knows how he comes off, but he doesn't make that great an effort to improve.

There should be more emphasis on maps and driving. Stick shift wouldn't have to be involved. Just make everyone work a little harder.

Elderly Belgium yogurt-eating old lady for the win.

ETA: Originally, I posted "Racers" instead of "Jeff." I don't suppose there's anyone else that's seen old-school anime. If you really want to be old school, you could joke about referring to Pops as "Mutt." In other news, it's almost 3 a.m., and I really need to go to sleep.

Edited April 17 by Lantern7

[Tdoc72]

I really wanted Phil to bend down and pick up the bracelet after he philiminated them. 

[OutOfTheQuestion]

4 hours ago, Skooma said:

If only Pops & Jeff jumped on that car when they had a chance and didn't hesitate they would have knocked that wood carrying out of the park.  Maybe even gone back and Pops could have helped the wood splitter guy out some for fun.

It seems like in most seasons, there's a task specifically detailed to one team's real-life career.  Tough break for Pops & Jeff that they were eliminated before getting to their "specialty" task.

[PaperTree]

We were on vacation in Hawaii and mom got us terribly lost.  Dad driving was ticked and yelled "give the map to the kid!".  7 years old and I quickly got us where we were going.  I love maps😎

Then she was ticked.  Oy

30 some years later we found mom had a form of dyslexia.

Print was no problem, she loved to read, but couldn't read maps or graphs to save her life.

Good on A & J pulling first.  They are a cute couple.

The bros seem like nice guys, but rather inept at this.  Should have been more methodical in the hay.

Jonathan again rears his ugly head.  IDK how Ana tolerates him.  Stuck in the ditch really made me laugh.  They were as lucky as the Gamers getting locals to pull them out.

ETA:  If they were in some remote location, they'd still be there.😎

Edited April 17 by PaperTree

[Browncoat]

6 hours ago, chaifan said:

I'm trying to figure out the timing of this leg.  Someone please tell me if I'm right about the start of the leg - they all departed between 12:30 and 1:30 PM (afternoon/daylight).  Am I remembering that right?

 

They left Bali at that time.  Their flight had to have been an overnight flight, and I don’t think we were told what time it landed.

[Fake Jan Brady]

8 hours ago, Rodney said:

Melinda & Erika must be the strongest mother/daughter team we've ever had.  I can't believe that they're still in it!

Season One's Nancy & Emily made it to fifth place and would have beaten out the Guidos if they hadn't incurred a twenty-four hour penalty when they gave up searching for a car with a particular licence plate. I'm still sad about it.

6 hours ago, bunnyface said:

I never would have willingly picked the hay. I've seen what hay does to people on this show.  Poor Lena and Kristy are probably having PTSD if they watched tonight.

I had PTSD just watching it; that was the cruellest elimination of all time. Hmmm, I just realised how similar those eliminations were: a female team I liked who spent hours searching for something. I'm triggered!

Kudos to Handsome Mark & Brett for helping out another team [even if it was the unlikeable one] and to Holden for asking if he could wash his hands after milking the sheep. Good manners cost nothing.

I hope there's more self-driving; that's the old school TAR I love.

[Haleth]

You know any challenge involving haystacks is going to end badly. Poor Lena.

Mark didn’t know if the goat was a boy or girl?

I can’t believe Carson and Jack were lost for 3 hours and still managed to stay in the race. If they don’t have a flight or HoO in the next leg they are toast.

The 102 yo lady was adorable.

8 hours ago, chaifan said:

I'm trying to figure out the timing of this leg.  Someone please tell me if I'm right about the start of the leg - they all departed between 12:30 and 1:30 PM (afternoon/daylight).  Am I remembering that right?

 

Yes. Carson and Jack left at 12:30ish (pm). I was surprised Han and Holden were only about 45 mins behind them with all other teams coming in shortly after that.

3 hours ago, Tdoc72 said:

I really wanted Phil to bend down and pick up the bracelet after he philiminated them. 

Yes!  I was hoping he’d point to it just a few feet from where they were standing. 

Edited April 17 by Haleth

[Rodney]

5 minutes ago, Fake Jan Brady said:

Season One's Nancy & Emily made it to fifth place and would have beaten out the Guidos if they hadn't incurred a twenty-four hour penalty when they gave up searching for a car with a particular licence plate. I'm still sad about it.

But they weren't necessarily a strong team.  Melinda & Erika have shown strengths that Nancy & Emily just didn't have.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Eh, I wouldn't call Melinda & Erika a strong team by any stretch. They are a completely non-threatening team that only has 1 podium finish (IIRC) so far. If they somehow survive one more leg they will be one of the weakest Top 5 finishing teams ever.

This leg had a little bit of that classic TAR feel with the self-driving. And a European country that felt really new. And the brutal physical or needle in a haystack (that was also deceptively physical if you didn't find the bracelet right away) detour..

The Bros were suffering from both Race fatigue & real fatigue and getting U Turned by M&E was the straw that broke the camel's back. The one guys head was just not in the right placed when he started demolishing the individual haystacks and made a really difficult task virtually impossible.

Jonathan is the guy who remembers your flaws or mistakes and just will never let up about it. He probably still needles Anna about some poor restaurant choice she made 5 years ago. And if yet if somebody does that to him, he'll lose his freaking mind.

The other A&J (who won this leg) remind me a little of Kris & Jon which isn't a bad thing..

 

 

[Haleth]

Alyssa and Josiah are kind of adorable, him with his dad jokes and all. 

[chaifan]

Someone commented in the live thread (I think @iMonrey) that we saw no talking head clips from Nick & Mike.  I wonder just how bad their post-race interview had to be to not be able to show any of it.  Or, it could have just been timing - maybe it got dark about that time and that would have been a dead giveaway.  

I loved this episode.  I was in Bulgaria (but not Sofia) several years ago, and loved it.  Everyone we met was so nice.  The food was great.  That 102 lady looked better than my 90 year old mother.  Gotta get me some of that yogurt!  

I thought this was the best designed Detour so far this season.  The literal needle in a haystack vs. something brutally physical.  I don't know who is who on the Jack/Carson team, but they had the right attitude - maybe we'll find it in 30 seconds!  Those guys really had a great attitude this whole race - I really commend them for that.  

For some reason I didn't catch that the earlier teams that did the wood challenge had to make multiple trips.  I didn't hear how many kgs they had to carry when Phil described the task, and for some reason I thought they did it with 1 trip.  But that would have been impossible.  

Jonathan... oh what can I say that hasn't already been said... the funniest thing was what he said at the mat, about whatever he's learned, shows -0- self awareness.  I heard that in some post-race interview Ana mentioned that he has since been diagnosed on the autism spectrum.  But people with autism can also be total assholes, separate from the autism.  

I loved the in the field Philimination.  We haven't had one of those in a long time.  I'll echo those who said it would have been great for Phil to have pointed out the bracelet, but I guess that also would have just been a bit too mean for Phil.  Kudos to the camera crew who stuck with it for 6 hours.  

Other than A&J, I really like the rest of the teams, and would be happy at this point with any of them winning.  I think my favorite, by just a smidge, is Han & Holden.  They're supportive, but have some good bro/sis snark in them.  I loved Holden asking to wash his hands before eating.  Not sure if that's from his military school or parental influence.

Thanks to those who responded on my timing question above.  Someone speculated that the flight was overnight, and that makes sense for how the entire Bulgaria leg was run in the daytime.  I was trying to fit everything into one day, and that just didn't work.  I don't think they ever mentioned what time their flight was at, or if they did, I missed it.

The cars... were they stick shift, or automatic with a weird gear stick that put R in an odd place?  No one seemed to have the typical "I just learned how to drive stick" issues.  But 2 had the issue finding reverse.

 

 

 

[KeithJ]

Alyssa & Josiah and Han & Holden are definitely my favorite teams.

Ana needs to run fast and far from Jonathan.  Nothing is ever his fault, it's always her fault and he treats her like crap. I was very happy they got stuck in the mud but I was wondering if they should have actually incurred some sort of additional penalty for not parking in the designated area.

Speaking of penalties, Nick and Mike were contemplating taking a penalty and not finishing the haystack challenge.  It seemed like they were talking about it when they thought they were in last place and long before Carson and Jack showed up. How long is a penalty to skip a challenge?  Could they have taken a penalty and then still have beaten Carson and Jack?

Maps, ugh. Maybe because I'm in my 50s but give me a map and I'll get you to where you need to go. Do teams even try navigating by map only before they get on the race?

[Fukui San]

The show should do a Needle in the Haystack special. Just these guys, Lena & Kristy, and the Gaghan family from the Family Edition who couldn't find the red coffee bean. Have them do all three of their Needle in the Haystacks tasks in a row for $1 Million Dollars.

[Haleth]

24 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

. How long is a penalty to skip a challenge? 

As I recall when Rob Mariano talked everyone into skipping the meat challenge it was 4 hours after declaring they’d do so. But that was a roadblock. I don’t know if it’s the same for a detour. 

[iMonrey]

4 hours ago, Haleth said:

Mark didn’t know if the goat was a boy or girl?

I hate to say it but Mark doesn't seem very bright. This is not the first dumb thing I've heard him say.

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

Someone commented in the live thread (I think @iMonrey) that we saw no talking head clips from Nick & Mike.  I wonder just how bad their post-race interview had to be to not be able to show any of it.  Or, it could have just been timing - maybe it got dark about that time and that would have been a dead giveaway.  

Yes, this was a strangely edited episode. It was somewhere around the haystack challenge I realized we hadn't seen any Nick & Mike interviews. Also? They didn't even bother to show Jack and Carson doing the Roadblock and checking in at the mat! They just cut right from Jack and Carson leaving the Detour to Phil coming out to eliminate Nick and Mike.

Wow, Jonathan sucks and I don't think it can be said often enough. He kept blaming Ana for a "bad call" in choosing the haystack. Not "we" made a bad call, no. "She" made a bad call. And he kept repeating it for emphasis. 

There's something vaguely off-putting about Jack and Carson I can't quite put my finger on. That said, they held up admirably being so far behind, when you know almost any other team would have either turned on each other or completely broken down. Or both.

Wasn't walking on fire in the promo for this episode? Now it's in the promo for next week's episode. Weird.

[chaifan]

I wonder if after you declare that you'll take the penalty if you can back out of it and re-start the task.  I'm assuming no.  But I was expecting them to say "We'll take the penalty", assuming they were last and hoping for a NEL.  And in that shot, in the background, we'd see Carson & Jack running up to the haystacks.  Yeah, I'm a bit evil...

 

2 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

There's something vaguely off-putting about Jack and Carson I can't quite put my finger on.

It's the headbands.  😂

[Auntie Anxiety]

21 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

w, Jonathan sucks and I don't think it can be said often enough. He kept blaming Ana for a "bad call" in choosing the haystack. Not "we" made a bad call, no. "She" made a bad call. And he kept repeating it for emphas

Let’s just call it what it is—Jonathan is emotionally and verbally abusive to Ana. He figures if he doesn’t yell, he comes across better. It triggers me and someone needs to get her to see the light. If this is how he acts on a tv show, can you imagine how he is when the cameras are off?

[RunningMarket]

I give Carson and Jack huge kudos for keeping as calm as they did when they realized they were 3 hours behind. They didn't fight, they didn't blame, they didn't catastrophize - they just kept going. They got lucky others were u-turned, and that they weren't u-turned themselves, but still very impressive.

Jonathan continues to be the worst.

[Valmafra]

4 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

And a European country that felt really new. 

More like completely new since this Bulgaria debut is that nation's first appearance on any TAR franchise to date - like, not even BBC's "Race Across the World" has been there despite visiting Slovenia months before S35 did.

[Samwise979]

How long is the time penalty if they quit a challenge? Just wondering if the brothers would have been saved if they took the penalty AS SOON as they saw the other two guys. 

[eel2178]

4 hours ago, chaifan said:

The cars... were they stick shift, or automatic with a weird gear stick that put R in an odd place?  No one seemed to have the typical "I just learned how to drive stick" issues.  But 2 had the issue finding reverse.

I think it was the latter.

[RunningMarket]

56 minutes ago, Samwise979 said:

How long is the time penalty if they quit a challenge? Just wondering if the brothers would have been saved if they took the penalty AS SOON as they saw the other two guys. 

I think the usual challenge-quitting penalty is 4 hours. If they had taken it immediately upon starting the task, they might have stood a chance. 

[Tango64]

1 hour ago, eel2178 said:

I think it was the latter.

I thought they were manual transmission, as I would expect in Bulgaria. The "way over to the right but you have to push kind of downward and then back" is typical for reverse in a manual. My Jeep Wrangler is like that. It's common for people new to a manual to have trouble finding it.

[watch2much]

Was I the only person who laughed when Jonathan got the car stuck?

[chaifan]

41 minutes ago, watch2much said:

Was I the only person who laughed when Jonathan got the car stuck?

Nope.  Nopity nope nope nope nope nope.  Absolutely not.  🤣

[Guigoaoshi]

Okey, what a good episode (having self drive already is a plus and can make things go way more impredictable). With the D&Ds soo behind, everything happening (team finishing the leg, others on the way, others getting U-Turned and tbem still on the road/starting to get on track) and with editors being quite obvious most of the time I was expecting at any moment the brothers would get out of their mistery and D&D would be done as It seemed. Really Glad with the surprise/results. Would be better If It was Jonathan leaving? Sure. But the brothers really lacked and we saw while they were physically stronger, not as much mentally. Even after see D&D showing up It didnt gave them any burst to focus and do It properly.                        If editors are not playing with us, I would guess the final three will probably be: The couple that finished first (I cant remember their names, nome memorable IMO but a nice couple that editora show quite alot so thats why I expect them at finale or even winning It), D&D (If this leg didnt took them out I...) and either Jonathan & Ana or the siblings (kinda dar horses here). Not so sure about the other two teams, specially Nick and Mike (either the editors hate what they serve on interviews ir they are sure leaving in one of the next two legs).

[Rodney]

16 minutes ago, Guigoaoshi said:

The couple that finished first (I cant remember their names, nome memorable IMO but a nice couple that editora show quite alot so thats why I expect them at finale or even winning It)

Alyssa & Josiah.

[iMonrey]

2 hours ago, Tango64 said:

I thought they were manual transmission, as I would expect in Bulgaria. The "way over to the right but you have to push kind of downward and then back" is typical for reverse in a manual. My Jeep Wrangler is like that. It's common for people new to a manual to have trouble finding it.

It appeared to be automatics with gear shifts that were unfamiliar to them. There appeared to be a button you had to push on the side to put it in reverse.

I rented a Nissan Rogue once that had the weirdest gearshift. When you started it up, you had to tap the break once, then push the gear UP into reverse before you could put it into drive. It made no sense whatsoever and I had to watch a YouTube video to figure it out.

[Ancaster]

7 hours ago, KeithJ said:

 

Maps, ugh. Maybe because I'm in my 50s but give me a map and I'll get you to where you need to go. Do teams even try navigating by map only before they get on the race?

Apparently not.  The same way some of them don't learn how to swim or how to drive a manual.  Ego?  Idiocy?  Hubris?

6 hours ago, chaifan said:

It's the headbands.  😂

Yeah.  I appreciated John McEnroe's skill, but even ignoring his temper and general brattiness, his headbands always bothered me.

3 hours ago, Tango64 said:

I thought they were manual transmission, as I would expect in Bulgaria. The "way over to the right but you have to push kind of downward and then back" is typical for reverse in a manual. My Jeep Wrangler is like that. It's common for people new to a manual to have trouble finding it.

That's also not the only way to get into reverse, though there's generally a little diagram on the top of the gear lever to show you which way it is.

[tkc]

12 hours ago, Haleth said:

Mark didn’t know if the goat was a boy or girl?

An udder failure of the American educational system…

[illdoc]

6 hours ago, Samwise979 said:

How long is the time penalty if they quit a challenge?

I believe it is 4 hours if it is a roadblock, 24 hours for a detour (only know that from post-race interview with the "Poker Girls" many years ago (they kept switching back and forth between both halves of the detour and couldn't do either)).

[aghst]

Didn't they say there would be NELs this season?  We're now down to 5 or 6 teams and we haven't had any NELs yet.  If they have one now, it's going to be a strong team which survives.

Very physical tasks throughout the day.  Even the apples started out the day with a lot of running in the heat.

Melinda and Ericka panicked.  Nick and Mike probably lost the will when they were U-turned and then when the other U-turned team found the needle in the haystack.  Or they were tired and rushed through the hay, not concentrating.

Jonathan and Ana helped by bystanders.  Did they notify the villagers that there would be a TV show filming that day and people were watching and then decided to help?  Or did the producers say they could help?

Meanwhile Nick and Mike, once they went through the 3 haystacks weren't allowed to start with another 3 and they spread the hay all over.  They think they lost because they had to make an extra trip with the chopped wood and when they saw Melinda and Erika running, they didn't run right away.

 

 

[Rodney]

22 minutes ago, illdoc said:

I believe it is 4 hours if it is a roadblock, 24 hours for a detour (only know that from post-race interview with the "Poker Girls" many years ago (they kept switching back and forth between both halves of the detour and couldn't do either)).

It's two hours for a regular task, or a "Route Info," four hours for a Roadblock, and as of TAR17, just six hours for a Detour.

[tvfanatic13]

If I took a shot every time I screamed “f!/k you Jonathan” I would be dead. Hate. Him. 

[Stardancer Supreme]

If I was crazy enough to ever try out for TAR (which I am certainly NOT), I would never do the Hay tasks.  

I was hoping for someone to U-Turn Jonathan & Ana. I am tired of this man sulking through the race and blaming Ana for every setback.

I am also glad that the teams on this leg didn't turn on their partners when things got rough. Jack & Carson are true friends, because I can't say that I would have been so calm knowing that we were definitively lost for HOURS...   

Now Melinda & Erika don't have to worry about retaliation from the U-Turn.  I'm rooting for Han & Holden now.

[Shadow Wave]

10 hours ago, Fukui San said:

The show should do a Needle in the Haystack special. Just these guys, Lena & Kristy, and the Gaghan family from the Family Edition who couldn't find the red coffee bean. Have them do all three of their Needle in the Haystacks tasks in a row for $1 Million Dollars.

And Marshall and Lance from Season 5 who quit when they couldn't find a scarab at an archeological dig. You may remember them as the ones who couldn't stand "Mirna and Schmirna."

[Fake Jan Brady]

10 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yes, this was a strangely edited episode. It was somewhere around the haystack challenge I realized we hadn't seen any Nick & Mike interviews. Also? They didn't even bother to show Jack and Carson doing the Roadblock and checking in at the mat! They just cut right from Jack and Carson leaving the Detour to Phil coming out to eliminate Nick and Mike.

You must have blinked.