S37.E07: Be One With the Hay

[tkc]

37 minutes ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

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 genuinely concerned for a bit, as didn’t one of the brothers have asthma? All that work in the hay could have been really problematic.

[PurpleTentacle]

12 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.  

We saw one at the very end. And yeah it was noticably early dusk, but they were also so down, it probably would have been super obvious either way.

11 hours ago, KeithJ said:

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?

That's a 6 hour penalty. So no. They would have still been philiminated.

10 hours ago, iMonrey said:

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.

They showed both of those things, just really quickly.

10 hours ago, iMonrey said:

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.

They are kinda fake in the over the top young Youtuber way. After I heard they were D&D Youtubers in the first episode I thought "oh that's my jam", went to check them out and after 10 seconds went "nope!" and shut that video off. I'll stick to my Acq. Inc, Criticial Role, Worlds Beyond Numbers, Not Another D&D Podcast, Dimension 20, etc...

I had hoped they would become a bit more natural as the race went on and they were losing the energy to put up that front, but no such luck, I'm afraid.

8 hours ago, RunningMarket said:

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. 

That's for a roadblock. Detours are 6 hours.

3 hours ago, Ancaster said:

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

I will give them a bit of slack here: If you live in the middle of New York City it must be hard to find the time to drive all the way out of the city and all the surrounding suburbs and cities, to find some actual rural area, to properly practice reading a map. I'm sure they practiced in and around New York a bit, but there you'll have signs every few meters, telling you where you are. It isn't compareable to rural Bulgaria.

2 hours 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)).

Detour was 24 hours before TAR 17. Now it's 6.

Probably would have been a nightmare for production if ever two teams had taken the 24 hour penalty at the same detour...

[Skooma]

20 hours 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.

Or if they had beaten the Guidos for the Fast Forward right before that.  The Guidos almost got eliminated despite getting the FF because then decided to wait for a number of hours so they could take an air conditioned break until an evening fancy express bus arrived as opposed to the local but even though the local still got there earlier.  It was a long trip from Bangkok to the south of Thailand and they wanted to have their creature comforts.    

Had Nancy & Emily not booted (didn't find the car they had to drive but chose to just take a taxi instead) the Detour they would have made Final Four at least.

20 hours ago, Rodney said:

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

I think Nancy & Emily were stronger.  It was the first season and they had no info on how the Race worked yet they almost made it to 4th place.  Melinda & Erika haven't done anything to show me they are a stronger team as of yet.  And their season are one day legs, not the super long ones that Nancy & Emily had to do.

18 hours ago, chaifan said:

Someone commented in the live thread (I think @iMonrey) that we saw no talking head clips from Nick & Mike.

 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 thought I saw interviews with them but maybe it was just the audio voiceover post elimination narration.  Like when they explained with a voiceover about walking back slowly from the Wood Detour then seeing the Mother/Daughter running the other way then they realized they should be running too because there was a U-Turn ahead.

And yes it was manual.  Just stick shifts have any number of ways to get into Reverse.  I've had a lot of stick shift used cars all my life.   Some of them involved pushing the stick down then shifting it to get to R.  Or shifting over then slightly up (like a small curve in the path you are going around with the stick), then down etc etc.  

Edited Friday at 08:17 AM by Skooma

[ML89]

My family had a VW Dasher (one of the 1st water cooled VWs and a HORRIBLE car - same time as the first Rabbits) and you shifted up and over for Reverse. So at every stoplight, my parents would ease off the brake, never sure if they were in 1st or Reverse. That was our last manual car. I had flashbacks…

The sheep looking into the camera like The Office when Jonathan yelled something at Ana was comedy gold. Jonathan getting stuck in the mud was even better, complete with him holding the board he wanted Ana to drive on at an angle. I’m sure the villagers are still talking about the whole thing. 

‘Loved the guy at the hay just lying in the grass and weighing guy was fun too. And the dancers with those fantastic costumes. 

Edited Saturday at 02:11 AM by ML89

[Jodithgrace]

The Cousin Itt Dancers? Such cool and interesting costumes. 
 

I’d swear I never saw the couple who came in first before last night. Are we sure they didn’t pick them up in Bulgaria? 
 

At least Jonathan admitted that it was he who parked the car in the mud puddle, but I noticed he didn’t do half as much self castigating as he did to Ana who apparently tied him down and forced him to choose the hay detour. 

Edited Friday at 02:50 AM by Jodithgrace

[Souris]

I kept thinking about Lena and Christy this episode. 

Hay on TAR = risotto on Top Chef.

What is it with Jonathans on this show,? Jonathan is an abusive, asshole Eeyore. Ana needs to get far, far away from him.

Even though Carson and Jack showed impressive equanimity at getting so lost, I felt they deserved to be eliminated because of their complete inability to read a map. You deserve it if you go on this show without practicing navigating with a map.

Alyssa/Josiah and Han/Holden are my favorites.

[iMonrey]

REWATCH

Yes I was wrong. We did get Nick and Mike talking heads and they seemed fine. And we did see a very quick montage of Carson and Jack doing the Roadblock and checking in with Phil. I must have blinked. 

And I guess they did have stick shift cars? We heard Holden asking if it was stick then saying yes. And it did look like a stick shift. But . . . a quick Google search tells me Ford no longer makes stick shift Focuses. Maybe they were old? And nobody had problems with the clutch. Carson and Jack didn't even own cars, how did they manage stick shift cars?

The map thing irks me. I get kids these days only know how to use GPS but there's still Google Maps. 

I'm not sure Roadblock Grandma knew what was going on. She seemed nonplussed.

One thing we can all agree on? Jonathan is an ass. When the Detour choice was presented Ana suggested Haystack. Jonathan's response was "Uhhh." And that was it. He spent the rest of the Detour putting the decision on her and blaming her. 

Then when they were stuck in the ditch he said he didn't understand why things like that kept happening to them. So . . . when it's obvious it was his fault for parking in the wrong spot? It's bad luck. Not him. Cuz he couldn't blame her for that. 

LOL at Phil when they got to the Pitstop. "When things aren't going well you're particularly hard on yourself and . . .  your team." No, Phil. He's particularly hard on Ana. Spit it out. Stop being Switzerland.

I don't think I'd be jumping up and down at the opportunity to do a three day camel ride in the Sahara desert. That's right up there with a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. No thanks, I'll pass. Can I just have the cash instead?

[Steph Sometimes]

4 hours ago, tkc said:

An udder failure of the American educational system…

Josiah, is that you?

I am so glad someone else mentioned the fire walk. I thought I saw it in a preview, but then didn't see it in the episode so I wondered if I hallucinated it.

Did the woman eat a bowl of yogurt every time a racer finished the challenge? My stomach salutes her.

And one last teeny-tiny thing that made me laugh. When they were in the haystacks, Erika who reminds me of Sarah Chalke gave her best muttered, annoyed "Frick." 

[SVNBob]

4 hours ago, Jodithgrace said:

The Cousin Itt Dancers? Such cool and interesting costumes.

And I suspect one or both of Carson and Jack were (or are now, now that they've rested quite a bit and have been reminded) thinking of how to work that whole ritual into a D&D campaign.

[Ancaster]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

 

I don't think I'd be jumping up and down at the opportunity to do a three day camel ride in the Sahara desert. That's right up there with a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. No thanks, I'll pass. Can I just have the cash instead?

I'm pretty sure it's not a case of "This is your prize - take it or leave it."  I assume they get money/credit to use on Expedia or whatever.

[Skooma]

5 hours ago, Jodithgrace said:

I’d swear I never saw the couple who came in first before last night. Are we sure they didn’t pick them up in Bulgaria?

They were middle of the pack racers but when the first double U-Turn happened they moved up and have stayed up since.  Last episode they finished second.

And I think the Morocco prize rocks.  These people are on a Race around the world.  Why wouldn't they love a cool prize like that.

Also kudos to the Bulgarian farmer guy for having to stick around forever at those haystacks.

Edited Friday at 08:25 AM by Skooma

[gibasi]

9 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I had hoped they would become a bit more natural as the race went on and they were losing the energy to put up that front, but no such luck, I'm afraid.

After this long and the way they handled getting super lost I think this is their true selves. I am not into video games or podcasts much and I am impressed by their friendship and enthusiasm for the game. I like them, Alyssa and Josiah and Han and Holden.

[Slamera]

Quote

Eh, I wouldn't call Melinda & Erika a strong team by any stretch. 

The daughter talks about her mom as if she's elderly and frail. She's only 49, right? 

[Haleth]

I’ll never understand why people will not stop to get their bearings if they are lost. Carson and Jack suspected they were driving in the wrong direction for at least an hour. When they couldn’t find any signage they should have exited the highway to get directions. Surely there was a gas station or convenience store at an exit.

7 hours ago, Steph Sometimes said:

Erika who reminds me of Sarah Chalke

Maybe that’s who I’ve been thinking she reminds me of. And her mom sometimes looks like Alison Janney. 

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

. Can I just have the cash instead?

They get a voucher that can be used for any trip. 

3 hours ago, Skooma said:

lso kudos to the Bulgarian farmer guy for having to stick around forever at those haystacks

It was funny how bored he looked after so many hours of sitting there. Stupid Americans. 

[raeb23]

52 minutes ago, Slamera said:

The daughter talks about her mom as if she's elderly and frail. She's only 49, right? 

She's 66, the oldest person on this season.

While they're not the strongest, they're definitely stronger than people give them credit for. They've placed within the top 6 on every leg except for the first.

8 hours ago, Steph Sometimes said:

Josiah, is that you?

I think of them as Team Dad Jokes.

[iMonrey]

10 hours ago, Steph Sometimes said:

Did the woman eat a bowl of yogurt every time a racer finished the challenge? My stomach salutes her.

No, we only saw her eat a spoonful a couple of times.

[proserpina65]

Wow, a call back to the elimination of Lena & Kristy in Season 6!  I didn't dislike Mike & Nick but Carson & Jack are my favorites so I really wanted them to stay.

If only Jonathan & Ana had stayed stuck for a few more hours.  We'd have gotten rid of him and would not have to listen to him whine and blame her for everything.

I was impressed with how well Alyssa & Josiah did in this leg.  They absolutely rocked that hay task.  And I love that they approach every task, no matter how messy or unpleasant, with the same cheerful attitude.

On 4/17/2025 at 6:01 AM, Browncoat said:

They left Bali at that time.  

I'm pretty sure they were in Dubai at the beginning of this leg.

On 4/17/2025 at 7:32 AM, Haleth said:

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

There was a previous contestant who said something similar about a camel.  Dude, if it's male, you're not milking it.  Well, not its udder, anyway.

On 4/17/2025 at 7:32 AM, Haleth said:

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.

Maybe the next leg will have a task as difficult as the hay stacks.  Or if Ana makes Jonathan get the car stuck in the mud again. /s

 

17 hours ago, aghst said:

Melinda and Ericka panicked.

I don't think they realized that Han & Holden and Jack & Carson were still behind them.  Seems like they thought it was just them & the brothers left.  If that had been the case, then U-turning the brothers was their only chance to stay in the Race.

[proserpina65]

15 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I had hoped they would become a bit more natural as the race went on and they were losing the energy to put up that front, but no such luck, I'm afraid.

Or maybe that's just their personalities.

13 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I don't think I'd be jumping up and down at the opportunity to do a three day camel ride in the Sahara desert.

Whereas I'd cut a bitch to get that Marrakesh trip.  It's someplace I've always wanted to visit.

5 hours ago, gibasi said:

After this long and the way they handled getting super lost I think this is their true selves. I am not into video games or podcasts much and I am impressed by their friendship and enthusiasm for the game. I like them, Alyssa and Josiah and Han and Holden.

Those three teams are my favorites, but really, anyone but Jonathan and his poor wife can win and I'd be happy for them.

5 hours ago, Haleth said:

Carson and Jack suspected they were driving in the wrong direction for at least an hour. When they couldn’t find any signage they should have exited the highway to get directions. Surely there was a gas station or convenience store at an exit.

I thought that too, but then I wondered if the exits were few and far between and they did get off at the first one.

4 hours ago, raeb23 said:

She's 66, the oldest person on this season.

I think she also mentioned something about a knee problem early on.  If she did, that's another reason to limit her running as much as possible.

[illdoc]

6 hours ago, Slamera said:

The daughter talks about her mom as if she's elderly and frail. She's only 49, right?

The 49-year-old was the Mom of Eight.

[Browncoat]

39 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I'm pretty sure they were in Dubai at the beginning of this leg.

Oops!  You're right.  My bad.  Either way, I think it was an overnight flight to Bulgaria, so they all started at roughly the same time in Bulgaria.

[Hanahope]

Carson and Jack got lucky in that by getting so lost when nobody saw them they fell off everyone’s radar and were thought to have been far in front so nobody considered they fell behind and were a good team to u turn.

 

[PurpleTentacle]

9 hours ago, gibasi said:

After this long and the way they handled getting super lost I think this is their true selves. I am not into video games or podcasts much and I am impressed by their friendship and enthusiasm for the game. I like them, Alyssa and Josiah and Han and Holden.

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Or maybe that's just their personalities.

Nobody's true self is this hyperactive positivity.

We saw extremely little of them when they were lost, so I assume the editors are keeping up their image and wouldn't show the not so pretty moments. Which is a shame, since that would have made them more human and likeable to me.

11 hours ago, Slamera said:

The daughter talks about her mom as if she's elderly and frail. She's only 49, right? 

She's 66. That would have been a rough 49. For 66 she looks good.

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I thought that too, but then I wondered if the exits were few and far between and they did get off at the first one.

Exits can't be 1+ hours apart.

[dgpolo]

23 hours ago, aghst said:

 

23 hours ago, aghst said:

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?

Glenda and Lumbumba in season 35 drove into a ditch, a farmer got them out with a tractor, I don't think there are rules against the public helping out a team.

6 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

There was a previous contestant who said something similar about a camel.  Dude, if it's male, you're not milking it.  Well, not its udder, anyway.

I kept saying 'There's no MIILLLKKKKKKK! until my daughter started looking annoyed with me. Season 12-Lorena.

6 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I don't think they realized that Han & Holden and Jack & Carson were still behind them.  Seems like they thought it was just them & the brothers left.  If that had been the case, then U-turning the brothers was their only chance to stay in the Race.

They had literally said not too long before that they saw Han & Holden and Nick & Mike. Then they seemed to totally forget about H&H as they ran to the board.

3 hours ago, Hanahope said:

Carson and Jack got lucky in that by getting so lost when nobody saw them they fell off everyone’s radar and were thought to have been far in front so nobody considered they fell behind and were a good team to u turn.

This is what I told my daughter, by that time everyone seemed to have forgotten that C&J hadn't been seen all day. Luckily for them.

I really, really want Phil's hat, pretty please!

[Netfoot]

Why do I have such a low opinion of this crop?

The team that drives to another continent by mistake doesn't get eliminated.

Because the team that is searching for a child's bracelet in a haystack picks up chunks of haystack the size of a VW Beetle and throws them aside without even considering that maybe the bracelet could be hiding in the chunk.

The team that parks in a ditch and can't get out is thunderstruck by the idea of getting the car towed out by another vehicle. So absolutely gobsmacked that they never considered that while getting pulled out, it might be a good idea to have someone in the car to handle the steering and brakes. Have they never watched YouTube even?

Otherwise, a great episode. Far better IMHO than Dubai where all we learned was that you can build a city out of pure money. 

On 4/17/2025 at 3:55 AM, Tdoc72 said:

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

He could have sneaked in a ringer in his pocket. That would have been gold!

Nice to see Yogurt-Gran with the flower in her hair. My mum would be 102 if she were still with us. But Bulgaria rates quite low in the world for centenarians per capita. On the other hand, there are three Caribbean nations in the world top ten. My country is second in the world.

So, if you want to live long, don't eat yogurt. Drink rum!

(Which was invented less than 15 miles from where I'm sitting right now...)

[Ancaster]

16 hours ago, Skooma said:

 

Also kudos to the Bulgarian farmer guy for having to stick around forever at those haystacks.

I'm pretty sure he was paid to be there.

1 hour ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Exits can't be 1+ hours apart.

?  Where I live exits can be way further than an hour apart.  You miss your exit and you curse for an hour or more.  And your navigator/co-driver won't speak to you until after you pay the motel bill.

[Netfoot]

Oh, who was it that found a dead lizard and nearly tossed their cookies? Come on! It isn't like you found half a dead lizard. In  your sandwich...

[PurpleTentacle]

18 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

?  Where I live exits can be way further than an hour apart.  You miss your exit and you curse for an hour or more.  And your navigator/co-driver won't speak to you until after you pay the motel bill.

Europe is not the rural USA.

1 hour ago, dgpolo said:

They had literally said not too long before that they saw Han & Holden and Nick & Mike. Then they seemed to totally forget about H&H as they ran to the board.

Pretty sure they thought Han and Holden had finished. They did so many trips, it was reasonable to assume that the last trip wasn't a trip but them having finished.

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

He could have sneaked in a ringer in his pocket. That would have been gold!

Not even necessary, since the camera men had a few shots of the real bracelet on the ground. They could have just pointed it out to Phil.

[Rodney]

13 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Oh, who was it that found a dead lizard and nearly tossed their cookies? Come on! It isn't like you found half a dead lizard. In  your sandwich...

Melinda & Erika found it.

[aghst]

Nick and Mike were dispirited by the time they went through the hay stacks, probably ready to give up, especially after Hana and Holden found theirs and the other team arrived.

so yeah they probably rushed through the hay and missed it but they were tired and giving up.

[Stardancer Supreme]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

Nick and Mike were dispirited by the time they went through the hay stacks, probably ready to give up, especially after Hana and Holden found theirs and the other team arrived.

so yeah they probably rushed through the hay and missed it but they were tired and giving up.

Their method was busted. One of the brothers was just throwing hay around and not looking for the bracelet. If he wasn't just pulverizing the hay piles, he might have found the bracelet.  They kicked so much hay around that it was buried and impossible to see.

[Bumblebee84047]

On 4/16/2025 at 9:29 PM, choclatechip45 said:

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

"Where is your 102 year old Grandma?"

[Quilt Fairy]

1 hour ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

Their method was busted. One of the brothers was just throwing hay around and not looking for the bracelet. If he wasn't just pulverizing the hay piles, he might have found the bracelet.  They kicked so much hay around that it was buried and impossible to see.

This.  If they had started at one edge and searched methodically they would have had a chance to find the bracelet. 

BTW, the reason Holden asked to wash his hands before he ate the yogurt was because he thought he had sheep shit on them. 

[SVNBob]

6 hours ago, Netfoot said:

So, if you want to live long, don't eat yogurt. Drink rum!

Or both.  A rum and Bulgarian yogurt smoothie!

(Though as someone often "pirate"-adjacent, I also advocate for just the rum.)

[snarts]

On 4/17/2025 at 11:52 PM, iMonrey said:

 And it did look like a stick shift. But . . . a quick Google search tells me Ford no longer makes stick shift Focuses. Maybe they were old?

The last model year of Ford Focus in the US was 2018. But it's still produced & sold in Europe, the vast majority are manual transmissions. 

Didn't realize how much they'd eliminated self-driving from the show until Phil made such a big deal about it being the first of the season...and we're 7 episodes in. It adds so much, this felt more like an old school episode & I loved it.

[North of Eden]

It sad that we have come to the point where Phil has to promote self-driving as special when it used to be a staple.

Does Johnathan actually love his wife or is she just a receptacle for his physical needs because the way he kept blaming her for everything didn't sound very loving to me.

Disappointed Green Shirts beat a 3 hour time separation to stay in the race. Really don't like Carson. He's annoying.

[Corgi-ears]

Am I right to think that there is a clue box at every double U-Turn station, and this box contains both (a) pictures of every team in the race, from which someone choosing to use the U-Turn can choose (without knowing whether the team they choose is behind them or not); and (b) clues for every team after they decide to use or not use the U-Turn, which therefore would decrease as each team grabbed their clue?

In earlier seasons, I think there was some brouhaha when a team tried to u-turn a another team that was not behind them, but I've long forgotten the details. In this ep, Nike and Mike kept asking, "who's behind us? who's behind us?" so it must still be the case that the clue box does have pictures of every team. But they could tell that there were only several clues left in the box. In fact, Melinda and Erika kept yelling, "There are three clues left!" so the brothers should really have pieced it together that not only were Han and Holden behind them, but another team was as well. (Unless they thought the show puts in more clues than there were teams.) So they therefore really should have at least entertained the possibility that one team had not even shown up yet, and acted accordingly (e.g., with more urgency, with more methodicalness, etc.) 

(I mean, they were digging around haystacks for several hours before Carson and Jack showed up. So it's not like they didn't have the time to entertain many, many possibilities. Hey yo!)

[dgpolo]

5 minutes ago, Corgi-ears said:

But they could tell that there were only several clues left in the box.

No. They couldn't, in your picture you can see another box past the shoulder of one of the guys, that's the one with the clues which they are not allowed to open until they have either said that they are not u-turning anyone or have chosen who they are u-turning.

Though I think they did it wrong, I thought the big pic was for the u-turned team and the little one for the team that u-turned them?

[Netfoot]

33 minutes ago, Corgi-ears said:

Melinda and Erika kept yelling, "There are three clues left!" so the brothers should really have pieced it together that not only were Han and Holden behind them, but another team was as well.

It is my recollection that the show routinely stuffed the clue-box with extra clues specifically so racers would not be able to tell what position they were in or how many teams were behind them. Whether they still do this, I don't know. But it seems like a good idea and I can't think why they would stop. 

[iMonrey]

16 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

We saw extremely little of them when they were lost, so I assume the editors are keeping up their image and wouldn't show the not so pretty moments. Which is a shame, since that would have made them more human and likeable to me.

On 4/18/2025 at 6:53 AM, Slamera said:

Hm. I'm usually the cynic around here, but I feel like if Jack and Carson started turning on each other, they would have shown that. I can't think of any reason why the show would try to manipulate their edit favorably, even if they end up winning this season. The show thrives on meltdowns. 

1 hour ago, dgpolo said:

Though I think they did it wrong, I thought the big pic was for the u-turned team and the little one for the team that u-turned them?

That's what I thought too.

[Corgi-ears]

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

It is my recollection that the show routinely stuffed the clue-box with extra clues specifically so racers would not be able to tell what position they were in or how many teams were behind them. Whether they still do this, I don't know. But it seems like a good idea and I can't think why they would stop. 

The show has dumbed down the game, which is the first reason why I wonder if they might no longer be trying to hide how many teams have yet to pick up a clue.  

In this case in particular, I'm struck by how Erika kept yelling about there being three clues left. First of all, this suggests to me that she, and perhaps other teams, has some reason to take the number of clues left in any clue box to be accurate, instead of misleading. She just showed an instant sense of conviction that she and her mom screwed up in thinking that only Nike and Mike was behind them, and she took the three clues to mean that there were that many teams behind them.

1 hour ago, dgpolo said:

No. They couldn't, in your picture you can see another box past the shoulder of one of the guys, that's the one with the clues which they are not allowed to open until they have either said that they are not u-turning anyone or have chosen who they are u-turning.

Okay. If there are separate boxes for the u-turn and the clues, then Nick and Mike could not themselves tell that there were not one, but two more teams behind them when they used their u-turn. But Erika and Melinda said out loud, "There's three behind us" when they got their clue. The editing does not make it clear if Nike and Mike could hear this; they probably were not within earshot. But in that case, then it was kind of funny that Erika and Melinda instantly had a chance to make up for their "mistake" of u-turning Mike and Nick by alerting them to the fact that there were possibly two teams behind them, and did not do so.

Edited Saturday at 04:36 PM by Corgi-ears

[chaifan]

1 minute ago, Corgi-ears said:

But in that case, then it was kind of funny that Erika and Melinda instantly had a chance to make up for their "mistake" of u-turning Mike and Nick by alerting them to the fact that there were possibly two teams behind them, and did not do so.

I think there's a lot of armchair quarterbacking here.  Yeah, they could have told Mike & Nick there were X # of clues left in the box, but were their brains processing that at the time?  

I would never presume that the # of clues left in the box 100% mean the # of teams behind you.  Doesn't matter how many clue boxes I've been to already on the game, I'd still assume the game can screw with you at any moment.  Unless you've been consistently last place to the clue boxes, taking the last one and leaving an empty box, you'd never really know if there had been extra clues peppered in randomly.  (That would really be the way to do it - always keep them guessing.)

I really didn't care which team - between the brothers and Jack & Carson - lost this leg.  I'm not invested in either team, neither team offends.  But I did appreciate a leg that allowed for some major switching of positions, and showed that no matter how bad it seems to never give up.  That's the part of the Race that makes the last 15 minutes of the show worth watching.  

 

  

[meep.meep]

16 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

 

Not even necessary, since the camera men had a few shots of the real bracelet on the ground. They could have just pointed it out to Phil.

I'm pretty sure that they went through the footage in post production to find the missed bracelet, rather than know where it was in real time.  They did lots of drone footage on this episode.

I was disappointed that they only had to eat a little bowl of yogurt.  What kind of challenge is that?

[dgpolo]

4 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

I was disappointed that they only had to eat a little bowl of yogurt.  What kind of challenge is that?

I thought that they both should have had to eat it, but yeah, I don't know if producers thought someone would kick up a fuss about it but yogurt is so common these days I don't think anyone would have a problem with it. In the camel milking episode (season 12) that I reference above, they had to drink the milk after they reached the line in the bowl. People did have a bit more of a problem with it since it was warm and (probably) dirty, I think maybe even a few bugs had got in to some. But they all drank it as fast as they could.

[Stardancer Supreme]

1 hour ago, meep.meep said:

I was disappointed that they only had to eat a little bowl of yogurt.  What kind of challenge is that?

I'll be honest; I've never really liked the food challenges. You never know if a country's food would be to your liking, or even if Americans can consume it without issue (considering the garbage we eat!).  Yogurt is perhaps the mildest thing to partake in, considering that maybe none of the racers are lactose intolerant.  Plus forcing racers to chug beverages or eat something quickly while racing wouldn't be the best idea while running in a strange country with disparate weather patterns.  I would love to eat leisurely in Asian and Latin countries since I love that type of food, but to shove it in my face and keep running? Nawl.

[PurpleTentacle]

2 hours ago, meep.meep said:

I'm pretty sure that they went through the footage in post production to find the missed bracelet, rather than know where it was in real time.  They did lots of drone footage on this episode.

The camera man panned down and pointed the camera directly at it, while the team's backs were turned. Which means he saw it, knew exactly where it was and was just making sure not to alert the team to the location.

Edit: Here is the clip:

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Hm. I'm usually the cynic around here, but I feel like if Jack and Carson started turning on each other, they would have shown that. I can't think of any reason why the show would try to manipulate their edit favorably, even if they end up winning this season. The show thrives on meltdowns. 

They wouldn't. We've seen positive edits, where teams had basically no arguments ever, in every season and every time that was the case and teams were asked about it they were like "Of course we fought, they just didn't show it."

The editors are building a narrative, they aren't trying to show reality, or even just put in as much drama as possible, because that would be exhausting. They want to give us teams to root for and often go overboard with how they show them in a positive light.

Edited Saturday at 09:01 PM by PurpleTentacle

[chaifan]

4 hours ago, meep.meep said:

I was disappointed that they only had to eat a little bowl of yogurt.  What kind of challenge is that?

It wasn't a challenge.  It was product placement.  You milked a sheep.  This is the yogurt that was made from sheep's milk.  Have a few spoonfuls to show how yummy it is.  Show a 102 year old woman eating the sheep yogurt.  mmmm... sheep yogurt is good.  Sheep yogurt will make you live to 102. *

They did something similar with frankfurters/hot dogs in the recent past.  (Last season???)  It was a mustard challenge, and then they got frankfurters at the end.

I would have been, damn, why couldn't we have done this with the pastries/cakes in Dubai???

When was the last food challenge (eating massive quantities) they've done?  Nothing is sticking out in my brain over the last few seasons at least. 

*  That poor woman either ate a ton of yogurt that afternoon, or more likely, kept having the bowl taken away from her after showing her eating one spoonful with a team, then getting it handed back and told to do the same with the next team.

 

[Netfoot]

42 minutes ago, chaifan said:

When was the last food challenge (eating massive quantities) they've done?

The last I remember was The BQs eating 24" kielbasa sausages.But that was waaay long ago. They've had gross food since then but it was more "eat camel foreskin" and not so much "eat 12 kilos of scrambled eggs". 

[iMonrey]

23 hours ago, chaifan said:

I would never presume that the # of clues left in the box 100% mean the # of teams behind you.

I agree the show is becoming too gimmicky, but so far, the number of clues in the clue box has always been the same as the number of teams. That much, at least, hasn't ever changed. Yet.

[dgpolo]

7 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I agree the show is becoming too gimmicky, but so far, the number of clues in the clue box has always been the same as the number of teams. That much, at least, hasn't ever changed. Yet.

No, there were definitely a few seasons where there were 'extra' clues in the box. I don't know when they started that and it looks like they don't do it anymore but there were definitely extra clues at some point in time.

This is from Wikipedia which obviously hasn't been updated but at some point was true: In early seasons, the box contained exactly the number of clues for teams on that leg, allowing teams to indirectly determine their current placement in the leg by counting envelopes. In more recent seasons, extra envelopes are left in clue boxes to prevent this from occurring.

[Netfoot]

10 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I agree the show is becoming too gimmicky, but so far, the number of clues in the clue box has always been the same as the number of teams. That much, at least, hasn't ever changed. Yet.

Wrong. There were definite instances were the number of clues in the box included "dummy" clues to conceal the number of teams left in the race. 

Maybe they don't do that (much) any more, but they definitely have in the past.