S37.E08: We’re Letting Race Brain Win

[chitowngirl]

Teams continue traveling through Bulgaria where the express pass is up for grabs; one team makes a critical mistake that could jeopardize their race.
 

Airdate April 23, 2025 on CBS

[KeithJ]

Mom and daughter took taxis everywhere and still came in last.  That’s pretty bad.  Carson and Jack catching up was impressive.  Did Johnathan and Holden switch bodies this week? Holden was really being a dick to his sister.

Still rooting for Alyssa and Josiah.  $400k in student loans between them.  My house only cost half of that!

Edited April 24 by KeithJ

[susannot]

OK, good reason to root for them.  But I think Mark and Brett are the most entertaining racers.  Mark's Bulgarian dance was fantastic!

[Rodney]

Melinda & Erika seem incredibly nice, and I'll die on the hill that they were probably the strongest mother/daughter team we've had (or at least the most consistent one).  But this was not their leg at all.  Too many mistakes, including taking taxis when they shouldn't have.  They came in last, though, so it didn't matter in the end.

At least Erika admitted that it was her fault.

Sad about no Detours, but good dancing Roadblock.  The costumes were the best!

The cypher task was deceptively difficult.  You had to be lucky to find the dial on the back.

The woodcutter from the last leg showing up on the bus caught me by as much surprise as it did Carson & Jack!

Speaking of whom, I'd give them their due for catching up if they didn't have to thank Han & Holden and Melinda & Erika's greater errors more than they had to thank their own racing, especially since they made their own share of mistakes.

Jonathan stayed calm the entire leg, for a change, which was nice.

Congrats to Brett & Mark for winning their second leg.

Another intense episode.

[rr2911]

How difficult is it to hurry and go get the cross in the water?  Teams waste time dancing and acting silly.  Get the damn cross and get the hell out!

I liked Melinda and Erika.  Too bad they couldn't read directions.

Teams I'm rooting for are :

Alyssa and Josiah

Han and Holden

 

 

[Tango64]

What a great episode. I was hoping mom and daughter would arrive at the pit stop by taxi in next to last place and have Phil tell them they have to wait out 500 hours of taxi penalties.

Great editing with the daughter praising herself for reading the clues better. While sitting in a taxi.

Meeting the wood weighing guy on the bus is such a good TAR moment. 

[choclatechip45]

Great episode. It was nice to see Jonathan calm!

[mertensia]

Erika: I've gotten so much better about reading the clue.

Me: I wouldn't bet on that.

As soon as the first racer read the no taxis I knew someone would be breaking it, and guessed that it would be Melinda and Erika.

 I'm really surprised more people didn't turn the disc over. Just out of curiosity if for no other reason.

 

[kitkat343]

The people of Bulgaria seemed fantastic.  The woman they asked directions seemed thrilled to learn they were on a race, and the dancers and people in the water were fabulous.  Glad to see they found such a great new country to visit!  And they're going back to Italy, so we will have lots of beauty next week.

Sorry to lose the mother- daughter pair, but they not only accidentally took the taxis but they also didn't figure out you needed to flip over the disk by themselves.  And if Carson and Jack wanted to keep flipping the disk over a secret, it would have helped if they'd sat down so it would have been a lot harder for the people in front of them to see what they were doing.

Edited April 24 by kitkat343

[Lantern7]

Okay episode. I'm puzzled as to why teams didn't get traditional tasks until near the end with the dancing Roadblock. "Retrieve a key in the water. Find the Klek Shop. Use a cipher to decrypt a message." Oh, and Alyssa & Josiah walked on hot coals for the Express Pass. It's interesting that TAR took 37 seasons to get to something like that. Also, I wouldn't have pegged it for something traditional in a European country. I guess that's why we have the show teach us stuff.

Man, Melinda & Erika cratered very hard. Even if they had fought towards the middle of the pack, the lack of clue reading would have done them in. They finished last for the eliminated, so the reveal from Phil that they broke the rules wasn't a cruel twist of the knife.

Why is it that the team meeting a guy from the previous leg would be Carson & Jack? It feels right that would happen for them. Also, I'm thinking they're the team to root for. Truth be told, there's no one to really loathe. Yeah, I know, Jonathan, but his is an irritation that isn't huge in the bigger picture. Maybe a lack of clear-cut villains is why TAR is overlooked by some viewers. Then again, I'm grateful for that. There's probably a wall-sized portrait of Jonathan Baker with "NEVER AGAIN" written underneath it in the casting department's office.

[SDVegas]

2 hours ago, Tango64 said:

What a great episode. I was hoping mom and daughter would arrive at the pit stop by taxi in next to last place and have Phil tell them they have to wait out 500 hours of taxi penalties.

YES!

I *SO* wanted a penalty assessed, have them waiting by the mat, watch other teams check in…sigh…

Edited April 24 by SDVegas
Fixed quote

[shura]

So that rustic woodcutter guy actually lives in a city of 1.3 million people and commutes 25 km to stack wood in the countryside?  Sure, why not.  They should have checked who the bus driver was, I bet it was that 102-year-old yogurt lady, too.

“You might be surprised to find an Eastern Orthodox priest at this annually celebrated event led by Orthodox priests who celebrate their faith like this every year.”  You made my day, Phil.

[Browncoat]

I’m actually pretty impressed that Carson and Jack even recognized woodcutter guy.  I have terrible facial recognition skills under the best of circumstances. I might have recognized his if he had been in costume, but randomly, on a bus?  No way.

[Haleth]

Seeing the wood weigher was a pretty funny coincidence and gave Jack and Carson a good opportunity to ask for help with the clue. Ah, someone familiar!

I cringed when Erika congratulated herself on reading the clues better.

Jonathan was surprisingly decent this epi, even giving Alyssa and Josiah a clue instead of putting more distance between them.

Mark nailed that dance! (And looked great in the costume.)

The people in Bulgaria seem lovely. There is that stereotype of Soviet era Bulgarians being dour and unfriendly.  Glad it isn’t true.  

[Silver-hyren]

9 hours ago, KeithJ said:

 Did Johnathan and Holden switch bodies this week? Holden was really being a dick to his sister.

He was the same way during the origami task, which is why I can't get on board with rooting for the team.  I'm sure there have been other instances of the two of them bickering that we just haven't seen because they really haven't gotten all that much screen time. 

[Fake Jan Brady]

1 hour ago, Haleth said:

Mark nailed that dance! (And looked great in the costume.)

If Mark walked up and asked me for directions I’d volunteer to drive him to wherever he needed to go. And then give him my car. 😍

The underground shots of teams discovering the klek shop were adorable. 

This is a fun group of four and a half teams remaining.

 

ps - it’s outrageous that studying something as noble as nursing can burden someone with so much debt. 

[TheRabbi]

Most enjoyable episode this season. Cypher task and dance task were both good. Interesting things like the tiny store and the scene of running into the wood judge. Clue-reading mishaps. I wonder what Melinda and Erika's penalty would have been if they weren't last. Half hour per cab ride?

Rooting for Alyssa and Josiah from here. Love their energy. And the only ones to notice the AR37 graffiti. 

Edited April 24 by TheRabbi

[bunnyface]

21 minutes ago, TheRabbi said:

Most enjoyable episode this season. Cypher task and dance task were both good. Interesting things like the tiny store and the scene of running into the wood judge. Clue-reading mishaps. I wonder what Melinda and Erika's penalty would have been if they weren't last. Half hour or cab ride?

Rooting for Alyssa and Josiah from here. Love their energy. And the only ones to notice the AR37 graffiti. 

Graffiti?  Where was the graffiti?  I did see a teeny tiny race flag on the klek shop but was there graffiti also?

[KeithJ]

10 hours ago, Tango64 said:

What a great episode. I was hoping mom and daughter would arrive at the pit stop by taxi in next to last place and have Phil tell them they have to wait out 500 hours of taxi penalties.

I'll admit I was hoping for that too.  Although I was surprised that even though they came in last place, he had them look at the clue to let them know they really really came in last place.

[chaifan]

I'll admit, I really wasn't captured by the first 1/2 hour or so of the episode.  I felt like the tasks and clue markers were not challenging at all, that it was just more "run here, do that, run here, to that".  I was wondering how long all those men were standing in the water.  But things got interesting with the cypher challenge.  

I wonder if the clue said something about not being able to bring the cypher wheel up to the book, and that may have made people think they couldn't pick it up at all.  I've never seen a cypher wheel like that, so I can understand why it wasn't immediately obvious.  But I think I would have at least picked it up and turned it over in my "how the heck does this thing work" moment.  

I wish they made getting the clue at the statue park more interesting.  They could have said "find the clue box at the base of the Stalin statue", then had decoy clue boxes all around.  I've been to Communist statue parks in Eastern Europe, and they really are testaments to the artists, even when those artists were forced to produce things they didn't want to.  I'm glad when Communism fell the governments had the foresight to warehouse these statues, and not just destroy them because of what they represented.  

The folk dance part was the best.  The hall was gorgeous, the costumes were beautiful.  I really thought the dance looked hard - I didn't expect everyone to get it so easily.  Mark was amazing, but everyone else did pretty good, too.  And I love that they all raced out of there with the costumes on.

I've noticed that Jack and Carson only carry one backpack between the two of them, and that it's rather small.  My guess is they have 2 outfits each - the tshirts and shorts we normally see them in, and one long pant/long sleeve outfit.  

Melinda & Erika cracked me up with their "solving" of the cypher.  MKKXYZ etc.  Oh, come on!  If they've ever watched TAR they know the solved puzzle will be a real sentence, or something related to where they are.  That was just stupid.  I'm so glad TAR said "no taxis".  It was great watching teams figure out whether to hoof it or hop on a bus, to get help from locals.  And, of course, seeing the woodcutter on the bus!

Han & Holden and Race Brain.  I guess that's the new Killer Fatigue.  I hope they recover from that.  I'm still rooting for them as my favorites.  Yeah, I know they bicker, but for me sibling bickering is much more tolerable than spouse bickering.  It's almost entertaining.  And Holden was right, Han just needed to take a breath and refocus.  But being told "take a breath" just never, ever works.  

[Ancaster]

1 hour ago, chaifan said:

Han & Holden and Race Brain.  I guess that's the new Killer Fatigue.  I hope they recover from that.  I'm still rooting for them as my favorites.  Yeah, I know they bicker, but for me sibling bickering is much more tolerable than spouse bickering.  It's almost entertaining.  And Holden was right, Han just needed to take a breath and refocus.  But being told "take a breath" just never, ever works.  

It's almost as bad as being told to "Calm down!"  My ex used to say that to me and it infuriated me.

[Kelda Feegle]

I really wish we'd seen the footage where Erika had worked out her error in reading the clue, how early or late in the leg was that, did they decide to keep using taxis regardless,  did she not share her mistake with her Mum, etc.

[Rodney]

2 minutes ago, Kelda Feegle said:

I really wish we'd seen the footage where Erika had worked out her error in reading the clue, how early or late in the leg was that, did they decide to keep using taxis regardless,  did she not share her mistake with her Mum, etc.

She never knew until the Pit Stop.

[iMonrey]

8 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Okay episode. I'm puzzled as to why teams didn't get traditional tasks until near the end with the dancing Roadblock. "Retrieve a key in the water. Find the Klek Shop. Use a cipher to decrypt a message." Oh, and Alyssa & Josiah walked on hot coals for the Express Pass.

This was an oddly designed leg. It seemed more interested in sightseeing various Bulgarian points of interest rather than challenging the racers. 

Walking on coals for the Express Pass seemed way too easy, and it's way too obvious the only team that's going to even try to go for it is the one who starts in first place. Everyone else figures there's no point. So they might as well just hand it to whoever finished first in the last leg.

Even the Roadblock seemed pretty easy. For one thing it was tailor made for Mark, who is a professional dancer. But even everyone else got it in two tries.

I'll grant it was nice of Jonathan and Ana to help Josiah and Alyssa. But Jonathan is still doing that passive aggressive thing with Ana. He made her decide whether or not to go for the Express Pass, and he told her to do the Roadblock. That way he can blame her if anything goes sideways.

On a lesser show I would accuse production of planting the woodcutter guy on Jack and Carson's bus. That was quite the coincidence.

[Tango64]

On the sign outside the fire walking task, one of the informational items said "The two-minute rule applies." What is the two-minute rule?

[Fukui San]

42 minutes ago, Tango64 said:

On the sign outside the fire walking task, one of the informational items said "The two-minute rule applies." What is the two-minute rule?

Just a guess, but maybe two minutes have to elapse between attempts at the task? Say they failed their first attempt, they'd have to wait two minutes before trying again. 

[Tango64]

Answering my own question: The internet says the two-minute rule applies to a potentially scary task. You have two minutes to do it or get out of the way for any other racers waiting to go. You can't take a lot of time trying to build up the courage. Invoked in TAR15, when Mika couldn't make herself go down the Atlantis water slide and others were waiting.

[chaifan]

22 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I'll grant it was nice of Jonathan and Ana to help Josiah and Alyssa. But Jonathan is still doing that passive aggressive thing with Ana. He made her decide whether or not to go for the Express Pass, and he told her to do the Roadblock. That way he can blame her if anything goes sideways.

I'll give Jonathan a pass on the roadblock.  It was sort of easy to guess from the clue that it would be dancing.  Even if not, just based on the location they could be pretty sure it wouldn't be carrying boulders uphill or something that required brute strength.  They have to even out the roadblocks, so it made sense for Ana to do this one.  

But yeah, he really does have the passive/aggressive things down.  He was losing it a bit up in the balcony when she failed the first dance attempt.

Woodcutter on the bus:  it was a weird coincidence, but they do happen.  Years ago, I was in Croatia and met two other American women traveling.  Two or three days later, I was in Bosnia, and I hear someone shouting my name.  It was the same two women.  The same thing happened to me in Thailand - met people in Bangkok, and ran into them 5 days later in a tiny town between Bangkok and  Chang Mai.  

[Jaundiced Eye]

5 hours ago, Silver-hyren said:

He was the same way during the origami task, which is why I can't get on board with rooting for the team.  I'm sure there have been other instances of the two of them bickering that we just haven't seen because they really haven't gotten all that much screen time. 

Co-sign. He always seems to try to place the blame on his sister, even though she holds up under pressure far better than he. I think he's a dick. Telling her to breathe because he "thinks" she's panicking? Projection much? Telling her she has to "work" with him, just because he's clueless? Screw that guy. He's worse than Jonathan, in my book.

[mertensia]

4 hours ago, bunnyface said:

Graffiti?  Where was the graffiti?  I did see a teeny tiny race flag on the klek shop but was there graffiti also?

That bright yellow stylized AR37.

[bunnyface]

28 minutes ago, mertensia said:

That bright yellow stylized AR37.

Well, I totally missed that too.  I just saw the flag.

[PurpleTentacle]

There were actually enough tasks this episode to justify the runtime. I know! I'm as shocked as anybody!

Mark, public transport in a european metropolis isn't going to be like your school bus in nowhere USA. They'll run like every 10 minutes and the metro will run even more frequently. Glad they figured that one out after only running to one task. A lesser team would have stuck with that strategy all the way to elimination.

I really liked Carson and Jack this episode. Even though they described themselves as delusional in the beginning for most of the episode they were nose to the grindstone, no nonsense racing and yet still clearly enjoying the race. It felt a lot more authentic compared to how over the top they have been in the past.

Sadly there wasn't much suspense after Melinda and Erika took their first taxi and it got less and less with every taxi they took. Had they not come in last anyway, they would have been penalised out the ass for that one. We are talking hours here.

I thought there were supposed to be NELs this season? Guess I was misinformed. I don't think they are going to start having them at final 5.

Overall a really fun, if predictable episode.

[PurpleTentacle]

9 hours ago, shura said:

So that rustic woodcutter guy actually lives in a city of 1.3 million people and commutes 25 km to stack wood in the countryside?  Sure, why not.  They should have checked who the bus driver was, I bet it was that 102-year-old yogurt lady, too.

I mean, it's no secret that they hire actors for (most of) these roles. It shouldn't be a surprise that actors tend to live in big cities.

It is a bit of a surprise that they chose to include it. It isn't always like the race to break the 4th wall. Though they have done it more in recent years and this was probably too fun of an interaction to pass up.

5 hours ago, bunnyface said:

Graffiti?  Where was the graffiti?  I did see a teeny tiny race flag on the klek shop but was there graffiti also?

Alyssa even pointed it out. It says AR37, pretty abstractly, to be fair. But on the other hand, it was in race-colours.

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Walking on coals for the Express Pass seemed way too easy, and it's way too obvious the only team that's going to even try to go for it is the one who starts in first place. Everyone else figures there's no point. So they might as well just hand it to whoever finished first in the last leg.

Well they didn't know what it was until they got there. So in theory it could have been something hard, worth going for as the second team.

But in reality, the race hasn't had a challanging express pass task in like 10 seasons, so it's a pretty safe bet that the first team will take it immediatly, especially if they have such a big lead.

It's a general problem with tasks being too easy for quite a while now. Especially the express pass task should be hard.

1 hour ago, Jaundiced Eye said:

Co-sign. He always seems to try to place the blame on his sister, even though she holds up under pressure far better than he. I think he's a dick. Telling her to breathe because he "thinks" she's panicking? Projection much? Telling her she has to "work" with him, just because he's clueless? Screw that guy. He's worse than Jonathan, in my book.

I mean certainly not worth than Jonathan, but also not great, that's for sure.

[TheRabbi]

6 hours ago, bunnyface said:

Graffiti?  Where was the graffiti?  I did see a teeny tiny race flag on the klek shop but was there graffiti also?

The red and yellow AR37 that Alyssa and Josiah pointed out? Kind of drawn on in a graffiti style.

[shura]

1 hour ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I mean, it's no secret that they hire actors for (most of) these roles. It shouldn't be a surprise that actors tend to live in big cities.

Imagine - they open that klek shop and there is Di Caprio in there 😁!

I got to say, if the library judge was an actor too, whoever did his hair deserves an Emmy for Outstanding Contemporary Makeup.

3 hours ago, chaifan said:

I'll give Jonathan a pass on the roadblock.  It was sort of easy to guess from the clue that it would be dancing.  Even if not, just based on the location they could be pretty sure it wouldn't be carrying boulders uphill or something that required brute strength.

Didn’t someone (Jack and Carson?) think it was going to be military history?

[Ilovepie]

Really enjoyed this leg despite not having a detour. Between the self-driving and taxi-less navigation it made the race more interesting. I hope there are more "no taxi" legs in the future.

It was almost painful watching Melinda and Erika get in all the taxis and her saying "I'm great at reading clues" (facepalm)....

I almost wish one of the teams that figured out the cypher had just gotten up and left and not told the strugglers how to do it. If I was Han & Holden I'm not sure I would have helped the M&E because it was kind of their fault they were U-turned and had to do that horrible hay detour last week. If M&E hadn't U-turned Mike and Nick I don't think they would have turned around and U-turned H&H. I would have been like "karma ladies, after all, it's a race, right?  Byeeeeee......."

Mark was amazing on that roadblock! A well-deserved win here. They were great all the way around the whole episode. 

Jonathan was more-low key this episode, but whatever. I'm not really rooting for any one team over another, just anyone but J&A. I guess sometimes that makes watching more enjoyable than when I'm all in on one team and stressing they will get eliminated, but none of these teams will really stick with me after this season.

[chaifan]

1 hour ago, shura said:

Didn’t someone (Jack and Carson?) think it was going to be military history?

Yeah.  The clue was something like "who wants to take a step back in time", so I could sorta see that as a guess.  Step = Dancing is much more likely in Amazing Race land, though.  I think a military history challenge *in Bulgaria* would be an impossible challenge.  Germany, France or England, maybe.  But not in Bulgaria.

35 minutes ago, Ilovepie said:

Really enjoyed this leg despite not having a detour. Between the self-driving and taxi-less navigation it made the race more interesting. I hope there are more "no taxi" legs in the future.

Ditto.  I really want to know where Melinda and Erika got all the cab money from.  I know they haven't stated how much teams get on each leg for a VERY long time, but I still sort of assumed they gave them just enough to get around for that leg.  I suppose the TAR gods gave them enough money for cabs, just as a fake out, to see who wouldn't read the clue.

35 minutes ago, Ilovepie said:

If I was Han & Holden I'm not sure I would have helped the M&E because it was kind of their fault they were U-turned and had to do that horrible hay detour last week. If M&E hadn't U-turned Mike and Nick I don't think they would have turned around and U-turned H&H.

I can't remember if Mike & Nick knew (100% sure) that Han & Holden were still behind them.  I'm pretty sure they did.  In that case, I think even if Mike & Nick hadn't been U-turned, they assumed at that point they were 2nd to last (not 3rd) and it would have been smart of them to U-turn H&H anyways, just to put distance between them.  If I thought I were racing for last place, I'd U-turn whoever I thought was behind me. 

I rewatched the beginning of the episode, because I wasn't paying close attention to the departure times yesterday.  There was almost 4 hours between Josiah & Alyssa and Carson & Jack.  Just over an hour between Melinda & Erika and Carson & Jack.  Carson & Jack did a great job of catching up - they ran a pretty clean leg (with a short hiccup at the cypher), while everyone else made bigger mistakes.  

Edited April 24 by chaifan

[Ilovepie]

51 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I can't remember if Mike & Nick knew (100% sure) that Han & Holden were still behind them.  I'm pretty sure they did. 

They did - they were behind them on the road. They were the obvious choice to U-turn because they were right behind them.

[Grizzly]

I'm just watching Guy's Grocery Games from Wednesday. One of the contestants used Bulgarian feta. No mention if it was made from sheep's milk.

[iMonrey]

8 hours ago, Jaundiced Eye said:

Co-sign. He always seems to try to place the blame on his sister, even though she holds up under pressure far better than he. I think he's a dick. Telling her to breathe because he "thinks" she's panicking? Projection much? Telling her she has to "work" with him, just because he's clueless? Screw that guy. He's worse than Jonathan, in my book.

Oh, no way he's worse than Jonathan. 

They're brother and sister. That's a very different dynamic than husband and wife. Plus he's the younger sibling. If he accuses his sister of excluding him rather than working with him, he knows her behavior from experience. And by their own admission they hadn't been close for a long time.

They might not have the greatest of relationships but it strikes me as fairly typical for a younger brother/older sister relationship. Not dissimilar to my own. 

But it's apples to oranges compared to Jonathan and Ana where the power dynamic is completely reversed. Jonathan comes across as emotionally abusive, at best. I don't think Holden is abusive or Han is victimized. They just bicker like any other siblings. And we've seen far worse than them.

Edited April 25 by iMonrey

[ML89]

45 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

I'm just watching Guy's Grocery Games from Wednesday. One of the contestants used Bulgarian feta. No mention if it was made from sheep's milk.

Feta is sheep’s milk cheese so I’d say yes. Now as to whether there were 102 year old grandmothers involved…

 

 

[Netfoot]

I now know who wins the race.

I've been pretty uncommitted to any of the racers, one way or the other. But after this episode, those green wearing, AD&D playing, LOTR philosophers and general arseholes Carson & Jack can't get off my screen fast enough for me. 

So obviously, they will take the prize.

(And before you ask, I used to be big into AD&D, love LOTR and frequently wear green. And, some say, I can also be an arsehole. But those arseholes are now getting right up my nose! Begone, I say!)

I feel sorry for Melinda & Erika. Misreading a TAR clue is almost always fatal. But in this instance the error was only one tiny word... which completely reversed the meaning of the instruction.

I think it was a bit cruel of the editors to point out Erica boasting about her clue-reading skills.  But I'm not surprised they did it.

How unfortunate that despite the advantages of multiple taxi-rides while others slogged along on foot, they still managed to come last, thereby negating the severity of their error.

Bulgaria was lovely and next week, Italy!

 

23 hours ago, KeithJ said:

$400k in student loans between them.

Degrees in Social Justice Origami and Eco-Feminist Minecraft Architecture don't come cheap!

9 hours ago, Fukui San said:

Say they failed their first attempt, they'd have to wait two minutes before trying again.

That's so the soles of their feet can cool down a bit.

[Fukui San]

Something that occurred to me is that this is probably the most accomplished dancing as a group that a cast has done that I can remember. A pretty complex dance which they all seemed to do pretty well.

[SVNBob]

On 4/23/2025 at 10:07 PM, KeithJ said:

Holden was really being a dick to his sister.

And she's been giving back as good as he has.  In other words, it looks like a fairly standard sibling relationship: they can snipe at each other, but woe betide to an outsider that tries to get involved.

On 4/23/2025 at 10:25 PM, Rodney said:

Melinda & Erika seem incredibly nice, and I'll die on the hill that they were probably the strongest mother/daughter team we've had (or at least the most consistent one). 

Most consistent, since they were always around 5th to 7th place.

But the mother/daughter team that had the best finish is still the OGs, Momily.

 

20 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I’m actually pretty impressed that Carson and Jack even recognized woodcutter guy.  I have terrible facial recognition skills under the best of circumstances. I might have recognized his if he had been in costume, but randomly, on a bus?  No way.

TBF, his "costume" was basically what he was wearing on the bus, minus the fur hat.

 

2 hours ago, Fukui San said:

Something that occurred to me is that this is probably the most accomplished dancing as a group that a cast has done that I can remember. A pretty complex dance which they all seemed to do pretty well.

I didn't think the dance looked that complex, and the fact that we only saw people take one or two tries would seem to bear that out as well.  But what made it look difficult to me was the pace.  Lots of simple steps, just at speed.

 

Lots of talk in the Live thread about the Bulgarian bagpipes, which were shown 3 times (at the lake, as part of the live band for the dancing, and the Pit Stop).  I too was interested (as someone with a bit of a fondness for the pipes), so I looked them up.  They're called "Kaba Gaida" or "Rodopska Gaida", because of their origin in the Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria.  And they don't appear to be related to the Scottish bagpipes in origin; they're related to other similar instruments found throughout eastern Europe and the Middle East, but not the pipes you think of when you hear the word "bagpipes".

Edited April 25 by SVNBob

[Rodney]

47 minutes ago, SVNBob said:

Most consistent, since they were always around 5th to 7th place.

But the mother/daughter team that had the best finish is still the OGs, Momily.

Nancy & Emily never did much better in their placings, either.  They got (checks Wikipedia quickly) two third-place finishes and were in the middle and back of the pack, otherwise.

Still, Melinda & Erika managed to take Shelley & Nici's place as the second-highest-finishing mother/daughter team in the show's history so there's that.

It's really kind of sad, though, that all of four parent/child combinations, the mother/daughter team is still the only one never to crack the F3 (or even the F4!) after thirty-seven seasons, while we've had two teams from each of the other three combinations -- Dave & Connor and Rob & Corey for father/son teams, Ronald & Christina and Gary & Mallory for father/daughter teams, and Margie & Luke and Sheri & Cole for mother/son teams -- to reach the F3.

[30 Helens]

14 hours ago, chaifan said:

But yeah, [Jonathan] really does have the passive/aggressive things down.  He was losing it a bit up in the balcony when she failed the first dance attempt.

Me: “Oh no, he’s starting to rub his head!” 

14 hours ago, Jaundiced Eye said:

 Telling her she has to "work" with him, just because he's clueless? Screw that guy. 

And then Holden’s idea of “working together” seemed to be him telling his sister what to do and how to do it. I agree, he was pretty insufferable this leg. But as others have said, siblings. 

12 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

It's a general problem with tasks being too easy for quite a while now. Especially the express pass task should be hard.

Or at least something a team might balk at doing. Remember when people had to shave their heads to gain an advantage?

4 hours ago, Fukui San said:

Something that occurred to me is that this is probably the most accomplished dancing as a group that a cast has done that I can remember. A pretty complex dance which they all seemed to do pretty well.

To me, it looked like about 5-6 different moves, repeated several times each. Something like four repetitions of the same kick-step followed by four repetitions of the same back-kick motion, etc. I am choreographically challenged, but I think even I could have handled that one.

I found myself really rooting for Carson and Jack after how well they held up under pressure last week. They didn’t bicker or blame, didn’t give up even when it seemed all hope was lost, and were prepared to smile and laugh all the way to their Philimination. Mark & Brett and the nurses are two other teams who are always supportive and smiling, so I wouldn’t be sad if any of these three teams came out on top. Calm positivity for the win!

[PurpleTentacle]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I've been pretty uncommitted to any of the racers, one way or the other. But after this episode, those green wearing, AD&D playing, LOTR philosophers and general arseholes Carson & Jack can't get off my screen fast enough for me. 

So obviously, they will take the prize.

(And before you ask, I used to be big into AD&D, love LOTR and frequently wear green. And, some say, I can also be an arsehole. But those arseholes are now getting right up my nose! Begone, I say!)

So what have they done to make you mad? I don't get it.

PS: I doubt they play AD&D. AD&D is 2nd edition. Current is 5th edition... well really 5.5, but WOTC call it just 5th edition, even though there were a bunch of new rule books released in 2024, that change the game drastically. Naming nowadays is a mess. Not just with movies anymore, now also with games. /nerd rant

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

How unfortunate that despite the advantages of multiple taxi-rides while others slogged along on foot, they still managed to come last, thereby negating the severity of their error.

I don't think it was much of an advantage. They were shown trying forever to hail a cab and then that also has to make its way through traffic. While other teams just jumped onto the metro that will run like every 7 minutes and got to their destinations without any obstacles.

It was a massive error though and I would have loved to see them sit out a penalty.

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Degrees in Social Justice Origami and Eco-Feminist Minecraft Architecture don't come cheap!

Funny and original boomer humor there...

[ML89]

Loved the dancing roadblock, and good for the gamers for catching back up 

 

Edited April 25 by ML89

[anniebird]

I don't understand the antipathy towards Carson and Jack either - they don't strike me as obnoxious at all, and they have a great positive attitude. Also they're not the typical alpha, buff, all-male team that seem to have an unfair advantage. I wouldn't mind at all if these guys won.

[proserpina65]

On 4/23/2025 at 11:25 PM, Rodney said:

Speaking of whom, I'd give them their due for catching up if they didn't have to thank Han & Holden and Melinda & Erika's greater errors more than they had to thank their own racing, especially since they made their own share of mistakes.

I'd argue that C&J catching up at the library had a good bit to do with their own racing.  Sure, M&E drove farther than they needed but H&H hadn't made a lot of mistakes at that point.  Both of those teams must've spent a lot of time not getting the cypher task at all.

On 4/23/2025 at 11:40 PM, rr2911 said:

How difficult is it to hurry and go get the cross in the water?  Teams waste time dancing and acting silly.  Get the damn cross and get the hell out!

It wasted very little time to actually enjoy something on the leg.

20 hours ago, chaifan said:

It was sort of easy to guess from the clue that it would be dancing. 

Idk, C&J didn't realize it was dancing until one of them had already chosen to do it.

16 hours ago, chaifan said:

I think a military history challenge *in Bulgaria* would be an impossible challenge.  Germany, France or England, maybe.  But not in Bulgaria.

Why?  They've done military history-type challenges in other parts of Eastern Europe before, like in Russia.

11 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Degrees in Social Justice Origami and Eco-Feminist Minecraft Architecture don't come cheap!

They're both nurses, so I assume their loans were for nursing programs.

5 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

Or at least something a team might balk at doing. Remember when people had to shave their heads to gain an advantage?

Some people might've balked at walking on hot coals.  Josiah didn't, but it's not like he was thrilled about it either.

5 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

To me, it looked like about 5-6 different moves, repeated several times each. Something like four repetitions of the same kick-step followed by four repetitions of the same back-kick motion, etc. I am choreographically challenged, but I think even I could have handled that one.

The steps weren't particularly complicated, but as someone else pointed out, the pace of the dance was pretty quick.  I probably could've done it but I suspect it would've taken me more than one or two times.  My BFF took tap dancing lessons as a kid, so the speed of it might've been more up her alley.

5 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I found myself really rooting for Carson and Jack after how well they held up under pressure last week. They didn’t bicker or blame, didn’t give up even when it seemed all hope was lost, and were prepared to smile and laugh all the way to their Philimination. Mark & Brett and the nurses are two other teams who are always supportive and smiling, so I wouldn’t be sad if any of these three teams came out on top. Calm positivity for the win!

Agree 100%.  Those teams are the ones I hope make the final leg.