S37.E10: Up the River Without a Joust

[chitowngirl]

Racers travel to Strasbourg, France, where they go head-to-head in a water jousting match.
 

Airdate May 7, 2025 on CBS

[mojoween]

Love the husbands (but somehow have not learned their names this entire time [I wanna say Mark and … Brent?  Brett?]) so that sucked.

Do you think Jonathan knows he’s an asshole?  Or do you think he thinks he’s being helpful?

[susannot]

Noooo Mark and Brett are out.  Don't know who I am rooting for now.  Nobody.

[dancingdreamer]

I wish Jonathan  and Ana were out, he makes it so unpleasant watching him.

I'm good with any team winning except him. I do love Jack and Carson. Josiah and Alyssa  messing around with the express  pass, they lost precious  time. 

Bye Brett and Mark, you ran a good race.

[iMonrey]

I complained about the editing on Survivor and while it's a bit better on this show I've also noticed some telegraphing/misdirecting.

For one thing, I've noticed all season that Mark and Brett haven't been getting a lot of attention from the editors. I foresaw them as "also rans" for a long time. Granted, it's also probably because they haven't been bringing a lot of drama either.

But another thing I've noticed over the years. When they do the previews for the next week, they tend to focus on fighting and drama, whereas the team getting eliminated is conspicuously absent. The preview for this one (shown last week) never showed Mark and Brett. 

I guess I never realized that I was sort of rooting for them until it looked like they were toast this week. 

But to give the editors credit, they did a great job cutting from Jonathan berating Ana in the car and telling her she was a lousy partner that was going to cost them the race to Josiah telling Alyssa neither of them were right or wrong and that he loved her so much. What a contrast. 

I can't imagine anyone is rooting for Jonathan and Ana to win. It would be the worst win since Zach and Flo if it happens.

[bunnyface]

I soooo wanted to be rid of Jonathan. I don't care what diagnosis he is claiming to have, he is a jerk and specifically a jerk to his wife.  Such a contrast to the other couple.

I thought an express pass let you skip all tasks and go to the mat.  Did it change or am I delusional or both?

[iMonrey]

2 minutes ago, bunnyface said:

I thought an express pass let you skip all tasks and go to the mat.  Did it change or am I delusional or both?

That's the Fast Forward. The Express Pass only lets you skip one task. (And not the Jousting one, apparently.) I was confused the last time it came up too.

[Rodney]

Well, I liked Brett & Mark a lot, but with all of their navigational snafus, they earned their ouster this week.

The cheese task was delicious!  I love cheese and would've loved to have done that task.

But I had to shake my head at Josiah trying to get out of using the Express Pass at that task.  He and Alyssa clearly weren't cutting it there, so she was right that they should've used it.

Self-driving legs are always good, as they help us see who can take the pressure of navigating and who can't.  I was actually surprised that Carson & Jack did well in doing so this time, considering all of their past epic fails in navigation.  Every other team got lost or took a wrong turn at least once.

Out to Dry would've been my Detour choice by far.  Too much painstaking work was involved in For the Birds in my book.

Kind of felt bad for Han & Holden, who actually managed to break out into the lead for the early part of the leg, only to lose it from bad navigation.  They survived only due to Brett & Mark being even worse navigators than they were.

We're down to the F4, and we have both of the final two legs airing next week.  Who's going to be the final team eliminated?  And who's racing to the finish line?  Eager to see!

[mertensia]

Aw, man. I liked them.

Cheese! As a good Wisconsinite I love cheese. I don't know how good I would be at differentiating between them, but I would get to eat cheese. And really, that's the important thing.

Ana, drop Jonathan like a rock. Preferably into a river with the aforementioned rock.

Edited Thursday at 05:03 AM by mertensia

[rr2911]

.  Yahoo!  Brett and Mark got eliminated!

.  I like Josiah /Alyssa but Josiah would've been at fault if they got eliminated.  He was very indicisive about the Express Pass.

.  I wish Jonathan/Ana would've been sent packing but I have a feeling they're going to win TAR.

.  Han/Holden and Josiah/Alyssa are my favorites!

.  I bet it smelled something funky at the cheese contest!  Probably like smelly feet!  🤣

Edited Thursday at 05:06 AM by rr2911

[Lois Sandborne]

Am I tripping or was there no penalty for the brother and sister being last place last week. I thought that was what happened after an NEL. Instead it seemed like their non-elimination was a complete gift; they went from that right into an equalizer with the travel, and then the joust, which naturally slowed all the teams down because they had to wait for each other.

Mark and Brett were the last team left that I was rooting for, so I figured they'd be out. Alyssa and Josh are likeable, but all the waffling they do about every little thing makes them bad racers. I can't believe they squandered their Express Pass like that, going back and forth outside the cheese shop while two teams were getting ahead of them.

[Lantern7]

Good episode. I'm not feeling much, but I am feeling stuff. That's more than what I can say for Survivor.

I'm okay with the Head-to-Head in the beginning of a leg, as opposed to the end. It never seemed fair that one team could have bad luck and drop from contenders to eliminated. Also, Phil wasn't that good with play-by-play. It was one of the few things that Probst has over him. Here, though, the positioning was good. It was the game itself that was dreadful. Someone on the live thread wondered why we didn't get best-of-three battles. I'm thinking it was because the guys rowing barely had enough energy for one "battle."

Alyssa & Josiah were fortunate to have "just" come in second. I get not wanting to use the Express Pass until the absolute last opportunity, but they waited too long trying to identify all that damn cheese.

Jonathan needs help. I think he can be a better person. He doesn't rank as badly as, say, your average contestant on The Challenge. Some of those folks are hopeless. Still, I kept imagining Ana behind the wheel, wondering about the best way to break up with him.

[Auntie Anxiety]

52 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Still, I kept imagining Ana behind the wheel, wondering about the best way to break up with him.

The best way is to win, split the prize money and go her own way.

[Fukui San]

I curse the Race gods for not taking the opportunity to rid us of Jonathan. Poor Ana.  
 

Josiah not immediately taking Alyssa’s  perfectly timed suggestion to use the Express Pass was dumb and could have cost them the race. But at least he didn’t blame Alyssa for his stupidity and complained about every single thing like Jonathan did. Someone should count how many times he verbally assigned blame to Ana for something that demonstrably wasn’t her error. I’d guess it’d be in the 20’s. 
 

For the cheeses, the one I know on sight is morbier because it has a faint black line of what I believe is mold running through the center of it, so I got annoyed that teams kept missing that one. It’s visually distinct, people!

I like cheese but I don’t have a taste for the strong ones and little experience with all the varieties. I certainly would have struggled aside from the morbier. 

[PurpleTentacle]

Teams had to travel with Deutsche Bahn right off the bat? Those poor people, they must have been completely destroyed for the rest of the day.

Phil talked about storks traveling from africa. Fun fact: A lot of them don't do that anymore. On new years I saw storks flying overhead, not far from their nests and I'm significantly further north than Strasbourg. That's climate change for you.

Jonathan continues to suprise with how much of an ass he can be. Of course it's his partner's fault that they did only as good as the other teams on the cheese testing. Not like they were working together on that or anything. Also no consideration for the fact that he lost the joust and thus they got there later than they could have. No, everything is always Ana's fault.

That might not have been the worst use of an express pass I've ever seen, but it certainly came close. You don't use it after you've already done a task for half an hour, unless you are absolutely hopeless and it didn't seem like they were. Even if you get out of there in last place, you can just hand in your express pass at the next task and pass most teams that way. The way Alyssa and Josiah did it was a massive waste of time. They were very lucky to still get second place. Could have been first.

Very good showing from Carson and Jack yet again, after faltering a bit in the middle of the race.

Did Han and Holden not have to do a speed bump or was that just edited out? With episodes this long you wouldn't think that it would land on the editing room floor. Glad they made it in the end. I like them.

Sad to see Brett and Mark go. If only it could have been Jonathan...

 

[30 Helens]

I don’t know what I hate more, Jonathan’s jackass behavior or Ana’s willingness to accept his criticisms as truth. I spent the entire episode hoping she would just pull to the side of the road, get out, and walk away. But instead she got to the mat and took responsibility for navigational errors?? 

No, Ana. Just no. No amount of money is worth that kind of abuse. 

[Skooma]

5 hours ago, Lois Sandborne said:

Am I tripping or was there no penalty for the brother and sister being last place last week. I thought that was what happened after an NEL.

They are bringing back different things in this Race and one of them is the original NEL I guess.  A penalty for coming in last in a non elimination leg only started in Season 5.  The first four seasons you simply got saved from elimination.

[shura]

The Head-to-Head is great for a team that gets lost driving around and falls behind by a few hours, isn’t it?  Then they can eventually show up at the site, knock out the penultimate (to give Phil another chance to use the word) team that’s been waiting for them those several hours and be right back in the game.

Speaking of Phil’s words, interesting use of ‘unprecedented’ in ‘unprecedented views’ from the top of the Strasbourg cathedral.  Pretty sure those exact views were there before…

[Haleth]

Darn. I liked Mark and Brett and the latter was certainly easy on the eyes.

Wow, did everyone have navigation issues in the leg?  Seems as if everyone got lost at some point although the teams were pretty well bunched.

I wanted to shake Josiah for dithering about using the express pass. They were lucky that other teams couldn’t find the vineyard. He was so sweet praising her when they reached the mat. (Contrast Jonathan berating Ana.

Loved the little French grandmas. 

5 hours ago, Lois Sandborne said:

 

Am I tripping or was there no penalty for the brother and sister being last place last week

 

Unless it was edited out there was no penalty. Maybe the producers decided it wasn’t worth it with an equalizing flight coming up?

[chaifan]

2 hours ago, shura said:

Speaking of Phil’s words, interesting use of ‘unprecedented’ in ‘unprecedented views’ from the top of the Strasbourg cathedral.  Pretty sure those exact views were there before…

😆 I was also thinking it was weird phrasing.  Glad I'm not the only one.

4 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Also no consideration for the fact that he lost the joust and thus they got there later than they could have. No, everything is always Ana's fault.

Yes!  This!  Every time he was berating Ana for making them lose time, that's all I was thinking of.  God, he's awful.  I don't care about any post-race diagnosis of ASD, he's still an asshole.  

I liked this leg.  I'm rooting for Jack & Carson or Han & Holden to win, but I'd be happy with Alysa and Josiah.  Just anyone but Jonathan.  Sorry, Ana. 

I wish there was a harder "task" at the European Council.  It sort of seemed like a waste of a good location to just have that one question.  

The detour was good.  I expected the Amazing camera crew to focus in on a pen spot or stain or whatever Holden was missing on that shirt in the laundry.  I loved the cheese challenge.  The teams were lucky that it was designed so they knew immediately what they messed up on, and the order stayed the same with each try.  It would have been much harder if they had their own cheese stations, and had to put name tags on each one all at the same time.  I now want cheese.  Lots and lots of cheese.  

I love self driving legs.  It seems we've had a lot this season, and that makes me happy.  

Next week... ugh, I hate that they're doing back to back episodes on Wed and Thursday next week.  I will have out of town guests staying with me, and I'm going to be a really crappy host to make them watch 2 nights of TAR.  But I don't have Paramount, so I can't stream later.  aaargh!  

 

[KeithJ]

Was that the worse use of the Express Pass ever? Right when they got there Alyssa was practically begging Josiah to use it.  He convinced her to try the task once.  After one try, and after Alyssa says she's having problems remembering the cheeses, Josiah asks her if they should use it and she says let's try again?

Personally, I was with Alyssa at the beginning.  Memory challenge with nine non-English cheeses?  Immediate use of the Express Pass for me.

[vousviou]

Just now, PurpleTentacle said:

That might not have been the worst use of an express pass I've ever seen, but it certainly came close.

John and Jessica were eliminated in Season 22 without using their Express Pass at all!

John was a stereotypical wannabe alpha male who couldn't admit he couldn't solve a challenge. He watched other teams roll in, solve it, and put him deeper in the hole until everyone had passed him to the mat and the pass was useless.

Phil's reaction is amazing.

https://youtu.be/3fto_YewLOM

 

[seacliffsal]

The scenery was gorgeous!  

I am not quite the Josiah and Alyssa fan that I was before.  Josiah went down quite a bit in my opinion.  He really ignored Alyssa's desire to use the Pass.  Said let's try it once...and they ended up trying it 4 times.  He also did that passive-aggressive 'we can use it if you want to, but I have confidence in us...' which is really implying he doesn't want to use it.  Then, towards the end he was all 'it's nobody's fault...'  That's not being encouraging, that's purposefully declaring it's nobody's fault because in reality it was HIS fault.  He was the one who didn't want to use the Pass even though he effectively deflected his decision onto Alyssa.

But, even with all that, he pales in comparison to Jonathon.  I know there are some posters who believe that Jonathon isn't responsible for his actions/attitude because of a post-race diagnosis.  However, I only comment/judge based on what I see in the episodes.  Maybe he had a post-show diagnosis of something and maybe he didn't.  I am not going to try to research each contestant's background/health/concerns in order to comment on what I see them doing.  Therefore, I will state that Jonathon makes my blood boil in that he blames Ana for everything.  He complains about how she writes directions (instead of just hurrying), he complains they might be lost (which is is driving AND navigating while he does...nothing but complain), and he has the nerve to 'praise' himself for having patience with his wife.  No, just no.

I was surprised when Phil told the eliminated team that they had been a really strong team.  Phil, there are more aspects of 'strong' than just physical strength.  They may have been physically strong, but they were terrible with navigation and that is an essential part of this show.  Actually, I enjoy the navigation tasks as it involves different abilities than all of the running, climbing, ziplining that this show loves.

[Lovecat]

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

Yes!  This!  Every time he was berating Ana for making them lose time, that's all I was thinking of.  God, he's awful.  I don't care about any post-race diagnosis of ASD, he's still an asshole.  

Same, unless ASD stands for Asshole Spouse Disorder.  Every time I look at him, all I see is a giant penis wearing a backpack.  OK, maybe the guy is neurodivergent, fine. Even with that possibility on the table, I just can't shake the feeling that if ANA were the one placing blame, like "Babe, it's your fault we're behind because you lost that joust," he'd haul off and belt her.  

Randomly, I'm curious as to why Jonathan didn't have to tape over the HOKA logo on his shirt. Are they a s sponsor, or did Production miss this opportunity to squelch free advertising?

Those French ladies were a hoot.  Anybody fluent enough in French to fill us in on what they were gabbing about?

[iMonrey]

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

I wish there was a harder "task" at the European Council.  It sort of seemed like a waste of a good location to just have that one question.  

Same. It was kind of pointless because all the teams had to do was list every country they had visited up to that point. And there weren't that many of them.

I was desperately hoping Jonathan and Ana would be eliminated this week, because the editors really made a point of showing us the worst of Jonathan's behavior. Despite already knowing he's an abusive jackass I was actually stunned when they were climbing the spiral staircase and he was scolding Ana for being a bad partner that was going to cost them the race. 

[Ilovepie]

Jonathan may be on the spectrum, but that does not give him permission to verbally abuse his wife. She needs to create boundaries for herself and call him out when he is being that way. Or leave. This is no way to live!

I still cannot fathom why they have staggered start times when they are all going to be on the same plane and there is zero drama about them getting on these flights. I think it should have just been a Phil voiceover with "All teams are flying to XYZ and then a train to XYZ". Then they could have had a clue box outside the train station to get to the jousting and then truly started the leg with the jousting. That would actually be a worthwhile stagger.

I am so bummed about Mark and Brett. They were my favorites this season. 

Both Express Passes were so wasted this season! First Jonathan and Anna used it when they absolutely did not need to, and then Josiah and Alyssa hesitated when they absolutely should have used it. Just dumb! When they waited until they were in 4th place to pull the trigger it was so stupid! They should have powered through the cheese challenge and THEN skipped the detour which would have most likely vaulted them into first place. It's like having it messes with people's heads. Oh well, they sure zoomed through the nest building, so I guess ok. 

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous this episode. I am going to France on a Mediterranean cruise in July and I absolutely cannot wait to see the beautiful countryside! 😍

[chaifan]

I can understand why Josiah wanted to hold on to the express pass - it makes sense to hold it to use it next leg to guarantee their space in the final 3.  But... you can't get to the final 3 if you aren't in the final 4, so yeah, his hesitancy at the cheese task as other teams were passing them by made no sense at all.  

1 hour ago, Ilovepie said:

I still cannot fathom why they have staggered start times when they are all going to be on the same plane and there is zero drama about them getting on these flights. I think it should have just been a Phil voiceover with "All teams are flying to XYZ and then a train to XYZ"

I don't want TAR to mess with starting times because of flight bunching, because then they may as well do it when the first task has an HOO, and then it's meaningless.  Also, unless it is a pre-booked flight, there is almost always a chance that teams will find different flights, or one will sell out mid-way and teams get split up.  We've seen that happen, even had later teams snag better flights because of a different agent or something opening up.

But, I think showing teams going to the travel agent one by one, simply to say "we want the same thing" is booorrrring, and I'd rather the screen time be spent on actual racing/challenges.  So in that case, when it turns out they are all on the same plane/train, I'd be happy with the episode more or less starting as they get off the plane with a voice over from Phil. 

 

[Rodney]

2 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

I was surprised when Phil told the eliminated team that they had been a really strong team.  Phil, there are more aspects of 'strong' than just physical strength.  They may have been physically strong, but they were terrible with navigation and that is an essential part of this show.  Actually, I enjoy the navigation tasks as it involves different abilities than all of the running, climbing, ziplining that this show loves.

Brett & Mark were bad navigators on this leg, but they'd done well on past self-driving legs.  And they'd won two legs prior to their elimination and consistently finished high on many legs of the race.  So yeah, they were strong.

8 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I can understand why Josiah wanted to hold on to the express pass - it makes sense to hold it to use it next leg to guarantee their space in the final 3.

Wrong.  This was the last leg they could've used it.

[chaifan]

9 minutes ago, Rodney said:

Wrong.  This was the last leg they could've used it.

Really?  I guess I missed that.  Thanks for the clarification.

Geez, what was he thinking???

[watch2much]

I tend to be a bit cynical. I can't help thinking Jonathan realized how he would come across and ran out and got a diagnosis to supposedly explain his behavior. I worked with a psychiatrist who always said "psychiatric illness is no excuse for bad manners."  Difficulty with social interaction does not excuse berating your spouse.

[PhoneCop]

3 hours ago, tinkerbell said:

climbing the stairs, his muttering "shut up"  and telling her she's a bad partner made me want her to "accidentally" push him off the top of the tower. Oops!

SPLAT! "Oh, hey, now it really is an unprecedented view!"

IDK. I think about a friend who's on the spectrum and would never speak to his wife the way Jonathan talks to Ana (and would take issue with anyone who did). A single point of anecdata, but it makes me disinclined to cut him any slack based on a diagnosis alone. #freeana

4 hours ago, vousviou said:

John and Jessica were eliminated in Season 22 without using their Express Pass at all!

John was a stereotypical wannabe alpha male who couldn't admit he couldn't solve a challenge. He watched other teams roll in, solve it, and put him deeper in the hole until everyone had passed him to the mat and the pass was useless.

Phil's reaction is amazing.

https://youtu.be/3fto_YewLOM

"Oy vey" did not get the meme lifespan that it deserved!

[Lamb18]

At the jousting competition, each time the ref tooted his whistle I thought my smoke detector was starting to go off. Exact same pitch.

[dmeets]

1 hour ago, watch2much said:

I tend to be a bit cynical. I can't help thinking Jonathan realized how he would come across and ran out and got a diagnosis to supposedly explain his behavior. I worked with a psychiatrist who always said "psychiatric illness is no excuse for bad manners." 

The Tamra Judge (Real Housewives of OC) P.R. maneuver. Didn't work as an excuse for her, either.

[anniebird]

I wonder what it's like watching the show with Jonathan and Ana - must be fun. 

[aghst]

Alyssa and Josiah just left their car in the middle of a field and traipsed through vineyards to get to the Pit Stop.

They were desperate, thinking they might be near the back of the pack and there was probably nothing specific in the clue about where they had to park.

But maybe the vineyard owners weren’t too happy about people leaving their car in the vineyard and running across vineyards.

Strausbourg looks like a lovely city with a Medieval quarter.  Everyone was huffing and puffing when they reached the top of that cathedral.  They didn’t get to enjoy the views before speeding to their detours next.

Jousting looked fun but some of the matches only one of the boats were moving while the other waited and let the other boat bring the jousters close together?  Also it looked like they took turns to push out their lance instead of both trying simultaneously.

In all, it seemed like navigation, especially to the Pit Stop, led to Brett and Mark getting eliminated because it seemed they completed their nest before the brother and sister finally completed the laundry task but just found their way to the PS sooner.  Can’t tell with the editing, maybe they wer 15 minutes or more behind the rest.

[Ancaster]

8 hours ago, chaifan said:

 

I wish there was a harder "task" at the European Council.  It sort of seemed like a waste of a good location to just have that one question.  

But then we wouldn't have had the hilarity of Josiah (?) guessing two Asian countries as being part of the European Council.

River jousting looked great, and I loved the gamers' enthusiasm for jousting in general.

[tkc]

18 hours ago, Rodney said:

But I had to shake my head at Josiah trying to get out of using the Express Pass at that task.  He and Alyssa clearly weren't cutting it there, so she was right that they should've used it.

Josiah and Alyssa weren’t cutting the cheese… task?

(putting 8-year old self away now)

[iMonrey]

5 hours ago, tinkerbell said:

And if she was so awful at the cheese task, the solution would have been for him to memorize all nine cheeses. 

And he kept saying "you messed up, you messed up. That's on you." Criminy. I don't know how Ana puts up with him. She has battered wife syndrome written all over her.

3 hours ago, Rodney said:

Brett & Mark were bad navigators on this leg, but they'd done well on past self-driving legs.  And they'd won two legs prior to their elimination and consistently finished high on many legs of the race.  So yeah, they were strong.

3 hours ago, chaifan said:

Brett and Mark had a hard time navigating/self-driving in the early legs too. They made up for it by getting through the tasks quickly. But yeah, it was more than just this one leg. The self driving really seemed to be their downfall.

[kav]

16 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Jonathan needs help. I think he can be a better person. He doesn't rank as badly as, say, your average contestant on The Challenge. Some of those folks are hopeless. Still, I kept imagining Ana behind the wheel, wondering about the best way to break up with him.

He realized this, and seeked out people after the race who helped him understand his emotions and behaviors and overwhelming brain waves.

[Ancaster]

51 minutes ago, tinkerbell said:

Jonathan on this episode, where he failed at jousting, yet blames Ana for being not good enough, is just like he was last episode. Ana chose the "wrong task", was slow at milking a goat, yet it was Jonathan who parked on the grass and got the car stuck.

 

I'm sure it was Ana's fault that he parked on the grass.  😢

[J-Man]

The cheese task would've been a lot easier if they'd had the cheeses in the display labeled with names. I'm a visual learner and much prefer to see words than try to remember things spoken in a foreign language. 

[kav]

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

I don't know what ASD is, but ChatGPT just told me he suffers from good old Rectopathy. He is a pain in the ass.

ASD is Autism Spectrum Disorder, something that means the people who have it brains work differently which can cause behavior to look different in overwhelming situations.  It also affect not understanding many social cues in social situations.

[kav]

14 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

So a made-up condition to justify antisocial behaviour. 

Not at all, it is a medical diagnosis,  and that is a rude and demeaning thing to say to everyone who is on the spectrum and has to use a lot more energy just to function everyday in social situations.

[30 Helens]

24 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

So a made-up condition to justify antisocial behaviour. 

Definitely NOT a made-up condition. 

But it’s also not a Get-Out-of-Jackass-Jail-Free card. Not everyone with autism is abusive or has anger management issues. Not everyone who is abusive or has anger management issues is autistic. These are distinct conditions and should be regarded as such. And if Jonathan is using his diagnosis as an excuse to act badly, he is insulting all the people on the spectrum who manage their lives without resorting to childish behavior.

The discussion on race start times made me remember something else that was bugging me about this episode. Despite lucking into a non-elimination leg, Han and Holden had no consequences for coming in last the week before. There was no delayed start time, and no extra task to accomplish. Has this ever happened before? Because it seems to me like there has always been some kind of penalty, and it seemed a little unfair to the other teams that there wasn’t.

Edited Friday at 03:59 AM by 30 Helens

[Quilt Fairy]

2 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I was all, "Where is the Stilton? The Gorgonzola? The Blue Shropshire? Oh. It's all French crap."

I personally pronounce munster cheese like you would say "Herman Munster" or "Munster, Indiana" not "mon-stair". 

[Cotypubby]

1 hour ago, kav said:

ASD is Autism Spectrum Disorder, something that means the people who have it brains work differently which can cause behavior to look different in overwhelming situations.  It also affect not understanding many social cues in social situations.

It also doesn’t mean you get to behave like an abusive asshole.

 Jonathan is just trying to make an excuse for being a jerk. “It’s not my faaaaault!”

[Netfoot]

48 minutes ago, 30 Helens said:

Despite lucking into a non-elimination leg, Han and Holden had no consequences for coming in last the week before.

Classic TAR never imposed any penalty for benefiting from a NEL. I've never liked the idea and I am glad to see them return to this pure form of NEL, where you are not punished for not being eliminated. 

58 minutes ago, kav said:

that is a rude and demeaning thing to say....

But I will get away with it by saying that I might be on the spectrum myself.....

[kav]

9 minutes ago, Cotypubby said:

It also doesn’t mean you get to behave like an abusive asshole.

 Jonathan is just trying to make an excuse for being a jerk. “It’s not my faaaaault!”

I disagree, you can never tell what a person is trying to do by what you see them do on screen or in person, only the actual person can say what they were trying to do at the moment.  As a person hearing his words, you have no idea what words he uses as coping strategies or what thoughts were going through his brain as he said them.

[Skooma]

7 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

The discussion on race start times made me remember something else that was bugging me about this episode. Despite lucking into a non-elimination leg, Han and Holden had no consequences for coming in last the week before. There was no delayed start time, and no extra task to accomplish. Has this ever happened before?

I explained further up and Netfoot below says it well too.

6 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Classic TAR never imposed any penalty for benefiting from a NEL. I've never liked the idea and I am glad to see them return to this pure form of NEL, where you are not punished for not being eliminated. 

But I will get away with it by saying that I might be on the spectrum myself.....

I totally agree I preferred pure classic TAR with no penalties too.  That was Seasons 1-4.  The penalties started in Season 5 where the Bowling Moms had all their money taken away in Egypt.  They refused to beg from the locals and waited for a tourist bus with westerns to arrive instead.  They were classy ladies.

(I do list TAR 5 as Classic TAR despite the artificial stuff they added because it has such a "classic" cast, one of the best casts ever with so many memorable teams.  That cast saved TAR from the stupid elimination of the FF every leg and the penalty stuff and the hour glass crap which are all artificial reality show junk that lowered the "cool" of the original Race).

Edited Friday at 10:39 AM by Skooma

[30 Helens]

1 hour ago, Netfoot said:

Classic TAR never imposed any penalty for benefiting from a NEL.

42 minutes ago, Skooma said:

The penalties started in Season 5 where the Bowling Moms had all their money taken away in Egypt. 

Ah, thanks to both for explaining. I have seen all seasons but barely remember the very early ones. I do remember when people would have their money taken away, forcing them to beg from the locals. I always hated that, as I would have been very uncomfortable in their position.