S25.E02: When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go

[auntlada]

I don't think there is any evidence that their was any Charlie Chaplain roadblock that was edited out.  Each team was handed an umbrella and a bowler hat with clues at one point in the race.  I think one of the cyclists just made the connection and did the little Chaplain walk at the mat.

 

And Winston Churchill often wore a bowler hat. He probably carried an umbrella quite a lot since he was in England. A cigar might have been better, but they probably don't want to hint at too much tobacco use on primetime TV now.

[Alapaki]

Then I saw Adam & Bethany do it, and thought that either that task is way easier than I figured it would be, or they are just weirdly good at it. Then I saw the other teams and determined that it was definitely the latter.

 

 

I think it's definitely likely that pro surfers would have better-than-normal balance and proprioception.

 

But another factor may be, iirc, Adam & Bethany were one of the few (if only) Teams that performed the task by themselves.  Most of the other Teams were competing alongside other Teams.  And although it was strictly a race against the clock, I'd imagine that having another Team racing alongside would've been distracting.

[blackwing]

She sat on the edge of the punt, lowered her behind over the edge into the water, and peed her pants. The pee would have immediately soaked through the pants and into the river. Bearing in mind how many people and animals have probably peed (or worse) in there over the years I wasn't much disgusted. But really, I don't see why she had to make such an issue of peeing on camera to be aired (inter)nationally. That is a little crass, seeing as there was a simple, genteel way to deal with her emergency, with none being any the wiser.

Thanks for this, I didn't notice her butt actually in the water, I thought she was just hovering over the edge. Which would work if she wasn't, you know, wearing pants. If her butt was actually in the water then it makes more sense.

[Netfoot]

I didn't notice her butt actually in the water, I thought she was just hovering over the edge.

 

Looked like she dipped in to me.  I may be wrong.  Thankfully, they didn't zoom in to close-up range and linger, but as a result it's difficult to say for sure.  I'd certainly have preferred to be actually in the water, and have the currents wash away the bulk of the effluent, rather than end up with the seat of my pants soaked with concentrated urine.  And she had been in the water before, so her trousers were already wet.

[cooksdelight]

I rewatched, she didn't get her butt in the water. Just hung it over the side of the boat and peed her pants. Much to the hilarity of the guys in the boat next to them (non-competitors, just some guys who happened to be there).

And afterward, they sat in some poor man's taxi.

[shura]

Never in my life have I expected to read a detailed play-by-play of someone peeing her pants and a discussion on proper techniques to do that. Good job, TAR.

[TheOriginalDonald]

Yeah, his pancake also got very little height.  I guess he was afraid to flip it, since he was the one who dropped it twice?  

Methinks I'm not the #OnleyEngland one who thought the judges on the #PancakeRace task stopped being #LiberalKansas after Adam and Bethany finished the task

[greyhorse]

I rewatched, she didn't get her butt in the water. Just hung it over the side of the boat and peed her pants. Much to the hilarity of the guys in the boat next to them (non-competitors, just some guys who happened to be there).

And afterward, they sat in some poor man's taxi.

Yes, I agree.  Her butt didn't go in the water.  Which really defeats the purpose of leaning over the edge.  Most of her pee, as mentioned in other posts, would just run down her pant leg.  To truly have been peeing in the water, she would have had to pull her pants down.  I don't see why she just didn't pee sitting in the boat then so as to not draw attention to herself.  Or why her mom wouldn't let her fall in accidentally.

 

For being a firefighter, the fatter one who looks like Jon Favreau is completely out of shape.

 

Not at all sad that the Vietnamese-Cambodian couple went home.  They kept saying something about how much preparation they had done.  I forget their exact preparation skills - did they say they practiced ice climbing or am I misremembering that from an earlier season of a prepared team?  Maybe they should have practiced punting.  Or at the very least, the dude should have gotten to the gym so he could work on his upper body strength.

[cooksdelight]

I believe they mentioned running with backpacks as part of their "extensive" preparation.

[curbcrusher]

A couple of things. While reading these comments above:
 

It would really be disappointing if they changed the rules to accommodate their golden girl.  The show clearly wants her to win.  From the spotlight single promos of them that seemed to appear way more frequently than any other, to listing them first and having them arrive at Times Square first, to the tongue bathing in the previouslies, it seems like they really really really want her to win.

AND

The bottom line is, while I don't doubt TPTB would love to see Adam and Bethany advance far into the race, because she is such a great story, I see zero evidence that the are trying to make it easier for her.

 

 

TPTB knows who won. They know how far people made it in the race. They don't have to "want" anything, since they don't put the episodes together until the race is all over. TPTB are looking at the whole race, knowing everything that happened when they start constructing these episodes. As fans we tend to get caught up in what did and didn't happen (like a missing road block maybe), and in the illusion that we are watching something happen in real time, but the reality of situation is that all this had already happened and TPTB are crafting a story from that for us to watch.

 

Also, about the supposed missing road block. There is an additional clip of the Bike messengers with their drawn on Charlie Chaplin moustaches at the mat on YouTube here.  "Churchill" says " he likes the moustaches and the glasses, then one of them responds that they were getting a little Charlie Chaplin and not Churchill. I wonder if there is is some more un-aired footage of the bikers thinking after getting the bowlers and umbrellas that it was somehow related to Chaplin.

[A Boston Gal]

I'm giving the firefighters a pass - I'd bet good money it's the showrunners who are pushing them to play up the bombing references.  Just like they'd push to play up any other hardships or differences. It's part of the game.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Re: Peegate - if I were on a race around the world, I would definitely bring the P-style (or possibly the P-mate, the disposable version, because it packs flat) so that I could pee whenever necessary. I am not advocating public urination (you can use these stand to pee devices to pee into an empty water bottle), but if you really have to go, you can do so much more discreetly without taking off your pants or squatting (it also comes in handy when you encounter a squat toilet or a dirty bathroom or when you have been running all day and your exhausted thighs don't want to use the hover method).

As for how gross it was was for her to pollute the river with her pee, didn't they say this was near a college campus? If so, I am pretty sure plenty of drunk college students have already sullied the water with their pee.

[SnideAsides]

It's definitely possible there was a Road Block edited out - aside from having no indication Tower Bridge actually was the first destination in London, it's worth noting nobody was shown reading the clue about Oxford after the Detour - the footage cuts away to the B-roll for the first team, the camera pans down so the second team is out of sight as they start reading, and the rest aren't shown reading the clue after the Detour at all - which is usually a key sign something's been edited out.

 

The punting didn't compare well to the TAR3 original and I think a lot of it was because the first time the comedy and frustration was based on the idea that the second partner (who got a boat paddle in TAR3, but here had the useless flag-waving role) was supposed to be helpful but actually wasn't doing anything. Here it was too clear that the pole-users were doing all the work and there wasn't as much intra-team conflict. (Also, peeing in the river? Not nearly as hilarious as Ken and Gerard's repeated water landings.)

[Meushell]

Don't know about punting, but I would have thought balancing would be harder than moving the boat. (Maybe that's just an indication of my horrible balance.)

Regarding the pee, I think she panicked when she first begged to go in the water, but I don't get why she didn't actually go in the water. I wonder if she was trying to bend far enough, then realized her butt didn't reach. By that time, the pee was coming, and she figured she might as well stand back up when she was done.

Damn... I'm glad that he's comfortable with Bethany's lost arm, but putting your arm around her and gripping what's left of her arm stub like it's a stick-shift kinda weirded me out...

I enjoyed this as it showed how comfortable he is with her. It seemed like the natural thing to do with an arm around her. Edited October 8, 2014 by Meushell

[SandyToes]

I think the post upthread about the punters being caught in the currents, and then facing trouble when the current changed was spot on. I was surprised so many teams tried to use the punting pole as an oar. My mind went immediately to Mary Poppins. Admittedly, whether or not I would remember the punting scene (and that the pole can get stuck in the mud) in the middle of a task is an entirely different matter. That and the balancing thing... Really enjoy tasks that mix things up to where you don't know who will end up where.

 

One of the best parts of this season is all the references to past seasons, both on the show, and here!  Carissa Gaghan, Momily, Colin and his Ox, such great memories of teams, locations and tasks. Sheep whispering, zorb-ing, and cheese carrying/rolling my all-time favorite tasks. Can't wait to see what the Amazing Animals have in store for us this week!

 

 

There's a punting scene in Mary Poppins? How do I not remember this? 

 Not really a punting scene, but when Bert is talking Mary into joining him in a chalk painting, one of them is Punting on the Thames.  He mimes the action, and pulls his pole out of the "mud" with a sticky popping sound.  :-)

Edited October 8, 2014 by SandyToes

[kingshearte]

I enjoyed this as it showed how comfortable he is with her. It seemed like the natural thing to do with an arm around her.

I figured that it's just where his hand naturally lands when he puts his arm around her. It seems like the sort of thing that could happen accidentally the first time he put his arm around her, induce some awkwardness, and then kind of just become their "thing" (the action, I mean; not her stump). Regardless of how it came about, I agree that it shows a level of comfort between them that's nice to see.

 

I think the post upthread about the punters being caught in the currents, and then facing trouble when the current changed was spot on. I was surprised so many teams tried to use the punting pole as an oar. My mind went immediately to Mary Poppins. Admittedly, whether or not I would remember the punting scene (and that the pole can get stuck in the mud) in the middle of a task is an entirely different matter. That and the balancing thing... Really enjoy tasks that mix things up to where you don't know who will end up where.

There's a punting scene in Mary Poppins? How do I not remember this?

[ghoulina]

As for how gross it was was for her to pollute the river with her pee, didn't they say this was near a college campus? If so, I am pretty sure plenty of drunk college students have already sullied the water with their pee.

 

I think it's probably just worse to actually SEE it. Kind of like how many people assume that restaurant workers mess with your food, but they're fine as long as they don't actually witness anything being done. 

[Bryce Lynch]

A couple of things. While reading these comments above:

 

 

TPTB knows who won. They know how far people made it in the race. They don't have to "want" anything, since they don't put the episodes together until the race is all over. TPTB are looking at the whole race, knowing everything that happened when they start constructing these episodes. As fans we tend to get caught up in what did and didn't happen (like a missing road block maybe), and in the illusion that we are watching something happen in real time, but the reality of situation is that all this had already happened and TPTB are crafting a story from that for us to watch.

 

Also, about the supposed missing road block. There is an additional clip of the Bike messengers with their drawn on Charlie Chaplin moustaches at the mat on YouTube here.  "Churchill" says " he likes the moustaches and the glasses, then one of them responds that they were getting a little Charlie Chaplin and not Churchill. I wonder if there is is some more un-aired footage of the bikers thinking after getting the bowlers and umbrellas that it was somehow related to Chaplin.

While TPTB know who won now, they did not know who won while the race was being run.  That is where they could be tempted to try to help a team that they like, or that the believe will attract more viewers. 

 

That said, from what we've seen so far, I see no efforts to make things easy for Bethany.  I am very impressed by her.  I think she can probably more than hold her own in any task that does not absolutely require 2 arms.   As I said, I'd imagine her and Adam will (or did, since we are actually talking about the past) probably have her do most of the early road blocks, whenever a missing arm is not a huge disadvantage so they can save Adam's RBs for tasks where her missing arm would really hurt her. 

[possibilities]

Bethany herself said they were extra excited to get the Express Pass because they knew that if there was a task she had to do, and couldn't, they'd be out, and the EP would save them in that situation. I think she's very competent, though, and her skills may give her an edge in many situations where people with two arms are struggling. We saw that this week even with the pancake run, which I would not have particularly thought of as a task that gave surfers an advantage, but their execution was clearly superior to that of everyone else who tried it.

[Sharpie66]

The movie Hope and Glory has a scene where the little boy learns how to punt from his grandfather, so I was watching the teams, and yelling, "Drop the pole straight, let it stay in the river bottom and push, then pick it up when it is behind you, and then drop it straight again (or words to that effect)."

[cooksdelight]

It's like pole vaulting in the water! :)

[meep.meep]

 

Next week: Dogs! Ponies! Sheep!  If they had camels and donkeys it would be the all star edition of TAR animals!

I am sorry but no all star edition of TAR animals would be complete without the racing bunnies.  And oxes.  And those giant bomb sniffing rats on a string.  And the rats from the rat temple.  And the tigers!

 

Every single week my daughter asks me if they are doing bunny racing.

[leighdear]

Because it's just too adorable....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnWS8rmfqbk

[MyLisa]

How is it that I remember that task but I don't recognize a single one of those racers?  Off to refresh my memory with a TWOP recap...

[jjj]

Didn't that champion bunny have a great name?  We all wanted him!  (I *think* it was a "him"!) 

[Rusun]

How is it that I remember that task but I don't recognize a single one of those racers?  Off to refresh my memory with a TWOP recap...

 

How could you forget Bill/Cathi, arguably the strongest and sweetest senior citizen team since Meredith/Gretchen?! (Marcus, the other racer, did suffer from a 1-D "all about football" edit in spite of his lovely partner Amani.) 

 

Admittedly, their season, TAR19, does have one of the more forgettable casts, but that clip comes from the best overall episode, Leg 8: Lilongwe to Copenhagen, which is getting a revisit this coming Friday!

 

Didn't that champion bunny have a great name?  We all wanted him!  (I *think* it was a "him"!) 

 

Bill/Cathi named him Speckles!

 

***

 

Moving back across the North Sea and along the Danelaw, I'd like to settle this (missing) RB speculation once and for all by proving that the Cyclists put on their Chaplin makeup en route to the Blenheim Palace PitStop, i.e. no editing shenanigans that I could see that could have snipped out a Little Tramp Charlot task:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqPeQfihX0s

[jjj]

Thanks for "Speckles", Rusun!  And for the clip!  What struck me most is how subdued the two Racers are -- I am so used to only seeing scenes of manic chest-thumping or despair in the car rides.

[Rusun]

Thanks for "Speckles", Rusun!  And for the clip!  What struck me most is how subdued the two Racers are -- I am so used to only seeing scenes of manic chest-thumping or despair in the car rides.

 

You're welcome, jjj! I agree that they are low-key in a positive way; if staring at traffic ends up stressing them out, then why not draw fake mustaches to calm down instead?

 

Incidentally, there is an outstanding prog-rock album with the same pronounced name, only spelled differently: "Zitilites", by the band Kashmir who hails from the Scandinavian country least visited by TAR and this season's next destination!

[SnideAsides]

Moving back across the North Sea and along the Danelaw, I'd like to settle this (missing) RB speculation once and for all by proving that the Cyclists put on their Chaplin makeup en route to the Blenheim Palace PitStop, i.e. no editing shenanigans that I could see that could have snipped out a Little Tramp Charlot task:

Doesn't mean there wasn't one; just that if there was it wasn't the Chaplin thing.

 

...who hails from the Scandinavian country least visited by TAR and this season's next destination!

Aren't there, like, three countries tied with one visit each? They keep going back to Sweden and Norway, but we've only been to Iceland, Finland, and Denmark once. (Which would, I suppose, mean the next destination isn't the least visited country by virtue of having now appeared twice.)

[Rusun]

Doesn't mean there wasn't one; just that if there was it wasn't the Chaplin thing.

Except that real-time spoilers had teams taking the Heathrow Express from the airport to Paddington Station (fittingly edited out to avoid showing a repeated location a la flying back to the American mainland from St. Thomas in order to get to Great Britain in the first place), a cab to Tower Bridge, a Detour Clue from the then-unknown Pearly Cluegivers, directions to Oxford from the Pancake Judge at the Victoria Tower Gardens via a return trip to Paddington Station, an RI for punting at Magdalen Bridge, another RI at Christ Church College, and finally Phil's own Instagram pictures of Blenheim Palace.

Aside from Somerset House going unidentified as the other side of the Detour, there was and is nothing left to fill the time constrictions, considering both flights arrived during the lunch rush hour(s), the London-Oxford trains all took approximately an hour, and teams only began checking in at the PitStop around dinner/supper time at the earliest.

Not to mention other Insider Clips showing teams such as Dennis/Isabelle in "London Never Stops" and Brooke/Robbie in "The Ding" clearly stuck in early afternoon traffic en route to Tower Bridge during what should've been half-hour drives tops.