S25.E03: Get Your Sheep Together

[LiterateDog]

The dentists may leave now. Seriously. I get it, Tooth Douche, you're smart and have a good body. But do you have to be such a jackass about how totally completely and fabulously awesome you are? 

 

I'm not sad to see the firefighters go. I mean, as a Bostonian, I was rooting for them and they seemed like nice enough guys. But, well, I didn't feel very much for or against them.

[dtrab]

Good episode, but I disagree with many of the posters here. The firefighters did not receive poor directions, they asked the wrong question. The clue was to "Go where this was found."  The firefighters assumed it meant where it was created, e.g., a foundry, but in that case, the clue would have been, "Go where this was founded." The bartender just answered the question asked. Apparently none of the other teams made this mistake. 

[LiterateDog]

The springing sheep make me giggle like a little girl. I love the editors putting in the "boing" sound the first few times they popped up.

 

Me, too, right down the giggling little girl part. ;)

[J-Man]

I thought it was odd that Jim and Misti (of whom I will not have water-colored memories) proclaimed themselves as undoubtedly in first place after the Detour. How could they have possibly known (at least until they got to the next task and saw how many clues were there) if one or more of the teams that chose the Viking task finished well before they did?  Of course, based on what was said upthread, maybe they were aware of the distances involved and that factored into their choise of Detours. 

[Brookside]

It looks like I am the only one here annoyed by the amount of goofy showing-off that the bike girls are doing. I think they are playing to the cameras.

Playing to the cameras?  Really?  That's just shocking.  One would think they must have signed up for reality television.

[Camera One]

With a Youtube channel, that would definitely be one goal of being on the show.  They needed to do something, since this was the first episode where they were successful at grabbing some screentime with those antics.

[Donny Ketchum]

Meh.  Kym & Alli's antics didn't bother me.  It's not like it was done in B.J. & Tyler's all-too-obvious type of mugging.  And the editors weren't forcing it down our throats like they did theirs.  So I'll take the girls' "mugging" (which I don't even consider it to be called) over the phony Hippies'.

[limecoke]

Shut up, Mr. Dentist.  I get it.  Please...any team win besides this team.  Anyone.  

 

Sheep = great show.  

[Kel Varnsen]

Speaking of annoyances lady wrestler is so defeatist I can't believe she doesn't just forfeit every match she's in. 

Why would she need to forfeit, she knows before she steps in the ring if she is going to win or not. Kind of the perfect job for her.

[meep.meep]

I can see the firefighters problem with the final clue. They got a pin that was a replica of an ancient treasure piece. What they got wasn't "found" at the pit stop, its original was found there. The guys in the bar didn't recognize it as a replica of the ancient piece.

If they didn't hold back on the roadblocks for the woman with one leg, why would they for a woman with one arm?

[kaygeeret]

Right now I am on Team Scientist, mainly because no one else is.

 

I am sort of miffed that some people are making fun of one of them for being "ugly".

 

Given the full interview of the women (FINALLY) , she is not model pretty, ugly? No.

 

Also, I was momentarily distracted and missed the decision to stay with the peat task - I would have LOVED to hear/see the solution to 'I don't have the strength'- and I missed it and they NEVER showed the SCIENTISTS AGAIN!!!!!!!

 

What the hell - they are not "pretty enough?".  They are not crazy enough?

 

Basically I love the season and the teams, I am questioning editing/productions decision to isolate one team.  I don't like it.l

 

That said:

Loving all sheep all the time, especially jumping sheep and loving cute little ponies bringing on the evil side!

[Tony]

Meh.  Kym & Alli's antics didn't bother me.  It's not like it was done in B.J. & Tyler's all-too-obvious type of mugging.  And the editors weren't forcing it down our throats like they did theirs.  So I'll take the girls' "mugging" (which I don't even consider it to be called) over the phony Hippies'.

 

BJ & Tyler couldn't compete with the obnoxious out-of-control mugging by the Afghanimals, who also had this really annoying habit of picking up Phil or the locals whenever possible.

[Donny Ketchum]

Right now I am on Team Scientist, mainly because no one else is.

If you look at their team thread, I'm totally on their team.  They're my favorites, followed by Kym & Alli, and then Shelley & Nici.

[Camera One]

Right now I am on Team Scientist, mainly because no one else is.

 

No one is?  They're definitely my favorite team.  

 

That's horrible people are making comments about their appearance.  But that's not happening here, as far as I can tell.

[Donny Ketchum]

That's horrible people are making comments about their appearance.  But that's not happening here, as far as I can tell.

It's mainly Amy.  Maya looks perfectly lovely.  Amy doesn't look like a classic beauty, but she still looks pretty cute to me. :)

[Charlesman]

What was cool about the sheep task is that the sheep penned themselves if you just left them alone... which means we were robbed of the opportunity of seeing the firefighters take a 4-hour penalty only to have the sheep complete the task for them on their own 5 minutes later...

Oh, and "how do you hammer a bent nail?" beats "what's a quarry?"

[possibilities]

What I noticed about the sheep is that if the people yelled, the sheep would panic and scatter. So, for instance, T&T a few times got them through the middle of the gates and then at the last minute, when the sheep started to fan out a little, one of the guys would scream in frustration, causing a scatter. If they had just remained calm and quiet like they were when herding them down the middle, the sheep would have quickly gone into the pen like they did for most of the other teams.

[etagloh]

 

What I noticed about the sheep is that if the people yelled, the sheep would panic and scatter.

 

Sheep are 1) herd animals; 2) prey animals. They're... sheepish. I think what made the task hard was that it wasn't a Road Block and instead involved both team members, and they were calling out to one another to try and position themselves. The best strategy would have been to use hand signals or whistles or some other kind of non-shouty communication on the way down.

 

Sheep farming isn't very widespread in the US -- there are about four times as many sheep farmed in the UK than across the entire US -- so Americans don't really get to see them much. In most parts of Britain, you don't have to go far to find sheep either in fenced pastures or roaming across unfenced grazing land. For a long time, they even had competitive sheepdog trialling on the BBC.

[green]

Right now I am on Team Scientist, mainly because no one else is.

 

I am sort of miffed that some people are making fun of one of them for being "ugly".

 

Given the full interview of the women (FINALLY) , she is not model pretty, ugly? No.

 

Also, I was momentarily distracted and missed the decision to stay with the peat task - I would have LOVED to hear/see the solution to 'I don't have the strength'- and I missed it and they NEVER showed the SCIENTISTS AGAIN!!!!!!!

 

What the hell - they are not "pretty enough?".  They are not crazy enough?

 

Basically I love the season and the teams, I am questioning editing/productions decision to isolate one team.  I don't like it.l

 

That said:

Loving all sheep all the time, especially jumping sheep and loving cute little ponies bringing on the evil side!

 

Just who is making fun of these women?  I didn't see any comments on the show these first episodes.  And everyone here seems to like them.

 

Also they weren't shown as much because they keep finishing in the middle.  Middle teams get far less air time barring something very big or really entertaining or silly or stupid happening to or by them.  Otherwise the focus is always on the lead teams racing for first and the trailing teams trying to stave off elimination.  Been that way since Season 1 when post-introductions Lenny & Karen had about 2 seconds total screen time in the first episode.  (Now many people came to wish they just had had 2 seconds screen time in Paris but that's another story, heh.  "L-E-N-N-N-N-Y-Y!!!!!").

 

Has nothing to do about looks.  Has everything to do with the mechanics of presenting tons of teams in the first few episodes.  And always on the lead teams and the trailing teams.  I hardly remember Oswald & Danny the first few legs of TAR2 because they were middle-finishers with nothing out of the ordinary happening to them in Brazil.  Uchenna & Joyce from TAR7 were even more invisible early on.  Let the herd thin and give the Race time I'd say.

[Muffyn]

I was just so hoping for someone to say "This is bullshit!  My sheep are broken!"  Also acceptable would have been "My pony is broken!"  

[Babalu]

<-- This has been my profile pic for the past several months, so you can guess how much I loved the sheep herding segment.

Like many of you, I'm becoming increasingly annoyed by Jim. I remember another Racer from a few seasons ago (was it Ryan of S21's Ryan and Abbie?) saying they intended to have more first place finishes than any team in Amazing Race history, only to be eliminated prior to the finale, so I can only hope the dentists meet a similar fate, though it doesn't seem likely given their strength and the Save.

[Sharpie66]

I just got back from Ireland, where I caught the last few minutes of a sheepdog competition show on TV, and immediately thought of Babe.

Two years ago, I was in Orkney, the island group nearer to the Scottish mainland than the Shetlands, which has a lot in common with the Shetlands despite being less rugged in the landscape, so I was really loving this ep. BTW, both Orkney and Shetland firmly reject any connection to the Highlands, so you won't find bagpipers up there nor any native tartan patterns (although I did see a wedding party leaving St. Magnus's Cathedral in Kirkwall where the male members were all in kilts, including the adorable ringbearer!).

Edited October 12, 2014 by Sharpie66

[Whimsy]

Isn't this episode three? Who changed it to episode four?

Fixed. Don't know how it got changed.

[GinevradiBenci]

For what it's worth, I think Scott said he took a "digger" when he fell, not a "dixie" - a term for a fall that I never knew about until I saw Sars using it on Tomato Nation.

 

I just competed on Saturday in a little local fundraising version of TAR, and had a great time and also realized that the hardest part of the show would be all the running from place to place. I'd have to lose a ton of weight and take up jogging to have a chance. So props to the firefighters for getting through that far with a busted ankle. I hate that the show forces people to constantly recap why they were cast (football wives! firemen from Boston! kooky hippies! nerdy nerds!) so I don't hold it against them even though I hate it. (Also, Michael is cute, so there.)

 

I want to go to Shetland. Absolutely gorgeous scenery plus bouncing sheep and evil ponies! Perfection.

[jhlipton]

Up Helly Aa is a real thing, though it normally happens at the opposite end of the year, with burning ships and all. The Shetlands are still culturally closer to Scandinavia than Scotland in many ways.

 

Do they wear those gloriously inappropriate helmets?  Aluminum and with wings????  I was appalled and laughing at the same time.

[kaygeeret]

Thanks to all who corrected me on Team Scientist.  I do have that stupid tendency to overstate "...mainly because no one else does....like them that is.

 

I'll be more careful in the future.

 

I did read somewhere that they were called ugly but do not remember where.  Perhaps it was meant as a joke, but I find it a strong insult.  Particularly because this team is smart and seems level headed and flat out nice (based on the shoe giving).  I'd like to know them myself.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I thought it was the bikers, Kym and Ali, who gave Bethany an extra pair of shoes, not the food science girls.

[etagloh]

 

Do they wear those gloriously inappropriate helmets?  Aluminum and with wings????

 

Yep.

;

. The dress was adopted around 1900, so it's more Wagner and Victorian imaginings than what Vikings actually wore. (Here's a good piece about its place in Shetland life.) Fewer dead ravens needed for those modern costumes, at least.

[Quilt Fairy]

I remember an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal where he talked about filming the sheep-herding scenes in Brokeback Mountain. He said the great thing about the sheep was all you had to do was stand there and hold your arms out and they would go where you wanted. 

Edited October 12, 2014 by Quilt Fairy

[BarneySays]

The editing is really bothering me this season.  Last week, we had the impossible to follow boat race (the graphics caused even more confusion re being able to figure out the placement of the teams).  This week we had an unidentified starting point and then they completely ditched following the two teams who got misdirected to the island.  One minute the scientists are lost; the next, they're racing for the mat.  WTH?  I suppose we didn't see the losing team right their course because it would have been a giveaway?  But it was pretty clear they were in last anyway. 

 

But the sheep were a joy to watch.  Still cannot find a team to route for, but since some of them had little screen time, I'll just have to wait until everyone's shown their face. 

[aradia22]

The biker racers are growing on me. I don't think conserving their energy makes the other teams lame but it's nice to see someone take advantage of a long wait to do something fun.

 

Wait, Tim is also a flight attendant? Where did they recruit for this season?

 

The driving seemed to shake up the rankings a lot.

 

I enjoyed the sassy ponies. I would have liked to see more of the adventures of Amy and Maya and Cupcake. Glad they didn't get discouraged and were able to figure out the task. I was ready to get all upset that they'd given them a physical challenge that left them greatly disadvantaged.

 

Not amused by the firefighters interacting with the Vikings.

 

Team Nashville needs to stop bickering.

 

The sheep task greatly amused me. 

 

They need to get out of English speaking countries where everyone gives them good directions.

 

I love that the sheep just decided to listen to Amy or Maya telling them to get in the pen in an "orderly fashion." Maybe they're just animal whisperers.

 

I feel kind of bad that the firefighters went on a wild goose chase but I'd rather have Tim and Te Jay around.

[Camera One]

The editing is really bothering me this season.  Last week, we had the impossible to follow boat race (the graphics caused even more confusion re being able to figure out the placement of the teams).  This week we had an unidentified starting point and then they completely ditched following the two teams who got misdirected to the island.  One minute the scientists are lost; the next, they're racing for the mat.  WTH?  I suppose we didn't see the losing team right their course because it would have been a giveaway?  But it was pretty clear they were in last anyway. 

 

I was hoping to see the Food Scientists after the Church, to figure out how they got to the Pit Stop.  As I said in the other thread, I thought it would be in the Bonus Clips, but nope.

 

They did show how the Firefighters realized they were at the wrong place.  I was pretty sure they were so out of the way that they would still end up last, but I was still worried T&T might still lose, since it was hard to tell from their editing how long they were with the Sheep.

 

I love that the sheep just decided to listen to Amy or Maya telling them to get in the pen in an "orderly fashion." Maybe they're just animal whisperers.

 

That was funny.  One of them was very teacher-ish.  "I said, in an ORDERLY fashion".  

[Donny Ketchum]

I thought it was the bikers, Kym and Ali, who gave Bethany an extra pair of shoes, not the food science girls.

It was definitely Amy & Maya, the food scientists, who did. Bethany said that Amy gave her an extra pair of shoes last week.

[StatMom]

The editing is really bothering me this season.  Last week, we had the impossible to follow boat race (the graphics caused even more confusion re being able to figure out the placement of the teams).  This week we had an unidentified starting point and then they completely ditched following the two teams who got misdirected to the island.  One minute the scientists are lost; the next, they're racing for the mat.  WTH?  I suppose we didn't see the losing team right their course because it would have been a giveaway?  But it was pretty clear they were in last anyway. 

 

But the sheep were a joy to watch.  

Agreed on all points. I thought I had been particularly distracted while watching, and that's why I couldn't follow the progress of the teams. I get that while there are a bunch of teams, they can't show everything, but I don't want to have to work too hard to figure out what's going on!

 

The sheep leaping was a thing of beauty. It will be my mental go-to image when I need a boost.

[Lamb18]

The bouncy sheep were just the cutest things ever and being unsheared they looked like giant cotton balls bouncing around. Do sheep normally bounce? Or is it just that particular breed of Scottish sheep?

 

Sheep can bounce like that because of how their legs are jointed.  The knees of the front legs bend forward and the knees of the back legs bend to the back, looking something like this: < >.  So to jump they just need to squat and spring up.  I think muscle strength, age and temperament are the main things going into whether or not a sheep will jump, although some breeds may be more jumpy than others (like Clun Forest).  Some also swing their head to get some momentum.  I've seen a 3-year old pregnant ewe doing some jumping with the youngsters!  What's funny is to see a one- or two-day old lamb lying down.  Their legs bend outwards and they kind of teeter before finally getting down to the ground.

[needschocolate]

I am hoping that the sheep task was supposed to be a road block, but somewhere along the line, someone realized that one person running around trying to corral sheep was too taxing on the sheep (causing them to run too much) and that two people running around corralling sheep made the sheep more likely to go into the pen - of course, we know now that one person could do it if they just slowly walk behind the sheep, but that didn't seem to be anyone's first choice.  I don't think it had anything to do with Bethany, because you don't need two arms to herd sheep.

 

I can understand thinking that, if a foundry is a place where metal is made into shapes, then metal in a shape has been found. They were wrong, but I can see how someone could think that. 

 

I can also understand not knowing what a quarry is, especially if the person saying quarry has an accent that is different than you are used to.  If you grew up in a city, and never watched the Flintstones or purchased rock, you may not know what a quarry it, even if you understood the accent.

 

But I cannot understand how a person could not know how to bend a nail with a hammer.  Have they never used a hammer before?  Or are they so naturally strong and precise that they have never tried to nail into wood that was too hard or hit the nail off-center enough to make it bend?  Even if you haven't ever accidently bent a nail, wouldn't your first thought be that you could bend it with brute force - and whack it with the hammer?  They were trying to bend it with the claw end. Or wouldn't you at least watch the guy making the sample one? 

 

I watched the show with someone who was a bit overzealous with the remote - did they ever show how the wrestlers figured out how to bend the nail?

 

Bouncy lambs playing "king of the castle" should be filler for every reality show always and for ever.  And forever.  Always.

 

We need to start a petition or write to our senators to make this happen. Sheep hopping over the runway on Project Runway or America's Next Top Model. People laying around camp on Survivor, complaining about how hungry they are, while sheep are hopping in the background (the sheep would be untouchable). The Kardasians doing whatever it is that they do and the are surrounded by hopping sheep.   

[Cobb Salad]

How about a channel dedicated to hopping sheep.

[Netfoot]

I can understand thinking that, if a foundry is a place where metal is made into shapes, then metal in a shape has been found.

 

Yes, but that's really over-thinking it.  "Found, foundry, foundation... Foundation!  We need to go where they make ladies cosmetics!"  Uh, no.

[La Dee Da]

I am hoping that the sheep task was supposed to be a road block, but somewhere along the line, someone realized that one person running around trying to corral sheep was too taxing on the sheep

 

This is a pretty reasonable possibility.  They haven't included road block footage on rare occasions because of time constraints - I'm not going to complain in this instance, if it means more pony and sheep time!  However, I miss the departure time information.

 

I forgot who posted this above, but I'm also waiting for a broken ox moment for the dentists.  They haven`t been short with each other or with other teams, but they haven't been in the truly stressful situations that can bring out the worst in racers. 

 

Also, loved the Ponies! ads - I said "yaaaaaay!!!!" everytime I saw them. 

Edited October 13, 2014 by La Dee Da

[jjj]

How about a channel dedicated to hopping sheep.

And hopping bunny races.  Speckles! (famous from a previous season) 

 

It's okay to get information in a bar (foundry quest!), but a better idea is to double-check that information. 

[Boilergal]

The Amazing Editors had me at the peat task. 

 

Mr ImAwesome going on and on about how he can push himself through physical tasks until he wants to break, but he just keeps pushing because he's Awesome!  Then it switches to the scientists and could barely push through one time...

 

Commercial

 

Back to Mr ImAwesome and more of how much of a beast he is.  Back to the Scientists... once we realized how to use the tool it was just simply physics and easy. 

 

 

ETA because spelling is hard

Edited October 13, 2014 by Boilergal

[sbkasha]

Loved all the animal shenanigans in this episode.  My daughter, who is a horse lover, said that it's really not that hard to lead a pony.  You hold onto the lead rope close to the bridle and walk beside them (on the left side), you don't pull them with the rope.  They aren't donkeys.

[blackwing]

I watched the show with someone who was a bit overzealous with the remote - did they ever show how the wrestlers figured out how to bend the nail?

Yes, it was pretty funny, she mishit the nail accidentally, and it bent, and she was all "ohhhhhhhhhhh that's how you bend it".  Not exactly sure why they had so many issues with the torch, nail-bending aside.

 

She doesn't seem cut out for this race.  Way too high strung.  I was surprised she didn't completely lose it over the uncontrollable sheep.

[staphdude]

It is a shame that the firefighters went out on such a boneheaded move. You really have to stretch to get foundry from that question but then they may have been exhausted from wrangling those awesome sheep.

 

What surprises me the most is that I am enjoying the dentists. Sure they talk themselves up but they are extremely competent and have yet to cause any useless drama. I'll take their "arrogance" over the fame-whoring that has infected recent seasons.

 

oh and GO SURFERS!

 

[SunshineOnMe]

I barely can hit a nail straight, so I was surprised at the challenge a bent nail was. I guess I've got stellar nail bending skills (LOL). I'm going to use that next time a nail bends.

Loved the sheep! Boiing! BoooINNG! I told the TV "That'll do, pig," when they finally went into the pen. The ponies were something else. Maybe they thought they were running up the hill for some apple treat, and didn't want to get tricked again. LOL

On a side note, is anyone else still forgetting this is on Friday night? I swear I catch it by chance every time.

[blackwing]

On a side note, is anyone else still forgetting this is on Friday night? I swear I catch it by chance every time.

If it weren't for DVR I'd probably be lost.  Even though I have already watched the show by the time Sunday comes along, I still catch myself getting excited on Sunday afternoon.  "Yay TAR tonight!  Make sure to set the DVR to record Good Wife too in case of football.  Oh wait."

[Tigershark]

 

The lack of Road Blocks is weird. I liked Kym and Allie deciding to have fun while waiting for the train (and Thirst is a very decent club) though I'm now confused about where the leg actually started, given that Blenheim is well outside of Oxford and there's no train station there, let alone one within walking distance, and probably not many cabs at that time. My guess is that they actually stayed in Oxford itself and started the leg near their hotel -- the fish restaurant they passed is definitely in Oxford -- or got silently ferried down into the city and then told to start racing.

Thirst?  They went to Thirst?  Okay, I definitely need to rewatch this episode, because I wasn't paying much attention to the bar Kym and Allie went to.  I studied abroad in Oxford between my junior and senior years of college and Thirst was our go to bar.  We went there almost every night.

 

Loved the puffin greeter!

[jjj]

Yup, they went at least to the outside of Thirst!  I linked the website above.  Not clear if they actually went in. 

[dgpolo]

For me, the dentists attitudes (Jim's) seems like what a competitive bodybuilder would do to psyche himself up for a competition. The visualization of being best, being first, I'm sure that's what a lot of competitors do. So, they are not bothering me much. If it works for him (them) then that's ok, I doubt it will work every leg so we'll see how he handles it then. I've not seen him berate his wife and he was helpful with the compass task so for now I'm fine with them.

I would like to see some Roadblocks.

[hincandenza]

For me, the dentists attitudes (Jim's) seems like what a competitive bodybuilder would do to psyche himself up for a competition. The visualization of being best, being first, I'm sure that's what a lot of competitors do. So, they are not bothering me much. If it works for him (them) then that's ok, I doubt it will work every leg so we'll see how he handles it then. I've not seen him berate his wife and he was helpful with the compass task so for now I'm fine with them.

I would like to see some Roadblocks.

 

Probably more appropriate for the Jim & Misti thread, but I agree; they've been competitive, but at themselves- like you say, Jim talks to pump himself up, but I've not seen them be rude, mean, cruel, or insulting to other teams.  In fact, when they mention other teams, it's usually to note that the team was competitive, or worth keeping an eye on (such as the surfers).

 

Compare to another married dentist who came on the show in TAR9, and- I remember this well, as a chubby nerdy guy- was kind of insulting to chubby Dave of Dave & Lori, calling him fat (I think his wife even said to him "Don't say that, it's ugly").  Now that guy was a dickhead dentist, but for all his aging dayglo Jersey Bro look... Jim's not been an asshole that I've seen.