S26.E01: Great Way To Start A Relationship (Tokyo, Japan)

[Tara Ariano]

Season 26 begins with 11 dating couples, including five pairs who meet for the first time at the starting line at California's Castaic Lake, immediately facing a U-Turn before flying to Tokyo on the first leg of the race.

[Maverick]

Immediately facing a U Turn? You don't do that until after completing the Detour. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works!

[green]

Why was the first location spoiled in the topic heading?  I try hard to avoid any spoilers especially the locations they are going to out of the gate.  I don't even open the episode thread until after the episode ends so as not to read the blurb.  Yeah I know the previews often contain that stuff but the first episode I always liked to be surprised by.  And some people on here may even avoid the previews in season to keep locations unspoiled.  Just wondering if the location destination really needs to be in the heading topic.  Thanks for listening.

[SnideAsides]

CBS includes locations as part of the episode title now.

[green]

But this isn't CBS.  I don't go to their website.

[altopower]

By the time we have a few legs behind us, I lose track of which episode happened where. I might remember Iceland but not E04. Including the location in the episode titles here will be a help for me, although I do understand not wanting to be spoiled about that. Well, I understand it for someone else. I'm one of the viewers who watch the previews to find out where the next episode takes place.

[Bella]

Just for the sake of clarity, whenever possible PTV uses the standard episode descriptions from thetvdb.com. If those contain a location spoiler, then the location is going to be spoiled. That's what happened this week.

 

Also, previews are not considered spoilers here. (Game of Thrones may be an exception, but that forum has its own rules and its own dedicated mods.)

[Lamb18]

Is Whitney from The Bachelor on this show, disguised as Hayley? Same voice, same profession.

[leighdear]

Jeez, Lamb I JUST came here to say the same thing!  *ROFL*  While we only have to put up with Whitney for one more episode, Haley may be around a while.  Unless Blair strangles her!

[dizzyd]

Yay, the show is back!  Loved this episode, loved the saki house and the street dance, loved everything.  As the title says, a great way to start........

[NYGirl]

I don't understand why those teams that had to do that dance 25 times didn't give up and do the other task.  Usually when a team doesn't get it they usually change tasks.

 

I don't mind the blind date thing as much as I thought I would.  Amazing that the first 3 teams to the finish were blind dates.

 

That older guy and the girl with the red flannel shirt were such klutzes.  Sheesh.

 

I loved the saki guys...

Edited February 26, 2015 by NYGirl

[ShadowSixx]

I'm really hoping the first couple of episodes kind of flushes all this dating stuff out of the way and it becomes all about the racing. For me when I watch the race I don't care much for the theme of the season, even though pretty much the Race doesn't have a theme, which is great except for the Family edition (never again I hope). Right now with the selfie cam and all that, almost reads scripted and producer enforced. I don't like that feeling. I don't want to see those damn cameras again. Really not in the mood to have this blind date couples vs existing couples thing either. So I'm really hoping that it passes within the first few episodes. At this rate last season will be superior.

 

The Syncing Steps detour looked like fun, but I knew I couldn't do it, my rhythm isn't all the way there lol.

 

I never have a first impression of teams until like the 3rd or 4th episode into watching the show. At least the #1 Team, don't know names yet, knew vicinity meant outside.

 

I keep finding it funny that when Phil tells a team they're whatever place they're in and the team goes, "We'll take it" like Phil is giving them an option on what place to take at the pit stop. I remember one season, where Phil told a team they were a certain place and the team said something and Phil said that he can announce them last if they want. First leg of the race, 4th place is damn good Olympic team. 

 

The 10th place team just got lost and it was funny when she opened the cab trunk and said cab driver has his laundry all in there lol.

[Primetimer]

Season 26 of the Amazing Race kicks off with a new route, a new twist, and yes, an actual New Kid.

Read the story

[Whimsy]

Just for the sake of clarity, whenever possible PTV uses the standard episode descriptions from thetvdb.com. If those contain a location spoiler, then the location is going to be spoiled. That's what happened this week.

Also, previews are not considered spoilers here. (Game of Thrones may be an exception, but that forum has its own rules and its own dedicated mods.)

I second everything Bella said EXCEPT we do keep previews separate here in TAR. That is a separate thread. If it hasn't been started yet I will start now.

[merylinkid]

Common sense would say you give up the dance after the 4th or 5th try.    You are just bleeding time at that point in the hopes you "get it next time."   

Could have done without all the way insta reaction to meeting the blind date.   All it is going to be based on looks.   Way to be shallow show.   But I hated the selfie-cam even more.   This show is about the race and the cool places they go, not the shallow (chippendales excepted, of course).   

 

And the detour in the first leg?   Why?   You don't know what strong team to try to know out.   Although at least they used it on a team they knew was behind them rather than a team that had looked at them funny in the airport.   

 

As noted, the season doesn't need a theme.   The race is the THEME.

[TheRabbi]

I absolutely wanted to kill myself in the first 20-30 minutes.  But once they got to Japan and the actual race got going, it wasn't horrible.  I liked that they gave up a 90 minute premiere to actually see some dialogues between teams instead of recent one hour premieres that are hard to follow as they move so damn fast.  Not a fan of the selfie-cams.  Still hate the blind date concept.

 

You can always count on the editors/cameramen for a few great scenes a night though.  Tonight, the editing/shooting was perfect when the black team came into the station and said how it looked abandoned, and lo and behold, the camera follows them out and the music stops to a completely deserted station.  Classic.

 

I liked Jeff and Lyda, as they were one of the teams that stood out from the sea of good-looking 20-somethings, so I was sad to see them go.  I have no interest in boy bands, but am rooting for Jon and Harley, as you can see Jon's passion for the Race, which I love.

[Tara Ariano]

But this isn't CBS.  I don't go to their website.

 

I don't want to get into a debate about what is or is not a meaningful spoiler. I copied the episode title directly from TVGuide.com.

[Chrissytd]

The blind date part played out better than I expected it to but I still don't like the idea. I surprised 3 of them took the top 3. The blonde from Medical Blind Date team annoy me.
 
The saki detour seemed way easier than the dancing one.
 

I don't understand why those teams that had to do that dance 25 times didn't give up and do the other task.  Usually when a team doesn't get it they usually change tasks.

 
Yeah I didn't get that. Some of them were still there at nightfall.

[mtlchick]

The "intros" and Q+A to the blind dates was the most AWKWARD intros ever on this show.  And the small talk with the blind dates in the car....this is going to be the TInder edition isn't it? Complete with selfies.  BAH.

 

In somewhat shocking news, CBS ponied up to get the clearance to play The Right Stuff for Jonathan/Harley.  (I guess it helps they currently employ two of his band mates.) But his "I'm a singer." "Really?" part had me laughing as he won't even sing his one line in Step By Step during shows.

 

But true to form, some people are too stubborn to switch detours when it's clearly not working.  The other detour was memorizing a few labels and pronunciation. 

 

Remember when the Pit Stops were breath taking locations with awesome vistas?  Tonight was not it, even though Phil makes for a fine looking valet. Given this season's theme, it's fitting.  

 

I have a bad feeling about this season.  

Edited February 26, 2015 by mtlchick

[HappyDancex2]

That was a brutal first leg.  Loved it!

 

Anyone know what the song was that they were dancing to in the slow robot dance challenge?

[Nidratime]

I'm still absolutely puzzled why some of those teams at the dancing task didn't switch. I thought they weren't allowed since no one brought it up until the last couple finally mentioned the possibility of switching. Lo and behold, they were fabulous at the other task when they were forced to do it.

[enlightenedbum]

Let's start with the bad:

 

I still don't like the change.  But I'm a snobby old school Race fan back when the interaction within teams was the thing and less the fight between teams so naturally I'm opposed.  I further don't like that every single team is the most boring kind of team, the young dating couple.

 

Did no one test that Detour?  Because that was about as unbalanced as I can recall and it was obvious that it would be so.  Memorize ten unfamiliar name and identiy the bottle associated with one of them vs. memorize a choreographed dance routine that seemed like it was maybe two minutes long, when only one team can try at the same time?  That's not close.  And nine teams took the stupid option.  And none of them switched, even after 20+ attempts.  That bodes ill.

 

Hayley's voice.

 

The good:

 

Nobody was transparently an asshole.  With 11 YDCs I believe that qualifies as a genuine miracle.  Maybe the blind daters are all on better behavior than people who have settled into their destructive relationships, but that still leaves a bunch of long term potential assholes.  And yet no one seemed to be.  Promising.

 

I genuinely liked one of the teams, I'm pretty sure it was the Olympians, who seemed genuinely excited for everyone who got the dance done successfully before them.  If it was the Olympians, that means they're hyper competitive people who are also good sports, which are the best kind of people to be on the Race.

 

I may begrudgingly like the lawyers who won the leg.  Begrudging only because I don't like the blind date thing.  Smart, relatively cool, I think they realized how dumb this whole thing is, but hey they get to be on the Race so hooray.

 

No one else made a huge impression, but on the whole I was more towards liking almost every team than disliking.  A couple I have my eye on, but nothing disastrous.  Yay.

 

The hilarious:

 

How much Blair is NOT into Hayley.  I kind of hope they survive just to watch that.  But then she talks and I get over it.

Edited February 26, 2015 by enlightenedbum

[Cyranetta]

The wasting of broadcast time with selfie-taking and Phil's "are you in love yet" mat-chat has the potential to really annoy. Hope that's just for the first episode.

[nottopbravo]

I love you Amazing Race, but enough with the selfies.

[joanne3482]

I really liked the lawyer couple. I thought it was geeky cute they did their dance to the mat.  I think the dr and the squealy blond are not going to be a couple. He seemed like he was over her about 10 minutes after the race started.  I think he was also the one going on and on about his high standards which made me automatically dislike him. My tweenage love of NKOTB forces me to like Jonathan and Harley and I liked the blind date gay guys. All in all, not as bad as I was expecting.

 

No roadblock? Was that because of the mud run and the U-turn?

[enlightenedbum]

No roadblock? Was that because of the mud run and the U-turn?

There's typically only one or the other in the premiere.  Too much time taken up by introductions I think, even in a 90 minute episode.

[Tunia]

Didn't care for the new gimmicks, but I did like that Phil was hidden away and not as easy as usual to find.

[Ducky]

well...

 

1.  Still not too sure on this whole blind date thingie...

2.  But I do like some of the pairings... Bergen/Kurt, Jelani/Jenny are two so far.  Of the existing dating... ugh.. well Jonathan/Harley and CJ/Lebya (if they can get their act together).

3.  Don't have a good feel for the truck stop pair.

4.  A U turn x2 ALREADY?!  TAR....tsk tsk .. that was not a bright move-- didn't like it... kind of mean actually.  I get why the Truck Stop pair did it but that may bite them in the ass later.

5.  Sorry to see Lyda/Jeff go--  they were not the 'typical' young dating couple.  I bet they may be kicking themselves now once they realized they could have zipped through the saki one and be done before a lot of the teams ...hindsight and all that.

 

The dance was pretty cool- I'd do that in a heartbeat.

The pit stop.. well while it may not have been a breathtaking spot- I thought it was hilarious and a switch up on the usual.  It certainly does  allude to how Tokyo is... parking spots at a premium.  I wonder how many people drove by and shook their hands at them growling because they couldn't get that spot for their car lol.

 

The selfie stuff can go away- I get enough of that crap on Facebook thank you!!!!

[truthaboutluv]

Jeez, Lamb I JUST came here to say the same thing!  *ROFL*  While we only have to put up with Whitney for one more episode, Haley may be around a while.  Unless Blair strangles her!

 

I think that may be entirely possible. Although at some point during the episode, I suddenly thought that I would not be the least bit surprised to hear they started dating after the show. I think she clearly bugged him with the constant talking but I just got this sense that she may just grow on him. Something about how by the end he just seemed kind of amused by her and her antics. 

 

Really surprised by the phones. Was that just for the blind-date couples because it looked like they were the only ones using it. And isn't having a phone some kind of advantage? I guess they could have removed internet option from it but that just seemed odd. I wonder if it was just for the first episode.

 

Speaking of the selfies, was I the only one baffled by all these couples just casually hanging around, even taking a selfie, while dealing with a challenging detour, instead of them considering switching and doing the other option? It was crazy to me that no one switched especially when they realized how many teams were there which clearly meant the task was hard. 

 

I like the 10 year dating couple well enough but I was almost rooting for the couple who came in last just because it would have been super cool to see them come back from being that far behind and U-Turned. Surprised at how out of shape Jonathan seems to be considering he's been touring consistently for a few years now with NKOTB. And I totally cracked up at Right Stuff being played when he and his partner made it to the pit stop - really editors? Haley's excitement in figuring out who he was, was cute. 

Edited February 26, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[Stardancer Supreme]

Being the TAR superfan that I am, I was amused by this opening.  How rude to make the teams run a nasty obstacle course right from the start!  Kinda hard to make a good impression covered in mud.

 

Here's the teams that caught my eye:

 

Blair and Hayley:   He is soooo not into her.  It's hilarious and hella awkward at the same damn time.  

 

Jelani and Jenny:  They make a great team! I'm optimistic that they shouldn't make any glaring race mistakes.

 

Lebya and CJ:  Oh honey. It's been 10 years. I don't think you are going to get what you want by the end of your race.

 

Tyler and Laura:  He is gorgeous. That is all.

[Ducky]

 

Haley's excitement in figuring out who he was, was cute.

I think I missed this part because CBS dropped out for about 5-10 minutes here and it was just a black screen- right after they finished that nasty obstacle course and showers and before the airport so I missed the drive to the airport and anything going on there.  Next thing I know they were in Japan...:P

[Sharpie66]

I think watching Hayley and the doc totally misconnect might be really fun to watch if I don't end up wanting to mute the tv every time she opens her mouth.

I know nothing about '90s boy bands, but I am really liking Jonathan and his partner so far. The lawyers are starting to grow on me, too. I want to like the bearded guy and Rochelle, but the fact that she hasn't introduced her son to him in 8 months of dating makes me think they are still in a preliminary phase of the relationship.

The rest of the teams are all blending together as they usually do this early in the race.

[Lantern7]

Well, that wasn't completely awful. I'm hoping enough newbies and NKOTB fans climb on the bandwagon on Friday.

 

I don't think any team caught my attention. Well, there's Mike & Rochelle, mostly because they got stuck with "#TruckStopLove," which is hilarious to me for some reason.. I'm a little distressed that three of the five "blind date" teams finished at the top, because I don't like the gimmick.

 

Detour kinda sucked, to be honest. Racers should've been given the task of getting at least two "samurai" some sake, not just one. Sucked to see Jeff & Lyda get stuck on choreography, get U-Turned, then get the other task in good time.

 

We're going to be stuck on the same "Right Stuff" sound clip, aren't we? Damn. At least Phil is trying to sell the season. It might be funny for him to not want to pop the eyebrow after a while. I did like him waiting at the Pit Stop, while teams struggled with the definition of "vicinity."

[mauras]

Hayley's voice and the selfie cam were the only things that really bugged me about the episode. The blind date concept is dumb and gimmicky, of course, but we're already seeing the huge potential for unintentional hilarity (Hayley: "I think you're really attractive." Blair: "(crickets).") and for surprisingly good teamwork (Jelani and Jenny, who are my favorite team so far), so I can live with it. Besides, how great was it that both halves of Team Blonde Date had basically the same goofy haircut.

I liked the tasks except for the mud race at the beginning. The dance looked like fun--not easy to pick up, but fun. There are too many teams for me to have formed opinions yet, but I didn't dislike any of them on first impression. Then again, there's a lot of season to go.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

I had a feeling that the lawyers might approach the "blind date" about as pragmatic as humanly possible. They clearly have a little bit of chemistry....the comically awkward celebration on the elimination mat was genuinely sweet. But push comes to shove, their eyes are going to stay on the prize whether romance ensues or not.

 

Felt bad for Team Truck Stop and Team Tuskegee....memorizing any kind of complicated step or dance sequence would be my kryptonite so I totally felt for her when she started to melt down. Good for him for staying level-headed and positive w/ her. As for Tuskegee, a giant urban setting like Tokyo had to be about the worst possible race destination for them to start out with....

 

It was kind of funny to see Blair almost in real time, sour on Haley during the initial drive to the airport........while she was all about him (or at least love and relationship in the abstract) and continued to be so right through the leg.

 

The imbalanced detour was crazy, the wording of the sake challenge compared what they actually were required to must have seriously made it seem overly difficult. I also think the fact that so many of the teams ended up bunching at the dance challenge, basically made everybody risk-averse....where nobody wanted to be the first team to break away (do we still call it bald snarking?) from the pack to give the sake detour a try. Still 25 tries for the one purple dating team that got there in 3rd....you've gotta to bail before then don't you? 

Edited February 26, 2015 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Sharpie66]

As someone who has worked with non-practicing lawyers for over 20 years, I thought it was hilarious to hear those two parse the meaning of "vicinity".

[Alapaki]

And the detour in the first leg?   Why?   You don't know what strong team to try to know out.   Although at least they used it on a team they knew was behind them rather than a team that had looked at them funny in the airport.

 

 

But, IMO, using the U-Turn on a Team that you know the U-Turn is most likely to eliminate (as opposed to, as you say, the some personal animus or "alliance" bullshit) and thus save you is precisely the right way to it.  

 

Because that was about as unbalanced as I can recall and it was obvious that it would be so.  Memorize ten unfamiliar name and identiy the bottle associated with one of them vs. memorize a choreographed dance routine that seemed like it was maybe two minutes long, when only one team can try at the same time?

 

 

I agree that the synchronized walking turned out to be tougher than it appeared.  But I think the Sake option was more complicated than you suggest.  It looked like the 10 bottles they were introduced to were then placed on shelves amongst other bottles that they hadn't seen, but which had somewhat similar labels.  

 

I think it may have been a matter of one Detour Option turning out to be tougher in practice than they expected, and the other one being easier in practice than they expected.

 

I can't necessarily rip the Teams for not bald-snarking the Detour, though.  I don't think it was clear how close the Detour options were to one another.  As frustrating as sticking with something that's proven itself to be very difficult is, bald-snarking is certainly not risk-free.  And, the Teams were aware that there was a U-Turn ahead.  After a certain point, they may each have thought there was a decent chance they'd be doing both ends of the Detour anyway, so might as well stay with it and get the synch-walk one out of the way.

[auntlada]

Speaking of the selfies, was I the only one baffled by all these couples just casually hanging around, even taking a selfie, while dealing with a challenging detour, instead of them considering switching and doing the other option? It was crazy to me that no one switched especially when they realized how many teams were there which clearly meant the task was hard. 

 

Aside from them not switching, which someone totally should have after a couple of tries when everyone else was still there, I didn't understand why they all stood around and talked and watched other teams try the dance instead of practicing along with the team doing the dance. The only ones I saw doing it were the pageant coach and his partner.

 

I surprised myself by liking the lawyers because I was prepared to hate the blind date couples. I didn't much like the eliminated team, although I have nothing concrete to point to as to why, or the roller derby woman and her partner (mostly her), or the second to last team. I don't know why I don't like the roller derby woman. I just get a bad feeling from her. I could be wrong, though. It's just the first episode. The second to last team (was that Lebya and C.J.?) gave me Lenny and Karyn vibes in their interview about dating 10 years and whether or not they're going to get married. It was the way she said they were definitely getting married and the look he gave that said, "Oh, no, we're not." I'm prepared to hate her if she starts yelling his name all the time. I'm also prepared for them to be out soon. They are horrible navigators.

 

ETA: I'm having the worst time remembering who the different teams are. Apparently, teams having different kinds of relationships is important to me being able to distinguish them.

Edited February 26, 2015 by auntlada

[Trick Question]

I felt sorry for those suited dancers having to go through that routine time after time after time for hours on end.  By the end, those guys must've been cursing themselves for coming up with that video.

 

It boggles the mind that NOBODY switched detours after all that time.  If it was the sort of task where you're building something and halfway done and you don't want to lose all your progress I could understand, but this was pretty straight-forwardly stop and start.  Surely after at least 90 minutes, with all the waiting around, and all of the repeated efforts, you'd start to think about the other detour as the other teams started to file in. 

 

It's hilarious that at least three of the blind-date couples already seem checked-out on each other.

[Wings]

I love the blind date aspect!  And I like how they are all getting along except for that poor doctor.  I really like him and very disappointed that he did not get a good one.  He will even feel worse when he sees how well the others are working together.  He even stated he was looking for love in his bio clip. 

 

I was not upset that the couple, who stuck with that dance for 4 hours went home.  4 hours!  What is wrong with them?  It was pretty funny that they got the sake on the first try though.   It was mean of me to chuckle, but I did.  

 

I don't usually watch this show, not a favorite, but I am glad I checked it out tonight.  Maybe we will see love bloom.  Could happen.  

[MountainDooo]

I was curious about the song too, so I did some digging. Here it is: 

[Quilt Fairy]

I don't want to see those damn cameras again. Really not in the mood to have this blind date couples vs existing couples thing either. So I'm really hoping that it passes within the first few episodes. At this rate last season will be superior.

Since apparently there is no 'Save' this season, it's already miles ahead (no pun intended) of last season for me.

 

I DVRed this episode for later viewing so I have not seen the entire thing.  Did they ever say why they have the cameras/smartphones? They appeared to be color-coded to the teams so maybe they'll have them for the entire race. I wondered if TPTB had finally caved in to the realities of 21st century technology and just given all the teams the same equipment to keep a level playing field.

[goldeneye]

Am I the only one to notice that many of the teams (five or six of the teams) that arrived at Narita decided to take a taxi at TEN times the cost of a train and probably arrive there with little (if any) time savings over those that took the express train (30 minute intervals, 53 minute commute time)?

 

For the record, the apparent quote for a taxi from Narita into Tokyo is 30,000 yen (around US$300) and would take 60 minutes to 90 minutes, and that is outside of rush hour!

 

Now I am not sure how much money these teams were given at the start, but one wonders if spending the equivalent of US$270 more from the Amazing Purse for transport in the first leg will have a factor in the later legs if these teams last that far...

[Rick Kitchen]

Wow, Jenny is absolutely beautiful.  And I loved her saying "read the clue again."

 

Blair, I feel for you.  #FreeBlair.

 

Truck stop lady is pretty hot, Truck stop guy is lucky.  But she hasn't introduced him to her son yet?  smdh But he was very calming when she was freaking out.

 

Loved the samurai who was giving the names of the sakes. Did those samurai sit around all day and night drinking, just waiting for a team to arrive/

 

I'm wondering how much internet capability those selfie phones have, if they're using them for FitBit, too.

 

I like Matt, even though the dancing was killing him.

 

Kurt, honey, if you've never had a boyfriend, please don't go into this thinking "this might be the one."

[LiveFromKevin]

My only problems were that the Detour options seemed totally unbalanced (really? You only have to pick ONE bottle?) and the incredibly long time we had to watch players fail at the dancing task. That got old in a hurry.

[ottoDbusdriver]

The wasting of broadcast time with selfie-taking and Phil's "are you in love yet" mat-chat has the potential to really annoy. Hope that's just for the first episode.

 

This episode should have only been an hour long.  Dragging it out to 90 minutes to shovel in the Love Connection and selfies was just to pad it out to add more commercials.

Edited February 26, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[Turtle]

I thought it was a great premiere.  I was expecting to hate the blind date aspect, but now I think it very well may be very interesting to watch.  And the blind date teams could have an advantage because they're not going to have to deal with any of the relationship baggage that so often causes teams to blow up at some point, and most of us are usually nicer to strangers than to people close to us.  Although, Hayley really needs to maybe talk a little less; I think she's driving Blair nuts.  

 

I was screaming at people during the dance task.  How in the world do you see teams from the second flight get there and not even consider changing tasks??  Especially when you're in a situation where only one team can go at a time and it's taking everyone a lot of tries to succeed, and so you do a ton of waiting.  Once you're over 10 tries and still struggling, I think you really have to consider swapping.  Although, I really don't get choosing the dance task at all.  Over and over again, those tasks have proven to be really subjective and to take many teams a very long time to complete.  Sure, memorizing stuff in a foreign language whose written words do not resemble English words in any way is going to be difficult, but if you've ever watched this show, you should know that it's not going to be impossible, that there will be clues - you don't have to learn Japanese to pass the task.  I just thought some teams made terrible decisions with this.  

[blackwing]

I think the whole point of the selfies is that some of these are blind date couples, and it's kind of cool for them to be able to document their one long and unusual blind date through photos. I'm sure any phone and internet capability is disabled. Yes, they could just watch the show on tv months later, but it's not the same.

Am I the only one annoyed that they paired the one minority blind date male with the one minority blind date female? I saw him standing there with the singles. Then I saw an Asian girl run out with the single girls, and I knew right away they'd be paired together.

Confused about the sake task. Did they really only have to identify one bottle? I thought they'd have to get everyone at the table the right one (four bottles I think). What would have stopped them from just continuously grabbing bottles when they were wrong?

I like Steve Langton, the bobsledder. I remember him from Sochi and remember him being a really nice guy. He was genuinely happy for the couple that finished the dance first (blind date couple where the girl gushed over the guy's naked chest after the mud run). Then he was smiling and happy when the lawyers finished. Seems like he has the true Olympic spirit of friendly competition.

Contrast this with the guy hairdresser, who was actively rooting for teams to fail. Can't stand this dude. At the starting line, he was oddly standing completely sideways the entire time, and I swear he was trying to get everyone at home to see how big his biceps are and his ugly tattoo. Psst, male hairstylist.... Steve Langton could crush you like a walnut.

Don't really care about the older couple that was eliminated.

[Honeycocoa]

My people! Yea! ( you, not them) Yeah, not loving the blind date aspect at all. My guess is that it wont matter much by midway through the race, but wow, eould it be painful to be stuck on the race with slme stranger who you activly disliked. Great to see Phil and Tokyo.

Edited February 26, 2015 by Honeycocoa

[Muffyn]

Great moments - "Read the clue again".  The lawyers analysis of vicinity.  The blond woman recognizing new kid Jon.

Kurt, honey, if you've never had a boyfriend, please don't go into this thinking "this might be the one."

Methinks Kurt watches too many dating based reality TV shows.  Maybe he was expecting a rose at the end of the leg?

 

Am I the only one annoyed that they paired the one minority blind date male with the one minority blind date female? I saw him standing there with the singles. Then I saw an Asian girl run out with the single girls, and I knew right away they'd be paired together.

I like Steve Langton, the bobsledder. I remember him from Sochi and remember him being a really nice guy. He was genuinely happy for the couple that finished the dance first (blind date couple where the girl gushed over the guy's naked chest after the mud run). Then he was smiling and happy when the lawyers finished. Seems like he has the true Olympic spirit of friendly competition.

Yeah, when the partners came running, I was disturbed to see the insta-minority pairing.  But they do have the lawyer connection.

 

I really liked the Olympic team, especially when he said his silly thing about not getting gold but getting her (okay, I don't remember the exact bad pun) and she rolled her eyes and smirked.  They seem like a great pair.