S26.E04: The Great Amazing Nasty Race (Bangkok)

[FlyingEgret]

Did anyone else see one of the guys (I forget which one) drinking the bottle of milk during the tuk tuk ride to the cat cafe?  I remember thinking he shouldn't be doing that but then everyone showed up with a full bottle. I may have imagined the whole thing, but I really don't think so...

[kili]

Did anyone else see one of the guys (I forget which one) drinking the bottle of milk during the tuk tuk ride to the cat cafe?

 

I think he only mime drunk it and then said he was glad he didn't drink it when he got to the cafe.

 

I don't think this is probably the second most extensive shot of the film crews we've ever seen. The camerman and the sound guy in the other tuk-tuk were shown several times in very clear shots (at one point they were stopped). The most extensive would of course be when those goofballs flipped their car and the crew needed some medical attention. They got a new car (and a new crew?) and made it to the pitt-stop last.

[FlyingEgret]

I think he only mime drunk it and then said he was glad he didn't drink it when he got to the cafe.

 

Ah - thanks kili!

[fishcakes]

Honestly, I think the only thing Blair has done wrong, and by that I mean "wrong," is that he decided almost immediately that he wasn't interested in Hayley romantically. I'd agree that he was dismissive of her as a girlfriend, but not as a race partner. I haven't seen him be smug, arrogant, or any of the other things he's been called, but I have seen him be silent in the face of her relentless criticism. At the start of this last leg, as soon as they got their clue and got in the cab, she started telling him what he did wrong on the previous leg: he didn't negotiate correctly with the tuk tuk driver, he tried to find the pit stop without knowing exactly where he was (because ... crime of the century right there), and who knows what else. Blair wanting her to lead isn't being passive-aggressive; it's giving her what she says she wants and in the process maybe getting her to stop finding fault with everything he does. He never said he wanted her to fail; he said if they fail, fine, if they succeed, fine. I see no evidence that she wants an equal partnership; more than once she's said, "you have to listen to me, you have to do what I say." But she doesn't have an opinion on what they should do until he has one, and then her opinion is "we should do the exact opposite." If I were stuck with someone who reflexively disagreed with me on every single thing, I'd ignore her too because there is nothing you can say or do that will satisfy her.

Edited March 16, 2015 by fishcakes

[auntlada]

I think Hayley does want them to talk about things and decide together what to do -- as long as they decide to do what she wants to do. But she's not going to say what that is. Blair is supposed to figure it out somehow, and he keeps getting it wrong.

But I realize I am coming at this with my experiences of people who behaved that way and of whom Hayley reminds me. I suspect everyone is analyzing them (and all racers, really) based on their experiences with similarly behaving people.

So I might be entirely wrong. But that's what I think.

Or, in the words of Harry Burns, she's the worst kind. She's high maintenance, but she thinks she's low maintenance.

Edited March 16, 2015 by auntlada

[jumper sage]

I don't think this is probably the second most extensive shot of the film crews we've ever seen. The camerman and the sound guy in the other tuk-tuk were shown several times in very clear shots (at one point they were stopped). The most extensive would of course be when those goofballs flipped their car and the crew needed some medical attention. They got a new car (and a new crew?) and made it to the pitt-stop last.

Ahh....Brian Smith and his brother Greg who were on season 7.  Brian is also Zack on Big Bang Theory.

 

Nice leg.  I would have rather kept the boys and sent home #teamdr.  or whatever their team name is.

 

I had seen a travel show on the cat café and apparently it gives people the opportunity to bond/play with cats and yet not have to own one.  Apparently very popular there.

[Camera One]

To be fair to Hayley and Blair, it is really hard to work with someone, multiplied by a hundred times in a situation like a race, plus with a stranger, plus with total personality clashes.  They haven't figured out how to deal with each other yet, since there are certain buttons you know you don't push with someone you know.  So there's a sense of hesitancy in Hayley, while with Blair, he seems like someone who is normally in full control in everyday life.  Strangely, I don't hate either of them.   I didn't like the Blind Date idea, but as someone else said above, I do find it interesting in a social experiment kind of way.

[Archery]

Evidently, they are also sometimes referred to at thousand-year eggs.

They used both terms in the episode. It confused me, but I could not bring myself to Google why.

[peachmangosteen]

But I realize I am coming at this with my experiences of people who behaved that way and of whom Hayley reminds me. I suspect everyone is analyzing them (and all racers, really) based on their experiences with similarly behaving people.

 

Yea exactly. I just understand Hayley more and I personally don't really take to people like Blair so that colors my opinion of their dynamics.

[hincandenza]

Well, I defended Hayley last week, but have to switch my allegiance to House Blair ("Ours is the Silence"). Jeez, lady... pick a direction, or at least backburner the constant nagging until the Pit Stop when you can discuss team strategies and dynamics more calmly. By this point, both of them are at fault for not having hammered out an agreement to either pick a firm leader or go pure collaboration. Or they did, and one of them is ignoring it.

It was weird the way Kurt and Bergen just freaked out with joy when B/H were team #2. At least in-show, I haven't seen any real alliances or enemies form so I was surprised at how happy they were to see this of all teams. Eh, this is TAR: it's more accurate to say I haven't seen any pointless alliances or petty squabbles yet.

I'm on mobile so I can't easily find/quote it, but someone early on in this thread mentioned how Hayley/Blair are actually kind of amusing, because they're so horribly mismatched... but it's not awkward or uncomfortable like watching spouses, parent/child, or (former) best friends have their relationships spectacularly disintegrate on weekly television. Instead, it's like a mismatched buddy travel comedy, like a gender swapped remake of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles". I think that makes Hayley the John Candy? :)

Kudos to Rochelle for blowing through that transmission roadblock. Not because she's a woman- who cares?- but because she was that rarest of TAR or reality TV creatures: the calm and methodical problem solver. "No I don't know everything about a car, but I know they want me to get something out of here and gave me a power drill with a fitted attachment so imma start unscrewing shit and... oh hey, done." Now was that so hard, every other panicky clueless team on 25 previous seasons of this show?!? :)

Edited March 16, 2015 by hincandenza

[vousviou]

They used both terms in the episode. It confused me, but I could not bring myself to Google why.

Food (and drink) names change a lot from place to place and over time.  A Martini used to be gin or vodka and Vermouth, now it's been stretched and pulled in so many directions that it means just about anything served in a Martini glass. 

[anhydrite]

 

Eh, this is TAR: it's more accurate to say I haven't seen any pointless alliances or petty squabbles yet.

Actually, there have, Jeff/Lyda and Kurt/Bergen formed an alliance on the train on leg 1 (which actually contributed to the demise of the former), but was never shown on-screen, only mentioned in interviews. I guess TPTB are more concerned about showing non-love among the blind daters that there's no more time for alliances.

 

 

I'm on mobile so I can't easily find/quote it, but someone early on in this thread mentioned how Hayley/Blair are actually kind of amusing, because they're so horribly mismatched... but it's not awkward or uncomfortable like watching spouses, parent/child, or (former) best friends have their relationships spectacularly disintegrate on weekly television.

That might actually be me. Yes, I do find these two quite funny. They're a train wreck, but there's something oddly enjoyable about seeing them tear each other apart. Kind of like Adam/Rebecca and Lori/Bolo.

 

Small detail that probably doesn't matter but anyways: at the Phuket airport, Harley/Jonathan were shown boarding a grey aircraft, but their "landing" shot was a plane with red livery. Does that mean they had a connecting flight (probably), or just that the editors are too colour-blind to sort properly through endless airport footage? :P

[jennifer6973]

From their tv guide exit interview, there was a connecting flight

[aradia22]

Really, you can't eat century eggs? Oh, white people. I used to eat them as a baby with my porridge. Even if you're not used to it, it's really not as unpleasant as they were making it out to be. The texture is odd for an egg and I generally find that people who struggle with eating challenges call out the texture (which is something I never have a problem with when trying something new). The taste is really more bland than offensive. I have no sympathy for them with this nonsense. They ate the most revolving non-food items on Fear Factor. Century eggs are not "delicacies" in the sense that the racers meant. People eat them all the time. 

 

I do not know what was happening with Jelani and Jenny this week. Seriously. There were too many people to keep track of and unlike Blair and Hayley who are always fighting, I was not clear on what was happening with them.

 

The Caturday cafe was adorable. I wish more teams had chosen the other detour so we could have stayed there longer. 

 

The finishes at the mat were very interesting. Bergen and Kurt? Blair and Hayley? What?

[vousviou]

Kudos to Rochelle for blowing through that transmission roadblock. Not because she's a woman- who cares?- but because she was that rarest of TAR or reality TV creatures: the calm and methodical problem solver. "No I don't know everything about a car, but I know they want me to get something out of here and gave me a power drill with a fitted attachment so imma start unscrewing shit and... oh hey, done." Now was that so hard, every other panicky clueless team on 25 previous seasons of this show?!? :)

Added on to that was being toward the back of the pack, which magnifies the pressure she must have felt.  I also liked the way Mike was solidly confident in her -- she's done this thing, she's done that thing, I know she can figure this out.  No macho need for him to say this is man's work, I have to step in.

[vousviou]

I'm not sure how TPTB are supposed to make sure that airlines leave seats available for the racers (other than pre-buying them, of course).  They have no control over how many tickets to a specific flight are purchased between the time the route is planned and when the race actually takes place.  And if they put everybody on the same flight we'd hear lots of complaints about spoon-feeding flights, etc. 

 

Have there ever been times when the teams were split between two (or more) flights and one of the flights was flat out cancelled or delayed by a huge amount of time, basically guaranteeing that some teams had no shot at winning a segment?

 

It seems to me like that could be a risk the producers would be willing to take early in the race, but by the last few legs it would be an awful anti-climax to have that happen, and they'd make sure everyone could get a seat on the same flight or on another close behind.  Maybe not?

[North of Eden]

Way to go Jenny...managing to cataupult yourself into the DISLIKE column for me anyway in just one episode. It would have been enough alone to get there with the whole "cats are scary"...when they are really cute and lovable but piling on Gelani and trying to shaft the enagage couple...she's kind of an out and  out villain. I"m glad Gelani finally snapped back at her.

 

Meanwhile the Doc is a passive aggresive prick who would risk losing half a million dollars....to just..well be a passive aggresive prick.

 

Curt bugs!  He's such a walking stereotype. Where on the other hand I expected the truck stop guy to live up to his stereotype...and maybe...know how to take the transmission off but he let his partner do it!

 

Also I did not like that the dissasembly took place where other teams could see how it was done. It would have been more fun watching the total clueless struggle rather than grifting knowledge from being able to watch another team.

 

Its an abysmal season but I LOVE Jackie! She's got such a positive happy attitude! She reminds me of the female half of the dating couple from Providence who won a few seasons ago.

 

Wouldn't you know it...the ratings find uptick and now the show will pull a vanishing act until April. Not everyone cares about this whole March Madness mania.

[vousviou]

I was disappointed that not all teams had to endure the eating challenge. For me, that's must-see-tv. As a matter of fact, i wish the challenge was that they had to eat a certain amount of eggs in a certain amount of time (ex. 5 eggs in 2 mins).

 

They could do a Cool Hand Luke challenge to either eat 50 eggs in an hour, or else spend a night in the box.

I live in Manila. Century egg is not uncommon here though it's not really readily available in generic supermarkets. Anyways, it doesnt taste bad. Yes it smells pretty nasty. It is a delicacy and an acquired taste. It delicious when mixed with noodle soup.

 

I think the racers would have been more grossed out had it been balut (aborted egg) or chicken intestine or chicken head.

I saw an Anthony Bourdain show where he ate balut.  Or at least part of it.  He's usually a pretty adventuresome eater, but he didn't want to eat more than a few bits of the balut.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I think the racers would have been more grossed out had it been balut

Probably.  They've done balut a few time before on this show and on Survivor as well.  Don't remember anyone really enjoying it.:)

[selkie]

Have there ever been times when the teams were split between two (or more) flights and one of the flights was flat out cancelled or delayed by a huge amount of time, basically guaranteeing that some teams had no shot at winning a segment?

 

It seems to me like that could be a risk the producers would be willing to take early in the race, but by the last few legs it would be an awful anti-climax to have that happen, and they'd make sure everyone could get a seat on the same flight or on another close behind.  Maybe not?

 

 

I want to say I remember a leg one incident on a westward outbound route from Los Angeles where the producer-designated plane that was first to leave actually had to divert to Hawaii or Guam for a medical emergency and got to the first location too late for those Racers to have a chance at a win.

 

The producers do give a sometimes extensive list of exclusions for each flight teams book. Someone at RFF got a look at one of those sheets this time around. Most of them are perfectly logical like you cannot book a ticket that requires you to transit an airport in North Korea or you cannot book a ticket on this list of airlines, most of which are banned from operating in EU air space over safety concerns, but there are also a few what would be logical connecting points allowing visa-free transit and involving generally safe carriers that will be banned from use on a given leg, I'm guessing so that a team doesn't get a crazy good route that would let them get ahead of Phil.

[hincandenza]

It was you, anhydrite! :)

Now where to start... For some reason I find Hayley/Blair kinda funny in their dysfunctional relationship. And for once, Blair was right for shutting off, because sometimes it's just the right thing to do. She wanted to decided, he let her decide, and she wasn't happy, and he had this "whatever" face on and this whole sequence was just comedy gold. Amazing how they managed to finish second. They'll have to bring it together regardless of their disagreements though. Sulking your partner is never a good idea, though I feel for them since they really have diametrally opposite and incompatible personalities.

[NutMeg]

They've done balut a few time before on this show and on Survivor as well.  Don't remember anyone really enjoying it.:)

 

Ian (Survivor Palau) did! or at least pretended too. If memory serves, he even joked at a subsequent challenge that he would step out if Jeff could produce baluts.("Any balut ?" or something like that)

 

They did it on TAR Asia too, and everyone ate their balut with no more drama than me with my morning coffee :-)

[Guest]

They used both terms in the episode. It confused me, but I could not bring myself to Google why.

I did.  It's because they're both hyperbole.  The eggs aren't 100 years old or 1000 years old, just a few weeks or months old.  And they're not rotten, they're fermented.  So it's probably more like what cheese or yogurt is to milk than rotten eggs are to fresh eggs.  

[kingshearte]

Kudos to Rochelle for blowing through that transmission roadblock. Not because she's a woman- who cares?- but because she was that rarest of TAR or reality TV creatures: the calm and methodical problem solver. "No I don't know everything about a car, but I know they want me to get something out of here and gave me a power drill with a fitted attachment so imma start unscrewing shit and... oh hey, done." Now was that so hard, every other panicky clueless team on 25 previous seasons of this show?!? :)

Agreed. You don't have to know much about something to disassemble it. Especially as, if I'm not mistaken, the various screws & bolts that hold everything together are not all the same shape and size, so a good place to start would be whatever can be removed using the tool you've been provided. And also checking that your drill is in reverse.

[barbedwire]

Karma at its finest - "We men are not helping you Rochelle with this manly engine challenge" and Rochelle does it first on her own.  Loved it!!!

[proserpina65]

even cat lovers will admit that unlike dogs who if their owner dies may die with them, cats feed on their owners if they die alone in a house.

 

Oh, don't kid yourself.  Dogs will do that too.  But even though I am a cat lover, I will say I can understand why their stealthiness could freak people out.  Heck, the way they can stare intently at nothing kind of freaks me out sometimes, especially late at night.

 

I liked this episode, mainly for the cat cafe and the way Rochelle rocked the transmission challenge.  I'm sad that Jonathan and Harley were eliminated, but at least they got to do what looked like a pretty neat speed bump first.

[proserpina65]

I completely disagree.  The first team ever saved by a NEL was Lenny & Karyn (Season 1).  They were informed it was a NEL and no punishment whatsoever was levied against them.

And so it should be.

If the leg is a regular, elimination leg, you get eliminated.  If it isn't, you don't.    In football, the opposition forward kicks the ball between your posts and you're one goal down.  Unless he was offside, in which case you aren't.  They don't award a half-goal. 

I can see no sense in trying to dream up the perfect punishment for coming last in a leg, when as a non-elimination leg, there is by definition no fault in coming last.

 

The Race changed that after Season 4, so that ship has really sailed.  I'm okay with the Speed Bump, and this one was at least interesting to watch.  I'm just glad the Non-Eliminated racers no longer have to beg for the money to continue; that was pretty awful, depending on the location of the pit stop.

 

[proserpina65]

Ahh....Brian Smith and his brother Greg who were on season 7.  Brian is also Zack on Big Bang Theory.

 

THAT'S where I'd seen him before!  I thought he looked familiar the first time Zack showed up, but I couldn't quite place him.

[Special K]

I haven't watched many seasons of TAR, so this might be stupid and blasphemous, but...

 

It seems to me that if a team is saved through a NEL and incurs a Speed Bump, it would be more appropriate for the Speed Bump to come further down the line, not on the very next leg, which they are presumably already way behind on (on account of coming in last).

 

I know by delaying the SB penalty, the team might not actually end up having to do said SB, but the combo of getting such a late start on the next leg and then having the SB was what put Jon and Harley out of the running.  May not seem fair to some to delay the SB, but having an Express Pass just for winning a single leg isn't really all that fair either.

 

Anyway, Jon and Harley were one of the few teams on this Season that I really enjoyed:  mensches, in love, and such good sports.

[KarateKate]

I haven't watched many seasons of TAR, so this might be stupid and blasphemous, but...

 

It seems to me that if a team is saved through a NEL and incurs a Speed Bump, it would be more appropriate for the Speed Bump to come further down the line, not on the very next leg, which they are presumably already way behind on (on account of coming in last).

...

It seemed to me like they didn't expect the last place team that was just saved to be THAT far behind. Then that team would likely have been on the same flight as everyone else, and the speed bump would put them behind the other teams all practically starting at the same time. Not by so little that they wouldn't have to hustle to do the rest of the leg (and obviously miss the apparently coveted Water side of the Detour), but not by so much that there wasn't still a shot. Especially if the wandering to the Pit Stop was as frustratingly long as it appeared, where any one of the knucklehead navigations we saw could have felled another team.

[Dobian]

Basically I'm rooting for Matt/Ashley, Mike/Rochelle, and Jeff/Jackie.  Jenny is now as annoying to me as Hayley.  I thought the speed bump was unfair.  Past speed bumps tended to be very simple tasks that are more of an inconvenience but allow the last place team to still have a chance.  Assembling that origami insect looked really time-consuming and doomed Harley and Jonathan.  The cat/milk task should have been the speed bump, that literally was a speed bump compared to actual challenges.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Dobian

[millennium]

 

I loved Rochelle owning the transmission detour. The two guys are conferring with each other, getting nowhere, and totally ignoring her while she just takes care of it. HA! IN YOUR FACE SEXIST MOFOS!

 

 

 

"Rochelle, Rochelle ... A Young Girl's Strange, Mechanic Journey from Bangkok to Minsk"

[millennium]

 

By the way;

1. Are honking great fake-boobies a requirement now?
2. Do American males prefer their boobies artificial?

 

 

I haven't seen many guys with fake boobies.   Is this a thing now?

Edited March 17, 2015 by millennium

[KarateKate]

"Rochelle, Rochelle ... A Young Girl's Strange, Mechanic Journey from Bangkok to Minsk"

millennium for the win!

[auntlada]

Oh, don't kid yourself.  Dogs will do that too.  But even though I am a cat lover, I will say I can understand why their stealthiness could freak people out.  Heck, the way they can stare intently at nothing kind of freaks me out sometimes, especially late at night.

The way ours stare at me for an hour when they are certain it's time to eat (but it is not) is a little freaky -- and I love cats enough that I would not have wanted to leave that cafe.

[QuantumMechanic]

Saw something interesting on the John/Harley thread -- they were asking passers-by to bring up a map or a picture of a destination on the passers-by's phones and then taking a picture of it with their selfie cam, and would then show those pictures to cabbies, etc.

 

Very nice thinking!  Too bad they got screwed by airport luck.

[egnever]

Meanwhile the Doc is a passive aggresive prick who would risk losing half a million dollars....to just..well be a passive aggresive prick.

For someone who's apparently so passive aggressive that he would risk losing half a million dollars, they've been doing pretty well as a team.

 

I would be pretty "passive aggressive" with Hayley too, mainly because I don't see any other way to deal with her.

 

You try to take control and make tough decisions. She'll second guess every one of them, keep quiet when it goes right and not really give you credit, and then harp ad nauseum on every little mistake and claim that you should have 'listened to her.'

 

If you try to listen to her, she'll push the burden of responsibility onto you anyway. "It's your choice!" If you try to take your time to come to a consensus with compromises, she'll yell at you for wasting time and that you should just decide on a course of action.

 

If you try to tell her to make the decisions, she'll flatly refuse to shoulder any responsibility. "You decide. Hurry up!" She's completely terrified of leadership and doesn't want any part of the blame when things go sideways.

 

There's really no way to get her to give you her input because she doesn't want control. That's just her playing the victim card after the fact whenever something goes wrong. She wants to be perfectly in the clear so she can push all the blame to you and then act like you should have been listening to her the entire time. Worst of all, she'll never let it go. She was still yelling at Blair for what they did wrong 20 hours ago. This was hours and a pitstop after she was going on about it for so long that even Jelani had second hand embarrassment for her standing behind her on the zipline.

 

At this point, Blair is doing the most sensible thing. He's realized that he can't 'win' and will always be the target of her criticism and victimizing and he'll just grin and bear it and try to get across the finish line as soon as possible. If that's "passive aggressive" then so be it.

 

If Hayley was partnered with someone who thought the exact same thing she did, she would still manage to absolve herself of the blame and yell at him/her whenever things went wrong. She doesn't really want someone who listens to her. She wants someone who she can vent all her frustrations to.

[Lamb18]

Have there ever been times when the teams were split between two (or more) flights and one of the flights was flat out cancelled or delayed by a huge amount of time, basically guaranteeing that some teams had no shot at winning a segment?

 

It seems to me like that could be a risk the producers would be willing to take early in the race, but by the last few legs it would be an awful anti-climax to have that happen, and they'd make sure everyone could get a seat on the same flight or on another close behind.  Maybe not?

In season 14 there was a team eliminated because they chose a route with a connecting flight in Amsterdam, which was delayed because of weather.  They arrived way later than everyone else and were eliminated.

Edited March 18, 2015 by Lamb18

[blackwing]

Way to go Jenny...managing to cataupult yourself into the DISLIKE column for me anyway in just one episode. It would have been enough alone to get there with the whole "cats are scary"...when they are really cute and lovable but piling on Gelani and trying to shaft the enagage couple...she's kind of an out and  out villain. I"m glad Gelani finally snapped back at her.

I dislike Jenny a lot, but I can't blame her for getting into a tuk tuk.  Both Jelani/Jenny and the hairdresser and his fiance were pretty certain that Harley/Jonathan were behind them.  But it's a Race, and you never know.  For all they knew, there would be a double elimination.  Jenny was well aware of her physical limitations and knew that the hairdressers would beat them in a footrace.  Why shouldn't she find a faster way to the pit stop?  Were they all just supposed to hold hands and skip together to the pit stop?

 

The only reason why the guy was mad when he saw her get into a tuk tuk was that he didn't think of it himself first.  I suppose it could be possible that later on there is a U turn and they U Turn Jenny out of spite (not the first time spite and butthurt feelings comes into play when making a U Turn decision... I think within the past few seasons but I forget the details, someone please help).  But in the end, it's a race.  I suppose Jenny could have just said, "we're getting a cab, good luck".  But I don't see how her getting into a cab makes her a villain.

[Netfoot]

It wasn't  the tuk-tuk at the end that bothered me.  It was going on like a harpy in the taxi at the beginning -- to the point where Jelani told the driver to overtake the moped just to make her look stupid, I think.  Then she was on his case about running because running made you tired.  Hello?   Raaaaace! 

 

Very ugly, shrewish behaviour all episode.  And it's only episode #4, so if it's KF, it can only get worse.

[millennium]

Jenny's mask slipped in this episode, and I didn't like what I saw.   Blind date?   She treated Jelani like they'd been married for 20 years.

[blackwing]

It was Keith and Whitney that I was thinking of.  They got U Turned by the flight attendant mother/daughter out of spite because of the shoving incident earlier in the day.  I think Keith and Whitney would have been eliminated anyways since they couldn't get the hang of the hat spin, but still, it was clear that the U Turn decision was purely out of personal spite and not because of any strategic decision.

 

I do agree that Jenny came off looking like a complete, controlling, domineering shrew.  I made the comparison to Cindy earlier in the thread, and I think Jenny in this case is even worse because she barely even knows her partner and she's treating him the same way that Cindy treated her pack mule.  They were both one-woman teams with 170 pounds of extra baggage attached.

[Camera One]

but still, it was clear that the U Turn decision was purely out of personal spite and not because of any strategic decision.

 

There was strategy involved.  In a behind-the-scenes video, they said they would have u-turned someone since they needed to go back to that taxi and pay them, so they needed to buy time to do that.  They looked out on the square and Keith and Whitney were there as well as the Food Scientists, so those were the two choices.

 

I think with not pissing other teams off, you can avoid that kind of situation as well.  A team might choose someone else vs. you, and now Jenny has one team at least who will pick the lawyers to U-Turn if they're in a tight-spot, or if unluckily, they both end up running to the U-Turn board at the same time.

Edited March 18, 2015 by Camera One

[auntlada]

The only reason why the guy was mad when he saw her get into a tuk tuk was that he didn't think of it himself first.

 

I think he was also mad because Jenny and Jelani were the ones who had the directions, but it's his fault if he didn't know where to go since he was with Jenny and Jelani when they were all getting directions. He should have been listening.

[jennifer6973]

That and all his running around in the transmission yard looking for the metal castle.  I think 4 or 5 teams passed him while he was doing that.

[Camera One]

Did they seriously think they were racing for last?  If that was the case, I guess I could say how Jenny could have panicked.  I mean, how can you shake that other team if you're both possibly racing for last, and they can outrun you?  In fairness to Jelani, it would be hard to summon a taxi/tuk tuk subtly.  He also thought they would get lost in a tuk-tuk.  But did they know how to get there on foot?

[Donny Ketchum]

In season 14 there was a team eliminated because they chose a route with a connecting flight in Amsterdam, which was delayed because of weather.  They arrived way later than everyone else and were eliminated.

Ah, poor Brad & Victoria from TAR14.  They had great potential as an older couple, but they wasted it with that bad move.

[etagloh]

Did they seriously think they were racing for last?  If that was the case, I guess I could [see] how Jenny could have panicked. 

 

Interesting question. None of the other teams would have seen Jonathan and Harley since they left them in Tokyo, and they wouldn't have known that it was a NEL in Phuket, as teams only find out about NELs when they see surviving teams show up for the next leg. So yes, I think the lagging teams in Bangkok had every reason to believe that they might be racing to avoid last place.

[blackwing]

Interesting question. None of the other teams would have seen Jonathan and Harley since they left them in Tokyo, and they wouldn't have known that it was a NEL in Phuket, as teams only find out about NELs when they see surviving teams show up for the next leg. So yes, I think the lagging teams in Bangkok had every reason to believe that they might be racing to avoid last place.

But at the time of the surreptitious tuk tuking, they were on their way to the pit stop at the "Metal Castle", weren't they? They would have seen Jonathan and Harley's picture on the Speed Bump and figured out that the previous leg was NEL and that Jonathan and Harley were likely behind them. But like I said, anything can happen, it could have been a double elimination.

[fishcakes]

Also, haven't they reinstated Eat Sleep Mingle this season? At least a couple of times they've all been together at the pit stop -- the internet cafe and one other I'm blanking on. I always liked the more collegial atmosphere of the race that ESM seasons seemed to foster, although I suspect that this season TPTB are hoping that some of the blind daters will decide they prefer someone else's blind date and teen drama will ensue.