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

[Netfoot]

I’ve always felt that a team that is saved should face a high hurdle in catching up with the pack.  The extra task they have to do has rarely (if ever) had an affect on the outcome.  For me, it would be about right if it works out that teams saved by a NEL have a 67% chance of being eliminated in the next leg.

 

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. 

 

By the way;

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

[hendersonrocks]

Free Blair, indeed. 

 

I was disappointed with this leg, as it seemed like there was no real chance for Jonathan and Harley to get back in it. Aren't NELs usually followed by a leg where there's intentional bunching of some sort?

 

With my favorite New Kid & his adorable partner gone, I think I'm putting all my eggs in the Olympians' basket.

[Guest]

I read that Hayley also keeps in touch with Jeff, who is also from the Tampa Bay area.  Jeff is the laid back guy paired with the Kim Kardashian looking girl-- Jackie.

[ennui]

meep.meep, you bring up an interesting point. All of the people are young. Just once, could we have a 40+ race? I think it would be interesting to see how an older generation would handle the stress of these challenges we've watched thus far. Not just physical stress, but mental stress and the inevitable fatigue.

And I agree, Free Blair! :)

Like pouring a saucer of milk for a cat?  Lighting candles at a temple? Maybe that's where the inevitable fatigue kicks in.  :)

 

Sorry.  :)

[mtlchick]

 

It was clear this week that everybody was intended to be on that first flight to Bangkok. Stuff happens. It's annoying, but that's what comes from TAR taking place in the real world and not a controlled space on an island: occasionally good legs get spoiled by the starting conditions, sometimes bad ones turn out well in spite of themselves.

 

Back in the "olden days" of TAR: All Stars 1, the flights to get into one destination (I think into Zanzibar) was a mess as apparently it was peak season for vacations for that part of the world and some teams were delayed closed to a day which did affect the time frames for at least the next leg or two.  But then again, racers were allowed to change their flights if they managed to find an earlier one.  Now once you're booked, you can't change it as mentioned last season.  So I have to wonder if Harley and Jonathan were allowed to look for earlier flights out of Singapore would that have changed the outcome. 

[gator12]

Hayley and Blair http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/video/Hw81ldhJj0Vs3lwKJvJNFEEsXaUep0S9/amazing-race-passing-the-buck/ un-aired scene for this episode

 

I did find the map chats with Kurt, Bergen, Hayley, Blair, Aly and Steve funny and interesting http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/video/VMlsDo5mHnqUOtqLP_KOisz3iuHoICpF/the-amazing-race-the-perfect-guy/

Phil did ask the romance question http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/video/tdJtBYC3lGd2Q5AQR1_XjMCrNpsFuaO2/the-amazing-race-the-hayley-blowup/

Jenny, Jelani, Jeff, Jackie, Mike and Rochelle http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/video/ATxsAeZ_aoYnKvhO2nISbzxl_tM4mpC7/the-amazing-race-just-listen/

Edited March 15, 2015 by gator12

[Rick Kitchen]

I guess nobody works on cars anymore. This makes me sad.

 

Every one of them said they had a relative who works on cars.

[Ducky]

Didn't get to see this until today because here in NC they put basketball on instead on Friday night! Hmph... and 3 more weeks with no TAR?  blergh.

 

1. So sad to see Jonathan and Harley go-- loved them..  calm no blow-ups etc.  They never had a chance.  I agree I hate the idea of the speed bump... never liked the idea of the 'added punishment' (whatever it has been)- you are already punished enough by winding up in last (and even more so if you are so far behind...).  :(

 

2.  Oh dear heavens.. Hayley.... hey Hayley  BE QUIET for a minute.  Blair actually did try to compromise-- "Ok you lead"  "No YOU lead"... "alrighty then let's go..."  "NO we should THIS way..."  So much for insisting he be the lead.... Free Blair indeed.  I won't say anything if Blair did trip her or something.

 

3.  Still not a fan of Mike and Rochelle I don't know why... but she did rock that roadblock.

 

4.  Yikes...  stress getting to Jenny but I can see why... many lawyers have a competitive streak in them that it's hard to slow down and realize there's another person with them.  Judging from above posts about 'unaired videos' etc seems in general they are still agreeable in a sense.  We're only seeing 45 minutes give or take a week and not 24/7.

 

5.  Odd tasks- didn't care much for them but the Caturday Cafe stop awwww cute cute  cu.. okay I'll stop,  The boat ride looks awfully awesome and something I'd like to do.

 

6.  Jenny/Jelani running off and grabbing a tuk tuk.  Why not?  Strategy in a sense and it's a race.  While I understand the concern that maybe staying on other teams' good side can help down the line in this instance she wanted to be certain not to land in last even though they probably knew NKOTB and boyfriend were so far behind.

 

7. Yay  glad Bergen and Kurt won- I hope they do try to settle in and work together more- they seemed better this ep.  loved their egg dance lol.

 

 

Now to hang loose and wait three LONG weeks....

[ennui]

Every one of them said they had a relative who works on cars.

I have a relative who was a race car driver. Does that make me a race car driver? (I wish.)

[Archery]

The Detour has some nice pros and cons. The water ride was quick and relaxing and fun, but then you had to choke down that egg. The tuk tuk was slow and frustrating and time consuming, but the snooker task was actually fairly easy if you weren't freaking out. The temple and cat cafe were even. <br /><br />I wanted to reach through the tv and grab hold of Jenni, just to say, TAKE A BREATH, GIRL. I hate it when teams are so frantic and panicky they just make things worse. I want them to calm down and think things through. That said, Jenni was right to Insist that they jump in a tuk tuk and leave the other team behind. The other dude didn't hesitate to leave Jelani behind at the Roadblock, trying to figure out how to take apart the transmission. She made me laugh when Jelani was still trying to coordinate with the other team, and she's like, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!

[anneaire]

Soooooooo....any previously.tv users out there who have eaten 1000 Year Old eggs?  If so, please describe the taste in detail.

 

Also, kitties!

 

(And they need to rename "Speedbumps" "Punishment for failing the last leg".)  Bye-bye, favorite New Kid :(

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.

[gryphon]

Like another poster said, I would have had an asthma attack at the cat cafe--and I would have endured it because of my love of cats.  Well, endured it for a time, anyway.  

 

Kudos to Rochelle for rocking the road block.  And glad that Kurt and Bergen got a first place finish.  

 

Sad that NKOTB are gone.  They were lovely to watch. 

 

"Creme de la creme of the chess world...."

Edited March 15, 2015 by gryphon

[blackwing]

The Olympians handled the egg the best.  They chomped them down like the champions and good sports that they are.  It was only after they received the clue and left the area that they commented that the egg was disgusting.  However, they didn't say anything to the vendor.  Contrast this with all of the other teams, who were gagging, retching, holding their noses, doing the pee dance, and saying how disgusting it was.  Perhaps the locals are used to it, but the whole thing was one of the worst displays of "Ugly American" IMO on the show in a long time.

 

I hope Aly and Steve go far.  They truly are class acts.

 

Just curious, for the people that say they are upset that the race design provided pretty much zero opportunity for Jonathan and Harley to catch up... is this because Jonathan and Harley are beloved?  If it had been Blair and Hayley that were in last and had a Speed Bump, would people be more OK with it?  The way I see it, Jonathan and Harley did poorly the previous leg.  It was their own fault that they were last to the airport, and that they followed the herd of sheep to try and get tickets on the earlier plane.  They made poor decisions.  When they saw too many people in line, they should have gone to a travel agent or a different counter.  Their mistakes cost them.  That's the way it goes on the Race.  Yes they seem like nice guys, but they weren't very good Racers.

[Ducky]

No for me it not because they are 'beloved' (though I adore them).  If it had been any other racer I still would have said that it sucked they wound up so far behind.  I've never liked that that happens.  It's the same when a team gets so far ahead... there's no joy or suspense in watching a team so far out that it's a given 5 minutes into the leg that they will win or watching a team that winds up so far behind (getting eliminated in the airport...) that it's a given they're gonna be out of the race.  I like a little suspense and mad dashes  in my races.

 

   J&H probably could have gone to another counter but it looks like none of the teams went to a travel agent (that I saw)- maybe a restriction on the part of TAR.  J&H did take responsibility from what I read further up in the thread that they were not exactly travel savvy (with Jonathan having others handle the travel arrangements as part of his band, I don't know if Harley has ever been out of the country).

 

  J&H are not the first to get screwed by airport decisions (or the last).  I don't like it when ANYBODY gets screwed whether it's by their own hand or by some outer outside influence. to the point where it effectively doesn't allow them the chance to even make up any time at all.

 

 I disagree also that 'they were not very good racers'.  I think they did the best they could and they handled it very well- they did not snipe at each other, get grouchy or yell.  Attitude is as important as 'skill in racing' IMHO.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Ducky

[Donny Ketchum]

Okay.

 

So I liked the Detours.  The things they had to do at each stop were simple, but at least they had to do things at all rather than just enjoy the ride.  And the Roadblock actually required some thought to finish, which I appreciated.  And the Pit Stop clue short of shook up the placements, allowing for an unexpected winning team.

 

So the teams:

 

Bergen & Kurt: First place, and well-earned!  They seemed to make no huge mistakes, doing the Water Detour quickly and even dancing to eat their eggs!  Bergen kicked ass at the Roadblock, as well.  They seemed to be the only team not to get someone confused with the Pit Stop location, which helped them win the leg.  Good job!  Too bad Bergen seems and sounds so unpleasant.  Poor Kurt.

 

Hayley & Blair: This team is a disaster, but a comical disaster.  Hayley can't make up her mind as to whether or not she wants Blair to be in charge or herself.  That said, they did the Wheel Detour in a decent enough amount of time, and Blair surprisingly owned the Roadblock.  Second place two legs in a row.  Not bad!

 

Aly & Steve: I wish these two had more airtime.  They seemed to do all right with the Water Detour, and Steve did well with the Roadblock.  Seems like they missed out on first place due to finding locals who didn't know shit about the location of the Pit Stop.  Still, third is pretty good.

 

Laura & Tyler: It's weird how I do like these two, yet I was oddly satisfied by them not winning this leg, despite leading for most of it.  They plowed through the Water Detour, and Tyler did a great job with the Roadblock.  But their cabbie took them to the wrong place when it was Pit Stop time, dropping them down to fourth.  They could still win a leg, but they're gonna have to watch the cabbies they get.

 

Jeff & Jackie: Once again, not much from them, but they appeared to do the Wheel Detour well enough.  Jackie was adorable when she sank the snooker ball.  Jeff did all right with the Roadblock, too.  In the end, a mostly average leg deserves fifth place.

 

Mike & Rochelle: Sad to see them fall after their win last week, but they really seemed to struggle at some points.  They were fast and smart enough to choose the Water Detour, but they seemed to get lost trying to find the market to get their 1,000-year-old eggs.  Then, after the temple at the end of that Detour, they seemed to get lost in the shuffle for a long time (a la last season's Amy & Maya) before they finally materialized at the Roadblock.  But yes, Rochelle killed that task, and she and Mike got a well-deserved sixth-place finish for their troubles.  Great job!

 

Jelani & Jenny: So the shine is off both of them this week.  Jelani for his "I got beaten by a girl" remark regarding Rochelle, and Jenny for her overall unpleasantness.  They struggled with the Wheel Detour, as neither could play snooker for jack shit.  Jelani struggled big-time with that Roadblock, too.  And in the end, struggles with locating the Pit Stop nearly sank them.  The one thing they did that impressed me was grabbing that tuk-tuk before Matt & Ashley could.  Seventh place, but let's hope they can get it together in three weeks.

 

Matt & Ashley: Looks like the bliss of being engaged didn't last too long.  The only pleasant moment they had was getting on the water taxi for the Water Detour.  After that, they struggled with finding the right eggs for that Detour, and Matt had a hard time with that Roadblock, and finally, they had a hard time finding and reaching the Pit Stop.  Lucky Harley & Jonathan were too far behind, or I imagine they'd have been booted.

 

Harley & Jonathan: I can't say I'm surprised by this ending.  I had a feeling they were too far behind last week, and that bore out terribly this week.  Sad, too, because they seemed to make no real mistakes on this leg.  With a better bunching point, they might've stayed in it.  I wish them well, though, and hope they had a wonderful time on the race.

 

Can't believe we're waiting three weeks for this show to come back!  I'm not hugely into this season or cast, but I'm still gonna miss it while it's away.

[etagloh]

 

I’ve never liked it when they have a bunch right after a NEL.

 

There are bunches and there are bunches. A NEL followed by a leg that doesn't offer some chance of survival for the team arriving last makes me wish that TPTB could switch in a mercy elimination, and make the subsequent leg a NEL, even though that has its own problems and is never going to fly with Legal. 

 

As for New Kids, they paid a high price for getting to the counter last in Narita.  But that’s why you always need to hustle during the race.  It’s usually a good idea to avoid being in last place during the legs and not just at the end of them.

 

I'd agree with this, except that TPTB can sometimes throw in large amounts of anti-hustle, and definitely did so in this sequence. They got all teams to Narita too late to fly, apparently with specific instructions on which airlines were acceptable, expected them to hustle-hustle-hustle when the desks opened, then gave them a nice party in Phuket on their arrival. That's a lot of in-leg forced downtime punctuated by a tiny bit of crazy RAAACE which turned out to be critical for Team NKOTB.

Edited March 15, 2015 by etagloh

[TheOriginalDonald]

To answer Netfoot's questions....

1. No, I believe Bethany Hamilton is not artificially enhanced

2. No, Not all. In fact, I have to admit a certain reality show reviewer is pretty hot.

[chaifan]

The temple and cat cafe were even.

 

I agree that the actual tasks at both locations were the same level - ridiculously easy, with the bonus calming effect (unless you are deathly afraid of cats, like Jenny).  But the temple is at the top of a pretty decent sized hill (man made).  You have to make it to the top - there is a long spiral stairway going around the temple - and then back down.  It looked like the cat cafe was just down a normal street.  So while the tuk tuks could drive right up to the cat cafe, the racers with the temple had the additional time on foot.  And, the temple clue said something about being respectful at all times, so running up/down/around would not have been permitted.

 

I was disappointed with both.  The temple offers great views of Bangkok, so they could have easily added a "spot the flag" challenge first before going in to light the candles.  And they could have had a "find the cat with a yellow & red collar" or something like that to the feed the cats challenge. 

 

I think Jenny came off particularly bad in this episode because this is the first time we haven't seen her enjoying the race.  She just had no joy this episode, and I think that made her come off as not just frustrated, but bitchy. 

[Guest]

I have a relative who was a race car driver. Does that make me a race car driver? (I wish.)

 

No, but it is a relevant reply to someone who claims, "No one is a race car driver."  : )

[iMonrey]

 

As for New Kids, they paid a high price for getting to the counter last in Narita.  But that’s why you always need to hustle during the race.  It’s usually a good idea to avoid being in last place during the legs and not just at the end of them.

 

The thing that makes it unfair, IMO, is that they didn't miss a flight because they got lost on their way to the airport and missed a flight. It's not that they "didn't hustle." They were at the airport the same time as everybody else. There simply weren't enough seats and flights for all nine teams, and that's just poor race planning. Sure, there are often times when a bunch of teams get a flight a few hours ahead of another bunch of teams, but leaving one team stranded behind for an entire day means someone in production goofed. This race is planned out to the last detail; they know when teams are going to be where, on what days, and how many flights are going to the next destination. They're supposed to know that. It's a mistake to think whoever coordinates this stuff has no control over it, because that's their job. What if all the teams showed up at the airport and there were simply no flights available for anyone? It's not something for which they just rely on luck.

 

It should have been fixed by allowing all nine teams to get on the same flight to Bangkok. Jonathan and Harley would still have had the speed bump to overcome and that's enough of a penalty. They were dead right out of the starting gate on this one. Not only is that unfair but it makes for an utter lack of suspense.

 

That and the super  lame challenges. OK the egg was gross, but it was one measly little egg. It looked like you could have simply put the whole thing in your mouth and swallowed it whole. Whatever happened to real eating challenges? Remember when teams had to cook, scramble and eat an entire ostrich egg? Or two pounds of meat? Or that spicy soup that was making everyone throw up? Or when Chip and Reichen had to eat a plate of live baby squid? Those were the days.

[jjj]

Wow.  That was one of the most linear, boring legs in quite some time.  I realize this season was going to be a come-down after last season, but yeesh!  Very unimpressed by the race so far and this leg in particular.

I love this show so much, and it is the only show I actually watch *while it airs*, but I finally gave up on this episode and recorded it to finish watching.  And it took me until today to get to the end.  This was so boring, and I have hardly any sense of these couples and "couples". 

 

Is the show always off for three weeks during the NCAA playoffs?  I don't recall a break like this in the past.  You could tell the last team were goners from the start.  There was enough sun that you could see they were in places hours after the other teams. 

 

ETA:  Oh, and I hate it when they show previews for several of the next episodes, which shows who is still in the race by the time they get to some of those locations.  I blurred and stopped it when I realized it was showing several episodes ahead. 

Edited March 15, 2015 by jjj

[Peanut]

That and the super  lame challenges. OK the egg was gross, but it was one measly little egg. It looked like you could have simply put the whole thing in your mouth and swallowed it whole. Whatever happened to real eating challenges? Remember when teams had to cook, scramble and eat an entire ostrich egg? Or two pounds of meat? Or that spicy soup that was making everyone throw up? Or when Chip and Reichen had to eat a plate of live baby squid? Those were the days.

 

I didn't mind this eating challenge, but I don't really like the gross ones, like the sheep's head or the live baby squid.  (though, to be fair, those were fast forwards, I believe, so they were optional).  The gross food challenges are a bit too Fear Factor for me, and that's why I could never watch that show. 

[auntlada]

Is the show always off for three weeks during the NCAA playoffs?  I don't recall a break like this in the past.  You could tell the last team were goners from the start.  There was enough sun that you could see they were in places hours after the other teams.

 

It's not always off for two weeks (it's three weeks until the next show, but it's only off for two weeks) because it's been on Sundays when the games are in the afternoon. It has usually been delayed, though, because of games going late. This year it is off because it is on Friday, when the games are in the evening.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I love century eggs in my congee. I like the creamy texture of the yolk and it is delicious. But I've never eaten an egg the way they did it in the show.

I've had them a couple of times - once in congee (rice porridge) and once in a kind of cold salad.  In both cases they were so dosed with condiments like soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce that I wasn't terribly overwhelmed by the taste, which reminded me more of a very strong aged cheese - in fact I didn't even realize the first time that I was eating a 1000 year old egg until my dinner friends told me.   The jellyish squish - I don't know, the Chinese seem to be really, really into having varied textures in their food.

It doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd eat on its own, but I don't know.

Edited March 15, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[fuzzed]

I fell in love with the capybara-size beast of a cat (as pictured on the episode summary) that pushed aside the other Caturday felines to get a fresh-milk fix from every TAR team that did that challenge. Every. Single. One.

[jjj]

I fell in love with the capybara-size beast of a cat (as pictured on the episode summary) that pushed aside the other Caturday felines to get a fresh-milk fix from every TAR team that did that challenge. Every. Single. One.

You don't get to be that size by waiting politely for your turn!  True in cats, true in business.  I read last week that an owl café has opened in London -- sure hope a future task is there:  "Take this live mouse to this address, where you will find your next instruction and predator." 

[ennui]

You don't get to be that size by waiting politely for your turn!  True in cats, true in business.  I read last week that an owl café has opened in London -- sure hope a future task is there:  "Take this live mouse to this address, where you will find your next instruction and predator."

Owls? Is this a Harry Potter tie-in?

[AZChristian]

I looked at it because (1) I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, and (2) I'm going to London in July.  The Owl Cafe I found is just a "pop-up" temporary event later this month.  Darn.  If it WERE HP related, I'd have gone!

[Watermelon]

Soooooooo....any previously.tv users out there who have eaten 1000 Year Old eggs?  If so, please describe the taste in detail.

 

Also, kitties!

 

(And they need to rename "Speedbumps" "Punishment for failing the last leg".)  Bye-bye, favorite New Kid :(

tastes like an egg, from what I remember.

[etagloh]

It should have been fixed by allowing all nine teams to get on the same flight to Bangkok. Jonathan and Harley would still have had the speed bump to overcome and that's enough of a penalty. They were dead right out of the starting gate on this one. Not only is that unfair but it makes for an utter lack of suspense.

 

It certainly could have been fixed easily: a clue at the Pit Start saying "go here in Phuket", an HoO bunch ("wait until whenever o'clock") and then the instruction to fly to Bangkok, all timed to miss that first flight. That's been done before, usually very pre-determined, though some may have been at shorter notice.

 

 

What if all the teams showed up at the airport and there were simply no flights available for anyone? It's not something for which they just rely on luck.

 

Here's where I disagree somewhat. There have in fact been situations like that in past races when Circumstances intervened, though that usually levels out teams. But there's a limit to the kind of intervention TPTB can do to secure availability on scheduled flights, even though I'm sure it sometimes entails block-booking fully-refundable seats on flights then cancelling them a few minutes before teams reach an airport or travel agent.

 

That said, this leg was planned around having all teams into Bangkok at the same time, and when you assume there'll be a natural bunch at the airport... you know what they say about assuming.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

tastes like an egg, from what I remember.

No.  Not bad really, but not like a fresh egg.

[jjj]

I looked at it because (1) I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, and (2) I'm going to London in July.  The Owl Cafe I found is just a "pop-up" temporary event later this month.  Darn.  If it WERE HP related, I'd have gone!

Thanks for checking!  I was actually looking for owl sounds for a totally different project (not HP-related!), and noticed this café, but did not see it was a pop-up.  I'm not sure I grasp the concept!  Not sure I get the idea of a cat café, either, and I've always had a cat. 

 

ETA:  I know what a pop-up is -- it's the owl part that perplexes me.  Order a beer and plate of raw hamburger? 

Edited March 16, 2015 by jjj

[lianau]

I think he's decided that "needing to work on our communication" isn't in effect. Surgeons often have a morbid sense of humour, and we might be seeing that in effect.

But he doesn't try to work on their communication, he doesn't get Hayley's problem . It was evident once again  this episode , Hayley doesn't want to lead , she wants to be an equal partner in their team and be taken seriously . And instead of getting that Blair gets all passive aggressive with his "you lead now "  thing.

[kaygeeret]

But he doesn't try to work on their communication, he doesn't get Hayley's problem . It was evident once again  this episode , Hayley doesn't want to lead , she wants to be an equal partner in their team and be taken seriously . And instead of getting that Blair gets all passive aggressive with his "you lead now "  thing

 

 

 

Hey lianau, we may be watching the same show with different filters. 

 

I have to say there is not one moment where I see her as wanting to be a partner. She talks a lot, she carps a lot after the fact.  She countermands any suggestion he makes and then carps some more.

 

I don't see a need for cooperation, I see a person who never wants to be responsible for any actual decision, but will loudly and often criticize the decision of others.

 

She disagrees with every suggestion - at least what we have been shown - and has no suggestion of her own, UNTIL he has made his suggestion.  Then she is all in with the exact opposite idea.

 

If I were her partner she would already be 'gone', probably in a fit of invective and maybe tears  on her part not mine.

[Camera One]

I was cheering for Jenny and Jelani, so I was disappointed they pretty much imploded.  I don't get it... they seem to alternate at wanting to win.  Jelani was fine grabbing a cab from another team at the beginning, but didn't want to jump ahead at the end?  And Jenny for arguing for the exact opposite each time?  I hope they sit down and figure out what irks each person so they can work through it.  Why did Jelani have to tell the newly engaged tagging along couple that they were looking for a taxi?  

 

Hayley and the Doctor are both being a little obnoxious, though I did like them when they both loosened up a little bit near the end when they were actually doing well.

 

3 of the 5 Blind Date couples have now had their first blow-up now.

 

I like those types of Eggs when they are chopped up and used in dishes.  They add a nice flavor.  I don't think I'd like it if I ate one whole, though.

[needschocolate]

I have to say there is not one moment where I see her as wanting to be a partner. She talks a lot, she carps a lot after the fact.  She countermands any suggestion he makes and then carps some more.

 

Oh, I think she wants to be a partner - she just wants a partner who thinks exactly like she does

[SnideAsides]

I see this year's gimmick coming from the accidental pairing of Mark and Mallory two (?) seasons ago.  They were both pretty good racers who had gotten almost to the end of their original races, but paired together, they were a disaster.  I can see the producers thinking:  what if we pair two strangers with an incentive to get along?  And the incentive (other than the money) is the potential romantic relationship.

 

Random query:  wouldn't you think the guy named Harley would be the one to do the mechanic task?

I also wonder how much of it was CBS thinking "These two were both incredibly popular... but they were out early, and the season sucked; ergo, it sucked because they were out early".

 

Pretty much the only thing I'm enjoying about this season is that they've finally cut back on the overly-long Detour task titles and have gone back to single words. I just wish the tasks themselves were better.

[rlangmit]

The Olympians handled the egg the best.  They chomped them down like the champions and good sports that they are.  It was only after they received the clue and left the area that they commented that the egg was disgusting.  However, they didn't say anything to the vendor.  Contrast this with all of the other teams, who were gagging, retching, holding their noses, doing the pee dance, and saying how disgusting it was.  Perhaps the locals are used to it, but the whole thing was one of the worst displays of "Ugly American" IMO on the show in a long time.

 

I think this is a bit harsh, but then I generally think the "Ugly American" criticism is, so YMMV.

 

I'm a pretty picky eater myself, and I've been known to make all sort of horrible verbal and facial expressions on the rare occasions I eat something I know I probably won't like.  Right here in the USA!  (And, as it happens, eggs--normal, regular, not 1000-year-old eggs--are one of the things I'm not too fond of.)  Besides, it's not like they can take a sample bite and then politely decline.

[rozen]

Go Rochelle. Yea, she may not know where the transmission is, but she actually knows how to use power tools. I love all these guys peacocking together, even though none of them were proficient at any part of the task, and Rochelle rolls in like "omg, I dunno, I'll just disassemble everything I guess."

 

Yup, Jenny is way overstrung. I don't even want to know what she's like once Race Fatigue sets in. Someone may need to mercy-kill Jelani at that point. He seems like the type of guy who would philiminate himself rather than continue if things get too ridiculous, so Jenny may want to watch it. Gone is the talk of presenting your best self to a stranger, her tone was way out of line when they were figuring out Metal Castle. 

 

Hayley is fully exploring every failure mode associated with taking the bait from a passive aggressive person. She's used to reiterating her point 1000x to try to get him to listen for the last two legs. So she doesn't really believe him when he just says "ok," and probably intrinsically senses that he's not cooperating, just trying to set her up for failure. So she vacillates between trying to make things an equal partnership, and snapping almost immediately when it looks like he might revert to doing whatever he wants again. Blair has basically turned team leadership into Highlander, and Hayley does not want to be the one, but she also doesn't want her head chopped off. She's just floundering around #TeamMercyKill.

 

Olympians: cute, efficient, no drama. Flurve them still! Rest are boring. We need some recalcitrant camels/donkeys/goats or something.

 

I don't know whether to be annoyed at all the racers for almost horking their eggs all over that poor vendor, or the race monkeys for serving it without anything else to increase the 'yuk' factor. 

Edited March 16, 2015 by rozen

[truthaboutluv]

I think this is a bit harsh, but then I generally think the "Ugly American" criticism is, so YMMV.

 

 

Yeah I have to say I don't think genuinely gagging and retching means one is displaying Ugly American behavior. If your throat is rejecting something, you gag and retch, that's just a bodily reaction. It's not like they were fake gagging. Matt for example definitely looked like it was taking everything out of him to get that thing down. Now granted it may have been worse because many of them were trying to swallow the whole thing in one bite but that's because they're in a race and were trying to be quick. I didn't see anything so hateful in anyone's behavior. 

 

After being on Hayley's side before and still willing to admit that Blair himself is no saint, she really bugged me this week particularly during one moment. After they realized they were sixth to do the water challenge and they decide to go do the other one and Blair, wisely I felt, decides to ask the guy handling the boats, Hayley starts screaming at him for them to go. 

 

Her whole thing that once you ask and the person doesn't know, it's a waste of time made sense, except for the fact that Blair barely had a chance to ask the guy. She started walking and snapped at him to come on, stating they could ask someone back on the road. But my thinking is asking someone on the road versus the guy right there would take the same time and it's the same directions they would need.

 

That moment really bugged me because if felt like she was snapping and arguing for no other reason than to snap and argue. They needed directions, someone is already there, so why not ask him? And I totally laughed at Blair saying at one point to her that he didn't even know who she was yelling at right now. Man those two are on the absolute longest and worse blind date ever. It's awesome. 

Edited March 16, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[peachmangosteen]

Hayley is fully exploring every failure mode associated with taking the bait from a passive aggressive person. She's used to reiterating her point 1000x to try to get him to listen for the last two legs. So she doesn't really believe him when he just says "ok," and probably intrinsically senses that he's not cooperating, just trying to set her up for failure. So she vacillates between trying to make things an equal partnership, and snapping almost immediately when it looks like he might revert to doing whatever he wants again. Blair has basically turned team leadership into Highlander, and Hayley does not want to be the one, but she also doesn't want her head chopped off. She's just floundering around #TeamMercyKill.

 

LOL at the hashtag. I agree with all of this.

 

I can just personally understand/appreciate/identify with Hayley and I can't with Blair. He wants Hayley to just be his silent underling and when it became clear Hayley was never gonna be that he wanted her to lead so he could prove she didn't deserve to. I definitely think Hayley wanted a partnership, but by now she realizes it just won't happen and she's too frustrated and angry to try. And Blair's too smug and passive aggressive to try.

[Netfoot]

He wants Hayley to just be his silent underling and when it became clear Hayley was never gonna be that he wanted her to lead so he could prove she didn't deserve to. I definitely think Hayley wanted a partnership, but by now she realizes it just won't happen and she's too frustrated and angry to try. And Blair's too smug and passive aggressive to try.

 

I think you're right.  Hayley doesn't want to lead, nor does she want Blair to lead.  She wants them to race cooperatively, make decisions together, rather than Blair making all the decisions and ignoring her input, or standing back and leaving her to sink or swim on her own.

 

Blair on the other hand, seems to forget she's even there, making decisions and setting off in one direction or another, hardly bothering to tell her what he's doing, and expecting her to just silently trundle her ass along, four paces behind.  Or he makes a performance of throwing the entire responsibility for the race in her lap, saying "You're in charge now.  I'll just let you manage without my help until you screw up so bad it will make me look good in comparison!"

 

Hayley's constant nagging hardly makes her a great race partner, and I don't know if she would be any more placid if she had a partner who treated her more as an equal.  But I think Blair would be a disaster to race with, no matter who his partner was. 

[Special K]

I was kind of shocked that most of the people doing the transmission task seemed to not know that a power drill can be reversed -- as in the direction of the rotation to drive the screw in or pull it out.  Rochelle seemed to know this already so she didn't have to fumble around inadvertently tightening the screws she was trying to remove, as it seems others were doing.

 

I am an urban, not handy middle-aged woman, and even I know how to set a power drill to pull a screw out.  Just ever having used one, you know that. Sheesh.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Special K

[Jersey Guy 87]

Makes me wonder what Blair did in another life to get Hayley as a partner. Her wretched self esteem makes her the Girl Who Must Be Right and verbalize it. Then it became an episode of The Office when Blair looked into the camera and smirked when Hayley did a Hayley. Ugh.

 

I think there's plenty of blame for both of them, Blair was instantly dismissive of Hayley as a partner in the race from the get-go while Hayley is, shall we say, a trying a little too hard.  I think they're both thoroughly frustrated with each other, the difference I see is Hayley tried at first to make things work Blair never did.

 

 

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. 

 

By the way;

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

 

 

1. Not that I know of.

2. Some do, some don't.  Just like in every other country where fake boobies are available.

 

The thing that makes it unfair, IMO, is that they didn't miss a flight because they got lost on their way to the airport and missed a flight. It's not that they "didn't hustle." They were at the airport the same time as everybody else. There simply weren't enough seats and flights for all nine teams, and that's just poor race planning. Sure, there are often times when a bunch of teams get a flight a few hours ahead of another bunch of teams, but leaving one team stranded behind for an entire day means someone in production goofed. This race is planned out to the last detail; they know when teams are going to be where, on what days, and how many flights are going to the next destination. They're supposed to know that. It's a mistake to think whoever coordinates this stuff has no control over it, because that's their job. What if all the teams showed up at the airport and there were simply no flights available for anyone? It's not something for which they just rely on luck.

 

It should have been fixed by allowing all nine teams to get on the same flight to Bangkok. Jonathan and Harley would still have had the speed bump to overcome and that's enough of a penalty. They were dead right out of the starting gate on this one. Not only is that unfair but it makes for an utter lack of suspense.

 

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.  Jonathan and Harley fell behind last episode due to a lack of hustle in the Narita airport, they ultimately paid the price this episode.  Yes, it was obvious who was going home, but I'm perfectly okay with the racers making their own travel decisions and winning or losing because of them.  It's part of the race.

[smartymarty]

But he doesn't try to work on their communication, he doesn't get Hayley's problem . It was evident once again this episode , Hayley doesn't want to lead , she wants to be an equal partner in their team and be taken seriously . And instead of getting that Blair gets all passive aggressive with his "you lead now " thing.

Thank you. What others are objecting to I see as Hayley trying to get Blair to raaaace. They're all pretty much race strategies (e.g. if the person doesn't speak English, then stop bleeding time and find somebody else to ask).

Also, one century = 100 years. Please, people, stop writing "1,000" year old eggs.

[etagloh]

Jonathan and Harley fell behind last episode due to a lack of hustle in the Narita airport, they ultimately paid the price this episode.

 

It's perhaps worth going back and looking at that sequence. The majority of teams went to the AirAsia desk; some went to the Philippine Airlines desk, and they were sufficiently far apart in Narita that neither group knew where the others were. Kurt and Bergen lucked out with the last seats on Cathay Pacific, Jonathan and Harley got stiffed with what was left on ANA. The new rules only allow one ticket purchase; the long-standing rules don't allow teams to separate; there was apparently no general ticketing counter that handled all airlines (otherwise we'd have seen teams use it) and no physical way to check availability at multiple desks simultaneously. You can perhaps count barging to the front of the line as "hustle", but it's not as if the other teams showed any particular ingenuity to get their flights: they picked a desk, basically a coin-toss.

 

I like actual airport hustle. I miss the early seasons where people had more freedom to seek out creative connections, but I understand why there's more spoonfeeding and bunching now. I don't like situations where picking the wrong side of a coin-toss decides the outcome of not just that leg but the following one.

[Miles]

At the start of the season I thought Blair deserved what he got from Haley, afterall he is a big snob and really full of himself, but at this point it's basically cruel and unusual punishment what she is putting him through.

[Nutjob]

I don't know that Hayley will ever be satisfied with Blair, no matter what he does. I don't really see him as thinking he is superior--I just don't think he can figure out how to handle her. And really, how do you handle someone who almost always contradicts you or thinks the opposite of your suggestion is the right way to go? And then if you're wrong, you hear about it from them every five minutes from now until time immemorial? I'm not exactly sure how you'd work cooperatively with her, and I think Blair isn't either--and he's having to figure it out on the fly, during the race. Pretty much all my sympathies go to him.

 

I'm sure Harley and Jonathan are both nice people, but Harley looks just like Chris Kattan, and it was driving me crazy.

[kingshearte]

I'm surprised at the Snooker Club portion of the detour that they only had to sink ONE red ball.  One ?

I'm told that snooker is sufficiently different from pool that being passable at the latter wouldn't necessarily help with this. The table's bigger and the holes are apparently smaller in relation to the size of the balls, so it's perhaps a bit more difficult than it might seem if you're looking at it from a pool perspective.

 

That was the hardest speed bump I've ever seen. Lantern, if you remember a harder one, please remind me what it was.

There was the two women who had to swim across a really strong current one season, which seemed pretty intense. And I seem to recall one that involved playing some kind of music until you collected a certain amount of money or something (I might be conflating more than one task here). But I agree that this one, although easier than it looked initially, I think, was probably more toward the harder end of the speed bump scale than the easier end.

 

On that note, I totally agree with those who found this poor leg design. I don't even necessarily need there to be a massive artificial bunching that puts everyone on equal footing, but the tasks should be such that there's some possibility for a team to make up ground. There was a little shifting in this leg between navigation between tasks and the transmission task, but nothing that really slowed anyone down so much that the starting deficit of 3 hours could possibly be overcome (although I too am curious as to exactly how far behind Harley & Jonathan were when they checked in). I just don't see the point of having an NEL if you're not going to make it at least possible for the not-eliminated team to catch up.

 

And how are people scared of cats?  Allergic to them, sure.  Don't really like them?  Weird, but okay.  But scared?  Of cats?  I mean, my sister's 24 pound orange blob might crush a bone when he sits on you, but he's totally harmless otherwise.

The joy of phobias. They don't have to make sense, and often don't. I used to laugh at people who were afraid of what I might consider "stupid" stuff, but I worked with a woman who had a phobia of buttons (yes, seriously), and I saw how much trouble they honest-to-god gave her. Does it make any sense? Nope. Doesn't make her reaction to them any less real. And while I was not a big Jenny fan this leg, I did feel for her in that cafe, because she was obviously doing everything in her power to keep it together, and I know that in a situation where I was surrounded by that many snakes, for example, I would handle it no better, and probably a good deal worse.

 

Last week I was on Team Hayley. This week... This week, I'm on Team Throw Them Both Overboard. Neither of them seem to have the faintest idea how to communicate effectively, and it's brutal. She really does seem to talk pretty much all the time, and it's often critical, so I can understand why he'd start tuning her out, and therefore miss when something she says actually is legit and important. But he also started tuning her out from the very beginning, and has shown no willingness to even try to work with her. She's obnoxious; he's passive aggressive; they both need to figure out how to communicate.

[Special K]

Also, one century = 100 years. Please, people, stop writing "1,000" year old eggs.

 

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