S03.E10: Man I've Got a Big Butt

[radishcake]

A Road Block leaves some of the teams ramped up, leaving others in their wake in Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.

[Pepper the Cat]

That was a brutal leg!

Poor Lalani! You are better off without that jerk. Walk away.

And I so want to go to that Minature place. That looked so cool!

[wintrygal]

Brent and Sean are so entertaining to me, I love them.  Hope they make final 3.

[Vyas]

Goddamnit - that TARCAN quirk of allowing teams to U-Turn more than once came back to bite racers and viewers alike.

 

I don't blame the wrestlers at all for using it in self-defence/preservation against the dancers, but rather the hollow meathead siblings who started the chain reaction in the first place.

 

On the bright side, at least the wine bottle making SB > last season's extended Yukon parking advertisment.

[lizzie3]

I felt so bad for Leilani; I can definitely see why they're exes.  The lack of support and encouragement from Dujean was painful to watch.  That was a lot of talk from someone who couldn't even do the roadblock because he can't swim. 

 

On a more positive note; glad to see Brent and Sean do so well!  I'm rooting for them, and the wrestlers. 

[shok]

There's just no comparison to the American TAR in the challenges they have to do on this show. There must be an evil genius producer cackling in the background over the brutal tasks they have set up that require mental, physical and emotional strength. I don't know how those teams were still standing at the end of the day but it's fascinating to watch.

 

The Okanagan, my part of the country, certainly looked good in that episode. Jon was right when he said it is one of the most beautiful areas of Canada.

 

I still love Simi and Ope although I must admit I'm a little surprised they're still there...the little engine that could just keeps plugging away and scraping through. Simi is such a beautiful girl and she was so cute when she crawled over the monkey bars and was pleased with herself for figuring out a way. I didn't like the preview where it showed her sobbing next week. :(

[UsernameFatigue]

Wow, that was an amazing leg, and like shok it was in my part of the country so I enjoyed it that much more. I like all four of the remaining teams, so I will be happy with whoever wins. Simi and Ope are just so sweet, and I love how he calls her Sunshine. Ope was so excited when she completed the wake board challenge (which looked brutal!) - he was adorable. I also loved that Simi said Jon was hard enough to find in regular size - too funny.

 

The team I was most impressed with was Sean and Brent. Sean amazed me with his stamina (vomiting aside) with the wake board challenge and then the brawn task as well. And that they ended up in 2nd place with a speed bump thrown in was awesome! Sean in particular cracks me up so I am glad they are still around.

 

Poor Lelani - I am glad they are out just so she no longer has to put up with Dujean's abuse. What a creep he can be. When she was trying at the end of the monkey bars and asking him where her feet were so she would know if she was able to put them down, he totally ignored her. HE is the reason she could not finish that task. And the fact that she finished wake boarding injured and he had no appreciation for what she went through? He does not deserve to even have her friendship at this point.

 

I have never heard of the miniature train place - will definitely have to check it out!

Edited September 10, 2015 by UsernameFatigue

[Blackie]

I imagine Dujean and Lelani got picked for the show because of their potential for "drama" but that was just painful to watch. I did laugh though when Lelani said they would do the "Brawns". 

 

TARC's challenges are brutal  Lake Okanagan is freezing (let alone it has a monster living in it ).  Jon wearing swimtrunks over his wet suit was hilarious, unless that is the style out there.  Luv Jon!  I would buy a 'little John".

 

I laughed after the brothers wasted their time trying to figure out how to move the trucks only to have another team show up and get in their way.

I never thought Sean and Brent could do the brawn challenge after the muscle teams found it so difficult.

[Shermie]

Brent and Sean are entertaining in a stooge kind of way, but in real life I imagine Sean must be exhausting to be around. Everything is so dramatic! Are they going to stumble into a win on this show? And will Sean puke on the stage in front of Jon and all the other teams?

That train place was amazing. I wonder if obscure tourist places like that have an uptick in visitors after being features on TAR.

Are the legs getting more difficult? The leg prizes are way better than TAR US - I mean, a trip to Cancun (US) compared to a trip to Japan and two years of gas? No comparison. But the teams on TARCAN are earning their prizes, that's for sure. How many years of gas do Gino and Jesse have now?

If I had been told at the beginning of the show that Simi would be the last woman standing, I wouldn't have believed it. Good for her. As a team, she and Ope are a delight.

I'm waiting for Dujean and Leilani's appearance on Canada AM to see how he spins his lack of support and general unpleasantness towards her. And why, oh why did they go on the race together? I really want to know what they were thinking.

[Shermie]

Sorry, double post. Weird tech issues.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Shermie

[Rachel RSL]

I think I would be happy with any of the remaining teams winning. Yes, Gino & Jesse are the typical Alpha male team but they seem like nice guys and they've demonstrated that they do have brains to go along with the brawn. Also, sorry (but not really), I could have watched them crawl around shirtless in the mud for hours! Sean and Brent are absolutely hilarious, the wrestlers seem like good dudes, and I love how Simi and Ope instinctively start dancing whenever something good happens. Just a good crew of people left.

 

Mini Jon is adorable. So is Big Jon actually.

[Shermie]

That "get the white truck out of the Tetris-style lot of vehicles" is an actual game that we have. I think it's called Traffic Jam, and you have to get the red car out. It comes with a bunch of cars and trucks and 40 increasingly difficult levels. In case anyone wants to play TARCAN at home. :)

[Taeolas]

The "Get the truck out" puzzle is a common puzzle all around, with lots of variations, and can be surprisingly difficult depending on the set up (and how others are moving things around).

 

And yes, TARC challenges for the most part are actually challenging. Even the Wind bottle task could have been tricky, or at least it was a bit time consuming.

 

I'm surprised everyone picked the brawn task; I suspect fatigue wsa the main factor. After travelling across the world, they must have figured that a brawn task would be simpler than trying to work out another puzzle. Glad we did see the brain task, and wish more had picked it. :)

 

Not really sad to see Dujean and Leilani leave; their pairing had obviously reached well past its breaking point.

 

As for the remaining teams, I'd be happy with any of their wins. I'm rooting for Simi and Ope because they've really had a fantastic attitude throughout the race; they're the Little Team that Could. I loved that they turned the brawn task into a brain task, to figure out the monkey bars and how to get the tire onto the base.

 

Brent and Sean are probably my second favorite team, since they also have a fantastic race attitude. But like mentioned above, being around them in person would probably be exhausting.  

 

The wrestlers, Nick and Matt are my third favorite; I was a little uneasy about them at first, but the way they tackle each challenge is a hoot; and they're performing strongly too. Loved how they reacted to the W-turn. No moaning about it, just "Ok we have to do another task" and gitter done. 

 

Gino and Jesse are doing good; but of any team I wouldn't want to win, I guess they would be it. Still that's mainly because the other three are a bit more memorable more than anything. Their 'feud' with the wrestlers (that neither team seems to take particularly seriously) is certainly livening up both teams and the race in general. 

[Kel Varnsen]

I'm surprised everyone picked the brawn task; I suspect fatigue wsa the main factor. After travelling across the world, they must have figured that a brawn task would be simpler than trying to work out another puzzle. Glad we did see the brain task, and wish more had picked it. :)

 

I was surprised more people didn't take brains either. But you are totally right flying from India to Penticton I probably wouldn't want to leave my room for a couple of days, much less do race tasks. I was also impressed that the wrestlers were able to do the monkey bars. I mean I know they are strong guys, but they are also very tired very big/heavy guys, and that is a lot of weight for them to move across the bars.

[Vyas]

Speaking of the last part to the Brawn Detour, I'm wondering whether it was less about overall mass and moreso gender, considering that the only two who fell into the manure below were also the remaining female contestants. 

[xcrayon2215x]

Gino/Jesse are quite strong. Glad to see the elimination that happened tonight, didn't like them this episode. I like Simi/Ope but they are probably gone next.

[UsernameFatigue]

I was rewatching the epi tonight as my hubby didn't see it last night, and remembered that one of my fav scenes was of Brent complaining when Sean had to stop along the side of the road to urinate. As someone who also suffers from TB (tiny bladder) I totally sympathized with Sean, and loved his comment to Brent who was complaining about the wrestlers passing them that  "My bladder isn't psychic". I love Sean!

[Blackie]

I think I am  pulling for Simi and Ope, when Simi kept bonking her head on the glass at the little train place, that is TOTALLY something I would be doing!  The previews for next week don't look hopeful though, but maybe that is a red herring.

 

Monkey bars can be hard for women because of less upper body strength and the weight distribution in their body.  This is the only challenge that was "built" for Dujean because he could practically reach right across to the other side.  Too bad he didn't realize that so that he could be more helpful to his partner, 

[Shermie]

I also wonder if the monkey bars were more difficult for the women because their hands are smaller, thus harder to wrap securely around each rung.

[Delwyn]

I also wonder if the monkey bars were more difficult for the women because their hands are smaller, thus harder to wrap securely around each rung.

Leilani was already shaking at the wakeboard. I would bet that ages in a cold lake, being dragged by a speedboat while holding a bar, severely limits any chance you have of using your hands for anything at all the rest of the day. Never mind racing with plastic shards in your leg while hanging from monkey bars in the pouring rain. Leilani seemed to be the stronger of the two during other physical tasks. She was the one flipping Dujean around like a rag doll during the India wrestling challenge. He was an insufferable partner during this whole leg and said some shockingly mean spirited things about her abilities. She was a lot calmer about his poor behaviour than I would have been. Maybe they didn't show the rest of their leg because she brained him with a potato slingshot and buried him under the manure pile before the production came to his rescue. It only would have been fair.

A well reasoned use of the W-Turn (Nick and Matt said themselves they would have done the same) and I would be happy with any of the final four winning.

TARCAN seems so much harder physically than the U.S. version, with much harder working racers. I appreciate that the tasks are often linked to the specific location as well. The geographic connection to tasks on TARUS often seem tenuous at best in its later years. Didn't they recently have a wakeboard challenge, only it was simulated? And everyone gave up?

Edited September 12, 2015 by Delwyn

[Vyas]

TARCAN seems so much harder physically than the U.S. version, with much harder working racers. I appreciate that the tasks are often linked to the specific location as well. The geographic connection to tasks on TARUS often seem tenuous at best in its later years. Didn't they recently have a wakeboard challenge, only it was simulated? And everyone gave up?

 

Yes, the Detour in the third leg of the most recent American season was at the local water-sport park in Phuket - nothing distinctly Thai about it, though the "operators" artificially made it impossible for even the Winter Olympian* team to accomplish.

 

TARCAN challenges by contrast have proven naturally difficult without the use of such cheap rigging.

 

* Steve Langton and Aly Dudek, the poor man's version of Spooner and Mikkelson in all aspects.

[funkymunky]

And will Sean puke on the stage in front of Jon and all the other teams?

 

 

My. God. No. Few things gross me out more than seeing/hearing people vomit or spit.

[kingshearte]

I also wonder if the monkey bars were more difficult for the women because their hands are smaller, thus harder to wrap securely around each rung.

I can't speak to any other women's ease or difficulty with monkey bars, but I can say that it's my hands that make it hard for me. My upper body strength can take it, and I don't have wussy delicate flower hands, but throw me on a set of monkey bars and my hands are screaming after about two rungs. I'd never really thought about whether or not it might be easier if my hands were actually bigger.

 

Definitely felt for Leilani this week. Although he was certainly the bigger jerk this week, I've found that, overall, they don't communicate well and aren't particularly nice to or supportive of each other. I'm not surprised they broke up, and I think they should definitely split up entirely. For all their talk about how great it is that they could do this at all despite being exes, I've seen plenty of much more functional ex-partners who, even though the romance didn't work out, still clearly cared about each other. I did not get that at all from these two. Maybe they had decent chemistry in... certain rooms, because I just kind of got the sense that there was at least some feeling of "maybe if this goes well, we'll give the relationship another shot," but I really can't see why else they'd even want to. I could just be imagining things, though.

 

Oh and also, I'm sure it was thoroughly bandaged, but I hope they have the medics give her leg wound a thorough cleaning after she got repeatedly dumped into a pile of what I assume that fertilizer was made of. I cringed every time she fell.

 

I think I'd ideally like the wrestlers to win. They've turned out to be competent, rather charming, and really great sports. As much as they (and Jesse & Gino) talk a lot about how much they want to beat each other, I've never gotten any sense of animosity from either side. Not even with the U-turn. We've seen so many teams get pissy and take it personally, so it was nice to see them take it in stride and not get upset about it. And while I have no doubt that, given they opportunity, they will screw over the brothers to get a leg up, I think it will be just as not-personal, and I think (I really hope) the brothers would take it the same way.

 

And Brent and Sean have turned out to be surprisingly endearing. I can't help but think of Sabrina every time the one throws up from exertion. Here you have this woman who can barely walk a block without whining about how hard it is for her out-of-shape self, compared to this guy who cleaely isn't in the best of shape, but who wants it so bad that he pushes himself to the point of puking. Which is gross, true, and I don't love it, but you gotta respect the spirit. And I still think putting speed bumps and u-turns in the same leg is stacking the deck pretty hard in a way I think sucks, but I'm glad that it didn't end up taking them out.

 

I was a little worried that Simi's monkey bar strategy wasn't going to be allowed, but I'm glad it was. They're also adorable.

 

Edited because "manky bars"? Totally not a thing.

Edited September 15, 2015 by kingshearte

[innocuouspuff]

One cute Simi and Ope moment that hasn't been mentioned was Ope proudly going "my daughter is so smart" after she crawled across the monkey bars. Similar to Sabrina? crawling over the rolling log. Too bad Leilani didn't think of that, or Dujean didn't help her in some way. But they were pretty much toast once they were last at the wakeboard task so it didn't much matter.

In fact if you think about it, Simi pretty much singlehandedly kept her team in the Race in order to become the last lady standing. Go, Simi!

Tiny Jon!

Did we already know about Dujean's fear of water? I could only remember Ope, Nic, and Sabrina. It is still super bizarre to me that they cast so many non-swimmers yet planned a water-intensive course? I feel like someone over-estimated how interesting it would be to watch people struggle with swimming etc, not once but over and over.

I love curling but hate the Face Off, ugh why again.

Edited September 14, 2015 by innocuouspuff

[Vyas]

And I still think putting speed bumps and u-turns in the same leg is stacking the deck pretty hard in a way I think sucks, but I'm glad that it didn't end up taking them out.

 

Last season's bartenders proved that a team can overcome both (as well as the original example of roller-derby mothers from the American edition).