S28.E04: Get It Trending

[Supay]

The race continues in Switzerland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2hFgGLg-HM

P.S. Instagirl doing task at United Nations Building > "Blodie"

[Netfoot]

^^^ This video is not available.

[Supay]

Ah, drat, only viewable for those in the US - blasted Geoblock!

[Tara Ariano]

The race continues in Geneva, Switzerland, where a romance blossoms between two racers. Later, teams get caught in one of the largest-ever footraces to the mat for first place.

[LittleIggy]

Why don't they just measure a section of the bench, count the number of sections, then multiply?

[Browncoat]

I totally would have built the knife -- especially since they got to keep the knives!

 

How did it take them so long to figure out that the board was a map to the flagpoles?  That seemed incredibly obvious to me.

 

Also?  Quit whining and raaaaaace!

[Melissa K]

Season 28, and people still need to learn...It's NOT THE AMAZING MONTESSORI SCHOOL!

[Browncoat]

And if you see your train, RUN!  Don't stroll through the damn station hoping the train will wait for you.

[Haleth]

Man, these people are too stupid.

"What country is Switzerland in?"

"There must be a map." (Standing right in front of it.)

"Why aren't you girls helping me? I guess no one wants to help the team who's last ."

It's nice that everyone is being nice to everyone else, but there is way too much collusion. They know only one team can win, right?

Please, TAR, next season please have contestants who know how to, you know, race.

And #Blodie is stupid too.

Building a Swiss Army knife was pretty cool though.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Haleth

[Apple]

Why don't they just measure a section of the bench, count the number of sections, then multiply?

They mentioned during the episode that one member needed to have their butt on the bench at all times during the counting, so I'm guessing that sort of thing was specifically forbidden.

[mtlchick]

Why don't they just measure a section of the bench, count the number of sections, then multiply?

 

It wouldn't surprise me if the extra set of rules stated they had to go down the entire line. 

 

"Wah! We're last and no one wants to help US! The girls ran by and left me out! They're so MEAN!" (stomps feet.) Or....this is a race, you haven't showed brilliant displays of skills and you're really slow?  Au revoir models.  May I never land on your Instagram page.

[weightyghost]

Why were those models not running at the end to catch that train? was that just editing or are they that stupid?

 

I get being upset that no one is helping you, but you can't judge them for not helping. Especially if you show up late, no one is going to cut your time in half just to be nice. I also don't like the brothers(friends?) for giving everyone the bench answer. 

 

I'm supposed to believe in a romance when they have seen each other ONCE in this entire race? And it's HER? Yeesh. Though that commentary cracked me up at the end "there's Dana...and there's Claire. Oop, Claire is down. Claire is down"

 

Dana is still such a bitch. First to her boyfriend, then to the poor chess players. Telling her boyfriend to sit on the board, and getting mad when he wouldnt? Then pushing it herself? 

[Lantern7]

"Blodie"? Can't be much worse than friggin' Eric and Danielle.

 

Wow, that was a dogpile at the Pit Stop. Crappy leg design, IMO. Why put the finish mat in another country? Especially with trains that guarantee bunching?

 

Still no real "bad news" Racers in the bunch. Sure, Scott & Blair are running on borrowed time, but at least Blair is bearable. She's no Hayley, that's for sure.

 

Does the show warn locals that people will be in their neighborhoods? I like local interaction, but it was sort of cringeworthy.

 

Apparently, most of the Racers are celebrities in Colombia. Also, I don't think Scott & Blair and Zach & Rachel's start times were posted. Does stuff like that pop up in the bonus clips? I've been trying to keep track.

 

ETA: I'm guessing the Models were recruited. Of course nobody is going to help with the flags. It's been said before and I'll say it now . . . it's a raaaaaaaaaaccccccce.

[TheRabbi]

I thought the tasks were great in this episode. I had to say something good.

Ok, everything else about this episode sucked. Hated the over the top editing with high school level fake romances developing. Hated that there was a single required flight to Geneva. Teams were pretty well split up after last week, and should have at least had the option to get on earlier flights if they were ahead. I hated an equalizing train ride after all the tasks were complete, pretty much negating the entire leg.

I will not miss the models one bit. As the token 'pretty girls using their looks to get around the world' team, they were probably my least favorite ever. Acting way too entitled, and I got the vibe that they think their shit don't stink. I was thrilled it was an elimination leg.

I've been a moderate supporter of this season so far, but this was not a good episode, despite having a fantastic RB and some good locales.

Edited March 5, 2016 by TheRabbi

[xcrayon2215x]

There seemed to be a lot of focus on the romance at the beginning, maybe even a little more than there needed to be.

The footrace to the mat was pretty neat, I liked the mountains.

[vousviou]

I thought the tasks were great in this episode. I had to say something good.

Ok, everything else about this episode sucked. Hated the over the top editing with high school level fake romances developing. Hated that there was a single required flight to Geneva. Teams were pretty well split up after last week, and should have at least had the option to get on earlier flights if they were ahead. I hated an equalizing train ride after all the tasks were complete, pretty much negating the entire leg.

 

I agree that it was a good set of tasks, and they were well balanced.  And I also wonder why they put the mat at the end of a bunched up train ride.  If the models had hustled a little more, the entire leg would have depended on every team's  final dash from the train, and had nothing to do with how a team did the rest of the way.  On a non-elimination leg that might have been OK, but if a team that had done really well but had gotten eliminated simply due to some minor slip or other trivial issue on the dash from the train to the mat, that would have been a really seemed sour way to go.  That seems like a really poor design rescued by the lack of hustle by the models.

 

I thought the scenery was pretty cool though, especially the transition into the Alps.  It's hard to make Switzerland look unphotogenic.

[awaken]

It's weird- I hardly recognize any of these teams, still.  Every time I see their faces or hear their names, I"m like, "who's that?!".  The only people I recognize are Cole and his mom, Blair and her dad, and Tyler.  I don't know if that's a function of everyone being the same as far as "category"- social media "star" or if they're just bland looking people.

 

Did they really mean to imply that Blodie was curled up together inside a sleeping bag, soon after the met, in front of all of the racers, including her dad?

[Wandering Snark]

The lack of basic racing ability was giving me hives the size of pancakes. Something like "Then we realized the map was the map." is another of those things that make you feel dumber just hearing it. And I don't like the kumbaya race style they have all adopted. Not to mention the "romance" angle we were subjected to as if we'd not had enough of that in the damned blind date edition... Not. Liking. It.

 

Also "She's like my other half, she's the same exact person as me!"... I dunna think that means what you think that means...

Edited March 5, 2016 by Wandering Snark

[Irlandesa]

I thought that tasks were nice and evenly matched which was nice. 

 

As for the bunching, I kind of liked that it turned into a legitimate foot race.  The way it was edited made it seem like it was possible that everyone could bunch together regardless of which train they got on but it also wasn't a guaranteed outcome, as we saw.  But part of the bunching may have had to do with how much cooperation there was.  And that kind of cooperation will cut the advantage. 

[shura]

I will not miss the models one bit. As the token 'pretty girls using their looks to get around the world' team, they were probably my least favorite ever. Acting way too entitled, and I got the vibe that they think their shit don't stink. I was thrilled it was an elimination leg.

 

I'm right there with you. When she showed up last at the United Nations palace, did the one doing the challenge even ask for help from the other teams? Or did she simply expect them to rush to help her and was appalled when that didn't happen? She seemed to be going on and on about how she's the victim and no one wants to help her as if it was somehow their responsibility or good manners or something. 

 

I did, however, enjoy very much how she said at the mat "There is no one I'd rather do the Race with" in a voice that unmistakably said "I am so bored right now."

 

Regarding the UN flag challenge, it was just a matter of identifying the flags of the ten countries highlighted on the map that nobody recognized as a map, right? There was no requirement to do anything with the actual flags and poles, was there? I was confused why everybody started running to the flagpoles at some point.

 

Last, did they even explain the Broken Chair in the episode? I missed it completely if they did, had to look it up. 

[Wandering Snark]

UN: If you knew what the flag looked like you could just rip it out of your book, but if you didn't you had to count a certain number of poles to find the flag you needed.

 

And no, there was no explanation of the 'Broken Chair' at all.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Wandering Snark

[gibasi]

That was horrible.  There was way too much collusion.  Burnie and Ashley called the other teams back to  the chocolate shop!  Say what you like about Justin (and I had plenty to say since I hated him!), he was competing!  He understood that it is a race and you are in it to win.  All of these teams are going too far to help each other.  It is a total dumbing down of the game.  And I cannot stand it.

 

And I am afraid we will go this whole season without anyone driving themselves.

 

 It is ironic that it is in this season we find romance, not in our blind date season. 

[Rinaldo]

Regarding the UN flag challenge, it was just a matter of identifying the flags of the ten countries highlighted on the map that nobody recognized as a map, right? There was no requirement to do anything with the actual flags and poles, was there? I was confused why everybody started running to the flagpoles at some point.

There was no requirement to go to the actual flags and poles, but if you didn't know what a certain country's flag looked like, that was the only way to find out. 

 

As long as you located it correctly on the "oh, the map is a map."

[Christina]

I missed the first 20 minutes or so, but don't see any reason to go back and watch it. Brittany was going on and on on Twitter about this episode, so I knew she was eliminated. She started out with saying that the translation of asking what country Switzerland is in was her trying to repeat what a woman in front of her was saying. I missed that part of the episode, but apparently the editing didn't show the other woman, and she knew she had butchered the translation. She didn't like the editing making her look stupid.

 

For the final train scene, she said that they couldn't buy tickets because they only had U.S. Currency and had to exchange money first. That's what they were doing when the person told them that the train they wanted was outside about to leave. They new they missed it, because they wouldn't have the money exchanged before it left, and knew the other teams were on the train, so they knew they were in last at that point. They weren't rushing because the train had left at that point. She really wasn't happy with the editing making it look like they were just lollygagging around. 

 

Several of the people tweeted that the problem at the flags was that there was no wind, so the flags weren't moving and they were having difficulty telling what they looked like since so many appeared the same.

 

Dana seemed to skip Twitter this week, unless I removed her last week and don't remember. She was getting blasted for sitting on that man's chess board. Rightfully so, in my opinion. I'm sure she'll blame editing like she did last week.

[A.Ham]

OMG the level of stupid, I just finished watching this and had to come here to post about it. It took them soooo long to figure out that what they were staring at was a replica of the flag alignment. And then the first person to figure it out doesn't double check the first three answers and "hopes" the others were right, so he has to do the task twice? And I could keep going, but it would be too long a post.

Has there ever been such small combined brainpower in a season? This one seems to be taking the cake.

[Rick Kitchen]

Tyler Oakley encounters that sort of fan attack everywhere he goes.

 

How DARE those women not help us girls!  Oh, shut it.

 

That scenery is so pretty.

[Lukeysboat]

I totally would have built the knife -- especially since they got to keep the knives!

How did it take them so long to figure out that the board was a map to the flagpoles? That seemed incredibly obvious to me.

They didn't get to keep the knives. I liked the task though.

I also immediately thought the map was a map. It really did seem obvious.

I dislike all this working together. Race, people, race!

[mtlchick]

Tyler Oakley encounters that sort of fan attack everywhere he goes.

 

He's even on the TONIGHT SHOW this evening!

[millennium]

My dislike of these teams grows with each new week.   The contrived shipping only increases my level of disgust.

 

Can't stand Tyler.

[Snickerdoodle]

I missed the first 20 minutes or so, but don't see any reason to go back and watch it. Brittany was going on and on on Twitter about this episode, so I knew she was eliminated. She started out with saying that the translation of asking what country Switzerland is in was her trying to repeat what a woman in front of her was saying. I missed that part of the episode, but apparently the editing didn't show the other woman, and she knew she had butchered the translation. She didn't like the editing making her look stupid.

I would read what she said on Twitter but she blocked me. I responded to Phil's tweet asking if we the viewers would have helped her by saying "It's a raaaaaace!" Apparently she didn't agree.

[redfish]

Has there ever been such small combined brainpower in a season? This one seems to be taking the cake.

 

Oh yeah. Watching them do any problem solving tasks gave me a headache. Their own life experiences didn't seem to help them  much. And what made it worse was when they all ran to the mat and Phil mentioned there hasn't been bunching at the finish since All-stars and one of them had to ruin it by chiming in they were all-stars too. Really?

Edited March 5, 2016 by redfish

[blackwing]

This episode really solidified my hate for the blue girls. So glad they were eliminated and that I won't have to see them again except for their stupid prancing in the intro.

Her whining at the roadblock that no one wanted to help her was a bit much. First off, perhaps they wouldn't have been in last if they had 1) found the knife store they walked right past, and 2) didn't spend so much time looking for the long bench.

Then she has the nerve to complain no one wants to work with her? 1) they were in last and why would anyone want to help someone they are competing against to avoid last? 2) by the time they got there they were so far behind they were basically asking people to just give them the answers.

And I call BS about the airport fans. Maybe Tyler Oakley has fans. But I refuse to believe that some Colombians at an airport in Cartagena would be able to recognise some Z-list American YouTube "stars". Wouldn't it be more likely they'd be familiar with Colombian or Latin Z-listers who do similar things but in Spanish? I refuse to believe that the average Colombian surfs the Internet looking for videos from Magenta team who are discussing American pop culture. I'm American and I have never heard of ANY of these people before this race.

[SomeTameGazelle]

The benchwork task seemed too subjective for what it was. I would have liked it better if there had been arithmetic involved or at least if the width of the person couldn't confuse the result. How were so many teams so far off?

[Primetimer]

Romance blooms -- or should we say 'trends'? -- for one pair of social media moguls; everyone else has a date with some Swiss army knives and a pop quiz about flags.

Read the story

[blackwing]

The benchwork task seemed too subjective for what it was. I would have liked it better if there had been arithmetic involved or at least if the width of the person couldn't confuse the result. How were so many teams so far off?

The width of the person should have had nothing to do with it. They were supposed to measure the number of newspapers end to end. Some teams weren't very precise in where the newspapers were touching each other.

Dana was tolerable this episode except for when she was just going to sit on the chessboard. I do think her comment to Matt that "You Have Snot Dripping Out of Your Nose" would have been a great episode title. Very old school TAR, like "This is More Important Than Your Pants Falling Down!" and "The Princess was Like My Grandmother, She was Very Old But Very With It."

[sinycalone]

I didn't mind a couple of contestants agreeing to help each other at the flag challenge.  Two people would make the task go more quickly.  But to provide the location of the chocolate shop...at the beginning of the leg?  Dumb.  And Team Frisbee should have kept their correct answer to themselves...but that really only assisted one team.  (and yes, it was a matter of measuring the newsapers...as they touched...not just roughly so that sometimes they overlapped a lot, and sometimes they were about a foot apart.)

 

Actually, I think Kurt/Brodie are good racers...but they need to get over the urge to be boy scouts.

 

Tyler is annoying..and he is to blame for the romance nonsense for the most part.

 

Challenges were very good, scenery gorgeous, and some teams did use their brains.  Just not many of them.

Edited March 5, 2016 by sinycalone

[J-Man]

It looked like they got to keep the knives, but I presume they'd be confiscated the next time they have to go through airport security.

 

"What language do they speak in Switzerland?"  "Swiss."  They could've said French, German and/or Italian and been correct, but SWISS?

[LittleIggy]

It wouldn't surprise me if the extra set of rules stated they had to go down the entire line..

I wish Phil would mention this because this drove me crazy. I kept wondering why nobody would do the obvious to figure out the answer.

I was thinking "I hope they get to keep the knife" when the SAK guy said it was good, and they did!

They didn't get to keep the knives. I liked the task though.

They did get to keep the knives. The judge handed them back. Edited March 5, 2016 by LittleIggy

[Artsda]

First episode of this season I actually liked. 

 

Wasn't fond of the model whining over nobody helping her. All the others were already partnered up and half way down, yet she's whining over not knowing what to do. They're not going to stop and explain the entire task to you, stop whining and figure it out.

 

The #Blodie stuff was silly. 

 

I liked the bunch up at the end and race to the mat by the 8 teams. 

 

The models should have been working at a faster pace at the end there when they saw the train still at the station. If they ran they may have made it.

[mertensia]

"What language do they speak in Switzerland?" "Swiss." They could've said French, German and/or Italian and been correct, but SWISS?

Maybe they were thinking of Romansh.

Every time I heard the "why won't anyone help the last place team?" I responded "to make sure you stay in last place!"

I hope those people got paid to sit and get their chess game continuously interrupted.

[Quilt Fairy]

Wow, that was a dogpile at the Pit Stop. Crappy leg design, IMO. Why put the finish mat in another country? Especially with trains that guarantee bunching?

I don't think the trains guaranteed bunching. They had to change trains twice. Considering that they probably don't have a combined IQ in the triple digits (especially if you exclude Scott), I am honestly surprised that none of these teams took the wrong train. Several times.

 

I couldn't believe the stupidity at the roadblock and the general non-competitiveness of these people. They do know they're on a race, right? And not just a free trip around the world?

 

While I liked the tasks and they were appropriate to the city/country, I wish there had been a chocolate task at the chocolate shop. Like eat this box of chocolates to get the race clue underneath. I always hate it when they send them to someplace interesting and it's just to pick up a clue and leave. Also, what was the purpose of taking numbers?  Was it just so they didn't mob the chocolate store all at once?

[Netfoot]

#Blodie #Barf 

 

What country is Switzerland in?  (And which part of Jamaica is Barbados?)

 

Measuring the bench was simple, and looked like it could be fun, yet it was challenging for those who rushed or weren't careful. Building the knife at Victorinox was way cool!  And they get to keep the knife too?  Nice souvenir.  (I collect knives, so...)

 

Answer-sharing still needs to be banned.  But at least this bunch aren't using it to bludgeon teams they don't like.

 

Flags!  I remember MamaT had me counting flags in NYC on my first visit to TARCon.  (Miss you, Sweetie!)  Jessica basically gave up when nobody would hold her hand.  Then they str-o-l-l through the train station.  Farewell, fools!!

 

WTF with Tyler???  Is he like, twelve?  Starting to annoy, the smart-mouth little shit...

 

Phil looks weird in a touk.

 

Did they really mean to imply that Blodie was curled up together inside a sleeping bag, soon after the met, in front of all of the racers, including her dad?

 

#Skeevy

[snarktini]

It's weird- I hardly recognize any of these teams, still.  Every time I see their faces or hear their names, I"m like, "who's that?!".  The only people I recognize are Cole and his mom, Blair and her dad, and Tyler.  I don't know if that's a function of everyone being the same as far as "category"- social media "star" or if they're just bland looking people.

 

Did they really mean to imply that Blodie was curled up together inside a sleeping bag, soon after the met, in front of all of the racers, including her dad?

 

I can't keep any of them straight except for annoying Daughter/Daddy. To be fair, I think it's because I don't give a toss about any of them. 

 

Throughout the cave scene I was clutching my pearls. Don't get me wrong, I have on rare occasions canoodled with a guy I just met... but nowhere near a television camera, a group of onlookers, or my FATHER.

 

They mentioned during the episode that one member needed to have their butt on the bench at all times during the counting, so I'm guessing that sort of thing was specifically forbidden.

 

 

This blink-and-you-miss-it moment was awfully important information for us. Bad scripting not to make that more clear.

[GaT]

Did they really mean to imply that Blodie was curled up together inside a sleeping bag, soon after the met, in front of all of the racers, including her dad?

Why not, she sold kisses to strangers while her daddy collected the money, at least they know each other.

 

The benchwork task seemed too subjective for what it was. I would have liked it better if there had been arithmetic involved or at least if the width of the person couldn't confuse the result. How were so many teams so far off?

I didn't understand it either, how can they know the exact number of people who can sit on it? Are they all the same size? What if one team had tiny girls & another had giant guys, how would they come up with the same number?

[biakbiak]

It was how many people could sit next to each other with spread out newspapers, not just how they could sit. I aasume he chess plyers were plants because there were empty benches right across from the big bench.

[viajero]

I thought this was a pretty good leg right up until the bit about putting the mat at the end of the train trip. I liked the tasks and even most of the collusion didn't bother me, particularly at the flag pole.  These teams may come across as "race dumb", but it made sense to work together, while freezing out the team in last place. 

 

And I call BS about the airport fans. Maybe Tyler Oakley has fans. But I refuse to believe that some Colombians at an airport in Cartagena would be able to recognise some Z-list American YouTube "stars". Wouldn't it be more likely they'd be familiar with Colombian or Latin Z-listers who do similar things but in Spanish? I refuse to believe that the average Colombian surfs the Internet looking for videos from Magenta team who are discussing American pop culture. I'm American and I have never heard of ANY of these people before this race.

 

I found it entirely believable.  I live in Latin American and my two kids (born and raised here) recognized at least half the racers, as do reportedly most of their friends, including those not raised in bilingual households.  I suspect the same it true for many other middle-class or upper middle-class Latin American kids, particularly the ones you are most likely to run into in an airport.

 

While there are many Spanish speaking YouTubers and Viners (including several popular ones from Colombia with at least 200k subscribers and up), much of the most popular content continues to be in English.  i remember a column in the local paper written by a public high school English teacher crediting social media and the internet with the fact that local high school kids not only seem much more interested in her class in recent years, but are doing much better at picking up the language compared to previous generations of students.

 

One positive about all this from my point of view is that my kids are actually watching TAR with us for the first time in years.  If the intention was to get younger viewers interested in TAR, its certainly working in my home and those of many of my kid's friends.

[Rick Kitchen]

Why not, she sold kisses to strangers while her daddy collected the money, at least they know each other.

 

I didn't understand it either, how can they know the exact number of people who can sit on it? Are they all the same size? What if one team had tiny girls & another had giant guys, how would they come up with the same number?

 

It was two newspaper pages' width.

[Netfoot]

Why not, she sold kisses to strangers while her daddy collected the money, at least they know each other.

 

She also offered to twerk...  (Ugh!)

[jzygayle]

And if you see your train, RUN!  Don't stroll through the damn station hoping the train will wait for you.

 

OMG, seriously.  Any sympathy I had for them was long gone by the time the train pulled out without them on it.

[rlangmit]

I would read what she said on Twitter but she blocked me. I responded to Phil's tweet asking if we the viewers would have helped her by saying "It's a raaaaaace!" Apparently she didn't agree.

 

That's too bad.  I got blocked by Tasha from Survivor years ago for asking her why she voted the way she did, and I'm still kind of pissed about it.  It's pretty thin-skinned, if you ask me.  You have to be ready for criticism as a reality contestant, and permanent blocking should only be used against actual harassers.

 

It almost makes me regret tweeting her with sympathy about the poor leg design, including both the ridiculous end-of-leg bunch and the continuing inability to design tasks which can't be done in groups.  It's not the other teams' fault for taking advantage of collusion opportunities, and the girls were way too whiny, but come on, show.  And to think, if the other teams *had* helped the girls, we would have had a nine-way footrace to cap off an even more useless episode!  Sigh.  What a waste of beautiful scenery and a cool detour.

 

Tyler is annoying..and he is to blame for the romance nonsense for the most part.

 

I'm sure lots of racers in lots of seasons have done silly things, but it's the producers' choice to feature the footage.  Hated the romance angle--when did we start beginning the show with that crap and not "This is Cartagena, Colombia, [random fact about Cartagena].  It was also the third pit stop in a race around the world"???  I give up...

 

 

The models should have been working at a faster pace at the end there when they saw the train still at the station. If they ran they may have made it.

 

Brittany said on Twitter that they needed to get tickets, so it wasn't as close as it looked.  On the other hand, it could still be their fault.  She said they could have bought tickets on the train but only had US currency...so why hadn't they changed some money beforehand?  And why couldn't they get all the necessary tickets at the first station? 

 

Why don't they just measure a section of the bench, count the number of sections, then multiply?

 

Two things: First, if there are N segments of bench and a non-integer number of newspapers fits in each segment, then you'd have to make a rough estimate of the extra newspaper fraction.  The error in this estimate could cause you to answer outside the correct range if it and N were large enough.  Second, if you don't have to do the whole thing multiple times, you could just keep guessing numbers once you had a ballpark value.  The whole point of the task is the careful step-by-step measurement, not simple math estimates followed by guessing. 

 

Though I guess your strategy is good for getting a rough estimate that your long measurement will refine.  And seeing if you're roughly counting right as you go.  (I would have kept some record of intermediate counts, I think.)