S04.E02: "Deal, Guys? Deal. Deal!"

[Kanaloa]

Quote

The remaining teams race to downtown Calgary; a detour leaves some of the racers' heads spinning.

The EP in the alpha-females' possession and English-speaking TAR's "first-ever second episode NEL"?

Let's see if the stuntcasts can reach the Hockey Olympians' record (not).

 

[Artsda]

I almost thought Steph and Kristen were going to have to use the express pass just after winning it. 

That was a great race to the mat between the last two teams. Wish it had been an elimination.

[Rachel RSL]

Steph and Kristen are badass! Unlike the giggly girls who won't stfu about their eyelashes. I'm so annoyed they were saved by the NEL.

I also really like the twins. They're probably not long for the Race since they seem to just kind of bumble their way through but there's something about them I just find adorable.

I didn't really understand why Emmett & Jillian bailed on the Express Pass. They were in the cab then noticed on the clue that there was a Detour so they bailed? I'm confused. Did they think that by going for the Express Pass they could skip the Detour or something then realized they had to do it regardless?

Edited July 6, 2016 by Rachel RSL

[Shermie]

So far I'm rooting for the father-daughter team. And I'm hoping the Big Brother team goes because she is unpleasant, and I dislike celeb teams and BB. Then the giggly false eyelash girls can go. Just no.

Two height based challenges already! I love that TARC makes the players earn the prize, and I like that the leg winning prize trips are better than a lame week in Cancun.

[Artsda]

Quote

 

I didn't really understand why Emmett & Jillian bailed on the Express Pass. They were in the cab then noticed on the clue that there was a Detour so they bailed? I'm confused. Did they think that by going for the Express Pass they could skip the Detour or something then realized they had to do it regardless?

They didn't want to spend all that time on the Express Pass when there was 2 challenges that could be time consuming and more important in the long run of the race than getting the Express Pass. 

Jill and Emmett are still odd exes. Emmett telling Jill he's sorry, he won't be able to have kids because of the tight repelling harness doesn't sound like exes.

[Rachel RSL]

Yes but I'm confused about what changed their minds. They knew all that info when they opened the clue envelope, then decided to go for the EP anyway, then changed their minds in the cab. Was it simply a case of "On second thought...."? Or did they not read the clue beforehand and didn't realize there was a Detour?

[Fat Bastard]

That surely was odd decision by Jillian and Emmett. He said that it is more important for them to finish the leg ahead of anybody else, but that makes no sense at this point of game. Due to bunching the only important thing is not to finish last.

Julie and Lowell seem to be taking the race with good-humored attitude, me like!

Next up: TAR and animals, always a fun combination.

[gryphon]

Go Team Softball!  I am glad they got the EP...Really hope the big brother team doesn't continually come in first.   I can't call the mom and daughter team "Fire and Ice." Isn't there an unwritten rule that you can't give yourselves a nickname?  

The other teams haven't grown on me yet although I liked the way the father and daughter practiced the SIM task a lot before they tried it.  Good work, guys!  Both tasks were challenging--I am such a fan of TARC.  

[kingshearte]

As much as I think Express Pass tasks should make the teams work for it a bit, I kinda felt like this was maybe a bit much. Teams that went for it had to do basically a full-on extra task in addition to everything else in the leg. I was glad that it didn't ultimately end up screwing over a team that I rather like so far, but... I don't know. Easily could have, which I suppose could be why it was an NEL.

In any case, I'm looking forward to some non-height-based tasks, and with animals, next week should definitely be fun. Jillian seriously needs to STFU, though.

[RHJunkie]

21 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

Yes but I'm confused about what changed their minds. They knew all that info when they opened the clue envelope, then decided to go for the EP anyway, then changed their minds in the cab. Was it simply a case of "On second thought...."? Or did they not read the clue beforehand and didn't realize there was a Detour?

I believe Emmett said that they didn't notice the Detour until they were in the cab which forced them to re-evaluate their options. So they didn't read the clue properly. When they see those giggling girls show up on the next leg, they're going to realize that the EP was a gamble worth taking.

I suspect that Big Brother and the Girlfriends will both make it to final 3. I know there's a lot of race left but they think strategically during their challenges which is something that is often overlooked (case in point, the two giggling girls who cornered their fish on the opposite side of the tank and had to run back and forth to empty them..so dumb).

[tracyhmcd]

I was actually cheering for Rita & Yvette at the end, but how could they not recognize the Calgary Tower - they are from Edmonton (aren't they?)!  Also, they were fortunate that the person manning the C-Train help phone was actually able to help them find the Beatnik Bus!

[Taeolas]

Usually the express pass task is fairly simple; so if two teams end up there, due to task limitations, only one can do it at once so there's usually no point in the other team sticking it out.

 

This time, between the bus bunching (that guarenteed 3 teams in the lead) and the task design, they obviously expected all 3 leading teams to tackle the Express task at once, and with how it was set up, any one of those teams could have succeeded and gotten the passes. But since this is counter to what the usual TAR Express pass challenges are, they ended up with only 1 team doing a task designed for 2 or 3. 

 

Anyways, loved the challenges and the race in general. Still hating the BB team, but the rest seem to be doing fine. Surprised it was a NEL so soon though.

 

And throwing 8 teams of Canadians into Vietnam next week. That's cruel and unusual punishment isn't it? :)

[etagloh]

I loved the design of this leg, and the way it turned out. The combination's never quite a given. An Express Pass task that actually dumps stronger teams in the middle of the pack is something that TAR:US ought to have done ages ago. That it sets Softball against BB Bailer Bickersons, the obvious alpha teams in this race, is just a bonus. There was a plausible scenario in which the EP-winning team could have burned its own EP this leg, but Softball is strong enough in the early stages that they could power through past fundamentally weak teams. In some ways, it was like an oldish-school Fast Forward leg that made proper demands of a leading team in exchange for a reward, except that with the EP the reward isn't as straightforward.

At the rear end, it should really have been an 'obviously weak team gets eliminated' leg, but the NEL saved an obviously weak team who barely lost to... an obviously weak team. Even with the bunch that's coming, I'd expect Kelly and Kate to be toast next leg.

In the middle, there are teams that are weak on paper but stronger in practice -- Stéphane and Antoine, Frankie and Amy -- and teams that are perhaps strong on paper but weaker in practice like Julie and Lowell. If things play out as TAR generally does, one of them will stumble into the F3 because they're not sufficiently prominent to be targetted. We shall see.

[Keener]

I love the idea of the Beatnik bus, although I felt that it should've packed up and moved with more frequency. I think it's far more interesting to have the teams scrambling to find the bus around the city, chasing their tails. 

There is no way that Jillian and Emmett are "broken up." That's clearly their casting ploy/plot device. They are broken up for television. Additionally their rationale for dumping the express pass, is proof they've probably never watched a season of TAR in their lives.  I find that people who think it's more important to come in first are people who don't really understand the purpose of the show. Although, I suppose if you want to accumulate the most amount of prizes maybe it's worth it?  That being said, does NO ONE understand the curse of coming in first? The team that never comes in first (or rarely comes in first) is usually the team to win. The team that consistently comes in first typically never wins the final leg. 

[Blackie]

*still like the twins, at least they said "duh" when they didn't know what CN tower was.  Liked Julie and Lowell's jokey fun and lack of frustration.  And my favs Joel and Ashley stayed cool and took the time to learn the sim task and  didn't give up. Although it is hard to tell how much time the other teams actually put in to learn it, seemed like 2 sec.  Everyone else is fairly annoying I think, don't think I quite remember everyone yet. Ok the father son guys not too bad.

 

eta:  I would have preferred to have Anthony and Brandon still in, instead of Kelly and Kate.  They tried to be to strategic by taking the penalty instead of just muscling through which they should have been able to do.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Blackie
edited to add

[shok]

I'm really surprised they had a non-elimination leg so early in the race. There's a good chance the next leg will be non-elimination too as they usually don't cut someone on the first leg in a foreign country. I like once the field gets winnowed out a bit so that the remaining teams get more air time and you get a better feel for who they are and how they cope with the race.

[kingshearte]

14 hours ago, Blackie said:

And my favs Joel and Ashley stayed cool and took the time to learn the sim task and  didn't give up. Although it is hard to tell how much time the other teams actually put in to learn it, seemed like 2 sec.

Joel and Ashley did have the advantage of showing up early, so they felt like they had enough of a cushion that they could devote a significant chunk of time to practicing. If you're already feeling like you're behind, it's going to be really hard to find the motivation and patience to "waste"* time practicing, rather than accomplishing. It's hard to say whether some of those teams would have been better off doing that anyway, as we really don't know how long either thing ultimately took, but I can see why other teams would get frustrated and switch detours fairly quickly.

All that said, I do still agree with you and applaud Joel & Ashley for their slow & steady patience on that one. It may serve them well in future tasks where teams don't have a choice but to spend time practicing something before they can actually do it.

* I use quotation marks here because it's not really wasting time, but that's how it's going to feel if you're already feeling that time crunch pressure.

[piequinn35]

When I saw the title I laughed, should be "Deal, Guys? Deal. Deal. Deal. Deal. Deal. Deal."

I kinda heard deal 6 times, haha joke!

I don't know who to root for, the exes are strong but Jill is annoying.

I like the challenges so far.