S04.E08: I Just Wanna Win

[Kanaloa]

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The teams fly abroad to Havana, Cuba and encounter the season's first Face-Off.

Damn, the Express Pass nullified before the very leg it would've been of most use * - kudos to S/K for hanging in there!

* This season being a shortened eleven-episode race, alas. (EP expiration date usually on the 8th leg of 12 excepting last year for whatever reason.)

[wintrygal]

Emmit needs to get over being u-turned, whine much? God, I can't stand those two, I actually fast forwarded their matt finish, ugh.  I also very much doubt he would've gone and helped the other team on that last challenge, even if they hadn't u-turned them.   

I'm rooting for any other team to win.

[TV Anonymous]

So this is how Cubans keep those antique cars running, by making home-made gaskets out of old tires? Scary. OTOH, kudos for their defiance in the face of the embargo. 

Why Stephanie uses the caliper for lathing? It is a precision instrument, not a tool.

Kudos for team Joel to jump from last place to 2nd. Yes, it is team Joel. There is nobody else... :)

[Artsda]

Joel did great with these tasks. The dancing, the gaskets, and volleyball he knocked them all out of the park.

Emmett knocked it out of the park too. When I saw the brakes task I knew he's do great since he's so hands on working on a farm.

[Rachel RSL]

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I also very much doubt he would've gone and helped the other team on that last challenge, even if they hadn't u-turned them.  

Ugh YES! I said the same thing. And I don't actively dislike Emmett & Jillian at all but come ON. At this stage in the Race, there's no way he would have walked up to his biggest competition and told them how to do it. 

I hate hate HATE the Face Off. Much for the same reason I hated when original TAR did the Intersection. I just dislike these tasks that force teams to deal with each other, in any fashion.  It didn't seem to be too much of an issue this time but what if there had been a gap of several hours between teams? One team would have had to just sit there and wait for another team to show up.

So glad in was a NEL. I would hate to lose the twins!

[Fretful]

3 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

I hate hate HATE the Face Off. Much for the same reason I hated when original TAR did the Intersection. I just dislike these tasks that force teams to deal with each other, in any fashion.  It didn't seem to be too much of an issue this time but what if there had been a gap of several hours between teams? One team would have had to just sit there and wait for another team to show up.

This happened on TAR Asia in season 2, as Paula and Natasha had to wait five hours for Henry and Terri.

[Rachel RSL]

I've never seen TAR Asia but I hope Paul and Natasha didn't get eliminated! 

[piequinn35]

I knew it that if there's a face off of teams that leg will be a NEL, coz it won't be fair to just sit there and wait.

And I think what Fretful said was also NEL and Henry/Terri got eliminated on the next leg lol.

[etagloh]

I'm glad that TARCan got to take advantage of, um, being Canadian, to take the Race to Cuba. It's a place that (even now) feels hidden to a lot of people in the US who've barely got to see it over the past 50 years. If this were TAR:US I'd call it an Emmy leg because of the colour and vibrancy of the surroundings. The editors had plenty to work with.

The Face-Off remains a terrible format that distorts everything in a leg -- like the Intersection, forcing teams to interact to complete a task just doesn't work well -- and it's only (just) excusable if it's a NEL. Apart from that, I thought the tasks were great, and they allowed plenty of movement: Rita & Yvette pushed ahead with the Detour, while Joel rocked the RB. 

The RB count for Jillian & Emmett is now lopsided at 4/6 while the remaining teams are 5/5, which I hope means that Jillian will be forced into one that's outside her (limited) comfort zone.

[Canada]

I think this is the first time that a non-elimination leg hasn't annoyed the crap out of me.  I'm glad the sisters get to carry on.

[RHJunkie]

I didn't mind the Face Off task because it was a non-elimination leg. The sisters are the only duo left that I don't find anything annoying about them. They give it their all and their no quit attitude made this week's save well deserved, in my opinion. Kudos to Joel for carrying his team this week. They were scraping at the bottom and managed a second place finish. Should be interesting to see another u-turn show up. Hopefully Emmett and Joel's team don't get u-turned again so I can be spared the unnecessary whining over a game move.