S04.E10: We're Doing It Wrong! We're In Big Trouble

[Taeolas]

A nice showing for New Brunswick, and the mandatory Hotels.com task.  

I'm disappointed that no one took the beer task, and weren't checking the toffee recipe too closely. :)

That garden challenge was a brain buster for something so late in the race.

I'd say Jillian was lucky to get the shoes in Cape Breton; but it's Cape Breton. Half the town would have given her the shoes off their feet without a second thought. :)

[Artsda]

Why didn't Frankie just read the clue instead of listening to Ashley? Were they not allowed to read it again? I felt bad they just took Ashley's work for it and learned both languages.  It's one thing to keep things to yourself & not help other teams but it's different to outright mislead them to do a task wrong. 

I like Jill & Emmett, but woah he has amazing patience to handle her.

[Kanaloa]

Damn, did Ashley serve that dish cold or what?!

[Taeolas]

Ice cold. And yet she was savvy enough to get an eyebrow wiggle to the camera as she was doing it. And honestly, I have no problem at all with what she did. 

 

Rather disappointed that Jill is in the final 3. They'd be a super team if she would just calm down and focus. Yes it is a race, but 30 seconds of centering can save minutes of useless flailing. 

 

They're always allowed to reread the clue (baring certain circumstances. In fact they reread it a few times. But they got caught up because the clue said "The full name in English" or something like that. With fatigue and frustration, they mixed up "Full name" and doubted the "in english" part. 

 

Not sure I liked having a Face Off with an Elimination leg; but ultimately it didn't really cause too much trouble; the teams seemed pretty close together by the end. And the golf did prove to be hilarious. :)

 

*Edit* Some further thoughts on the Face Off. I think if I were to tweek the design of the Face Off, I would start the penalty timer when the last 2 teams start. If both flub up the task and take a long time, then both can leave as soon as they finish, and it stays a race. If one team can finish quick, then they get a legit lead over the final team. 

Edited September 7, 2016 by Taeolas

[Blackie]

I usually wouldn't like what Ashley did, but that was the second time in one episode that Frankie's team read the clue wrong so...

 

Other then that this episode was hilarious and not in a good way.  I loved that Frankie and Amy sucked so bad at golf it was actually stealing time from Jillian and Emmet.  Jillian is just yuck, like in no redeeming characteristics at all.  It is sad that they deemed the other teams so boring that they had to plant the Screecher.  I can't help but laugh but then I hate myself for it because they just seem so fake.  I hate that they turned AMC into Big Brother.

[RHJunkie]

The Jillian screech came back in full force this episode but I'm not going to lie, her reaction after being told that they were doing the challenge wrong made me laugh out loud. I hope those two have GPS on their cars back at home because they suck at direction.

It's not the most fair way to win but if you can't read the clue correctly, that's on you. I can understand why they would mix up the information at the first go around. But to read the clue a few more times and still be confused was a total disregard for the purpose of grammar, lol. 

[zibnchy]

The title of the episode should be "My Shoes Are Two Sizes Too Small!"   Waaaaaaah

[La Dee Da]

Yay for my little province! St. Andrew's is a beautiful spot to visit.

You need a few more exclamation points in your excellent alternate title, zibnchy, to fully convey the spirit - and volume - in which it was said. ?

Despite the face-off, this was a well paced episode - it felt like it was anyone's leg to win or lose, especially given that last disorienting task.  I'm sad no one did the Moosehead challenge but the Crosby challenge was super educational - who knew you could make edible vinegar taffy! 

[Kelda Feegle]

Shut up Jill!

Not a fan of the Face Off in any leg but it is particularly harsh on the penultimate leg.

Tone the screaming down Jill!

That memory task was a killer - I wonder if Lowell would have rocked it.

I want the Joel/Ashley golfing pants.

STFU Jill!

[buffynut]

I know it's a game, and teams should read the clues, however, I still didn't like that Ashley maliciously mislead the mother/daughter team.  

I also don't think much of the Face Off challenge. Is that new? The volleyball one was the first time I've seen it.

[RHJunkie]

3 hours ago, buffynut said:

I know it's a game, and teams should read the clues, however, I still didn't like that Ashley maliciously mislead the mother/daughter team.  

I also don't think much of the Face Off challenge. Is that new? The volleyball one was the first time I've seen it.

I think this is the first season that they've done it for the Canadian version. I could be wrong but I can't remember any in the previous seasons.

I didn't like Ashley's tactic either but moreso because she justified other people lying their way through the game and now she was willing to do it to secure a top 3 spot. Who lied? The BB duo inadvertently lied to another team because they didn't read the clue right - an understandable situation. The softball duo inadvertently lied by not giving up their express pass to the BB duo - an understandable situation because the BB duo didn't actually show up to compete for the Express Pass. The softball duo said they wouldn't U-Turn in one leg. It would be a stupid assumption to think that that pact would carry through for the remainder of the race. Ashley's reasoning came across as a very dramatic summary of occurrences in order to justify her own sneaky behaviour. Play the game how you want, but if you're going to be sneaky or manipulative, at least own it.

[piequinn35]

Geez. What's wrong with these people? Read the !@#$ clue at least 3 times!

[scott4real]

I'm all for Ashley lying, just don't lie to Frankie and Amy.  You want them in the final three 100x more than you want Emmett and Jillian.

[piequinn35]

^ I agree, but Frankie asked her, if she didn't ask her, she wouldn't say anything.

Edited September 7, 2016 by piequinn35

[Artsda]

People ask others for help, she could have just said "I don't know" or some other response other than purposely getting her to do it wrong. 

[Blackie]

Its too weird how teams had a chance to U-turn Jill and Emmett or help/at least not hurt Frankie and Amy....therefore stopping a team that was serious competition:  Jill and Emmett.  I just feel that this season the fix was in, at least to make sure that Jill and Emmett make it to the final three.  I guess screeching gets good ratings. 

[Marvin]

I agree i think this is fixed to get Jill and Emmett to the final. I hate them and hope they don't win.

I like Ashley and Joel and want them to win. I think Ashley lying was fine as they have been the brunt of the other teams deviousness too many times, yet they have still managed to make it this far ! So i think it was only fair that they stop playing nice when it counts the most !

 

Really as long as Jill and Emmett don't win i will be happy. I wish TAR would stop bringing in people that have already been on reality TV shows as they are just fame whores rather than in it for the game !

[muffkins]

The only thing that really bothered me about this episode was them using the liquid measure for the sugar and the dry measure for the molasses.  I laughed out loud when Jill said she did all the baking while showing this.  Its a small thing, but it bugged.

[piequinn35]

And Frankie and Amy put 4 cups of vinegar instead of 4 tbsp which was still fine.... as long as the color and weight are correct :/

[Smitty227]

Once again, Ashley showing her true colours.  I really wanted them to finally be eliminated.

Ashley first showed her colours in episode 3 when Stéphane suggested working together.  As he herded the animals, he said to open both gates.  What did she do?  Opened her own, herded all the animals then took off.  That was the episode that the French Father/Son were eliminated.

I so hope they don't win this thing.  She's a poor sport, and a bad example of a decent human being.

[Fretful]

12 hours ago, buffynut said:

 I also don't think much of the Face Off challenge. Is that new? The volleyball one was the first time I've seen it.

I remember Simi and Opie struggling with a kayak water polo Face-Off.

[Artsda]

2 hours ago, Blackie said:

Its too weird how teams had a chance to U-turn Jill and Emmett or help/at least not hurt Frankie and Amy....therefore stopping a team that was serious competition:  Jill and Emmett.  I just feel that this season the fix was in, at least to make sure that Jill and Emmett make it to the final three.  I guess screeching gets good ratings. 

I don't think it's fixed, just maybe more cliquey. Who is friends seems to be a reason for choices now.

[TVbitch]

Ashley blew a chance to get Jill/Emmett out --not smart. I didn't think the plant judge should have told them they were saying it in the wrong language, I think they should have had to just keep coming back until they figured they need to revisit the clue. Granted they would have been there forever, but it would have been awesome.  

Fire & Ice were a mess. How did their toffee even get a pass with all that vinegar in it. I thought the host said the measuring had to be exact. They were really lucky to get this far.  

[SnideAsides]

They had two Face Off tasks last season - the kayak polo half the cast quit in the Magdalen Islands leg, and... something... in Edmonton. And there was one earlier this season too.

As a non-Canadian who has to rely on downloads to see this (I'm sorry, producers et al), I've been trying to work out why this show's gone from "constantly refreshing to see if they've turned up" to "well, maybe I'll catch up every couple of weeks, if I remember" over the last two seasons. I think part of it is that each season has kind of felt like they're doing they're version of how another TAR franchise handles the show, with the only real consistency being Jon's endearing folksiness, and while it did make sense to at least look at how TAR China handled a domestic route when planning the Canada-only season one and how TAR Australia managed to be a critical darling on a smaller budget than the US version for season two, it doesn't really work to try and replicate TAR Latin America (which was pretty poorly received but juuuust successful enough to stave off cancellation for six seasons, somehow) in season three or TAR Vietnam (highlight: being the lowlight in Dustin Nguyen's career) in season four, you know?

[Blackie]

13 hours ago, Marvin said:

I wish TAR would stop bringing in people that have already been on reality TV shows as they are just fame whores rather than in it for the game !

I think they have to go with reality show people because these are the only people that will "play the game" of narrative, drama and character.  They tried other "celebrity" contestants befroe like BodyBreak and Rex Harrington and they complained when they were edited in  a way to fit a narrative (and I don't blame them).  I don't think there are any Canadian celebrities that desperate or uninformed now to go on the show. Unfortunately just having normal people run a race in a beautiful country without "drama", isn't what the producers seem to want to make.  I probably won't watch if there is another season like this.

[Rachel RSL]

I also hated that nobody went to the beer task. Well, not hated per se....I just always feel so bad when there is a Detour option and nobody chooses it. All that planning and the people who work there were probably so excited to be involved in the Race but then nobody showed up :(

I'm not a fan of Joel & Ashley but I absolutely 100% would have done the exact same thing. It's a Race, you're under no obligation whatsoever to help anybody. If a team is too dumb to read their own clue and relies on my advice on how to do a task, hell YES I'm gonna mislead them. Especially if it's to get into the final 3.  It's not like she went out of her way to trick them, *they* went to her and just expected her to help. And she didn't actually say that they had to learn the Latin names, she just said that's what she overheard the others doing, which is true.

 

Quote

 Jillian is just yuck, like in no redeeming characteristics at all.  It is sad that they deemed the other teams so boring that they had to plant the Screecher.

I don't think they planted her because of the screeching. The only thing the casting people know her from is Big Brother and, in her defense, she was nothing like this on that show. If anything, she was levelheaded to the point of bordering on being painfully boring.  I'm assuming it's the stress of the Race and the fact that she's super competitive that's bringing out her screechiness. 

[Taeolas]

Yeah, I'm most disappointed that no one did the Beer task. Partly because I wanted to see someone try it, and partly because of how disappointing it must be for everyone there to expect the racers to show up any minute... only to be told no one showed. It's part of the show granted; but it wouldn't have hurt to have only 2 stations available at each Detour option to force a split at this stage. With a FaceOff and a trip to Saint Andrews after the Detour, the time a team might lose driving between the two locations wouldn't be too punitive. 

I've never made toffee before, but I'm guessing that the reason their mixture didn't get up to the right temperature was because of the vinegar in it. Once it boiled off, it heated up enough and was fine enough. (Though I can't imagine it tasting yummy). That or someone pointed out their mistake and they started over off camera. (Off camera to keep the team's 'close' story-wise).

*Googles* Vinegar boils at around 120C; IIRC they had to get the toffee up to 220, so all that extra vinegar would have been boiling out and carrying extra energy away, keeping them from the target temperature until it was gone. (If things work that way; I have no idea if that's how it would work) 

[RHJunkie]

52 minutes ago, Rachel RSL said:

I don't think they planted her because of the screeching. The only thing the casting people know her from is Big Brother and, in her defense, she was nothing like this on that show. If anything, she was levelheaded to the point of bordering on being painfully boring.  I'm assuming it's the stress of the Race and the fact that she's super competitive that's bringing out her screechiness. 

Pretty much - this isn't the Jillian we've seen before. In Big Brother - Jillian pretty much coasted. She was either winning competitions or aligned with people who were in power. When things got rough, it was Emmett calling shots and making moves. He was the one that did the work for the both of them so he was seen as the bigger threat. Nobody really cared to get rid of Jillian because even though she was good at competitions, she was aligned with an even bigger threat. With Emmett's game play, had he made it to final 2, no doubt he would have won. Well actually, she showed glimpses of it but a lot of that was during the time she was forced to eat slops for 1 or 2 weeks straight and you don't really judge someone for being grumpy when they're surviving off of slop, lol.

I don't see how the game could have been fixed for Emmett and Jillian. They're both athletic and competitive - 2 important details for making it far in the race. To consider a fix, it would include the other teams being in on it - why would anyone want to gamble away that prize by keeping a strong team in the mix? No producer intervention can rationalize that unless the teams are really stupid. Steph and Kristen U-turning Ashley and Joel was still a good game move. They're a strong team and they decided to U-turn a strong team that had the lesser chance of surviving the leg (Jillian and Emmett were only a step behind them on that leg). I also think that Steph and Kristen didn't want to permanent burn a bridge with Jillian and Emmett just in case.

[Pepper the Cat]

I am disappointed to see Fire and Ice go. I would much rather watch them racing than Jillian and Emmett.

Jillian and her screeching are on my last nerve. I was soo hoping they would go.

on the other hand, my fav team is in first place!! Yay!

[etagloh]

Poor Moosehead.

In a way, I hated this leg, because of the sponsorship considerations and another bloody Face Off that penalised the lead team and didn't really penaiise the last team enough. It was a good task executed shittily because it was a Face Off. On the other hand, the Detour and RB tasks were fantastic beasts, and seeing Jillian lose her shit multiple times was a good thing. On the other other hand, if Frankie and Amy had been anything other than a weak team who got lucky, Jillian would not be shrieking her way into the final 3.

In passing: they must have arrived in Saint John at the crack of dawn to avoid spoilers, because the town centre was empty.

Boo Ashley: even though Read The Damn Clue, I'm not sure that was good form: lie your hearts off about Race elements like whether you've won an EP, but don't deliberately mislead other teams about the substance of a task. Say "I don't know."

And I don't think you can assign the Englsh/Latin brain fever to KF: maybe if it had been straight off an international flight, but not an overnight luxury coach from Cape Breton Island.

Meta-comment: the endearing stuff (still!) about TARCan is the Canadian-ness (civic pride! regional pride! apologies!) plus Jon plus the commitment to genuinely difficult tasks, which is something that has gone by the wayside in TAR:US. Having a very strong team have to go through multiple attempts to succeed on a task is refreshing. Thinking "damn, it would take me five attempts and I have three of those plants in my garden" is refreshing.

Steph and Kristen by default for the win, I suppose.

[Fake Jan Brady]

I wouldn't even be able to remember the [English] name of fifteen plants, let alone differentiate by touch and smell; that was surely one of the hardest tasks I've seen on any version of TAR.

As for the finale: anyone but Jillian.

ps - Learn to spell, Hotels dot com:

Edited September 10, 2016 by cousin oliver

[kingshearte]

On 9/7/2016 at 1:48 AM, La Dee Da said:

Despite the face-off, this was a well paced episode - it felt like it was anyone's leg to win or lose, especially given that last disorienting task.  I'm sad no one did the Moosehead challenge but the Crosby challenge was super educational - who knew you could make edible vinegar taffy! 

I assumed that they eventually just boiled enough of the vinegar off that it finally heated the way it was supposed to and tasted more or less right, too. As someone else has pointed out, though, with vinegar's high boiling point, that must have taken a loooooooong time. I will say, though, that any time I have a thought along the lines of "Wow, I didn't think X had so much Y in it," I double check the recipe to make sure I'm reading it right. The idea that you would just blithely throw 4 cups of vinegar into a candy mixture is a bit baffling.

On 9/7/2016 at 4:41 AM, Kelda Feegle said:

That memory task was a killer - I wonder if Lowell would have rocked it.

We had that thought in our house, too. If anyone would be good at remembering and identifying things with no visual input, it would definitely be him.

[Canada]

Is being a lying sack of crap part of the criteria for winning a beauty pageant in Canada?

[babydollbrat]

On Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 2:24 AM, etagloh said:

 

In passing: they must have arrived in Saint John at the crack of dawn to avoid spoilers, because the town centre was empty.

 

It was around 7am on a Sunday morning when they arrived here in Saint John if I remember correctly

[Rachel RSL]

11 hours ago, Canada said:

Is being a lying sack of crap part of the criteria for winning a beauty pageant in Canada?

Well, it was criteria for being Prime Minister for 11 years so...maybe?

[Canada]

8 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

Well, it was criteria for being Prime Minister for 11 years so...maybe?

I think it's the criteria for every politician, ever, isn't it?