S29.E03: Bucket List Type Stuff

[millennium]

On 4/14/2017 at 7:50 PM, Machiabelly said:

I am not sure it was a vendor who gave her the money back. The vendors seemed to be blurred. The guy helping her said something about his brother giving her ten thousand. I got the feeling it was just a pity thing.

I got the feeling it was a pretty girl can get whatever she wants thing.

[millennium]

16 hours ago, Haleth said:

 

Does anyone else think London (or is she Logan?) looks just like Patricia Wettig?  (Is anyone here besides me old enough to remember Patricia Wettig?)

Who could ever forget Nancy?   Can you imagine Elliott and Nancy on the Amazing Race?  "Come on, Nance, we have to win this for Ethan and Britty!   And don't you ever shave your legs anymore?"

On 4/14/2017 at 8:27 PM, truthaboutluv said:

That was seriously one of my favorite parts of the episode. It was Redmond, as he kept walking up onto Vanck, clearly meant to intimidate him. Redmond seems to be the major asshole of the team. Not giving Matt a pass because he too has his smug douchy qualities but Redmond was the one who seemed almost enraged that Vanck and Ashton had the audacity to U-Turn them. I was actually very uncomfortable with the way he kept coming onto Vanck like he might actually hit him. And then his continued bitching and attitude when they got to the pit stop just after Vanck and Ashton was even more grating.

I'm really sick of "bros" and grown men who use the word "stoked."

[RealReality]

47 minutes ago, millennium said:

I got the feeling it was a pretty girl can get whatever she wants thing.

Normally, I would agree, but the vendor was so adamant at the beginning, and not open to giving a penny of her money back.

I agree with whomever said there was likely some producer intervention.  Or the producers offered to just give the vendor the money, if he gave it back to Sarah for the challenge.

I think had it just been her, he would have told her to go pound sand.  Pretty face and all.

[millennium]

17 minutes ago, RealReality said:

Normally, I would agree, but the vendor was so adamant at the beginning, and not open to giving a penny of her money back.

I agree with whomever said there was likely some producer intervention.  Or the producers offered to just give the vendor the money, if he gave it back to Sarah for the challenge.

I think had it just been her, he would have told her to go pound sand.  Pretty face and all.

But if producers are intervening in that way, then the whole Race is a sham.   If she spent all her money and couldn't charm the vendors into giving it back, she ought to be SOL.   It would mean she lacked the funds to complete the challenge, and the money necessary to taxi over to the check-in.   Bad luck or bad planning to be sure, but she and her teammate should be OUT.   It's one of the pitfalls of this game.

Ditto for the racer who paid the guys in Brazilian or Monopoly money or whatever.   If the producers intervened here too, why are we bothering to watch?   The race has been tampered with.   It's all a fraud.

[RealReality]

57 minutes ago, millennium said:

But if producers are intervening in that way, then the whole Race is a sham.   If she spent all her money and couldn't charm the vendors into giving it back, she ought to be SOL.   It would mean she lacked the funds to complete the challenge, and the money necessary to taxi over to the check-in.   Bad luck or bad planning to be sure, but she and her teammate should be OUT.   It's one of the pitfalls of this game.

Ditto for the racer who paid the guys in Brazilian or Monopoly money or whatever.   If the producers intervened here too, why are we bothering to watch?   The race has been tampered with.   It's all a fraud.

Technically she ran out of money, but likely because she wasn't thinking of the exchange rate and was paying in dollars.  Or she accidentally handed him like 10,000 shillings, or whatever.  Or at least thats how I interpreted it.

I understand your point, but in this case, I can see a difference in running out of money due to bad planning and a one off error where a racer was mistaken about the currency or handed someone a $100 instead of a $10 bill.

 The great thing about this show is there are a lot of situations the producers CAN'T step in and intervene.  Like if you get a bad cab, there is nothing anyone can do about that.  If  you can't do a task, there is nothing anyone can do about that.* If you get to the airport later than someone else and they catch the first flight, no one can do anything about that.  If you get a travel agent who uses the hunt and peck method to type and a team behind you gets on an earlier flight, there is nothing they can do about that.  So, I think 99% of the time the producers are hands off.

*though, I suspect some producer intervention in challenges that require going up against super skilled locals.  I feel like, at some point, the producers step in and tell the professionals to lay off a bit

[Rinaldo]

10 hours ago, Vyk said:

That would be the young woman named Fern (for whom the term "Fern" is named), who helped Oswald & Danny back in TAR2.  It was a very iconic moment in TAR history.

And just to keep things straight (and to help anyone who may be moved to look at the TAR2 DVDs), that was not in Hong King but in Bangkok. Oswald & Danny aced Hong Kong all by themselves (in one of the best legs in TAR history).

[Lady Calypso]

7 hours ago, millennium said:

But if producers are intervening in that way, then the whole Race is a sham.   If she spent all her money and couldn't charm the vendors into giving it back, she ought to be SOL.   It would mean she lacked the funds to complete the challenge, and the money necessary to taxi over to the check-in.   Bad luck or bad planning to be sure, but she and her teammate should be OUT.   It's one of the pitfalls of this game.

I think there are certain situations where I do think producers have to, and should, step in. I don't know if producers stepped in here, or if it was just a poor editing job where we didn't see the full outcome to how she got the money back. Either way, if Sara couldn't charm the vendors and couldn't complete the task, then yes, they would have had to take a penalty for not completing it and they would have been eliminated. Something worked out here, though. If producers intervened, it most likely was to help mediate the situation, if there was an issue with communication. 

As for the racer (it was Olive, right?) who got in trouble with the Brazilian vendors, I think producers didn't want anything bad to happen in this situation, so if they stepped in for them, I don't blame them. Those guys were chasing Seth and Olive down at the market and there's the potential for that to go bad very quickly. 

I'm sure the producers evaluate whether or not to step into a situation, especially if it's going to be a situation where the law comes into question, or the safety of the racers. 

[etagloh]

49 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I'm sure the producers evaluate whether or not to step into a situation, especially if it's going to be a situation where the law comes into question, or the safety of the racers. 

Even the hint of an intervention suggests that something went slightly wrong with leg planning. There are always unanticipated things along the way, and it's difficult to know just how much of a squeeze TPTB wanted to place on teams' cash reserves, but this felt like a miscalculation either of the leg money, the taxi fares or the amount that would be charged at the market. Since the trailing teams more were affected more than the leading ones, the taxi fares might have been the big factor here.

Anyway, the ground producers aren't going to put teams in danger or legal jeopardy, especially if they become aware in real time that they might have messed up.

[humbleopinion]

Wanna watch Becca punch out a wall when she loses her fun meter button.

[fib]

I liked the leg design, but Im absolutely chagrined to see Seth and Olive go.  They were competent, polite and diligent.  I truly wish it wasnt them taken out by the uturn.  

I wish they had reached the uturn in time to uturn a team they knew they would be able to beat.  Shamir and Sara or the likes.  I wish the best team could just win this thing.  And they seemed to be one of the best teams by a long shot. 

[chaifan]

8 hours ago, etagloh said:

 There are always unanticipated things along the way, and it's difficult to know just how much of a squeeze TPTB wanted to place on teams' cash reserves, but this felt like a miscalculation either of the leg money, the taxi fares or the amount that would be charged at the market. Since the trailing teams more were affected more than the leading ones, the taxi fares might have been the big factor here.

 

I would need to go back and watch again, but my guess is the first team into/through the market probably paid a bit more than "local" price, but then the vendors realized they could really jack up the prices so they did.  The teams just flipping through wads of $10's and $20's probably didn't help much, either.

I'd love to find out more about the taxi fares, though.  The one driver wanted $300.  That is about 1/2 year's wages there.  And, that was a negotiation before driving them to Phil at the hotel.  It would be weird if that was the price for the whole day, and that's the first time they were discussing fare.  Anyways, it was close enough for Seth & Olive to hoof it. 

[Village]

Yes, I'm sure if Floyd had called Becca an idiot, made a fist to fake punch her and then threatened to break her nose if she lost her passport again he'd be getting the benefit of the doubt...

There's being angry and frustrated when things go wrong and then there's belittling someone and threatening violence when things go astray. Not okay and I'm not sure why Becca gets a pass for that behaviour.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Village

[jhlipton]

On 4/13/2017 at 11:27 PM, Bryce Lynch said:

Shamir is a total moron.  He tried to carry the desk from the middle and have Sara help carry from the end.

And of course he blamed her for being in the wrong place.

On 4/15/2017 at 11:32 AM, justawatcher said:

London= Ellen Degeneres

Redmond- isn't he Navy Special Forces or something?  He has no time for your silly games. Those guys are trained to intimidate and exploit weakness. why would he be different (flip a coin, "no, after you...") on the race?

Except he didn't exploit weakness, he went after what he perceived as weakness.  All he did was make Ashton and Vanck stronger!

[biakbiak]

34 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

And of course he blamed her for being in the wrong place.

Except he didn't exploit weakness, he went after what he perceived as weakness.  All he did was make Ashton and Vanck stronger!

Vanck's "uh, no!" response to Redmond asking him if he was intimidated/or scared was perfection.

[jhlipton]

Yep!

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

The Amazing Race Has Got A Tab At Zanzibar

In Tanzania, an oddly-placed U-Turn and a missing passport cause drama for the racers.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

On 4/13/2017 at 5:00 PM, DasFlavorPup said:

Well, if the contestants aren't getting any smarter about proper use of the U-Turn (always try to use it on a team in last to maximize your cushion and DON'T use it out of spite), at the least the producers are getting smarter and putting them early enough in the leg that it's not an automatic death sentence for one of the teams getting it.  

Really good episode - a front-running team went home, unfortunately one of the ones I liked, although I'm shocked Becca and Floyd recovered from losing their passports. I know that's happened a few times in the past, but I haven't seen recent seasons and I've never seen a team recover from that.

Not disagreeing that Ashton made the move out of spite, but to be fair, everyone was bunched after deplaning so U-Turning teams really didn't know how far in back anyone was to getting to the mat.  And #TeamAmerica was actually only a couple spots behind the #TwoJerks and yet ended up not being able to recover and getting eliminated.  And to be honest, the same reasoning in U-Turning #TeamAmerica could apply to #TwoJerks since they were both strong teams.

[doodlebug]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2017 at 3:55 AM, RealReality said:

Technically she ran out of money, but likely because she wasn't thinking of the exchange rate and was paying in dollars.  Or she accidentally handed him like 10,000 shillings, or whatever.  Or at least thats how I interpreted it.

I understand your point, but in this case, I can see a difference in running out of money due to bad planning and a one off error where a racer was mistaken about the currency or handed someone a $100 instead of a $10 bill.

 The great thing about this show is there are a lot of situations the producers CAN'T step in and intervene.  Like if you get a bad cab, there is nothing anyone can do about that.  If  you can't do a task, there is nothing anyone can do about that.* If you get to the airport later than someone else and they catch the first flight, no one can do anything about that.  If you get a travel agent who uses the hunt and peck method to type and a team behind you gets on an earlier flight, there is nothing they can do about that.  So, I think 99% of the time the producers are hands off.

*though, I suspect some producer intervention in challenges that require going up against super skilled locals.  I feel like, at some point, the producers step in and tell the professionals to lay off a bit

Back in the day, we learned that the crews carried a little emergency cash, like 50 bucks per team, and every team was entitled to a one time bailout with it if they got into money trouble on the race.  It could be that that was used to help Sarah buy the groceries.  In the case of that money, it's  one and done, no team gets the cash more than once.

[holly4755]

wow, I know people are mad at team fun, but their story of the race shows EDITING!

they said that there was a special ferry counter just for the race people (flag there ) and no one was in line, , so the teams were in the wrong line and they claim they saw it and jumped first then the boys team jumped to follow them and it seemed to irritate the others. but hey.

Becca and Floyd on the episode 3

Spoiler

then Floyd apologizes a lot, but Becca apologizes less because ,it turns out the video is out of order, the little stair way thing happened because after getting the passport back, Floyd dropped his ID and didn't notice, Becca saw it because, that is when Becca flipped out.  apparently they are over it.  You can't lose your passport and you can't lose your id.  Oh and Becca grew up with brothers, so someone hit that on the head.  they also said they like Shamir 

[Guest]

If a team can't complete a task because a local overcharged them, I think the show should step in.  I hate the haggling and was glad when they quit taking a team's money as punishment, forcing them to beg.  

[chaifan]

Thanks for the link, Holly!  The video is a bit long (22 minutes), but worth it.  Also, around 15 minutes in, they explain the "punch" on the stairs.  They had the passport, were going back up to the rooftop, and Floyd dropped his ID.  Floyd didn't seem to take it seriously, and he completely defended Becca's reaction. 

There are also other recap videos from other racers.  I'm glad to see these.  I miss both elimination station videos (yes, I know, it's been a while for those), and also post-elimination interviews that would show up on a few sites.

[holly4755]

one thing in the video that has thrown me is saying that teams are not allowed to talk to each other, I don't remember ever hearing that before, because so many life long friendships were made on this show. I need to hear more about that, I have to get a youtube log in and ask them. 

[piequinn35]

On 4/13/2017 at 8:27 PM, Bryce Lynch said:

Shamir is a total moron.  He tried to carry the desk from the middle and have Sara help carry from the end.  I wish he had been eliminated.

 

On 4/16/2017 at 6:20 PM, jhlipton said:

And of course he blamed her for being in the wrong place.

He even said she pushed him a million times whatever when they were carrying that desk, what an idiot, get this idiot out of the race pls.

[Netfoot]

3 hours ago, holly4755 said:

one thing in the video that has thrown me is saying that teams are not allowed to talk to each other

Yes, the days of E/S/M are long gone.  The new think is that if the teams don't get the chance to make friends, there is an increased chance of "drama" between them.  Because obviously, more Survivoresque sniping, bitching and back-stabbing must be good for the show, right?

I don't understand why TPTB can't look at the early seasons (when TAR was at it's zenith) and compare them with the current state of affairs to get an idea of how to "fix" the show.  It's obvious to me:  eliminate all the "fixes" that have dragged the show down since it's heyday.  But my mommy used to say "If yuh so smart, why yuh en' rich?" so obviously, I don't know what I'm talking about.

[Dobian]

I forgot to watch this until today.  Well another one of my favorite teams is already gone, and they could have been a strong contender for the prize.  Will be rooting for Liz and Mike, hope they can keep it up.  Same with Ashton/Vanck, Tara/Joey, London/Logan.  A lot of the haggling at the market felt staged with how they resolved things.  And Redmond is a huge asshole.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Dobian

[Hera]

I'm not sure why this has a spoiler tag (it's a summary of the team discussing the episode and there are no spoilers in it, just a discussion of the editing), but I'll keep it just in case.

22 hours ago, holly4755 said:

Becca and Floyd on the episode 3

  Hide contents

then Floyd apologizes a lot, but Becca apologizes less because ,it turns out the video is out of order, the little stair way thing happened because after getting the passport back, Floyd dropped his ID and didn't notice, Becca saw it because, that is when Becca flipped out.  apparently they are over it.  You can't lose your passport and you can't lose your id.  Oh and Becca grew up with brothers, so someone hit that on the head.  they also said they like Shamir 

Late to the party this season, but I'm now all caught up. I think it's completely understandable that she'd get mad about her partner losing his passport. Knowing where your passport and money (I include credit cards in this) are at all times is Rule #1 of international travel, not just the race, and anyone who is old enough to participate in The Amazing Race is old enough to know that. I'd be furious if I thought I might be eliminated because my partner was careless with his or her travel documents and, yes, I would probably berate him or her in the moment, as well, regardless of how long or how well we knew each other.

I'm actually annoyed on Becca's behalf that she now has to be the grown-up on her team and look after Floyd's passport as well as her own, simply because Floyd can't handle a basic part of travel/being an adult. It doesn't give her the right to get violent, though I think it's a stretch to call the fake punch and broken nose comment "violence". It's definitely not commendable behavior, but probably no worse than the invective he would have been in for if it were me ("You are such a fucking idiot/I can't believe I'm going to have to spend the rest of the race babysitting you/etc."). However, I'm not going to get mad at her for not being unendingly patient and forgiving with Floyd in the moment, or for temporarily dropping her fun-loving demeanor, especially in light of the information above about Floyd dropping his ID on the stairs on the way back to the mat after they had retrieved his passport (if Becca hadn't seen it, they would have lost even more time). He nearly cost them the race twice in the same day and for the same reason.

[holly4755]

Iput it in a spoiler tag in case someone wanted to view the video first, guess it was not needed at all. 

[humbleopinion]

Yes, Floyd is an idiot and butterfingers but he is her team mate.

Does her reaction now give Floyd permission to threaten her when she makes a mistake?

We will see....

[Hera]

3 hours ago, humbleopinion said:

Does her reaction now give Floyd permission to threaten her when she makes a mistake?

If Becca makes a similarly egregious error, then yes, I think Floyd would have the right to behave the way she did. She wasn't mad at him for messing up a roadblock or some other mundane frustration that happens to every team in the course of the race—she was mad at him for losing a passport and then almost losing his ID. That kind of unforced error has caused teams to be eliminated in the past.

Honestly, if they weren't on the race, and were instead just friends travelling together, I think she'd still have a right to be furious with him.

[raven]

1 hour ago, Hera said:

If Becca makes a similarly egregious error, then yes, I think Floyd would have the right to behave the way she did.

I don't agree; it wouldn't be OK if Floyd threw a fake punch at Becca.  I don't like her and I don't like her calling him names and it's telling how the "fun meter" went from 11 to zero so quickly but my biggest issue was the fake punch in the stairwell. 

If it had been Floyd acting as Becca did, there would be justified outrage; I think she deserves the same.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, Hera said:

Honestly, if they weren't on the race, and were instead just friends travelling together, I think she'd still have a right to be furious with him.

Really? Why if they weren't on a race his losing his passport wouldn't impact her at all. The fake punch and saying he would have a broken nose if they had been eliminated says everything I care to know about her.

[Netfoot]

29 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Really? Why if they weren't on a race his losing his passport wouldn't impact her at all.

If you're non-race travelling with someone and they lose their travel documents, it will impact you.  Because, unless you're the type of person who will just get on your plane and leave them to sink or swim on their own, you will be running around with them, as they try to locate the missing documents, or obtain replacements.  

And on the show, she didn't have the option of leaving him behind to fend for himself.  His lost documents could lead to her elimination.  Not that this necessarily justifies her response, but it does go some way to explaining it.  Also, how many times have threats of violence been made in moments of tension, which are understood by all parties to be pure hyperbole?  "Do that again and I'm gonna kick your ass!"

This particular teacup really doesn't need a storm.

[biakbiak]

11 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

If you're non-race travelling with someone and they lose their travel documents, it will impact you.

Yes if you are leaving the next day because most places can get you a passport in at most 48 hours if you have a flight out of the country, I know because four of my travelling companions have lost or had their passports stolen at different times and in different countries, again I wasn't angry or furious at my friend I was upset for them and it didn't impact me which is what I was responding to, iI can see Becca being pissed because it would have hugely impacted her but pissed shouldn't equal fake punches or verbal threats.

[Hera]

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Also, how many times have threats of violence been made in moments of tension, which are understood by all parties to be pure hyperbole?  "Do that again and I'm gonna kick your ass!"

This particular teacup really doesn't need a storm.

No kidding. Do people no longer say, "I'll kill you if you do that again," without it being interpreted as an actual death threat? Because the broken nose comment seemed very much in the same vein to me. I see @biakbiak's (and others') point about the fake punch. I think this is probably a case of your mileage may vary, but given that it happened right after Floyd dropped his ID without realizing it again, I sympathize with Becca reaching a breaking point in her frustration. No, she didn't deal with it in the kindest, most thoughtful manner, but who among us can claim never to have lashed out at someone in frustration, even if it wasn't throwing a fake punch?

I could see disliking her if she holds this over Floyd for the rest of the race ("I choose all the detours because you lost your passport!" "I choose which one of us does the roadblocks because you lost your passport!"), but getting mad at her for her reaction in the moment—a reaction that did not result in any physical harm to Floyd or anyone/anything else—seems to be holding her to a ridiculously high standard of patience and forebearance under the notoriously stressful conditions of the race and a potential elimination for a mistake she had no part in.

7 hours ago, Netfoot said:

If you're non-race travelling with someone and they lose their travel documents, it will impact you.  Because, unless you're the type of person who will just get on your plane and leave them to sink or swim on their own, you will be running around with them, as they try to locate the missing documents, or obtain replacements.

At the very least, it ruins whatever plans you had together while your friend deals with the situation, which sucks if you've sunk money into a trip abroad with them.

[Jersey Guy 87]

11 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Also, how many times have threats of violence been made in moments of tension, which are understood by all parties to be pure hyperbole?  "Do that again and I'm gonna kick your ass!"

I'm amazed that some people seem to have a problem separating saying something in the heat of the moment and actual intent.  Floyd screwed up, Becca got upset and voiced her frustration.  As long as it's not some ongoing thing where she yells and berates him forever more for losing his passport I don't see that she did anything wrong.

[lh25]

On 4/14/2017 at 0:09 AM, Vyk said:

Between this entire leg (including cutting the line just because they could)

I would have u-turned them for that alone.  I get being U-turned would suck, and I really wish they would do away with it.  But it is part of the game, so suck it up, buttercup Redmond.

[holly4755]

except if they didn't cut into line because the others were in the wrong line. 

[Vyk]

6 hours ago, holly4755 said:

except if they didn't cut into line because the others were in the wrong line. 

It was made pretty clear that they cut.

[chaifan]

11 minutes ago, Vyk said:

It was made pretty clear that they cut.

Editing, Vyk.  Becca and Floyd discussed it in a youtube post.  There was a separate line for TAR, and Becca/Floyd and Matt/Redmond were the first to notice it.  So they got out of the general public line and went into the TAR line.  Becca and Floyd both commented on how the episode only showed Matt/Redmond doing this, and made it look like they cut in front of everyone. 

I'm not a fan of this type of editing, especially when the show itself doesn't do anything to set the record straight.  The better editing would have been to make it look like Matt/Redmond cut in line, go to commercial break with everyone being pissed at them, and come back and show the TAR designation for that line with everyone else smacking themselves on the forehead because they are the idiots in that situation.  Redmond seems to be doing a perfectly find job of coming off as an asshat all by himself, without creative editing.

[Jersey Guy 87]

On 4/21/2017 at 7:43 PM, chaifan said:

Editing, Vyk.  Becca and Floyd discussed it in a youtube post.  There was a separate line for TAR, and Becca/Floyd and Matt/Redmond were the first to notice it.  So they got out of the general public line and went into the TAR line.  Becca and Floyd both commented on how the episode only showed Matt/Redmond doing this, and made it look like they cut in front of everyone. 

I'm not a fan of this type of editing, especially when the show itself doesn't do anything to set the record straight.  The better editing would have been to make it look like Matt/Redmond cut in line, go to commercial break with everyone being pissed at them, and come back and show the TAR designation for that line with everyone else smacking themselves on the forehead because they are the idiots in that situation.  Redmond seems to be doing a perfectly find job of coming off as an asshat all by himself, without creative editing.

I didn't think they had cut in line because nobody who wasn't part of TAR looked pissed at them.  If they really cut in line more than the other racers would have been pissed off.