S29.E07: Have Fun and Get It Done

[MVFrostsMyPie]

I only liked this episode the best so far of this season because they went to Venice and that's one of my favorite international destinations I've been to (Istanbul wins as number one). It's always nice when they go somewhere you've been, so it all just looks familiar and you get a better idea of what mistakes they're making in terms of navigating and trying to find specific locations. I wish they would have gone to Burano too! Lovely island. 

[Snappy]

At the start I expected Team Fun to be annoying, but I LOVE them! Every time they are on I find myself smiling because they are just so enthusiastic. I also like Team The Boys (Redmond and Matt), Tara and Joey, and even the ones that came in last (brain freeze and can't think of their names right now). I cannot wait for Brooke to go home, and feel Scott should get a big prize for having to deal with her. She can't even carry her own bag. Who else would have loved for her and Shemar to have been paired? The first competition could have been finding their way out of a paper bag and Brooke and Shemar wouldn't have been able to do it.

[fib]

Team Fun are more enjoyable now that fatigue has brought their default level down from 13 (on a scale of 10) to a pleasant 8.5.  

Loving them and low key tara and joey.  

Someone way upthread asked why Scott would have Brooke do the roadblock when they were last.  1) When they were in Zanzibar, Brooke did the ladle task because Scott thought it was "arty", so i think that is more her wherlhouse in the race.  And 2) Im convinced he doesnt really want to keep racing.  He is miserable.  

Is Brooke physically incapable of carrying her pack?  

[Jobiska]

I guess I'm in a minority in that I found the mask-painting task quite interesting to watch (much more so than, say, yet another climbing/rappelling task).  The masks were pretty, the performers amusing, and the ways the racers could mess them up much more varied than I thought!

I agree with the poster upthread who suggested superimposed maps showing the canals and bridges they'd encounter on the way to the hotel.  The size of the cart and narrowness of some of the passageways did serve to bring home exactly how narrow some of the streets are (I've never been, alas!)

[Lemons]

On 5/5/2017 at 10:54 PM, CaioF said:

I can really root for the older team... Team Fun could also win and I would be fine.. Lolo... I would like them if they stop to keep attached on the back right with Brooke and Scott... I was expecting them to finally put ahead o this leg after play smart on not tell other teams about the clue (shut up Michael!) but once again they found a way to still come close to last (guess its their navegation..).

BTW, did Lolo and Brooke and Scott stepped on the map at the same time? What would have happpened if there were no teams behind them and specially if this was a elimination leg?

Whose the older team?  The women are all in their 20's and 30's.  I think Brook is in her late 30's, she just dresses and acts like she's much younger. All the guys having beards making them look the same. 

Did Brook pick Scott or did Scott pick Brook?  Poor Scott. 

[fib]

2 hours ago, Lemons said:

Whose the older team?  The women are all in their 20's and 30's.  I think Brook is in her late 30's, she just dresses and acts like she's much younger. All the guys having beards making them look the same. 

Tara and Joey aka Team Mom and Dad.  Ages 38 & 46.

they are the oldest 2 remaining racers   

Brooke is 36  

[Rachel RSL]

Brooke is only 2 years younger than Tara?? I would have pegged Brooke as mid 20s and Tara as early 40s.

18 hours ago, eliot90000 said:

I think Tara and Joey totally did it or are doing it.

They're both happily married so I highly doubt it.

[Lemons]

1 hour ago, fib said:

Tara and Joey aka Team Mom and Dad.  Ages 38 & 46.

they are the oldest 2 remaining racers   

Brooke is 36  

Oh, OK. I couldn't figure out who was the older couple, there's not a huge age difference. The red headed guy looks about 40.  BRooke comes off as so immature for her age. I'm not surprised people thought she was twenty something 

[fib]

Understood.  

Michael (aka Redbeard) is 37.  My hubbys age. Blew my mind.  He seems older.  

And Tara doesnt seem 38, since she is in such great shape  

[legaleagle53]

I would have rocked the Sing It task, since I speak Italian, I love to sing, and the song didn't seem that difficult to learn (in fact, I paused the video to read the words to see if it WAS a song I knew, since the melody seemed very familiar to me, and I spent ten years in an Italian folklore chorus/dance troupe where I learned and sang many Italian folk songs, although most of them were from central and southern Italy rather than from northern Italy.  Nope -- it wasn't a song I knew, but it's very pretty, and I'm going to add it to my YouTube collection as soon as I find it).

I would just hope that my rendition of it wouldn't be met with the same strained polite expressions that I saw on the couples riding in the gondole.  I'm pretty sure I saw at least one of the male passengers rolling his eyes while listening to the teams sing.

Edited May 10, 2017 by legaleagle53

[Ducky]

On 5/5/2017 at 6:58 PM, fishcakes said:

I had to laugh at Phil saying the luggage task required that they go up and down stairs using a "special method," when all it required was enough common sense to know you tilt the wheels up to get them over the next step. Pretty much anyone who's ever wheeled a baby stroller or a lawn mower around should be able to do it. But then zero of the teams figured it out, instead relying on, "this weighs 500 pounds, let's pick it up entirely off the ground and carry it," or, "I'll just pull it really fast down these steps; what could go wrong?"

    It seemed like Joey kind of figured it out- theirs was the one where the least luggage seemed to fall off.  Redmond and Matt's luggage almost all seemed to fall off.  I almost wished they (any of the teams) had been nailed for that somehow lol.

 

On 5/6/2017 at 8:07 PM, greyhorse said:

I also agree that not all of these "performance" tasks are automatic after three tries.  There have been multiple instances besides the one you list where the racers have had to retry over and over.  Surely some of the ones that Mother and deaf Luke had to do, with the requisite "WHHHHYYYY?" and crying by Luke that he can't do it, were of that nature.

   Agreed- another "performance" task that comes to mind was the synchronized swimming one.  Brent and Josh had so many tries that they eventually got kicked out because the facility was closing!

[kingshearte]

On 5/5/2017 at 9:50 AM, valen said:

The mask task shows that Brooke expects help from everyone, almost as if they owe it to her to help her. It's like her default expectation is that she can't do it on her own, which makes me very suspicious of how she graduated from law school. The task showed though, that when she calms down, she can actually do it. 

Yeah, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how little she freaked out this leg. Relatively speaking, of course. But yeah, it does seem fairly clear that she's used to having her freak outs get people to help her, even though, in the end, she doesn't actually need the help and can actually do stuff on her own. I wonder what she's like when there's no one around to witness her histrionics. And how Scott's (and, it seems, other racers') new strategy of ignoring them will affect them.

On 5/5/2017 at 2:55 PM, azshadowwalker said:

I don't think it was stupid at all. I also found it really fucked up that getting full instructions depended on when you arrived. It was obvious that you needed to get all the steps, since the wiping part tripped all of them up until Floyd pointed it out. If people are required to follow specific steps to get the correct product, it's bullshit that only some of the racers are even given the opportunity to know what those steps are. 

This too. I mean, I see what others have said, about how one's timing at a ferry or the like also affects things, but I feel like a task should be a slightly different beast, where  everyone should be able to start at the same point as soon as they arrive (or wait in line and have to go to the back of the pack if they fail). And with a task like this, where basically doing the correct steps in the correct order was more important than producing a good result, it does kind of suck if you aren't able to get those instructions as promptly as someone else got them. 

15 hours ago, fib said:

Brooke is 36  

Wow. That's all I have to say about that.

I realized this leg that I'm basically indifferent to most of these teams. Tara and Joey do seem decent (and are probably the only ones I'd even consider spending any significant amount of time with, given the option), but even they haven't really sucked me in the way past teams have. Becca and Floyd are also OK, and I have nothing against Logan and London. The others, I actively dislike to varying degrees. Although I have to admit that I'm getting an inexplicable enjoyment out of watching Brooke. She's just so cartoonish in her reactions to basically everything that I just can't hate her, even if I would almost certainly shove her into a canal if I had to race with her. Whatever Scott may have said to her in the first leg (I missed the first episode, so I only saw the bit shown in the previouslies), I rather suspect she had it coming, and the rest of the time, he seems to have been astonishingly affable in the face of everything she's thrown at him.

[Netfoot]

15 hours ago, fib said:

Brooke is 36  

...going on 14.

[survivinmt]

I've always said that if I ever went on the Amazing Race (hahahahaha, get my butt off the couch? doubt it!) I would announce at the very first airport to all the teams. "When you ask me for help, or where the next box is or whatever, I am going to shout or sing or say 'RA-A-A-A-CE!' and not help anyone. It's not personal - it is not because I don't want to be your friend. It's because, LIKE YOU, I want to win the money at the end." I wish all the teams would agree on this at the beginning and stick with it.

[blackwing]

21 hours ago, Lemons said:

Whose the older team?  The women are all in their 20's and 30's.  I think Brook is in her late 30's, she just dresses and acts like she's much younger. All the guys having beards making them look the same. 

Did Brook pick Scott or did Scott pick Brook?  Poor Scott. 

I had been stupidly thinking that Tara and Joey called themselves "Team Mom and Dad" because they are parents.  I didn't realise that it was because the other teams think of them as Mom and Dad because they are older.  Surprised to see that Tara is 38, I would have thought she was mid 40s.  She looks old to me, and she seems to have this tendency to relate everything she is experiencing to some context of being a mom or her kids, so that also makes her seem older to me.  I thought Michael was also mid 40s.  He looks older than his age.

Scott was the one that picked Brooke.  I don't recall if he gave any reason for why he picked her in a confessional.  I think he just went over down the line and said something like "I choose.... you".  I had thought it was because he was attracted to her but he (later?) described himself as a "gay redhead".  So I'm not sure what it was about her that made him choose her.  Maybe he thought she looked athletic and driven.  Oops.

[CoyoteBlue]

On 5/5/2017 at 1:55 PM, azshadowwalker said:

I also found it really fucked up that getting full instructions depended on when you arrived. It was obvious that you needed to get all the steps, since the wiping part tripped all of them up until Floyd pointed it out. If people are required to follow specific steps to get the correct product, it's bullshit that only some of the racers are even given the opportunity to know what those steps are. 

Everyone got the opportunity to see the entire thing, over the same period of time. So instead of seeing steps 1-10, Brooke might see steps 5-10 and then 1-5. The only real disadvantage would be that she couldn't watch a little, work along a little as she goes - she'd have to wait at least until 1-5 came around. Then again, she'd already know what 5-10 would be, so she could work ahead, knowing how these steps will turn out later on.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

On 5/4/2017 at 5:22 PM, Eolivet said:

Was it my imagination or were the judges sort of arbitrary with their standards at the singing Detour? "No, you didn't sing together. No, more theatrical." Or was it one of those instances where "Everybody fails on the first two tries and gets it on the third one."

I had that feeling as well, the Gondola ride was going to last a certain period of time, might as well keep them singing rather than say, you did it!  but now sit here while we finish the cruise.

And I hate that this was a NEL leg, seriously, there were no huge flight delays that are out of the hands of the competitors.  NO U-Turns or W-Turns.  I feel like those are the types of legs that NELs should be part of, not here where everyone starts off on equal footing and any last place finish can be attributed to a team's actual abilities and not blind luck like airplane delays etc.  Still feel that last week's episode with the location of the U-Turn/W-Turn was ridiculous especially in a non-NEL leg since it pretty much takes away any suspense in the entire leg.

Definitely did not think Brooke and Tara were that close in age.

Edited May 8, 2017 by HawaiiTVGuy

[HawaiiTVGuy]

19 hours ago, fib said:

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by HawaiiTVGuy

[Mumbles]

Quote

I knew it was a NEL based on them talking about Mike's daughter, which I have no empathy for. I'm immune to having empathy for those who have a family because everyone in the world has a family of some kind.  

Thank you. This drives me nuts about these shows. When people go away for school, it's often not for months that they don't see their families. For people in the military, it can be years. I think this show is filmed in 2-3 weeks? So buck up. Or don't go on the show if this is so important to you. 

As for Scott and Brooke - I got the impression in tbe first show that Scott thinks very highly of himself - to the point of exaggerating his academics - and strikes me as a bit of a superficial snot. He picked Brooke because she was an attorney and from NY and attractive and "cool enough" for him. I just can't imagine him picking one of the Team Fun people or Mike or Liz or Joey - not cool enough for him. So now he's stuck with her. Ha ha.

[millennium]

I'm kind of down on this Race because of what the other teams did to Vank and Ashton.   Eliminated not because they were a threat, but because the other insecure teams didn't like them.

I don't watch this show for schoolyard games.

Oh, and Mike's stupid weeping at the start.  To quote Tony Soprano, "What happened to Gary Cooper?"

Edited May 9, 2017 by millennium

[North of Eden]

Late to the party here but I still have my two cents.

Teams upset that LOLO had the audacity to want to win the leg by not helping them. The nerve I tell you!

Two huge missed opportunities. 

1. Not paying royalities for the classic music used on the old samsonite luggage commercials where the luggage was being abused.

2. Not flying in some of the couples from the Blind Date season to be the couples in the gondolas being serenaded too.

Now this will not be a popular opinion but in a way Brooke is the MVP of the season.

She gives the show someone you can love to hate. Some as seen here actively rooting against.

But I'll tell you what about Brooke...she's real. She's got no filter and for her the cameras don't exist and I find that refreshing. And there is good in her because she is real you could see she was genuinally happy at the end of the episode when Non Elim saved the brute and Liz. (I feel they HAD to know it was NE based one not having appeared yet)+I have a soft spot for spoiled brats since I had a crush on WILLIE WONKA's Veruca Salt...she of the red dress when I was seven.

On the other hand I grow to loathe Becca more and more each episode. I liked her for the first two until she was unmasked as a nasty poser when the passports went missing. Since then I know everything she does is an act and she's bringing mugging for the camera to BJ and Tyler levels. Brooke is real and Becca is a phony.

.

[Mumbles]

25 minutes ago, North of Eden said:

On the other hand I grow to loathe Becca more and more each episode. I liked her for the first two until she was unmasked as a nasty poser when the passports went missing. Since then I know everything she does is an act and she's bringing mugging for the camera to BJ and Tyler levels. Brooke is real and Becca is a phony.

Great point. I noticed that too with the passports. I'm also eyeroling at the number of challenges that involve climbing. Hmm.

[SomeTameGazelle]

Quote

 I know it's a big square, but with so few people in it, how hard is it to find a guy sweeping the floor?

They didn't know they were looking for a sweeper. They had the word in Italian (spazzino?) but as far as most of them were concerned that could have been anything or anyone. They had to notice the little band of race colours on the broom.

[legaleagle53]

10 hours ago, Netfoot said:

...going on 14.

Take that back.  That's an insult to 14-year-olds, and you know it.

[Netfoot]

17 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

Take that back.

Uncle! 

[greyhorse]

8 hours ago, blackwing said:

I had been stupidly thinking that Tara and Joey called themselves "Team Mom and Dad" because they are parents.  I didn't realise that it was because the other teams think of them as Mom and Dad because they are older.  

Have the others expressed this though?  I thought these nicknames - LoLo, SandSExpress, etc. - were just made up by producers so they would have hashtags for Twitter users?

1 hour ago, North of Eden said:

But I'll tell you what about Brooke...she's real. She's got no filter and for her the cameras don't exist and I find that refreshing.

Somehow, I'm pretty sure Brooke's employers are not very happy with the incompetent image she is projecting.  How is she going to have clients after this is over now in the real world?  If I had her as my attorney, I'd really seriously question her competency at winning my case.

50 minutes ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

They didn't know they were looking for a sweeper. They had the word in Italian (spazzino?) but as far as most of them were concerned that could have been anything or anyone. They had to notice the little band of race colours on the broom.

But really, how hard is that?  Plenty of English speakers in Venice.  And the square really isn't that big.  One lone guy standing in the middle of the square, what else could it be?

[hatchetgirl]

I wish Phil had said "so Michael and Liz, had you unturned Matt and Redmond, maybe you'd be in front of Vanck and Ashton now instead of gearing up for a speed bump, huh?"

I'm a bit of a grudge holder in case you didn't notice... ,)

[holly4755]

I just posted the extra videos that I could find in the media thread,  my favorite moment might have been after a video of Brooke screaming at Scott while he was running around with her pack as well as his won, they got to the mat and he complemented her on her skills, she said, Well Scott has very little patience. No filter indeed, that doesn't always make me like someone. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

8 hours ago, greyhorse said:

But really, how hard is that?  Plenty of English speakers in Venice.  And the square really isn't that big.  One lone guy standing in the middle of the square, what else could it be?

It really wasn't "one lone guy standing in the middle of the square". The square is enormous. It wasn't especially crowded, but he wasn't the only person there.  He was also performing a mundane job unostentatiously (hiding in plain sight). Also, the teams didn't know they were looking for a person or that it would be in the middle of the square -- Matt and Redmond appeared to look inside some kind of stainless steel case around the edge of the square. I agree that it made sense to ask for help from someone who knew the language -- Becca and Floyd definitely did, but that was because the sweeper wasn't obviously the only possibility.

[Novel8]

On 5/6/2017 at 2:11 PM, seacliffsal said:

I don't know about the rest of the year, but during the summer and during high tide the piazza floods.  When I've been in Venice, I love sitting in the outdoors area of the cafes and restaurants that line the piazza (for a cover charge, of course...), and the planks come out when the high tide comes, and the musicians have to relocate.  As I only really travel during the summer, I don't know about the other seasons.

Also?  You have to pay way extra to get the gondolier to sing while taking a gondola.

This episode really made me want to go back to Venice.

We were in Venice the month of November and they had the planks out because of the tide then.

[Jersey Guy 87]

On 5/5/2017 at 6:56 PM, Novel8 said:

Michael is a jerk...did he not know by signing on, he would be away from his daughter for a spell? He should not have signed on if he can't take some time away. Think of our soldiers that are away from their 'daughters' for a year or more, and may not ever see them again. Also, this was the second time that they were last and got a break...which is a joke in itself. I think back perhaps the 3rd elimation where Seth and his partner were last and never got such a break, and they were formidable players..going 1,2,3 in finishing. Even the guys knew they were a threat and gave them the uturn which proved their undoing. If Michael and Liz win, it would be the last time I will watch this show...one break is enough.

The timing of the TBC and NEL legs are determined in advance.  That Mike and Liz happened to finish last but been saved wasn't planned by production, it just happened.  I'm bummed they've been saved this way but it's not any sort of manipulation.

On 5/5/2017 at 8:57 PM, vousviou said:

I don't know if it's being telegraphed or not, but there's a hint that some of the weaker teams will target London and Logan next time.  Which is probably a dumb move since they're looking to be only middling competitors, and at this point if you're a weaker team hoping to squeak through into the finals, you're probably better aiming at knocking off the boys, Team Fun or Joey and Tara.

I don't get the sense that the weaker teams are very good at this kind of strategic thinking, though.

Weaker teams should target someone they can beat if they're u-turned.  Matt and Redmond have already powered through being u-turned once, why would you think they won't do it again?  It makes sense to u-turn someone you know is behind you if you're worried about staying in the race.

[greyhorse]

2 minutes ago, Jersey Guy 87 said:

Weaker teams should target someone they can beat if they're u-turned.  Matt and Redmond have already powered through being u-turned once, why would you think they won't do it again?  It makes sense to u-turn someone you know is behind you if you're worried about staying in the race.

It is hard to look past the short-term (surviving another week) for the long-term (winning the entire Race) picture.  You just need to not come in last every week in order to keep traveling and having fun.  But if that means one of the stronger teams will be competing against you in the final leg, then what really is the point?  I guess you do get to continue to see the world, etc.

[Jersey Guy 87]

20 minutes ago, greyhorse said:

It is hard to look past the short-term (surviving another week) for the long-term (winning the entire Race) picture.  You just need to not come in last every week in order to keep traveling and having fun.  But if that means one of the stronger teams will be competing against you in the final leg, then what really is the point?  I guess you do get to continue to see the world, etc.

If you get eliminated you have zero chance of winning the race.  So u-turning a team that insures that team finishes last means you get a chance to beat the stronger team.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

35 minutes ago, Jersey Guy 87 said:

 

Weaker teams should target someone they can beat if they're u-turned.  Matt and Redmond have already powered through being u-turned once, why would you think they won't do it again?  It makes sense to u-turn someone you know is behind you if you're worried about staying in the race.

Normally that is the case, but if you have a conspiracy to completely shut off the W-Turn and you know ahead of time, because that everyone is bunched (or at least within minutes of each other) then that is the ideal time to take out a strong team.  Everyone knows the Roadblock has already been done in the leg, so there is only one more "challenge" left and the time difference between Matt and Redmond starting their Detour versus the last team off the boat should be fixed and relatively small, then you have a greater chance of everyone being able to finish before Matt and Redmond can do both Detours.  And they already knew that the two detours had different locations (reading the clue in the box) so they knew that travel between the detours would be a big time waster in it of itself.  Matt and Redmond did a great job by powering through two detours the last time, but factors to their advantage included that teams switched detours in the middle, and the detours were relatively close to each other and there was a time gap between them starting their detours and the back teams getting to the locations.

[danm]

Just to say, with all the very correct comments on Brooke's behaviour....   I did notice at the start of the episode (where everybody is waiting around for their spoonfed bus ride in the middle of the night), she shows up with a bright and cheery countenance and gives every impression, for a few seconds at least, of being a reasonable human being who would not be that bad to hang out with.  As mentioned upthread somewhere, maybe the cast of the show doesn't mind her because they see more than what is being presented to viewers by the editors.  And all we get to see are the sorted out and sifted through "highlights" of what she does and how she does it.  It doesn't really matter to me, because I don't care a lot about this season except that I don't want it to be the last one.

[kingshearte]

19 hours ago, danm said:

I don't care a lot about this season except that I don't want it to be the last one.

This. Overall, this season and its cast haven't really grabbed me, but I still make a point to watch, and it's still generally entertaining. I hope it keeps going for a while yet.

[fib]

21 hours ago, danm said:

maybe the cast of the show doesn't mind her because they see more than what is being presented to viewers by the editors.

Very possible.  Also, it seems like she is at her worst when alone with Scott, hopelessly trying to navigate. So the other teams dont have to deal with her utter nonsense most of the time.    In contrast,  Scott seems DONE. If you compare having to be with her 24/7 vs Being with her only during roadblocks (only half of which she would have to do and therefore be stressed during) or detours (during which Scott would be more likely to feel her ire) that you are competig at the same time, and shared travel situations (where the racers arent in control so they arent as stressed), I am not surprised that sheis coming across better to them than to us and Scott.  She may be comparatively likable when she isnt totally stressed out!

[holly4755]

It's funny,it is not the cast that makes or breaks the show for me, it is the locations, the challenges. I so want to be there with them, but that age has betrayed me and that time will never come.

When I was younger I could never find anyone to go with me. I tried to talk anyone and everyone into it, except the one whiney friend I had I could talk into anything, I thought if i were in with her I would have to kill her because if I Looked at her wrong she had to stop doing what ever and tell me how my looking was wrong. The water would not be the right temperature or I would be running too fast or the task was asking her to do something the wrong way and she only wanted to do things the right way........ And I would be thinking race damn it race.  So I would have to kill her. But no one else I knew would even consider the race and I am a pretty patient person. I must be I lives with whiney friend for 2 years. she p-aid her bills, on time, but could only single task, talk or do something, and she liked to talk.   

[hatchetgirl]

Also, with Matt and Redmond, had someone had the balls to U-Turn them, are also running against killer fatigue too.  Sure, they may have powered through that rock climb, but remember, this is a team that said they keep making navigation errors. I can see them just biffing it on the ghost one by not letting it dry or something.  Even if they did power through, they wouldn't have ended as #1.  I think they would have finished further back in the pack.  I doubt the bottom, but it would have given another team a chance.  It's a competition and I would be ruthless about who I U-Turned.  I'd U-Turn people up front to get myself forward.   Maybe even a middle level team, like LoLo or Scott and Freakazilla.

But then, I could never be on the show as I'd just honestly, sit down, with pack, and not move again.  LOL.  I'd end up looking like a complete baby, and losing my shit at the same time.  Both, the last things I need the world to see me as.  LOL

[aradia22]

Good Lord. Brooke. The woman who can complain about being on a bus too early in the morning.

I liked the idea of both detours in Venice. Singing challenge with pronunciation vs. what could be a tough physical challenge since it's more than "carry heavy thing." Venice is gorgeous but rather dirty. All the lens flare made me wonder how hot it was. 

I'm totally not mad at London and Logan. They're slow. They should play smart. There's no good reason to tell other teams where the clue is.

I don't know how fast the water taxis would be. We only took them to go way out to the glass factory. I do know it's very easy to get lost if you head off the main streets away from the square. 

Good God. I hope Matt and Redmond weren't responsible for anyone's actual luggage. Everything is broken. Maybe the crew just put rocks in the bags. I wonder if there were rules that you had to have all the luggage on the cart and try to pull it up or if everyone just decided to do that instead of lifting suitcases one my one over those particularly tough stairs.

I thought the judge would just let Becca and Floyd get away with their first performance. I mean, barring getting a few months of singing lessons, I didn't see how it was going to get much better.

Brooke... the woman who can complain when other people sing too loudly near her.

Not much range but Liz has a surprisingly pleasant singing voice.

I wonder if they paid actors to sit in the gondolas or if they just offered people some free rides.

Poor Joey with the luggage. I wonder why Tara didn't help more.

Oh, masks... Hmn. While I feel they could have had more fun (and tortured the racers more) with commedia dell'arte, I would have loved to run this leg of the race. Singing and painting? Done.

Brooke, the woman who is ready to have a meltdown after 10 minutes of trying to find a water taxi.

Floyd is a goofball but I think he might be the only person left in the race that I genuinely like. I mean, I don't dislike Tara/Joey or London/Logan but I don't have strong feelings about them either.

I hate Michael. Hate Brooke. They can leave now.

I'm curious if the judge really thought Tara's mask didn't look blended enough or if she was watching and knew she hadn't followed the steps. They said she was looking for accuracy but it didn't seem to be as intense as something like that manuscript challenge in the past.

Brooke... who manages to complain about arts and crafts and immediately goes to ask for help. GOOD GOD.

 I did laugh at what seemed like Scott's genuine reaction that she hadn't fallen apart and come in last.

London was the only one who seemed to do a fairly professional job on her mask.

What is with the timing of these NEL's??? TAR, get rid of Michael or Brooke. I can't take much more of this.

[Hanahope]

Got a little behind on these episodes, since I have to wait until my kids are free so we all watch together.

I didn't get the point of the short scene at the beginning of the show, the flashback to Mike and Liz on the mountain top and Mike crying about his daughter.  It seemed a bit out of place considering they were in Italy last episode and now this one continues it.  The scene would have been better at the beginning of last episode.

I remember having to lug luggage around venice.  Yeah, the wheels are no real help with numerous stairs.  I was wondering whose luggage was being delivered, all of the TAR staff?

the painting roadblock was very cool.