S30.E07: All's Fair in Love and War! (1) S30.E08: All's Fair in Love and War! (2)

[Lady Calypso]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I think teams don't like Evan for the same reason why I don't.  She just doesn't seem like a nice person.  She is controlling and her true colors are really showing now that stress and fatigue are taking their toll.  She treats her partner poorly.  After getting U Turned, as they were leaving the store, Henry says "wait did you see who U turned us" and she snaps "it doesn't matter.  Go!  Just Go!"  And then he doormats and says "ok, ok".  She is dominant and a strong personality.  She clearly knew who it was, why not just tell him?

I get why people wouldn't like Evan. Unfortunately, I see a little of myself in her, in that in highly stressful situations, my anxiety shoots through the roof and my go-to emotion is anger/annoyance. I'm usually a very chill and patient person, but when I feel the pressure on me, especially if I have to get somewhere quickly, I tend to snap. I don't mean to, but it happens. So when Evan hurried Henry along in that moment and snapped, I thought "well, that's probably how I'd react". It doesn't mean Evan's not supportive of Henry or isn't a nice person, but these situations may bring out the worst in her. She's been genuinely supportive of Henry, other than a few moments. In the first Head to Head, both Evan and Henry were shouting words of encouragement at each other even when they kept losing, and it was only the France leg where Evan started being snippier. But I don't think she's consistently treated Henry horribly. She's snapped a few times, and it seems like her and Henry have different personalities. So while she seems more dominant and controlling in situations, he seems to be more chill and can easily handle situations. It seems to even out in their relationship a bit. 

Plus, Evan is nowhere as bad as Ashton was with Vanck last season. Evan's snapped at Henry, but she also seems to like him. Ashton seemed like she couldn't stand being with a nerd like Vanck, to the point where she openly bitched about Vanck in front of him. I can never forget Ashton's comment to the cameras about how she tolerates Vanck while the poor guy was standing next to her. 

This season still has had more pleasant teams than last season. There hasn't been nearly as many teams this season that I hate compared to last. I get annoyed at some of them, of course, but they've been overall ok. Brittany gets on my nerves, but at least she's pulled her weight and I wouldn't be mad if her and Lucas made final 3 (unlike poor Scott carrying Brooke to the very end last season). Besides Goat Yoga Moms, who I really couldn't stand and was glad for their departure, I'd miss almost all of these teams. I already miss the Firefighters.

[Charlesman]

1 hour ago, amazingracefan said:

He got passed on the next attempt so I guess he was right though.  He felt he had the pronunciation and the singing pace.

 

I felt the editors added a lot of drama to Big Brothers singing task, considering they got it in only 3 tries, and passed a team ahead of them in the process. 

 

 

 

I do like this season, there are a lot of strong teams. They're not suffering from Killer Fatigue as much as some past teams by this point. 

[ProfCrash]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

I guess I see it differently.   Last episode, Jessica was in a team with Brittany and Alex, even if that wasn't her explicit intent.  She was working with them.  And she purposely gave them a wrong answer to ensure that she would finish the task first.  If she didn't want to work with them she could have just said so.  A team player would have freely shared the information with the people they had chosen to work with.  Like Evan and the twin last week did.  

So this week, Evan says she would prefer not to work together and Jessica and blonde got all huffy.  I don't understand why they got so mad, there's not many teams left and why would they expect help from a competitor?  But as to your question, they blamed Evan and not Henry because that was during the swap, and Henry wasn't there.  They didn't blame Daniel because Evan was the one who said no.  He said nothing.

I think teams don't like Evan for the same reason why I don't.  She just doesn't seem like a nice person.  She is controlling and her true colors are really showing now that stress and fatigue are taking their toll.  She treats her partner poorly.  After getting U Turned, as they were leaving the store, Henry says "wait did you see who U turned us" and she snaps "it doesn't matter.  Go!  Just Go!"  And then he doormats and says "ok, ok".  She is dominant and a strong personality.  She clearly knew who it was, why not just tell him?

I think one of the teams that is out interviewed that Evan and Henry did not interact much with the other teams when there were opportunities to socialize. It didn't sound like he hated Evan and Henry just that the two did not socialize and did not develop the same personal relationships that other teams seemed to develop. I want to say it was Well Strung who made the comment but I am not 100% certain about that.

I don't have a problem with Evan. I don't think Henry has a problem with Evan. He doesn't seem to be put off by her comments or surprised when she snaps a bit. I suspect that they have competed together enough to know how the other one responds. And her snapping at Henry has been pretty darn tame. I suspect that if Evan was a man we would say that she is intense and needs to chill a bit but her occasional snap is not so bad. She is not dismissive of Henry. She is not yelling at Henry. She is direct and to the point and seems to be fine with reminding him of their game plan. She is fine.

She was upset that they were U-Turned and just wanted to start the task. She didn't want the pause and reacted. I didn't even realize that she had done that until it was mentioned here. He wanted the small pause, she was upset and wanted to move. They moved on and finished fourth. Clearly they know who U Turned them. While the 30 seconds would not have hampered them, I understand her desire to just get going with their tasks.

[chaifan]

5 hours ago, RedheadZombie said:

 

See I don't interpret Jessica as being hypocritical.  In the phone challenge she was working with two morons.  She gave them all of her clues but withheld the last.  She gave them the correct answer immediately after she passed.  There've been many players who would have run off without revealing that last word.  They shouldn't have depended on Jessica to figure the whole thing out for them.  Anyway, the skiers were also bitching about how Evan hadn't helped them that day - is this a priority?  And they seem to put the blame fully on Evan, not Henry and Evan.

 

IRRC, the phone challenge cooperation started when they were in the phone room, and Brittany and Jessica both exchanged what words they had already found, in an agreement to share everything.  So it wasn't a one way street - really, why would she even agree to doing that?  I don't think what she did - withholding the one word until she was sure she was through - was that bad.  It really didn't hold up the other teams.  But it did violate the spirit of their agreement to cooperate and just made her look bad. 

So, from my view, yes, Jessica was a complete hypocrite in being pissed off that someone wouldn't just immediately come and help them with the mat, especially when there was no reciprocal benefit to the other team.

In general, I don't mind teams helping each other out - being social and liked is part of the game, especially when it comes to u-turns.  TAR is a "what goes around comes around" game to some extent.  If you're not the two last teams, why not work together when it benefits you?

12 hours ago, mojoween said:

I feel like the partner swap would have been more fun if you swapped partners, not teams, and it was random.  Like Cody could have ended up with Evan and Jessica with like Brittany or something.

I agree.  With the swap between teams it just was too easy for the swapped pairs to work together, pointing out where the canteens were, etc.  If the new teams were switched up more, then it would have been everyone for themselves.  Also, I think any swap is a very good indicator that leg will be an NEL, otherwise one team would get eliminated due to the fault of at least one non-team member.  And that's not very TAR-like.

Edited February 8, 2018 by chaifan

[Michichick]

36 minutes ago, TaraS1 said:

Jessica is still trash, I see.  When she needs help, you better give it.  When you need help?  Sorry, guys, Jess has to do what's best for her and Cody!  When they u-turn you, it's just game strategy, don't take it personally!  When you u-turn them?  Big mean Brittany must hate dainty, hairless little Jessica!  Screw that.  She and her eyebrows haven't changed a bit since BB.  

Well, yeah, since this season filmed almost immediately after Big Brother ended, I wouldn't expect to see a sea change in Jessica or Cody's personalities on this show.

I do think Brittany dislikes Jessica, and I'm sure she has her reasons,

[djlynch]

The non-drama on the mat between Indy and Yale was about the most I have ever liked a U-turn. I remember saying back on the TWOP boards when the U-Turn was introduced that I didn't like it because it was a pretty transparent way to start conflicts between teams. I have come to appreciate its effects on the racing drama, but I still have a really strong preference for competition shows where the emphasis is on competitor v. challenge rather than competitor v. competitor.

I really wished that the second half gave us some indication of how long the detour tasks took the teams and how spread out teams were arriving at and then leaving the singing challenge.

2 hours ago, Brookside said:

How long do you think it took the producers to teach some of the team members how to say Zimbabwe correctly?

They needed to train them on Harare, too. I noticed one of the teams pronouncing it as "Ha-rayr" when telling their taxi driver to take them to Harare Gardens.

11 hours ago, Nidratime said:

I'm not fond of The Big Brother pair. But that's not new. I don't think anyone who's already been on one reality show should be on another one as well. Another thing that bugs me about them -- and this is personal to me -- is the way Jessica keeps constantly kissing Cody every time he starts sulking. It was pronounced in these latest episodes. He stands there, stone faced, as she rubs up against him, like a kitten, kissing him in the hope that he'll feel like racing again. I was waiting to see if he expected that same response from the new team mate that he was paired with. I understand that they're a couple but it's kind of creepy to me rather than "loving" or charming.

I recognize what Cody is doing as a thing that men do, especially ones that have been in a hyper-macho environment. There are a lot of emotions that aren't considered manly to express, so you hold them in, but sometimes it gets to be overwhelming and you either shut down because it's taking so much effort to suppress it that you can't function or you channel it into something you can express, usually anger. 

I think the kissing is because the relationship is so new. Jessica doesn't really know him well enough to know more than one way to motivate him so she keeps going back to the one thing that she knows that works (do this for me) and they're still in the puppy love phase where there's a lot of physical affection. 

[Netfoot]

I hate BB so I don't watch it.  Therefore, I have no dislike for the BB teams because I don't know them.  But today, I couldn't decide who I wanted to go home more.  Vapid BB Woman and her stupid No-Need-To-Practice partner, or Brittany-of-the-Ever-Present-Rock, and her partner who obviously doesn't want to marry her!  So, naturally, neither of them get to go...

[lexington11]

12 hours ago, mojoween said:

I defended Jessica last week for other teams getting mad that she wasn’t helping them the right way.

I’m over it.

And I see some things haven’t changed.  As soon as Cody feels that he doesn’t want to do something, he shuts down.  Always knows what’s best, that one.

Just when I was starting to like Cody, he reminded me why I hated him on BB with the whole shutting down and insisting he knew best in the dance/song task even when Jessica was trying to get him to see why he kept messing up. And it's a bummer that they weren't racing for last with team Ocean Spray (thank you, Cody), because whichever one of those teams got eliminated would've been a win-win for me. Instead, we had to lose the firefighters, who even if I didn't think they were a particularly strong team, I enjoyed their optimism and all the corny dad jokes they came up with.

[proserpina65]

Damn it, so close!!

I was surprised at how well Brittany worked with Alex, but good for them both.  And Conor wasn't useless with Lucas.

I totally would've chosen both the tracking task and the tire delivery.  I think I could've done the singing/dancing task pretty well; I'm good at picking up lyrics when I have them in front of me, and I was grooving to the song while sitting on the couch.  My best friend, on the other hand, is a whole different story.

[proserpina65]

13 hours ago, sinycalone said:

I don't think Team Yale "got it" it at all....they certainly seemed resentful during the leg and on the mat.

I think they seemed pretty chill about it, actually.  (Edited to note: Compared to teams in other seasons.)

Edited February 8, 2018 by proserpina65

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, Lady Calypso said:

Plus, Evan is nowhere as bad as Ashton was with Vanck last season. Evan's snapped at Henry, but she also seems to like him. Ashton seemed like she couldn't stand being with a nerd like Vanck, to the point where she openly bitched about Vanck in front of him. I can never forget Ashton's comment to the cameras about how she tolerates Vanck while the poor guy was standing next to her. 

I agree that Ashton was horrible towards Vanck and her open contempt of him was deplorable.  She viewed herself as the beautiful blonde and she thought she deserved to be paired with... I forgot his name... the tall hunky dark haired buff guy.  Instead, she got this nerdy scrawny Asian guy. She didn't want to be with him and it was obvious.

But with Evan and Henry, from what they've told us, they started as friends.  Then they became debate partners.  And now they are supposedly dating.  

She doesn't treat Henry anywhere near as bad as Ashton treated Vanck but their relationships are different.  I guess I wish she would be a bit nicer to him instead of micromanaging and running the team.  They don't seem like equal partners.  But maybe that's how they are successful. If both halves of a couple have very strong, unyielding personalities, then it'd be difficult to make it work.  Someone has to give and pick his/her battles on the stuff that really matters.  Maybe Henry is content that way.  It doesn't make watching Evan any more pleasant to me, but I suppose that's just how they are.  She reminds me a lot of other dominating women on this show, particularly Millie the Mole and her amazing doormat Chuck, and Cindy and her mute pack mule Ernie.

[tiredofwork]

13 hours ago, ByaNose said:

The always have to stay together unless told otherwise. Mostly, because each team only has one camera & sound person.

 

3 hours ago, Bryce Lynch said:

I think, it is a general rule, that  except during roadblocks, or other times when they are required to split up,  the partners always have to stay together.

Thanks ByaNose, Rinaldo and BryceLynch for clarifying the roadblock rule.. So they cannot split the task.. Wow.

[ByaNose]

Even, when Jessica cheered the other teams at the singing challenge I didn't buy it. She expects everyone to play with her. Jessica & Cody were almost eliminated. I still think she and Cody work well together but I think they miss the Final 3. Maybe, 4th place?!??!

[Miles]

7 hours ago, RedheadZombie said:

Anyway, the skiers were also bitching about how Evan hadn't helped them that day - is this a priority?  And they seem to put the blame fully on Evan, not Henry and Evan.

That was during the swap, so Henry wasn't with Evan. Hard to blame him for something he wasn't present for.

Edited February 8, 2018 by Miles

[ProfCrash]

I will be interested to see how close Cody and Jessica were to Evan and Henry, I suspect that is less then 30 minutes. I can see Jessica and Cody in the final three. They work well together and Cody can beast through just about any task. He shut down for a few minutes at the dance/sing task but went up on the stage for the third try and danced with Jessica and passed the task. It seems that he managed to figure out what was needed and he did it. Based on Indy's overall lack luster performance, I suspect that they are the next team out. They were nearly caught and passed by at least one of the teams that had to complete two detours, quite possibly both teams. That is a lot of lost time completing one task. Brittney and Lucas have been doing better these last few legs but they had some serious issues the first few legs. So which one will we see the next few weeks?

I think Yale and BB showed how strong they are by surviving the U Turn and catching up to most, if not all, of the teams at the singing/dancing task. Both BB and Yale are going to be hard to beat.

[TVbitch]

Wow. The most shocking twist DID happen this episode: Phil had facial hair! ... ... I didn't hate it.   

Ah bummer, the guys were so close. But the two teams who did a Double U-Turn and still survived (like them or not) earned it. Wish the violinists had also had the post Double-U Turn task for there chance to catch up.

[tiredofwork]

I applaud the patience and kindness of the musical task teachers.  They seemed at least by the footage we saw to be very helpful and supportive and usefully constructively critical of these whiny, pouty sob's...

[Netfoot]

20 minutes ago, Miles said:

The swap was pointless, but kinda fun.

Totally pointless.  The swapped team members continue to work with their original partners by shouting help across to the other swapped team.  And there is no way they can have a swapped team come last and be eliminated, because they would be eliminating a racer from two separate teams, and I can't see them asking the remaining swapped team to continue racing with (effectively) strangers as team-mates while everyone else gets to race with their partner of choice.  So, the team swap is little different from the earlier Intersection (I think it was called) where teams had to join forces and solve challenges together, before separating again.

Hirsute Phil:  More.  Or less.

[RedheadZombie]

34 minutes ago, Miles said:

I guess my post got deleted because I quoted a controversial post. Lame. Couldn't that part been edited out instead of my hole post being deleted?

 

I guess quick summary of the last post: I think these two legs complimented each other very well. The first one had the amazing scenery, but no good tasks, the second one had pretty good tasks but no scenery. Each leg on it's own wouldn't have worked for me, but together they were fun.

The swap was pointless, but kinda fun. I like it sooooooo much more than the head to head, so if they keep one of the new twist, I hope it's the swap and they improve a bit on it.

Edit: Oh and I agree with people in this thread that teams working together has reached a point where it has gone too far. I was always very relaxed about it and didn't mind it too much, but this season it seems to be done so much that people just expect it. Maybe there should be a rule against teams working together.

 

That was during the swap, so Henry wasn't with Evan. Hard to blame him for something he wasn't present for.

True.  I guess they didn't blame the twin because Evan is clearly the decision maker with whichever partner she has.

I don't mind so much when teams work together, unless it's clearly an all against one situation.  I remember how nasty Team Cancer and their little clique were to Rachel and Brendan.  I also dislike when multiple teams scheme to U-turn a team they don't like.  I kind of like Evan's attitude.  She worked with another team when it was mutually beneficial - the phones, and declined to do it this episode because she didn't need the help.

[RedheadZombie]

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

IRRC, the phone challenge cooperation started when they were in the phone room, and Brittany and Jessica both exchanged what words they had already found, in an agreement to share everything.  So it wasn't a one way street - really, why would she even agree to doing that?  I don't think what she did - withholding the one word until she was sure she was through - was that bad.  It really didn't hold up the other teams.  But it did violate the spirit of their agreement to cooperate and just made her look bad. 

So, from my view, yes, Jessica was a complete hypocrite in being pissed off that someone wouldn't just immediately come and help them with the mat, especially when there was no reciprocal benefit to the other team.

In general, I don't mind teams helping each other out - being social and liked is part of the game, especially when it comes to u-turns.  TAR is a "what goes around comes around" game to some extent.  If you're not the two last teams, why not work together when it benefits you?

I agree.  With the swap between teams it just was too easy for the swapped pairs to work together, pointing out where the canteens were, etc.  If the new teams were switched up more, then it would have been everyone for themselves.  Also, I think any swap is a very good indicator that leg will be an NEL, otherwise one team would get eliminated due to the fault of at least one non-team member.  And that's not very TAR-like.

Brittany withheld all of her words until Jessica had given every one of hers to Brittany.  That's not really in the spirit either.  Plus, Brittany and whoever had every word but one, and still couldn't put together a sentence that came even close.  So Jessica gave them not only the word, but the correct sentence.  I maintain they would still be answering phones today without Jessica's help.  

I didn't like that Jessica or the Ski team were bitching about Evan's lack of help, but I think the other teams are intimidated by the fact that Yale are very nerdy, yet keeping up athletically.   Typically the show casts very intelligent teams who trip over their own feet half the time.  Obviously this excludes the MDs that won the race.

I wouldn't have guessed that the non-blonde skier was the superior member, but she seems less intense and more positive.

[meep.meep]

I hate the judged music/dance tasks.  It was clear that the skiers were judged much more harshly than BB or Indy just because they were there early on. 

[HurricaneVal]

1 minute ago, RedheadZombie said:

Plus, Brittany and whoever had every word but one, and still couldn't put together a sentence that came even close.  So Jessica gave them not only the word, but the correct sentence.  I maintain they would still be answering phones today without Jessica's help.

Yeah, Brittany and whoever were just basically looking at Jessica waiting for her to just solve it for them already.  If they had been actively working to solve the phrase together, then I'd have a lot more of a problem with Jessica withholding the real word.  But since the other two seemed to be waiting for Jessica to do all the work for them so they could reap the rewards, then I'm A-OK with Jessica taking care of herself and her team first, before giving the other two not just the real withheld word, but the entire correct phrase.  She only bought herself about a two minute head start. 

At the singing/dancing comp, I think the later arrivals had a bit of an advantage--they got to hear the song over and over again, and witness what seemed to work and not work up on the stage.  I suspect if Team BB or Team Indy, or even Team Yale had been first, they would have had the same steep learning curve that Team Extreme had.  But that comp was torture, for the racers and the audience.   I felt so bad for each team when the music just stopped and their faces fell because they knew they'd failed.

I loved the mail delivery and tire delivery challenges--that was classic TAR stuff right there, as were the safari comps.  Dare I hope for a return to Europe and some cheese-rolling, or perhaps canal hopping?

[blackwing]

30 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Totally pointless.  The swapped team members continue to work with their original partners by shouting help across to the other swapped team.  And there is no way they can have a swapped team come last and be eliminated, because they would be eliminating a racer from two separate teams, and I can't see them asking the remaining swapped team to continue racing with (effectively) strangers as team-mates while everyone else gets to race with their partner of choice.  So, the team swap is little different from the earlier Intersection (I think it was called) where teams had to join forces and solve challenges together, before separating again.

Hirsute Phil:  More.  Or less.

The swap was meaningless because it was a TBC but it did alter some positions.  But I would have had it be an elimination.  Since swapped teams had to wait until both halves of the swap came in, it means those two teams were the least successful.  I would have made it a true CBS Expect the Unexpected Gamechanger and had those two teams, in their original pairings, do a head to head battle.  Loser eliminated.  

13 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

I hate the judged music/dance tasks.  It was clear that the skiers were judged much more harshly than BB or Indy just because they were there early on. 

 Not sure I agree.  From what we saw on air, Blonde was really horrible, offbeat and offkey.  The others weren't great either but they too got stopped early on.

[Miles]

26 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Totally pointless.  The swapped team members continue to work with their original partners by shouting help across to the other swapped team.  And there is no way they can have a swapped team come last and be eliminated, because they would be eliminating a racer from two separate teams, and I can't see them asking the remaining swapped team to continue racing with (effectively) strangers as team-mates while everyone else gets to race with their partner of choice.  So, the team swap is little different from the earlier Intersection (I think it was called) where teams had to join forces and solve challenges together, before separating again.

I could see three scenarios how you could actually make this work.

1. You make it a double elimination. Whatever swap team comes in last gets eliminated alongside their partners, no matter at what position those partners reached the mat. That would still require a straight swap, like it was done here. Also it would require another NEL or TBC, so it's not ideal.

2. You only eliminate the last team coming in and their partners would have to continue racing as the swapped team. Of course you couldn't have done it that way this season, but if you tell them from the start that the possibility exists, I think that could be an interesting twist. We still keep most teams with preexisting relationships, but we have one team that is thrown together and has to figure it out. Also it's not like they got into that situation undeserved. Their teammates did come in last.

3. What blackwing said. That would actually be a good use of the head to head, as the teams are already in last place.

6 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

I hate the judged music/dance tasks.  It was clear that the skiers were judged much more harshly than BB or Indy just because they were there early on. 

Not really. It was more important to the judges that you kept the rythm than that your pronounciation was good and blonde skier was horrible at keeping rythm.

[chaifan]

RedHeadZombie & Hurricane Val, I see where you're comign from on the Jessica/Brittany phone collaboration kerfuffle.  The whole exchange below (in italics) is from Jen's blog.  I think it gives some great insight, but in the end, as Jen notes, we still don't have all the information:

 

I don’t think Jess sabotaged Brittany & Alex, but she was uncomfortably sneaky, and intentionally so: “The last thing I wanted was to give everyone all of my hard-work and then see them leaving the roadblock before me. I didn’t feel comfortable sharing the actual answer until I was heading out that door with the clue in my hand.” This is completely fair, but there was probably a better way to go about it.

In the context of the race, I give her props for thinking on her toes so quickly. I couldn’t have come up with that plan on the spot. Might not be the same game Kristi and I are playing, but this girl is in this game to win it. I also completely understand why Brittany is expressing reservations about trusting Jessica moving forward. Don’t forget she’s also in a race for $1,000,000.

What We See:

Jess asks Brittany, “How many words do you have? I have 5, but I’m missing 3.”

Brittany responds, “Which ones do you have? I’ll tell you if I have the one that you’re missing. Ha!”

Jess says, “This, Is, It, and then Stops,” then states, “let me know if you find another word.”

We then see Brittany & Alex hand in their sheets, while Jess changes “this” to “life.” After B & A get it wrong, she turns her in form, gets it right and gets her clue.

What We Don’t See:

I’ve typed out the scenario, word for word, but we are still missing so much information. For example, we don’t see when Alex got in the mix. We don’t hear anyone explicitly say “let’s work together”. And we don’t see who did what when they were solving the puzzle… In other words, we don’t have all the facts, so how can we judge?

So, what should Jess have done?

By telling them the word before she left, Jess prevented an all out war. Had she not done that, she would have guaranteed that she and Cody would be racing with a target on their back. Jess could have gotten the same results without potentially burning bridges by negotiating the collaboration. She was in a power position because she had more words than Brittany & Alex combined. By saying, I’ll give you my words if you let me get the clue first when we solve the puzzle, she would have preserved some relationships. Easy for me to say in hindsight though. All said and done, it’s a race.

https://jenhudak.com/amazing-race-30-6/

[Writing Wrongs]

I kind of hate the 2 hour episodes. I start getting bored after the first hour.

[joanne3482]

35 minutes ago, Miles said:

Not really. It was more important to the judges that you kept the rythm than that your pronounciation was good and blonde skier was horrible at keeping rythm.

That is true, but when they arrived they were told they were going to be judged on pronunciation as well so it seemed like the women were focusing more on getting the words right than the rhythm whereas the other teams were seemingly able, to me, to get away with butchering the song as long as they had the rhythm.  

Which is why I generally agree about not liking the singing/dancing tasks. It is too subjective and can be very difficult for some. I think on those tasks I'd like it that after x tries you're passed through no matter how bad. Obviously don't tell the racers that, but have it as a secret part of the judging.  They could vary the number of tries from situation to situation so the racers don't catch on.  It would prevent situations like that one time in an African nation, I think, where the tall African American male racer just could not get the dance right and was there seemingly for HOURS.  That's not fun to watch.   (I can see him in my mind's eye... he's wearing white and has a hat on and could not get the dance to save his life.) 

Edited February 8, 2018 by joanne3482

[Miles]

36 minutes ago, joanne3482 said:

That is true, but when they arrived they were told they were going to be judged on pronunciation as well so it seemed like the women were focusing more on getting the words right than the rhythm whereas the other teams were seemingly able, to me, to get away with butchering the song as long as they had the rhythm.  

All teams had to figure out that the words didn't matter that much. Of course later teams had a bit of an advantage, since they could observe teams that came before them. On the other hands teams who got there earlier had more team to reherse. I think it evens out in the end.

 

36 minutes ago, joanne3482 said:

Which is why I generally agree about not liking the singing/dancing tasks. It is too subjective and can be very difficult for some. I think on those tasks I'd like it that after x tries you're passed through no matter how bad. Obviously don't tell the racers that, but have it as a secret part of the judging.  They could vary the number of tries from situation to situation so the racers don't catch on.  It would prevent situations like that one time in an African nation, I think, where the tall African American male racer just could not get the dance right and was there seemingly for HOURS.  That's not fun to watch.   (I can see him in my mind's eye... he's wearing white and has a hat on and could not get the dance to save his life.) 

A random number of tries after which you are passed through seems increadibly unfair. That means you surviving the leg depends on what number production pulls out of a hat.

A singing and/or dancing task is no different than any other task on the race. Some teams are great at it and some teams suck at it. I don't see why there should be any special concessions to teams who suck at them.

Remember Big Easy being at the Kafka task for a whole night? How is Mark and Bopper being at a dance task for a few hours any different.

Edited February 8, 2018 by Miles

[meep.meep]

It's the judging part that I don't like.  Big Easy at the Kafka task, Lena with the hay bales - they had to find a finite answer.  The judged tasks are frequently very arbitrary - some people here were judged harshly on pronunciation, while others were passed through on that.  And Cody showed no more rhythm than either of the skiers, even in his successful try.

[LadyNebula]

That song they were singing - the whole time, I swore I'd heard it before.  And then it hit me - I'm almost certain that a band in Disney World's Animal Kingdom sings it.  And since I was there last month and heard that band several times, the song stuck.  It's quite catchy - when sung correctly ;)

[Miles]

8 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

The judged tasks are frequently very arbitrary - some people here were judged harshly on pronunciation, while others were passed through on that.

Nobody was judged harshly on pronounciation. Everybody was judged harshly on rythm. It's just that some people were crap at pronouncition and rythm.

I think it's also important to note, that the judges we see in the show don't actually judge. It's always somebody from production giving the judge a sign.

[biakbiak]

9 hours ago, RedheadZombie said:

See I don't interpret Jessica as being hypocritical.  In the phone challenge she was working with two morons.  She gave them all of her clues but withheld the last.  She gave them the correct answer immediately after she passed.  There've been many players who would have run off without revealing that last word.  They shouldn't have depended on Jessica to figure the whole thing out for them.  Anyway, the skiers were also bitching about how Evan hadn't helped them that day - is this a priority?  And they seem to put the blame fully on Evan, not Henry and Evan.

Did the skiers respond with Jessica suggesting she wanted to punch Evan in the face? 

[CaioF]

Well, not a big such a big fan of the swap twist but at least it was done the best way possible to not screw up with the teams (they should have done that on last season and on the dates season tho, it would make more sense). Didnt liked the singing task, I knew once the firefighters gave their first try they would be last, so the second half of that leg was lame... Teams helping the others on the second leg thinking the U-Turned teams would be waay behind must have kicked themselves once they saw everyone was there for the sing challenge.

Well, at this point of the race I can make a clear rank on the remaining teams IMO:

Skiers - My favorite team from day 1 and they still dont disappoint me, quite the opposite. By the end of the first leg having Kristi behind with Jessica and with all the edit on teams acknowledging how they are a strong team/the one to beat, I was worried that we would witness a major upset. Thankfully, once again, they killed together in the second leg, managing to move right to first and come at the end in second. I can´t fault them on anything so far and from the remaining teams, they are way above in my list.

GAP

Yale - They managed to handle well the U-Turn and the sing challenge, they are doing well but watching them talking about themselves it seems they overestimate themselves just a little bit sometimes ´´oh, people are afraid of us.. Yes, they must be``... I dont know, later on its comming of a little more than just being confident. And Evan still give me mixed feelings, actually they relationship on how shes so dominant over him/think shes above him.

Lifeguards -I can´t believe I´m putting them here because they would be my dead last till last week.. I dont know it they are getting lucky but they played well both legs and grew during the race.. I still dont know how much they will be able to keep being at the top tho because they have their issues/limitations.

Big Brother - After being the proclammed ´´we are here to play the game, no matter what`` etc, now they get mad everytime someone doesnt help them or because of a U-Turn? They would be the last team I would expect to see a entitlement of getting help. And I can´t with the drama/kiss for the cameras.. Dont feel genuine for me, they still look like plants that producers want to keep till the end/give more focus on the race just because lame BB.

The Racer - How are they still here? Kinda every season we have a team that is a mess a makes further than expected and this year is this two. They are awfull with navigation, stuggle with most of the tasks/anything that need any minimal thinking behind. God, even the task involving DRIVING skills that one manages to mess up and keep himself sit down watching the firefighter put all his effort to make them move away.

Sad to see the firefighters go... They werent good racers at the beginning but they grew the last couple legs taking in count how they work together etc I would had them in second, behind the big gap under the Skiers, had they survived.

Edited February 8, 2018 by CaioF

[Silver Raven]

8 hours ago, Brookside said:

How long do you think it took the producers to teach some of the team members how to say Zimbabwe correctly?

And Harare.  It's not Harair.

[Waldo13]

Evan and Henry make sure they read and understand each roadblock and detour and are disciplined enough to work through them logically. They don't seem to panic. Brain power is their strength but physical power doesn't seem to be a major detriment at this point of the race.  

Of the remaining teams, Big Brother and Ocean Rescue seem the most likely to panic under pressure.  

[CaioF]

33 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Did the skiers respond with Jessica suggesting she wanted to punch Evan in the face? 

She said something like ´´no, you shouldnt do that`` or something like it. She was the only one that made sense out of the help or not situation.. Once Evan said she wouldnt help and Jessica started whinning about it, she was the one telling her to stop with it and focus on their challenge. Than yes, she was right at calling out her mate at helping Evan out of knowhere. Its not like she was taking it exactly personal as the others, but you just dont help other teams (specially at this point) unless you get something back. Team Yale never helped them so why help them? But she looked at her partner jocking with a side eye, showing she didnt made a big deal of it, just warning her partner to be aware.

[eel2178]

18 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I will say, though, that I just don't get why teams hate Evan so much. Jessica said that she's not a team player. Ok, I get that even this race requires a little bit of teamwork, but it's still a race at the end of the day.

 You only need good team work to work with your own team member. The expectation that teams will work together to help each other finish tasks is ludicrous. I don't know where Jessica gets the idea that everyone should be helping her, but I'm quickly getting the impression she feels she is pretty entitled.

[eel2178]

15 hours ago, EllenB said:

Every time a racer says "Good job!  Good job!" to their partner, all I can think of is a two-year-old being praised for pooping.

At least it isn't, "You got this," over and over.

[amazingracefan]

4 hours ago, chaifan said:

RedHeadZombie & Hurricane Val, I see where you're comign from on the Jessica/Brittany phone collaboration kerfuffle.  The whole exchange below (in italics) is from Jen's blog.  I think it gives some great insight, but in the end, as Jen notes, we still don't have all the information:

 

I don’t think Jess sabotaged Brittany & Alex, but she was uncomfortably sneaky, and intentionally so: “The last thing I wanted was to give everyone all of my hard-work and then see them leaving the roadblock before me. I didn’t feel comfortable sharing the actual answer until I was heading out that door with the clue in my hand.” This is completely fair, but there was probably a better way to go about it.

In the context of the race, I give her props for thinking on her toes so quickly. I couldn’t have come up with that plan on the spot. Might not be the same game Kristi and I are playing, but this girl is in this game to win it. I also completely understand why Brittany is expressing reservations about trusting Jessica moving forward. Don’t forget she’s also in a race for $1,000,000.

What We See:

Jess asks Brittany, “How many words do you have? I have 5, but I’m missing 3.”

Brittany responds, “Which ones do you have? I’ll tell you if I have the one that you’re missing. Ha!”

Jess says, “This, Is, It, and then Stops,” then states, “let me know if you find another word.”

We then see Brittany & Alex hand in their sheets, while Jess changes “this” to “life.” After B & A get it wrong, she turns her in form, gets it right and gets her clue.

What We Don’t See:

I’ve typed out the scenario, word for word, but we are still missing so much information. For example, we don’t see when Alex got in the mix. We don’t hear anyone explicitly say “let’s work together”. And we don’t see who did what when they were solving the puzzle… In other words, we don’t have all the facts, so how can we judge?

So, what should Jess have done?

By telling them the word before she left, Jess prevented an all out war. Had she not done that, she would have guaranteed that she and Cody would be racing with a target on their back. Jess could have gotten the same results without potentially burning bridges by negotiating the collaboration. She was in a power position because she had more words than Brittany & Alex combined. By saying, I’ll give you my words if you let me get the clue first when we solve the puzzle, she would have preserved some relationships. Easy for me to say in hindsight though. All said and done, it’s a race.

https://jenhudak.com/amazing-race-30-6/

The last sentence pretty much invalidates all the before.  They are all 'in it to win it', that's even what Jen or her partner said this latest episode about themselves anyway.

 

And the reason you get teams asking for help, is because they are are all doing it, it's not specific to one team at all.  It's happened plenty over the last decade of the race, and nothing's been done to discourage it.

[PreBabylonia]

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Damn it, so close!!

I was surprised at how well Brittany worked with Alex, but good for them both.  And Conor wasn't useless with Lucas.

I totally would've chosen both the tracking task and the tire delivery.  I think I could've done the singing/dancing task pretty well; I'm good at picking up lyrics when I have them in front of me, and I was grooving to the song while sitting on the couch.  My best friend, on the other hand, is a whole different story.

I actually found Conor completely useless. I didn't realize before how Alex is the heart and soul of that team. Too bad Henry and Alex aren't a team. I would still like Yale to win (or the skiers), but I am no longer as fond of Evan. Poor Henry. And interesting to see Cody and Jessica descend back into their less than charming characters that originally turned me off them in BB.

I liked switching the teams around just so we could see how the individuals react. Some of them are completely different when playing with a new team mate and it's a great way to see what they are made of...for instance, i was very impressed with Henry using all his physical strength to help his teammate wynch out their SUV. Unlike Conor just sitting back in the vehicle while the firefighter did all the work. I would have just put it into neutral and tried to push from the back, since that seemed to be causing most of the problem. I also think that Cody and Jen benefitted from going thru the mudpond first. I don't think it was superior driving but the mud not being worn down under successive vehicles.

[CaioF]

50 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

 You only need good team work to work with your own team member. The expectation that teams will work together to help each other finish tasks is ludicrous. I don't know where Jessica gets the idea that everyone should be helping her, but I'm quickly getting the impression she feels she is pretty entitled.

I would only partially agree.. Yep, you dont need to keep helping teams /the most important its the relation with your team member BUT since this is not a straight race, there are twists etc, its better for you to at least keep nice with your fellow racers. We see this season after season and last night we had the perfect example: TeamExtreme wasnt considered on be U-Turned despiste they be the strongest team and the others knowing that. They got espared because of they good relationship with the other competitors while other teams created friction between themselves. Again, is not a obrigation but is smart to not become a easy targed and thats what mostly happens: Teams will have a easier time U-Turning or making anything to slow down a team that they dont get along very much. Its easier for us to think watching outside the competition but like mentioned a few posts above, when you are in a competition like this, things will become personal, even if its just a little bit.. So, its not exactly about help other teams just to please them but about be aware of this other aspect of the competition.

Edited February 8, 2018 by CaioF

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, eel2178 said:

I don't know where Jessica gets the idea that everyone should be helping her...

Generation: Entitled.

[SoCal4Us]

I don't think Cody was shutting down or giving up at all.  He wanted to get back in line to try again as fast as possible...to learn by doing.  He also seems to get into a zone and was probably "rehearsing" the song in his head while waiting their turn.  While he and Jessica sang on their third turn, someone off camera even remarked that they were good.

Although I understand Brittany wanting to u-turn Jessica Big Brother, the smarter move to me should have been the skiers, who have finished in the top three more than any other team (I think?).

Even though Cody and Jen nailed the 4x4 driving task, he should have listened to Jen and switched to the horse-riding one (once realizing their respective teammates couldn't drive a stick shift).  Or at least had Kristi as his partner and Jen with Jessica.  Hindsight...

Add me to the list of those above who don't like to see an elimination after a subjectively-judged talent task.

I won't be disappointed with any of the final teams winning, but would love to see the skiers take it all!

[njcate]

Seems like a ton of people do not like team big brother - particularly Jessica.  

Did Jessica really expect Evan to help her ?!!!!  that was laughable !!!! 

Jessica needs to take a long hard look at herself - cause it ain't pretty !

Go YALE!!!  

[amazingracefan]

Many people automatically don't like teams from other reality shows, although they may well help the viewing figures.

Edited February 9, 2018 by amazingracefan

[UGAmp]

Jessica got some serious side eye from a local when she was rolling the tire. She basically barked “out of the way” (or something similar) as she tried to move past him and you could tell he did NOT appreciate it (and I can’t blame him). I don’t watch BB but she’s definitely not my favorite (or even in my top five) based on what I’m seeing. 

Re: partners splitting up. I believe I read an interview with a previous contestant that the pairings always have to be within a certain number of yards of each other AND their camera crew. Not sure if there’s a penalty (that they would show on tv) if they disobey but I think they are definitely managed and corrected by someone if they get too far from each other.  

Sad it wasn’t a NEL for the firefighters. They weren’t the best team but they tried their best and always seemed to keep their cool and enjoy themselves/the experience. I wonder how close they were to beating Team BB to the mat. If it was just a couple of minutes and they hadn’t stopped to help Evan and Henry could that have made a difference? This is why you don’t help other teams. At the very least don’t give explicit directions! Just a general hand wave in the direction they need to go if you must help. It’s for a million dollars people! C’mon!

Someone pleeeeeease tell me who Jen (brown hair skier) looks like. I can’t even pay attention to the episode half of the time because I’m trying to figure it out! It’s some actress or maybe someone who was on Survivor? It’s driving me insane. My roommate said Jennifer Garner but that’s not it. Ugh. It’s just like with Devon last season on Survivor. Never figured out his doppelgänger either. Someone please solve this for me! 

[babs1226]

Conor was paired up with Brittany's partner, who did ask him in their interview why he didn't get out and help.  As for Jessica, she wouldn't have asked Evan to work together if she and blonde skier had not screwed up and paid more attention to their safari than the order of the objects.  I thought Evan's response was very polite, and Jessica's reaction was ridiculous. Evan's not a team player?  What team, Jessica?  The only person on your team is Cody.  It's a race!  I actually thought that Jessica could have won BB if she had followed her own instincts instead of listening to Cody.  Her reaction in this case was beyond childish.  Also with the u-turn.The way I see it, if you u-turn anyone, regardless of the reason, karma will pay you back.  You u-turned someone.  Someone u-turned you.  Oh well.      

[J-Man]

12 hours ago, amazingracefan said:

In that delivery place Henry and Evan weren't given a gentle push they directly asked for help just like Cody and Jessica did.  And they were told what floors they would have to do.

And the team that helped them ended up getting eliminated. How'd that work out for you, guys?

The instructor that Kristi and Jen had was really gorgeous. She should've been the greeter.

[Charlesman]

7 hours ago, meep.meep said:

I hate the judged music/dance tasks.  It was clear that the skiers were judged much more harshly than BB or Indy just because they were there early on. 

Did every team take 3 tries? 

I certainly don't remember any team needing 4.

[chaifan]

43 minutes ago, UGAmp said:

Someone pleeeeeease tell me who Jen (brown hair skier) looks like. I can’t even pay attention to the episode half of the time because I’m trying to figure it out! It’s some actress or maybe someone who was on Survivor? It’s driving me insane. My roommate said Jennifer Garner but that’s not it. Ugh. It’s just like with Devon last season on Survivor. Never figured out his doppelgänger either. Someone please solve this for me! 

I mentioned this in Extreme's thread, but I think Jen looks like Celine Dion.