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

[meep.meep]

1 hour ago, Charlesman said:

Did every team take 3 tries? 

I certainly don't remember any team needing 4.

The skiers went at least 6 times.

[CaioF]

1 hour ago, J-Man said:

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.

Most of the teams got fooled by the U-Turn assuming it would put the two teans way behind/no chance of catching up with others (like the last time one team was U-Turned). Big mistake. Not sure It would have made a difference in the outcome this time, but who knows...

1 hour ago, Charlesman said:

Did every team take 3 tries? 

I certainly don't remember any team needing 4.

The first teams that arrived there had to try more (Jen and Kristi/Jason and Britanny in particular). IDK if the judges were easier on the last teams so it would make it closer or if because there was more teams in line, the teams that got there later waited more rehearsing/at the line so having less tries.

Edited February 9, 2018 by CaioF

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, UGAmp said:

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.  

Over the years I've gotten the impression that the teams get a very strong "just don't do it, OK?" during orientation or whatever they have, and then if they seem to be observing the spirit of that rule (as they pretty much always do, in my experience), nobody goes around offscreen measuring to make sure they didn't overstep by a yard for a few seconds -- as long as they approximate the right distance (or less) they're OK.

[aemom]

How long have Ocean Rescue been together? Is it 9 years, I'm really not sure. And are they engaged or something, does she have a diamond ring, did I hear talk of a wedding?

BRITTANY - OH MY GOD JUST STOP ALREADY!!!

[CaioF]

44 minutes ago, AEMom said:

How long have Ocean Rescue been together? Is it 9 years, I'm really not sure. And are they engaged or something, does she have a diamond ring, did I hear talk of a wedding?

BRITTANY - OH MY GOD JUST STOP ALREADY!!!

Can you imagine if they win? Phil will add to his speech: ´´After $% legs, #$& countries, 9 years together and one diamond ring, Brittany and Jason you are the winners of TAR!``.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

5 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Generation: Entitled.

I don't think Jessica represents an entire generation. 

[etagloh]

I was actually okay with how the partner-split gimmick turned out, even though it could only have ended with a NEL or TBC. I was less okay with the continuation: another W-turn at the very beginning and a judged performance task at the very end? As others have said, repeatedly failing to nail a routine is KF for the viewer, and I admit I skipped a lot of it, but it also compresses the finishing order down into "how many times are we going to be failed and what can we do differently to get the pass?" It's a bit of a crapshoot.

No Road Blocks in either leg, though. Admittedly, both Detour options in the first part seemed pretty long and were wrapped in a lot of travel and the overnight camp, but it felt like TPTB spent all their Zimbabwe budget on B-roll of animals and stretched a single leg's tasks over two legs. Also, it's a RAAA--oh well.

[jhlipton]

16 hours ago, amazingracefan said:

Most didn't seem to do the delivery task in a very ordered way, it would have been best to find out which floors they all needed to go to first and do them in an order which was efficient.

I'm not sure but it seemed like the mall had at least two distinct sides.  So ordering them by floor wouldn't work if you had to switch sides between floors.

11 hours ago, Miles said:

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.

I think it would also have to come fairly early in the race.  Having a double elimination ot 5 or 6 teams would be painful.

6 hours ago, PreBabylonia said:

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.

I think they were more careful to see where the deep and "goopy" parts were.  It looked like a fairly wide crossing so I'm not sure anyone had to go through the same part as anyone else, and we saw the thrird team side by side with the second, so they weren't on the same path.

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Over the years I've gotten the impression that the teams get a very strong "just don't do it, OK?" during orientation or whatever they have, and then if they seem to be observing the spirit of that rule (as they pretty much always do, in my experience), nobody goes around offscreen measuring to make sure they didn't overstep by a yard for a few seconds -- as long as they approximate the right distance (or less) they're OK.

I have a hazy memory of one team getting too far apart, and getting a penalty for it.  But it's a very hazy memory.

[blackwing]

1 minute ago, jhlipton said:

 

I think they were more careful to see where the deep and "goopy" parts were.  It looked like a fairly wide crossing so I'm not sure anyone had to go through the same part as anyone else, and we saw the thrird team side by side with the second, so they weren't on the same path.

I have a hazy memory of one team getting too far apart, and getting a penalty for it.  But it's a very hazy memory.

Cody and his teammate actually got out and walked through it.  They did a much more thorough job than Conor and Lucas.  And I think Henry and twin just drove through without even bothering to test.

 

The team that got penalized for splitting... wasn't that Jon Vito and Jill?  I have a vague recollection of one of them climbing up some big rock while the other stayed on the ground.

[jhlipton]

1 minute ago, blackwing said:

The team that got penalized for splitting... wasn't that Jon Vito and Jill?  I have a vague recollection of one of them climbing up some big rock while the other stayed on the ground.

That sounds right, but I really don't recall.

[Irlandesa]

12 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I think they seemed pretty chill about it, actually. 

I thought they were told "Everything is on floors 2 and up."  I guess I didn't see that as very specific. 

12 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I think they seemed pretty chill about it, actually. 

I agree.  I don't think "not happy about being U-Turned" and "understanding the U-Turn" have to be mutually exclusive. Evan may not have looked happy with the other team on the mat.  She's competitive so that makes sense.  But when she had the chance to to say something about it, she talked about why they likely did what they did. 

[Falafel]

I'm playing catch-up here... What was with the outfits Team Yale were wearing in their final to-camera interview after they landed at the mat? I don't know if that's considered cool at Yale but it looked like they were wearing disguises or something. It was hilarious to me.

I can't stand the Big Brother team and it would be great if they'd stop casting people from CBS's other dumb reality shows. Cody sounds like an ignorant, ugly American and it was absurd that Jessica expected Evan to just give her the clue. I like the all-girl team, but man did the blonde's stock drop when she was paired up with Jessica - she was just as ridiculous for thinking Evan owed it to them to "work with them" when the other team had clearly been struggling and needed help.

I wasn't sure about the partner swap but it wasn't bad. It added a new dynamic to the race and it was directly going to decide who stayed and who went home. I'm interested to see if those allegiances continue. I thought it was really dumb to split the tasks though. It should've been obvious that four minds are better than two and they could've all worked together. Cody and his partner finishing first did nothing for them, and I suspected that was how it would work - you need both partners to arrive to move on.

That final task was ridiculous. They managed to give teams the clue even when they were so off beat and pronouncing everything wrong. It was totally arbitrary. As someone with natural rhythm, it's fascinating to me that some people just can't sing to a beat and keep a beat - I feel like they could've eventually gotten it right, but maybe not? The beat didn't sound that hard to get the hang of to me.

Question for people who know music: What time signature do you think the song was? It's called Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo and I found video. It may not be 4/4 and perhaps it was throwing the racers off, but it sounded really simple to me. They seemed to struggle simply with combining some of the syllables together instead of waiting for the next beat.

If any strong teams asked me for help, I tell myself I'd make up shit and try to get them eliminated. "Oh yeah, Cameron's hardware was on the left side of the street down a set of stairs." But I'm a bad liar and a blabbermouth, so I'd probably end up helping teams too.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Falafel

[AfterwardsTV]

They should've done the partner swap and made it a staple many seasons before this. It makes a NEL fresh. Just say it's a NEL from start but invoke some form of punishment to the losing pairs.

For weeks on end I didn't really notice what rubbed people wrong about Evan, but it was made more blatant than usual and I've figured out she's a selfish brat. She even got pissy at Henry for asking who U-Turned them. ("It doesn't matter!") Eek. 

Can't blame Phil for not being able to tell Eric and Daniel apart. Both were really plain bread. Still, lucky to have a fodder team to help Cody discover his duet calling. Jody on American Idol next.

Love, War, and a scorned Jody are not a combo you want working against you. They are going to knock Brittany and Lucas into 9 years. :) Three couples still in for Valentine's drama!!!

[Mumbles]

I have no idea how Snotty Little Missy from Yale has won debate championships, with all her uptalking and vocal fry. I hate the bitch.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Mumbles

[green]

I will miss the Firefighters.  They were my favorite team.  They were so normal and nice and grateful to be traveling the world. I wish they had lasted longer.

[Rinaldo]

6 hours ago, blackwing said:

The team that got penalized for splitting... wasn't that Jon Vito and Jill?  I have a vague recollection of one of them climbing up some big rock while the other stayed on the ground.

That stirs up a distant hazy memory for me too, maybe. In that instance, it wasn't any accidental "oops, stepped 31 feet apart for a sec" -- they definitively chose to split apart.

[Miles]

7 hours ago, Falafel said:

That final task was ridiculous. They managed to give teams the clue even when they were so off beat and pronouncing everything wrong. It was totally arbitrary. As someone with natural rhythm, it's fascinating to me that some people just can't sing to a beat and keep a beat - I feel like they could've eventually gotten it right, but maybe not? The beat didn't sound that hard to get the hang of to me.

Even if you have natural rythm (as do I and most people) it's hard to sing in a language you don't speak. You try to pronounce a word, fail and suddenly you're off beat. A lot of the racers immediatly noticed when they fucked up, you could see, but by then it was too late. Of course there were 2-3 rythmically challanged people in there who were totally clueless, which was kinda funny to see.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Miles

[ProfCrash]

I agree with the people who said that the groups who arrived late benefited from listening to the band and watching the other teams. They heard what mistakes they made and had a better idea about how to correct their course. It still took them a few times to get the task down but by the third time, they did well enough to get the clue. It is harder for the first teams since they don't have an example to watch or listen to. I don't believe that they would pass a team just to create a foot race to the mat.

But I can be pretty naïve.

[smartymarty]

Quote

we saw the thrird team side by side with the second, so they weren't on the same path.

Well, they couldn't go where the second team was, because the second team was still stuck in the mud.

I don't understand all the Evan hate. She was correct that getting going was more important than who U-turned them. At the point where Henry asked, she was already out on the street. Why turn around just for that? And I didn't think she snapped. She just rallied him on.

And she likely got the "blame" for not helping at the map puzzle because she answered "no" while her partner was silent. But why would you agree to work with someone before you've even tried the puzzle yourself? Work with them when both are having trouble.

[survivinmt]

I learned the song in 20 minutes sitting on the couch with no help from an instructor. I think listening to it for 5 minutes first without ANY instruction would be beneficial (at least to me). Forcing it is the challenge IMO.

Wasn't it Millie and Chuck, Dating Virgins of 13 years, that were dinged for splitting? I thought it had something to do with her catching a packed train in India and leaving Chuck and production behind.

I give Cody a pass on shutting down at the singing. He's a Marine (there is no such thing as a former Marine, just ask one of them) and he was asked to accomplish something he felt would make him look ridiculous. Its pretty much the same as someone having a height phobia or water fear. He kept at it until it was done - he didn't have to be happy about it. I would have loved to see the Well Strung guys do that challenge.

[seacliffsal]

This hasn't been mentioned yet, but Daniel actually helped Evan with the mapping of the evidence from poaching.  She said what she thought and then he clearly identified where four of the items went.  She got the credit from everyone for being smart, but he was essential in their getting it right on the first try.

I will miss the firefighters.  They seemed to genuinely like all of the other teams, and never made disparaging remarks about others.  Even on the elimination mat they had nothing but positive things to say about their experience.  They will have amazing memories of this adventure and I hope them nothing but happiness as they go back to their real lives.

I was so thrilled to see all of the animals.  I hope that game wardens will eventually start removing the ivory tusks from the elephants as elephants are getting more endangered every year.  I also hope that the game wardens received extra pay from production for being in the episode.  They are in an extremely dangerous job and they are doing what I believe to be God's work in trying to save and protect all of those magnificent animals.

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, PreBabylonia said:

actually found Conor completely useless. I didn't realize before how Alex is the heart and soul of that team.

I was referring to him actually being able to row/paddle, as opposed to his usual inability to do anything.  But yeah, he should've gotten out and helped with the winching.

[etagloh]

9 hours ago, Falafel said:

Question for people who know music: What time signature do you think the song was? It's called Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo and I found video. It may not be 4/4 and perhaps it was throwing the racers off, but it sounded really simple to me. They seemed to struggle simply with combining some of the syllables together instead of waiting for the next beat.

It's 4/4, but like a lot of sub-Saharan popular music, it's syncopated so the accents are on the "off" beats, which means that if you're attuned to songs where the phrasing lines up with the "on" beats, you're going to get out of sync very quickly. (There's also some triplet stuff there, I think.)

[snarktini]

20 minutes ago, etagloh said:

It's 4/4, but like a lot of sub-Saharan popular music, it's syncopated so the accents are on the "off" beats, which means that if you're attuned to songs where the phrasing lines up with the "on" beats, you're going to get out of sync very quickly. (There's also some triplet stuff there, I think.)

Ah, that explains it. There were a few times I was sure they were off beat but the judges didn't stop them ...now I realize I was the one who was wrong! I instinctively wanted to put accents on the on beats.

It did seem like judging got easier. I could justify where the skiers had to spend extra rounds because they were focusing on the words and not doing the "confident performance" part, but Cody didn't get either right and they still passed him through.

I was neutral on Yale, but after Jessica's tantrum and the targeting of them I'm rooting for them now.

[Vixenstud]

Buh-bye Firefighters, and take those stale Shecky Greene puns with you!

While I’m rooting for Team Yale, I’m beginning to dislike Evan and the way she treats Henry….he seems to be a milquetoast where she’s concerned, just once I’d like for him to blow up on him the way Lucas easily blows up on Brittany.

Speaking of Ms. Sophia….I’ma need for Brittany to shut the blue dilly FUCK up about her ring and upcoming wedding!  Gotdamn, every eppy she’s ‘I’se engaged now!’  And she wants to win so she can  spend a million bucks on a wedding?!  Gah, they gotta get eliminated and soon.

Team Yale and Team BB are the only ones left I’m rooting for.

[lexington11]

23 hours ago, RedheadZombie said:

I remember how nasty Team Cancer and their little clique were to Rachel and Brendan. 

And the worst part is that Rachel & Brendon didn't even do anything to deserve the nastiness from Team Cancer, the country girls, and the cowboys (Afghanimals not so much, because they did end up playing strategically instead of making the U-turn personal). All that drama started over Brenchel daring to U-turn Team Cancer in order to keep the lead that they had, and either Brendon or Rachel not sharing a clue with them, which again, it's a race, so there should be some expectations that it's every team for themselves. 

[jhlipton]

12 hours ago, Falafel said:

I like the all-girl team, but man did the blonde's stock drop when she was paired up with Jessica - she was just as ridiculous for thinking Evan owed it to them to "work with them" when the other team had clearly been struggling and needed help.

I think Kristi said one thing, then told Jessica to get back to focusing on the puzzle.  She clearly didn't take it personally.

[Falafel]

12 hours ago, Falafel said:

 I like the all-girl team, but man did the blonde's stock drop when she was paired up with Jessica - she was just as ridiculous for thinking Evan owed it to them to "work with them" when the other team had clearly been struggling and needed help.

7 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

I think Kristi said one thing, then told Jessica to get back to focusing on the puzzle.  She clearly didn't take it personally.

During the task, she did tell Jessica to get back on track and stop complaining about Evan. But it was afterward that she was complaining to her partner and told her not to help Evan. The partner just listened to what the blonde had to say regarding Evan's behavior and seemed to think Evan was mean or backstabbed them, which couldn't have been further from the truth. The blonde should've let it go afterward, but she didn't.

It's also bizarre that Evan got the blame from Jessica and the blonde, when the twin she was with wasn't falling over himself to give away the answer either. Serious double-standard there.

But someone needs to tell everyone this is a RAAAAACE. Say what you want about Boston Rob and Amber (I wasn't a fan of then even being cast on the show) but at least they got that it was a race.

[Falafel]

12 hours ago, Falafel said:

Question for people who know music: What time signature do you think the song was? It's called Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo and I found video. It may not be 4/4 and perhaps it was throwing the racers off, but it sounded really simple to me. They seemed to struggle simply with combining some of the syllables together instead of waiting for the next beat.

 

2 hours ago, etagloh said:

It's 4/4, but like a lot of sub-Saharan popular music, it's syncopated so the accents are on the "off" beats, which means that if you're attuned to songs where the phrasing lines up with the "on" beats, you're going to get out of sync very quickly. (There's also some triplet stuff there, I think.)

I'm noticing, listening to it back, that it would be a lot harder to know where to jump in and sing when it's just the music and there's no one to sing along to. Because while I find the melody very simple and I thought it seemed pretty easy, I had the benefit of trying to sing along with the singer. The beginning part without the vocals, it's not immediately clear where you have to start singing.

I'll trust others on the time signature, but it does remind of the song "Electric Feel" by MGMT, which has a 6/4 time signature, or even "Money" by Pink Floyd, which has a weird 7/4-4/4 time signature -- both those songs have a sort of "looping" quality to them that I don't know how to explain. Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo feels like it has a similar loop and does not sound like a 4/4 time signature to me, but it could be other elements that are throwing me off. I have not studied music in any capacity, but I do know that the vast majority of pop songs and music we know today is 4/4.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Falafel
(I didn't know how to edit my post and add the quotes, so apologies for double posts.)

[amazingracefan]

37 minutes ago, Falafel said:

During the task, she did tell Jessica to get back on track and stop complaining about Evan. But it was afterward that she was complaining to her partner and told her not to help Evan. The partner just listened to what the blonde had to say regarding Evan's behavior and seemed to think Evan was mean or backstabbed them, which couldn't have been further from the truth. The blonde should've let it go afterward, but she didn't.

It's also bizarre that Evan got the blame from Jessica and the blonde, when the twin she was with wasn't falling over himself to give away the answer either. Serious double-standard there.

But someone needs to tell everyone this is a RAAAAACE. Say what you want about Boston Rob and Amber (I wasn't a fan of then even being cast on the show) but at least they got that it was a race.

Though I didn't like Rob on Survivor I liked him with Amber on this show, and I was disappointed with the luck on finding the right letter task which seemed an unfair way to go out.

Edited February 9, 2018 by amazingracefan

[CaioF]

1 hour ago, Falafel said:

During the task, she did tell Jessica to get back on track and stop complaining about Evan. But it was afterward that she was complaining to her partner and told her not to help Evan. The partner just listened to what the blonde had to say regarding Evan's behavior and seemed to think Evan was mean or backstabbed them, which couldn't have been further from the truth. The blonde should've let it go afterward, but she didn't.

It's also bizarre that Evan got the blame from Jessica and the blonde, when the twin she was with wasn't falling over himself to give away the answer either. Serious double-standard there.

But someone needs to tell everyone this is a RAAAAACE. Say what you want about Boston Rob and Amber (I wasn't a fan of then even being cast on the show) but at least they got that it was a race.

And Kristi was absolutelly right.. She just made her partner aware that they didnt get any help from them before and that its too late on the game to help other teams just for be nice (like the The Racers helping BB thinking they will be nice with them next time.. Like no, next time its competing for the finale spot and than finale..keep waiting). She didnt took it personal or said that Evan should have helped them like Jesssica did, she just didnt want to be stupid by letting her partner screaming out loud helping words to a clear competition like Yale at this point of the competition. I actually laugh at her on their talking head segment looking at Jen like ´´guiiiiiiiiirl, wake up!`` in a joking way. Both Skiers seems to have a good relationship with everyone/be nice people (thats why despiste being the strongest team they werent considered for the U-Turn) but now they need to be more in controll on how nice they should be, like when Kristi wanted to warn team LifeGuard that they found the stairs and Jen told her to let them go because they werent waiting for them anyway.

Edited February 9, 2018 by CaioF

[watch2much]

The twins really grew on me over the past few weeks.  I really wanted them to stay.  I used to be in Jessica and Cody's corner but I've soured on them and would rather they went home.  Not a fan of Brittany but at least she was smart enough to realize they should memorize the order they found the clues unlike Jess and the skier who thought they were on vacation instead of a race.

I like the Yale team.  Evan is just very analytical and she does size up the situation very well to take the best course of action.  

I laughed out loud that Connor got them stuck in a ditch.  I realize it's not a race car,  but most people who like to drive know more than just one vehicle.  He definitely is the dead weight on any team.

[Shades of Scarlet]

3 hours ago, Falafel said:

I'm noticing, listening to it back, that it would be a lot harder to know where to jump in and sing when it's just the music and there's no one to sing along to. Because while I find the melody very simple and I thought it seemed pretty easy, I had the benefit of trying to sing along with the singer. The beginning part without the vocals, it's not immediately clear where you have to start singing.

I'll trust others on the time signature, but it does remind of the song "Electric Feel" by MGMT, which has a 6/4 time signature, or even "Money" by Pink Floyd, which has a weird 7/4-4/4 time signature -- both those songs have a sort of "looping" quality to them that I don't know how to explain. Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo feels like it has a similar loop and does not sound like a 4/4 time signature to me, but it could be other elements that are throwing me off. I have not studied music in any capacity, but I do know that the vast majority of pop songs and music we know today is 4/4.

Yeah, no, it's straight 4/4 all the way, but as mentioned the beat is highly syncopated, and also, on the version you linked  (great find, BTW!!), the two different guitar parts are asymmetric and completely distinct from one another, which draws the listener's ear and confuses the beat.  But I think there was only one guitarist in the band and he wasn't that prominent in the mix, so the teams may not have had that excuse. 

For all those discussing Evan's snap at Henry, I have yet to see it reported accurately.  He was dithering around asking who did it, and she snarled, "INDY CAR!!!  LET'S GO!!!!"  So it wasn't like she needed to go back and check.  She just lashed out.  Patience isn't her strong suit. 

Great episode. 

[snarts]

6 minutes ago, Shades of Scarlet said:

For all those discussing Evan's snap at Henry, I have yet to see it reported accurately.  He was dithering around asking who did it, and she snarled, "INDY CAR!!!  LET'S GO!!!!"  So it wasn't like she needed to go back and check.  She just lashed out.  Patience isn't her strong suit. 

I thought she said "IT DOESN'T MATTER. LET'S GO!"

[Mumbles]

6 hours ago, Vixenstud said:

, I’m beginning to dislike Evan and the way she treats Henry….he seems to be a milquetoast where she’s concerned, just once I’d like for him to blow up on him the way Lucas easily blows up on Brittany.

You are kinder than I am. I don’t even want to mention what I want him to do to her, except that it would hurt like hell when he was done doing it. She’s a privileged bitch.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Mumbles

[sinycalone]

As a few already mentioned, the two U-turned teams would have been fighting for last place/elimination if the next task had been a straight forward one involving no judging.  While they both did a good job handling both sides of the detour,  they were lucky the final challenge required not only judge approval....but had to wait their turn for their next attempt.

[alexa]

5 hours ago, Falafel said:

During the task, she did tell Jessica to get back on track and stop complaining about Evan. But it was afterward that she was complaining to her partner and told her not to help Evan. The partner just listened to what the blonde had to say regarding Evan's behavior and seemed to think Evan was mean or backstabbed them, which couldn't have been further from the truth. The blonde should've let it go afterward, but she didn't.

It's also bizarre that Evan got the blame from Jessica and the blonde, when the twin she was with wasn't falling over himself to give away the answer either. Serious double-standard there.

But someone needs to tell everyone this is a RAAAAACE. Say what you want about Boston Rob and Amber (I wasn't a fan of then even being cast on the show) but at least they got that it was a race.

That is how I saw it too. She definitely seemed more bothered about the lack of help than she should have been. I noticed she was critical when she mentioned it later. 

[njcate]

1 hour ago, Mumbles said:

You are kinder than I am. I don’t even want to mention what I want him to do to her, except that it would hurt like hell when he was done doing it. She’s a privileged bitch.

Going to Yale doesn't mean she is privileged.  And just because she's running a race that she's trying to win doesn't make her a $:)/@. 

It's a race and she's competing- I don't see anything wrong with that - she's a confident young woman, good for her. 

[Mumbles]

25 minutes ago, njcate said:

Going to Yale doesn't mean she is privileged.

If you’re equating privilege with money, maybe, because those schools do offer financial aid. But going to an Ivy League school is probably the most privileged you can get in this country, as it relates to opportunities presented to the alums upon graduation. And boy is that uppity little pig proud of it, with her Yale hat. Her imperious tone and attitude toward the other teams are insufferable. I can barely look at that smirky mug of hers with its big snout when watching this show. 

[etagloh]

4 hours ago, Shades of Scarlet said:

 I think there was only one guitarist in the band and he wasn't that prominent in the mix, so the teams may not have had that excuse. 

Yep. If you "1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and" the rhythm, then you need to recognise that the vocals go on the "ands" and adapt to that.

[elslattern]

On 2/8/2018 at 10:36 AM, ProfCrash said:

I don't think Henry has a problem with Evan.

Must say I totally agree. I've been surprised to read commentary framing Henry as some emasculated henpecked doormat being bossed around who 'needs to stand up for himself.' Whose to say Henry doesn't appreciate Evan precisely for her take charge attitude? And if he does, that doesn't mean he's passive or weak. Some of use are just more laidback, go with the flow type of personalities. I have zero problems standing up for myself and can be extremely passionate, obdurate and firm when it comes to things I consider important, but 99% of the time, I'm just happy to go with the flow and let other people have control. Evan clearly does have some high strung tendencies, amplified by the pressures of the race, but there is no indication that Henry minds. And if he doesn't, I don't either. I appreciated Henry's gentle response to the firefighter's gendered nonsense (I actually like him but the comment was weird) that 'girls are just better at that stuff' this week; something along the lines of, 'No, Evan's good at this kind of stuff.' Also, I need a gif of the fanny packed Henry robotically stomping his way through a box step with ferocious concentration.

Kristi seemed a little grumpy this episode, taking Evan's polite refusal rather personally, and getting frustrated at the singing task. Conor, I'm sorry to say, seems kind of useless. Why wasn't he winching at all?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I really felt for the teams when Jen said that they had been traveling for thirty hours (3 planes, a taxi ride, a train, and then a van to the wildlife place). But I loved that as tired as they all must have been, they all got excited when they saw the animals.

While I am all for the show going to a variety of locations aka not spending the majority of the race in Europe, I hate that whenever the next destination is really far away, the team that finished first in the previous leg essentially loses that advantage. I totally understand the logistics of it because there are only so many flights, but I still dislike the bunching and the team in first place losing the advantage of leaving first.

Why the BB team is hypocritical aka another reason they bug the shit out of me:

On working with other teams:
Prague:

Quote

Jessica: The last thing I wanted to do was to give everyone all of my hard work and then see them leave the roadblock before me so I didn't feel comfortable sharing the actual answer until I was heading out that door with the clue in my hand.
Alex: What was "life"?
Brittany: She said it wrong from the beginning. She told us wrong just to save it for her.
Cody: Way to make allies, by the way.
Alex: Jessica lied to Brittany and I. She was giving us false words.
Lucas: She what?
Brittany: She fed us the wrong words so she would make sure she got it first.

Zimbabwe:

Quote

 

Jessica: [Evan] frustrates me because she's not a team player at any point in time.

Jessica: Is punching Evan in the face allowed?

Evan: It has to be mutually beneficial to agree to [working with another team]

 

On using the u-turn as a game strategy:
Prague:

Quote

Jessica: When it came to the u-turn board, it was clear as day what needed to happen to give us an advantage.
Cody: We're going to u-turn the violinists.
Jessica: The u-turn is a weapon and we really didn't have an issue pulling the trigger if it meant surviving.
[Well Strung arrives]
Jessica: Omigawd, they're just getting to the board. I can't even look at them right now.

Cody: I think everyone was afraid to throw the first punch today with the u-turn and we kind of set the tone on that.
Phil: Coming from Big Brother, you know when the stakes are high, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Jessica: Absolutely. We're just trying to claw our ways back to the top and not be in this position anymore.
Cody: I don't know if it's a bad thing though. Maybe the other teams won't see us as being that strong and when the next u-turn comes, they may not use it against us.
Jessica: One can hope.

Jessica: I think using the u-turn has the best decision we've made so far.

Zimbabwe:

Quote

Jessica: I don't really get Ocean Spray's logic with u-turning us.

Cody: It must have been something personal because as far as I was concerned, we were good with Ocean Spray. I don't think she likes you.
Jessica: I don't like her so the feeling's mutual.

So in other words, when Jessica and Cody use the u-turn, it's a weapon that they're totally fine with using. When other people use the u-turn, it's baffling and must be because of personal issues. I'm pretty sure that at some point last week, Jessica and Cody also mentioned that u-turning the violinists wasn't personal so they think it's an impersonal strategy when they use the u-turn, but when someone else uses it, suddenly it's this petty bitchy thing that has nothing to do with wanting to win and everything to do with "she doesn't like you."

Jessica said that she didn't want to give away all of her hard work to Brittany and Alex in the Kafka challenge last week, yet she just expected Evan to do EXACTLY that this week with the poaching task. Later Cody saw the twins had finished the task and were leaving so he ran over, pulled open the door, and demanded directions to the tire delivery location and then kept asking questions.

I'm fine with people playing the game and using the opportunities that are provided, but if you're going to do that then it's really fucking hypocritical to bat your eyes innocently when other people use the same opportunities against you. And if you don't want to give away all of your hard work on a challenge, then don't get bent out of shape when someone else has the same attitude and doesn't want to give away their own hard work. Not wanting to work with another team certainly doesn't merit saying you want to punch them in the face.

And for the record, Evan voluntarily teamed up with one of the twins for the Kafka challenge so she is definitely capable of working with other people outside her partner, but as she pointed out, it's only smart to team up with someone else if it's mutually beneficial. For a needle in the haystack task like the Kafka one, it's more efficient to split up all the phones you have to pick up so that you can get all the words more quickly. But for a memory task like the poaching one, if you think you can do it on your own, why would you work with another team that got there before you and still hasn't completed the task? I don't blame Evan and Daniel at all for saying no because they hadn't even seen what the actual challenge was yet. All they knew was that they had do document all of the clues they had picked up but they were still on their horses when Kristi and Jessica asked if they wanted to work together. Why say yes before you have even tried to do the task once?

I rolled my eyes when Jessica got annoyed that Evan and Daniel finished the map portion of the task so quickly. She said, "How did they do [the task]?" and then Kristi said, "Well, we were having fun on safari." Brittany/Alex made comments about how beautiful it was and they still managed to put everything in the correct order immediately. Evan/Daniel seemed to be having a good time too and they got the order right on their first try. So sorry, Kristi, enjoying the safari isn't really a good excuse for not doing well at this challenge.

As annoying as Brittany can be with all of her diamond/engagement/marriage talk, she gets credit for re-reading the clue, focusing on the part that said they would have to "accurately document" the clues later, and telling Alex that they had to memorize the order of the poaching clues (Daniel pointed this out to Evan). Every time they found a new clue, they repeated all of the clues they had so far in the order they found them.

On a completely different note, it drives me crazy when Jessica says, "Say a little prayer." Honey, God isn't responsible for the guy at the table saying you put your clues in the correct order. That's all on you doing it correctly. Later when she found out that she and Cody has been u-turned, she said, "Do you want to say a little prayer?" I'm pretty sure that God has better things to do than micromanage how well you're doing on TAR. I don't believe in a God who rewards people and puts them ahead of others just because they said a little prayer in a moment of desperation on a game show.

I give Henry, Eric, and Lucas credit for just buckling down and winching and winching without complaint. I also liked that Henry and Eric tried different things (both of them winching together, as well as taking turns with who was winching and who was in the car), unlike Conor who just sat in the car the entire time while Lucas did all the hard work.

I thought I would hate the partner switch, but what I ended up liking about it was that it showed just about everyone working well together. I'm sure the show was hoping that the partner switch would cause DRAAAAAAAAMA and fighting, but there was cooperation, communication, and teamwork. To be fair, the new teams weren't together for too long so there may have been more fighting if they'd been forced to work together for more than one leg. And really, the tasks didn't seemed designed to cause a lot of fighting. Half of the teams took a leisurely horseback ride and the other half of the teams took a drive. The potential for frustration was limited to one aspect of each task (winching and putting the items in the correct order).

I had to laugh because Jessica and Cody obviously chose the skiers because they thought they were a strong team and then those two teams ended up being the last ones checked in at the mat. Ahhhh, irony (the Alanis kind).

Edited February 10, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Netfoot]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I give Henry, Eric, and Lucas credit for just buckling down and winching and winching without complaint. I also liked that Henry and Eric tried different things (both of them winching together, as well as taking turns with who was winching and who was in the car), unlike Conor who just sat in the car the entire time while Lucas did all the hard work.

That bugged me too.  In a situation like that, spinning the wheels on the vehicle doesn't help, and might even dig you deeper into the mud.  Those turfors will move a mountain, but you have to ratchet the handle!  And that gets harder, the more load there is.  So why sit in the car and make it worse, when you could leave it in neutral and help your partner get it out of the mud faster?

[njcate]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I really felt for the teams when Jen said that they had been traveling for thirty hours (3 planes, a taxi ride, a train, and then a van to the wildlife place). But I loved that as tired as they all must have been, they all got excited when they saw the animals.

While I am all for the show going to a variety of locations aka not spending the majority of the race in Europe, I hate that whenever the next destination is really far away, the team that finished first in the previous leg essentially loses that advantage. I totally understand the logistics of it because there are only so many flights, but I still dislike the bunching and the team in first place losing the advantage of leaving first.

Why the BB team is hypocritical aka another reason they bug the shit out of me:

On working with other teams:
Prague:

Zimbabwe:

On using the u-turn as a game strategy:
Prague:

Zimbabwe:

So in other words, when Jessica and Cody use the u-turn, it's a weapon that they're totally fine with using. When other people use the u-turn, it's baffling and must be because of personal issues. I'm pretty sure that at some point last week, Jessica and Cody also mentioned that u-turning the violinists wasn't personal so they think it's an impersonal strategy when they use the u-turn, but when someone else uses it, suddenly it's this petty bitchy thing that has nothing to do with wanting to win and everything to do with "she doesn't like you."

Jessica said that she didn't want to give away all of her hard work to Brittany and Alex in the Kafka challenge last week, yet she just expected Evan to do EXACTLY that this week with the poaching task. Later Cody saw the twins had finished the task and were leaving so he ran over, pulled open the door, and demanded directions to the tire delivery location and then kept asking questions.

I'm fine with people playing the game and using the opportunities that are provided, but if you're going to do that then it's really fucking hypocritical to bat your eyes innocently when other people use the same opportunities against you. And if you don't want to give away all of your hard work on a challenge, then don't get bent out of shape when someone else has the same attitude and doesn't want to give away their own hard work. Not wanting to work with another team certainly doesn't merit saying you want to punch them in the face.

And for the record, Evan voluntarily teamed up with one of the twins for the Kafka challenge so she is definitely capable of working with other people outside her partner, but as she pointed out, it's only smart to team up with someone else if it's mutually beneficial. For a needle in the haystack task like the Kafka one, it's more efficient to split up all the phones you have to pick up so that you can get all the words more quickly. But for a memory task like the poaching one, if you think you can do it on your own, why would you work with another team that got there before you and still hasn't completed the task? I don't blame Evan and Daniel at all for saying no because they hadn't even seen what the actual challenge was yet. All they knew was that they had do document all of the clues they had picked up but they were still on their horses when Kristi and Jessica asked if they wanted to work together. Why say yes before you have even tried to do the task once?

I rolled my eyes when Jessica got annoyed that Evan and Daniel finished the map portion of the task so quickly. She said, "How did they do [the task]?" and then Kristi said, "Well, we were having fun on safari." Brittany/Alex made comments about how beautiful it was and they still managed to put everything in the correct order immediately. Evan/Daniel seemed to be having a good time too and they got the order right on their first try. So sorry, Kristi, enjoying the safari isn't really a good excuse for not doing well at this challenge.

As annoying as Brittany can be with all of her diamond/engagement/marriage talk, she gets credit for re-reading the clue, focusing on the part that said they would have to "accurately document" the clues later, and telling Alex that they had to memorize the order of the poaching clues (Daniel pointed this out to Evan). Every time they found a new clue, they repeated all of the clues they had so far in the order they found them.

On a completely different note, it drives me crazy when Jessica says, "Say a little prayer." Honey, God isn't responsible for the guy at the table saying you put your clues in the correct order. That's all on you doing it correctly. Later when she found out that she and Cody has been u-turned, she said, "Do you want to say a little prayer?" I'm pretty sure that God has better things to do than micromanage how well you're doing on TAR. I don't believe in a God who rewards people and puts them ahead of others just because they said a little prayer in a moment of desperation on a game show.

I give Henry, Eric, and Lucas credit for just buckling down and winching and winching without complaint. I also liked that Henry and Eric tried different things (both of them winching together, as well as taking turns with who was winching and who was in the car), unlike Conor who just sat in the car the entire time while Lucas did all the hard work.

I thought I would hate the partner switch, but what I ended up liking about it was that it showed just about everyone working well together. I'm sure the show was hoping that the partner switch would cause DRAAAAAAAAMA and fighting, but there was cooperation, communication, and teamwork. To be fair, the new teams weren't together for too long so there may have been more fighting if they'd been forced to work together for more than one leg. And really, the tasks didn't seemed designed to cause a lot of fighting. Half of the teams took a leisurely horseback ride and the other half of the teams took a drive. The potential for frustration was limited to one aspect of each task (winching and putting the items in the correct order).

I had to laugh because Jessica and Cody obviously chose the skiers because they thought they were a strong team and then those two teams ended up being the last ones checked in at the mat. Ahhhh, irony (the Alanis kind).

 

Edited February 10, 2018 by njcate
I hit respond too quickly

[njcate]

5 minutes ago, njcate said:

 

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I really felt for the teams when Jen said that they had been traveling for thirty hours (3 planes, a taxi ride, a train, and then a van to the wildlife place). But I loved that as tired as they all must have been, they all got excited when they saw the animals.

While I am all for the show going to a variety of locations aka not spending the majority of the race in Europe, I hate that whenever the next destination is really far away, the team that finished first in the previous leg essentially loses that advantage. I totally understand the logistics of it because there are only so many flights, but I still dislike the bunching and the team in first place losing the advantage of leaving first.

Why the BB team is hypocritical aka another reason they bug the shit out of me:

On working with other teams:
Prague:

Zimbabwe:

On using the u-turn as a game strategy:
Prague:

Zimbabwe:

So in other words, when Jessica and Cody use the u-turn, it's a weapon that they're totally fine with using. When other people use the u-turn, it's baffling and must be because of personal issues. I'm pretty sure that at some point last week, Jessica and Cody also mentioned that u-turning the violinists wasn't personal so they think it's an impersonal strategy when they use the u-turn, but when someone else uses it, suddenly it's this petty bitchy thing that has nothing to do with wanting to win and everything to do with "she doesn't like you."

Jessica said that she didn't want to give away all of her hard work to Brittany and Alex in the Kafka challenge last week, yet she just expected Evan to do EXACTLY that this week with the poaching task. Later Cody saw the twins had finished the task and were leaving so he ran over, pulled open the door, and demanded directions to the tire delivery location and then kept asking questions.

I'm fine with people playing the game and using the opportunities that are provided, but if you're going to do that then it's really fucking hypocritical to bat your eyes innocently when other people use the same opportunities against you. And if you don't want to give away all of your hard work on a challenge, then don't get bent out of shape when someone else has the same attitude and doesn't want to give away their own hard work. Not wanting to work with another team certainly doesn't merit saying you want to punch them in the face.

And for the record, Evan voluntarily teamed up with one of the twins for the Kafka challenge so she is definitely capable of working with other people outside her partner, but as she pointed out, it's only smart to team up with someone else if it's mutually beneficial. For a needle in the haystack task like the Kafka one, it's more efficient to split up all the phones you have to pick up so that you can get all the words more quickly. But for a memory task like the poaching one, if you think you can do it on your own, why would you work with another team that got there before you and still hasn't completed the task? I don't blame Evan and Daniel at all for saying no because they hadn't even seen what the actual challenge was yet. All they knew was that they had do document all of the clues they had picked up but they were still on their horses when Kristi and Jessica asked if they wanted to work together. Why say yes before you have even tried to do the task once?

I rolled my eyes when Jessica got annoyed that Evan and Daniel finished the map portion of the task so quickly. She said, "How did they do [the task]?" and then Kristi said, "Well, we were having fun on safari." Brittany/Alex made comments about how beautiful it was and they still managed to put everything in the correct order immediately. Evan/Daniel seemed to be having a good time too and they got the order right on their first try. So sorry, Kristi, enjoying the safari isn't really a good excuse for not doing well at this challenge.

As annoying as Brittany can be with all of her diamond/engagement/marriage talk, she gets credit for re-reading the clue, focusing on the part that said they would have to "accurately document" the clues later, and telling Alex that they had to memorize the order of the poaching clues (Daniel pointed this out to Evan). Every time they found a new clue, they repeated all of the clues they had so far in the order they found them.

On a completely different note, it drives me crazy when Jessica says, "Say a little prayer." Honey, God isn't responsible for the guy at the table saying you put your clues in the correct order. That's all on you doing it correctly. Later when she found out that she and Cody has been u-turned, she said, "Do you want to say a little prayer?" I'm pretty sure that God has better things to do than micromanage how well you're doing on TAR. I don't believe in a God who rewards people and puts them ahead of others just because they said a little prayer in a moment of desperation on a game show.

I give Henry, Eric, and Lucas credit for just buckling down and winching and winching without complaint. I also liked that Henry and Eric tried different things (both of them winching together, as well as taking turns with who was winching and who was in the car), unlike Conor who just sat in the car the entire time while Lucas did all the hard work.

I thought I would hate the partner switch, but what I ended up liking about it was that it showed just about everyone working well together. I'm sure the show was hoping that the partner switch would cause DRAAAAAAAAMA and fighting, but there was cooperation, communication, and teamwork. To be fair, the new teams weren't together for too long so there may have been more fighting if they'd been forced to work together for more than one leg. And really, the tasks didn't seemed designed to cause a lot of fighting. Half of the teams took a leisurely horseback ride and the other half of the teams took a drive. The potential for frustration was limited to one aspect of each task (winching and putting the items in the correct order).

I had to laugh because Jessica and Cody obviously chose the skiers because they thought they were a strong team and then those two teams ended up being the last ones checked in at the mat. Ahhhh, irony (the Alanis kind).

This may be the greatest post ever!  I could not agree more !!! Thanks for this !!!

[amazingracefan]

19 hours ago, Vixenstud said:

Team Yale and Team BB are the only ones left I’m rooting for.

Pretty  much.  I never understand why people support teams who are boring but considered nice (partly because they hardly get shown).  A race full of them and nobody would watch.  And the edit clearly tries to make some into 'villains' anyway and it's just manipulating viewers, though some may like that even if they don't admit it.

[babs1226]

4 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

So sorry, Kristi, enjoying the safari isn't really a good excuse for not doing well at this challenge.

I didn't take Kristi's response as an excuse but as the reason.  I think she was saying that they didn't do well at the task because their primary focus was enjoying the safari instead of paying attention to where they found each item.  In other words,they screwed up and she admitted it.     

[chaifan]

4 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I rolled my eyes when Jessica got annoyed that Evan and Daniel finished the map portion of the task so quickly. She said, "How did they do [the task]?" and then Kristi said, "Well, we were having fun on safari." Brittany/Alex made comments about how beautiful it was and they still managed to put everything in the correct order immediately. Evan/Daniel seemed to be having a good time too and they got the order right on their first try. So sorry, Kristi, enjoying the safari isn't really a good excuse for not doing well at this challenge.

 

 

3 minutes ago, babs1226 said:

I didn't take Kristi's response as an excuse but as the reason.  I think she was saying that they didn't do well at the task because their primary focus was enjoying the safari instead of paying attention to where they found each item.  In other words,they screwed up and she admitted it.     

 

While I love just about every word in Elec Bug's post (seriously, spot on!), I see Kristi's response more like Babs did.  Actually, I can't wait to read Jen's blog post about this leg.  My guess is that there was a little more bite in Kristi's reply than we're seeing, and that Jessica was probably prattling on throughout the horse ride and not concentrating on the task.  Just a guess, but it would explain a lot about how they did that task. 

I'm not a Jessica fan at all.  As Elec Bug said, I find her to be a complete hypocrite and the "prayer" comments and little kisses make me, oh, what's that expression?  oh, yeah.  Punch her in the face.  ;)  (OK, not really, but I'd like to see them eliminated.)

And I have to say, I think the Evan hate shown in some posts is way over the top.  Damn, you don't even know her and it's just a tv show. 

[Netfoot]

9 minutes ago, chaifan said:

I think the Evan hate shown in some posts is way over the top.

She had the temerity to go to a good college, and to be proud of it!  How dare she!?!!

Edited February 10, 2018 by Netfoot

[thegriswolds]

3 hours ago, Netfoot said:

She had the temerity to go to a good college, and to be proud of it!  How dare she!?!!

 

Right? We've certainly seen other people on the race wear gear from their alma maters.  Is Evan not allowed to do the same just because hers is Ivy?  (I've gotten a lot more annoyed by all the UCLA gear shown over the years, but that's because it's our rival school)

Plus I'm guessing that the producers work to find a "hook" for all these teams, and in their case it's the Yale connection.  So I'm sure they're encouraged to play it up. 

Edited February 10, 2018 by thegriswolds