S30.E11: It’s Just a Million Dollars, No Pressure (1) S30.E12: It’s Just a Million Dollars, No Pressure (2)

[greyhorse]

Finally caught up now.

I'm not happy with the outcome, as I felt like Jessica just sat on cyborg Cody's coattails and rode her way to $1 million.  But I do have to give her props for getting the plane challenge, so I guess in a way she does deserve it.

There was one time where Jen was shown putting the two propellers together and looking at them.  If you knew you had duplicates of each piece, why not lay out each piece, so six pairs, and then take the time to look at them and figure it out?  That would seem most logical to me.

I found Evan insufferable.  She obviously wears the pants in that relationship.  She is bossy, high-strung, hyper-competitive, and seems to think she is always right.  It was more noticeable these last few episodes.  Things like "When I talk to you, I need you to say something" and "Henry, where ARE you?"  Also, has she been calling him "Hen" all season?  I've never heard a Henry being called Hen.  

[aradia22]

Quote

I also felt super bad for Henry because if he had just gotten a check, they would have won. 

Given how much they were shuffling the pieces, I'm guessing they were all close at one point. I wish the editors had maybe highlighted the right pieces and the wrong pieces so we could see when each were attached to the plane. I forgot that they make everyone finish the task. Or maybe it feels more immediate because the finish line is literally within sight. It was rough to watch the 2nd and 3rd place finishes. I think that took some of the joy out of the win. It's weird that TAR hasn't figured out how to make that less miserable after 30 seasons. 

Quote

Going into that challenge thinking about the three people who were doing it you would have bet on Jessica last as Jen was the one on her team that was good at puzzles and Henry you'd think would have the mind for that.

Based on when they got there, I would have guessed Jess would get it before Jen. And then when Henry showed up, I assumed he would get it before either of them. But they all struggled. To me, that said it was a good, tough task. I'm not taking anything away from Jessica's performance on that task. They all had a fair chance and they all struggled and she got it first. Good on her. 

Quote

I wish the skiers thinking ahead of time about finding out the HR number would have been a bigger advantage. That's a race mistake that should have been more significant.

Yeah, two teams were super lucky people were walking down the boardwalk at that time of night. So unbelievably dumb to just run down there and wing it. They can't have been thinking clearly. 

Quote

I hope Kristi and Jen and the Indy Car guys are invited back someday. I thought the Indy guys were great fun to watch. 

I don't know if it would happen but I vote for Henry and Evan or Well-Strung to come back. I feel like Kristi and Jen raced as hard as they were going to race with all those close to the top finishes. Yale are young and strong racers and I think they could win with another shot. However, they'll probably go to grad school and get good jobs and I don't see them taking time off to do this again even if it's just a month or so. I thought Well Strung were fun even if the editors didn't let us see them that often and if they'd been able to pull farther ahead, they seem like a strong team mentally and physically. 

Quote

The one thing I wondered about the final task. Was every leg represented by exactly one type of symbol, sometimes duplicated? Or were some legs represented by either this or that symbol? The latter would be much harder, so I wonder if it was that.

I think it was the latter based on some things the racers said during the challenge. But also everyone seemed to be confused on what a couple of the icons were supposed to represent. In previous seasons it was something like "remember all the greeters" or whatever while here it seemed like it could be a thing from the greeter or any random task. Like the helmet could have been any number of things... especially if you're stressed and freaking out.

Quote

I like the idea of the split task at the cookie factory. I don't think they need to do this every leg but once in awhile would be great. I would rather see that than more of either the head-to-head or the partner swapping.

Yes, this would be a good twist.

Quote

If they lose, they still get some money for second place

Is this true?

Quote

Are there people who didn't watch BB and are glad that C&J won?

Me. Maybe Cody's a bigot and Jessica is an awful person but to me I didn't get that in their edit on TAR. He had a few xenophobic comments (maybe 4 during the entire season?) and she was squeamish during tasks (mostly with animals) the last few legs and is playing more of a social game. After Brooke's season, based on their TAR performance, I'm totally fine with C&J.

Quote

Reality tv casting has never been about jobs or accomplishments, it's about entertainment value.  They're going to cast people who others are likely to want to watch, period.  It could be just because they're gorgeous, funny, explosive, controversial, gay, annoying, have some unique history, have goats, have missing limbs, whatever.  

I had a really good giggle over this. You could be describing ANTM. I'm glad I replaced that show with TAR. 

Quote

It must hurt even more that Henry actually had the solution and changed it.  I think the editors really disliked Evan.  I wonder if she is going to be nagging him about that for years.

Maybe it's just me but I don't see a college couple making it the distance.

Quote

Seeing the all the teams asking people to google stuff for them, makes me wonder why we don't see that more often. Everybody around the world has smartphones nowadays. Often especially in places you wouldn't think at first, like rural africa, because that is the only access to the internet a lot of people there have. So why don't racers constantly ask for people to search stuff on their phones? Is it ignorance, do they not know that even these poor people have cheap android phones? Or are we just not shown these interactions? But then why show it in the episode in the US? Are the amazing editors trying to spin us a fiction of a simpler world outside the US without smartphones? I'm really curious.

We do see it a lot. We just haven't seen it a ton this season. I don't know if it was something in the rules or just having challenges that didn't rely so much on the internet. Like, past seasons had more figuring out clues to find places. And I feel like this season they were mostly told where to go (like the name of a location) or they had maps and being able to google directions wouldn't have been a big help. One time I remember it coming up this season was during the drinks task where they needed to find out the name of two drinks, but I think that was it. However TPTB managed it, I was glad. Too much internet/phones is boring to me. I went back to watch some past seasons but I've mainly been keeping up with TAR from season 21 on so I know it's definitely come up recently.

Quote

Oh, and Jen provides an after the fact drawing of the various plane parts! I wish it were bigger, but I think it answers a question for me in that I think there are unique symbols and only some of them have duplicates, with two different objects representing a leg. That makes it harder than if they're all duplicates.

Wow. I don't need to devote more time to the show but Jen's blog seems like a great resource for fans and not just a space for mindless chatter. 

[Netfoot]

4 hours ago, aradia22 said:

And it was nice to have unique combinations to avoid teams helping each other. 

Yes, they need more of this.

4 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I have no idea what Kristi was doing that the smashing challenge hurt her so much when the others managed it.

A couple teams actually broke their bats.  What's with that?  

[chaifan]

7 hours ago, aradia22 said:

Indy were so grumpy at the photo kiosk. I get that it's a race but the task is going to take the same amount of time for everyone. You're still ahead. It's not like the next team is going to get a different guy who goes faster. There's only one guy working the kiosk. Calm yourselves.
 

I got the impression that they were just confused and didn't realize it was part of the challenge.  Sort of like, hey, we're on a race and this guy wants to stop and take a picture of us?  Then they realized that was the whole point. 

[amazingracefan]

On 2/22/2018 at 8:41 PM, ichbin said:

I agree.  I think the most important thing is that they take the race seriously and I think that has been the case so far.  There are probably a lot of regular people who would love to participate who are simply unable to give it the time it takes due to work or home responsibilities.  A lot of the more recognizable contestants are probably also in a better position to give the show a chunk of time.  I prefer this to some other shows that are predominately made up of aspiring actors/models whose schedules are more "flexible" and are looking for some kind of springboard into fame.

I think it restricts the variety though as you likely get plenty of well off people who can take time off easily and those who are less well off may not be able to take a month off easily.  It's really quite rare you get poorer people racing, it's normally quite wealthy suburbanites (some of which are inevitably bland, safe 'respectable' people who some of the audience can identify with, photogenic enough too I guess).

[spankydoll]

On 2/21/2018 at 11:17 PM, RandomWatcher said:

Jody hanging out with Brenchel

WTF skank ass, Frederick's of Hollywood clearance aisle mess of a dress is she wearing?  

I really feel for Henry. He must have felt sick when he saw himself over think his way out of a million dollars. I blame his yammering nagging partner. 

Edited March 4, 2018 by spankydoll

[BarneySays]

On 2/25/2018 at 1:36 AM, Miles said:

 

On 2/22/2018 at 11:21 AM, BarneySays said:

It has been that each team member had to complete an equal number of road blocks entering the final leg.

That hasn't been the case in a looooooooooong time. The 6/4 split is actually not that bad, considering for a time there, they didn't enforce/have that rule at all anymore, or an even worse split.

Judging by wikipedia, the split has been even (of course, if there are an odd number of road blocks, even would mean a 7-6, 6-5 split).  The only variance in the last 15 seasons or so was when they really stretched the rule for the hideous smug father son team.  In all other seasons, the road blocks were evenly split.

[BluBarbi98]

Just got around to watching the finale and that was disappointing. I was rooting for the XGamers and then Team Yale. The BB team really annoyed me for their seemingly irrational dislike of Team Yale (and I am not a fan of Evan's). 

[Special K]

On 3/11/2018 at 6:19 AM, BluBarbi98 said:

Just got around to watching the finale and that was disappointing. I was rooting for the XGamers and then Team Yale. The BB team really annoyed me for their seemingly irrational dislike of Team Yale (and I am not a fan of Evan's). 

I just realized I never got around to watching the finale.  :p  It seemed like reading your comments was probably a better use of my time.  LOL.

[Hanahope]

On 3/2/2018 at 5:08 AM, greyhorse said:

There was one time where Jen was shown putting the two propellers together and looking at them.  If you knew you had duplicates of each piece, why not lay out each piece, so six pairs, and then take the time to look at them and figure it out?  That would seem most logical to me.

The only problem I see with that was that several pieces had pictures on both sides.  So they'd have to lay them out, then turn some of the pieces over to see the other sides and try to figure it out that way.  

I loved the surprised look on Cody's face when he saw Jessica had finished first.  I don't think he expected that at all.  He definitely did more roadblocks late in the race, but Jess did several in the early episodes.  They did a good job of choosing who did what roadblock.