The Amazing Race -- All-Purpose Thread

I was kind of surprised Tyler and Korey were allowed to help each other with the oil change, and no one else did that, or was allowed to. I thought they might even get docked for it, and have to sit and wait for a period of time when they got to Phil at the pit stop. That was how I was thinking Sheri and Cole might end up catching up/not getting eliminated.

But, yeah, poor Sheri, it looked like she was going to do OK otherwise, too. It shows how sometimes things are not so hard; you just have to stop and think. In fact, most of the challenges are like that. They seem like they might be really hard for somebody but there usually is a common-ness, and common-sense, to it that makes it a more general that could be appropriate for most people. And I thought it was cool that Burnie and the doctor tried to help Sheri.

I was laughing and disbelieving more at all the teams who, somehow, always had their backs turned and never saw when Brodie and Kurt, and then Sheri and Cole, and then Zach and Rachel, et al, all just went up the opera-house janitor and got handed their clues.

 

Am I the only one rooting for my own team to be eliminate?

Cole is officially a douche for making his mother do the oil change. I'd understand if she grew up a tomboy helping her own father maintain their cars but it was obvious she never held a wrench before in her life. Time for Cole to turn in his man card.

 

Hell, I remember a few seasons ago where during a road block, one of the moms yelled to her kid to pay attention to one thing that was killing other teams when he was doing his challenge and they got penalized. So who knows.

 

I thought similarly. Just was really surprised that Sheri, rather than Cole, was the one doing the task. I'm guessing he, perhaps, knew even less how to do an oil change than she did, and, realizing that, he didn't want to be responsible for any failure.

 

I would bet money that he has no clue how to do an oil change. And his mom has said the last few legs that she wants to do more to prove herself, so guessing this is part of that.

 

I couldn't believe Tyler and Korey walked away from the candy-making detour when they were so deep into it, and the lost time going to the other one nearly cost them.

I felt bad for Scott and Blair once it was clear they were going to be put into a foot race with Tyler and Korey to the end. How would you have handled that backpack pick-up mix-up? I thought maybe Scott and Blair could've just kept going to the pit stop and brought Tyler's pack with them, so that he'd have had it when he got there as required...but then, at least, they probably still would've gotten there first. Or, maybe they could've left it just inside the door of the dance studio so that, hopefully, Tyler would've seen it and picked it up as he and Korey went out, but Scott wouldn't have had to bring it all the way back to them.

And, what's with the kids on this season's show? They seem like such chickens. It was unbelievable that Blair thought her dad was going to be better at doing that dance routine, a la Sheri doing the oil change last week instead of Cole. Even Scott himself asked her, "Are you sure?," and you could tell he wasn't thrilled to be the one doing that challenge. It again shows what parents will do for their kids, I guess...

 

Being a decent person, I would have taken the pack back, knowing that if I had been the one whose pack was missing, I would have been spazzing out.

I can easily see Blair and Brodie teaming up on a future All-Stars, like Eric and Danielle.

I would say I would rock most any dancing challenge, but that dance challenge looked HARD because of the sheer speed. But when Scott stepped up to do it, I knew they were sunk. And yes, Write, I agree about your assessment of the children in this season. Most of the time, you see the kids stepping up to do the tough, physical challenges, but Blair and Cole are okay with just letting their parents do the tough ones.


Pool update:
Huggy - Kurt and Brodie 86
SpeedTchr - Tyler and Korey 70
WolvEagle - Dana and Matt 58
WriteThinking - Zach and Rachel 48
Wenders - Burnie and Ashley 44
WCIBN - Sheri and Cole 21
*TigerVols - Erin and Joslyn 18
*Iron_chet - Scott and Blair 18
*MTM - Jessica and Brittany 17
*bumpy mcgee - Cameron and Darius 11
*Marty and Hagan 5

 

I would LOVE to go to Dubai but that camel racing challenge looked HARD. About as hard as dragging a camel a few miles through the burning desert.

The #1 asset I would bring to my Amazing Race team would be navigation. I thought Sheri and Cole were going to end up like Mallory and Gary (who got eliminated after driving lost around Oman for half their leg). They might actually have nine lives here. Also, Matt was being such a tool. Dana's like, "hey turn left on this street" and he goes, "COULD YOU GIVE ME DIRECTIONS THAT MAKE SENSE?!" If "turn left on this street" isn't an explicit enough direction for him, what is?

I was so waiting for everyone to have to do the Time Warp or something in those gold lame bathing suits. Not sure if I would have been able to do that waterslide though. I prefer the slides where I'm in an inner tube and not shooting straight down in an enclosed space.

I heard "Indonesia" and was so excited for the next leg until I saw all of that footage with people with snakes wrapped around their necks. OH HELL NO NO NO NO I don't even go in the snake exhibit at the zoo. I went in the one at the Fort Worth Zoo (because it was hot that day so I wanted to go in a building and I was going to stick to the amphibian side) and they have this sensor that makes it sound like there's a rattlesnake loose in the building and let's just say some people got some fun footage of Wenders here screaming and running out of the building.

Not sure if anyone's going to catch up with Huggy at this point...
Pool update:
Huggy - Kurt and Brodie 102
SpeedTchr - Tyler and Korey 74
WolvEagle - Dana and Matt 60
Wenders - Burnie and Ashley 49
WriteThinking - Zach and Rachel 41
WCIBN - Sheri and Cole 22
*TigerVols - Erin and Joslyn 18
*Iron_chet - Scott and Blair 18
*MTM - Jessica and Brittany 17
*bumpy mcgee - Cameron and Darius 11
*Marty and Hagan 5

(also, how many times can my team come in second on this Race?? and LOL I just went back and looked and Huggy had Justin and Diana and I had Kelsey and Joey on the last Race. Aka, the team that won every leg and the team that came in second on every leg until the end. Funny random parallel.)

 

I don't know, Wenders. I had a totally different impression of Matt and Dana's fight. When she was telling him to go left, it looked like they were in a one-way round-about type thing where maybe they couldn't have actually "turned" left. Although the bend/circle kind of looked like it was leaning left, anyway, so maybe the computerized directions just got messed up, as often happens on funky roads and imprecise areas.

And when Dana told Phil that "We really went after each other," (or something like that), I laughed, thinking, "No, YOU were the one going after HIM. It was hardly a two-way fight. And the ridiculous meltdown she had, where she just refused to get in the car, or go with him, or help him with anything, made me think she/they would have deserved to have gotten beaten to the mat by Sheri and Cole. In fact, that's what I started to root to have happen. She literally, purposely and intentionally was quitting on him, for no reason other than that she wanted to dig in her heels and didn't give a shit if she looked/sounded ridiculous.

I thought it was even worse than that team from a couple seasons ago that basically had to quit because one of the guys wouldn't even attempt to drive a stick-shift car, just insisting he didn't know how, and so they had to take a train or a bus, or something, which took them off-task and out of the race, even though the other guy on the team had wanted to continue -- until his "teammate" just...wouldn't, and not because of any fear, or inability, or anything. He just didn't care.

Like Dana was acting -- horrible.

 

Enough non-elimination legs. I want someone to go home every week.
There were two weeks with no show because of NCAA, a double leg and a non-elimination, so only one team has left in the last five weeks.

 

I was just waiting to see if Cole was going to make Sheri do the salt/water-carrying task in this week's episode. I was ready to strangle him if he didn't step up and volunteer himself. I was glad to see him ace that challenge.

 

Major props to Rachel for getting that salt challenge done.

And HELL TO THE NO at that snake thing. I don't care how far they have to carry it. I would have wished I had an express pass so I could bounce the crap out of that snake thing. No no no no no.

That kite road block was AWESOME.

So basically what we've learned is that Kurt is the brains AND brawn of that particular team because good lord, Brodie's elevator doesn't go to the top story. That kite challenge sounded like anyone who's ever put together a piece of IKEA furniture could bang it out quickly.

Look, if you want to have a dynamite TAR team, you need one that is smart and can figure out puzzles, one with brute strength that can power through physical challenges (although if I were going on the Race, I would be in the gym for a solid six months before then, running on a treadmill and lifting weights), one person that can drive a manual transmission, one person that can read maps and understand directions. It would help if one person was good with languages. What qualities would you want in a potential TAR teammate?

Pool update:
Huggy - Kurt and Brodie 104
SpeedTchr - Tyler and Korey 90
WolvEagle - Dana and Matt 63
Wenders - Burnie and Ashley 54
*WriteThinking - Zach and Rachel 52
WCIBN - Sheri and Cole 26
*TigerVols - Erin and Joslyn 18
*Iron_chet - Scott and Blair 18
*MTM - Jessica and Brittany 17
*bumpy mcgee - Cameron and Darius 11
*Marty and Hagan 5