The Amazing Race - 2011-12

I was sure that there was a Fast Forward on the last season, but according to the Wikipedia page, there wasn't. According to this, if they don't use it by Leg 8, they have to complete a Fast Forward on the next leg. I don't remember Phil mentioning it, but maybe it was something that he would bring up if it ever happened that they hadn't used the Express Pass by the eighth leg.

 

I don't quite understand where the assertion that the Express Pass had to be used by a certain point is coming from - Phil clearly didn't say anything about it at the end of the first leg (and that's a pretty important bit of info, no?) and I'm sure that anal-retentive uberprepared Cindy would have been blathering about it during this most recent leg if they were in a "use it or lose it" scenario.

 

They said it last year when the Express Pass was introduced. I think that's because they don't want people using it when it gets down to the final few challenges. At that point, they shouldn't be able to get through on anything but themselves.

 

SPOILER ALERT DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED TONIGHT'S EPISODE!











POINTS AFTER WEEK 6 OF OUR POOL
Pool 1:
schieza: 59
MTM: 35
DrewWilson: 28
* IJAG: 25
* JayFarrar: 24
Iron_Chat: 24
Liesl: 24
* bumpy mcgee: 4
*Wenders: 1

Pool 2:
bydesign: 59
SpeedTchr: 35
beanpole: 28
* StormSurge: 25
* KYSW: 24
Pete: 24
TigerVols: 24
* Huggy: 4
*ArnoldBabar: 1

* = TAR team has been eliminated from the show

Oh, and peace out, Laurence, you sanctimonious blowhard asshole.

 

What she said about Laurence. Zac seemed like a decent guy, though. Not sorry to see Laurence go.

And, that was an incredible recovery by Amani and Marcus. Plus, I knew Cathi would get the dances right away. It seems like her and Bill have a good eye for detail.

 

U-Turns, IMO, should basically only be used if you are facing elimination, not so you can secure a free trip to Fiji.

Who in their right mind, by the way, would chose churning butter over cute steeplechasing bunnies?! That was hands-down the cutest thing I have seen in awhile.

 

I understand there need to be equalizers when teams fly 5,000 from country to country, but it kind of sucks that Laurence and Zac took a chance by booking a different flight and it paid off with a big time advantage, only to lose all of it because the place they were to visit was closed until the next morning.

That said, I agree with IJAG, good riddance to Laurence. Listening to him, he would have nailed every challenge didn't try.

And I was surprised no one berated him when there was a challenge involving sewing and he kept saying how the women would do better at it simply because they are women.

Now I see why his kids wanted to sail around the world solo.

 

First thing out of the wife's mouth this morning:

"So are we going to open this town's first bunny-hop ranch/race-course?"

Man they were so damn cute!!!

IJAG's doing a great job tracking the contest here, but damn, I'm the "lanterne rouge" for the third week in a row even though my old folks keep doing better and better? FML!

 

Regarding the Laurance/Zac situation:

While I certainly don't blame Zac for hopping the first boat out of town to get away from his daddy...watching Zac perform left me with zero inclination that he had the mental capacity to handle such a deadly challenge as sailing solo around the world. I mean, he couldn't read a map, and he couldn't learn simple dance steps.

Makes me wonder if daddy and mommy shouldn't have been investigated for child abuse just for allowing the kid to leave in the first place (and yes, I know he made the trip safe and successfully, but that doesn't necessarily disprove my point).

 

I was very surprised at how bad his map-reading skills were. How many times did they get lost?

 

Maps aren't a whole lot of help on the open ocean.

 

I'm always amazed that the people on the show don't work on map-reading and learning to drive a manual transmission car before the race starts.