The Amazing Race -- All-Purpose Thread

Four of the five remaining teams are from TAR. It shows what an advantage returners have on these types of shows.

This episode was the first airport drama in awhile. That used to be a staple of TAR. Now teams mostly seem to be booked on the same flights.

 

I'm not sure I would have made it through tubing without throwing up. That thing looked like it threw everybody around a lot.

 

Agreed. Most of the teams from Survivor/Big Brother also have commented that TAR isn't as easy as it looks. But you definitely see Tyler and Korey and Team Fun definitely benefiting from their second go-around.

I think the producers specifically have tried to avoid the airport drama. Not because it makes for good drama to watch two teams duke it out for the last seats on a plane, but because it has screwed them over before. It's not exciting at all when all the teams make the flight, except for one team, and the team going home is a foregone conclusion. Phil has eliminated one team directly at the airport (Chester & Ephraim from the Houston Texans: Amazing Race's Chester and Ephraim: We Don't Regret Taking the Double Connection | TV Guide) Several teams have also been eliminated on the course by Phil, including teams that have landed, gone to their first clue and received a replacement clue telling them to go to the mat.

 

South Floridians, this is your chance.

South Florida casting call for ‘The Amazing Race’

 

Don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen tonight's episode, but I was really bummed at who was eliminated. I really liked them. And, mixed feelings about next week - bummed that it's the season finale, but excited to see how they show Detroit. The teaser had an up-high shot of the building in which I work, which is a stunningly beautiful, 90-year-old skyscraper. The mat will be two blocks away in Hart Plaza, which overlooks the Detroit River and looks south into Canada (yes, Detroit is north of Windsor). I'm excited that it's a two-hour episode (the usual for a finale), but bummed that it won't end until 11 p.m. Eastern (hey, I have to work in the morning, especially since I'm not in journalism anymore!).

 

Like Becca, I actually had a little tear in my eye when she and Floyd were eliminated. I, too, am sorry they are out.

She was so hopeful -- she looked comically so -- when she suggested that maybe this could be a non-elimination leg, even though everyone had been told that there were no more of them. I had thought things might come down to a race to the mat between Becca and Floyd and Leo and Jamal after the latter's boat got caught in that swamp. Without help from that local guy, I still think that's probably what would've happened.

I also thought some of the contestants got away easy from that Dutch pole vault detour, having not really, truly made it across the little canal. I kind of doubt Nicole ever would've really made it.

 

BRB, moving to that town in Amsterdam with the canals. Those people seemed like fun! And cute animals abound!

I'm sad to see Becca and Floyd go as well. Hopefully we get an Unfinished Business season where they can come back. I don't know how Victor managed to have the strength to finish this leg, since Nicole didn't do a whole lot. But Becca and Floyd not checking those eggs before leaving that side of the detour was the difference.

Pool update:
TigerVols - Tyler and Korey (TAR) - 101
Iron_Chet - Colin and Christie (TAR) - 85
*WCIBN - Becca and Floyd (TAR) - 70
WolvEagle - Leo and Jamal (TAR) - 63
MTM - Nicole and Victor (Big Brother) - 52
*Wenders - Chris and Bret (Survivor) - 37
*bumpy mcgee - Rachel and Elissa (TAR/Big Brother) - 28
*Huggy - Janelle and Britney (Big Brother) - 21
*WriteThinking - Corinne and Eliza (Survivor) - 14
*Rupert and Laura (Survivor) - 3
*Art & JJ (TAR) - 1

*Team has been eliminated

So your pool mathematician here is going on a well-earned vacation to the Caribbean next week. I'm guessing that I will not have CBS in the Turks & Caicos, so you will all have to wait with bated breath until next weekend, when I get back and watch the finale, to find out who wins the pool! Will it be @TigerVols holding out for the win, or will @Iron_chet with the surprisingly-likeable Colin and Christie come from behind? DUN DUN DUN.

 

I've always loved TAR, but last night was my favorite episode ever. I've always wanted to visit London, and England in general. I got a kick out of the final taxi site being Royal Albert Hall - I have several concert DVDs from various artists that were recorded there. Then, Detroit. Thank you, TAR, for making it look so good. I work in the Guardian Building, and it was so cool that they showed just how beautiful it is, inside and out. The Spirit of Detroit statue is across the street from the Guardian, as you saw, but what's interesting is that Hart Plaza is across the street (going the other way) from the statue, but they left the area and had to come back. I've probably walked through Hart Plaza hundreds of times to get to the RiverWalk. I've walked past Third Man Records, which is in midtown near the Wayne State University campus (a couple miles from downtown), and have been to the Fowling Warehouse in Hamtramck (about a 10-minute drive from downtown) a couple times. Fowling is harder than it looks - it really is. It was cool that they let them blow the horn, which I can tell you is very, very loud, even when the place is packed and noisy. They sound it when someone gets a "bonk" - knocking down the 5 pin while leaving the others standing (no, I never came close to doing that). Historic Fort Wayne is in southwest Detroit along the Detroit River, just a few minutes from downtown. Been there, too. The episode ended as they were losing light quickly - not sure what they would have done at sunset - there aren't floodlights. Thank you, TAR. Thank you.

 

I thought it was a great episode, too. The results turned out about how I expected. I was rooting for Tyler and Korey to win but thought all along that Colin and Christie probably would. They just seemed so strong and consistent, and even more crucially, they were able, throughout the race, to do a better job than the other teams of making up lost ground -- something they showed again last night after Christie struggled with the WWII coding message and after they had to run around looking for their taxi. Kudos to them.

I was really surprised at how much Leo struggled with opening the vault. Figured the hard part of that challenge came before then. He was right, though, in that, the longer you take completing such tasks, the likelihood of you screwing yourself up goes way up as you start to misremember the combination numbers, or think you're doing that, or you wonder if you've gotten the order of them wrong, or start miss-counting the times you turn the dial, or you turn it the wrong way, etc...

I've never been to Detroit, and was impressed with how it looked and with the vibe I got from it -- much better and more interesting than I expected.

I was surprised with the fowling that nobody tried throwing the football underhand, and hoping, if it went along the ground, that it would roll along the spiral, so that it was more like actual bowling and you'd be trying to hit "the pocket" that way. Even it didn't hit the ground before the pins, it seems like you would've knocked more pins down that way. That's what I would've done.

And I bet we've all gained a new respect for Olympic rowers...That must have been so tough, for almost everybody to have abandoned that, especially in favor of what seemed like a hellish taxi-driver's test. My hat's off to London taxi drivers. What they have to do to qualify for the job has to give you new confidence in them.

Who was it that rolled their eyes at the finish line over Colin and Christie winning? Think it was of the sisters, they look a lot of alike, and I forgot who was who. I can't believe they're not over whatever bad feelings they had yet.

 

Wasn't it Eliza, from Survivor? That's on brand for Eliza and Corinne.

 

My only problem with Colin and Christie was how little she contributed. She did the codebreaking and it was almost a game-ending disaster when someone only gave her most of the answer instead of the entire message. She's so shitty at rowing she had to entirely lift her oars out of the water, and even that she could only barely accomplish. She was on the right track with the drumset but Colin eventually fixed that himself, too.

It seems like Colin just takes everything over so I'm not saying it's all really on Christie, but either way, it rubbed me the wrong way. Then, after they reached the mat, he went on and on about what a goddess she was and how she's the only reason they won. Great, but why don't you let her actually contribute instead of taking everything over? I've seen a lot of people say "relationship goals!" with them, but it didn't seem as healthy to me.

 

I was on the rowing team in college. That shit is HARD. I've rowed a boat very similar to those 2-person shells and it is definitely not as easy as it looks. The main thing that you have to do, other than staying centered and not leaning side to side, is to row together. What you saw many teams struggling with is if you aren't in unison - or if you are attempting to feather the blade (aka flip it so that it is parallel to the water, helping with wind resistance) before it comes out of the water entirely, it can cause some serious issues. So yes, while Christie didn't row and just had Colin row them, if they couldn't get in unison, it was almost more helpful than her attempting to row with him and screwing it up. (Quite honestly, the person who was dead weight on her team was Nicole. Honey, you wanna do...uh, anything? She straight up asked Victor if he could do the rowing on their way to the detour.)

Thought it was interesting that they had them go through the market and assemble the thing in front of Phil and "Churchill" on the mat.

But yes, this was a great finale. Although interesting that they've started to scale back on the memory challenges.

Pool update:
TigerVols - Tyler and Korey (TAR) - 106
*Iron_Chet - Colin and Christie (TAR) - 100
*WolvEagle - Leo and Jamal (TAR) - 78
*WCIBN - Becca and Floyd (TAR) - 70
*MTM - Nicole and Victor (Big Brother) - 53
*Wenders - Chris and Bret (Survivor) - 37
*bumpy mcgee - Rachel and Elissa (TAR/Big Brother) - 28
*Huggy - Janelle and Britney (Big Brother) - 21
*WriteThinking - Corinne and Eliza (Survivor) - 14
*Rupert and Laura (Survivor) - 3
*Art & JJ (TAR) - 1

*Team has been eliminated

Congrats @TigerVols !