The Amazing Race -- All-Purpose Thread

Because bearded blondes have more fun?

I'm a little surprised that the boyfriends didn't get dinged for leaving their little hoopty car and not parking it at the hotel, like the clue said.

 

I was wondering that too. Will and James post frequent updates and insights about the Race on the subreddit, so I'll keep my eye out and see if this is addressed.

 

Two good episodes tonight. Both activities at the film studio looked so fun.

I’m glad there aren’t any jerks and we’re not seeing angry meltdowns. I liked Hung telling Chee he had 90 seconds to vent then move on.

 

Sorry y'all, your intrepid pool master was too busy baking a lemon tart for Thanksgiving last night.

What a leg. I was confused about something Phil kept saying about the MEGALEG. It would be "twice the distance" of a normal leg...but they never left Hyderabad?? (idk I had a lot of red wine and bourbon with dinner so maybe I'm confused)

I kinda love India legs, especially ones that don't go to the normal places. I've been rewatching TAR 1 on Amazon Prime and they were at the normal tourist places, like Delhi and the Taj Mahal.

Sad to see the blondes go. They were a fun team who didn't get down on themselves, even when everything was going wrong for them.

Pool update:
Huggy - Will | James - 81
WolvEagle - Riley | Maddison - 74
TigerVols - Hung | Chee - 72
MTM - Gary | DeAngelo - 47
Inky_Wretch - Aparna | Eswar - 30
*Iron_Chet - Michelle | Victoria - 27
*Wenders - Alana | Leo - 27
*nietsroob17 - Kaylynn | Haley - 22
*WriteThinking - Jerry | Frank - 10
*bumpy mcgee - Kellie | LaVonne - 4
*Nathan | Cody - 1

 

That was my last thought at the end of the episode, too. I was sorry to see them get eliminated.

My other thought was that I'm getting kind of dis-enamored of the "Mine Five Alliance," and all the game-play and talk connected to it. If I wanted to watch Survivor, I would. The alliance is taking away from the race, in my opinion. I know there's nothing to be done about it, and I know there's some smart strategy in it. But I don't like it.

 

To continue from my last post about the mega-leg episode: With the teams being so strategic this season, and with thoughts obviously moving toward the dissolution of the Mine Five, I'm a little surprised the girls got yielded (twice!) again.

If I were one of the allied teams, and this was the last week they could've used their yields, as was the case, I think I would've been focused on other teams for elimination -- moves that might have really mixed things up. Like, why didn't Riley and Maddison yield Gary and DeAngelo? They still had their yield to use, if I recall correctly, and the volleyball players did talk about how the football players hadn't contributed much to the alliance thus far.

I get that the boyfriends decided to yield the girls so as not to burn any bridges unnecessarily. It was one way of doing things. But I don't see why more teams didn't get in on the yielding action, particularly given that it's getting down to the end now, the other five teams besides the girls split up during the tasks (with three doing "This" and two doing "That"), so they probably wouldn't have been certain where other people were at in the race, and they, perhaps, could've eliminated some stronger threats than the girls.

 

FYI I saw the answer to this, but never responded.

Will & James, it turns out, was already on their "backup" Trabant because their first car's battery was dead. So when the second car broke down, production told them they could hoof it or try to fix it. They hoofed it.

 

There’s a show on Amazon called The Pack which is similar to TAR but instead of two humans, the teams are people and their dog. The challenges include both. Two episodes in and they’ve gone from LA to Mexico with Europe coming up.

I find it drags a little with too many interviews, but I’m mostly enjoying it.

 

I thought when Riley and Maddison's boat stalled, my team was toast. Any of the four remaining teams could easily win this thing - if they pay attention to details, which has been a hallmark of TAR since, oh, its first season. It was killing Gary that he couldn't tell that to DeAngelo.

 

I noticed a couple oddities early. Phil said Riley and Maddison would be the first team to leave India for Cambodia, but they were just the first to leave the pit stop, everyone was on the same plane.

Also the teams left the pit stop between around 3 and 5 p.m, but the plane didn’t leave until 9:30 a.m. Why so much time?

I’d be interested to see a behind the scenes show on how they put TAR together.

 

I think this could be among the strongest final four teams that have ever been on TAR.

I was really surprised, especially at this late stage in the race, that it took at least three of the teams' representatives so long to simply watch what the tile-makers were doing, and then do it. Will had it right in just mimicking them, and eventually everyone else figured that out too. The teams get so caught up in just go, go, going, and winning the legs, that they stop thinking and skip the steps that will help them do that.

And I was very impressed with those floating gardens. Really ingenious.

I like Will and James for the win. As long as Will doesn't have to drive too much in the last leg.

 

I've been watching the super early seasons of TAR (on both Amazon Prime and Hulu) and they really worked now to get people on the same flights because there were so many occurrences where people were a day or more behind in the early days.

I was also nervous for the Beards when their boat broke down. This is a very interesting final four. I think literally any of these teams could win it.

Pool update:
WolvEagle - Riley | Maddison - 89
Huggy - Will | James - 85
TigerVols - Hung | Chee - 75
MTM - Gary | DeAngelo - 49
*Inky_Wretch - Aparna | Eswar - 31
*Iron_Chet - Michelle | Victoria - 27
*Wenders - Alana | Leo - 27
*nietsroob17 - Kaylynn | Haley - 22
*WriteThinking - Jerry | Frank - 10
*bumpy mcgee - Kellie | LaVonne - 4
*Nathan | Cody - 1

Farewell, siblings. We will miss thee.

Sorry for the late pool. I spent most of yesterday confused on whether it was Tuesday or Thursday and forgot about TAR.