Amazing Race 14?

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EricBess

Guest
Yep. Too early for favorites, though. The couple that just lost was odd. He seemed to support her in just about everything, but she was always worried that he wouldn't...
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, so far, none of the couple have really been nasty or anything - they all seem nice. It was too bad for the last couple, but since the woman couldn't run, I figured they'd be going home pretty early.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Saw last night's... tough break for the older couple. They took a gamble with the flights and lost... what a drop for Victor and Tammy, from first to last... the flight was a bad break, but they were in it until Victor followed the wrong markers in the Detour and stuck to it until it was almost too late... Not sure why the guy in the couple relationship would leave his fanny pack lying around during a challenge - everyone should have learned a lesson from last season and always keep their money, passports, etc with them at all times...

Other than that, everyone is still nice to each other.... this is the "nicest" season yet... :)
 
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EricBess

Guest
Yeah, I sort of missed that whole thing with the flights, but I was surprised when nearly at the end of the show they showed that couple. It was almost like they didn't exist for a while there.

Hopefully Victor has learned his lesson. They were incredibly lucky to still be around, so I guess we'll see as time goes on. I thought it was interesting that Tammy "learned" that she has to stick up for herself more. It seemed to me that she had a couple of compelling reasons to go back and double check. Namely, "no one else is here", "they are usually arrows", "these markers are white, not yellow"...etc and Victor really insisted. I think he said "trust me" about 30 times. And then when he gave up, he said that she was allowed to make decisions too...

Still, it's not really an argumentative situation like you get with some seasons. It almost seems cultural to me.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, like they've been saying so far, I think it's the big brother/younger sister dynamic (and the age difference) more than anything. So their time on this show will probably see Victor learn to let Tammy do stuff and listen to her and Tammy speaking up and getting Victor to see her position and hopefully keep their strong sibling relationship.

The older couple was basically out of it after their next day flight. I thought maybe the teams would run into one of those things where it opens at a certain time and everyone catches up, but once that wasn't the case, they were pretty much guaranteed last place (barring some huge mistake by another team).
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Well, that was bad luck for the young couple. U-Turned and couldn't make up the time.

Interesting how the "Construction" teams couldn't find the house to repair for the longest time...
 
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EricBess

Guest
Yeah, but when they did find the house, it seemed like a very quick and easy project. It may have been editing, but between gathering, finding, and doing, the finding was the only part that seemed to take any time.

Meanwhile, the stacking looked like it took quite a while to do and several teams had to not only start over, but clear away what had fallen first.

I wasn't paying close enough attention, but it seemed that every team decided to do stacking and the only ones that ended up construction switched to it after their piles fell over.

I also got the impression that the u-turn ultimately didn't make a difference. They were last getting to the u-turn anyway. They were a lot closer, obviously, but it didn't seem like they were close enough to have made up the difference anyway.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I think everyone chose stacking because they didn't realize how much of it there was :)

It might have made a slight difference, depending on how far back they were from the next team. If they were right on their heels, then they'd have to trust to the cabs or however they got to the next point. But having to go back and do the stacks definitely put them behind; it was still light for the second-to-last team but they arrived in darkness to the Pitstop.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Well, Margie and her son are definitely powerhouses, first place again. Not sure how the stewardesses got lost or so far back, but they're lucky it was a non-elimination leg. Victor and Tammy (more Victor) need to watch out if they expect help from other teams in the future. Funny how, in the beginning, once it was shown that the train departure time as 10:20 PM and all the teams would catch up, the show didn't even bother showing teams three on from departing the Pitstop :)
 
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EricBess

Guest
Yeah, I'm not sure why Victor behaves that way. I suppose if your goal is to get 1st place every leg, then you have to do that, but if there are several teams behind you, I think it makes sense to work with the other teams that are out in the lead. You don't really risk anything and the favors may come back at you later. If you are fighting to stay alive, then yeah, anything goes.

There wasn't a lot of indication of where the lags happened with the contestants this week. I must have been a lot of the drives, but yeah, you just sort of had a "okay, this is what this team is up to".

Interesting that the road block led right into the pit stop. Usually, there is another clue before the pitstop.

Did you catch how Phil just about yelled his location to Mike and Mark when they started searching the auditorium? "Hey guys, over here..."
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Well, I think at the time, Victor/Tammy and the other two teams *were* vying for first place, but since it was the beginning, who knows what could change. It doesn't make sense to alienate right now, like you said.

yeah, I noticed that. I thought teams had to fumble around and find it on their own; so now I wonder if he does that a lot? sometimes? but this was the first time they kept it on camera...
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Well, the blondes almost made it. They were 6th (second to last) coming out of the Detour but the stuntguys beat 'em... maybe their taxi got a little lost (although the Pitstop seemed to be a big landmark) or caught in traffic or they were farther away?

Not much else, I don't think... oh, funny how it took them all a long time to catch on that they could use the basket instead of the pail to carry the camel feed, while Mike's father used it right away and ended up beating everyone who had started around the same time :)
 
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EricBess

Guest
I had to wonder, however, how much creative editing was used. When the stunt guys finished their detour, it said, "Currently in last place", but they were the only ones to do that detour. They may have already been closer to the pit stop and/or may have actually finished before the blondes.

They were still standing at the mat when the blondes were climbing the stairs, so unless there was some REALLY creative editing, then yes, they almost made it. I have to say when they first announced having to paint the elephant, I was thinking how crazy that was, but then you see that the elephant is already half-painted and they just needed to fill in the missing sections and it wasn't so bad. Still, it seemed like they just got behind at the start again and never really caught up, though they did manage to narrow the lead a bit at almost every challenge.

And yeah, the whole basket thing was silly. I hope that if the natives really do have to do those tasks that they at least are able to move their camels closer. When they announced the task, I was under the impression that they camels they chose would be important because they would be eating and the challenge was to get in front of it enough. But no, the camels pretty much just sat there and weren't really important at all. It turned out that the real task was in how many times they had to run back and forth and as far behind as the old guy got with the water, he must have saved a ton of trips with the straw to have caught up so quickly. Good for him.

Normally, at this point, there are a few forerunners in terms of who I want to win. This season...I'm not a huge fan of the Victor, but other than that...not so much. The two black girls really seem to complain a lot, so I'm not a huge fan there either, but I didn't notice it as much this week as I did last week. You obviously have to admire the deaf boy and his mother, but I can't say that I would be overly disappointed with anyone winning at the moment.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, but trying to bicycle who knows how far with all of those vats on it probably took some while. I mean, they had to worry about it tipping over and whatnot... and then of course they had to dig through the stuff, no telling how long that was.

I don't think the show would have put one overly closer to the Pitstop than the other though. And I think the stuntmen were truly in last place at that point. It was just close.

Yeah, no real favorites or dislikes yet... gotta be a first on the show so far :)
 
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EricBess

Guest
I definitely agree that the biking was the wrong choice. I got the impression that they had completely searched all of their barrels and were going back through when the found it.

I have a question for you, though...I thought they said they had to take 9 barrels, but each bike had 9 and they each rode a bike. Did that strike you as odd? I was under the impression that they only needed 1 bike.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, that did seem weird. I would have thought one person would ride the bike or before seeing it, it would have been a two-person bike. But either we heard wrong and it was "each take a bike with 9 barrels on it" (to distinguish them from other nearby bikes, maybe), or because it was a Detour, they thought they each had to take a bike.

I'm tempted to look around and check for a behind-the-scenes or something now that might shed some light... :D
 
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EricBess

Guest
Okay, I officially have another team that I don't like too much. Jaime and Cara and soo impatient that they end up being rude to everyone around them. Not just the other teams, but to the natives, and that's just not cool. it was funny that they were the first ones to the drawers and the last team there to find a clue, but they were being impatient with the owner way before anyone else had even found a clue. And the comment about how she is tired of hearing all these people talk when she couldn't understand them. That's just not cool.

But Mike and Mel really dug their own graves on this one. Hint one - if you see all of the other groups talking to people on the street and then getting in their cabs and going a different direction than you, maybe you should stop and ask also. Hint two - if you get to the beach and someone tells you that they think you should be at the zoo, don't tell them, "no, it's around here somewhere" and then complain that no one knows where it is. I mean, eventually someone was convinced enough of where it was that they listened, but they were way behind at that point.

I'm surprised that they were able to catch up as well as they did. Of course, the other teams had a tough time finding the boats and they seemed to find them pretty quickly. Still, wasn't quite enough. Had the black girls not realized their mistake about filling and loading at the same time, it might have been a different story. I thought it was funny that Mel was so excited about how much time they saved by carrying two at a time, when the bottleneck was filling them with water anyway :D Still, they had a good run and I'm a bit sad to see them go before a couple of the other teams.

Mike and Michael had it in the bag. I'm sure that they wouldn't have been a full hour ahead if they had followed the rules, but they had enough of a lead that I don't think they would have lost the lead, either, had it not been for the penalties. As far as I could see, none of the other teams actully took a pump. I don't know how important that was, but inflated tires can make a huge difference.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Wow, you pretty much read my mind.

Jaime and Cara definitely dropped into the "less want to see win" with Jaime's comments (unfortunately for Cara :) )

Agree about Mike and Mel - heck, if you're with a group, you know you have someone to beat and know their progress. Going out on your own, especially if you're unsure, is always a risk.

I was surprised at how big a lead Mike & Michael had, but I think they would have had that lead regardless, depending on how they asked for help. Putting the pumps back into the crate probably didn't take that much time - and it was countered by the other teams not taking the time to put the pumps in the crate AND not pumping. If they got a map like Tammy & Victor or just asked for directions from people like the other teams did, unless they got really lost, it probably would have been the same amount of time.

But I think having the tires inflated was kinda important; everyone was getting tired out and Victor's comment about Tammy weighing a lot might have had more to do with the uninflated tires than her weight :)
 
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