Amazing Race 15

[Spiderman]

All right, finally got to see it (wife's been sick - well, still is - but was very tired in the beginning of the week)

First, Sam and Dan just keep going down and down, I sure hope they don't win. Not sharing the word with Big Easy and saving their taxi when they took Brian and Erica's just shows lack of morals. Yeah, technically they didn't do anything really "wrong", but their actions are questionable.

Second, glad Brian and Erica made it and the Globetrotters out since Sam and Dan were second place. I can't believe they made up the 90 minutes that they started out behind with, but with Big Easy's troubles in the Roadblock and subsequent penalty, they did pretty well.

Third, I can't believe Big Easy chose the penalty over trying to figure out the puzzle. I know he must have been tired and discouraged after spending probably 3+ hours there, but waiting another four hours? That's a lot of additional combos he could have tried. Maybe he was hoping for a "catchup" time like everyone has to catch a plane or wait for some place to open since it was still nighttime.

 

[EricBess]

Yep. I personally didn't want to see the globetrotters go, but honestly, of the final 4, the only one that I really did want to see get eliminated were Sam and Dan.

I think more than anything, I'm less disappointed by the globetrotters getting eliminated than the way in which they were eliminated. I think of the two, Flight Time is the more intelligent, but I think Big Easy just convinced himself that it was harder than it was. I realize they didn't know whether it was a word they would recognize or not, but I have trouble seeing how "Franz" would be as difficult as it turned out to be. Brian was the only one that didn't seem to have any trouble at all getting it.

And I agree with you about Dan not wanting to share after they agreed they would. I understand why Brian wouldn't have passed the information on because they were seriously coming from behind at that point and didn't want someone directly on their tail, but Dan's whole, "It's easy and the'll get it in the next 5 minutes anyway" was just slimey. If he accepts the assistance, he should honor the terms of that assistance.

And if I were Big Easy, I would probably be very suspicious of him running off saying, "I'll tell you this much - it starts with 'F'". If the guy is clearly trying to get a lead on you, then do you assume he's telling the truth or that he's lying even more to try to delay you further. Personally, I probably would have assumed the later, which would have made it even harder, not easier.

I really respect the way they played as a team, though, and Flight Time didn't hold Big Easy responsible for the loss.

I completely agree with you about the penalty, though. I don't know how long it took to fill out the form, so it's hard to say how quickly the throughput is, but I have to think that if they were systematic about it, they would have had the answer within 4 hours. There are only 120 combinations. Absolute worst case scenario with a 5-minute turn around is 10-hours. You can cut this down significantly if you assume that the 1 vowel has to be in a reasonable position.

 

[Spiderman]

And if I were Big Easy, I would probably be very suspicious of him running off saying, "I'll tell you this much - it starts with 'F'". If the guy is clearly trying to get a lead on you, then do you assume he's telling the truth or that he's lying even more to try to delay you further. Personally, I probably would have assumed the later, which would have made it even harder, not easier.

Yeah, does he take him at his word that it starts with an F? I can see that if he doesn't, the task is daunting to find the right word, especially if you've been 2+ hours at it. But the "worst" is that you assume he is telling the truth and just try all the possible combinations from there.

And man, Dan and Sam's whining during the Detour challenge was getting annoying...

 

[EricBess]

And if you assume he's telling the truth, it reduces it to 24 possibilities, even if you brute force it.

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, I couldn't figure out the math on the fly

So we got to watch the final... I'm slightly disappointed that Cheyne and Meghan won, as you know I was rooting for Brian and Ericka, but I'm glad Sam and Dan didn't

So of course everyone is back at the level playing field when they have to fly to Las Vegas, despite Brian and Ericka being behind 4.25 hours from Cheyne and Ericka and 3.25 behind Sam and Dan

They got into first leaving the airport and doing the Roadblock, all good so far - (man, that must have been scary!)

And... then they lost it at the Cirque de Soleil challenge. Well, really Ericka lost it... I think she just panicked when everyone else was getting it relatively fast and she just kept bouncing... and then switching didn't help...

But then they made up some time with the poker chip challenge... I thought it was odd that everyone seemed to finish roughly the same time although Sam and Dan had gotten there first and were 300,000 or so ahead in the count though.

And then Brian and Ericka failed the count at least twice, which did it for them and caused the show to stop showing them

All in all, I like the "review" challenge the best when the person had to remember what they did each of the legs of the race.

 

[EricBess]

I was disappointed that there wasn't a review challenge. I guess the poker chips was supposed to be "this is how much money you will have" to sum up the season, but it really didn't do it for me. I thought it was pretty lame. Yeah, so it was a big difficult challenge, but it really just required an eye for detail.

Cheyne and Meghan were the only ones that worked as a team on the poker chips as far as I could tell. Sam and Dan were arguing so much that I'm surprized they were able to correct their count as quickly as they appeared to (or at all, for that matter).

I agree about them all getting done at the same time. Honestly, I think that there was a ton of creative editing going on. I'm guessing that the truth wasn't anywhere even close to what we saw. Based on they way they were interacting, I'm guessing Sam and Dan finished way ahead of the others, but was told that it was incorrect, so they had to recount and that would have taken a good long time.

I also noticed, however, that the person at their table was grabbing any stack that was placed on the corner of the table and was positioning it for easy counting. I didn't notice if the other counters were doing the same, but that seemed a bit odd to me since so much of it comes down to how you organize yourself.

Remember how I said that I don't really like Brian and Ericka, but I couldn't really say why? Well, the finale made me realize why. Ericka is way too whiney for my taste. It seems like every time they get a lead, they make a big point of how great they are doing, "but they don't want to get cocky", and then any minor setback gets blown out of proportion by Ericka to the point where it becomes a major setback and they barely manage to stay in the race once again.

I didn't get the impression that Ericka "panicked", but she certainly did lose it. Every time she got close, instead of being encouraged because they were getting closer, she got even more frustrated because she failed yet again. The first time they showed Meghan grab a bunch of the flowers, for example, she made a comment about how they almost had it and how they were doing great. Ericka did the same thing and instead started yelling and throwing a fit. Granted, they had already been there longer, but still...

And because of it, they wasted tons and tons of time switching out twice. I really had to respect Brian, who tried to be encouraging through it all and humored her, even though he had to realize it was just wasting precious time.

And at the poker chip thing, she did the same thing. Yes, missing the count was a setback, but rather than keeping her head, she wanted to "start over"...I'm not even sure what that would mean at that point...did she want to scatter all the chips back onto the table?

Overall, given the three teams in the finals, I'm glad Cheyne and Meghan won. Particularly given the circumstances. I never liked Sam and Dan, and they were killed by the fact that they couldn't seem to work together in the last challenge. Brian and Ericka started that challenge second. I'm not sure why they messed it up, but then Ericka freaked out again, wasting more time.

On the other hand, Cheyne and Meghan ended up starting the final challenge last. They ended up getting bad information from at least 2 different people. One told them to go to the Venician, and another to the Belagio before they got the correct information from two different people (and asked them both "are you sure?"). They should have become more suspicious when Sam and Dan turned off, but all 3 of the casinos are on the strip, so it's hard to say how much that should have cost them. I'm not familiar enough to know which ones are located where and traffic is always a concern, but still... Regardless, it was enough to give Brian and Ericka time to catch up, so they were behind going into the final challenge, so it was their teamwork that really made the difference.

 

[Spiderman]

I don't think Ericka was whiny, but I think the pressure of being in the top 3 and having a lead and then blowing it got to her. All that you said was "panicky" (or maybe "meltdown") to me.

I thought they worked fairly well on the poker chip challenge though. I don't remember too much disagreement between them. With the recount thing, it's hard to tell whether she or Brian was right, especially since the show cut away from them.

I'm not sure Cheyne and Meghan should have been suspicious; for all they know, Sam and Dan's taxi driver might have known a "shortcut", like Brian and Ericka's on the way to the Roadblock. They *should* have gotten suspicious when people kept telling them the Monte Carlo yet they kept asking more and more people - clearly no one was saying the casino where they were. But yeah, I think their teamwork and that they got it right the first time helped them a lot.

 

[EricBess]

Yes, I think that they were working together well on the poker chips, but as soon as they were told that their total was incorrect, she lost it. I'm just saying - had she remained calm under pressure, there is a very good chance that they would have won.

 

[train]

I trailed off during end of the season - but overall, I was ok with them winning... never really saw them as bad sports through the race... so it's all good...

too bad the trotters didn't make it thought... I'm sure they know a bit about betting with and counting those chips...