Amazing Race 16

[train]

I didn't understand the cowboys getting so far behind either - but it had to be the transportation difference.

I surprised as it was non-elim... Earlier in the show it was stated the last team to arrive "will be eliminated"... then the clues read said "may be eliminated"... I always listen for that...

As for the leg cramps - I was curious as to how it just set in... I've been dehydrated before and my whole body basically locked up - so for both legs to do it at the same time, it must have been groin or otherwise...

I would've done the kraut challenge - but the soccer seemed "easy" so I'm thinking there was a lot of editing there... Probably could have had a "kick counter"...

As for the times at the beginning - I noticed that - but didn't think about the significance...

and the boys can now "check" being on a soccer field off their list... hah...

 

[Spiderman]

I never heard the "will be eliminated"; it's always been "may".

I don't think the soccer was easy but it wasn't extraordinarily hard either...

I wonder how long the polka song actually went... well, the Big Brother team couldn't finish in time so I guess not extra long.

The cowboys should take up soccer, they seemed naturals...

 

[EricBess]

Train - are you certain they said "the last team will be eliminated"? I didn't hear that. They are usually very careful about "may be". I did catch that they said "who will be eliminated next" as opposed to "who will be eliminated tonight" right at the beginning. Could it be that this is what you remembered? Funny...I normally don't listen for that, but I did last night .

The cowboys made a comment while on the subway about it being the wrong choice and taking a lot of time and there wasn't anything else that slowed them down that I saw, but they knew that it was a mistake and that it would cost them.

Beyond that, what caused the delays? Just the fact that they were already behind because of the bungy jumping? The flights seemed to make a bit of a difference for the cops/cowboys because they were there significantly earlier and the cops rode that to the end, but the other two flights seemed to be pretty close together by the time they hit the bungy.

The leg cramps were unfortunate, particularly since she played soccer and could probably have whipped through the challenge without that. But dispite her frustration, she still had to rub it in a bit that she hit more targets then he did.

Was it the big brother team (I'm still not sure which is which) that had the problem with the taxi and then couldn't finish the sourkraut, so they switched? Was it just me or did they just jump into the same taxi to go to the soccer field. I think the taxi cost them quite a bit. The oriental team switched tasks too and it didn't seem to hurt that much (but as always, it's hard to say how much of a lead they already had).

I'm sure you are right about the editing on the soccer, but they did show the cowboys hitting the last two in succession without switching scenes.

Spidey - we were wondering about the beer also, but I still wonder about the specifics. There is a difference between someone who has never drunk beer and someone who doesn't drink beer, and as far as I could tell, everyone drank with one possible exception (whose teammate looked like he downed the whole thing himself). I think they must know enough about the teams ahead of time to know if there are any considerations like that before putting that sort of challenge and I would think they would need to put an "out" to be respectful of that sort of thing.

 

[Spiderman]

I don't remember seeing the cowboys making that comment after the bungy jumping - I remember wondering where they were until they finally showed up at the next challenge

It was the Big Brother team.

I don't think everyone drank; like I mentioned before, one of the cowboys said he never had a beer and I don't think he had some then. And same with Miss America - she said she hated beer and hated when her boyfriend drank, so I don't think she drank.

I would hope the show puts an "out" for those who don't drink but you never know... I mean, they give them challenges where some have fears of heights or water (or can't swim) and stuff, so it all may be part of the show, to see how each team handles it.

 

[train]

Train - are you certain they said "the last team will be eliminated"? I didn't hear that. They are usually very careful about "may be". I did catch that they said "who will be eliminated next" as opposed to "who will be eliminated tonight" right at the beginning. Could it be that this is what you remembered? Funny...I normally don't listen for that, but I did last night

I'm pretty sure and will check for the on-demand to view it and note where... don't know if anyone else has the on-demand of TiVo-ed it since it seems we all watched it live...

I mainly remember because I thought it was an elim - and when they weren't eliminated - I thought they were catching a bit of a break due to their cab driver's screw-up... Meaning down the road - they may have a double-elim..

It all sparked controversy to me...

 

[EricBess]

I recorded over it already

I thought I saw Miss America take a swig before handing the rest to her teammate, but I could have been wrong. I also thought the cowboy who said he had never had beer in his life also drank and then said it was "nasty", but that might have been the other cowboy. Didn't he say in the cab that he had never had beer before and after this experience, he never wanted to have it again? Again, it's possible that it was the other cowboy and I'm misremembering the first part.

I would hope that the drinking of beer is considered different than a fear of heights. Some people are genetically predisposed alchoholics and could become adicted from one drink. I, for example, don't drink for religious reasons. I avoid anything that could make me lose control of my ability to process. I know they have had all mormon teams in the past and I can't imagine any practicing mormon drinking just because it is part of the race. I'm not aware of any religions where heights are forbidden .

Besides, I think everyone knows going in that there are going to be height and water challenges. Some perhaps hope that they will all be road blocks that their teammate can do, but I don't think that they can argue it. They've had occasional alcohol challenges, but not every season. It would be interesting to see what happened if this ever came up, but my guess is that they arrange it ahead of time to avoid that.

 

[Spiderman]

My recollection is that Miss Teen did NOT drink, and it was the cowboy who had drank before said that after taking a swig of THIS beer, said it was nasty and that afterwards, never wanted to see another beer (with his non-drinking partner laughing at him).

It's probably the same with food, with their food challenges here and there. I do believe they probably take what the players said on their questionaires and if both do not drink, the show probably doesn't have a drink challenge; certainly, there hasn't been a drink challenge in every past season. But if one says they drink, then it's probably fair game.

 

[train]

I think it's a mix of the culture they are visiting, etc. There are some fermented drinks that they have had in the past that would qualify as alcoholic...

I think Miss did take a swig also, but they didn't show it much and just noted that the fellow was the big drinker...

 

[Spiderman]

Cowboys moved up a place! Yea!

That sucked about the Asian couple, although I wasn't really attached to them. Having to leave because they couldn't do that Morse code is a bummer. It looks like they just gave up towards the end and waited fro Phil to come get them . So the Big Brother team, despite being last and having to do the Speed Bump, got a lucky break and stayed in.

Again, the lesbian team went down a notch. What's up with the complaining about crawling in the mud? "This is not what I signed up for"? Hello? It's a race through whatever challenges the show gives you, of course it's what you signed up for!

 

[EricBess]

Haven't seen it yet. Between the time change and having promised my 9-year-old that I would play a game with him...then visiting a friend who just went through his first round of chemo for longer than we were expecting to, so we didn't even start our game until 8 pm...I didn't feel like staying up to watch so I need to watch it today.

 

[Spiderman]

Wow, I think that's the first time you've missed an episode of either this or Survivor from when it first aired

 

[train]

I was a little enthused the boys moved up a notch - but felt the morse code was a tough challenge... Probably the toughest I remember in all the races... With all the other distractions going on, being in a race to start with, and knowing the fatigued state their minds were in - I don't know that another team could have done it either...

Not so sure about the bike costumes - but hey - you do what you gotta do... I guess... I could probably see it for sure without the moustache...

 

[EricBess]

I occassionally have to record Amazing Race, but I usually watch it later that same night ...

Honestly, I don't think we saw enough of the morse code challenge to know just how difficult it was or if they were making it harder than it had to be. Was it just a continuous loop or was it clear where the message started? I can understand not knowing whether a letter was a 'W' or a 'T', for example, but if you are reasonably sure about some letters, then you write everything down with the possibilities for the other letters and you should be able to come close. Some of their "guesses" where nowhere near what the final solution was, though they would get a single word right.

I agree that it was probably one of the toughest challenges this season, I think they weren't being very sytematic or organized and I think that is what ultimately killed them on it. It is very unfortunate that they were the only team forced to do that with a challenge that required a certain mindset at the very least, that they simply didn't have.

Was it just me, or did this leg of the race actually seem pretty short in terms of how many things they had to do?

 

[Spiderman]

To me, it seemed like one of those museum audio display/self-tour things where once you pick up the phone, the code starts. You hang up and pick it up again, it starts again from the beginning.

I could have sworn when Phil was describing both challenges that the phrase was the same, but as they kept going back to the guy with "The war is over" and "We have won" or something and kept getting it wrong, I was getting more confused. The final phrase certainly didn't sound like it would be obvious.

It was definitely short - from the beginning, they had that one course marker then onto the Detour and then the bike challenge. No Roadblock even!

 

[EricBess]

Yeah, you are probably right about the museum thing. If so, though, they should have been able to focus more on the beginning until they had that down pretty good. I tried to listen to the code, though, and I was a bit confused.

Oh, and I wasn't impressed at all with Jeff yesterday. He was clearly getting on his his teammate's (Jennifer?) case just because of the frustration level. And he makes a comment at the beginning of the episode of "we are clearly the best team here" and then they can't even get out of the roundabout, dispite arguing over it. News flash...that's part of the race. You can be the best at the challenges, but if you can't get to the challenges, you still lose.

 

[Spiderman]

The cowboys had a chance to get in the lead and blew it (twice!) on going to the wrong town... I'm surprised they even got 4th place, but that's more because the teams behind them made more mistakes...

The Miss Teen and Big Brother teams keep showing their ignorance... man, who doesn't know Joan of Arc? And thinking it's Noah? Argg...

Cops are on a roll, third time they won.

Does anyone know what happened exactly with Steve and Ann's car? I missed it, but it looks like it got torn up pretty good...

 

[train]

Totally missed it - will check on-demand.

 

[EricBess]

Not a lot of excitement this episode. Yeah, the cowboys drove 40 KM or 60 round trip (okay, they were aproximating the first time), so that's what...an extra 40-60 minutes driving. Plus, they were one of the groups that got sent to what I guess was some sort of corporate office instead of the field...? At least, that's the impression I got.

Whatever happened with the car I don't think they had footage of. It looked like when they pulled into the office place, they pulled in too far and hit a tree or something, so the front bumper got crushed against the tire.

Wasn't sure about the pyramid thing with the glasses...Were they supposed to do a 3-sided pyramid? They said there was a specific number of glasses and it had to be a specific number of levels, but beyond that...They accepted the brother team's 3 extra levels right on top of each other.

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, I don't know about the glasses challenge. I thought that was kind of cheating myself and was hoping it'd fall over, but I guess it was okay for the show...

 

[Spiderman]

Well, the cowboys lucked out by this being a non-elimination round... man, I can't believe they got a second chance when the lesbians forgot one of their coconuts too but then they made the bone-headed mistake of swimming to the island without their clue?!?!? I mean, if you don't have a clue telling you where to go, why would you even try to go to the pitstop? At the least, you'd get a time penalty but Phil told them to go back and get it...

So much for the cops winning... that was kinda dumb, having all the teams on the same airplace so that their starting time didn't matter. It should have picked up from when they landed, I thought....

I don't know why people, after knowing this show's been on for how many seasons, don't think ahead like getting the seats towards the front of the plane or checking for fallen coconuts or whatever. A lot of teams were just sloppy this time.

I wonder if Allie and Steve are allowed to go back and get their backpacks? It's not like they left the country or anything...