The Amazing Race

I am really happy for the goat farmers! And definitely pleased that they had a memory task. The finale never feels complete without one.

How do you not know the U.N. emblem?

I was all for the goat farmers from the start, but the ending was kind of a letdown. Darn Chippendales had to go and be so earnest and yes, delightful.

Yeah, I was surprised at how invested I was in the Chippendales, but their earnestness and general good-naturedness won me over. I wasn't "sad" that the Beekmans won, but I would have much rather the Chippies did. I do wonder what the time difference was between them. It didn't look like it was that long, unless it was the producers futzing with the editing, which I wouldn't put past them.

Same here. I was happy! But not as happy as if it had been the Chippendales. But that's OK! Good Race.

The one kind of off note for me in the finale was the talking head with the monster truckers talking about the Beekmans. It was sort of like "OMG, we won!" "Yay!" "Congrats!" "We're so happy!" "Yay!" "On the Race we learned that not all gay people are gross perverts, and even if their buttseks is creepy we should still treat them civilly!" "We won, yay!" "Yay!" I know THEY didn't choose to edit the interview in like that but it was sort of like, oh FFS, here's your cookie, now go away, nobody cares what you learned. Maybe it was the way it was stuck in and how I don't recall any previous stuff about them being uncomfortable around gays, so it became a pointless non-sequitur.

And yeah, how do you not know the UN emblem? I have to say I was feeling all smug at the last challenge because I am generally really good with languages and I thought I'd be able to kick ass on it. But looking at all the signs, yeah. I would have been reduced to trial and error very quickly.

The Beekmans say "Thank You."

Ok, that makes me like them a bit more.

Maybe it's just that I'm currently watching The Beekman's show about becoming Goat Farmer's, but I really felt like they needed the win emotionally, they had taken a lot big gambles recently and experienced a lot of failure, and struggled through much of the race, so to see them win was really really nice. But also loved the 'dales and Lexi/Trey raced so well for so long I did feel bad that it all came down to this one thing they just couldn't get right.

I just really enjoyed how *cooperative* everyone was until this leg, and how they had to actually remind themselves NOT to help the other teams.

woolhat wrote:How do you not know the U.N. emblem?

I really wanted someone to say it was the United Federation of Planets emblem.

It was merciful that the task runners would let them know when they got one flag right, so they didn't have to do all of them and then check before having to do them all again. They would have been there all night.

Didn't one of the twins refer to the Beekmans as "The Gays"? Seriously?

punkysdilemma wrote:

Didn't one of the twins refer to the Beekmans as "The Gays"? Seriously?

I think they both did a few times over the last 2 episodes. They were also confused as why the gay guys knew how to fix the windmill so well. I thought the twins were loud but good racers until the last few legs when they got annoying and kind of offensive.

I've never been so sad about a team losing until the Chippendales! I hope they end up running and winning an All Star season.

Didn't one of the twins refer to the Beekmans as "The Gays"? Seriously?

Not only "The Gays," but "The Evil Gays." Nice.

I was so happy to see the twins eliminated in the first hour. I was so sick of them.

Wildog27 wrote:The Beekmans say "Thank You."

Ok, that makes me like them a bit more.

Aw, that is so sweet! I was rooting for Team Stripper, but I was happy for the Beekmans. It was so nice to see a finale with no one I hated, no one screaming at each other, and no one getting knocked out because of a terrible cab driver!

It was so nice to see a finale with no one I hated

Agreed! There was no one I would have been sad if they won, but I was rooting for the Chippies and the Beekmans so I was happy that one of them did. I didn't mind Trey and Lexie but nothing they did was particularly endearing so they were my meh team for the win. I'm just glad the Twins went out before the last task. There was an elapsed time stamp of 2 1/2 hours for the flags. I'm so relieved we didn't have to hear TWIIIINNNNIIIEEE throughout that!

. I do wonder what the time difference was between them. It didn't look like it was that long, unless it was the producers futzing with the editing, which I wouldn't put past them.

I am curious about the time too but I did notice that when the Beakmans finished there was still some light in the sky but it was completely dark when the Chips finished.

Bumping because Hulu Plus has a bunch of past seasons streaming and I am so shocked about how quiet Phil is he is positively sedate compared to the way he currently shouts out information.

Anyone watching Season 89 or whatever we're on?

That was an amazing episode. First: MONKEYS! Waiting for a monkey to open a coconut is the best clue-getting idea EVER. Then, the slow, weird meltdown of Jessica and John. I think that guy is a ventriloquist dummy. First they're randomly in a guy's yard, which filled me with ye olde secondhand embarrassment so I could hardly watch. Then they find the real detour, which he assures us he'll be great at since he's so detail-oriented. They can't do it, and instead of using THE EXPRESS PASS THAT THEY HAVE they go do the second detour EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE LAST. Then the thing with the surfboards. That was both painful and schadenfreudtastic. Phil's "oy vey" at the end was the icing on the cake.

I am! As someone who spent a year studying in Bali (mostly in Ubud), this leg delighted me! Though those monkeys got a great edit because they are mother fucking assholes and will rip an earring out of your ear or rip a sparkly headband off your head just as soon as look at you, so I did wonder if they brought in trained nice monkeys who would cooperate,j/k. Also, as someone who has made a gazillion offerings (most a lot more complicated than that one) and during a procession that involved walking down a steep hill to a temple on that very river (it was pouring down rain and the trail was a mud slick, slipping and falling and losing my offerings and taking out two other people and their offerings) I take that entire leg as a shoutout.

I have absolutely no problem believing that a couple of tourists could stumble into the home of a Balinesefamily and they would be both making offerings and tolerate some assholes who burst into their home to try and make some of their own.

This was such a sweet elimination, Phil's "oh vey" was motherfucking genius. As washis near eye roll about how there was nothing they could do.

I love this show, and this season has been gold so far. I had the twins as my team in my office pool, and I was screaming "OH, COME ON" when one of them was ready to quit a challenge and take a six hour penalty before even trying it.

Totally agree about Phil's "Oy vey". I want to see that become a meme, like, now.

My favourite part was him bragging about being detail oriented AT THE SAME TIME as they were invading some guy's backyard where there were no Amazing Race flags or indicators, no production people hanging around, and no one there who could explain the task to them in English (which I would assume would all be present at an actual, you know, task). Awesome. It really was a case of him outsmarting himself. On every task he was so busy overthinking it and looking for the angles (all while insisting he wanted to be "smart" about it) that he totally lost sight of the actual tasks. I hope she dumped his ass as soon as they got to sequesterville.

Seriously Phil was the best last night. And I didn't even hear him say Oy vey. I thought he just gave him a Seth and Amy REALLY? I felt a little bad for him because I think what he meant was there was no point in doing a hindsight 20/20 thing to himself, hypothetically the surf board task wasn't that difficult, but dude Phil just told you you made the dumbest play in AR history, because it was TRUE.

biakbiak wrote:I have absolutely no problem believing that a couple of tourists could stumble into the home of a Balinesefamily and they would be both making offerings and tolerate some assholes who burst into their home to try and make some of their own.

It was both endearing and horrifying to me that these nice "no English" people had these spazzy Americans just show up in their yard and start messing with their stuff (is that what they were doing, making offerings?) and they were so polite, so hospitable, and didn't they GIVE THEM SOME SARONGS at some point? When presumably they were like "Crap, we're supposed to be wearing sarongs, WHERE ARE SOME SARONGS GIVE US SOME" and the locals were like "...sure, here you go!" Good lord. I hope they gave the sarongs back. Nice people. Not you, team. You are idiots. John at least.

I have heard that about monkeys being assholes. I did appreciate how they seemed to have a monkey wrangler on hand so we weren't going to get to a point where anyone had to be chasing monkeys into the forest to get the clue and possibly get their faces gnawed on.

It really was a case of him outsmarting himself. On every task he was so busy overthinking it and looking for the angles (all while insisting he wanted to be "smart" about it) that he totally lost sight of the actual tasks.

He had just LOST it by the end and just really, really seemed to think that he could REASON his way out of having no idea what he was doing and being last. I actually felt for him when he was searching the surfboards and he was like "I'm trying so hard to think of a way I could be doing this more efficiently!" He could not accept that he had screwed it up because HE IS GOOD AT LOGIC! On the other hand, it was nice to see someone whose response to screwing up wasn't to go into a huge screamy rage about it. When he came back and was like "well by my calculations there's still one team behind us" and Jessica said "all the teams are here" and he goes "well, that's...disappointing, but I should finish the task I guess," even though the relentlessly, creepily upbeat "no regrets, I didn't need that million dollars anyway" was a bit weird, I'll STILL take it over the usual unending displays of rageahol.

Dave & Connor are shoo-ins for the next All-Stars edition (after Dave recovers from the inevitable surgery, of course). Though I've been wondering, I assume Dave's crutches, boot, and the medical visit where he got them were paid for by production (unless they were in a free medical care country?), so I wonder how that fits in with the overall rules of the game, since they would not have survived two legs without that assistance.

I can't believe that peppy ode to socialism got onto American TV with full subtitles, and if no one overreacts about it on the Internets by tomorrow, I will be really disappointed in this country. *ahem*

You're in luck ... TWoP is already blowing up about it!

I will admit that I found the song weird and it was odd that CBS made such a point about translating the words when I don't have a clear memory of them doing that before. But hey, I guess it would be like someone from Iraq coming here and us singing our national anthem in front of them. And odd too that they played the song over the producers' tag as well.

The part that bothered me more was the U-Turn at the sight of where an American plane was shot down. I guess the best word is "insensitive." They've visited places like in Africa where slaves were put on the Middle Passage to America and had the racers take a moment of slience, and that seemed appropriate. To not even mention that Americans died in that crash seemed like it was lessening what happened there.

Again, I know this is taking place in a foreign country and their view on things is different, but as an American, it just seemed off to me.

Ugh. Pam and Winnie, the one and only likeable team. Stupid cardboard ostrich.

I am not a violent person. But I would slap Joey.

I was really really rooting for Pam and Winnie just to get rid of Joey and his stupid histrionics.

Although it's a little bit funny to imagine Pam and Winnie looking at each other and going, "THAT TILE WAS A RHINO, NOT A HIPPO!" later on. I hope they laugh about it eventually. :(

They were kinda meh for me. I liked their lack of fear when not around other teams but sometimes in their THs they said arrogant or rude stuff I didn't like so much. There aren't a lot of likeable teams, although I do love the hockey players with their fun attitudes and summertimes teeth. Summertimes they gots teeth and summertimes they don't depending whether they fear swallowing their falsies during a task, which I find the most HILARIOUS. BELLWETHER. EVER.