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I missed last week’s show due to turkey-related issues. We have Thanksgiving up here in Canada a bit earlier because… well, it gets colder faster. I bet people in Buffalo wish they’d bump up the holiday.
Travel
The teams traveled from Ha Long Bay, Vietnam to Chennai, India. The train from Ha Long Bay to Hanoi caused the usual bottleneck that comes from leaving in the dead of night, but the real challenge came from having to book tickets via a travel agent once in Hanoi.
There were no real hitches in getting a flight, but getting he best arrival time proved to be a challenge. The teams of Sarah/Dr. Jerk, Dustin/Kandice, Alabama and Kentucky all got what the agents assured them was the “best” flight, but in travel agent lingo “best” meant “least number of connections”. In this game, you should probably be looking for flights from one place to another with up to two connections in order to maximize your search for the earliest arriving flight. The Chos, Rob/Kimberly and Tyler/James all got travel agents that did so, and as a result got flights that landed about three hours earlier than the initial flight of the other Racers.
Of course then the Chos had to open their mouths about their flight (more on this later), but my feeling is that Sarah/Dr. Jerk/Dustin/Kandice would’ve looked for a better flight regardless, and as luck would have it they found an even earlier arrival time.
Alabama and Kentucky took the usual risk of flying standby from Delhi to Chennai, and while it paid off for the single moms, David and Mary were not so lucky, which perhaps explains their decision making on the Detour.
Detour – Wild Rice or Wild Ride
A classic fear task vs safe task Detour. Wrangling crocs was by far the easier – and faster – task, and teams that abandoned the painting task (Chos, Alabama) caught up to others here with no problems. Going into the Detour, David and Mary had to have known that they were last, and seeing Tyler and James there, they should’ve went for the crocs despite Mary’s fear of them. Mary, you’ve flown a plane, scaled the Great Wall, and are on the trip of a lifetime – you’re letting a crocodile come between you and Philimination?
Roadblock – Make an Asian Driver Joke Here
The task was just kind of there. Nobody managed to gain or lose a place with this task.
Non-Elimination
It appears that the producers have managed to find an appropriate penalty for finishing last on a non-elimination leg. Now David and Mary do not necessarily have to finish first, but they DO have to be aware of everybody’s position as they near the checkpoint. What should be interesting is whether the other teams can use this to their strategic advantage or not. I see a couple of avenues here, but the conditions have to be just right for that to happen.
Miscellaneous
– Peter’s a jerk.
– Also, you can’t go into this game and help others, but expect help in return later on. It may happen, it may not happen, but you can’t expect it.
– The cellphone prank was brilliant. Of course, I loved Joe Horn’s cellphone TD celebration and David Carr’s “I can’t find the cellphone” TD celebration as well. I guess I’m just a sucker for that kind of thing. Regardless, after I finished my quiet chuckle, I thought “that’s gonna bite them in the ass later”. And it did, sorta. First there was Dr. Jerk borrowing a cellphone to help secure tickets, and then there was their verbal diarrhea, causing four teams to look for better flights and perhaps allowing one of the stronger teams to escape being “marked for elimination”. We’ll see if they can improve next week.
That’s all for this week.
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