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spiderbraids) wrote2024-09-13 10:55 pm
spiderbraids) wrote2024-09-13 10:55 pm
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The Amazing (backtrack to the previous) Race 35: Episodes 9-12
Time to bring it home :-)
Ep 9
- We're still in Slovenia for the next leg, where teams have not been provided with extra euros, before heading to Congress Square for the Roadblock titled "Who can deliver the goods?" The twist is that they have to carry a wood rack on their back along with a buttload of tools hung off it, and deliver it to a fountain: Todd(/Ashlie, married) rightly notes that it has to be carried relatively slowly to avoid falling off... Joel(/Garrett, aka the Beards) gets lost while looking for the fountain, and Garrett jokingly tells Joel to "Use the power of the beard", and Joel holds up his beard for a bit, and soon finds the fountain LOL. (Which I thought it'd be very stupid if that got them a penalty ;-) There's also a shot of Todd noticing an ostrich in the street, for extra laughs LOL)
- Annaleigh (/Steve, Texans) overtake Chelsea (/Robbin, best friends) at the Roadblock, and that's even before Chelsea is told at the fountain that she doesn't have all her tools on the rack, requiring her to double back, find that she's missing a rolling pin, and then return to the fountain, putting them firmly in last... Anyways, the next stop is a cave in Postojna, where teams have been provided headlights to go down into the cave, with a cavern with a river, and then search for a clue in the far back :-) Greg/John (brothers/programmers) are first to get to the cave and find the clue after Todd/Ash get off at the wrong exit and have to get directions... Next task is a bit of randomness: Assemble pieces of a dragon statue in the cave :-) Most of the other teams arrive at the cave to do the task (Beards comment that the cave is a cool place to put the dragon together :-)) until Todd/Ash arrive at the cave feeling like they're in last, and comment that they took an extra 20 miles or so to arrive after missing one exit, before then quipping that the test of a marriage is assembling furniture without filing for divorce :-)
- The team that's actually in last, Robbin/Chelsea find themselves at the wrong cave and needing to get directions (they also apparently have trouble pronouncing stalagmites while on the way to the cave LOL) Note: The spot where contestants are going to is actually a camping spot at the other end of the cave from the main entrance, where it appears Robbin/Chelsea have arrived at to get directions... Meanwhile, the Beards show up at the right end of the cave and comments the cave is a cool place to put the dragon together :-)
- Anyways, Greg/John are first to get the dragon assembled, and their next stop is Fonda Fish Farm :-) They're are driving to the next stop and bragging about beautiful Slovenia: "City's charming, mountains are mountainous, caves are cavernous" LOL. The Texans finish the dragon saying it's not as cool as the beehive, but pejoratively ask if they can take it home LOL. And while driving to Fonda, Joel confesses that he used bear noise to pretend to make dragon sound LOL. Detour at Fonda Fish Farm: Scrape Off (barnacles from a loop with a chain) or Swap Out (two buoys being used to farm mussels, also requiring contestants to retrieve a bag of mussels hanging off each buoy's rope), both of which require kayaking :-) Anyways, Robbin/Chelsea finally get to the cave camping spot as Todd/Ash are finshing up and quipping about getting a dragon tat, LOL. Robbin/Chelsea call the task "very Game of Thrones" :-)
- Greg/John quip that the buoys look like lemons, and while they're looking through the buoys, the Texans arrive at the fish farm (and it sounded to me like there was a clear music cut in the 60-minute version here) and decide on chains, and when Rob/Corey arrive, they decide to do the buoys...Greg/John are done with the buoys, and get the clue for the next Pitstop: Socerb Grad, a castle, which Phil Keoghan tells us there's one every 15 mile in Slovenia (!) Rob/Corey finds they're doing the task wrong (not bringing the buoy, or retrieving the bag from the marked buoy before removing it) so end up having to redo first buoy by looking for where the missing buoy was from, and finding the rope with mussels, requiring Rob to swim a lot :-\ before eventually deciding to switch to cleaning barnacles with chains, which the Texans are finishing as Rob/Corey show up :-\
- The Beards finish buoys, and Joel looks like a sea captain LOL. The Beards then pass Todd/Ash as they're leaving, informing them of the other remaining team IIRC... Rob/Corey still manage to finish the Detour in 4th despite switching, and Todd/Ash will scrape barnacles :-) G/J finish 1st and get $5k each in what feels like a slightly clipped pitstop arrival, which goes like G/J saying "I'm guessing we're in first place" then cutting to Phil Keoghan saying "I have $5k for you, and it's not going to the 2nd place, but the 1st place team, which is you" Meanwhile, Todd/Ash realize that the chains aren't at the first stop they went to, and Ash realizes they have to double back to the kayak pickup, where they're in a small, easily-overlooked crate, and for some reason Todd decides to have fun and yell "I found the chains" euphorically which prompts Ash to reprimand him for celebrating as if they've won the race LOL. (Somewhere in there, on the way to the Detour, Robbin/Chelsea expects there's a Detour left in the leg since there's never a leg without a Detour; spoiler: there are two such legs in this recap)
- The Beards finish in 3th and Phil has the nun accompanying him at the pitstop check out Joel Strasser's beard LOL. Rob/Corey finish 4th, and Phil can't sign Express Pass to remind them they still have it, so they sign it for him :-) While Robbin/Chelsea do the chains, Todd/Ash get 5th, and after getting the Pitstop clue, Robbin/Chelsea decide to swim a bit before checking in for elimination at night, quipping "We knew that about 6 hrs ago" LOLx2, and whereas Robbin talks about her hardships (losing her husband, getting a brain tumor, weighing more than 340lb) Chelsea signs off by saying "The only Detour I wanna do is vacuum the carpet" :-)
Ep 10
- This week, we're in Stockholm, but the first time I watched this ep, I thought they were in France, for reason I'll get to later :-) Anyways, the first stop in Stockholm, as Todd/Ashlie finds out early from having the clue Googled before the flight, is a parachuting club, for a "special" introduction to Sweden (one guess :-)) During the ride to the parachuting club, Joel quips: "Swedish boats have barcodes printed on the front... because they always want to SCAN-di-NAVY-a" LOL! Meanwhile, his partner Garrett heartwarmingly reminisces about his Down's-affected daughter :-) Greg/John run past an "Ej Infart" (do not enter) sign with tiny number placards (presumably expecting to find a box next to the plane at the hangar), so the beards are first to get a number, then followed by Texans... At least Coda and Todd/Ash also run pass, so Greg/John still end up 3rd
- All teams get on a plane at 5 am next day and jump in order of the cards they've gotten, before heading to a Roadblock titled "Who wants to party?" Involves making a wreath for a maypole by wrapping up branches on a hoop, then adding flowers to the adjugator's satisfaction, then attaching to maypole :-) This is where Rob/Corey use the Express Pass to skip the task, and head to the Royal Dramatic Theater to find a violinist :-) Texans in 2nd after being first to complete the task, and G/J notice this and realize they're being too particular about flowers... Texans actually end up being the first to get to the main entrance of the Royal Dramatic Theater after Rob/Corey have to run around the block looking for that entrance, and also the first to get the next clue from the violinist, for a pickup at Solna Centrum station... Greg/John ask for "another check" at the Roadblock, but this is first check we see (60-minute edit, I assume :-\) Anyways, they get the pass, and the non-participating racers also get up to do a dance amongst themselves :-) Beards and Todd/Ash get the pass in that order, while Greg/John and Beards get their clues from the violinists, and Greg/John eke out a small lead by getting on a train ahead of the Beards
- The Detour is between Sort and Serve: According to Phil Keoghan, Sweden is in the midst of a recycling revolution, where 99% of local products are recyclable :-) So teams will get to sort and separate one family's trash, and split them amongst 15 types of items, with the complication that all the signs are in Swedish, so teams will have to figure things out as they go :-) Serve involves serving food for Nobel Prize laureates at a Stockholm City Hall banquet... This is roughly where I tuned in the first time, while Greg/John are supposed to serve French food ("Ooh, wowsers")... One reads the menu (written in French, obviously), then relays the entries to their teammate to find the given items: Three courses to four people, one representing a different year (and famous prize-winner) In their confesional, they note that John can only remember 4 names at a time anyway, they have at least some command of French, and they came up with a system to memorize just the keywords, so they're good, and the first course is indeed good :-)
- At the other task, the Beards, Texans and Rob/Corey are sorting and carting stuff into various recycling hoppers to be smashed... Meanwhile, Todd/Ash are on a train in last, but still somewhat hopeful as they say: "What's a good comeback story without trailing?" At Sorting, there's a comic relief moment where we learn Joel loved to watch wresting, so he's channeling his inner wrestler to throw heavy porcelain stuff into the proper hopper :-) Greg/John absolutely crush the rest of Serve to get their clue leading to the Pampas Marina, while over at Sort, Joel hugs the clue giver upon getting their clue LOL.
- At the boat is a clue pickup, revealing the Pit stop is at Ströaut;mparterren, a museum built to preserve the remains of an ancient city, and teams also have to ride subway :-) so the Beards, and a separate group with the Texans, Rob/Corey, and Greg/John are trying to look for the nearby subway station... Meanwhile Todd/Ash are doing sort :-) Beards are first to get a train, while Greg/John, Rob/Corey, and Texans all need to get a second set of directions, while Todd/Ash are just getting to the boat... Greg/John, Rob/Corey, and Texans end up getting the same train, so this could be a footrace... for 2nd to 4th, because the Beards have arrived at the Pitstop in first (much to their surprise, since they were expecting 2nd at best while on the train) and earned themselves a trip to the Galapagos: Volcano! Snorkeling! Exploring wetlands! Scuba! Greg/John and Rob/Corey follow in that order, joining the beards on the mat :-)
- Last spot is between Texans and Todd/Ash despite getting on different trains... and despite Steve clearly huffing and puffing, Texans get to join the others on the mat as Phil comments about them literally running on top of each other (not literally literally though, LOL) revealing they're the closest bunch of final four heading into the penultimate leg, before having the mat cleared to eliminate Todd/Ash... But Todd calls himself a winner anyway because he doesn't need $1m, he needs family :-)
Ep 11
- We're in Dublin for the penultimate leg, where Phil Keoghan lists lots of things that Dublin is known for, like Trinity University and Ireland's most famous band U2... neither of which will even be tangentially relevant to the leg :-) Everyone's also getting stick-shift cars, and they're also driving on the "wrong" side of the road, though after Greg/John and the Beards' acknowledgement of this, it's never an issue (at least in the 60-minute edit) We're beginning at a swim in the really cold ocean at the Forty Foot, for a clue pickup leading to the Gaiety Theater... The Beards swim with life vests :-) Already, the Texans are last getting to the Forty Foot, which will set the tone for most of the leg, not to mention that daddy Steve will have to do RBs going forward, since Annaleigh's already done 6 :-\
- Speaking of RBs, here's one at the Gaiety Theater: "Who wants to get their steps in?" It's an Irish Riverdance roadblock, where they have to learn a 30 second routine (you think that's hard, some experts can go 2 hours of dancing [!]) Joel will do Riverdance for the Beards, while Steve and Corey have to do it for their teams, and after a weird cut from the Gaiety sign outside the theater to Greg/John getting the Roadblock clue, John's going to do it :-)
- There's the usual practicing montage, where Steve thinks this task would be better as a line dancing task... Corey thinks that the best practice is in front of an audience, and gets to be the first person to try the task, where it turns out the Associate Director of Riverdance, Padraig Moyles is the adjugator, and has Corey redo the routine :-) Corey manages to get to take a 2nd attempt before John has his 1st, so John listens to the music first... Paddy trolls Corey after his 2nd attempt: "Corey, unfortunately, THAT IS A PASS!" John also will need a 2nd go, while Rob/Corey are heading off to Croke Park (sports park, which means sports task :-))
- After John's 2nd go, Paddy also trolls John by having him come down here (in the seats) and tell him he was supposed to follow the 5 pts his instructors would have given him... which he has, so gets the clue :-) Now that the more fit of the contestants have been and gone, time for the less fit :-) Annaleigh quips that "It's been a nice ride, Garrett", but they're not giving them the last spot so easily :-) Joel notes that they go VERY FAST after his first attempt, and the soundtrack adds a hilarious ding to Steve holding his thumbs up after listening to suggestions from Paddy :-) While Greg believes John's performance saved their life, Steve and Joel's attempt numbers pile up, until eventually Steve gets it on his 9th attempt, while Joel still has to go again after his 7th... Joel finally gets it done on the next attempt, and says: "It's not about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep going" Which turns out to be a quote from Sylvester Stallone :-)
- Rob/Corey is first to Croke, where it's a 2nd RB: "Who's got the swing?" and I knew exactly what they were talking about: Hurling :-) Phil reveals that it was used as a way to train warriors, and it's said to be the oldest sport in the world... Anyways, it involves running down the pitch and using the stick to hit the ball through the uprights, which the ball is called a "sliotar" (pronounced like "slitter") Corey is good at baseball, so should be up his alley... and ends up taking 7 attempts LOL. Still in first though, as they get a route marker for the James Toner pub, where two sandwich-style boards have been placed with excerpts from James Joyce's Ulyssees, and contestants will have to recite one quote each :-) Corey quips that "Every single day has been my favorite so far" :-) Meanwhile, Greg/John show up and Greg gets hurling done on his 2nd attempt (!)
- Texans get lost on way to Croke, so Beards get to the park first, and Garrett gets to do it, as Joel makes the quip the editors must have been hoping to get: "Smite, it's not puking :-)" Garrett's also into baseball, and like Corey also struggling after 5 attempts as Texans are arriving at the park... Garrett gets it on the 6th and Joel quips about him knocking it out of the park (though that part wasn't exactly literal) as they run past the incoming Texans, who note that as with Riverdance, Steve has to hurl :-\
- Rob is great at memorizing the Ulyssees excerpt with sign language, and performs his routine in sign language, while Corey does it orally, and both nail it on first go (!) to get the Pitstop clue for St. Patrick's Cathedral (can't go to Ireland and not reference St. Pat's right?) Greg/John get to the pub and G/J describe the Ulyssees excerpts they have to memorize as Dr. Seuss on steroids, as one of them has a turn of phrase like "first last and alone" (no commas) Over at Croke, at least the 2nd RB isn't as physically demanding, as Steve gets his sliotar through on the 2nd go :-)
- St Pat's, where the greeter gives Rob/Corey a Failte ("welcome" in Irish), and more importantly, Phil Keoghan is here to give them great news: They're first, for the first time :-) Plus good news: A trip to Fiji, and as Corey signs/explains to Rob, we learn that it's always been his dream to go to Fiji :-) Anyways: Village tour! Snorkeling! Sailing! Dinner cruise! Corey brags that this is the best lef they've ever raced, and sound about right... This also means Rob/Corey get to race a full season, and become the third team with a handicap to make it to the final leg (Margie/deaf Luke, and armless Bethany Hamilton/partner)
- Greg/John nail the recital in 2, and (likely because of the 60-minute edit) we only see the 2nd attempt, and after the Beards show up and get memorizing, show cuts to Greg/John already at mat being checked in at 2nd... Again, because of the 60-minute edit, show cuts back to the Beards when they are already on attempt 2, where they're a bit slow reciting, but they get it, and start looking for St Pat's... Show intercuts between the beards running while the Texans show up and also get memorizing, before the Texans end up getting it on their first attempt
- Beards arrive, and take in a tin whistle song before saying they want to hear they're in 3rd... and Phil responds: "That's what you're gonna hear" :-) In a confessional, Joel quips along the line of "Doesn't matter what I look like, I can get things done anyway" :-) Texans finally get eliminated after a lots of leg work today, and though Annaleigh's sad at the elimination, she doesn't regret the overall experience at all, as Steve calls the experience: "More pulling than pushing" :-)
Ep 12
- Final stop is Seattle, and we start with both teammates walking on the roof of the Space Needle :-) Rob/Corey are first (with Rob commenting in sign language about how uneventful the walk ended up being and how beautiful the view was), then Greg/John, then Beards, before heading to a nearby greenhouse for a clue pickup... and it's a Seattle Scramble, in which teams are to complete the following three tasks in any order: Play roadie for a GRUNGE band, learn a trapeze GRAB, and blow molten GLASS into a large sea float bubble :-) All of the teams map out the tasks first, and they have different strategies: Rob/Corey will do the trapeze first, while the others will do the glass first :-) On the way to trapeze, Corey quips that it's a sunset Seattle Scramble, which is perfect alliteration :-)
- At the trapeze act, Corey notes that in theory it sounds terrifying, but he gets it in one; it's Rob that's going to be the issue, as his first pathetic attempt gets underscored by "comical" circus music LOL. Greg/John's first attempt at the sea float bubble is fractionally short of the adjugator's calipers, while Rob still needs more effort after 3 attempts :-\ The first to get a piece is the Beards, who get a plane body at glassblowing, as Greg/John find themselves still needing to redo after their 3rd attempt... Rob finally gets the trapeze on the 8th go, and a wing piece, and Greg/John finally get a passing bubble (and their plane body) on their 6th attempt, with the caliper check a quick formality :-)
- Next stop for all 3 teams is the Showbox, a music venue, where they're to setup a band setup for one of three grunge bands based on a given diagram (Beards are doing it for "Smokey Brights", Rob/Corey are doing it for "Black Tones", and when Greg/John show up they're left with "LaFonda", and in a nice twist, the bands are all fronted by girls [!]) So anyways, they've got lots of boxes for each band's equipment backstage, which they have to bring to stage before they can open it, and in a bit of a sneaky move, some of the necessary equipment is hidden among the equipment already on stage (for example, there's a preamp under the lid of a speaker box, with cables in the box itself) Joel brags that he has a Weezer groupie jacket at home, and Garrett later tells him that he should return the jacket LOL.
- Beards are first to set up the stage, and the adjugator gives them the okay... by having Smokey Brights perform a soundcheck live for them, as they get their rock audience groove on LOL. Rob/Corey sneakily notice the cables and I assume preamp in the box, and in order to confuse Greg/John, purposely wait until Greg/John go backstage to look for their missing stuff, so while they're still confused at where the cables/preamp could be, Rob/Corey get to enjoy the Black Tones singing about a "spider in my room" LOL. At a few points, G/J do open their box but apparently don't notice the cables (which to be fair are black cables in a dark room in a dark box) and definitely don't notice that the preamp's under the lid, which ultimately puts them in last by the time they get their pass and LaFonda plays their song about holy land (and Greg/John quip, "We love LaFonda" :-))
- Next stop for Beards and Greg/John is trapeze, and for Rob/Corey is glass :-) The Beards wonder if they have core strength for trapeze, and sure enough, neither Beard has it on their first go, while Rob/Corey's first attempt at glass is clearly too small (no need for the calipers :-)) Greg/John show up at trapeze and start practicing in a back room, as both Beards get it on their 3rd go :-) so the Beards are first to have all 3 pieces, and next stop is Kenmore, Washington, but first, gas station directions (seems like the guys the Beards meet at recognize they're on TAR :-)) While Rob/Corey are watching the glass demo again, John gets the trapeze grab at the first attempt and quips he might sign up for trapeze once he gets back to San Fran, and Greg has it in 2, so Greg/John have their three pieces, and Rob/Corey soon finish their glass, so they have their pieces as well, though they end up bleeding plenty of time on the way to Kenmore :-\
- The clue and task are next to a Kenmore Air plane, and as usual, it's a memory task, where Roadblocks and Detours have been printed on Kayaks, and destinations on oar paddles, and teams are to put them all together in the correct chronological order... Beards have a several-minute head start on Greg/John, and during the montage, we get a clip of the Beards noting that their Jaipur doll was also bearded up :-) More importantly, Joel thinks that the Bird's Eye View Roadblock was the tightrope in leg 1, and the Above It All Roadblock was the flying task in Slovenia, and it seems that Joel is stubbornly convinced of this, despite Garrett initially correctly telling him that the Bird's Eye View was the Slovenia task (wait, didn't they have notes they went through the trouble to retrieve after forgetting them at a Detour... in Slovenia, I might add?)
- After a frenetic several minutes (made more frenetic by the 60 minute edit, possibly), with Rob/Corey showing up and Joel still refusing to switch kayaks even after Garrett suspects that Bird's Eye View might be wrong (easy to see in hindsight, but what did they have to lose by entertaining Garrett's suspicions anyway?) Greg/John are first to get the kayaks in the correct order to get the final route marker for Clise Mansion in Marymoor Park, and it's only then that the Beards get around to switching the wrong kayaks, since they only now just get the idea that a Bird's Eye View task should involve plane flying :-\
- After a bunch of frenetic montage of driving and getting directions, and then trying to find the proper marked parking lot at Marymoor, Greg/John appear to notice another car with the Beards and run their butts off to claim the win, which Phil Keoghan comments that they're the most excited winners that he's ever seen... After the usual on-mat platitudes, it seems the race has turned out to have been closest since the show's 2nd-ever season (been watching that long, people :-)), since when the Beards check in, Phil reveals that G/J beat them by 2 minutes, but since it's night, we don't actually get to see a footrace :-\ If Joel expressed any regret about handing G/J the race on a platter with his stubbornness, it must have been left out, as we only get to see Joel comment that he could not have run the race with anyone but Garrett, and Garrett "can't ask for anything more, except 1st" LOL. Rob/Corey aren't even shown finishing the memory task before checking in, and Rob signs that he's proud of Corey as a CODA for helping sign for him, as Corey talks in confessional about how ASL is a major part of their connection, adding that you don't beat racing with dad... And we close out with Greg/John speaking about the experience and the outcome, ending with "We can't ask for anything more" (full stop :-))
- Nothing to do with TAR, but local broadcaster ran a promo for a bunch of movies being aired in the same weekly slot, featuring the likes of Venom, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Premium Rush... and Paul Blart 2, I'll let you guess which clips stood out when they intercut them all together in the same single promo :-) Also, they're airing a TV series called Red Eye, and when I saw the show announced as part of a monthly promo I was confused, since the only Red Eye I'd ever heard of was the mid-2000's film with Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, and while that one did also involve a night flight (that's why it's called Red Eye) and would not have looked out of place on this particular network, it sure wasn't about an innocent man getting framed and extradited to China (no, not my kind of film, heard about it mostly from this article about how deceptively horror-vibed the trailer was just because it was directed by Wes "Elm Street" Craven) Even the EPG posted up the McAdams/Murphy flick (replete with cast list) instead of the series :-\ (Took a quick peek and noticed a guy in a uniform saying UK Border Control, so a bit of Googling for new British drama later, I found out this is an ITV show; here's a review)
Ep 9
- We're still in Slovenia for the next leg, where teams have not been provided with extra euros, before heading to Congress Square for the Roadblock titled "Who can deliver the goods?" The twist is that they have to carry a wood rack on their back along with a buttload of tools hung off it, and deliver it to a fountain: Todd(/Ashlie, married) rightly notes that it has to be carried relatively slowly to avoid falling off... Joel(/Garrett, aka the Beards) gets lost while looking for the fountain, and Garrett jokingly tells Joel to "Use the power of the beard", and Joel holds up his beard for a bit, and soon finds the fountain LOL. (Which I thought it'd be very stupid if that got them a penalty ;-) There's also a shot of Todd noticing an ostrich in the street, for extra laughs LOL)
- Annaleigh (/Steve, Texans) overtake Chelsea (/Robbin, best friends) at the Roadblock, and that's even before Chelsea is told at the fountain that she doesn't have all her tools on the rack, requiring her to double back, find that she's missing a rolling pin, and then return to the fountain, putting them firmly in last... Anyways, the next stop is a cave in Postojna, where teams have been provided headlights to go down into the cave, with a cavern with a river, and then search for a clue in the far back :-) Greg/John (brothers/programmers) are first to get to the cave and find the clue after Todd/Ash get off at the wrong exit and have to get directions... Next task is a bit of randomness: Assemble pieces of a dragon statue in the cave :-) Most of the other teams arrive at the cave to do the task (Beards comment that the cave is a cool place to put the dragon together :-)) until Todd/Ash arrive at the cave feeling like they're in last, and comment that they took an extra 20 miles or so to arrive after missing one exit, before then quipping that the test of a marriage is assembling furniture without filing for divorce :-)
- The team that's actually in last, Robbin/Chelsea find themselves at the wrong cave and needing to get directions (they also apparently have trouble pronouncing stalagmites while on the way to the cave LOL) Note: The spot where contestants are going to is actually a camping spot at the other end of the cave from the main entrance, where it appears Robbin/Chelsea have arrived at to get directions... Meanwhile, the Beards show up at the right end of the cave and comments the cave is a cool place to put the dragon together :-)
- Anyways, Greg/John are first to get the dragon assembled, and their next stop is Fonda Fish Farm :-) They're are driving to the next stop and bragging about beautiful Slovenia: "City's charming, mountains are mountainous, caves are cavernous" LOL. The Texans finish the dragon saying it's not as cool as the beehive, but pejoratively ask if they can take it home LOL. And while driving to Fonda, Joel confesses that he used bear noise to pretend to make dragon sound LOL. Detour at Fonda Fish Farm: Scrape Off (barnacles from a loop with a chain) or Swap Out (two buoys being used to farm mussels, also requiring contestants to retrieve a bag of mussels hanging off each buoy's rope), both of which require kayaking :-) Anyways, Robbin/Chelsea finally get to the cave camping spot as Todd/Ash are finshing up and quipping about getting a dragon tat, LOL. Robbin/Chelsea call the task "very Game of Thrones" :-)
- Greg/John quip that the buoys look like lemons, and while they're looking through the buoys, the Texans arrive at the fish farm (and it sounded to me like there was a clear music cut in the 60-minute version here) and decide on chains, and when Rob/Corey arrive, they decide to do the buoys...Greg/John are done with the buoys, and get the clue for the next Pitstop: Socerb Grad, a castle, which Phil Keoghan tells us there's one every 15 mile in Slovenia (!) Rob/Corey finds they're doing the task wrong (not bringing the buoy, or retrieving the bag from the marked buoy before removing it) so end up having to redo first buoy by looking for where the missing buoy was from, and finding the rope with mussels, requiring Rob to swim a lot :-\ before eventually deciding to switch to cleaning barnacles with chains, which the Texans are finishing as Rob/Corey show up :-\
- The Beards finish buoys, and Joel looks like a sea captain LOL. The Beards then pass Todd/Ash as they're leaving, informing them of the other remaining team IIRC... Rob/Corey still manage to finish the Detour in 4th despite switching, and Todd/Ash will scrape barnacles :-) G/J finish 1st and get $5k each in what feels like a slightly clipped pitstop arrival, which goes like G/J saying "I'm guessing we're in first place" then cutting to Phil Keoghan saying "I have $5k for you, and it's not going to the 2nd place, but the 1st place team, which is you" Meanwhile, Todd/Ash realize that the chains aren't at the first stop they went to, and Ash realizes they have to double back to the kayak pickup, where they're in a small, easily-overlooked crate, and for some reason Todd decides to have fun and yell "I found the chains" euphorically which prompts Ash to reprimand him for celebrating as if they've won the race LOL. (Somewhere in there, on the way to the Detour, Robbin/Chelsea expects there's a Detour left in the leg since there's never a leg without a Detour; spoiler: there are two such legs in this recap)
- The Beards finish in 3th and Phil has the nun accompanying him at the pitstop check out Joel Strasser's beard LOL. Rob/Corey finish 4th, and Phil can't sign Express Pass to remind them they still have it, so they sign it for him :-) While Robbin/Chelsea do the chains, Todd/Ash get 5th, and after getting the Pitstop clue, Robbin/Chelsea decide to swim a bit before checking in for elimination at night, quipping "We knew that about 6 hrs ago" LOLx2, and whereas Robbin talks about her hardships (losing her husband, getting a brain tumor, weighing more than 340lb) Chelsea signs off by saying "The only Detour I wanna do is vacuum the carpet" :-)
Ep 10
- This week, we're in Stockholm, but the first time I watched this ep, I thought they were in France, for reason I'll get to later :-) Anyways, the first stop in Stockholm, as Todd/Ashlie finds out early from having the clue Googled before the flight, is a parachuting club, for a "special" introduction to Sweden (one guess :-)) During the ride to the parachuting club, Joel quips: "Swedish boats have barcodes printed on the front... because they always want to SCAN-di-NAVY-a" LOL! Meanwhile, his partner Garrett heartwarmingly reminisces about his Down's-affected daughter :-) Greg/John run past an "Ej Infart" (do not enter) sign with tiny number placards (presumably expecting to find a box next to the plane at the hangar), so the beards are first to get a number, then followed by Texans... At least Coda and Todd/Ash also run pass, so Greg/John still end up 3rd
- All teams get on a plane at 5 am next day and jump in order of the cards they've gotten, before heading to a Roadblock titled "Who wants to party?" Involves making a wreath for a maypole by wrapping up branches on a hoop, then adding flowers to the adjugator's satisfaction, then attaching to maypole :-) This is where Rob/Corey use the Express Pass to skip the task, and head to the Royal Dramatic Theater to find a violinist :-) Texans in 2nd after being first to complete the task, and G/J notice this and realize they're being too particular about flowers... Texans actually end up being the first to get to the main entrance of the Royal Dramatic Theater after Rob/Corey have to run around the block looking for that entrance, and also the first to get the next clue from the violinist, for a pickup at Solna Centrum station... Greg/John ask for "another check" at the Roadblock, but this is first check we see (60-minute edit, I assume :-\) Anyways, they get the pass, and the non-participating racers also get up to do a dance amongst themselves :-) Beards and Todd/Ash get the pass in that order, while Greg/John and Beards get their clues from the violinists, and Greg/John eke out a small lead by getting on a train ahead of the Beards
- The Detour is between Sort and Serve: According to Phil Keoghan, Sweden is in the midst of a recycling revolution, where 99% of local products are recyclable :-) So teams will get to sort and separate one family's trash, and split them amongst 15 types of items, with the complication that all the signs are in Swedish, so teams will have to figure things out as they go :-) Serve involves serving food for Nobel Prize laureates at a Stockholm City Hall banquet... This is roughly where I tuned in the first time, while Greg/John are supposed to serve French food ("Ooh, wowsers")... One reads the menu (written in French, obviously), then relays the entries to their teammate to find the given items: Three courses to four people, one representing a different year (and famous prize-winner) In their confesional, they note that John can only remember 4 names at a time anyway, they have at least some command of French, and they came up with a system to memorize just the keywords, so they're good, and the first course is indeed good :-)
- At the other task, the Beards, Texans and Rob/Corey are sorting and carting stuff into various recycling hoppers to be smashed... Meanwhile, Todd/Ash are on a train in last, but still somewhat hopeful as they say: "What's a good comeback story without trailing?" At Sorting, there's a comic relief moment where we learn Joel loved to watch wresting, so he's channeling his inner wrestler to throw heavy porcelain stuff into the proper hopper :-) Greg/John absolutely crush the rest of Serve to get their clue leading to the Pampas Marina, while over at Sort, Joel hugs the clue giver upon getting their clue LOL.
- At the boat is a clue pickup, revealing the Pit stop is at Ströaut;mparterren, a museum built to preserve the remains of an ancient city, and teams also have to ride subway :-) so the Beards, and a separate group with the Texans, Rob/Corey, and Greg/John are trying to look for the nearby subway station... Meanwhile Todd/Ash are doing sort :-) Beards are first to get a train, while Greg/John, Rob/Corey, and Texans all need to get a second set of directions, while Todd/Ash are just getting to the boat... Greg/John, Rob/Corey, and Texans end up getting the same train, so this could be a footrace... for 2nd to 4th, because the Beards have arrived at the Pitstop in first (much to their surprise, since they were expecting 2nd at best while on the train) and earned themselves a trip to the Galapagos: Volcano! Snorkeling! Exploring wetlands! Scuba! Greg/John and Rob/Corey follow in that order, joining the beards on the mat :-)
- Last spot is between Texans and Todd/Ash despite getting on different trains... and despite Steve clearly huffing and puffing, Texans get to join the others on the mat as Phil comments about them literally running on top of each other (not literally literally though, LOL) revealing they're the closest bunch of final four heading into the penultimate leg, before having the mat cleared to eliminate Todd/Ash... But Todd calls himself a winner anyway because he doesn't need $1m, he needs family :-)
Ep 11
- We're in Dublin for the penultimate leg, where Phil Keoghan lists lots of things that Dublin is known for, like Trinity University and Ireland's most famous band U2... neither of which will even be tangentially relevant to the leg :-) Everyone's also getting stick-shift cars, and they're also driving on the "wrong" side of the road, though after Greg/John and the Beards' acknowledgement of this, it's never an issue (at least in the 60-minute edit) We're beginning at a swim in the really cold ocean at the Forty Foot, for a clue pickup leading to the Gaiety Theater... The Beards swim with life vests :-) Already, the Texans are last getting to the Forty Foot, which will set the tone for most of the leg, not to mention that daddy Steve will have to do RBs going forward, since Annaleigh's already done 6 :-\
- Speaking of RBs, here's one at the Gaiety Theater: "Who wants to get their steps in?" It's an Irish Riverdance roadblock, where they have to learn a 30 second routine (you think that's hard, some experts can go 2 hours of dancing [!]) Joel will do Riverdance for the Beards, while Steve and Corey have to do it for their teams, and after a weird cut from the Gaiety sign outside the theater to Greg/John getting the Roadblock clue, John's going to do it :-)
- There's the usual practicing montage, where Steve thinks this task would be better as a line dancing task... Corey thinks that the best practice is in front of an audience, and gets to be the first person to try the task, where it turns out the Associate Director of Riverdance, Padraig Moyles is the adjugator, and has Corey redo the routine :-) Corey manages to get to take a 2nd attempt before John has his 1st, so John listens to the music first... Paddy trolls Corey after his 2nd attempt: "Corey, unfortunately, THAT IS A PASS!" John also will need a 2nd go, while Rob/Corey are heading off to Croke Park (sports park, which means sports task :-))
- After John's 2nd go, Paddy also trolls John by having him come down here (in the seats) and tell him he was supposed to follow the 5 pts his instructors would have given him... which he has, so gets the clue :-) Now that the more fit of the contestants have been and gone, time for the less fit :-) Annaleigh quips that "It's been a nice ride, Garrett", but they're not giving them the last spot so easily :-) Joel notes that they go VERY FAST after his first attempt, and the soundtrack adds a hilarious ding to Steve holding his thumbs up after listening to suggestions from Paddy :-) While Greg believes John's performance saved their life, Steve and Joel's attempt numbers pile up, until eventually Steve gets it on his 9th attempt, while Joel still has to go again after his 7th... Joel finally gets it done on the next attempt, and says: "It's not about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep going" Which turns out to be a quote from Sylvester Stallone :-)
- Rob/Corey is first to Croke, where it's a 2nd RB: "Who's got the swing?" and I knew exactly what they were talking about: Hurling :-) Phil reveals that it was used as a way to train warriors, and it's said to be the oldest sport in the world... Anyways, it involves running down the pitch and using the stick to hit the ball through the uprights, which the ball is called a "sliotar" (pronounced like "slitter") Corey is good at baseball, so should be up his alley... and ends up taking 7 attempts LOL. Still in first though, as they get a route marker for the James Toner pub, where two sandwich-style boards have been placed with excerpts from James Joyce's Ulyssees, and contestants will have to recite one quote each :-) Corey quips that "Every single day has been my favorite so far" :-) Meanwhile, Greg/John show up and Greg gets hurling done on his 2nd attempt (!)
- Texans get lost on way to Croke, so Beards get to the park first, and Garrett gets to do it, as Joel makes the quip the editors must have been hoping to get: "Smite, it's not puking :-)" Garrett's also into baseball, and like Corey also struggling after 5 attempts as Texans are arriving at the park... Garrett gets it on the 6th and Joel quips about him knocking it out of the park (though that part wasn't exactly literal) as they run past the incoming Texans, who note that as with Riverdance, Steve has to hurl :-\
- Rob is great at memorizing the Ulyssees excerpt with sign language, and performs his routine in sign language, while Corey does it orally, and both nail it on first go (!) to get the Pitstop clue for St. Patrick's Cathedral (can't go to Ireland and not reference St. Pat's right?) Greg/John get to the pub and G/J describe the Ulyssees excerpts they have to memorize as Dr. Seuss on steroids, as one of them has a turn of phrase like "first last and alone" (no commas) Over at Croke, at least the 2nd RB isn't as physically demanding, as Steve gets his sliotar through on the 2nd go :-)
- St Pat's, where the greeter gives Rob/Corey a Failte ("welcome" in Irish), and more importantly, Phil Keoghan is here to give them great news: They're first, for the first time :-) Plus good news: A trip to Fiji, and as Corey signs/explains to Rob, we learn that it's always been his dream to go to Fiji :-) Anyways: Village tour! Snorkeling! Sailing! Dinner cruise! Corey brags that this is the best lef they've ever raced, and sound about right... This also means Rob/Corey get to race a full season, and become the third team with a handicap to make it to the final leg (Margie/deaf Luke, and armless Bethany Hamilton/partner)
- Greg/John nail the recital in 2, and (likely because of the 60-minute edit) we only see the 2nd attempt, and after the Beards show up and get memorizing, show cuts to Greg/John already at mat being checked in at 2nd... Again, because of the 60-minute edit, show cuts back to the Beards when they are already on attempt 2, where they're a bit slow reciting, but they get it, and start looking for St Pat's... Show intercuts between the beards running while the Texans show up and also get memorizing, before the Texans end up getting it on their first attempt
- Beards arrive, and take in a tin whistle song before saying they want to hear they're in 3rd... and Phil responds: "That's what you're gonna hear" :-) In a confessional, Joel quips along the line of "Doesn't matter what I look like, I can get things done anyway" :-) Texans finally get eliminated after a lots of leg work today, and though Annaleigh's sad at the elimination, she doesn't regret the overall experience at all, as Steve calls the experience: "More pulling than pushing" :-)
Ep 12
- Final stop is Seattle, and we start with both teammates walking on the roof of the Space Needle :-) Rob/Corey are first (with Rob commenting in sign language about how uneventful the walk ended up being and how beautiful the view was), then Greg/John, then Beards, before heading to a nearby greenhouse for a clue pickup... and it's a Seattle Scramble, in which teams are to complete the following three tasks in any order: Play roadie for a GRUNGE band, learn a trapeze GRAB, and blow molten GLASS into a large sea float bubble :-) All of the teams map out the tasks first, and they have different strategies: Rob/Corey will do the trapeze first, while the others will do the glass first :-) On the way to trapeze, Corey quips that it's a sunset Seattle Scramble, which is perfect alliteration :-)
- At the trapeze act, Corey notes that in theory it sounds terrifying, but he gets it in one; it's Rob that's going to be the issue, as his first pathetic attempt gets underscored by "comical" circus music LOL. Greg/John's first attempt at the sea float bubble is fractionally short of the adjugator's calipers, while Rob still needs more effort after 3 attempts :-\ The first to get a piece is the Beards, who get a plane body at glassblowing, as Greg/John find themselves still needing to redo after their 3rd attempt... Rob finally gets the trapeze on the 8th go, and a wing piece, and Greg/John finally get a passing bubble (and their plane body) on their 6th attempt, with the caliper check a quick formality :-)
- Next stop for all 3 teams is the Showbox, a music venue, where they're to setup a band setup for one of three grunge bands based on a given diagram (Beards are doing it for "Smokey Brights", Rob/Corey are doing it for "Black Tones", and when Greg/John show up they're left with "LaFonda", and in a nice twist, the bands are all fronted by girls [!]) So anyways, they've got lots of boxes for each band's equipment backstage, which they have to bring to stage before they can open it, and in a bit of a sneaky move, some of the necessary equipment is hidden among the equipment already on stage (for example, there's a preamp under the lid of a speaker box, with cables in the box itself) Joel brags that he has a Weezer groupie jacket at home, and Garrett later tells him that he should return the jacket LOL.
- Beards are first to set up the stage, and the adjugator gives them the okay... by having Smokey Brights perform a soundcheck live for them, as they get their rock audience groove on LOL. Rob/Corey sneakily notice the cables and I assume preamp in the box, and in order to confuse Greg/John, purposely wait until Greg/John go backstage to look for their missing stuff, so while they're still confused at where the cables/preamp could be, Rob/Corey get to enjoy the Black Tones singing about a "spider in my room" LOL. At a few points, G/J do open their box but apparently don't notice the cables (which to be fair are black cables in a dark room in a dark box) and definitely don't notice that the preamp's under the lid, which ultimately puts them in last by the time they get their pass and LaFonda plays their song about holy land (and Greg/John quip, "We love LaFonda" :-))
- Next stop for Beards and Greg/John is trapeze, and for Rob/Corey is glass :-) The Beards wonder if they have core strength for trapeze, and sure enough, neither Beard has it on their first go, while Rob/Corey's first attempt at glass is clearly too small (no need for the calipers :-)) Greg/John show up at trapeze and start practicing in a back room, as both Beards get it on their 3rd go :-) so the Beards are first to have all 3 pieces, and next stop is Kenmore, Washington, but first, gas station directions (seems like the guys the Beards meet at recognize they're on TAR :-)) While Rob/Corey are watching the glass demo again, John gets the trapeze grab at the first attempt and quips he might sign up for trapeze once he gets back to San Fran, and Greg has it in 2, so Greg/John have their three pieces, and Rob/Corey soon finish their glass, so they have their pieces as well, though they end up bleeding plenty of time on the way to Kenmore :-\
- The clue and task are next to a Kenmore Air plane, and as usual, it's a memory task, where Roadblocks and Detours have been printed on Kayaks, and destinations on oar paddles, and teams are to put them all together in the correct chronological order... Beards have a several-minute head start on Greg/John, and during the montage, we get a clip of the Beards noting that their Jaipur doll was also bearded up :-) More importantly, Joel thinks that the Bird's Eye View Roadblock was the tightrope in leg 1, and the Above It All Roadblock was the flying task in Slovenia, and it seems that Joel is stubbornly convinced of this, despite Garrett initially correctly telling him that the Bird's Eye View was the Slovenia task (wait, didn't they have notes they went through the trouble to retrieve after forgetting them at a Detour... in Slovenia, I might add?)
- After a frenetic several minutes (made more frenetic by the 60 minute edit, possibly), with Rob/Corey showing up and Joel still refusing to switch kayaks even after Garrett suspects that Bird's Eye View might be wrong (easy to see in hindsight, but what did they have to lose by entertaining Garrett's suspicions anyway?) Greg/John are first to get the kayaks in the correct order to get the final route marker for Clise Mansion in Marymoor Park, and it's only then that the Beards get around to switching the wrong kayaks, since they only now just get the idea that a Bird's Eye View task should involve plane flying :-\
- After a bunch of frenetic montage of driving and getting directions, and then trying to find the proper marked parking lot at Marymoor, Greg/John appear to notice another car with the Beards and run their butts off to claim the win, which Phil Keoghan comments that they're the most excited winners that he's ever seen... After the usual on-mat platitudes, it seems the race has turned out to have been closest since the show's 2nd-ever season (been watching that long, people :-)), since when the Beards check in, Phil reveals that G/J beat them by 2 minutes, but since it's night, we don't actually get to see a footrace :-\ If Joel expressed any regret about handing G/J the race on a platter with his stubbornness, it must have been left out, as we only get to see Joel comment that he could not have run the race with anyone but Garrett, and Garrett "can't ask for anything more, except 1st" LOL. Rob/Corey aren't even shown finishing the memory task before checking in, and Rob signs that he's proud of Corey as a CODA for helping sign for him, as Corey talks in confessional about how ASL is a major part of their connection, adding that you don't beat racing with dad... And we close out with Greg/John speaking about the experience and the outcome, ending with "We can't ask for anything more" (full stop :-))
- Nothing to do with TAR, but local broadcaster ran a promo for a bunch of movies being aired in the same weekly slot, featuring the likes of Venom, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Premium Rush... and Paul Blart 2, I'll let you guess which clips stood out when they intercut them all together in the same single promo :-) Also, they're airing a TV series called Red Eye, and when I saw the show announced as part of a monthly promo I was confused, since the only Red Eye I'd ever heard of was the mid-2000's film with Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, and while that one did also involve a night flight (that's why it's called Red Eye) and would not have looked out of place on this particular network, it sure wasn't about an innocent man getting framed and extradited to China (no, not my kind of film, heard about it mostly from this article about how deceptively horror-vibed the trailer was just because it was directed by Wes "Elm Street" Craven) Even the EPG posted up the McAdams/Murphy flick (replete with cast list) instead of the series :-\ (Took a quick peek and noticed a guy in a uniform saying UK Border Control, so a bit of Googling for new British drama later, I found out this is an ITV show; here's a review)