The Amazing Race 19: Eps 10 to 12
Dec. 22nd, 2011 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsTime to bring it home...
Ep 10:
1. For winning first place in the last leg, Amani/Marcus get to start the next leg first... And the next leg starts now (as in, back-to-back with the previous leg), with a self-drive (yep, more self-driving) to Ford's Europe testing facility in Lommel. Which they end up getting lost on their way to immediately, so the first team to get there is Ernie/Cindy (who don't get penalized over the last leg's ticketing issues, BTW). Roadblock: "Who's ready to play with the Ponies?" (Giggles at how "wrong" that clue feels given a certain cartoon's meteoric rise in popularity) Basically, a contestant gets to drive a Mustang... through a set of tasks, including slalom, that requires them to slalom through cones without knocking them over, then stopping in a given box without hitting a dummy car balloon placed in front of it, all in 16 seconds. This stymies Ernie so much (we get a montage of him hitting the balloon over and over), that in spite of his sizable head-start, Jeremy/Sandy catch up and Ernie ends up taking turns with Jeremy (even though Ernie does get his clue before Jeremy). Honestly, I was thinking that this task might have been a bit too crazy...
2. Next stop, Gent (with a hard g, not a soft g like some of the contestants pronounce it), and a Detour between building a raft and searching for two halves of a clue, and setting up a waffle stand and making waffles (mmm, waffles... ) and arranging them in a given fashion. As it turns out, the hard part of the former is building the raft. The finding part is easy... such that the snowboarders actually finish the task before Amani/Marcus even set "sail" :-D Cindy calls a moaning waffle machine "Ernie" :-D before getting their clue just ahead of the snowboarders. (Later, Cindy randomly worries about whether they left their waffles burning :-D)
3. The next destination is the name-butchering-friendly Muur van Geraardsbergen, at which everyone looks for a truck with homing pigeons, release a couple homing pigeons, and then get a business card with their next destination, different addresses in Beersel. We're supposed to believe that the pigeons are flying from Geraardsbergen to Beersel and the teams will meet up with them there, but your average person will probably guess that (given the random variables that can happen during a flight) the pigeons with the next clue are already waiting in Beersel.
4. On their way to Beersel, Ernie/Cindy drop out of the lead, as Cindy's good at French, but directions, not so much... The pit stop clue takes the form of a small photo of the Atomium in Brussels that was tied to a pigeon's leg. Not surprisingly, many have to ask around to find it (though I did recognize it immediately: my family and I were considering taking a day-excursion to Brussels by train during our European vacation)
5. Atomium, and the snowboarders are the only team to finish in daylight, thus earning them a (fully-customizable) Mustang each, instantly curing Andy's jealousy for Tommy getting to drive in the Roadblock :-) Jeremy/Sandy are 2nd, Ernie/Cindy aren't too pleased to finish in 3rd despite their earlier lead, Marcus(/Amani) compares the next leg to the Conference Championship after finishing 4th, and Bill/Cathi are eliminated after being in last for the entire leg (and a bit). Still, not too shabby for the old folks...
Ep 11:
1. We've got a bit of time to kill in Belgium, so after showing the contestants sleeping in the Atomium and the snowboarders customizing their Mustangs from the previous leg (hey, gotta get that product placement's worth you know ;-)) everyone gets a box of costumes to put on to dress up as two certain comic book characters, before looking for some guy in a blue sweater at a mural. The outfit turn out to be the look-alike detectives from the Tintin books, which due to the vagaries of translation, have three different pairs of names: Dupond and Dupont, Thomson and Thompson, and Johnson and Jonson, all accepted by the Tintin guy in the blue sweater. Tintin isn't so well-known in the states (although an animated series based on his comics did air there about 15-20 years ago), so everyone has to ask around, and the snowboarders think they're Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton :-D If this was meant to be product placement for Spielberg's new movie... it's a bit subtle.
2. Next stop, Parara Puru in Panama (say that three times fast ;-)) Everyone gets the same train to AMS and plane to Panama City, before racing to some dock and heading to the Parara Puru village in the dark to sign up for a tattoo the next morning. At one point, Marcus throws a bad luck rock out his car window (if that were to hit someone, it'd live up to its name :-)) During the boat ride Jeremy/Sandy run aground at some point, allowing the snowboarders to get their "tattoo" (more like, painting on their arms) first. Turns out to be their next clue, to head to San Francisco Bay. Not the one in California, mind you :-)
3. San Francisco Bay, Roadblock: "Who's ready to walk in rarefied air?" In this case though, the clue also specifies who has to do this Roadblock, so they don't exactly have much choice. Basically, tightrope walking with harnesses across the gap between two really high buildings at the Bay. The only event worth noting is the snowboarders trying to taunt Sandy while she's doing it. Meanwhile, we see that all the cabbies here are talking with each other. This will be important.
4. Next stop is the statue of this guy, with the clues placed at an ice-cream cart: a Detour between Filet or Sole. Only the Filet one actually has to do with fish, in this case, delivering a bunch of seafood to marked vendors (easy to spot with the yellow-red stickers and the English signage) at a seafood market, while Sole is to make slippers. We get another hint that the cabbies seem to be communicating with each other when Marcus/Amani end up at Sole when they want Filet. M/A eventually get their cabbie to take them to the seafood market and (for the 3rd time) end up being the only team to choose one side of a Detour, and in this case it's to their advantage since they're free to choose the vendors they deliver to.
5. Next, find the name of the next pit stop on a bunch of dancers. One has the word "Panama Viejo" hidden amongst the pattern on her skirt, and most of them have medallions with the picture of a building on it. Now this is where things get interesting. The medallions also apparently have the word Balboa on it. It's actually their currency, but it's also the name of a nearby town on the Panama Canal. The snowboarders pick up on the Balboa part and head to the canal. When that doesn't work, they head to the statue of this guy. When that doesn't work, they hope that others will get it wrong like they did.
6. At first, Jeremy/Sandy are the only ones who notice the picture of the building on a medallion, and note it down, and their cabbie recognizes it as Panama Viejo. Ernie/Cindy and Amani/Marcus pick up on the Balboa part like the snowboarders and decide to head there. So, a three-way race for last, right? Well, that is until J/S's cabbie apparently calls the other teams' cabbies about where he's heading, and next thing you know, J/S are first with a trip to the Turks and Caicos, then E/C and A/M in quick succession. So just like that, the snowboarders get eliminated, leading to much message-board whinging. (Just so you know: Snowboarders won 6 legs, the three finalists, a total of 4 legs.)
Ep 12:
1. Final destination is Atlanta, GA. Marcus feels he has home court advantage because they live there, but Amani seems skeptical, and she probably should, because for some reason, finalists have never seemed to do well in their hometown. Anyways, everyone gets the same flight, and the first task is to land a plane... in a simulator, mind you ;-) Turns out Atlanta has the world's busiest airport (it's also the main hub for Delta), so they head to some simulation training center. While in the cab, Cindy basically says that losing to these teams would be like losing to C students. Hmm... Anyways, sure enough, the hometown curse kicks in immediately: Jeremy/Sandy get it in one, Ernie/Cindy get it in two... and Amani/Marcus take 12 attempts (skidding off the runway again and again).
2. Next stop, the former Atlanta residence known as "The Dump", not to be confused with the furniture store, which is exactly what Jeremy/Sandy end up doing. The clue really refers to the former house of Margaret "Gone With The Wind" Mitchell, with a southern Belle replete with appropriate dress ready to give finalists their Roadblock clue: "Who gives a d@mn?" Not very indicative of the task, so Ernie takes it and it turns out to be using an old-school typewriter to type out the next clue, which could prove disastrous because Ernie's a slower typer than Cindy. Oh, and unlike the typical keyboards Ernie/Cindy are probably used to typing on, there's no "1" on it, which is a problem, because they have to type out "715" as part of the clue, which we'll get to later. The trick is to use "l" instead. Good thing for them, then, that J/S are at the wrong Dump...
3. The clue is given as 3 numbers: 44 - 715 - 74. After some speculation it might involve routes, and then some Googling at a hotel's reservation desk, it turns out to be Hank Aaron's record-breaking home run (his uniform was number 44, and he hit his 715th career homer in 1974), which brings Ernie/Cindy to the parking lot of Turner Field (the Atlanta Braves' home stadium). Task involves dragging a rope to trace their route on a giant map without using notes (but with plenty of climbing). Cindy gets it in one, and when Jeremy/Sandy finally arrive, they skip Indonesia at first, but the slack in their rope allows them to simply insert Indonesia in its proper place without having to start over. With the teams being rather spread out, this isn't exactly an exciting finale... (Seriously, the teams haven't seen each other since the flight sim)
4. Finish line is at some mansion known as Swan House, and the only attempt to make it seem remotely exciting is Ernie/Cindy having to rely on their cabbie's GPS. That doesn't affect them remotely enough to deny them the win, though. E/C say they'll use the money to create a foundation to help people in need. That's pretty noble if you ask me. J/S are 2nd, and A/M are 3rd, with Phil reminding Marcus never to become a pilot :-D
Ep 10:
1. For winning first place in the last leg, Amani/Marcus get to start the next leg first... And the next leg starts now (as in, back-to-back with the previous leg), with a self-drive (yep, more self-driving) to Ford's Europe testing facility in Lommel. Which they end up getting lost on their way to immediately, so the first team to get there is Ernie/Cindy (who don't get penalized over the last leg's ticketing issues, BTW). Roadblock: "Who's ready to play with the Ponies?" (Giggles at how "wrong" that clue feels given a certain cartoon's meteoric rise in popularity) Basically, a contestant gets to drive a Mustang... through a set of tasks, including slalom, that requires them to slalom through cones without knocking them over, then stopping in a given box without hitting a dummy car balloon placed in front of it, all in 16 seconds. This stymies Ernie so much (we get a montage of him hitting the balloon over and over), that in spite of his sizable head-start, Jeremy/Sandy catch up and Ernie ends up taking turns with Jeremy (even though Ernie does get his clue before Jeremy). Honestly, I was thinking that this task might have been a bit too crazy...
2. Next stop, Gent (with a hard g, not a soft g like some of the contestants pronounce it), and a Detour between building a raft and searching for two halves of a clue, and setting up a waffle stand and making waffles (mmm, waffles... ) and arranging them in a given fashion. As it turns out, the hard part of the former is building the raft. The finding part is easy... such that the snowboarders actually finish the task before Amani/Marcus even set "sail" :-D Cindy calls a moaning waffle machine "Ernie" :-D before getting their clue just ahead of the snowboarders. (Later, Cindy randomly worries about whether they left their waffles burning :-D)
3. The next destination is the name-butchering-friendly Muur van Geraardsbergen, at which everyone looks for a truck with homing pigeons, release a couple homing pigeons, and then get a business card with their next destination, different addresses in Beersel. We're supposed to believe that the pigeons are flying from Geraardsbergen to Beersel and the teams will meet up with them there, but your average person will probably guess that (given the random variables that can happen during a flight) the pigeons with the next clue are already waiting in Beersel.
4. On their way to Beersel, Ernie/Cindy drop out of the lead, as Cindy's good at French, but directions, not so much... The pit stop clue takes the form of a small photo of the Atomium in Brussels that was tied to a pigeon's leg. Not surprisingly, many have to ask around to find it (though I did recognize it immediately: my family and I were considering taking a day-excursion to Brussels by train during our European vacation)
5. Atomium, and the snowboarders are the only team to finish in daylight, thus earning them a (fully-customizable) Mustang each, instantly curing Andy's jealousy for Tommy getting to drive in the Roadblock :-) Jeremy/Sandy are 2nd, Ernie/Cindy aren't too pleased to finish in 3rd despite their earlier lead, Marcus(/Amani) compares the next leg to the Conference Championship after finishing 4th, and Bill/Cathi are eliminated after being in last for the entire leg (and a bit). Still, not too shabby for the old folks...
Ep 11:
1. We've got a bit of time to kill in Belgium, so after showing the contestants sleeping in the Atomium and the snowboarders customizing their Mustangs from the previous leg (hey, gotta get that product placement's worth you know ;-)) everyone gets a box of costumes to put on to dress up as two certain comic book characters, before looking for some guy in a blue sweater at a mural. The outfit turn out to be the look-alike detectives from the Tintin books, which due to the vagaries of translation, have three different pairs of names: Dupond and Dupont, Thomson and Thompson, and Johnson and Jonson, all accepted by the Tintin guy in the blue sweater. Tintin isn't so well-known in the states (although an animated series based on his comics did air there about 15-20 years ago), so everyone has to ask around, and the snowboarders think they're Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton :-D If this was meant to be product placement for Spielberg's new movie... it's a bit subtle.
2. Next stop, Parara Puru in Panama (say that three times fast ;-)) Everyone gets the same train to AMS and plane to Panama City, before racing to some dock and heading to the Parara Puru village in the dark to sign up for a tattoo the next morning. At one point, Marcus throws a bad luck rock out his car window (if that were to hit someone, it'd live up to its name :-)) During the boat ride Jeremy/Sandy run aground at some point, allowing the snowboarders to get their "tattoo" (more like, painting on their arms) first. Turns out to be their next clue, to head to San Francisco Bay. Not the one in California, mind you :-)
3. San Francisco Bay, Roadblock: "Who's ready to walk in rarefied air?" In this case though, the clue also specifies who has to do this Roadblock, so they don't exactly have much choice. Basically, tightrope walking with harnesses across the gap between two really high buildings at the Bay. The only event worth noting is the snowboarders trying to taunt Sandy while she's doing it. Meanwhile, we see that all the cabbies here are talking with each other. This will be important.
4. Next stop is the statue of this guy, with the clues placed at an ice-cream cart: a Detour between Filet or Sole. Only the Filet one actually has to do with fish, in this case, delivering a bunch of seafood to marked vendors (easy to spot with the yellow-red stickers and the English signage) at a seafood market, while Sole is to make slippers. We get another hint that the cabbies seem to be communicating with each other when Marcus/Amani end up at Sole when they want Filet. M/A eventually get their cabbie to take them to the seafood market and (for the 3rd time) end up being the only team to choose one side of a Detour, and in this case it's to their advantage since they're free to choose the vendors they deliver to.
5. Next, find the name of the next pit stop on a bunch of dancers. One has the word "Panama Viejo" hidden amongst the pattern on her skirt, and most of them have medallions with the picture of a building on it. Now this is where things get interesting. The medallions also apparently have the word Balboa on it. It's actually their currency, but it's also the name of a nearby town on the Panama Canal. The snowboarders pick up on the Balboa part and head to the canal. When that doesn't work, they head to the statue of this guy. When that doesn't work, they hope that others will get it wrong like they did.
6. At first, Jeremy/Sandy are the only ones who notice the picture of the building on a medallion, and note it down, and their cabbie recognizes it as Panama Viejo. Ernie/Cindy and Amani/Marcus pick up on the Balboa part like the snowboarders and decide to head there. So, a three-way race for last, right? Well, that is until J/S's cabbie apparently calls the other teams' cabbies about where he's heading, and next thing you know, J/S are first with a trip to the Turks and Caicos, then E/C and A/M in quick succession. So just like that, the snowboarders get eliminated, leading to much message-board whinging. (Just so you know: Snowboarders won 6 legs, the three finalists, a total of 4 legs.)
Ep 12:
1. Final destination is Atlanta, GA. Marcus feels he has home court advantage because they live there, but Amani seems skeptical, and she probably should, because for some reason, finalists have never seemed to do well in their hometown. Anyways, everyone gets the same flight, and the first task is to land a plane... in a simulator, mind you ;-) Turns out Atlanta has the world's busiest airport (it's also the main hub for Delta), so they head to some simulation training center. While in the cab, Cindy basically says that losing to these teams would be like losing to C students. Hmm... Anyways, sure enough, the hometown curse kicks in immediately: Jeremy/Sandy get it in one, Ernie/Cindy get it in two... and Amani/Marcus take 12 attempts (skidding off the runway again and again).
2. Next stop, the former Atlanta residence known as "The Dump", not to be confused with the furniture store, which is exactly what Jeremy/Sandy end up doing. The clue really refers to the former house of Margaret "Gone With The Wind" Mitchell, with a southern Belle replete with appropriate dress ready to give finalists their Roadblock clue: "Who gives a d@mn?" Not very indicative of the task, so Ernie takes it and it turns out to be using an old-school typewriter to type out the next clue, which could prove disastrous because Ernie's a slower typer than Cindy. Oh, and unlike the typical keyboards Ernie/Cindy are probably used to typing on, there's no "1" on it, which is a problem, because they have to type out "715" as part of the clue, which we'll get to later. The trick is to use "l" instead. Good thing for them, then, that J/S are at the wrong Dump...
3. The clue is given as 3 numbers: 44 - 715 - 74. After some speculation it might involve routes, and then some Googling at a hotel's reservation desk, it turns out to be Hank Aaron's record-breaking home run (his uniform was number 44, and he hit his 715th career homer in 1974), which brings Ernie/Cindy to the parking lot of Turner Field (the Atlanta Braves' home stadium). Task involves dragging a rope to trace their route on a giant map without using notes (but with plenty of climbing). Cindy gets it in one, and when Jeremy/Sandy finally arrive, they skip Indonesia at first, but the slack in their rope allows them to simply insert Indonesia in its proper place without having to start over. With the teams being rather spread out, this isn't exactly an exciting finale... (Seriously, the teams haven't seen each other since the flight sim)
4. Finish line is at some mansion known as Swan House, and the only attempt to make it seem remotely exciting is Ernie/Cindy having to rely on their cabbie's GPS. That doesn't affect them remotely enough to deny them the win, though. E/C say they'll use the money to create a foundation to help people in need. That's pretty noble if you ask me. J/S are 2nd, and A/M are 3rd, with Phil reminding Marcus never to become a pilot :-D
