TAR22: Eps 4 to 7
Apr. 11th, 2013 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsLeg 4:
1. Picking up immediately after Leg 3, next stop is a forest on Bali, Indonesia. Max/Katie call a local travel agency and manage to get the best flight to Bali. We hear about how Jessica/John plan to get as much value out of their Express Pass as possible (that'll be important later). At the airport, teams get split into three groups, two of which are supposed to land just after noon, but one of them (Jessica/John, Joey/Meghan) manages to improve on their connection in Singapore to land about 90 minutes earlier. In the cab to the forest, Caroline/Jennifer sing about how they're going to win TAR :-)
2. On to the actual task now: everyone gets to give a coconut planted with a clue to a monkey, watch them tear it open (Joey makes sarcastic comments while it's doing so :-D) and pick up the clue left behind in the coconut (actually, they have handlers for that). This leads to a Detour between carrying sand from a river bed and putting together a fruit-based religious offering at a temple.
3. Pam builds sets for a living, so Pam/Winnie do the fruit task methodologically. J/J finds the wrong arts-and-crafts task at first and get as far as putting on a sarong before they realize that they're at the wrong task (presumably because they notice there isn't fruit in their offering :-D) When J/J eventually get to the right task, they're nowhere near as good as it as they thought, and end up switching to sand. J/J decide to gauge whether to use the Express Pass on how far Mona/Beth are at it... and as it happens, M/B are done and gone before J/J even arrive. Meanwhile, after Bates/Anthony finish with the monkeys, they intend to do sand, but since their cabbie only knows where the fruit task is, that's what they end up doing.
4. Uruwatu surf beach, and last task immediately preceding the pit stop is a Roadblock to look in an array of surfboards for one that has a picture of something everyone has already encountered, then bring it to Phil at the mat (which also proves to be a bit of a challenge for some teams). Turns out to be the priest from leg 2. Winnie is first to find the board, but while she's looking for the pit stop, Connor "cheats" off her and manages to find the pit stop first and win $5,000 each (and more importantly, some real rest for Dave's leg :-)). "One leg at a time... on one leg" -- D/C :-D
5. In a little bit of alliance illustration, Joey tells Mona about the correct board, while Phil comments on Mona not telling Bates when M/B check in. J/J come into the Roadblock in last place, but figure they can use their Express Pass on it (which they should anyway) if they think it's super-challenging. John ends up thinking it's doable, and so not only do they end up losing to Chuck/Wynona with their Pass unplayed, it takes John 75 minutes to find the right board before finally getting themselves eliminated at the mat. We hear John talk about how he has no regrets, to which Phil supposedly reacts: "Oy vey" :-D
Leg 5:
1. This week, we head to Hanoi, Vietnam. But first, D/C announce that they're pulling out when they get to Hanoi, because they've been recommended to get surgery. There's a U-Turn on this leg, and Connor jokes about using the U-Turn :-D Everyone other than D/C gets an hours-of-operation bunching near a theater, allowing everyone to catch up, get some rest in a nearby hotel's lobby, and talk about how dumb J/J were for getting eliminated despite the Express Pass :-)
2. Speaking of eliminations, D/C decide to get their elimination out of the way in the morning at the Vietnamese Museum of National History, while there's a bit of awkwardness while the rest of the teams veg out in front of the theater. Roadblock about the communist culture of Vietnam: Sit through a show with an upbeat patriotic song (Katie compares it to One Direction :-)), memorize (as in, no taking notes) a Vietnamese slogan, find a poster that has the slogan on it. Pam, who is an art director, is good at memorizing details, and thus jumps out in front, while two of the contestants decide to help each other by memorizing one half of the slogan each.
3. Next stop, some park near the river for a traditional bamboo dance: Jump across gaps in bamboo poles being rhythmically opened and shut, while holding hands (here's a video). C/W fall behind because Chuck told Wynona not to hold hands, and they're told they're doing it wrong. One suspects that this probably would have gotten D/C eliminated anyway...
4. This is followed by a Detour between chess and making Pho noodles (a la Maria and Tiffany). The former does not actually involve knowing how to play chess, but rather picking 4 Chinese chess pieces, finding person in an outfit matching each piece, and place them on a giant board in the proper position, replete with staffs. Caroline/Jennifer apparently end up making it even harder than they needed by thinking they're actually supposed to play the game :-\ The latter involves buying the ingredients for Pho at a local market first, for which Max/Katie get a translator to help them with it, and Wynona (after getting lost looking for the market) says of getting the ingredients: "We need twelve limes... and a husband that listens" :-D
5. Pam/Winnie get to a double blind U-Turn at a memorial for a crashed B-52, and use the first on Joey/Meghan (making sarcastic comments about the faces they have in their U-Turn photo :-D). J/M (after doing chess) use it on Chuck/Wynona when they get it, before a bunch of vendors laugh at Joey for carrying chickens :-D Said vendors, noticing that there have been quite a few similar sets of people coming here today, (seemingly) helpfully give them the ingredients they need (though quite a few of them turn out to be wrong).
6. Pit stop at the Vietnamese Museum of National History, and Pam/Winnie get a trip to Whistler, Canada. The two U-Turned teams are last to finish, with J/M finished with their two Detours before C/W are even done with their first. (C/W misunderstand their placement under J/M's pic at the U-Turn as indicating that J/M U-Turned them, even though that's true :-\) However, Phil tells C/W about D/C's withdrawal, meaning that they're still in the race.
Leg 6:
Time for the obligatory Africa legs, as teams head to Botswana. I only got to see a short segment of the show on the Monday, and both the Friday and Sunday reruns I'd normally watch to do my fuller write-up were pre-empted for a movie :-\ So, just a quick overview of the Detour: Detour is between making fire with two sticks, and making a traditional trap for birds. Bates/Anthony are the only ones who finish this task and end up in first, while the rest who start the fire task end up switching to the trap task (this allows for teams that never went to the fire task to get better positions, for example, C/W finish 3rd). One of the tribesmen leading C/J to the pit stop appears to have the hots for one of them :-D Max/Katie (among the teams starting the fire task) finish last, but it's non-elimination, meaning for the 2nd week in a row, the last-place team has not been eliminated.
Leg 7:
1. Still in Botswana, everyone has to drive themselves to some village. C/J get dinged by the cops for driving 96kph in a 60kph zone, and have to get some kind man to exchange their dollars for pula to pay the fine at the police station. And they're not the only team to have to stop by the station, as Max/Katie also get pulled over for speeding (and that's after they get lost just looking for their car!), and to add insult to injury, accidentally back into a pole while leaving the station :-D
2. Bates/Anthony decide to go for a water-skiing Fast Forward on the river, even though there are crocodiles in the water (there's even a sign), and Bates says he couldn't get up on skis the last time he tried water-skiing. Nevertheless, Anthony goads him into doing it, and Bates ends up doing MUCH better this time around, claiming the Fast Forward.
3. Everyone else gets a Roadblock: "Who wants to go up the creek without a paddle?" Get two goats, then paddle a dugout canoe upstream to deliver them (with the other player as a passenger: Pam comments on getting peed on by a goat :-D) Max/Katie get to put beads on dresses and do some dancing for their Speed Bump, before quipping about the Roadblock description :-)
4. After the Roadblock, a Detour between at a local hunting lodge. Brains and Brawn (the actual names!) Brawn has teams load a sled with firewood, then dangle a carrot to lead a couple donkeys to pull the sled to a camp, which most do. Brains involves riding horses and going on a "safari" to find 10 cardboard cut-outs of animals, and then pick them from a bag and put them in the right order. C/W do this and get it right first go. One of the animals is an ostrich placed in a way that it's rather hard to see if you don't know what you're looking for, and another is a bird sitting on a hippo. Pam/Winnie, after getting frustrated by stubborn donkeys and switching, miss the ostrich on their safari, and misinterpret the bird and hippo as their last two animals. Twice to boot, before switching back to donkeys.
5. B/A ride their FF to $7,500 each, while J/M and Max/Katie's scramble to avoid last with the donkeys proves unnecessary, as Pam/Winnie end up getting themselves eliminated by that cut-out safari, meaning that the last three teams to be eliminated won at least one leg, with Bates/Anthony the only leg-winners still in the race. If nothing else, this season has been slightly more unpredictable than other recent seasons IMO...
1. Picking up immediately after Leg 3, next stop is a forest on Bali, Indonesia. Max/Katie call a local travel agency and manage to get the best flight to Bali. We hear about how Jessica/John plan to get as much value out of their Express Pass as possible (that'll be important later). At the airport, teams get split into three groups, two of which are supposed to land just after noon, but one of them (Jessica/John, Joey/Meghan) manages to improve on their connection in Singapore to land about 90 minutes earlier. In the cab to the forest, Caroline/Jennifer sing about how they're going to win TAR :-)
2. On to the actual task now: everyone gets to give a coconut planted with a clue to a monkey, watch them tear it open (Joey makes sarcastic comments while it's doing so :-D) and pick up the clue left behind in the coconut (actually, they have handlers for that). This leads to a Detour between carrying sand from a river bed and putting together a fruit-based religious offering at a temple.
3. Pam builds sets for a living, so Pam/Winnie do the fruit task methodologically. J/J finds the wrong arts-and-crafts task at first and get as far as putting on a sarong before they realize that they're at the wrong task (presumably because they notice there isn't fruit in their offering :-D) When J/J eventually get to the right task, they're nowhere near as good as it as they thought, and end up switching to sand. J/J decide to gauge whether to use the Express Pass on how far Mona/Beth are at it... and as it happens, M/B are done and gone before J/J even arrive. Meanwhile, after Bates/Anthony finish with the monkeys, they intend to do sand, but since their cabbie only knows where the fruit task is, that's what they end up doing.
4. Uruwatu surf beach, and last task immediately preceding the pit stop is a Roadblock to look in an array of surfboards for one that has a picture of something everyone has already encountered, then bring it to Phil at the mat (which also proves to be a bit of a challenge for some teams). Turns out to be the priest from leg 2. Winnie is first to find the board, but while she's looking for the pit stop, Connor "cheats" off her and manages to find the pit stop first and win $5,000 each (and more importantly, some real rest for Dave's leg :-)). "One leg at a time... on one leg" -- D/C :-D
5. In a little bit of alliance illustration, Joey tells Mona about the correct board, while Phil comments on Mona not telling Bates when M/B check in. J/J come into the Roadblock in last place, but figure they can use their Express Pass on it (which they should anyway) if they think it's super-challenging. John ends up thinking it's doable, and so not only do they end up losing to Chuck/Wynona with their Pass unplayed, it takes John 75 minutes to find the right board before finally getting themselves eliminated at the mat. We hear John talk about how he has no regrets, to which Phil supposedly reacts: "Oy vey" :-D
Leg 5:
1. This week, we head to Hanoi, Vietnam. But first, D/C announce that they're pulling out when they get to Hanoi, because they've been recommended to get surgery. There's a U-Turn on this leg, and Connor jokes about using the U-Turn :-D Everyone other than D/C gets an hours-of-operation bunching near a theater, allowing everyone to catch up, get some rest in a nearby hotel's lobby, and talk about how dumb J/J were for getting eliminated despite the Express Pass :-)
2. Speaking of eliminations, D/C decide to get their elimination out of the way in the morning at the Vietnamese Museum of National History, while there's a bit of awkwardness while the rest of the teams veg out in front of the theater. Roadblock about the communist culture of Vietnam: Sit through a show with an upbeat patriotic song (Katie compares it to One Direction :-)), memorize (as in, no taking notes) a Vietnamese slogan, find a poster that has the slogan on it. Pam, who is an art director, is good at memorizing details, and thus jumps out in front, while two of the contestants decide to help each other by memorizing one half of the slogan each.
3. Next stop, some park near the river for a traditional bamboo dance: Jump across gaps in bamboo poles being rhythmically opened and shut, while holding hands (here's a video). C/W fall behind because Chuck told Wynona not to hold hands, and they're told they're doing it wrong. One suspects that this probably would have gotten D/C eliminated anyway...
4. This is followed by a Detour between chess and making Pho noodles (a la Maria and Tiffany). The former does not actually involve knowing how to play chess, but rather picking 4 Chinese chess pieces, finding person in an outfit matching each piece, and place them on a giant board in the proper position, replete with staffs. Caroline/Jennifer apparently end up making it even harder than they needed by thinking they're actually supposed to play the game :-\ The latter involves buying the ingredients for Pho at a local market first, for which Max/Katie get a translator to help them with it, and Wynona (after getting lost looking for the market) says of getting the ingredients: "We need twelve limes... and a husband that listens" :-D
5. Pam/Winnie get to a double blind U-Turn at a memorial for a crashed B-52, and use the first on Joey/Meghan (making sarcastic comments about the faces they have in their U-Turn photo :-D). J/M (after doing chess) use it on Chuck/Wynona when they get it, before a bunch of vendors laugh at Joey for carrying chickens :-D Said vendors, noticing that there have been quite a few similar sets of people coming here today, (seemingly) helpfully give them the ingredients they need (though quite a few of them turn out to be wrong).
6. Pit stop at the Vietnamese Museum of National History, and Pam/Winnie get a trip to Whistler, Canada. The two U-Turned teams are last to finish, with J/M finished with their two Detours before C/W are even done with their first. (C/W misunderstand their placement under J/M's pic at the U-Turn as indicating that J/M U-Turned them, even though that's true :-\) However, Phil tells C/W about D/C's withdrawal, meaning that they're still in the race.
Leg 6:
Time for the obligatory Africa legs, as teams head to Botswana. I only got to see a short segment of the show on the Monday, and both the Friday and Sunday reruns I'd normally watch to do my fuller write-up were pre-empted for a movie :-\ So, just a quick overview of the Detour: Detour is between making fire with two sticks, and making a traditional trap for birds. Bates/Anthony are the only ones who finish this task and end up in first, while the rest who start the fire task end up switching to the trap task (this allows for teams that never went to the fire task to get better positions, for example, C/W finish 3rd). One of the tribesmen leading C/J to the pit stop appears to have the hots for one of them :-D Max/Katie (among the teams starting the fire task) finish last, but it's non-elimination, meaning for the 2nd week in a row, the last-place team has not been eliminated.
Leg 7:
1. Still in Botswana, everyone has to drive themselves to some village. C/J get dinged by the cops for driving 96kph in a 60kph zone, and have to get some kind man to exchange their dollars for pula to pay the fine at the police station. And they're not the only team to have to stop by the station, as Max/Katie also get pulled over for speeding (and that's after they get lost just looking for their car!), and to add insult to injury, accidentally back into a pole while leaving the station :-D
2. Bates/Anthony decide to go for a water-skiing Fast Forward on the river, even though there are crocodiles in the water (there's even a sign), and Bates says he couldn't get up on skis the last time he tried water-skiing. Nevertheless, Anthony goads him into doing it, and Bates ends up doing MUCH better this time around, claiming the Fast Forward.
3. Everyone else gets a Roadblock: "Who wants to go up the creek without a paddle?" Get two goats, then paddle a dugout canoe upstream to deliver them (with the other player as a passenger: Pam comments on getting peed on by a goat :-D) Max/Katie get to put beads on dresses and do some dancing for their Speed Bump, before quipping about the Roadblock description :-)
4. After the Roadblock, a Detour between at a local hunting lodge. Brains and Brawn (the actual names!) Brawn has teams load a sled with firewood, then dangle a carrot to lead a couple donkeys to pull the sled to a camp, which most do. Brains involves riding horses and going on a "safari" to find 10 cardboard cut-outs of animals, and then pick them from a bag and put them in the right order. C/W do this and get it right first go. One of the animals is an ostrich placed in a way that it's rather hard to see if you don't know what you're looking for, and another is a bird sitting on a hippo. Pam/Winnie, after getting frustrated by stubborn donkeys and switching, miss the ostrich on their safari, and misinterpret the bird and hippo as their last two animals. Twice to boot, before switching back to donkeys.
5. B/A ride their FF to $7,500 each, while J/M and Max/Katie's scramble to avoid last with the donkeys proves unnecessary, as Pam/Winnie end up getting themselves eliminated by that cut-out safari, meaning that the last three teams to be eliminated won at least one leg, with Bates/Anthony the only leg-winners still in the race. If nothing else, this season has been slightly more unpredictable than other recent seasons IMO...
