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spiderbraidsBetween the two-hour finale and a catch-up on a previous leg, this post covers more than half the season :-O
First, catching up on Leg 6...
1. They're being told to go to Maun on the edge of the Kalahari desert, without being told the country for once, so Pam/Winnie and Max/Katie (we find out Katie has a doctorate) go online to find that it's in Botswana (which they need to know in order to get into the travel agency), while other teams copy off them, and Chuck/Wynona resort to randomly naming countries before stumbling on the right one :-D At least Caroline/Jennifer know it's in Africa, even if they think it's Kenya...
2. After being staggered on charter flights to some place called Xhumaga (watch teams mangle the pronunciation :-D) everyone drives to their first clue: a Roadblock asking "Who wants to make a new friend?" This one calls for contestants to take along three bushmen each to help dig for a scorpion (!) and most of the contestants are suitably icked out at one of the bushmen biting down on the scorpion (Joey's reactions are especially hilarious :-D)
3. Oh, and after the Roadblock, they have to bring the bushmen along to the next task, a Detour between Fire and Fowl (the actual names). Joey makes a comment about adding them to his Facebook :-D While walking to the tasks, each group of bushmen show their teams a bunch of animal calls and signals, prompting Bates/Anthony to wonder if they're making a rhino mating call :-D
4. On to the actual Detours: The first one involves making a fire with sticks, hay, and zebra dung (though the teams seem to think it's elephant dung :-\), and the other involves setting up a trap for a guinea fowl (and set it off to prove that it works right). C/W naturally go with the 2nd one (Pam/Winnie are the only others to choose this first, and they make a comment about Chuck brushing his teeth, setting up a trap, rinsing his mouth, and then checking what he caught :-D)
5. B/A get their fire going (the only team to do so), and go on to win a trip to Phuket in Thailand. As already mentioned, the tribesmen leading C/J to the pitstop appear to have the hots for them :-D while Max/Katie (among the teams starting the fire task) finish last, but it's a non-elimination.
Leg 8:
1. This week, we head to some town in Switzerland by plane and train to pick up a clue from a courier on some sort of ski bike. At least one team misses their train connection on the way there and gets in something like an hour later, but since the courier doesn't come until morning, there are no consequences for this. Said clue sends the teams to another train station, where once again, everyone gets bunched up, and the only real drama going on is with Chuck/Wynona.
2. We get a train ride to Jungfraujoch (my sister went there once :-)) to pick up a St. Bernard (complete with little barrel on their neck :-)) and ride to another station for a Roadblock: "Who's ready to enjoy the sights?" Contestants walk out on to a narrow ledge to pick up a Travelocity gnome (rolls eyes) with their next clue on the bottom. This finally splits up the teams, with Joey/Meghan and Chuck/Wynona being left behind.
3. Next task is a switchback (a rehash of a task from a previous season) involving carrying large wheels of cheese. Whereas the original task had contestants carrying the cheese using a carrier worn on the back, here everyone gets to carry their cheese (200 lbs of it!) on sleds. Over a hill :-D Hilarity ensues when Katie(/Max) blocks the uphill path to where they're taking their cheese :-D
4. Pit stop at a snowboarding school, and Bates/Anthony take the win and a trip to Bora Bora. As for the last two teams, J/M finish their switchback first, but then J/M end up walking to the snowboarding school while C/W take a cab to arrive in 5th. But then C/W get penalized 30 minutes for rolling their cheese down the hill instead of carrying it on the sleds, so J/M survive at C/W's expense.
Leg 9:
1. We have a bunch-up before heading to Dresden by train, during which Bates(/Anthony) loses his backpack. Unlike last season's Abba, however, he has his passport on him, and C/J offer him some of their clothing :-D In Dresden (after a B-roll that includes a plane landing, even though they're arriving by train :-\), we get product placement with Ford Fusions, where the show uses the car's dashboard communications system to have teams answer three questions. First of them asks, "Which American president famously said 'Tear down this wall'?" Max first guesses JFK, prompting him to quip "Rush must be upset at me for missing that one" :-D He eventually gets it right with Ronald Reagan the 2nd go, while all the other teams only need one, including Joey/Meghan (the latter of whom is wearing her Vanellope jacket again :-)) who guess their way through the questions :-) Naturally, the show shows a clip of Reagan saying that quote, and JFK will feature later in this leg.
2. Everyone gets to drive to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. In Berlin, B/A offer to lead C/J there... and then they get separated at the first traffic light they run into :-\ Clue at Brandenburg sends them to a base jump off a local hotel building. Eh, whatever... Oh yeah, and this leg is one of those all-nighter legs.
3. Detour is between carrying letters to a museum of letters (in a mall, to boot), and putting together a toy train track. J/M are the only ones to choose the trains, while B/A find themselves switching to the trains after damaging one of their letters (clue specifically requires them to deliver them intact). The train task is edited with Flight of the Valkyries and a cartoon graphic of a train exploding every time the teams' trains stop :-D
4. Next stop is an underground nightclub, with a Roadblock asking "Who's ready to go tripping?" It involves going through a crazy labyrinth to a white room with clues in it (prompting Katie to compare it to Legends of the Hidden Temple :-D and others to compare it to doing drugs) But first, to get into the labyrinth, teams have to know (or ask around) about who said "Ich bin ein Berliner"... and that's JFK (cue clip :-)) For Mona/Beth, the real issue is just getting to the Roadblock, apparently mistaking the Salon in the location name for a different kind of salon :-\
5. Max/Katie finish 1st at the pit stop near a subway station (with a guy selling sausages, not unlike what one might see at a baseball stadium, as a greeter :-D) and get a pair of Ford Fusions (of course), while it comes down to a footrace between B/A and Mona/Beth to avoid last, which B/A win, but Phil gives them some bad news... They're going to have to compete with M/B in the next leg, because this is a non-elim.
Leg 10:
1. Next stop, Edinburgh, Scotland. This leg will have a U-Turn as well. J/M and M/B get a flight landing at 1:00pm, Max/Katie manage to get a 10:40am landing at a hotel's business center (and keep quiet about it at the airport), and the others initially seem poised to land at 4:00pm, until they find the 10:40am flight and get it. Max/Katie and B/A jump out to a lead, while C/J are driving slower than normal because they've left the handbrake on :-D J/M and M/B feel good about themselves until they see the two cars remaining when they come out of the airport :-\
2. First stop, Gosford House, for a bagpipes Roadblock, which calls for contestants to practice and hold a single harmonizing note for two minutes while walking around the main hall. Not very eventful, but we learn that Bates is half-Scottish, and Meghan used to play the trombone. Turns out playing the trombone is different than playing bagpipes, though...
3. After a clue pickup in one of the many fireplaces at an ancient castle, we have a Detour between making haggis (and having a taste :-P) and rolling barrels of whiskey, while M/B get a bowling Speed Bump (it's actually "skittles", but the only difference appears to be the lack of holes in the ball... or an automatic pin-setter). It's right next to the haggis Detour, so for M/B this entails having to drive to that location, bowl one strike each (we only get to see Mona get her strike on attempt #16), then back to the castle (where they manage to run into J/M), then the location again.
4. While Max/Katie make their haggis, some bloke walks in and says he's Robert Burns (famous Scottish poet) and recites this poem of his to them (we get subtitles "translating" it to more modern English). With the whiskey, Bates/Anthony compare themselves to "that Greek god carrying the whole world... we've got the same body", because they carry the barrels of whiskey (!) rather than roll them :-D
5. After the Detour, we have a Double U-Turn at a local church, and (as per alliances) Bates/Anthony U-Turn J/M, and Max/Katie U-Turn M/B, meaning that M/B end up having two extra tasks this leg. Pit stop is some cobblestone street in Edinburgh, and Max/Katie get 1st and $10,000 each (with Jekyll/Hyde as the greeter :-) )
6. The U-Turns effectively turn the race to avoid elimination into who can perform both Detours first. As it happens, Beth loves making meatballs, so M/B do the haggis quicker, and they're also more effective at rolling whiskey than J/M (who do it one barrel at a time instead of 2 :-\) and even some navigational issues don't stop M/B from knocking J/M out of the race.
Leg 11:
1. Everyone gets to take a ferry to Belfast in Northern Ireland, where everyone then picks up a Ford from a nearby warehouse and drives to a local peat bog for a Roadblock: "Who's ready to get bogged down?" In this case, complete a 100 yard lap of swimming in the peat bog in under 4 minutes. No problem for most teams, while C/J end up taking 3 attempts to do it :-\
2. Next stop: "The Thing with the Ring", which turns out to be a statue in Belfast, for a Detour between setting a banquet table and spraying graffiti at a skate park. The former entails setting a banquet table with dishes served on a certain (in)famous cruise ship that was built in Belfast 100 years ago, BTW... It's a bit of a Titanic (;-)) task, because it also entails a whole lot of running around (!) as it's a long way from the "kitchen" to the tables at a tent in the middle of the dry dock where said ship was built (including stairs!) Anthony shows off by spinning a dish on his finger while Bates does the task :-D
3. The task also entails knowing what kind of color chartreuse is (it's green BTW), and (for M/B anyway) that you're supposed to serve the first course (oysters) first :-\ M/B are still doing better than C/J, though, who after struggling with the bog, end up getting directions to the wrong destination first, and are told by some locals there the real name of "The Thing with the Ring": The Beacon of Hope, which C/J say they'd need plenty of right now...
4. C/J are the only team to do the graffiti, and they comment on how their graffiti looks like it was made by the same person (as the graffiti they're checking it against). Pit stop at Ulster Hall, and after a bunch of navigation, Max/Katie edge out B/A for a trip to the Dominican Republic, while in spite of their Titanic issues with their Detour, M/B round out the final.
Leg 12:
1. First stop, some pub in London, by way of ferry across the Irish Sea (Max manages to describe the ride as the "calm before the storm" for the 2nd time in as many legs... editing? :-\) and train, before getting a clue to Washington DC. Everyone gets bunched on the same ferry and ultimately plane, so...
2. On to Washington, and the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King made his famous speech, where everyone gets their next clue from some guy standing at the exact spot MLK stood, sending them to 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, not to be confused with the more famous 1600. Max/Katie aren't fooled, B/A initially think it's the White House but realize their error quickly enough, M/B actually get off at the White House :-\
3. 1100 has Secret Service agents and a photo op with Obama waiting for them. Or rather, faux "Secret Service agents" and a photoshop with Obama waiting for them (the BGM even plays with this :-D) Next stop, the Tidal Basin for a Roadblock/switchback to a task from the infamous Family Edition: Find a spy with a matching password (differing for each team), who will give a suitcase and a clue for its combination (order of finish in NZ, Indonesia, and Vietnam, which of course also differs for each team). Max/Katie get there first, but B/A manage to find their spy first, and Max only manages to get their next clue about the same time M/B do. They all have notes about their journey, so yeah...
4. Next stop, the Washington Nationals' Stadium, where one player dresses up in a mascot outfit, and the other throws a baseball ("signed" with their next destination, BTW) from a zipline, and repeats until the mascot catches a ball without dropping it. We see that, in spite of M/B also playing softball, they take 17 turns to do it.
5. Last stop before the finish, Hains Point, where each team gets to dive into a large pit of globes marked with a nation. Needless to say, it's a "remember where you've gone" task, and each team is to find and place a globe marked with each of their destinations on a pedestal, in order, before getting their finish line clue.
6. Said clue sends them to George Washington's home on Mount Vernon, and it's no contest, as B/A take home the million. We also get a medical update from Dave/Connor: Dave just got his stitches removed from his Achilles operation, and as of the finish line, is still wearing a boot. He'll be out of crutches in a month. We end on fireworks, and an "In memory of David G. Gibbs" title card.
First, catching up on Leg 6...
1. They're being told to go to Maun on the edge of the Kalahari desert, without being told the country for once, so Pam/Winnie and Max/Katie (we find out Katie has a doctorate) go online to find that it's in Botswana (which they need to know in order to get into the travel agency), while other teams copy off them, and Chuck/Wynona resort to randomly naming countries before stumbling on the right one :-D At least Caroline/Jennifer know it's in Africa, even if they think it's Kenya...
2. After being staggered on charter flights to some place called Xhumaga (watch teams mangle the pronunciation :-D) everyone drives to their first clue: a Roadblock asking "Who wants to make a new friend?" This one calls for contestants to take along three bushmen each to help dig for a scorpion (!) and most of the contestants are suitably icked out at one of the bushmen biting down on the scorpion (Joey's reactions are especially hilarious :-D)
3. Oh, and after the Roadblock, they have to bring the bushmen along to the next task, a Detour between Fire and Fowl (the actual names). Joey makes a comment about adding them to his Facebook :-D While walking to the tasks, each group of bushmen show their teams a bunch of animal calls and signals, prompting Bates/Anthony to wonder if they're making a rhino mating call :-D
4. On to the actual Detours: The first one involves making a fire with sticks, hay, and zebra dung (though the teams seem to think it's elephant dung :-\), and the other involves setting up a trap for a guinea fowl (and set it off to prove that it works right). C/W naturally go with the 2nd one (Pam/Winnie are the only others to choose this first, and they make a comment about Chuck brushing his teeth, setting up a trap, rinsing his mouth, and then checking what he caught :-D)
5. B/A get their fire going (the only team to do so), and go on to win a trip to Phuket in Thailand. As already mentioned, the tribesmen leading C/J to the pitstop appear to have the hots for them :-D while Max/Katie (among the teams starting the fire task) finish last, but it's a non-elimination.
Leg 8:
1. This week, we head to some town in Switzerland by plane and train to pick up a clue from a courier on some sort of ski bike. At least one team misses their train connection on the way there and gets in something like an hour later, but since the courier doesn't come until morning, there are no consequences for this. Said clue sends the teams to another train station, where once again, everyone gets bunched up, and the only real drama going on is with Chuck/Wynona.
2. We get a train ride to Jungfraujoch (my sister went there once :-)) to pick up a St. Bernard (complete with little barrel on their neck :-)) and ride to another station for a Roadblock: "Who's ready to enjoy the sights?" Contestants walk out on to a narrow ledge to pick up a Travelocity gnome (rolls eyes) with their next clue on the bottom. This finally splits up the teams, with Joey/Meghan and Chuck/Wynona being left behind.
3. Next task is a switchback (a rehash of a task from a previous season) involving carrying large wheels of cheese. Whereas the original task had contestants carrying the cheese using a carrier worn on the back, here everyone gets to carry their cheese (200 lbs of it!) on sleds. Over a hill :-D Hilarity ensues when Katie(/Max) blocks the uphill path to where they're taking their cheese :-D
4. Pit stop at a snowboarding school, and Bates/Anthony take the win and a trip to Bora Bora. As for the last two teams, J/M finish their switchback first, but then J/M end up walking to the snowboarding school while C/W take a cab to arrive in 5th. But then C/W get penalized 30 minutes for rolling their cheese down the hill instead of carrying it on the sleds, so J/M survive at C/W's expense.
Leg 9:
1. We have a bunch-up before heading to Dresden by train, during which Bates(/Anthony) loses his backpack. Unlike last season's Abba, however, he has his passport on him, and C/J offer him some of their clothing :-D In Dresden (after a B-roll that includes a plane landing, even though they're arriving by train :-\), we get product placement with Ford Fusions, where the show uses the car's dashboard communications system to have teams answer three questions. First of them asks, "Which American president famously said 'Tear down this wall'?" Max first guesses JFK, prompting him to quip "Rush must be upset at me for missing that one" :-D He eventually gets it right with Ronald Reagan the 2nd go, while all the other teams only need one, including Joey/Meghan (the latter of whom is wearing her Vanellope jacket again :-)) who guess their way through the questions :-) Naturally, the show shows a clip of Reagan saying that quote, and JFK will feature later in this leg.
2. Everyone gets to drive to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. In Berlin, B/A offer to lead C/J there... and then they get separated at the first traffic light they run into :-\ Clue at Brandenburg sends them to a base jump off a local hotel building. Eh, whatever... Oh yeah, and this leg is one of those all-nighter legs.
3. Detour is between carrying letters to a museum of letters (in a mall, to boot), and putting together a toy train track. J/M are the only ones to choose the trains, while B/A find themselves switching to the trains after damaging one of their letters (clue specifically requires them to deliver them intact). The train task is edited with Flight of the Valkyries and a cartoon graphic of a train exploding every time the teams' trains stop :-D
4. Next stop is an underground nightclub, with a Roadblock asking "Who's ready to go tripping?" It involves going through a crazy labyrinth to a white room with clues in it (prompting Katie to compare it to Legends of the Hidden Temple :-D and others to compare it to doing drugs) But first, to get into the labyrinth, teams have to know (or ask around) about who said "Ich bin ein Berliner"... and that's JFK (cue clip :-)) For Mona/Beth, the real issue is just getting to the Roadblock, apparently mistaking the Salon in the location name for a different kind of salon :-\
5. Max/Katie finish 1st at the pit stop near a subway station (with a guy selling sausages, not unlike what one might see at a baseball stadium, as a greeter :-D) and get a pair of Ford Fusions (of course), while it comes down to a footrace between B/A and Mona/Beth to avoid last, which B/A win, but Phil gives them some bad news... They're going to have to compete with M/B in the next leg, because this is a non-elim.
Leg 10:
1. Next stop, Edinburgh, Scotland. This leg will have a U-Turn as well. J/M and M/B get a flight landing at 1:00pm, Max/Katie manage to get a 10:40am landing at a hotel's business center (and keep quiet about it at the airport), and the others initially seem poised to land at 4:00pm, until they find the 10:40am flight and get it. Max/Katie and B/A jump out to a lead, while C/J are driving slower than normal because they've left the handbrake on :-D J/M and M/B feel good about themselves until they see the two cars remaining when they come out of the airport :-\
2. First stop, Gosford House, for a bagpipes Roadblock, which calls for contestants to practice and hold a single harmonizing note for two minutes while walking around the main hall. Not very eventful, but we learn that Bates is half-Scottish, and Meghan used to play the trombone. Turns out playing the trombone is different than playing bagpipes, though...
3. After a clue pickup in one of the many fireplaces at an ancient castle, we have a Detour between making haggis (and having a taste :-P) and rolling barrels of whiskey, while M/B get a bowling Speed Bump (it's actually "skittles", but the only difference appears to be the lack of holes in the ball... or an automatic pin-setter). It's right next to the haggis Detour, so for M/B this entails having to drive to that location, bowl one strike each (we only get to see Mona get her strike on attempt #16), then back to the castle (where they manage to run into J/M), then the location again.
4. While Max/Katie make their haggis, some bloke walks in and says he's Robert Burns (famous Scottish poet) and recites this poem of his to them (we get subtitles "translating" it to more modern English). With the whiskey, Bates/Anthony compare themselves to "that Greek god carrying the whole world... we've got the same body", because they carry the barrels of whiskey (!) rather than roll them :-D
5. After the Detour, we have a Double U-Turn at a local church, and (as per alliances) Bates/Anthony U-Turn J/M, and Max/Katie U-Turn M/B, meaning that M/B end up having two extra tasks this leg. Pit stop is some cobblestone street in Edinburgh, and Max/Katie get 1st and $10,000 each (with Jekyll/Hyde as the greeter :-) )
6. The U-Turns effectively turn the race to avoid elimination into who can perform both Detours first. As it happens, Beth loves making meatballs, so M/B do the haggis quicker, and they're also more effective at rolling whiskey than J/M (who do it one barrel at a time instead of 2 :-\) and even some navigational issues don't stop M/B from knocking J/M out of the race.
Leg 11:
1. Everyone gets to take a ferry to Belfast in Northern Ireland, where everyone then picks up a Ford from a nearby warehouse and drives to a local peat bog for a Roadblock: "Who's ready to get bogged down?" In this case, complete a 100 yard lap of swimming in the peat bog in under 4 minutes. No problem for most teams, while C/J end up taking 3 attempts to do it :-\
2. Next stop: "The Thing with the Ring", which turns out to be a statue in Belfast, for a Detour between setting a banquet table and spraying graffiti at a skate park. The former entails setting a banquet table with dishes served on a certain (in)famous cruise ship that was built in Belfast 100 years ago, BTW... It's a bit of a Titanic (;-)) task, because it also entails a whole lot of running around (!) as it's a long way from the "kitchen" to the tables at a tent in the middle of the dry dock where said ship was built (including stairs!) Anthony shows off by spinning a dish on his finger while Bates does the task :-D
3. The task also entails knowing what kind of color chartreuse is (it's green BTW), and (for M/B anyway) that you're supposed to serve the first course (oysters) first :-\ M/B are still doing better than C/J, though, who after struggling with the bog, end up getting directions to the wrong destination first, and are told by some locals there the real name of "The Thing with the Ring": The Beacon of Hope, which C/J say they'd need plenty of right now...
4. C/J are the only team to do the graffiti, and they comment on how their graffiti looks like it was made by the same person (as the graffiti they're checking it against). Pit stop at Ulster Hall, and after a bunch of navigation, Max/Katie edge out B/A for a trip to the Dominican Republic, while in spite of their Titanic issues with their Detour, M/B round out the final.
Leg 12:
1. First stop, some pub in London, by way of ferry across the Irish Sea (Max manages to describe the ride as the "calm before the storm" for the 2nd time in as many legs... editing? :-\) and train, before getting a clue to Washington DC. Everyone gets bunched on the same ferry and ultimately plane, so...
2. On to Washington, and the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King made his famous speech, where everyone gets their next clue from some guy standing at the exact spot MLK stood, sending them to 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, not to be confused with the more famous 1600. Max/Katie aren't fooled, B/A initially think it's the White House but realize their error quickly enough, M/B actually get off at the White House :-\
3. 1100 has Secret Service agents and a photo op with Obama waiting for them. Or rather, faux "Secret Service agents" and a photoshop with Obama waiting for them (the BGM even plays with this :-D) Next stop, the Tidal Basin for a Roadblock/switchback to a task from the infamous Family Edition: Find a spy with a matching password (differing for each team), who will give a suitcase and a clue for its combination (order of finish in NZ, Indonesia, and Vietnam, which of course also differs for each team). Max/Katie get there first, but B/A manage to find their spy first, and Max only manages to get their next clue about the same time M/B do. They all have notes about their journey, so yeah...
4. Next stop, the Washington Nationals' Stadium, where one player dresses up in a mascot outfit, and the other throws a baseball ("signed" with their next destination, BTW) from a zipline, and repeats until the mascot catches a ball without dropping it. We see that, in spite of M/B also playing softball, they take 17 turns to do it.
5. Last stop before the finish, Hains Point, where each team gets to dive into a large pit of globes marked with a nation. Needless to say, it's a "remember where you've gone" task, and each team is to find and place a globe marked with each of their destinations on a pedestal, in order, before getting their finish line clue.
6. Said clue sends them to George Washington's home on Mount Vernon, and it's no contest, as B/A take home the million. We also get a medical update from Dave/Connor: Dave just got his stitches removed from his Achilles operation, and as of the finish line, is still wearing a boot. He'll be out of crutches in a month. We end on fireworks, and an "In memory of David G. Gibbs" title card.
