The Amazing Race, season 24: Legs 9 to 12
Jun. 7th, 2014 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsTime to get this out of the way...
Ep 9:
1. Next stop is Switzerland, and it's a rather convoluted leg, even by TAR standards: First, train trip to Chiasso (just over the border from Italy) to pick up some Ford Focuses (more product placement!) Then drive to Altdorf and wait for Wilhelm Tell at a statue of the guy at sunrise (allowing the cowboys, who took a later train, to catch up in the middle of the night). THEN drive to Lucerne and pick up a clue at a wooden bridge (here, Brenchel stops by the wrong bridge first, causing them to fall behind), and THEN head to a hotel... just to get to the first real task. Points for the show using the Wilhelm Tell theme as underscore when Wilhelm shows up, all the way through to when the Brenchels pick up their wooden bridge clue in last :-) On the way, a point is made that they want Brenchel gone... we'll see how that works out for them :-)
2. That task is to clean up some hotel rooms that have undergone the "rock star party" treatment: Stuff trashed all around the room, leftover pizza on the floor (cowboys half-jokingly think about eating it :-D), lipstick on the bathroom mirror, etc. On top of that, they have to make up the room to the satisfaction of the hotel's rather strict gouverneur... and there's also a room that teams can check :-) Mind you, they ding things like no flowers in the vase, no complementary fruit platter, toilet paper roll not upright, lamp lights not bent properly, etc. (We get funny music over the little bits of the Brenchels doing the task :-))
3. More driving to a local museum with an obscure piece of machinery, and identify what it is. It's a tunnel drill bit, and the cowboys and Dave/Connor know this (and I knew this as well :-)) D/C share it with the non-Brenchel teams, while Brenchel have to ask a local. After the drill bit, everyone runs to an exhibit of classic Ford Mustangs, and has to ID the year they were made, by looking for names on roadsigns and doing some maths on the numbers. The cowboys half-jokingly try to get into the classic Mustang to drive :-D
4. More driving, and a Roadblock: Swiss milk delivery. Lug some full milk jugs in a cart pulled by a local dog (aren't they cute? :-)) to a gondola, and then lug them through the snow to a local dairy, in exchange for enpty jugs, then back to the gondola, and then the dog cart. Caroline trips during the Roadblock :-O Thankfully for her, the crew apparently don't have it on tape :-) However, as the only girl doing this Roadblock, no offense, she ends up getting passed by the Brenchels :-\ Brendon leaves a message in the gondola window for Connor: "TAR 24 winners Brenchel", which Connor wipes off in disgust :-D
5. Pitstop is at the top of Mount Titlis (no "12-year-old" reactions from the name, though :-\) Cowboys catch up with Dave/Connor at the gondola leading to the mountaintop, and are soon joined by the Afghanimals ("We flew in on our magic carpets :-D") D/C are already starting to accept that they're finishing in 3rd... but then, by apparently taking the right elevator, they end up winning the leg, and getting a pair of new Mustangs :-D :-D Caroline/Jennifer are last... and manage to luck out into another NEL :-) + :-\
Ep 10:
1. Next stop is Seville in Spain. Dave/Connor and Afghanimals get the only direct flight available today, the rest fly to Barcelona to get a connecting flight in the morning. Which is just as well, since their first clue pick-up, between columns known as Hercules and Cesar (HUH.) won't be available until 8:30 am :-\ (This still gives the first two teams about an hour or so up on the stragglers, though...)
2. That pickup is accompanied with a guy playing "Call to the Post", AKA horse racing music, which does not go unnoticed by the cowboys :-) and it sends them to a local barbershop for a Roadblock inspired by the Barber of Seville: Balloon shaving :-) With a guy singing songs from the opera in the background of course :-) Connor finishes ahead of the Afghanimals, which surprises them, because in their words, they have more facial hair than Connor does on his head :-D With the stragglers, Brenchel get to the salon last because their cabbie no tiene Internet, but end up being the first from their flight to finish the Roadblock :-O
3. Clue pickup at a local landmark also includes a ham delivery Speed Bump for Caroline/Jennifer, and here the cowboys get lost for a while before finding the clue pickup. It's for a Detour between Spanish Steps (dancing) and Running with the Ballz (exactly what it says :-)) C/J do dancing, and everyone else does the Ballz.
4. The Ballz detour involves putting on big balloon things with bull horns, and then making their way through the narrow streets of Seville (the balloons' size doesn't make this easy), before looking for a series of signs, while getting attacked by other "bulls", i.e. balloon-wearers. Mind you, this Detour is very rough. We have Rachel and Dave trying to get the "bulls" to go a bit easy, and Jamal hurting his knee :-O At the end of it all, Dave says, relating to the clue from the signs, "I must not be a matador, because I was only thinking about my own death" :-) while the cowboys have to do slightly more than normal because they've missed the first of the signs :-\
5. Double U-Turn at some papers archive, but only one ends up being used properly, as Afghanimals decide to U-Turn the cowboys (rather than the expected Brenchel) on account of Jamal's knee, while Brenchel are already in 3rd by the time C/J put up their pic at the U-Turn Pitstop is at a local square, where Dave/Connor get a trip to St. Croix, and they bring up the fact that no parent-child team has ever won TAR. Jamal's bum knee ends up putting the Afghanimals in 3rd behind Brenchel, and after the cowboys do their dancing, they end up finishing last and getting eliminated (the last of the three-timers to be eliminated), and since the greeter is a woman on a horse, they decide to borrow the horse to ride into the sunset (okay, not really, since it's still afternoon by this time :-\)
Ep 11:
1. Next stop, the UK. After everyone takes the same flight, they start at the Anfieldfootballsoccer stadium, home of Liverpool FC (one of the UK's most famous teams) for a penalty shooting task. Of particular amusement is that Dave (the oldest guy still in the race) can hardly aim straight, and Jennifer/Caroline hardly manage to even hit the ball the first time :-D + :-\ Makes you wonder how pro soccer players have such high percentage with spot kicks...
2. Next stop is Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. We're spared the usual butchering of the name from the contestants, leaving it to the host to pronounce it (pont-ka-SULL-te). Afghanimals got off to a good start from the spot kicks, but find themselves getting lost on the way to the aqueduct and get there in last place. There's a Welsh poetry recital Roadblock, and there are tons of quirks to y Gymraeg, of which we're presented only a few: f's are pronounced as v's, double l's are pronounced with a bit of an h-sound in them (prompting Caroline to comment that Welsh sounds like people hissing :-D) And that's on top of having to remember the words of the poem :-)
3. Next stop is a mansion for a Detour between throwing a boot filled with water across a course (Brenchels), and hitting 16 targets in skeet shooting (everyone else). Boot throwing turns out to have an extra quirk the Brenchels miss: They're specifically told to use a size 9 OR 11 boot, and the boot they throw across the course the first time is a size 10 :-O thus putting them in competition for 3rd place with the Afghanimals, who manage to get lost again on the way to the mansion :-\
4. Pitstop at a castle, and Dave/Connor take the win and a trip to Fiji, thus giving them a chance to become the first parent/child winners, with the oldest winning contestant to boot. C/J are 2nd, and Brenchels become the first two time finalist team (as opposed to Eric), while the Afghanimals are feeling "Deja vu all over again" (their words, tm Yogi Berra) with their 2nd penultimate leg elimination :-\
Ep 12:
1. Final destination is beautiful Las Vegas, for a nighttime final leg, beginning with the teams being driven out to the desert Mafia style (tm C/J) to dig a hole. We get some bickering between D/C and the Brenchels about getting dirt into each others' holes, until the contestants eventually find a nailed box that is the property of David Copperfield (I saw some of his TV specials back when I was a kid :-)) Brenchels open it on the way to the next task using a crowbar (HEH), while the others only open it with the Hulk Smash technique after arriving at the task :-D
2. Said task is a Roadblock: Do you believe in magic? And David Copperfield is there in person, I might add :-) The contents of the box is a set of keys, and the contestant gets locked in a really big box, before looking for the key that unlocks their chains, then picking the locks on the outside of the box... And since this is a David Copperfield illusion, it involves setting the box on fire and dropping it into another fire to create a small explosion :-O before revealing the contestant to still be alive and wearing firefighters' garb :-) Connor got a David Copperfield magic kit when he was a kid, so this is a dream come true for him :-D
3. Next stop, the Neon Boneyard, to find the next clue. D/C don't expect it to be a simple cluebox, but there you go, it's a simple cluebox. Okay, the clue does tell them to take a light bulb from a certain sign that is actually in front of said cluebox, and the Brenchels manage to screw that up by not spotting it at first :-D Oh, and Brendon tries to steal C/J's cab (!) using their "babies" excuse (they've been talking the last few legs about planning on having babies if they win the race... HUH.)
4. Mirage Hotel, for task involving putting light bulbs in the "I" on the Mirage sign, and counting how many they used (241!) C/J get to the hotel first because (according to them anyway) they have an awesome cabbie :-) D/C are the only one not to get their first guess right, but still take the lead from C/J. Rachel's worked there before, but after the Brenchels take forever to get there thanks to their slow cabbie, they then go in through the wrong entrance :-O And we linger on Rachel talking about wanting to have a baby as they come down from doing the task :-\
5. Another cab ride (one of the teams gets on a cab that has a David Copperfield ad on it :-)) to Maverick Helicopters for a Roadblock: Who wants to be a UFO? But first, spot a sign on the strip telling the contestant where the finish line is. During the cab ride, D/C's cabbie overtakes C/J's, and that right there will be important... After the contestant finds the sign, they then get to wear a suit with lights on it, and skydive to the finish line, with a sparkly firework trail to boot :-)
6. Finish line is at Las Vegas Speedway, and your winner is Dave/Connor, who other than being the first parent/child team to win the $1m, also have the oldest winning contestant. We get plenty of sentimentality about how Connor beat cancer two years ago :-) C/J can consider their 2nd much better than anyone would have expected, and while the Brenchels are probably disappointed in their 3rd place finish, apparently it will only delay their baby slightly :-\ We close on D/C bragging about their great comeback (their words :-)) after the way they went out the first time... Pretty feel-good stuff :-)
Ep 9:
1. Next stop is Switzerland, and it's a rather convoluted leg, even by TAR standards: First, train trip to Chiasso (just over the border from Italy) to pick up some Ford Focuses (more product placement!) Then drive to Altdorf and wait for Wilhelm Tell at a statue of the guy at sunrise (allowing the cowboys, who took a later train, to catch up in the middle of the night). THEN drive to Lucerne and pick up a clue at a wooden bridge (here, Brenchel stops by the wrong bridge first, causing them to fall behind), and THEN head to a hotel... just to get to the first real task. Points for the show using the Wilhelm Tell theme as underscore when Wilhelm shows up, all the way through to when the Brenchels pick up their wooden bridge clue in last :-) On the way, a point is made that they want Brenchel gone... we'll see how that works out for them :-)
2. That task is to clean up some hotel rooms that have undergone the "rock star party" treatment: Stuff trashed all around the room, leftover pizza on the floor (cowboys half-jokingly think about eating it :-D), lipstick on the bathroom mirror, etc. On top of that, they have to make up the room to the satisfaction of the hotel's rather strict gouverneur... and there's also a room that teams can check :-) Mind you, they ding things like no flowers in the vase, no complementary fruit platter, toilet paper roll not upright, lamp lights not bent properly, etc. (We get funny music over the little bits of the Brenchels doing the task :-))
3. More driving to a local museum with an obscure piece of machinery, and identify what it is. It's a tunnel drill bit, and the cowboys and Dave/Connor know this (and I knew this as well :-)) D/C share it with the non-Brenchel teams, while Brenchel have to ask a local. After the drill bit, everyone runs to an exhibit of classic Ford Mustangs, and has to ID the year they were made, by looking for names on roadsigns and doing some maths on the numbers. The cowboys half-jokingly try to get into the classic Mustang to drive :-D
4. More driving, and a Roadblock: Swiss milk delivery. Lug some full milk jugs in a cart pulled by a local dog (aren't they cute? :-)) to a gondola, and then lug them through the snow to a local dairy, in exchange for enpty jugs, then back to the gondola, and then the dog cart. Caroline trips during the Roadblock :-O Thankfully for her, the crew apparently don't have it on tape :-) However, as the only girl doing this Roadblock, no offense, she ends up getting passed by the Brenchels :-\ Brendon leaves a message in the gondola window for Connor: "TAR 24 winners Brenchel", which Connor wipes off in disgust :-D
5. Pitstop is at the top of Mount Titlis (no "12-year-old" reactions from the name, though :-\) Cowboys catch up with Dave/Connor at the gondola leading to the mountaintop, and are soon joined by the Afghanimals ("We flew in on our magic carpets :-D") D/C are already starting to accept that they're finishing in 3rd... but then, by apparently taking the right elevator, they end up winning the leg, and getting a pair of new Mustangs :-D :-D Caroline/Jennifer are last... and manage to luck out into another NEL :-) + :-\
Ep 10:
1. Next stop is Seville in Spain. Dave/Connor and Afghanimals get the only direct flight available today, the rest fly to Barcelona to get a connecting flight in the morning. Which is just as well, since their first clue pick-up, between columns known as Hercules and Cesar (HUH.) won't be available until 8:30 am :-\ (This still gives the first two teams about an hour or so up on the stragglers, though...)
2. That pickup is accompanied with a guy playing "Call to the Post", AKA horse racing music, which does not go unnoticed by the cowboys :-) and it sends them to a local barbershop for a Roadblock inspired by the Barber of Seville: Balloon shaving :-) With a guy singing songs from the opera in the background of course :-) Connor finishes ahead of the Afghanimals, which surprises them, because in their words, they have more facial hair than Connor does on his head :-D With the stragglers, Brenchel get to the salon last because their cabbie no tiene Internet, but end up being the first from their flight to finish the Roadblock :-O
3. Clue pickup at a local landmark also includes a ham delivery Speed Bump for Caroline/Jennifer, and here the cowboys get lost for a while before finding the clue pickup. It's for a Detour between Spanish Steps (dancing) and Running with the Ballz (exactly what it says :-)) C/J do dancing, and everyone else does the Ballz.
4. The Ballz detour involves putting on big balloon things with bull horns, and then making their way through the narrow streets of Seville (the balloons' size doesn't make this easy), before looking for a series of signs, while getting attacked by other "bulls", i.e. balloon-wearers. Mind you, this Detour is very rough. We have Rachel and Dave trying to get the "bulls" to go a bit easy, and Jamal hurting his knee :-O At the end of it all, Dave says, relating to the clue from the signs, "I must not be a matador, because I was only thinking about my own death" :-) while the cowboys have to do slightly more than normal because they've missed the first of the signs :-\
5. Double U-Turn at some papers archive, but only one ends up being used properly, as Afghanimals decide to U-Turn the cowboys (rather than the expected Brenchel) on account of Jamal's knee, while Brenchel are already in 3rd by the time C/J put up their pic at the U-Turn Pitstop is at a local square, where Dave/Connor get a trip to St. Croix, and they bring up the fact that no parent-child team has ever won TAR. Jamal's bum knee ends up putting the Afghanimals in 3rd behind Brenchel, and after the cowboys do their dancing, they end up finishing last and getting eliminated (the last of the three-timers to be eliminated), and since the greeter is a woman on a horse, they decide to borrow the horse to ride into the sunset (okay, not really, since it's still afternoon by this time :-\)
Ep 11:
1. Next stop, the UK. After everyone takes the same flight, they start at the Anfield
2. Next stop is Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. We're spared the usual butchering of the name from the contestants, leaving it to the host to pronounce it (pont-ka-SULL-te). Afghanimals got off to a good start from the spot kicks, but find themselves getting lost on the way to the aqueduct and get there in last place. There's a Welsh poetry recital Roadblock, and there are tons of quirks to y Gymraeg, of which we're presented only a few: f's are pronounced as v's, double l's are pronounced with a bit of an h-sound in them (prompting Caroline to comment that Welsh sounds like people hissing :-D) And that's on top of having to remember the words of the poem :-)
3. Next stop is a mansion for a Detour between throwing a boot filled with water across a course (Brenchels), and hitting 16 targets in skeet shooting (everyone else). Boot throwing turns out to have an extra quirk the Brenchels miss: They're specifically told to use a size 9 OR 11 boot, and the boot they throw across the course the first time is a size 10 :-O thus putting them in competition for 3rd place with the Afghanimals, who manage to get lost again on the way to the mansion :-\
4. Pitstop at a castle, and Dave/Connor take the win and a trip to Fiji, thus giving them a chance to become the first parent/child winners, with the oldest winning contestant to boot. C/J are 2nd, and Brenchels become the first two time finalist team (as opposed to Eric), while the Afghanimals are feeling "Deja vu all over again" (their words, tm Yogi Berra) with their 2nd penultimate leg elimination :-\
Ep 12:
1. Final destination is beautiful Las Vegas, for a nighttime final leg, beginning with the teams being driven out to the desert Mafia style (tm C/J) to dig a hole. We get some bickering between D/C and the Brenchels about getting dirt into each others' holes, until the contestants eventually find a nailed box that is the property of David Copperfield (I saw some of his TV specials back when I was a kid :-)) Brenchels open it on the way to the next task using a crowbar (HEH), while the others only open it with the Hulk Smash technique after arriving at the task :-D
2. Said task is a Roadblock: Do you believe in magic? And David Copperfield is there in person, I might add :-) The contents of the box is a set of keys, and the contestant gets locked in a really big box, before looking for the key that unlocks their chains, then picking the locks on the outside of the box... And since this is a David Copperfield illusion, it involves setting the box on fire and dropping it into another fire to create a small explosion :-O before revealing the contestant to still be alive and wearing firefighters' garb :-) Connor got a David Copperfield magic kit when he was a kid, so this is a dream come true for him :-D
3. Next stop, the Neon Boneyard, to find the next clue. D/C don't expect it to be a simple cluebox, but there you go, it's a simple cluebox. Okay, the clue does tell them to take a light bulb from a certain sign that is actually in front of said cluebox, and the Brenchels manage to screw that up by not spotting it at first :-D Oh, and Brendon tries to steal C/J's cab (!) using their "babies" excuse (they've been talking the last few legs about planning on having babies if they win the race... HUH.)
4. Mirage Hotel, for task involving putting light bulbs in the "I" on the Mirage sign, and counting how many they used (241!) C/J get to the hotel first because (according to them anyway) they have an awesome cabbie :-) D/C are the only one not to get their first guess right, but still take the lead from C/J. Rachel's worked there before, but after the Brenchels take forever to get there thanks to their slow cabbie, they then go in through the wrong entrance :-O And we linger on Rachel talking about wanting to have a baby as they come down from doing the task :-\
5. Another cab ride (one of the teams gets on a cab that has a David Copperfield ad on it :-)) to Maverick Helicopters for a Roadblock: Who wants to be a UFO? But first, spot a sign on the strip telling the contestant where the finish line is. During the cab ride, D/C's cabbie overtakes C/J's, and that right there will be important... After the contestant finds the sign, they then get to wear a suit with lights on it, and skydive to the finish line, with a sparkly firework trail to boot :-)
6. Finish line is at Las Vegas Speedway, and your winner is Dave/Connor, who other than being the first parent/child team to win the $1m, also have the oldest winning contestant. We get plenty of sentimentality about how Connor beat cancer two years ago :-) C/J can consider their 2nd much better than anyone would have expected, and while the Brenchels are probably disappointed in their 3rd place finish, apparently it will only delay their baby slightly :-\ We close on D/C bragging about their great comeback (their words :-)) after the way they went out the first time... Pretty feel-good stuff :-)
