Dating. Live in the Valley. Met in a bar.

Lorena looks sweet, but I'm getting a bad vibe off Jason, for some reason. Maybe it's describing himself as "volatile."

His bio is just a little too pretentiously Californian, if you ask me. Why can't someone just admit to being unemployed? Argh.

Here is Jason's imdb page.

Omigod, he was Young Jed Bartlett! How can I ever root against him?

Heavens. He was also that guy who was fighting Rory Gilmore over that study tree during her freshman year at Yale.

I remember that Gilmore Girls episode, one of the last I saw of that show before I gave up on it forever.

Now everytime Jason starts bickering with Lorena (or anyone, really), I'll always flashback to that episode.

Unfortunately, I can see this team going far, perhaps to final three.
The aforementioned GG flashback may make the bickering a little easier to watch (or not)....but even then, only for so many episodes.

ETA I didn't see Young Jed Bartlett on TWW, so that reference doesn't do anything for me

Oh dear Lord, please not Jonathan and Victoria volatile. Please no...no....

Physically, I actually think Jason looks slightly like Mark Wahlberg, for some reason. If Marky Mark ever needs someone to fill in and do stuff he doesn't like, he might want to look Jason up.

But Jason has lost me at "volatile." Reminds me of Colin and him saying he was "intense." At least Colin was entertaining as hell, and Colin/Christie were an awesome team. Lets see if Jason/Lorena will even managed that.

Automatic hate. Dude has a TV career. This is supposed to be for ordinary people, and I can deal with most mactors because they've not done anything real - but he has. Recently.

Funny you should say that... Have you seen The Comebacks? He spoofs Wahlberg's character from Invincible... :)

So, after seasons full of "model/actor" and "model/actress" who are really bartenders and waiters, The Amazing Race is casting working actors.
Not enough regular people out there wanting a spot on TAR I guess.
Is this show on the verge of "jumping the shark"?

Ha! I didn't realise that was him! I haven't seen the movie, but I saw that moment in the previews. I feel a little happy, knowing that someone else (casting director, I assume) came to the same conclusion that I did.

Here is Lorena's IMDB page. Any mentions I've seen regarding her TAR participation have referred to her as Lorena Segura, but it looks like she's using Lorena York for her acting work.

When I saw him I immediately thought he looked like Mark Wahlberg and I was coming here to post it. Now, has Lorena ever done any stand-in work for Courtney Cox? That's who she looks like to me.

I'm thinking the 'cultural differences' mentioned in their write-up is that he does allot of pot and she doesn't. I'm mostly basing that on the hat he chose to wear in their photo.

They certainly seem like they could have the standard bickering relationship that couples 'testing' their relationship always have, but I'm actually hoping for a Zack/Flo vibe. I know most people hated FLo, but I've never gotten the same level of entertainment off any other contestants on this show.

Mmm, see I dunno about this. This is a win-win situation for both of them. They win some money no matter how badly they do, and they get more exposure for their careers. Granted none of them are breakouts, but I have to agree somewhat with this point:

Based on their interview footage and clip in the new CBS preview, it looks like we'll be lucky get any level of entertainment out of them. I thought Rob & Kim were uncharismatic but these guys seem to be in a whole new league.

Then again, Colin & Christie were boring for the first 3 episodes until they started tangling with Mirna, so if the dynamics are good any team can be fun to watch.

This CBS preview on YouTube shows them getting into what appears to be a massive navigational argument. In the first episode. This doesn't bode well. Also, shades of Flo. "Listen to me-uh!" (Contains location spoilers for the first ep, if anyone wants to be surprised.)

TV Guide has an interview with Lorena and Jason.

All I remember about her is her shrieking, "WE'RE FROM LA!!!!" You and fifteen million other teams in TAR history, dear.

I can't tell her apart from four or five other women on the race. Her boyfriend I remember for skeevy facial hair.

Is it allowed to ask for a recap of who these people are?

I have no recollection of these names ever appearing on my television during the show.

What did they do of note in the first episode?

Lorena got into a long argument about how Jason doesnt know where he's going, as he always replied "I know where we're going"

Thank you! I remember that too. They were the ones who were "ahead" but the people behind had the directions?

It's good to know that all the people who have threads were in fact on the show :)

Yeah, that was about it. Which means, right now we know Lorena is loud, and Jason either doesn't listen well, or is just really dumb.

But thanks to Jennifer/Nathan, they actually looked like saints. And Jason still reminds me of Mark Wahlberg, so I want them to stick around, just for that. But how awesome would it have been if the real Mark was running the race? Hee!

Compared to Nathan & Jennifer, they're actually cool with me. They'll bug me later on, I'm sure, but I actually found Lorena's "NO, WE'RE NOT!" kind of . . . funny. So I'll be fine with them till they really melt down.

He came across as more of a control freak who just KNOWS he's right because....well he just KNOWS it. Even when the person who wrote down the directions is telling him they're going to wrong way. Note that even with that, he was still trying to drive AND map read at the same time.

He got them lost, driving the wrong way, and said she wasn't any help, because all she was doing was yelling.
Yeah, idiot, she was yelling, "we're going the wrong way!"

I hated when she said (quite correctly), "We weren't communicating." And instead of agreeing with her and saying, "Yes, we have to do that differently next time," he just snots, "Yeah, fine. You were right." You know he wasn't hearing her. It'll happen again.

Jason's mind instinctively thought, "someone acting so childishly doesn't know WTF they're talking about," and filtered her out in order to survive.

(I must have been sensitized by Flo, because Lorena raised my hackles something fierce!)

Kind of what I thought, too -- she seems to be turned to eleven a lot of the time. When someone who's more situation-appropriate in their responses gets that cranked up, their partner might be more likely to notice and give it some credence. If she freaks out like that ALL THE TIME (in the grocery store?: "Oh my GOD, will you LISTEN TO ME YOU'RE NOT LISTENING TO ME, there are NO SEEDLESS GRAPES NOOOO!"), how does he NOT get in the habit of tuning her out? (Which in turn feeds her freakout... and, hey guys? I don't know if the Amazing Race has helped you sort out your relationship yet, but you seem kinda doomed. Just saying.)

From the nose up, total Mark Wahlberg to me. Unfortunately, everything south of that reminds me of David Arquette. As a team, they're OK with me. She can dial back the whining a few notches, but other than that they seem relatively pleasant.

I'm not saying their relationship is all that healthy, and she may be kind of excitable, but she was right and he wouldn't admit it. I can't remember the exact sequence, but it seemed to me that she started out navigating, but he (must have) taken the map from her at some point because he had it in the front seat. Also, I think she escalated to the shrieking when he wouldn't listen to her telling him they were going the wrong way.

I mean, either your partner is or isn't the navigator, but don't have them be the navigator and then refuse to go the way they tell you to go.

Chill the whine and I might not cringe when they're on screen (or maybe I just need to chill some whine before she comes on).

And it seemed to me that she started off yelling about how the other teams weren't behind them, instead of saying (preferably a little more calmly, but I don't think she's capable of that) they were going the wrong way. By the time they got through with that bit, I was hoping they'd never get the right directions and end up driving to the other side of Ireland.

Thank you! That was driving me crazy! Lorena is really pretty, she looks like Ali MacGraw to me.

I really wanted to like them, but ... no. She's super-shrill, and he's seems like a total tool.

Yep. They each carry enough relationship-killing doom to poison a couple; together, they're unstoppably repellent.

It's not just shrillness with her, it's actual whining, complete with soaring heights and rending drops in pitch.

These 2 can leave my tv screen ASAP! Sheesh between her screetching and whining and his sarcasm I'm done with them.

And mine, they were raised by Jason. If you have any respect for your partner at all, "I'll always have one foot out the door" isn't something you say even in jest. [But I've never been able to keep my hackles up for long, so I'm better today.]

Yeah, that line really did bug me, as well. I can't see how a relationship will work, if you're going to approach it like that. If anything, that makes me suspect their relationship is already doomed in the long run; it's just only a matter of time.

Yes, Jason must be a commitmentphobe of a higher level than TAR4's Chuck was, or even TAR7's Ron.

And yet... Lorena stays. One thing my girlfriends and I got really quickly in our 20s was, when a guy tells you, "Oh, I'm bad boyfriend material..." that's not an invitation to take him on as a project. You say, 'ok, thanks for the heads up," and you go! Unless, I guess, you take your bad boyfriend material on the Race for unsolicited advice from countless thousands on message boards.

I guess it's that I first got a look at him on the show driving through Ireland, but I immediately saw a Colin Farrell wannabe. I was actually surprised when he didn't have the accent to go along with it.


Being right is a moot point if he's already tuned her out - I'd wager Jason was hearing her the way we hear Charlie Brown's teacher. I have five sisters who tend to go into that same shrill shrieking mode when they feel someone isn't listening to them, and my brain learned early to shut the sound out and go to a happy place until they calmed down. I've never understood the thinking that yelling louder into someone's ear due to frustration will get them to listen to your point - it doesn't work with donkeys, and it doesn't work with people.

Jason is pretty. Lorena? I can't tell her apart from the sisters or the now absent Staella. And what was with that weird Love Story pose they struck in front of the sisters when the latter reached the airport counter? Did anybody else notice that? I burst out laughing. Do they stand like that together at random moments? How sweet and...Stepford-y.

I think Lorena is quite pretty (at least when she’s not freaking out); certainly much more so than Staella. Among the large group of Latinas on this race, I think only the shorter of the two sisters and Rachel are perhaps slightly more attractive. Of course, that is purely subjective.

I do think that the Insider Videos show a very different side of this team. When not stressed out, they really do seem quite sweet. They are also both very outgoing and friendly with the other teams. I think I’m going to refrain from lumping them in with the other bickering couples for now.

Yeah, I watched the videos, and I defintely had a more favorable impression, once I finished. I especially liked their conversation with the cabbie. You could tell they were still nervous and wanted to get to their destination soon, but they really seemed to enjoy chating with the driver (and talking about pubs/Guiness, of course!) And I though Jason was nice, when he congradulated the sibling for coming in first place.

They still do things I don't like, but I'll defintely say I enjoy them, way more then Nathan/Jenifer.

It's not moot in retrospect, when he should have said, "My bad for not listening to you" as opposed to "It's YOUR fault I took a wrong turn and then didn't listen to you." It was especially ironic that he was screaming at her the whole time he was telling her that the mistake was caused by her failure to stay calm.

And while we're on the subject, if you find someone's way of communicating so intolerable that you tune out her whole channel -- even when you're on a team together in the middle of a big challenge and you have assigned her an important task that involves communication -- then that, too, is your fault. It's not like the racers were partnered up at random by the powers that be. He chose to play a game with her. Listen to her, or else don't play.

I would've been shrieking, too, if I knew I was right and my boyfriend/teammate were ignoring me that way. In fact, I might have resorted to physical violence.



No lie. What an asshole thing to say. If she doesn't dump him after that, then girlfriend is dead set on learning the hard way. Listen hard, chica. The relationship means way, way more to you than it does to him. That's never going to change.

ZOMG, exactly. Methinks someone is in dire need of a copy of "He's Just Not That Into You."
Dump him girl, and find someone who wants to marry you, not someone who has to be talked into it.

Tuning out people who are escalating the shrillness may save your sanity, but I hope you also have enough sense not to go on the Amazing Race with someone with whom you are unable to communicate. It's not just the shrieker's fault that communication doesn't occur, and he was yelling at her about how he couldn't listen because she was yelling.

If you decide to go on the Race with someone you know, you have to figure out how to work with that person. This woman has a shrieky shrill way of talking. You knew that when you signed up for this. Either put down the self-righteousness and listen to her, or expect to be out sooner rather than later.

On Top Chef, Joey was eliminated because he didn't listen to Hung when Hung told him what they needed to do in one of the elimination challenges. At Judge's Table, Joey's excuse was "I don't listen unless you slam a chopping board on my head". The judges sent him packing, and they were right. Unlike Joey and Hung, Lorena and Jason chose to do this together, and they won't succeed unless he learns to listen to her. Should she dial it down? Yeh, but the right way to get her to do that is NOT by tuning her out. It's by saying, "I have a hard time listening when you are so intense -- can you tell me what you are saying calmly?" Not listening just frustrates her and cranks her up farther and so he retreats farther.

I'm not, by the way, saying she's good. I'm responding to the notion that the shrieker in a shrieking/not-listening communication breakdown is the only one at fault.

I don't like him at all. And she hurts my ears. Hope they are third out.

I was getting Josh Brolin, but I will agree on the Arquette part. Yeesh.

They were the only team I didn't get much out of in the premiere. I haven't seen the videos yet but "I'll always have one foot out the door" isn't making a nice first impression.

I've gotta say, they were actually pretty tame tonight, except for Lorena's occasional fits of overexcited loudness. Good on them for winning the leg, if only because I didn't want Nathan & Jennifer to.