205 replies to this topic

[TWoP Roxy]

From zap2it.com:

As the game heats up in Moscow, Abba and James try to recover a lost passport; an injury could stop one team from finishing a challenge.

[sarahendipity]

Well I'm not surprised that James and Abba couldn't find/replace their passports. I still can't believe that they weren't using the amazing fanny pack (checked older episodes).
As soon as one of the twins was about to do the deep knee bend I thought 'those pants aren't going to make it' and sure enough they ripped. Funny for us, but embarrassing and not really sure why it was included.
Can't believe there was so much trouble with the time zone task, did the Beekman really do it on the first try? Was a little unclear on the editing.
Seemed to be a voice-over from Phil during the first check-ins of Beekmans and Abby&Ryan. Wonder what was really said there. Also wonder why we weren't given start times.

[mtlchickie]

Well this was a doozy. As the case of the missing passport continues, Josh misfires on the roadblock...and then helps Abby complete the roadblock. Then manages to stay in the race. then you find out this was a NEL. And Phil is asking himself "really I can't win an Emmy for waiting for these people!" It was pretty clear they had to redesign the leg last second if the detour was positioned right after the road block. (And then they still didn't have a passport so it s a moot point anyway.)

While I adored Lexi and jaymes on the roadblock, I was besides myself it took that long to figure out the time zones and they were already in Moscow. These kids failed at not knowing how time zones work! But it was enough of a simple mind fuck to make it more compelling to have Ryan seem so confident only to see him do worse.

[Jedi Nut]

Absolutely hysterical episode. I almost couldn't make it through Ryan's RB. Such an insufferable douche - but it made for outstanding TV.

[MyEyesSee]

Pencils down!

It was hilarious watching Ryan, the self-described smartest guy in the room, freak out during the time zone test. Next round x 25. Hee!

[CookieChica]

This episode cemented my desire to visit Moscow someday.

I was really hoping for a "My time zone is broken! This is bullshit!" breakdown from Ryan. I mean, I get why he was struggling - I absolutely would have done the same thing for a few rounds and other teams struggled too. His insistence that the map was wrong though was awesome. And I did love the professor cracking up at him and teasing him.

I wanted the episode title to be "Very Flexible" because that's the line that cracked me up. Loved the Beekman Boys at the cocktail party!

[SilentMinority]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such fishy, shenanigans-filled nonsense in TAR as I did this episode.

Letting a team check in without a passport, and telling them they’re good as long as they have it when they actually need it? Never seen that before.

Assessing a detour penalty in the next leg instead of making them sit out the time in the current leg? Don’t remember seeing that, either.

Then on top of that, their departure time is delayed until after Josh & Brent, even though nothing had changed. Either you’re allowed to check in without your passports, or you aren’t. If you aren’t, you’re eliminated. If you are, then why did Phil send them back out for several hours and delay their check-in? I fail to see the consistency of the rule here.

Then none of the teams were shown with a starting time the next leg. Clearly "rules" were fudged here.

I call serious shenanigans. I think the Rockers losing their passport in a NEL completely screwed up the planning, and they had to make up new rules on the fly to keep the production on schedule.

Not that it mattered in the end, but I’m disappointed at the ad hoc way it seems that TAR treated this situation. I think it creates a bad precedent.

I love the camaraderie amongst many of the racers, except for RAAAACE! Still, it’s hard to dislike most of these teams when they seem like genuinely nice people. Twinnies excepted.

Ah, Ryan, how the pride goeth before the fall. The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I would have loved that challenge since I’m a fan of astronomy, geography, and concepts such at GMT, but it can be confusing if you’ve never encountered that kind of thing before. Yet Lexi figured it out a whole lot faster than Ryan. And then Brent nailed it. Who’s the smart one now, chowderhead?

Contrast to Abbie, who actually owned the task that she felt comfortable with. I’m getting ready to press my “Free Abbie” T-shirts.

[enlightenedbum]

The editors sense of comic timing finally returned in that montage of Ryan failing at the roadblock. That was a pretty great sequence.

No real stakes here, but I found it kind of enjoyable anyway. It was well put together, my favorite team left won, my favorite person outside of that team (Abbie, who I genuinely like) was generally awesome, because of the huge spread there wasn't obnoxious interteam drama, and I was generally entertained. Possibly because there was very little twins. Especially around other people.

EDIT: I was wondering, did they change Greenwich Mean Time as the standard term out of political correctness or something? Was curious what that acronym stood for.

Edited by enlightenedbum, Nov 18, 2012 @ 9:57 PM.

[Anacharsis]

The Russian professor was one of my favorite judges ever. The way he called out to put the pencil down coupled with the way he calmed down Ryan was awesome.

I hope James and Jaymes keep on their streak of doing well because I'd like them to win the whole thing.

[TheRabbi]

Other than the bullshit that was going on with Team Long Hair, this was my favorite episode in a while!!

To start with though, the bull with the rockers. Besides TPTB covering up departure times, which seemed shady enough, we had James and Abba arriving in last place on the NEL? If they were going to allow them to run the next leg without their passports, shouldn't they have been granted 4th place, where they originally arrived? That just screamed of production interference and rule-bending. I realize that this had to be a production nightmare, but they really should have just booted the rockers last week, and added an NEL tonight, which would have left a much better taste in my mouth.

That said, the rest of this episode was great! The judge of the roadblock was absolutely hilarious. Loved the editing as Ryan was failing at the RB before the commercial, with that sly little smirk when he knew what Ryan was messing up. Also loved that we got to see a lot of little moments in cabs and such. Wacky cab drivers have always been one of my favorite parts of the show, and this episode had no shortage of them. Also a great detour, even though the Chip with the bum ankle clearly did not perform the dance correctly but still got the clue.

Still rooting for the Chippendales at this point. They are really just fun, good guys having a great time and its contagious. Will be interesting to see if they all get bunched at the airport next week or if they can keep a lead over the trailing teams.

[ReadIshmael]

Sorry to James and Abba go, but the writing was on the wall as soon as the cab drove away, and the time spent on them this week was really kind of a waste. It wasn't even a decent goodbye to them. They just kept giving updates that weren't updates. I am glad they ran the leg, though, even if we didn't see it.

The Beekman Boys ran a good leg this week, and were calm and good-natured, so I can hardly begrudge them staying in over the rockers.

Oh, man, was it satisfying watching arrogant, humorless Ryan fail over and over again at the Roadblock. What a dick.

I adore James and Jaymes so much. I felt so bad for James during the Detour; I had no idea he'd even been running hurt this whole time. He's a trooper, and they're both sweet and so fun.

Edited by ReadIshmael, Nov 18, 2012 @ 9:57 PM.

[Charlie Baker]

OK, the TBCs and the NELs are contrivances, and the teams are dumbed down. (As the former Miss Alli tweeted, they can't figure out time zones?)

But this was flat out a wonderfully entertaining episode--people injured, people ripping pants, people falling down, people penalized, people without passports, nightmare taxi rides, fun tasks, peppy music, unforgettable locals (PENCILS DOWWNNN!).

This has become the best season in quite some time.

Edited by Charlie Baker, Nov 18, 2012 @ 9:58 PM.

[gymtastic]

My time zone is broken! This is bullshit!

I'm still trying to figure out why the Beekmans' penalty was assessed on the next leg when there was still a team on the course. What if james and Abba had come back with the passports? Why should they be the last team and have to do the speed bump when it could have been the Beekmans if the penalty was assessed on the leg in which it occurred? Of course, it's all moot,but that seemed wonky to me. As did the fact that Phil couldn't check them in with no passport, but when they came back, still with no passport, he checked them in. Why not just check them in the first time then?

ETA haha, Cookie, you posted while I was typing! Bullshit time zone!

Edited by gymtastic, Nov 18, 2012 @ 9:59 PM.

[TiredMe]

Well there was zero suspense with this episode. I was disappointed throughout because I wanted James and Abba to survive.

I cannot believe that James Sq would choose dancing with one having a sprained ankle. It was had but clearly do-able but he just made his ankle worse. I hope its ok.

That instructor was having the best time but I am going to be hearing "Pencils Down"! in my sleep for a while.

Edited by TiredMe, Nov 18, 2012 @ 10:02 PM.

[Colodie]

I though the dance judge was very forgiving. Not that I'm complaining, as I don't think the James and Jaymes could have done it perfectly.

Speaking of..., well, not really that, but interesting move in the beginning to help Trey and Lexi get a taxi. Makes some sense, as they knew that had to be way ahead (since the last three teams had to be way behind) so nothing much to lose. But what they heck were they doing waiting for them on the last sprint to the road block? Again, the main goal is to finish first at the last leg, but there's no reason not to rack up as many individual leg wins as you can.

And yes, +4 means that Moscow is UTC +4. Not..., it's own time +4.

And I'm wondering how easy the 'guess the Russian leaders' event was, if they just went through that easily, or if it was edited a bit.

[qeratify]

The departure times/passport were definitely some production shenanigans. I still don't understand what James/Abba did the day before, as soon as they saw the passports were stolen. Why didn't they call the police/embassy then? Can't you get reissued an emergency passport fairly quickly (immediately?) if you lost your passport while in a foreign country? Why were they considered the last team to arrive?

[Kitty15]

I agree that there must have been a lot of last minute editing-shuffling going on.

It was a great episode, so little twins, so much Chippies!

At what point does the film crew whatch the tapes to get a license number and some sort of ID off the car/driver to find him?

Edited by Kitty15, Nov 18, 2012 @ 10:03 PM.

[Stella MD]

Haven't laughed this hard since Colin's ox was broken. To be such an idiot about time zones is bad enough, but to be so arrogant that you actually think the MAP is wrong - hahaha!

[MrsJeter]

Oh my sweet, adorable Chipmunks. I admire that they want to be nice to people but they have got to stop wasting the precious brain cells they have helping other teams. Waiting to make sure the team directly behind you has an opportunity to catch up or overtake you is not smart gameplanning. I'm going to give them a pass today for helping Trey/Lexie because Lexie helped Jaymes in the task. And next week it looks like they're getting ready to be serious about winning this race.

I cackled when the professor smirked at Ryan's douchiness during the RB. Ripping up the paper before handing it in. He's just a douche. The previews made me laugh since Abbie/Ryan are screwed yet again.

Sorry for Abba/James but that was inevitable.

I really wish there was some indication of the time gap between the teams. I think the last three groups have got to be at least 6 hrs behind.

ETA:

To be such an idiot about time zones is bad enough, but to be so arrogant that you actually think the MAP is wrong - hahaha!

Good Lord when he was talking about the file being wrong. Couldn't happen to a better ass.

Edited by MrsJeter, Nov 18, 2012 @ 10:05 PM.

[Lantern7]

I think this might be the episode that gets submitted to the Emmy people. While watching James & Abba continue to twitch on the noose was really sad, the other five teams more than made up for the rockers' elimination.

The proctor . . . we have to get this guy for TARCon. Isn't this what Kickstarter is for? Find the guy, pay for his flight and lodging, and have him shout "PENCILS DOOOOOWWN!!!" every ten minutes. And as Ryan flailed away in Racer Hell, the man couldn't keep a straight face. Worse, Ryan was on the cusp of the realization that Lexi and James (Jaymes?) reached . . . but he was too damn thick to get it. No, there was "a glitch in the Matrix." And if the Beekmans overtake them next week, it'll be because Ryan kept burning the four-hour cushion they had. Seriously, the proctor has to be in the top ten of non-playing people in the show's history, next to the guy who told off Tara & Wil and the Broken Ox.

Meanwhile, the Chippendales and Trey & Lexi make nice on their way to the top two positions. Not bad for a foursome that was wasting away in the bottom half of the pack. The Twinees saved time with the Express Pass, and probably made up a little ground in the process. Funny bit with the pants and the one twin's butt, though. I still think they're pleasant. I'm thinking that I'll have to make sure my money is firmly in the wallet at all times. Y'know, common sense . . . and so maybe they wouldn't pick up anything I drop.

Brent deserves a small reward for nailing the Roadblock quicker than the others. They're Dead Team Walking, and it would take an epic meltdown for them to make the final four (Abby/Ryan flight difficulty + Chippendales U-Turning them??), but at least they have the small supply of happiness that the "Superfans" exhausted too early. And kudos for taking the other Detour option. Listening to them recite the Russian leaders, I had to sing out, "And a socialist partridge in a pear tree!!"

If it makes the Rockers feel better, the odds of them making an all-star season are pretty good. They were civil, they were appreciative of their surroundings and the experience, and they never turned on each other. They just made the worst mistake you could pull on this show. I hope they make the Final Mat love-in at the end of the line.

ETA: Russian "coffee grinder" = Russians invented breakdancing??

Edited by Lantern7, Nov 18, 2012 @ 10:07 PM.

[JodithGrace]

Usually when a leg ends, the teams go on to a different country. Therefore any team without a passport is immediately eliminated. However, since the next leg continued in Russia, there was no reason not to let James and Abba attempt to recover their passport. I didn't see a problem with that. But once all of the other teams checked in, there was no more time, so they were eliminated. I was wondering what their speed bump was that involved a Priest.

So we finally found something that the Beekman boys are fabulous at. I think they were the only ones who got the time zone "trick" on the first attempt. And they killed the famous Russian task as well.

25 attempts! Ha..Ryan. And I liked the fact that Abby caught on before he did, but assumed she must be dumb.

Jim and Gym continue to impress. doing that dance with a sprained ankle must have been excruciating. However, I think they could have switched to the other task without too much problem, since they were very far ahead of several other teams.

[enlightenedbum]

I realize that this had to be a production nightmare, but they really should have just booted the rockers last week, and added an NEL tonight, which would have left a much better taste in my mouth.

Haven't they basically stopped doing NEL when they're not staying in the same country/city for the next leg?

I suspect the previous leg was in fact a NEL all along, but they had no idea how to handle the passport issue with a NEL and made it up sometime between James and Abba arriving the first time and when they let them officially check in.

[stekpgh]

And I'm wondering how easy the 'guess the Russian leaders' event was, if they just went through that easily, or if it was edited a bit.

If either of them is as big a Russian history buff as I am, I would guess they took longer than they should because they knew they could. I would have been in and out of there in 2 or 3 minutes if there were no restrictions as to how long you had to spend with each dead Russian celebrity.

[MusicaDolce]

and the teams are dumbed down. (As the former Miss Alli tweeted, they can't figure out time zones?)

My first reaction was much the same, as the trick to solving the task seemed fairly obvious. However, I'm willing to give the teams the benefit of the doubt - in a race, I could easily see myself getting flustered and making the same mistake with the time zones. Especially if you're rushing, and you just see "+4" or "+6" on a map, your gut reaction might be just to add 4 or 6. Granted, maybe it shouldn't have taken Ryan 25 freaking tries to figure it out, but I'm willing to forgive all the teams for being stumped by this for at least a little while.

I cannot believe that James Sq would choice dancing with one having a sprained ankle. It was had but clealy do-able but he just made his ankle wose. I hope its ok.

Totally agree. Seriously, I love James and Jaymes, but what a stupid choice! It made sense for them to choose the pool choreography challenge, where the ankle wouldn't necessarily be a hindrance, but definitely not the dancing on solid ground.

Edited by MusicaDolce, Nov 18, 2012 @ 10:17 PM.

[Arekuru]

I'm still trying to figure out why the Beekmans' penalty was assessed on the next leg when there was still a team on the course.

I would assume it was because Phil really needed to go out and start recording the next leg, and didn't have time to stand around for four more hours when he should have been done that afternoon.

As for the starting times being obscured, if we'd seen them, there'd have been absolutely no suspense at all. Not that there really was anyway, but these are the same editors who try and make us believe that every race to the pitstop is a close one. Of course they didn't show the times.

Agree there was some rule-bending on the NEL/no passport, but that was probably because they already had the speed bump set up for Russia, and don't have one ready/no time to make one in the next country. The suspense was already blown anyway, so rather than completely messing up their schedule, since they were staying in Moscow anyway better to bend the rule and let them stay in one more leg and then start the next leg more or less back on track.

I wonder if anything was cut that we didn't see? There weren't any stops for culture or "go here to get your next clue" places. Perhaps there was one or two, and they were edited for time? That's a shame if so; I always like those. Also would have liked to have seen what James and Abba were doing with that priest, and if they'd picked the Shakers I'd have liked to seen that group again. Well, maybe they'll be in the extra videos.

[hjohnson]

I was wondering, did they change Greenwich Mean Time as the standard term out of political correctness or something? Was curious what that acronym stood for.

I'm not sure why they changed it (from what I can gather from a skimming of wikipedia, there is some fraction of a difference in the science between the measuring of it all) but I've sen UTC for awhile now and that's what we learned two years ago in my Travel and Tourism program when learning about time zones. UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time.

My mind was blown by how long it took three teams to figure out that challenge. I can only assume it's the fatigue. I am curious as to how much time had passed since the front teams didn't seem to know what happened to the Rockers (I have no concept of any teams names) as if they never crossed paths with them at the pit stop.

[culturevulture73]

The Professor of time zones was hilarious - I realized that "pencils down" reminded me of the ancient Wendy's commercial - "swimvear!" He needs to be on every race - he and Phil's eyebrow were dynamite.

As someone noted upthread, very little Twinnes, and a whole lot of Chippendales made things much better. And Ryan failing over and over while the Beekman breezed through was perfect.

Great tasks, great ep.

[torreador]

I still don't understand what James/Abba did the day before, as soon as they saw the passports were stolen. Why didn't they call the police/embassy then? Can't you get reissued an emergency passport fairly quickly (immediately?) if you lost your passport while in a foreign country?

Maybe because they lost the passport during the race, they could only try to retrieve/replace it during race time?

And continue to love the Chippies, although they are soon going to have to stop being so darned nice so they can win!!!

And I also don't know why they did the dancing unless they figured that even with a bum ankle they would be beter at that than a task that required more brain power. (I love them, but they are not the sharpest tools in the shed sometimes.)

[SilentMinority]

And if the Beekmans overtake them next week, it'll be because Ryan kept burning the four-hour cushion they had.

Actually since they're flying out next leg (= airport bunch), I'm sure it will be completely irrelevant.

Haven't they basically stopped doing NEL when they're not staying in the same country/city for the next leg?

No, the earlier NEL this season was immediately before leaving Bangladesh. (And yes, I argued that it should have been switched with the FF from the previous leg, but obviously TPTB aren't accepting my input yet).

[stekpgh]

Totally agree. Seriously, I love James and Jaymes, but what a stupid choice! It made sense for them to choose the pool choreography challenge, where the ankle wouldn't necessarily be a hindrance, but definitely not the dancing on solid ground.

I love the Chips to death and am already praying to various deities for them to win, but I don't think they would have sailed through the dead Russians cocktail party quite as quickly as the Beekmans. They're sweet, fun, determined, strong and pretty - but I'll bet Russian history is not their strong point and I think they probably knew that or there would have been a bald snark tonight.