... WILL BE ELIMINATED: Thoughts about the penultimate episode of The Amazing Race 17 after the fold.
Where was my Guido Edit? That's all I wanted. Nick & Vicki did not deserve the ennobling "yeah, it was pointless, but damnit they finished the whole leg, including the Speed Bump" option; they should have gotten "Welcome to the DMZ. It's over." [Well, it's unclear if they did any of the tasks back in Seoul, but based on the available sunlight the Race was over before they even entered the DMZ.]
Given the utter lack of tension in the outcome, there's not much to say about the leg. I'm not much of a fan of "physical" tasks like the rafting which are really "strap yourself in while someone else does the hard work," but the navigation tasks, Korean-needle-in-and-army-haystack and the short-track speed skating challenges were generally well constructed. Onto the finale.
Had the teams been a little more closely spaced, effort on the rafting task might have made a difference in team order, but it's a shame that a generally well-constructed leg was wasted on something where we knew the outcome in terms of Philimination not 10 minutes into the leg. Two other questions:
ReplyDelete1. Could they have been more anvilicious on "Team Home Shopping Is Going To Get A Penalty" foreshadowing? We easily had 4-5 "how could they have gotten there fast!" moments.
2. I'm confused by why all the teams chose speed skating--24 laps, vs. 3 trips back and forth with the ginseng roots? Seems like Full Bottle would have been faster.
On #2, my best answer is "because the only way you can screw up making it to the finale is by getting horribly, horribly lost," and that may have been a risk with the task.
ReplyDeleteThe other reason I came up with the standard rule that the "detour option that makes for better TV is the better choice" would have indicated speed skating.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping for a Guido exit as well, but mostly all I wanted was to know that they weren't going to be in the finale. Once that was clear, I could sit back and enjoy the episode. I'm glad that Nick talking-headed that he's going to be different now. If only we'd heard that before and he could have put it into practice...
ReplyDeleteThe feminst part of me wants one of the all-girl teams to win but the human part of me just doesn't like What's Their Names. I like the doctors and the hosts so much better that an all-girl win would be icing on the cake, not just a Proud Moment for Feminism.
I do wonder if somehow the clue writing this year was lopsided since there were quite a few times where all or most of the teams went for one task over the other and there didn't seem to be a clear reason. Of course I suppose it's just as possible that the teams this year had preferences for certain tasks.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you didn't know he went to Notre Dame? Because he went to Notre Dame.
ReplyDeleteAlso the risk of breaking the bottle and having to start over. But yeah, it sounded easier to me. And duller.
ReplyDeleteLoved the doctors' attitude the whole way through this episode, as usual. They were so happy about the skating, excited and a little nervous about being in the DMZ, etc.
Yes, I didn't mind the lack of suspense, as long as it meant that Nick was most definitely out of it. I think Vicki was tremendouly restrained in not saying that the nine-hour delay was almost entirely due to Nick quitting on her in the previous task.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has a little sympathy for Nick, saying he guesses that's the kind of talk Nick heard growing up. Well, ok, get him to a counselor, but don't take up TV space on a pleasant show with him screaming at his girlfriend, repenting a little (but only in the sense of saying 'it doesn't help to get angry,' not in the sense of saying he's sorry, was wrong, shouldn't have said it to her), rinse and repeat.
The rudest thing he said to Vicki this episode was "I knew you had to be good for something," about the local guy's interest in her leading to the guy helping them. Really, Nick? Cause you haven't seemed to be good for about anything in this race, other than screaming. Vicki's done all the work.
Oh, and what's a Guido edit?
ReplyDeleteClick on the link to witness. It's the "yeah, you thought you were still racing, but we're going to eliminate you at a route marker because it's over" move.
ReplyDeleteGenevieve - watch the linked video to see the original Guido edit. First season finale, a team (literally) 24 hours behind, they get a clue while dogsledding that says "Race over. You suck." (Well, it didn't literally say that, but it might as well have.)
ReplyDeleteI was really concerned when they didn't show us Nick and Vicki's departure time that they would all end up on the same plane. I knew they couldn't - Jill and Thomas left at 5:30pm or so, and the flight was 12:30 am, so the 6 hour penalty along should have been enough to keep them off the flight. But I was going to be royally pissed if Nick and Vicki had ended up on the same flight, because it would have meant that the producers basically engineered the departure time from the pit stop for the sole purpose of allowing them to make the flight.
ReplyDeleteNormally, I hate suspenseless episodes, but I was so happy to see Nick suffer the consequences of his awfulness that I didn't care. Had he just finished the damned task, they'd have made the flight easily.
What took Nat and Kat so long to get to the speed skating?
Liked the army headband task a lot, mostly because I was left wondering if every single one of those soldiers had a different way of breaking the board, or if everyone knew that the first to break a board did this way #1, second did way #2, etc.
Still rooting for Nat and Kat, though Team QVC has grown on me. Pretty much anyone but Thomas at this point.
Well, they only needed as many board-breakers as there were headbands for the Racers to choose from -- the other ~190 soldiers didn't need board-breaking skills at all.
ReplyDeleteThe in situ philimination!
ReplyDeleteAll the more reason to find him loathesome.
ReplyDeleteI couldnt' tell how many headbands there were - quite a bit more than 4, I thought. Regardless, it's a point well taken.
ReplyDeleteKNat and QVC both seem to have a preference for the taks that will be more fun or let them do things that are unique and cool, and that was clearly speed skating this time. Plus, as QVC noted in my favorite line from them so far, "We suck at delivering stuff!"
ReplyDeleteThis is a total threadjack, but time is running out and I wanted to make sure all the Star Wars-loving ALOTT5MA-ers got a chance to own one of these. (Not sure why I decided TAR fans = Star Wars fans, but there you go). I don't know this guy from Adam, but someone sent me the link and I got very excited. Check it out. He's taking orders til midnight EST.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.brandonpeat.com/portfolio/projects/ackbar.html#donation
And - go Nat and Kat! And Team Watermelon!
TAR 4 featured a similar ending for the third placers, who (IIRC) fell behind due to an airport fail in Australia, leading them to miss a flight to Hawaii and still be in Hawaii when the top two teams finished the race in Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteThanks, all. Yes, I would've liked to have seen Nick get this note!
ReplyDeleteI was trying to figure out if those soldiers at the base were being punished or if they volunteered.
ReplyDelete