TAR - All Stars Episode 9

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 9 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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The last TARAS episode we saw here in Australia ended with Joe & Bill being the last team to reach the Pit Stop and the fifth team to be eliminated from the All Stars edition of the show. The Pit Stop was located inside the grounds of Pieskowa Skala Castle in Krakow, Poland.

The first of two Yields on the Race was located on the elevated walkway near the Kampung Baru Mosque.

The Detour for this leg was a choice between ‘Artistic Expression’ or ‘Cookie Confection’. In ‘Artistic Expression’, teams had to travel one third of a mile on foot to Dewan Lama. Once there, they had to use an ancient technique known as batik to exactly duplicate one of three patterns onto and then dye a 45 square-foot piece of cloth. In ‘Cookie Confection’, teams made their way on foot half a mile to Chow Kit Bomba and had to search through 600 boxes of traditional Malaysian festive cookies, by biting into them, and find the one cookie that had a black liquorice centre.

The Roadblock on this leg was a nod to Malaysia's eco-friendly practice of recycling. Team members had to choose a bicycle with a side cart attached and then scour the nearby Taman Sri Hartamas neighbourhood for residents willing to give them their used newspapers. Once they had collected enough newspapers to make a stack eight hands high, they would receive their next clue.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the Race:

1. Oswald & Danny / Uchenna & Joyce
2. N/A
3. Dustin & Kandice
4. Charla & Mirna
5. Eric & Danielle
6. Joe & Bill


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').



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1. Dustin & Kandice


Last week: 3
This week: Up two places

They made it to the top of the pack by exploiting the mistakes of others and not making any notable mistakes themselves, so good on them. The main issue that I suspect will come back to haunt them was the yielding of Eric and Danielle. I can only imagine that they felt they were fairly close behind and were a threat, but it only served to make them an enemy.

In the task where one of them had to collect old newspapers on a bike, it was funny to hear a local tell her that she shouldn’t have any difficulty getting free newspapers with the way she looked. Inappropriate and a little sleazy perhaps, but funny.

The girls also taught me that Phil must have a serious B.O problem cause as they arrived at the final destination, one of them said, “I smell Phil.”

2. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 4
This week: Up two places

Once again these two cracked me up. I should state that the ad for this episode made it look like C&M did something really underhanded that may or may not have backfired on them. In retrospect I can only imagine the ad was talking about D&K yielding E&D while confusingly showing footage of C&M cause I don’t think they did anything particularly bad. I suppose it could have been a reference to the fact that they didn’t let E&D share the two computers they were using early on to check flights, but later Mirna admitted to camera that it was fair play for Eric to later deny her asking a quick question of an airport person that he and Danielle were talking too.

C&M were in the lead for the first detour, which involved sorting through hundreds of boxes of small cookies for a single liquorish centered one. After spending quite a while on that, they chose to switch tasks and go to the one that involved replicating a local craft printing project (Batik). This switch cost them a bit of time.

During and after the roadblock task which Mirna thankfully did, Mirna in particular got a bit carried away with her own semi-celebrity status and began referring to local youngsters as the future Charla’s and Mirna’s of the world (heaven help us!). Even going so far as spouting off generic advice such as staying in school and staying away from drugs! It was all done tongue in cheek and was pretty amusing.

3. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 5
This week: Up two places

The most notable thing that this pair did was get yielded and hearing Eric refer to D&K as dirty, pirate, hookers was priceless. I guess they didn’t understand why they’d been yielded either.

Danielle was complaining that while she ended up doing all the tasks which were intended for guys (ie. strength related), such as the newspaper collecting one, Eric always ended up doing the effeminate girly tasks. I should also point out that it was Danielle who found the liquorish cookie (the only team to complete this one, although it wasn’t shown what Uchenna and Joyce did), so she basically carried the team this week. Which was certainly a first.


4. Oswald & Danny


Last week: 1
This week: Down three places

Talk about a reversal of fortune! O&D must be really feeling the pressure cause they made a number of mistakes. Their initial plane flights started them at the front of the pack, but they both wanted to do different tasks on the detour and ended up going back and forth numerous times before finally settling on the Batik craft task. They buggered this up by miscounting the number of symbols they were supposed to print and basically had to start all over again.

Danny was in a really bad mood this entire episode and was put in a worse one having to do the newspaper collecting task as Oswald had some issue with bikes. Quite frankly Danny just seemed really childish throughout this leg.

I hope they can find their stride again for next week, cause they have been going so well up until now.

5. Uchenna & Joyce: ELIMINATED!


Last week: 1
This week: Down four places

I was afraid that this leg was going to be another episode of “The Amazing Airline Ticket Race,” but as it turned out it only E&J suffered an airport fiasco. They made the mistake of having a flight plan with very tight connection times and paid the price. Sometimes a risk will pay off with this type of thing, but other times it bites you in the arse. Personally I think that this was the wrong place for such a risk. It was very early on that this stuff up was revealed and so you would have had to be a fool, to not be able to tell who would be going.

Basically we didn’t see E&J for the rest of the episode until they turned up at night to be booted out by Phil. At least they had won the other series that they were in, so they already had $1 million….minus tax.
.

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If you haven’t already done so, check out the review of this same episode that BEVIS posted on his blog.

TAR - All Stars Episode 8

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 8 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').



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1/2. Oswald & Danny


Last week: 2
This week: ???

I don’t even know who came first or second out of the top two teams due to a stupid task called an ‘Intersection’. This meant that teams had to pair up with one other team and O&D joined U&J. Starting ahead of the other teams (except for D&K) gave these two teams the chance to do the fast forward task of counting steps in a couple of towers. Upon completing the fast forward, they were then able to reach Phil at the finish within about 10-15 minutes from the start of the episode, which is why I think that this combination of tasks was really stupid from the viewer point of view. The reason I don’t know who was first or second was that when they reached the finish with E&J, they all jumped on the mat together and Phil just announced both teams as number one.

Earlier in the episode at Auschwitz concentration camp, it was touching to note how moved they were by merely being at that monument to the atrocities of mankind. The more emotional one started crying again as he talked about how fortunate they are to have the freedoms that they have today. Admittedly just about every other team was emotionally effected by the place.

As a side note on the Auschwitz thing, I found it interesting to note that most of the teams with the exception of Eric and Danielle and Dustin and Kandice (unless they’re Jewish and I don’t know) would have likely been placed in a concentration camp for their differences if they’d live in the area during Nazi times. Thank goodness with live in more progressive times.

It should be noted that although both teams finished together, there was only one prize and they had to choose who got it! O&D very generously allowed U&J to have the prize with no arguing at all.

1/2. Uchenna & Joyce


Last week: 3
This week: ???

As mentioned above they finished together with O&D and most of what I said about them can be applied to these two.

I’ll just use this opportunity to reiterate how stupid I thought it was to use an intersection and a fast forward at this point. If the producers decided to get rid of fast forwards and non elimination rounds, I at least would be happy. Such things exist for no other reason that to allow the producers to manipulate the game if you ask me.


3. Dustin & Kandice


Last week: 1
This week: Down two places

I’m not the biggest fan of these two, but even so I was pretty pissed to see that in the first 10 minutes of the show they had gone from having a huge lead at the end of the last episode to dropping back to third place! Then the intersection meant that they had to wait around for hours and hours for the back of the pack to catch up! MESSAGE TO PRODUCERS: If people are crap enough to end up being way behind then leave them there to be eliminated! Stop giving these losers chance after chance to catch up! (END RANT).

The team that D&K least wanted to join up with (C&M) just happened to be the next team to arrive, so after deciding whether they should hide instead, they joined up with them rather than wait longer.

When given the choice of a task where they had to make and deliver some pastries, or make some sausages and then eat a thick 24 inch sausage, the three skinny blondes and the little person decided to do the sausage task. I don’t think Charla was too happy about this.

After the mammoth sausage eat, when one of the beauty queens had finished, she promptly threw up (not on purpose though) and Eric who was there by then made the funny comment, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Florida.”

Even though I think the other two teams finished the same task a little before them D&K managed to find the cars first and get a taxi driver to lead them to the next task. Basically one of them had to put on a suit of knight armour and lead a horse up a path. From there they only had to walk up to Phil who was standing with some crack-ho………or perhaps it was in Krakow, I can’t remember.


4. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 4
This week: No Change


Where do I begin?? This episode should have been called, Poor Charla, cause she had such a crappy day and that just describes her time with Mirna. At the sausage eating task I believe that she was the last to finish and much to my amusement had to throw up a couple of times which really disturbed the opposing teams. C&M could also put a lot of professional burpers to shame.

In their attempts to drive to the next task Mirna had to enlist the help of a task driver to take the hand brake off in the car and then got into a massive fight about which driver would direct them and how much to pay. When her yelling yet constantly referring the to the taxi driver as ‘friend’ failed, she broke down into tears. Begging and possibly cause he was on camera convinced one on the drivers to accept a lower price than he wanted. Throughout the rest of the journey to the castle Mirna did nothing but complain and made verbal attacks about how useless her cousin Charla was and how she did nothing. Charla was soooo over it all that she just agreed with Mirna, clearly having no energy left to argue.

At the knights armour task Charla volunteered to do it and I’m sure that this had nothing to do with Mirna’s hassling of her in the car! Seeing her in armour reminded me of one of the dwarves from Lord of the Rings and she did well to direct the horse to the destination in spite of the fact that she was clearly scared of it (understandable with her height) and fell flat on her face twice.

Even though these two are clearly insane, I’m glad they’re still in the race.


5. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 5
This week: No change

If it wasn’t for non-elimination rounds these two knuckleheads would be gone this week. As it was Joe and Bill had to stand aside for 30 minutes and that’s why they are still in the race.

The biggest thing that happened with E&D was the big fight that they had over their communication. Danielle stormed off after Eric refused to allow her to buy a $2 cup of coffee. Eric is purely competitive and Danielle seems to treat the whole race like it’s a big holiday and just an experience. I don’t side with either of them and would probably be more interested in this team if Eric had kept his old partner Jeremy.

They got stuck with Joe and Bill in the sausage eating task and the only one who really didn’t want to do it was Danielle. I would’ve thought that she had eaten plenty of sausage in her time and 24 inches wouldn’t be a problem, but apparently not (oh you know I had to include some innuendo!!).

I don’t really remember much of what happened to them after that task, only that they finished after Joe and Bill, but were saved cause of their 30 minute wait.

6. Joe & Bill - ELIMINATED!


Last week: 6
This week: No change

Finally they are gone. They started off by claiming that they were going to use brains to beat Eric and Danielle. This was followed by footage of them walking straight passed a box with the bus pass that they needed in it, three times! Funny stuff.

Naturally they were eager to do the sausage eating task and I think they were the first to finish……no comment.

At the knights armour task, upon seeing Charla in armour, I believe it was Bill who commented that she looked like, “A dressed up rat”! I have no idea what he meant by this, but it seemed rude and nasty. Which nicely summed up how the two of them came across in the race.

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Tips note:

Upon looking at the tips I put for this episode last week (although it was only posted the other day!), I realise that I did not amend it with my actual tips when I hastily posted it. This occurred because I was so far behind and had been trying to write three reviews at the same time which made things confusing. For one thing I had meant to specify that I figured J&B would go in this episode as noted in my comments for last week.

As a result of this and the fact that I haven’t gained much enjoyment from tipping, even when I have on occasion been right, I’m discontinuing my tips entirely.

Sorry to anyone who actually cares what my tips have been so far, but the tipping omission should allow me to get my reviews online a bit quicker as well, believe it or not.

If you haven’t already done so, check out the review of this same episode that BEVIS posted on his blog.


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TAR - All Stars Episode 7

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 7 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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The last TARAS episode we saw here in Australia ended with Teri & Ian being the last team to reach the Pit Stop and the fifth team to be eliminated from the All Stars edition of the show. The Pit Stop was located inside the grounds to the ‘Old Fort’ (Ngome Konwe) in Zanzibar Town, Tanzania.

The Detour was ‘Perfect Pitch’ or ‘Perfect Angle’. In ‘Perfect Pitch’, teams had to make their way three-quarters of a mile to the Prymas Palace and choose a grand piano. Then, they needed to use the provided tools to tune one of the keys. Once the concert pianist played a piece of Chopin's music and determined that their piano was in tune, he would hand them their next clue. In ‘Perfect Angle’, teams made their way approximately half a mile to the Escada Boutique to pick up a mannequin and carry it another 400 yards to the Panoramik Laboratory. Once there, teams had to use an x-ray machine to locate a clue embedded somewhere inside their mannequin which needed to be positioned at a very specific angle for the image to capture the name of their next destination and commemorate Marie Curie.

The unaired ‘Roadblock’ required teams to row a boat out onto the reflecting pool in front of the palace. The objective is unknown.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the Race:

1. Charla & Mirna
2. Oswald & Danny
3. Uchenna & Joyce
4. Dustin & Kandice
5. Eric & Danielle
6. Joe & Bill
7. Teri & Ian


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').


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1. Dustin & Kandice


Last week: 4
This week: Up three places

These two did really well this week. As I said to Bevis after the show as we lay next to each other in bed, “Who would’ve thunk that the bobsy twins would’ve been the lucky ones to catch the earliest flight.” *
This business of flights brings me to the first order of business….which is of flights. The first trip the teams had to make was from Mozambique to Warsaw, and because the producers of the show knew that such flights were difficult to get, each team was given ‘default tickets’, but had the option of trying to get earlier flights. Naturally all the teams were desperate to find an earlier flight and a good part of this episode was spent watching the teams sitting around in travel agencies trying to book tickets. Not very interesting to watch and totally a pot luck situation as to who could get a decent flight. D & K were the luckiest team and managed to get the earliest flights to Warsaw.
Lucky booking wasn’t the only skill that helped them, as one had been studying pianology (the art of playing the piano – also a word I just made up) which was very useful in the task where they had to tune a piano key. At the previous clue they learnt that they had to look for Chopin (actually a guy dressed as him, who had to sit out in the open air playing the piano for 3 days straight waiting for teams to arrive). One of theses girls (I’m guessing the non paino playing one), when she learned they had to look for Chopin said, “For real?” To which the other replied, “He’s dead.” It would have been funnier if she had noted that a dead composer is also a……decomposer. But you can’t have everything.
In spite of this faux pas, I still think these two played the smartest game, but not by much.

* Bevis and I are both happily married and so this is a joke!

2. Oswald & Danny


Last week: 2
This week: No change

In the war to book earlier tickets these guys tried to take advantage of Charla & Mirna’s charming personalities in talking with the travel agents. Suprisingly this did not work exceedingly well. I belief that after waiting 6-8 hours they finally got tickets out of Africa that were marginally better than the default ones.
The only other thing I recall about this team is that during the piano tuning task they broke two strings before finally being allowed to move on.

3. Uchenna & Joyce


Last week: 3
This week: No change

These two were the first to get in contact with a travel agent in Africa. Unfortunately they called the travel agency that O & D, C & M, and D & K had just arrived at. These three teams rather cruelly badgered the agent into pretty much hanging up on them! After they did managed to get a flight plan organized later, they missed one of their connecting flights, which the editing made to look like a complete disaster, but I don’t think they did too bad to finish third. They struggled a bit to find the piano tuning task as well.
If I was Phil, I would have slapped Uchenna for the amount of times he said, “For real?” upon being told they had come 3rd.

4. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 1
This week: Down three places

Personally I wouldn’t be taunting a taxi driver in Warsaw about whether he likes Polish Sausage or not, but that’s just me. What they didn’t know is that if you taunt one Polish person, they all know about it. This meant that no Pole would give them directions when they most needed it.
These two began to do the piano tuning task like everyone else so far, but being completely tone deaf had to abandon it after a while and do the other task while involved getting xrays of a mannequin for the clue hidden inside.

5. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 5
This week: No change

They say that the race is a tough test on any relationship and these guys are nearly at breaking point. Danielle doesn’t really do anything but look pretty, and Eric should have known that before they began, but instead he doesn’t miss an opportunity to put her down and insult her intelligence. I’ve heard him on numerous occasions refer to her as ‘knuckhead’. If she was my bitch, I’d treat her right. Anyway enough silliness. These two douche bags couldn’t get any decent flights due to being way behind from the previous leg of the race and so had to use the crappy default tickets, which put them 6 weeks and 3 timezones behind everyone else (ok I’m exaggerating).
For the first time I’ve seen on TAR (although it may have happened before), the two last teams were so far behind that the first teams were beginning the next leg of the race while they finish this one!!

6. Joe & Bill


Last week: 6
This week: No change

A non elimination round saved serial bores Uchenna & Joyce and now the other non elimination saves my most hated team!!! Where were they to save my beloved Rob & Amber! I will avenge thee! ;)
Anyhoo, these two got stuck in the same situation as Eric & Danielle, but chose the mannequin task which took them a bit longer. They are so far behind and now with the 30 minute penalty for coming last this week, they are sure to be gone next week….I hope.

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Last week's tips:

To be amended...

First Team:
Last Team:
Biggest Argument:
Smartest Team:

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Next week's tips:

First Team: Oswald & Danny.
Last Team: Charla & Mirna.
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle.
Smartest Team: Oswald & Danny.



If you haven’t already done so, check out the review of this same episode that BEVIS posted on his blog.


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TAR - All Stars Episode 6

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 6 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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(Bevis’s intro begins)

The last TARAS episode we saw here in Australia ended with Uchenna & Joyce being the last team to reach the Pit Stop but the first team to be safe from elimination on the All Stars edition of the show. The Pit Stop was located on the grass out the front of the Fortaleza de Maputo (literally, ‘Strength of Maputo) in Maputo, Mozambique.

The Detour for this leg was ‘Solve It’ or ‘Schlep It’. In ‘Solve It’, teams had to make their way one third of a mile to the Beyt al Chai hotel where they would put together a 62-piece puzzle that recreates an image from a style of local artwork known as Tinga Tinga. In ‘Schlep It’, teams made their way one mile to the Kijangwani Lumber Yard. Once there, they had to choose a local handcart and load two 50-pound logs into their cart. Once loaded, teams had to travel more than a mile to deliver the logs to a shipyard.

This leg's Roadblock had one team member learn how to use a traditional wooden weapon called a rungu used by members of the Maasai people by throwing it 65 feet to destroy clay targets in order to retrieve their next clue from inside.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the Race:

1. Charla & Mirna
2. Dustin & Kandice
3. Teri & Ian
4. Oswald & Danny
5. Joe & Bill
6. Eric & Danielle
7. Uchenna & Joyce


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').

(Bevis’s intro ends)

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1. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 1
This week: No change

They’ve done it again! I have to say that for the most part I didn’t find this episode very interesting as half of it was spend at the airport. As I’m writing this a couple of days after seeing the episode I can’t be sure of all the details, but I think everyone was told of a certain flight and then told that they had the option of finding a quicker way. Charla & Mirna were the first couple to take a risk and put fly to a destination knowing that they were only on a standby list to the connecting flight. This risk paid off big time and put and kept them way ahead of everyone else.
An amusing part of the episode was seeing Charla throwing up over the sick of a boat due to seasickness.


2. Oswald & Danny


Last week: 4
This week: Up two places

These two were my vote for dumbest team this week, as they were in first place, but decided they had enough time to stop at a market and buy some fruit. That is the only reason they ended up coming second.

3. Uchenna & Joyce - ”Marked For Elimination” (but SAFE!)


Last week: 7
This week: Up four places

As these two finished last in the non-elimination leg and didn’t finish first in this leg, they had to wait for 30 minutes after they reached Phil, before being checked-in. In spite of this no one overtook them while they were waiting, so they didn’t pay much of a penalty. Good on them I guess.

4. Dustin & Kandice


Last week: 2
This week: Down two places

I don’t recall them doing anything noteworthy.


5. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 6
This week: Up one place

These guys had the worst luck this episode! The worst thing that happened to them was that they were told that they had got a couple of standby seats, got onto the plane, were all set to takeoff, when they were told that there was a mistake and they had to get off the plane. This stuffup ensured that a couple of other teams would finish ahead of them.

6. Joe & Bill


Last week: 5
This week: Down one place

I really wish they had finished last this week. I don’t even know why or how they are still in the race.


7. Teri & Ian: ELIMINATED!


Last week: 3
This week: Down four places

Between the two last teams the most likeable one was bound to go. Ian was really showing his stubborn side in this episode and insisted on sleeping at the airport despite Teri disagreeing with the idea. Turns out it made very little difference. At least now they can go back to Florida, or wherever old Americans go.


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Last week's tips:

First Team: Eric & Danielle. (Wrong)
Last Team: Teri & Ian. Correct!
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle. (Wrong)
Smartest Team: Danny & Oswald. (Wrong)


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Next week's tips:

First Team: Danny & Oswald.
Last Team: Joe & Bill.
Biggest Argument: Charla & Mirna.
Smartest Team: Danny & Oswald.



If you haven’t already done so, check out the review of this same episode that BEVIS posted on his blog.


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TAR - All Stars Episode 5

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 5 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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(Bevis’s Catchup text)

The last TARAS episode we saw here in Australia ended with Rob & Amber being the last team to reach the Pit Stop and the fourth team to be eliminated from the All Stars edition of the show. The Pit Stop was located on the Martial Glacier in Ushuaia, Argentina.

For the Roadblock, one team member had to use a large, landmine-seeking rat on a series of complicated leads and cords to find a race marker above a deactivated mine. Once their rat gave the signal that it had found something, an Apopo Mine Technician would search the area. When the Race marker was found, the team would receive their next clue.

This leg's Detour was ‘Pamper’ or ‘Porter’. In ‘Pamper’, teams had to travel half a mile to the Maputo Central Market, choose a nail polish kit, and convince people to pay them to paint their nails, which in Maputo is a job usually performed by men. Teams needed to earn at least 30 meticals, which is about one US dollar, to receive their next clue. In ‘Porter’, teams made their way two miles to Market de Janet where they would use their bare hands to fill 10 large 45-pound bags with coal and sew each of them shut. Then, teams had to carry one of the ten heavy bags to a specified address where the owner would hand them their next clue.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the Race:

1. Oswald & Danny
2. Eric & Danielle
3. Teri & Ian
4. Joe & Bill
5. Dustin & Kandice
6. Uchenna & Joyce
7. Charla & Mirna
8. Rob & Amber


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').

(Bevis’s Catchup text – end)

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1. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 7
This week: Up an impressive six places!

If I was giving each episode an individual title, I would call this one, ‘The Equaliser’, cause things happened that allowed the people at the back to catch up. Those who started off first, fell to the back of the pack and those at the back managed to get to the front. This trend was proven by Charla & Mirna who managed to make their way from last place to finish first. At what I think was the roadblock task, each team had to choose one of their members to lead a trained rat over a course to detect a defused landmine that had the flag they needed. Sound crazy, well it was. I kept imagining that they forgot to defuse one and suddenly the rat would be blown to smithereens, but that didn’t happen. C&M were the last team to complete this task but it was hard to judge how far behind the others they finished. The thing that put them ahead was the detour task, where teams had to choose between shoveling coal into sacks with their bare hands or paint the nails of people in a shopping alleyway. This is one of the situations that I mentioned one or two weeks ago where one of the tasks is just crap and puts people behind. Although it might seem a daunting task to convince passersby to part with even a few small coins to have their nails painted, this task was by far the quicker one for everyone that did it. C&M performed the task very well and were funny to watch as they persuaded even some men to have their nails painted.

Although I have commented in the past that these two generally annoy me, I was actually glad, albeit somewhat surprised to see them come in first. The are certainly a little left of center, but are quite entertaining to watch!


2. Dustin & Kandice


Last week: 5
This week: Up three places

This was yet another team and another instance for these two where they failed to properly read clues. During the first task where they had to find another clue at an avalanche beacon with a tracking device, these two headed straight for the snowfield without bothering to get the tracking equipment. Upon realizing this and having to head back for it, it was funny to hear Charla and Mirna comment that the beauty queens really weren’t that smart. Interestingly enough the two blondes were the second team to chose the nail painting task over the coal shoveling. Even though they were previously behind, this choice allowed them to come in second.


3. Teri & Ian


Last week: 3
This week: No change

Hmmm, the third team to do the nail painting task. Not much to say about these two.


4. Oswald & Danny


Last week: 1
This week: Down three places

While C&M are by far the most unintentionally funny pair, these guys often cause me to laugh due to some of their jokes. O&D were the first of the teams who did the coal shoveling task to finish and when they arrived at the pitstop they were covered from head to toe in coal dust. I’m not sure which is which, but one of them came running up to the host Phil with his arms spread for a hug. The usually unflappable Phil who is meant to stand impassively next to a local in native dress, took off in a run in the other direction. It was very funny to watch. In the end they must have settled down and were given the well deserved 4th place.

Although due to all the equalizing in this leg this didn’t end up mattering, at the start of the episode during the avalanche beacon task these two finished it up last seemingly because they couldn’t figure out how the tracker worked. This caused them to become pretty frustrated with each other.


5. Joe & Bill


Last week: 4
This week: Down one place

Perhaps the most disturbing thing that I learn this episode was that they both claim to wear ‘thongs’ or ‘g-strings’. That is an image I could really do without. It became even clearer this leg that most of the other teams dislike these guys as much as I do.


6. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 2
This week: Down four places

How the mighty have fallen. I was happy to see these two finish so far back. Mostly cause I find Eric to be somewhat overbearing and bullying. His constant putdowns and ‘semi joking’ insults of his partner and girlfriend Danielle should give her a clue of what life will be like further down the road with this jerk. An example of this was seen when he blamed her for coming in behind Joe & Bill in the last minute footrace, but from what I could tell, he was also behind them when they made it to the mat.


7. Uchenna & Joyce - SAFE!


Last week: 6
This week: Down one place

Oooh, they were lucky this was a non-elimination round! From what I could see the main problem they had was finding the house where they had to deliver the sack of coal from their shoveling task. They were informed that if they didn’t finish the next leg in first place, they would incur a 30 minute waiting penalty before they could check-in.


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Last week's tips:

First Team: Oswald & Danny. (Wrong)
Last Team: Charla & Mirna. (Wrong)
Biggest Argument: Charla & Mirna. (Wrong) – It was Oswald & Danny on the ice.
Smartest Team: Oswald & Danny. (Wrong) – I guess it was Charla & Mirna.


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Next episode's tips: (as tipped in the comments last week, once the ‘double episode’ thing was realised)

First Team: Eric & Danielle.
Last Team: Teri & Ian.
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle.
Smartest Team: Danny & Oswald.


If you haven’t already done so, check out the review of this same episode that BEVIS posted on his blog.


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TAR - All Stars Episode 4

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 4 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the Race:

1. Rob & Amber
2. Uchenna & Joyce
3. Eric & Danielle
4. Dustin & Kandice
5. Oswald & Danny
6. Teri & Ian
7. Joe & Bill
8. Charla & Mirna
9. David & Mary



Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').


1. Oswald & Danny

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Last week: 5
This week: Up four places

The editing didn’t really show us how they got to the head of the pack so easily, but somehow they did. I’m thinking it was mainly because everyone else was making a lot of mistakes. Obviously they also made the right choices and didn’t run into any bad luck, so good on them. Plus I picked them to come first so I’m glad they did.
One of them also made a very funny comment at the start of the episode, that I’m hoping Bevis noted, cause I didn’t write it down.

2. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 3
This week: Up one place

Eric made another comment about Danielle's boobs and they came second, that about sums up their input this episode. Oh no, I almost forgot Danielle showing her smarts by saying ‘Australia’ when she meant ‘Argentina’.

3. Teri & Ian


Last week: 6
This week: Up three places

I don’t know how these guys managed to come in third place. The stand out moments were when they couldn’t follow simple directions on a compass, eg. Going south, and the other thing was the trouble they had finding the clue box for the roadblock (although in fairness they were not the only team to go astray looking for it). Experience must count for something I guess cause often older teams like this stay in the race for far longer than I expect.

4. Joe & Bill


Last week: 7
This week: Up three places

I don’t like these guys and hope they are not in the race much longer. They must had been reading their instructions carefully this week as they didn’t veer off course this time. I'm looking forward to next week as the preview showed them getting into a big argument with Eric and Danielle.

5. Dustin & Kandice


Last week: 4
This week: Down one place

I will mention here that all the teams at the back of the pack from here on were the teams that chose to do the ‘building’ task rather than the navigation task in the detour. In past series of TAR, Phil has announced why one task might be better than another, eg, one may favour strength, while another might be done quicker by someone with good attention to detail, etc. This does not seem to have happened this series, or if it has I just haven't been paying attention. As far as I can tell, one task is almost always just crappier than the other. D & C made a bad choice by going for this one. It was funny to hear one of them saying that their weakness was to over think things! The producers obviously included that because they knew people would find it an amusing thing for two beauty queens to say.

6. Uchenna & Joyce


Last week: 2
This week: Down four places

These guys are boring. I like them, but they are about as interesting to watch as paint dry in this race! I think they were only one of two teams to finish the construction of a signpost task as the other two who tried their hand at it left in frustration after a while. There was a bit on the boat toward the finishline where the old rivalry between this couple and Rob and Amber was brought up, but at that point I thought it was a red herring as I was really expecting Rob and Amber to be going, due to their stuffing up.

7. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 8
This week: Up one place

These two are truly an unintentional comedy duo! There was an advert on TV that stated that everybody loved Charla and how in this episode she would be asked to be a hero! WTF!??! Apparently to whoever does the advertising, Charla carrying stuff up a flight of stairs while Mirna yells at her is hero behaviour!!! Granted it did look hard for a little person, but seriously, she wasn’t saving lives or anything. And since when does everyone love her?
The best comedy was when Amber lied to them that there was a clue down a dirt track when there actually wasn’t. It was funny because they continued down the path a bit, and then had a ‘waaaait a minute’ moment after which Mirna insisted that being a lawyer made her know when people were lying! In that circumstance I would have thought common sense should have been enough. Later when they confronted Amber about it, she lied again that she had been directing the comment to Rob about something else. In an interview to camera about this Charla, commented that what Amber said just didn’t make sense!.....derrrrr, because she was obviously lying!


8. Rob & Amber: ELIMINATED!


Last week: 1
This week: Went very badly for them!

In TAR people are often eliminated because they either make one or more serious mistakes, or luck just isn’t with them. In the case of R&A, both of these factors played a major part. Mistakes were made early on and the final nail came through taking longer than another team to sort through a huge pile of letters.

Rob wanted to do the task that involved building a signpost that had the destinations of one of Magellan's journeys on it. Although he knew that Magellan set sail from Seville rather than...Guam I think, which was what Amber thought (this seemed to be the main 'trick' to this task), Rob didn't know that the Phillipines is not spelt 'P-H-I-L-L-I-P-E-A-N-S' (or something like that). Amber either didn't know or didn't notice, because that appeared to be the reason that they spent ages on the task and then finally decided, along with D & K, to quit the task and try the navigation. This set them at the back of the pack as I believe U & J who started after them were able to leave first. At some point D & K also got ahead of them. The funny thing was that when Rob and Amber began the navigation task, Rob correctly figured out the destination without needing to refer to the compass much. This was possibly because he had intercepted some directions that an air steward was intending to give to Uchenna! If only they had picked the other task instead!

Anyway when they hit the road block they were neck and neck with U & J with C & M just over 20 mins or so behind them. U & J seemed to find their letter from previous racers in the piles of envelopes they had to sort through, while Rob had bad luck and was searching through the wrong piles for too long. C & M caught up and Mirna seemed to find their letter pretty quickly as well.

While they did not win any friends on the race they bowed out quite gracefully I thought and their competitive drive will be missed from TAR - All Stars.

I'll finish up by listing their sneaky/underhanded behaviour on this leg:- Rob stealing directions meant for Uchenna, Stealing a taxi that C & M had called for and finally lying to C &M about where a clue box was. Truly a pair of sneaky bastards. ;)


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Last week's tips:

First Team: Oswald & Danny. Correct!
Last Team: Rob & Amber. Correct!
Biggest Argument: Charla & Mirna. Correct!
Smartest Team: Oswald & Danny.....Not sure, they came first, but I don't remember anything really clever they did. I'll wait for Bevis's judgment with this one and say I'm Wrong! unless he says otherwise.-----After conferring with the judge, Bevis has deemed me Correct!....on a technicality.


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Next week's tips:

First Team: Oswald & Danny.
Last Team: Charla & Mirna
Biggest Argument: Charla & Mirna.
Smartest Team: Oswald & Danny.



If you haven’t already done so, check out the review of this same episode that BEVIS posted on his blog.


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