The Amazing Race - season 15 - Page 3

So Sam&Dan were all, "the Globetrotters are just following us," and then when they don't do the obvious and simple research for the Praga that the GTs did, they end up following Meghan&Cheyne.

None of the teams comported themselves well on this last leg.

Favorite line from last night:  "We kinda stole their cab." 

Am I the only one who didn't think there was anything wrong with Cheyne taking the cab? First off, he didn't want to work with the Globetrotters; Meghan was the one who told them to follow...which as they admitted they were going to do anyway (big surprise). But more importantly, it's not like this is leg 2 and they're in the upper middle of the pack. It's the final four and they're competing for first. The only reason to work with the Globetrotters is so you can avoid their stupid and baseless threats that somehow manage to be an even more cliched variation of "It's on."

I didn't think Chayne taking the cab was that big of a deal, they were waiting for the train and a cab came by, pretty stupid to not take it.  Now.......stealing the other persons cab is a lot worse, but it's a race for a million dollars so......alls fair.

The Trotters missed a great chance when Cheyne drove off -- "Cheyne, come back! Phil's got things for you to do! And Big Easy wants you! I know he does! Cheyne!"

Absolutely agreed.  They're all turning major league b*tchy right now and I don't like it.  Sure, they've been together under a lot of stress for a considerable amount of time and tempers are sure to flare.  But Dan can't keep treating Sam like he's three, Meghan and Cheyne need to get on the same page and The Trotters need to be reminded they are not perfect.  Even Brian and Erika are on my nerves.  Still rooting for Sam and Dan, though.

Exactly. If this were real life, I'd feel bad for her. But knowing she has such a lame phobia, she should never have gone on a show like the Amazing Race.

I was astounded that the Globetrotters gave up on the roadblock - especially since by knowing the first letter, there were only 24 possible combinations of the remaining 4.

I'm getting more than a little tired of the brothers constant arguing. I was hoping they'd be eliminated.

That was brutal to watch.
The 'trotters were the only team left I was rooting for.
They added some fun to the race, everyone else is way too uptight.

Oh well, at least I know who I'm rooting for on the next race, rumor has it they left last week:
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Who's that, Mike?

Doh!
I spoilered it, but it still appears on the main page, so I'm adding another post after it...

Gotcha.  I've never watched Big Brother.  Is she the one who couldn't tell time (like if it was "quarter-to-two")?  My son was telling me about some girl who wasn't too smart that way. 

I couldn't believe that the GT's would take a 4 hour penalty then try and figure out the name, just unreal.  IIRC they were awful at having to figure stuff out though(Big Easy took forever on the watch time = case combo), they were just very lucky at finding things.

The Brothers bitching at each other is very aggrivating, the taller one just needs to stfu.  They bicker constantly.

How long did it take Team Zebra to carry 30 glasses of beer?  4 hours?  They left when Big Easy quit, and it was sun up when they finished.  Would never guess it would take that long.

From my math-and assuming the time period given by Flight Time and Big Easy was correct-they spent 2 1/2 hours trying to figure out the name.  Tack on another 4 for the time penalty and that puts them 6 1/2 hours behind Ericka and Brian, the last team to finish.  How they ever thought they'd make up 6 1/2 hours is absolutely ridiculous.

Yes, Dan and Sam need to figure out how to work together because all they do is whine at one another.  I guess it doesn't matter a whole lot right now, considering there's only one leg left.

It's been amazing how many first-place finishes Megan & Cheyne have piled up.

But it all became very clear why when you looked at the Roadblock in last night's episode.

Those statues must've been REAL heavy after plastering them up with that clay.  When Cheyne started whining and complaining about how heavy it was...Megan just stopped him and got him to focus on the "prize."  After that they got it done.  One of the brothers, meanwhile, stated doing the same whining and the other yelled back escalating the issue to the point where their judgment had to be clouded. 

Nice bit of editing to demonstrate the different problem-solving techniques in play. 

There have been instances where teams including the Globetrotters were hours ahead, only to lose that entire lead because of Hours of Operation -- some place along the way was closed. So it wasn't impossible to make up that much time; just unlikely given the structure of the leg.

And there are certainly people who suffer from innumeracy, who can't figure X number of permutations multiplied by time per guess. Heck, the brothers could still be in Dubai yelling at each other trying to do the gold calculation if the poker girls hadn't shown up. To them, it's just a -- very frustrating, "impossible" -- jumble, and getting screwed by Dan and seeing Brian pass him didn't help. At least with the penalty, you know that you'll be done. In fact, if he had given up right away instead of trying for two hours first, that might have worked -- don't know how long Brian & Ericka took. Of course, that would have also been unsportsmanlike to not even try.

The Globtrotters are not problem solvers.  24 combinations and he couldn't figure out how to just formulate a plan to try each one.  Same with the watch.  Hard to watch someone struggle with something that many 12 year olds could do.

And I think about the best team of five guys we could field from the ranks of the HTF and how well we'd do if we challenged Flight Time & Big Easy to a game of five-on-two hoops! 

We all have our talents. 

What a disappointing finale. Was counting chips as difficult or as relevant as trying to match up locales and tasks by memory, like we've seen in the finales of other seasons? Got off easy.

Well, the last team to start counting was the first team to leave, so I guess it wasn't as easy as it looked.  Not as hard as that surfboard from last year though.

Wayne Newton looks scarier than ever.

Well, out of the teams that were left I'm glad they won and not Brian and his pampered princess.

I'd rather slide down a razor blade and into a bathtub of lemon juice than be married to that woman.

As difficult? Perhaps not, but teams were starting to get wise to that kind of final task (which they've only been doing for maybe four seasons), so it made sense to do something else. But it was relevant to the location, and good enough to mix up the standings. It was a good final task, certainly better than eating a pizza.

 

That had to be scarier than rapelling down the side of the Vegas Hotel! 

Just fascinating to watch Ericka's meltdown as the other teams succeeded in the Cirque de Soleil task..

Again, their inability to focus on the task contributed to their downfall...while I believe Megan and Cheyne's ability to focus on the chip counting task (as opposed to Dan & Sam who kept sniping at each other) led them to win the whole enchilada.    Megan & Cheyne really had their stuff together thwe entire race.  A very strong duo. 

I can't believe Cheyne made it down the side of that hotel with his eyes closed shut the entire way.  All power to him as I know I wouldn't have been able to swing my leg over the edge. 

That thing looked like a wax figure had eaten Wayne Newton. Sadly, it really was Mr. Vegas himself.

Brothers; "Hey, it's umm, we know who your are!" 
Wayne; "I'm Wayne Newton" 
Brothers "That's right!"

lol

Did you guys see the Ericka/Brian interview at RealityTVWorld? This just cements my opinion that the final task was a major mis-step:

Then as far as the last episode, the last episode was very frustrating to watch. There were some issues in the poker room with the counter of the chips, with the dealer. I can't go into too much detail, but I wish they would have shown a little bit more of that because that really put us out of the race.

Reality TV World: What was the situation with the dealer? You didn't all have the same one, did you?

Brian: No, there were three counters. We unfortunately picked the one that didn't know how to count too well. She made a couple mathematical errors.

If they lost the race due to an error on the part of someone hired/approved by the show itself they should be given at least half the million dollars. That's ridiculous; I hope in the future they can expand on that more. Back in season 4, one team's production credit card wouldn't work when buying tickets and it ended up eliminating them because they were unable to purchase tickets for the flight all the other teams got so I wouldn't be shocked if something like this cost B/E the win.

I'd say that they should be guaranteed slots on All-Stars but A) that aforementioned TAR4 team didn't make the cut despite being fan favorites (I couldn't stand them but that's a moot point...I guess  ), B) I think they'd be shoo-ins anyway, and C) the TAR producers for some reason hate the idea of All-Stars...yet they seem to have no problem whatsoever throwing in retreads from other CBS reality shows.