We had a double episode this week, clearly it wasn’t planned that way but it played out quite well as a two episode arc. Blurry went to a viewing party and we lost probably the least developed team in the Race.
Recap
Blurry Denzel: I actually watched these episodes with Eliza, Becca, Bret and Janelle and Britney at a viewing party, which was quite the experience
Kemper Bpyd: I’ll be honest when you told me Janelle and Britney would be there I felt pretty sure who we would be eulogising this week.
BD: What I believed happened was they got tickets to NY when this was originally the premiere date and it ended up working out in a different way.
KB: oh ok, that makes way more sense!
BD: I agree that I thought their time was coming up.
Episode 5
KB: So we started off flying from Vietnam to Dubai. All teams were on the same flight as is now customary
BD: Yeah, I’m used to this by now though I really want a road trip leg soon.
KB: Me too, and some self driving. Self driving means that cab disasters can’t sink a team but being bad at driving can, that’s in a team’s hands.
BD: Yeah, I’m all for navigating blunders. It’s an aspect of the race that is missing from an excellent season
KB: The first task has them all navigating to the Dubai Frame that frankly looks like a huge waste of a building to me to get their clue. This is where the Reilly sisters have a bad cabby and fall behind.
BD: It looks nice but I’m confused by its functionality as a structure. Yes, the first of a few cab stuff in these two hours.
KB: I think the entire point is to frame each side of Dubai from the other and show the world that they have lots of money.
BD: The cars already do that!
KB: I completely forgot about the cab to the drink coffee and look in a pricy car section.
BD: I understand, it was pointless.
Detour
KB: The Detour choices were Fall or Find.
BD: What a deceptive detour. On first read, I would definitely go for Fall, thinking I’m about to jump off a building. It sounds obviously quicker. Mostly because of quickness, not of a bungee jumping desire. And at worst I wait behind a couple teams.
KB: The issue that only two team could complete it at a time would throw a spanner in the works so the logic of the lower order teams to got to Find was great but I’d have thought about going there.
BD: Going to Find made sense for the people who went. That was also a simple task that was elevated by silliness
KB: However the Dinosaur Park is literally under the freeway from the Frame making it an easy choice for drive time. Watching them run around in Dinosaur suits as Becca roared the whole time was a delight. And Britney wildly swinging her head around because she was so short it was over her face!
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BD: It was so cute. Poor Britney could not keep up but she just had three kids and she’s doing great.
Janelle and Britney also had the wrong location for the nest.
A small mistake though as this is a really easy task
KB: I enjoyed that. Quick trivia fact, just like Rob and Amber all of Britney’s daughters have the same middle name
BD: The other task had way more struggle with the surprise pop quiz at the end of a VR fall from the building as opposed to an actual one.
KB: a VR mission that seemed like it took about 10 minutes followed by a test. The Afganimals really struggled with this one. All the teams failed on the first round but Colin & Christie and Tyler & Korey both got their second go right.
BD: They were able to talk over the answers and reach a consensus Rachel and Elissa were having so much fun their first time out that they missed mostly everything the first time out.
KB: we haven’t commented on Rachel’s decision to switch detours when she saw how many teams were at Find. What did you make of that?
BD: I didn’t hate it. It was close enough and they were under the reasonable expectation that they were jumping
KB: The logic of it made perfect sense, given what they knew about the two option. Unfortunately it left them behind for the rest of the leg
BD: Yes, they were not able to recover
Roadblock
KB: The Roadblock was fun. In a silent rave find one of the 8 people listening to the same song as the DJ.
BD: That was pretty cool. So Bret told our group at the viewing party that he wished he just pulled people at random rather than listen for who was matching the beat with him.
KB: I don’t think that would have worked.
BD: That seems very needle in a haystack. But I get the frustration
KB: You saw with Floyd who finished first that the ability to match beat helped a lot.
BD: I love Floyd so much. His excitement for this was everything
KB: He is a possibly the purest human to be on reality tv.
BD: I cosign that statement. Him being a drum major helped again. I’m going to diss them later so I’ll pay a compliment to them now, I liked Colin’s dad dancing. That would be me at the club after a few drinks
KB: Colin’s insane 90’s dancing makes sense as he was young in the late 90s.
BD: It took a bit for some teams but they were all able to find their person. No one seemed to be disastrous.
KB: it mixed up the order a bit but no one crashed and burned. I will say I started to get worried for Janelle and Britney’s long term future because Janelle did every roadblock, this was a classic “weaker partner” roadblock.
BD: I was surprised Britney didn’t do this one, or the next one
KB: Britney did a single roadblock not including the first leg.
BD: Other teams nailed which player did this one with Floyd, Christie and Nicole stepping up. Roadblock planning is huge on the race.
Pointless Zipline
KB: The Pitstop included getting to the world’s longest urban zipline which was awesome
BD: So fucking cool. It was a race between Team Fun and Chris and Bret for first place. Chris and Bret must’ve had a great cab.
KB: Floyd nearly messed it up by missing the lift but they got to the rooftop first and Floyd giggled and screamed for the whole zipline.
BD: Yes, they have their second 1st place finish and got Phil to freestyle with them.
KB: Imagine Jeff Probst freestyling. Phil is god damn treasure.
BD: Chris and Bret got their best finish of the race with second and have really improved since their non-elim last place.
KB: they have learnt well and I’ve enjoyed them. The race is a learning curve and as Christie said, by leg six you are an amazing race team.
BD: I think once you get cast you’re an Amazing Race team but I have low expectations. Colin and Christie finish third yada yada. The Reilly’s come last and will have a speed bump.
KB: I really enjoyed Rachel’s breakdown
BD: She was work shopping her speech for in front of Phil
KB: Using some of her classic TAR lines
BD: Elissa was the MVP of that scene though. She wasn’t having any of that shit. I’ve never related to her more
KB: Someone has dealt with an overdramatic big sister her whole life!
Episode 6
BD: What are your thoughts on two out of three legs being non elim?
KB: I don’t love them being so close together but I also hate having them really near the end so I don’t know. 2 out of 4 really though.
BD: I would’ve made the next one non elim when mapping it out and not just because Janelle and Britney were involved. I agree with your point though about having too many at the end.
KB: I suppose it depends where they feel they can do a good speedbump but yeah.
BD: Though this speed bump was laundry so the bar isn’t high for good.
KB: So, the next leg was in Uganda. Let’s stop down and talk about this. Tyler and Korey reacted badly to the idea of having to go to a place where they could be executed for being who they are and fair fucking play. I don’t think I could have got on the flight, not for the Amazing Race and not for a million bucks
BD: I understand their feelings. My heart goes out to them and all LGBTQ+ people who is in risk just for being who they are at risk.
KB: I think it is a complete disgrace that the Amazing Race would stop there. I don’t care about the Pearl of Africa stuff or Lake Victoria or anything they might be able to do there. I don’t care that there is no way the Ugandan police would act against Tyler, Korey or Bret but CBS have to do better here.
They have a duty of care to their contestants and to their viewers. They turned it into a lovely storyline of acceptance of people despite governmental policy but it’s horseshit. They chose a place that discriminates horrifically. Dubai is bad enough, but this is a slap in the face to all LGBT+ viewers and I’m angry about it.
BD: I completely agree. Not just Uganda but any country that have similar disgraceful policies should be banned from TAR. I’m glad that Tyler and Korey were at least given a platform to share their story but they shouldn’t be put in that position.
KB: I did love new sensitive Colin giving Korey a hug and a kiss to comfort him.
I now don’t think we will be getting any COlin blow ups but I’m ok with it. He seems like a really nice caring dude and I’m happy for Christie he grew out of being a huge dick.
BD: I am happy for them. It is amazing that they are in a better place now. I was planning on being an asshole and ranting about how they weren’t bringing entertainment to me with this new approach they have in life but fuck that I rather have this.
KB: I agree, I want more entertainment but also these are real people with kids, and he was the kind of guy no one should marry at 25 and now he’s really fun and kind, so good for Christie because he’s also a massive DILF.
Route Marker
BD: We have the racers all leave the airport in a rush again. They were about to run through the door.
KB: The route info was at the Uganda National Mosque. Where they had to put on appropriate clothing and count the steps in the Minaret.
BD: Chris and Bret completely skip the clue.
KB: so dumb, after they count the steps they go off to the Owino Market to a roadblock to make a Rolex. Tyler & Korey also had to do it twice because they googled the minaret and thought they knew the step number
BD: I love the research but you still gotta double check. Janelle and Britney got struck with bad cab syndrome
KB: It put them so far behind
BD: Rachel messed up the counting badly. Feel like she should’ve told Elissa to slow down the first time up the stairs
KB: Elissa should also have been counting. I did like Victor telling Nicole to do it in her head, because I have real trouble counting. I can’t keep the number in my head and if anyone speaks I lose it.
BD: I won’t lose my count but I would be very annoyed hearing someone count to 272 out loud
KB: Literally you could say hello to me when I was counting and I’d have to start again. It’s the dyslexia but for numbers.
Road Block
BD: We get a cooking challenge at the Roadblock. The name also went over my head like it did with Victor.
KB: “who wants a Rolex” Who would get that? I do think a lot of teams made mistakes here. This is again a weaker player challenge.
BD: I would counter that if the weaker player has no idea how to cook, skip this one. But yes it is a less physical challenge
KB: fair but overall a market challenge usually involves having to find a few things and then do something with them or sell things.
BD: Jamal seemed to struggle the most with this challenge. Others picked it up well enough.
KB: apart from Janelle wasting vast time looking for something that was right by the clue.
BD: That was a whole different matter. I felt so bad for her.
She was in good spirits watching the episode though, so there is that.
I was hoping she would stumble upon the other racers by luck but it did not happen.
KB: They were so far behind because of the cab it wasn’t a huge issue in the end.
BD: I think they could’ve stayed in front of the Reillys though, which would be huge later.
The Reillys had to do laundry which is easy but time consuming.
Phil made a big deal about finding room to hang up the clothes but it looked like they had plenty of room.
Detour
KB: On to the Detour:
Salty Roll or Move the Pole
Most teams chose Move the Pole but both were muscle through tasks
BD: I don’t blame almost every team for avoiding fish.
KB: I think the teams who didn’t have the physical strength for the wood made the right call but I hate fish.
BD: We get more of new Colin in this challenge. He remained calm throughout. The challenge itself was not that interesting to watch.
KB: Neither were. So we got our “first” head to head of the season.
Head to Head
BD: Mike Bloom made a good point that this had to be televised because of how it ended but ugh this was unnecessary
KB: A competitive logic game of stacking drums. I’d rather have watched the badminton
BD: Tyler and Korey beat Colin and Christie in the first round to take first place. Every team that did it twice beat the team that did it once. I didn’t like Janelle and Britney’s chances.
They had to face off against the Reillys and we get a Big Brother 12 flashback with Rachel vs Britney
KB: By this point we knew it was them because the Reillys were in a preview of the U Turn Vote and we haven’t seen that yet.
BD: Yeah, that too
KB: They head to the mat together after the Reillys win the matchup
so your dream team went home and Tyler & Korey won in the land of homphobia
BD: I’m happy for Tyler and Korey to accomplish what they wanted to do.
I’m so bummed that Janelle and Britney were gone. They didn’t get a lot of camera time but they were gold every time they were shown
Watching this episode with them and seeing them having fun with it helped ease things
Janelle did ask for shots though as soon as the episode ended
KB: When Britney said her oldest daughter was a cancer survivor it made me think. She’s right, this isn’t the worst day of her life, not by a long shot and it’s another part of why they both had so much fun and didn’t stress. Again just makes Corinne and Eliza’s exit look so bad.
BD: What Britney said was beautiful and something I’ll keep with me.
KB: It gave some perspective to the whole reality game nonsense
Wrap Up
BD: So next time on TAR, more drama involving the Reillys
Who would’ve predicted?
KB: That is why I’m glad they stayed over Janelle and Britney unfortunately. We need some good old-fashioned drama;
BD: Who do you have going home next week?
KB: I don’t have hope for Chris & Bret much further.
But I’m going to say surprise loss of Vic & Nic
BD: You would have a hat to eat if that’s the case
KB: oh fuck. Then Chris & Bret
BD: The action is ramping up on TAR. I expect great stuff in the upcoming weeks
KB: who do you think is going?
BD: Chris and Bret have improved lately but I’m still a skeptic.
I’ll say them
Music recommendation for this week. Aaliyah was the goddamn greatest. Gone too soon
KB: For me I’m again just massively hyped for the Women’s World Cup. I’m not sure how well known it is around these parts that I am a huge football fan and that I am a big fan of the women’s game. I went to Holland 2 years ago for the Euros, I’m going to France for the world cup. But I am also a massive fan for football shirts. I own somewhere near 30, mostly Arsenal or England but if a team (not English) releases a really classic kit I buy it. And today I got my England Women’s red away kit, patterned like red roses with Lionesses in the collar. And it’s just hyped me up even more.
BD: I have one Survivor finale story for the end of this post if you have time for it.
So several months ago Hannah Shapiro discovered the post I wrote about her during the “Fan Friction” series a couple years ago.
She got in touch with Purple Rock to find out who wrote the piece.
She was directed to me and she sent me a message on Twitter.
A DM from Hannah Shapiro made for quite the notification.
Anyway, she was super complimentary of what I said and how it affected. It was some of the kindest words anyway has ever said about my writing.
I’m very appreciative of her reaching out to me.
So I’m at the Survivor finale after party in L.A and I had to pleasure of running into Hannah in person. I kept it surprisingly cool even though I was internally freaking out.
She is as wonderful in person as she was on screen
KB: I am so happy for you
BD: And here is one of me and Janelle
KB: she tall!
BD: And a goddamn bombshell in person
