Super Bowl Update

Episode Eight Fake Title: In Speckles We Trust

Starting City: Samali District, Malawi
Pit Stop City: Copenhagen, Denmark
1st Place: Team Bert & Ernie   Reward: Trip for two to Fiji
2nd: Team Out-To-Pasture
3rd: Team Tricky
4th: Team Footballers Lives
5th: That Other Dating Couple
Last Place: Team Nemo -Eliminated!

U-Turned Teams:
Team Out-To-Pasture, Courtesy of Team Bert & Ernie
Team Nemo, Courtesy of Team Out-To Pasture

Roadblock: One team member had to dress in period costume and learn a three-part dance from a similarly costumed instructor. Once the Countess okay their dance, they would receive their next clue. These were some of the best costumes ever on TAR! So expensive-looking! I thought Cathi and Amani looked the best, but the boys and Sandy also looked good. The dance didn't look THAT hard. Zac sure lost A LOT of time trying to figure it out.

Detour: A choice between All Hopped Up and All Churned Out. In AHU, teams had to properly construct a Kaninhop course (a steeplechase run for the cutest bunnies EVER), then both team members have to a run a rabbit of their choice through the course without any mistakes. Once complete, the bunny handler would give them their next clue. In ACO, teams had to make six sticks of butter by using a butter churn and then stamping out the sticks using a special mold. Once complete, the dairymaid would give them their next clue. I cannot believe almost all the teams initially passed on racing the bunnies! Sure animals can be tricky, but BUNNIES?? Thank goodness it was a double U-turn so two more teams had to work with the bunnies and we got to hear that much more of the delightful bunny theme music and see the cuties jumping over the little fences. SO GOOD. Snaps to Speckles the Rabbit who successfully completed the course for both Out-To-Pasture and Team Nemo.

Also of Note This Week: Where do we start? There were so many changes of the team order tonight. It was very exciting and I was almost afraid that it would be non-elimination and render all the repositioning irrelevant. Luckily that was not the case.

I'm not sure how much time they had at the last pit-stop but there's no way it was twelve hours. The first teams left in the afternoon and there's no way they finished the last leg at 2am. I wonder what the deal was there. 

Teams were given a flight from Malawi to Copenhagen but were allowed to hunt for better flights if they wanted to. All the teams did this at various travel hubs along the way, except for Footballers Lives. In my opinion, this was WAY too passive a move. It didn't get them eliminated, but it certainly could have. The fact that the other teams had to wait for the morning to search for their next clue erased most (but not all) of their lead on Footballers Lives. Oddly the team who got the best flight actually wound up getting eliminated. Granted Team Nemo did lots of other things wrong this leg.

Once in Copenhagen, teams had to climb to the top of the Vor Frelsers Kirke, locating two clues on the top of the tower. The first was a flag at the very top that said "Borg Slot" and the second was a banner on a nearby building that said "Frederiks". Once combined, it named their next location: Frederiksborg Slot. The banner was not always visible. That Other Dating Couple did not get the clues right and lost all the time advantage they had over Footballers Lives who were on the later flight. Footballers Lives then got completely lost on the way to the castle, putting them squarely back into last place.

So we get another double U-turn this week and neither team who took the opportunity to use it, used it on Team Tricky! I couldn't believe it! Neither could they! Bert & Ernie used it on Bill and Cathi because they just wanted to win the leg and to give them some breathing room to do it. Honestly, it looked like Ernie was gonna pass on using it again, but Cindy was not having it. After losing first by inches last time, I understand that she wanted to increase their lead and get the win. It actually didn't effect where Out-To-Pasture finished, but Bill and Cathi's u-turn of Laurence and Zac contributed to them getting eliminated.

Lots of navigation issues this week. Footballers Lives got lost on the way to the Roadblock. TODC got lost on the way to the Detour and Team Nemo, most detrimentally, got very lost on the way to the Pit Stop.

I don't buy that Team Tricky couldn't have beaten Out-To-Pasture to the mat. They must have believed that Cindy & Ernie had already won the leg and that second or third wasn't gonna make that much of a difference. It seems like a crazy thing to assume, (Bert & Ernie could've also gotten lost en route to the Pit Stop) but I can't believe that Bill and Cathi can beat those two in a foot race and they arrived in the parking lot at basically the same time.

We learned over the course of the roadblock that Bill and Cathi met in middle school and married the day they graduated college. Cindy and Ernie met over shots in a bar. I like both these couples very much. I still  can't imagine Bill and Cathi winning, but they are posting consistent front-of-the-pack finishes now. They could make it to the final.

Team Nemo seemed finished while they were still racing. I don't think they had Killer Fatigue per se, but they were just not mentally in the game. Too many mistakes for far too long.  No real expressed passion to hang around. No emotional reaction to being eliminated. No real emotional arc to their relationship for the season. For such accomplished sailors, the wind was definitely taken out of their sails weeks ago.They seemed content to stop where they were. The rigors of the Race were not for them. They weren't unpleasant, but I won't miss them in the field.

Next week: Acting Lessons! Tea Cup Rides! SPEEDOS. Body building poses. I'll tell you right now Bill even at his advanced age has a better body than you or me. Basically, he could be in the Immortals. Or Captain America. Jeez. Only 5 teams remain! Onward, Racers!