The barely watchable scenes begin: Liz and Marie= annoying, annoying, annoying. As soon as they find out about the elephants, they go on like two three year olds, squealing and screaming. How many times did we have to hear that the elephant is their favorite animal? How many people really mention their “favorite animal” after kindergarten? So, their speed bump is part of the elephant task, so lucky for us, we get to have two segments of screaming in excitement. It was like the freaking Beatles showed up or something. They scream and start jumping and cheering like kids when they see the elephants. The speed bump is shoveling elephant crap but they are screaming and raising their hands like school kids yelling “I wanna do it! I wanna do it!” So, they both do it. This much excitement over shoveling manure, really? In case we had forgotten in that minute in a half since it was last mentioned, again one twin says it’s her favorite animal.
Then we move into the phase of the speed bump that entails giving these elephants a bath. Please let an elephant take a dump on one twin while she’s behind it. No such luck. Just having shoveled manure and giving a really stinky animal a bath, one twin declares: “This is the best day of my life, like, no joke.” Wow. Those are some low standards.
We pan over to Cindy (“The Smart One”) who doesn’t seem to comprehend that disassemble means the whole spirit house. She apparently thinks it may just mean part of the thing. She asks no less than four times if the clue means to disassemble the whole thing or not. Then she flits around looking at the other houses for some sort of confirmation, though I’m not sure how seeing the other fully assembled houses will tell her whether or not to fully disassemble hers. So she wastes 15 minutes running around obsessing over the word disassemble, and her and Ernie don’t even bother to look at the configuration of the items on the house. They head to the next location, but seem to just be prolonging that inevitable return trip to actually look this time.
As predicted, they arrive at the next location and Cindy starts nagging at Ernie that he should’ve written down how the house was arranged. Yeah, you didn’t write it down either, dummy. Get off his ass already. If you hadn’t been overanalyzing the whole “disassemble” thing and been a total distraction, maybe he would’ve had time to look at the thing. Ernie goes back to take another look and states that “If I don’t get it, I think Cindy’s gonna kill me.” Do us a favor and just kill each other. Preferably by impaling each other with those birdhouse poles. It’s your call Ernie, but I’d throw the thing at her like a javelin.
So after the spirit house challenge, the racers then have to travel 250 miles to the next clue in Bangkok and are challenged to feed some fish. Yeah, about as exciting as it sounds.
Zac and Laurence book a 4:30 first class bus to Bangkok. They note it is a different bus than Andy and Tommy are on and they start obsessing over it. Zac asks before the bus leaves if Laurence thinks that taking a first class bus will be an issue, Laurence says “no, not at all” so of course it becomes a problem. I must say, Laurence has been a real wealth of knowledge on this leg. In really brainy fashion, the two wait until the bus has been moving for awhile before Laurence declares that they are not supposed to travel by first class and don’t want a penalty. They decide to immediately get off the bus to wander back to the station. Hey, I’m no Amazing Race expert but isn’t the typical penalty between 15 and 30 minutes unless you completely refuse to complete a challenge? Wouldn’t it have been better to just get to Bangkok on the first class bus and take a 30 minute penalty than have to go back to the station, buy another ticket (that you may or may not have money for) and wait for god knows how long for the next bus? Major duh for these two on this decision.
Great recap, as usual.
I noticed that Jeremy and Sandy had just a little more air time than ever before this week. There was a very brief focus on them for a few minutes near the end of the episode. We still know almost nothing about them and their personalities and racing skills. I can’t recall going this far into a season and still seeing a couple who has been focused on so little (besides the eliminated ones, that is).
Good recap, though everything is so negative. I agree with a lot of what was said, but didn’t see any positive statements about teams, individuals or anything! Everything has a glass half empty perspective. While the recap is good, I’d love to read something positive about the people and/or show itself! I love Reality Steve, the tone to the recaps and everything else, but don’t you like anything?
they used the taxi driver’s cell phone to take the picture of the spirit house!
while I enjoy reading the recaps, the constant negative attitude is just too much! it’s fine to make fun of the people who annoy you, but you come off sounding like a bitter old lady.
I am glad some other people are also speaking up about the negativity! I mentioned it a few weeks ago. Dont watch the show if you are going to be so negative about every little detail.
Yes, they did use the cab drivers cell phone. And the speed bump was for the twins only because they were not eliminated last week… they always throw in a speed bump for people who got in from a non-elimination leg, and Phil warned them too.
What’s negativity to some is a hilarious sense of humor and sarcasm to others. To each his own. If I wanted to read a “regular” recap, I’d go to CBS. This site cracks me up — great recaps.
refinnej — the irony is that telling someone they sound like a bitter old lady, is, well, pretty darn negative. even sarcastic people have feelings.
yeah what’s the deal with such a negative recap? i’m fine with sarcasm, but this goes way beyond sarcasm into bitterness. reality steve and the other dude who does the survivor recaps are sarcastic, but they aren’t to the point of being rude.
amani and marcus weren’t the ones that took the pic on the cell phone, it was jennifer and justin. get it straight.
There’s a big difference between negativity and sarcastic humor. The word “bitter” is very appropriate. Show some positive enthusiasm. If you’re recapping a show you don’t like, don’t do it. It takes away from the pleasure of reading the usually great recaps on Reality Steve’s site. Reality Steve has found that balance and I believe you need to too. Just some constructive feedback! Right now, I get the impression you don’t like anyone or anything regarding TAR.
This recap is hysterical. It is done for the Reality Steve website so it is supposed to be “slanted, sophomoric and skewed”. I laughed through the whole thing. If you don’t get the point of this site read the boring recap on the AR website. Jeez. Lighten up people!
There is a big difference between Reality Steve’s “slanted, sophomoric and skewed” recaps and the negativity surrounding the recent TAR ones. Obviously it has been noticed by other people. We all have the right to voice an opinion. When the same thing has been noticed by mulitiple people, there is a valid point being made. Try to respect others opinions and feelings. If you would compare Steve’s recaps to this person, you would notice a big difference. Steve intersperses some positive statements in his recaps. He likes certain situations and people. This person had nothing positive to say. This season of TAR has some of the best teams ever, and to make fun of each and every individual is ridiculous. No one wants to read a steady stream of negativity.