4/8 TAR 20 Show Discussion **West Coast Spoilers**

[sweetpea]

Boy, hearing all this makes me happy I'm usually away at the lake and/or too busy in the summer to watch BB! I get the editing angle, and yes I'm sure there's a lot more to the situation than any of us see. I still think Rachel is a drama queen and basically annoying but mostly harmless (from what we've seen) whereas Vanessa just comes across as the 'mean girl' from high school that would live to cut people down. The two guy-appendages attached to these women are 'meh' in my eyes. Hope there is a double elimination so they can both go. Ha!

Oh, and as to the level of hatred...seems to me my beloved Rob and Amber inspired a great deal themselves. Luckily though he took it with a grain of salt and a wink/grin, as per usual. I loved watching them race. These people, not so much.

Still don't like border patrol. Sorry.

[JohnnyK]

I just watched the episode, and I still like Art and JJ. It's just that some of the comments on this show are taken too seriously.

[spockwhat]

I just watched the episode, and I still like Art and JJ. It's just that some of the comments on this show are taken too seriously.

You know, I can agree there to an extent. It just really bothered me that they lied to Phil about letting other teams go ahead and fight and they'll stay out of it. Just own up. I don't get that.

[sweetpea]

You know, I can agree there to an extent. It just really bothered me that they lied to Phil about letting other teams go ahead and fight and they'll stay out of it. Just own up. I don't get that.

I agree. If they had laughed and said "Hey, Phil, the more the other teams fall apart the better it is for us!" with a cheeky grin...well, I could respect that. I am a BRob fan, after all. It's the "we'll stir up **** ha ha" then when faced with Phil "we'll stay out of the ****" juxtaposition that I don't care for.

Hey, I liked these two when they were washing down the oil guy. They were pretty funny! I can take lots of things as a joke, but I get the distinct sense from these two that they think they are all that and more, and that their **** doesn't smell. It's that sense of arrogance and entitlement that I don't care for that much. I get it, I might be getting played by editing, but I just don't think so. I've watched this show since the first episode, and yup, I don't like these guys.

It's ok to have different opinions on these folks.

[Fanny Mare]

It's ok to have different opinions on these folks

no! who knew. LOL

sweetest pea.

I think we have gut feelings about people, I trust mine.

[sweetpea]

no! who knew. LOL

sweetest pea.

I think we have gut feelings about people, I trust mine.

Awww...

You should definitely trust your feelings...we all come at these shows from different mindsets and experiences, so of course our views might differ.

That's what makes this such a great place to be!

[Allie]

In the extra footage videos on CBS, apparently Brenden did apologize to Ralph for the scene at the airport, and said it was immature and he was sorry for it. Apparently, after he did and walked away, Vanessa and the BPA's continued to trash talk team BB. Can someone confirm this for me? I read it on another site but stupid CBS won't let me watch the video as I live in the great white north. Here's the link:

The Amazing Race Video - Brendon Apologizes To Ralph - CBS.com

I just watched it. V is quite the piece, isn't she? Why bring up Rachel in that instance? And then the "off camera" part. I know who I want to go home next.

[CCL]

I think JJ and Art are arrogant, particularly the taller one. They complained again and again about Brendon and Rachel following them (to the travel agent that all the teams went to, down the one road to the challenge...) that I laughed when B and R stopped to ensure they were going the right way and course-corrected while Art and JJ continued on in the wrong one.
And by the way, undercover is not some secret term; anyone who has ever watched a cop show knows it. And when border cops are talking about uc operations it doesn't take a huge leap in logic to figure out that uc means undercover. Idiots.
Vanessa doesn't like Rachel. Her partner seems more level headed with regards to dealing with B and R. The border cops don't like B and R and I recall them saying something in an earlier episode about B and R having their chance at money already on BB so that's clearly a factor. Kentucky doesn't seem to have a problem with them; they followed B's advice regarding the detour. The teachers/Feds haven't said anything negative that we've seen...so, if we are basing opinions of B and R based on other teams not liking them, I'd take a closer look at the teams that
don't like them. I'll freely admit I like Rachel (Brendon I'm meh on). I watched her on BB and read the feeds and still like her. She's prone to the dramatics and can be annoying but she doesn't bother me the way, say, the nasty Vanessa does.
One more thing about the border cops...they go on about how they are the top team but Rachel and Dave have four first place finishes.
All that said, I don't really care for the inter-team drama. It's not why I watch the show.
The area in Africa they were in was beautiful. It was kind of funny to see the Japanese tourists at the model village. I wonder how much of the Masai's life is based on tourism now.

[Babbred]

Wow. Looks like opinions are all over the map. That's why I like coming here to FORT.

I wondered, also, if the Feds didn't mind not racing to the Pit Stop because in the back of their minds they knew it was probably an NEL? I remember last season (?), there was a challenge in Africa where the racers had to carry bed frames from the back of a truck to a location a fair distance away. That was an NEL, too, and I remember the next day somebody saying, "Well, of course it was. They weren't going to make those poor losing racers carry those heavy beds and then not get to sleep in them." Therefore, as soon Phil announced the last challenge with the tent, I relaxed and stopped worrying about one of my favorite teams coming in last. If the Feds truly thought they were going to be eliminated, though, then I really admire them for stopping to smell the elephants.

When BP spilled the beans about the Feds to BB, I actually snickered. I also laughed when afterwards one of the agents said, "Now, watch, BB is going stir things up by talking about it." They fed info to BB because they knew the latter would try to get everybody else upset by gossiping about it. It was actually a brilliant race strategy and, like you said, Spock, if only they had owned up to it at the Pit Stop I would have respected them a lot more.

I also didn't particularly mind them asking the Feds about their identity. I'm a teacher and if I heard somebody using educational lingo I would also be curious if we shared the same profession. I also thought that it was a shrewd observation on one of the agent's part that kindergarten teachers would probably have different personalities. I used to work at an elementary school, and it's true. Kindergarten and First Grade teachers usually have warm, motherly, outgoing personalities, and the Feds just don't give off that vibe.

I liked how one of the agents, after observing Dave and Rachel fighting, said "This is why I'm not racing with my wife." So true! I would never race with hubby because I know would I probably end up snapping at him under the pressure and stress of the race. I would rather have him at home, waiting to give me a hug after I got eliminated.

The only thing that bugs me is their hyper-competitiveness. Yes, I know a macho attitude probably goes with their job description, just like Dave's, but the behavior of all three of them is getting really old and I won't be unhappy to see all of them eliminated.

Ok, I have to admit that I ROFL during that spat in the Nairobi airport. I can't stand Vanessa, but after seeing too much of Rachel's fake-tears-at-the-drop-of-a-hat in the past few episodes, it was kind of funny to see Vanessa put her in her place and shut her up for once. And as much as I hate to admit it, Vanessa was right. Rachel probably wasn't crying because of Vanessa's behavior, per se. She was probably just pulling her usual "woe-is-me-I'm-such-a-victim-why-is-everybody-so-mean-to-me?" crud. That's either a sign of no self-esteem or way too much esteem for yourself. Either way, I could see where that would get really old, really fast, especially if we're not being shown all of the interactions between the teams. Please understand that I am in no way excusing Vanessa's behavior. She is mean and nasty. But Rachel is not helping her case at all by always whining about how mean and nasty Vanessa is. If she had a healthy does of self-esteem she would just snap her fingers at Vanessa and go on with the challenges. Continually complaining just feeds Vanessa's bullying personality.

Actually, I agreed with Bopper. They were all acting like children and I wish they could all have been marched down to the principal's office. Bopper and Mark are by far my favorite contestants. The Feds are right behind due to their good attitudes. The bickering couples can leave in any particular order and then I wouldn't mind packing the Agents off back to their border.

Forgot to add: I have only watched AR for the past few seasons (didn't get to see Rob and Amber). However, I have definitely not seen this level of hostility between teams. In their second go-round, the other teams ganged up on the Cowboys, but I think I remember some teams expressing remorse and saying they were only doing it to get ahead, but they still liked the Cowboys personally (not that that excused their behavior, but moving on...). There was also some friction between the Globetrotters and a couple of teams, but again I seem to recall that that was during the stress of doing a challenge, and it certainly wasn't anywhere near as intense as what we're seeing here.

[wannasee]

That was the most gorgeous scenery! Just an amazing episode to watch. I'm sorry, but I'm with those who aren't so down on any of the teams - whether it's BP, BB or Army. I give a LOT of leeway to the edit (as mentioned by Fanny Mare) and even without, well, I was cracking up over most of the snottiness, when I finally watched tonight.

The "teachers" are really great people, so I'm fine with them but I still don't see the big deal about concealing their profession. I also think it's funny that Art & JJ pegged them for cops. I think there's a lot we didn't see that led to that but it wasn't just the "UC" reference, they said something about casework, I think? And there must have been more. I admit I did not like how the show highlighted Jamie's training accident. Scenarios can get intense but, really, a "gun going off" during training means a finger was on a trigger when it shouldn't have been. Glad she recovered and all but just had a coworker get some pretty heavy repercussions for a vaguely similar thing. /soapbox

I don't know that BP were being insincere at the mat with Phil or not - I hope that it was a reflection of not further stirring the pot, seeing how bad it got? I'd have had trouble with that bike, too, and glad to see V. get the target before Ralph. Btw: Who on earth would think throwing something at a target would be easier than hopping for a minute?!

Love Bopper and Mark and was laughing at Bopper scooping up the candy and the exhuberant: "White men CAN jump!" Really, really would like to see them win.

As for the previews...I was wondering if the BP statement could have been about Bopper and Mark? Although I don't recall them saying they were in an alliance. But very curious to see what that is about. I love this season!