11/25 TAR 21 Show Discussion **West Coast Spoilers**

[sweetpea]

Just so long as my Chippies don't fall to the dreaded "Beloved F4" curse, like Cha-cha-cha. I want to see them realize they are in the F3, they have every chance of making it to the end, and then get that competitive spirit going.

I like to think the bad-luck fairy (along with her cousin the karma fairy) will catch up to the Twins and Team Texas. They have had fairly smooth sailing to this point, with no real pressure or bad luck with taxis or directions or flights. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is coming their way just when I want it to most?? Like, the final leg??

Speaking of directions, I'm really missing all the self-driving we've usually had on TAR. They have rarely used cars and tried to navigate their way around, mostly it's been trains/buses/cabs etc. Not sure why that is, but it has taken some of the opportunity for teams to get lost, waste time, etc away.

[Babbred]

Teams have accidentally U-turned other teams that were ahead of them. (This happened earlier this season with the Monster Truckers, I believe, who made a guess and got it wrong.)

The U-turn is a strategy. All the teams knew it was coming. And A&R knew they had a target on their backs, and they were prepared...they were planning on U-turning the Beekmans. But the Twinnies thought it through and set up a strategy that counteracted it.

The Chippies could have U-turned the Twins, leaving Texas to U-turn A&R, if they wanted.

What I thought was...well, "funny" isn't exactly the right word...is that it was the Twinnies plan, but they took the Fast Forward so they never faced the U-turn.

Am I the only person who finds this whole thing scuzzy? I mean, you summed it up nicely. The Twins wanted to eliminate A & R, so they bullied Chips and Texas into going along with their plan to do it. And then, rather than face the U-Turn themselves, they did the FF and left the others to do their dirty work for them. Texas had submitted to them before, and the Twins must have figured Chips would be easy to dominate since they were so nice. I don't know how to put this into words, except that I feel like taking a bath.


I wish it had truly been strategy on Chips' part. If they had said something like, "We want to eliminate A & R because they're stronger competition than the Farmers" than I could have respected them. That would at least show that they had thought it through and were trying to race. As it was, though, they only considered it because the Twins had put it into their head. The whole 5 minute spiel at the U-Turn was whether they should follow their conscience or the Twins. I sympathize tremendously with their choice, and don't necessarily disagree with it, but I just wish I could respect it.

[Florimel]

The twins will happily bully anyone into anything if they think it will give them an advantage. Then they call other teams annoying. Each week those twins get more annoying than they were the week before. I would have no problem sitting down to dinner with any of the other remaining couples including Abi and Ryan. I'd cross the street to avoid the twins. Crossing all available body parts that they go next week now that they've used the express pass.

[MagicBullet]

Bullied? Really? Does someone have an in with production that we don't know about, because I certainly didn't see any bullying going on. No threats were made. They just hatched a plan. That was all. And I'm not sure why there are conspiracy theories going around about how the twins wormed their way out of using the U-turn, as if they knew in advance that there would be a FF coming up.


Anyway, at this point I'm happy with any of these teams winning. The twins did something morally questionable (and Texas participated) but A/R were actually nasty to the other teams and said mean things about them. And that's far worse in my book. When I was a kid I dropped my birthday money from my grandmother in the middle of a store somewhere and it just vanished. Never found it. Never turned in. And well, it sucked. But c'est la vie. Someone talks smack about me? Way, way worse. Because it was a personal attack on me. The money thing was just "someone's" money. Saying nasty stuff is ... well, personal.

Just my perspective.

[Fanny Mare]

Bullied? Really? Does someone have an in with production that we don't know about, because I certainly didn't see any bullying going on. No threats were made. They just hatched a plan. That was all. And I'm not sure why there are conspiracy theories going around about how the twins wormed their way out of using the U-turn, as if they knew in advance that there would be a FF coming up.


Anyway, at this point I'm happy with any of these teams winning. The twins did something morally questionable (and Texas participated) but A/R were actually nasty to the other teams and said mean things about them. And that's far worse in my book. When I was a kid I dropped my birthday money from my grandmother in the middle of a store somewhere and it just vanished. Never found it. Never turned in. And well, it sucked. But c'est la vie. Someone talks smack about me? Way, way worse. Because it was a personal attack on me. The money thing was just "someone's" money. Saying nasty stuff is ... well, personal.

Just my perspective.

Nobody bullied anyone . The plan was hatched so that Abbie and Ryan wouldn't go any further. That's what happens when three teams , team up

[Tilden]

Bullied? Really? Does someone have an in with production that we don't know about, because I certainly didn't see any bullying going on. No threats were made. They just hatched a plan. That was all. And I'm not sure why there are conspiracy theories going around about how the twins wormed their way out of using the U-turn, as if they knew in advance that there would be a FF coming up.


Anyway, at this point I'm happy with any of these teams winning. The twins did something morally questionable (and Texas participated) but A/R were actually nasty to the other teams and said mean things about them. And that's far worse in my book. When I was a kid I dropped my birthday money from my grandmother in the middle of a store somewhere and it just vanished. Never found it. Never turned in. And well, it sucked. But c'est la vie. Someone talks smack about me? Way, way worse. Because it was a personal attack on me. The money thing was just "someone's" money. Saying nasty stuff is ... well, personal.

Just my perspective.

Just a point of clarification: the Twinnies have definitely talked smack about other teams too. It's not like they're innocent in that regard--they made it particularly clear that they hated A/R and were willing to say they were better than other teams.

[CCL]

I wish it had truly been strategy on Chips' part. If they had said something like, "We want to eliminate A & R because they're stronger competition than the Farmers" than I could have respected them. That would at least show that they had thought it through and were trying to race. As it was, though, they only considered it because the Twins had put it into
their head. The whole 5 minute spiel at the U-Turn was whether they should follow their conscience or the Twins. I sympathize tremendously with their choice, and don't necessarily disagree with it, but I just wish I could respect it.

But the Chips did say exactly that at the uturn (about choosing to uturn Abbie and Ryan as they were such a strong
team) when they finally decided to use it. And, yeah, the twins might have come up with the plan but the Chips freely decided to put it into execution. And whereas the Chips are nice, and were loathe to use the uturn, it is entirely possible the Chips might have ended up choosing to uturn A and R of their own volition regardless, knowing the race was coming to a close and wanting to further their own position.

I've never liked the uturn. I dislike that a team might get out because of another team's actions. But it is part of the game, and people are eliminated for "unfair" reasons all the time (bad cab drivers etc). So while I did feel a bit bad at A and R being uturned, I did think the idea to "waste" a uturn, thereby precluding A and R from using it, was rather brilliant.

[Bearcata]

I love Jaymes and James they are such an upbeat team.

I have to say that if Ryan and Abi had won the 2 million I don't believe for an instance they would have helped out Jaymes's dad. In both cases Team Ryan and Team Chip and Dale the money would have been life changing. I totally understand that Jaymes is doing it to help his dad and Ryan is doing it to help himself. I also totally believe that Abi and Ryan would have U-Turned Jaymes and James if they had to without blinking an eye. I do hope though that Ryan doesn't turn into an a$$hole over this after the race toward Chip and Dale.

[jadewarlock]

Just so long as my Chippies don't fall to the dreaded "Beloved F4" curse, like Cha-cha-cha. I want to see them realize they are in the F3, they have every chance of making it to the end, and then get that competitive spirit going.

I like to think the bad-luck fairy (along with her cousin the karma fairy) will catch up to the Twins and Team Texas. They have had fairly smooth sailing to this point, with no real pressure or bad luck with taxis or directions or flights. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is coming their way just when I want it to most?? Like, the final leg??

Speaking of directions, I'm really missing all the self-driving we've usually had on TAR. They have rarely used cars and tried to navigate their way around, mostly it's been trains/buses/cabs etc. Not sure why that is, but it has taken some of the opportunity for teams to get lost, waste time, etc away.

Maybe the teams have assessed so many speeding tickets and fines racing that production just said enough and found it cheaper to just charge them taxi. This would hold true given they've had a few teams such as Dallas and Starr a few years ago mention a speeding ticket that wasn't on the TV because the time penalty didn't make a difference in standings.

At least they're being given non-verbal clues - i.e. pictures on Russian money and the shoes and flag at the start this week - to balance out that change.

And - as far as the bad-luck fairy and team Karma - yes, Texas and the Twins are long overdue for that. The twins too I think cannot use the express pass anymore - or this is the last leg, so their luck there is about to run out. Team longhorns... well, I have a feeling it'll be at the final four/three part if not earlier.

(ETA - Florimel, when did the twins use the express pass? IF it was last week I apologize as I was unable to see last week's leg due to real-life issues).

[pretlitdev]

Twins used the express pass last week to get past the time zone challenge. I believe that was the last week they were able to use it anyway-they mentioned something of the sort the week of the synchronized swimming challenge.