"Playoffs? What do you mean, (golf) playoffs?"

Death, taxes, and Race delays: the tournament went to extra holes, so most of the States will be a few minutes behind. Regardless, please confine all discussion of tonight's episode to this thread until midnight EST, by which time the West will still be laughing at those of us stupid enough to live in a zone where it's possible for things not to start on time.

May Phil use your city as a finish line.

If this show aired on the Weather Channel, there would be a hurricane every Sunday.

• RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:00 PM, 02-17-13
• RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:05 PM, 02-17-13
  • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:08 PM, 02-17-13
    • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:20 PM, 02-17-13
• RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:29 PM, 02-17-13
  • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:33 PM, 02-17-13
    • Just wondering,moonbaby, 09:41 PM, 02-17-13
      • RE: Just wondering,PepeLePew13, 09:49 PM, 02-17-13
      • RE: Just wondering,jbug, 01:08 PM, 02-19-13
• RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,michel, 09:57 PM, 02-17-13
  • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,Snidget, 10:02 PM, 02-17-13
    • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,michel, 11:33 PM, 02-17-13
      • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,Snidget, 07:50 AM, 02-18-13
        • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,michel, 06:53 PM, 02-18-13
          • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,dabo, 08:56 PM, 02-18-13
            • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,Nuume, 07:28 PM, 02-19-13
              • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,Karchita, 04:04 AM, 02-21-13
          • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,Snidget, 11:18 PM, 02-18-13
            • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,dabo, 11:54 PM, 02-18-13
              • Phil says...,PepeLePew13, 05:19 PM, 02-19-13
  • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 10:03 PM, 02-17-13
    • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,featherfish81, 11:43 PM, 02-17-13
      • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,jbug, 01:15 PM, 02-19-13
  • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,skeetergirl87, 11:34 AM, 02-19-13
    • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,dabo, 12:21 PM, 02-19-13
    • RE: TAR #22 Episode #1 East Coast Spoiler Thread,Belle Book, 12:35 PM, 02-19-13
• At the pit stop...,PepeLePew13, 09:57 PM, 02-17-13
  • RE: At the pit stop...,PepeLePew13, 10:01 PM, 02-17-13
    • RE: At the pit stop...,Karchita, 04:11 AM, 02-21-13
• Express pass,michel, 10:00 PM, 02-17-13
  • RE: Express pass,Belle Book, 02:00 PM, 02-18-13
    • RE: Express pass,Karchita, 04:08 AM, 02-21-13
  • RE: Express pass,dabo, 12:18 PM, 02-19-13
• Totally ridiculous prediction.,Estee, 04:16 PM, 02-18-13
  • RE: Totally ridiculous prediction.,michel, 06:55 PM, 02-18-13

TAR's on right now at 8 pm here!

Let the season begin!

We start at the Griffith Observatory in L.A.

Brak brak 11 teams brak brak mullet-head brak brak here's the rest of the losers. Something like 9 out of the 11 teams are right out of Central Casting, cast off a script.

Let's see if Bates get into a fight with the roller girls. They both can handle the rough and tumble stuff.

First clue is found inside one of the Ford Fusions they will be driving to the airport in.

We're off to... Bora Bora!

When teams arrive there, they will take part in a special drilling challenge and the winner gets an express pass, plus they can give one to another team.

LAST EDITED ON 02-17-13 AT 09:24 PM (EST)

The usual scrum at the airport and the usual lying to each other about what they do for a living (the doctor twins said they were "deliverymen" at first) and the usual fake faces and fake laughs pretending to get along.

Only two flights available to go to Bora Bora.

Teams arrive in Tahiti and are given leis by a welcoming committee at the airport. Discussion on who to give the second express pass to assuming one of the first five teams win the leg.

Another flight from Tahiti to Bora Bora. Spectacular scenery.

Roadblock = Who's ready to take a giant leap for a million bucks? Take a copter up 10,000 feet and jump down (I'm assuming they meant with a parachute) and get a clue when they touch down.

Clue tells the teams to go to Eden Beach via water taxi. Their next clue tells them to search sandcastles (400 of them spread out on the beach). Whatever they destroy but don't find a clue, they must put the sandcastle back together.

Oy. If you thought Cochran's sunburn was bad in the first episode of Survivor Caramoan, wait until this challenge...

The second group of folks arrive at the helicopter sign up. Mona, for some reason, signs herself onto the last flight instead of onto the 5th flight. We go to break just as there is a comment saying it would be horrifying if this is the cause of an elimination. Hmm.

Back from the commercial break. Phil just tweeted that this challenge is absolutely brutal, was a lot worse than it looked on TV. They've just started and I can already tell it's going to be a nasty, ugly challenge and this is probably where the hype that "three teams quit" comes from.

One of the twins: Let the sandcastles talk to you.
Other twin: Shut up.
First twin: That's code for "I love you"

Problem is that the sand is too fine and cooked from the sun, it won't form a decent castle. And it's got to be just the way it was before it was smashed up.

Jessica and John didn't take long to find a clue and they're off to catch a float to an outrigger canoe to take to the pit stop. Not long after getting into the canoe, they tip right over into the water.

A local dog strolls over and pisses on one of the sandcastles.

Bates quickly finds a clue. The twins are still digging and fighting with each other, having arrived there well before any of the other teams.

if there is some rule that prevents the partner of the clue searcher to provide some shade for them? Bora Bora looks absolutely wonderful, hot or not.

Good question, nobody's been particularly close to their partner other than mullethead.

I wondered why they didn't take a shirt or something out of their bags to cover their head & shoulders;
but then later I wondered "where are their bags" as I didn't see them take them with them to the pit stop.

Why didn't the firefighters simply go back to look for the clue? The penalty was only imposed at the mat so they could have gone back and they would have nearly 4 hours to find that clue.

Maybe there is a rule once you decide to take the penalty you are stuck with it. Would be a good question for the Webby Interview!

...Or they created that rule because they wanted to keep the country stars.

Well they don't seem to be allowed to take 2 hour breaks during the task or wander off site for awhile to cool down then come back for any extended time.

Maybe they do have a either you keep going or you quit, you can't quit for an hour to rest up then come back and attack the task again (when no one else was allowed a break).

After all part of some of these tasks seems to build pressure on the person to see if they crack. They don't crack if they can all quit for however long they want and then start back up again whenever they want.

I remember a task (don't have details though) that had one person inside a building while the partner had to wait outside. The one doing the task went out of the building, completely depressed, but after a while and a lot of encouragements, he went back in to finish the task so there wasn't a rule before about taking breaks.

It also happens often in eating tasks where they will go puke in the bathroom, take a walk and then come back.

We have also seen people go right by a task and come back to it instead of having to take the penalty.

Either the firemen didn't think of going back or were too honorable to do it or the producers didn't want to keep them over the country singers. Were the firemen that dumb?

Finally got a chance to watch the episode. Gah, a searching task right off the bat.

I remember Bopper and Mark taking a long break, appearing to have quit, and then Mark going back out to do the dance.

Anyway, all three teams accepted the penalty and received the next clue, this wasn't a case of one team going back out to complete something they had inadvertantly skipped.

>Finally got a chance to watch
>the episode. Gah, a
>searching task right off the
>bat.
>
>I remember Bopper and Mark taking
>a long break, appearing to
>have quit, and then Mark
>going back out to do
>the dance.
>
>Anyway, all three teams accepted the
>penalty and received the next
>clue, this wasn't a case
>of one team going back
>out to complete something they
>had inadvertantly skipped.
I think this is the key reason they weren't allowed to go back. Once they received the clue to the next task, they had effectively earned the penalty, and going back to do it would serve no purpose. The only way to get the clue is to either finish the task or accept the penalty.

I agree. The key is the clue. Once you take the next clue, you can't go back.

I've seen breaks for breakdowns, but it may be that once you say you quit, you can't just go completely away from the location, take a 2 hour nap and then decide, oh I'm ready to go again.

A breakdown usually, at least for me, isn't a restorative as a I'm not doing this at all any more and I'll just hang out for a couple of hours and maybe take a nap. But your mileage may vary.

I suspect the rules of quitting were laid out before the challenge and they didn't change it in the middle of the boat rowing. I mean I know they can for the most part do what they want, but just logistically changing the rules in the middle of a challenge would at least, I would think, require making sure all people involved know you changed the rules at the drop of a hat.

All the teams had been there and taken their clues, so once the last three canoes were in the water the workers probably began cleaning up the beach. No task to go back to.

LAST EDITED ON 02-19-13 AT 08:41 PM (EST)

... once a team has declared they are taking the penalty and have been given the clue, rules say they cannot change their mind or go back to the challenge.

This from a Q-and-A session with Phil on Twitter:

So that's that. The firefighters were outta luck when they kept tipping over while the other teams managed to get through.

More tidbits from Phil on last night's episode...

As firefighters, they probably have a sense of honour in that they all agreed to quit the task and go right to the mat.

If it was me, I would have never quit that task because I would always believe that I could find the clue in less time than the four-hour penalty.

I agree, I wouldn't have quit the task either. Four hours is a LOT of time to look through sand castles.

As long as we're asking What If, was there a rule that you had to rebuild the sand castle before you destroyed another one, or just before you left the task? It might not have been useful when a lot of teams were there, but when it was just a few of you I think I would have rather smashed a bunch before I started rebuilding, to keep better track of where I had looked and where I hadn't.

It looked to me too that they were putting the sand from the castle into the buckets;
instead of knocking it down to see if the clue was there, and then refilling the bucket if it was not.
maybe not a difference in time, but it looked like it was.

What I didn't understand, though, was that Phil said the penalty would be assessed when they start the next leg instead of making them sit for 4 hours before they checked in. Was that just because it didn't really matter at that point since the results would have been the same?

Yes, it was because it really didn't matter. And that was four hours of Phil's life he could do anything else but waste time playing war with the greeter.

LAST EDITED ON 02-19-13 AT 12:35 PM (EST)

Yeah. The last three teams all quit at the same time, so the penalty didn't matter as far as the results at the end of the leg were concerned. It would have been a different story had one of the last three teams remained behind at the Roadblock.

Belle Book

Jessica and John arrive first.

They get two express passes, one to keep for themselves and one for another team. They were part of the group that agreed to give the second pass to whoever finished second, but J&J aren't ready to commit fully to that yet, depending on who it is.

Ah, to answer your question, moonie... mullethead just came over and poured water over his wife's head.

Second at the pit stop... Bates and Anthony, the hockey brothers.

Third - Dave and Connor, the father/son cancer team. They say they were the second team from that core of five teams on the first flight so they should get the pass. Let's see if J&J is willing to cough it up.

The twins are still digging in the sand and getting roasted alive. Ah, they finally get the clue!

Fourth - Pam and Winnie.

Fifth - Mona and Beth, the roller moms.

Twins talk about how they can't swim and all that ... then a few mins later, they tip right over into the water! One of them lost his glasses.

Sixth - JOey and Meghan, the Youtube folks.

Seventh - Mullethead and wife. Phil asks him to take his hat off - "Business in front, party in back."

Eighth - the twins.

The final three teams have been out there digging for three hours now. Max & Katie, Jennifer & Caroline, and Matt & Daniel.

Teams now discussing about quitting and the implications it might have for their chances in getting to the end.

The three decide to take the four-hour penalty at the same time, then they all take off running at once to the canoes! The three teams are all paddling like mad in a race to get to the pit stop.

Nice camera view of the teams tipping over into the water.

Ninth - Max and Katie. Four hour penalty next leg.

Tenth - Caroline and Jennifer. Four hour penalty.

Last and Philiminated - Matt & Daniel.

What a couple of slack jawed yokels. I didn't know firefighters could be so non-sexy. Yuck. Glad to see 'em go.

They go back on their promise! Love it.

Well, at least that's the implication. We might not have the whole story -- for all we know, their considering not using the Express Pass might be misdirection. Let's wait and see.

Anyway, I think I would've just continued with the sandcastles if I was Matt & Dave and saw that the other two were going to quit. After all, it would probably take less than four hours to find a clue, get the outrigger ready and reach the mat. Besides, I'm just too stubborn to quit.

Belle Book

But they were so cocky that they could beat a girl and a half girl team.

Serves 'em right to get sent packing.

Personally, I think the only ones who could absolutely be held to the agreement were the doctors, since it was their idea. It was one of those put on the spot things, the other teams really had no choice but to agree or cause trouble. Like Jonathan in the Phillipines should have agreed with Lisa and Michael on the F3 plan, he still would have had his options open.

David & Conner will fake the ankle injury seen in the preview in order to look like a completely nonthreatening team and get the Express Pass from Jessica & John -- who will be thinking 'He's limping, we can beat them at any time, keep them around for that purpose.'

I'm probably wrong, but...

It would be smart but I'd think that the decision would have to be made during this pit stop, not during the leg.