So the producers, having noticed that teams are running in packs more than ever, decided to -- encourage it. Here, give this freebie to your buddies/pals/designated patsies and keep them in the game for a while longer.

The Race has always had social elements to the game: it's unavoidable. But the stronger aspect was a meritocracy crossed with a healthy dose of dumb luck: stay quick, think fast, and stay off the about-to-be-delayed flight when you're not sure which one that is. Adding this -- it's feeding into alliances, gang-ups, and 'eat the strong'. This is a subtle thing, true. (It's more subtle than the U-Turn, but so is a punch in the face.) But the direction the show is continuing to take by adding it has a signpost, and it's marked This Way To MB's Hell.

Lots of people go down that road. Most don't come back.

• RE: The Alliance Pass.,Starshine, 03:58 PM, 01-24-13
• RE: The Alliance Pass.,kidflash212, 12:21 PM, 01-25-13
• Backfire.,Estee, 06:55 PM, 03-04-13

Que?

My feeling has always been that there should be a mixture of directions in some clue boxes so that teams cannot follow each other blindly.

TAROZ2 had a "Salvage Pass" as a prize which allowed the team that won the first leg to either save the last team to arrive from elimination or gain a 1-hour lead in the second leg.

Seemed very odd to me.

Unnecessary twist, don't see how this makes the show more interesting. I foresee a leg where two express passes and a double U-turn are used all at once.

It was accidental, but it still took out the twist with an explosion force of .85 Grodner. Use it to try and keep an injured team on the course, desperately hoping to knock out the latest alpha male edition -- and then came Superleg, which meant all the Pass did was make the receivers into the first team to get the next clue.

Oops.