**ALERT TO CANADIANS** ... It's on right now on CTV, 2 hours early because of the Oscars tonight.

Eating dinner right now, so will be back in a hour or so to give a blow-by-blow detail of how tonight's episode went. Life is good with a PVR so I'll get to skip the commercials tonight.

• RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 08:51 PM, 03-02-14
• RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,dabo, 08:53 PM, 03-02-14
• RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:03 PM, 03-02-14
  • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,dabo, 09:18 PM, 03-02-14
• RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:19 PM, 03-02-14
  • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,kidflash212, 09:08 AM, 03-03-14
    • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,newsomewayne, 10:01 AM, 03-03-14
      • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,kidflash212, 10:22 AM, 03-03-14
• RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:30 PM, 03-02-14
  • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,dabo, 09:33 PM, 03-02-14
    • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:45 PM, 03-02-14
      • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,dabo, 10:06 PM, 03-02-14
      • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,IanQuentin, 10:06 PM, 03-02-14
        • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 10:11 PM, 03-02-14
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• RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,PepeLePew13, 09:38 PM, 03-02-14
• Next week....,PepeLePew13, 09:41 PM, 03-02-14
• RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,ARnutz, 10:22 PM, 03-02-14
  • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,kidflash212, 09:14 AM, 03-03-14
• RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,coldbrewer, 01:25 AM, 03-03-14
  • RE: TAR 24 Half Stars - Episode 2 - East Coast Spoiler Thread,udg, 03:16 AM, 03-03-14

Here we go.

A recap of last week's opener and we lead off with the 'shocking' announcement of Bopper being replaced by Bopgirl. A quick review of some of the roadblocks along the way and we wrap up with the Twinnies being Philiminated. Let me repeat that. The Twinnies Philiminated. Once more, in case you weren't paying attention: The Twinnies are gone and off our television sets.

Do people still say "television sets" in today's parlance?

Anyhoo. Commercials now.

Looks like we're on time here. But it is snowing.

Hope Mark & Mal make it. Plenty of others I'd like to see the last of.

LAST EDITED ON 03-02-14 AT 09:06 PM (EST)

We're still in Guangzhou. China - a country where you can find anything at a competitive price.

Cowboys lead us off with their clue at 8:16 am. Head off to Chen Clan Academy to receive your next clue.

Brenchel get their clue and immediately take off. "Where are you going?" "I have no idea."

Margie and Luke - Margie saying "Just stay calm". Luke immediately starts acting a little manic.

The next five teams all get their clues and they're still less than a hour behind the Cowboys so it's a tightly-packed start.

Chen Clan Academy. Brenchel arrive first and they watch a group doing a ritual and their leader steps up to stamp each of their foreheads with the clue to their next location. They'll have to show their foreheads to the taxi driver so they'll know where to go next.

Road Block! Child's play - find a toy and assemble the motorized car. The instructions are all in Chinese, gazillions of little parts involved so this will take a while.

Dave and Margie are the first two there and do the road block.

Cowboys are lost - 9 teams have passed them by and they're still only at Chen Clan Academy along with the country singers while all of the other teams are already at the Road Block.

Rachel faces the martial arts master first, that was priceless. Then it is off to find a taxi driver who can read. And know things.

Only in China. Good thing they don't try that sort of stunt here in the good ol' USA, some teams would never be seen again.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if the Cowboys could get bounced tonight? Let's see what happens...

Cowboys and country singers neck to neck while searching for taxis.

Back to the Road Block... all of the little kids are running around watching the teams put together their cars. One particular girl is flirting with Flight Time, and eventually she says "I'm going to complain about you." Ornery little gal.

Mark is first to finish, and he & Bopgirl take off for Guangzhou's Children Cultural Center, and they have to take the finished car with them!

Margie is second to finish.

Uh oh... Mark has left his backpack behind after the taxi left with them and their car. Trouble.

Margie and Luke manage to get their car tied up on the roof of the taxi with some rope. All of the other early finishers so far have just jammed the car into the trunk and held it down with rope with the trunk lid open.

Mark now realizes his backpack is missing and they have to go back to look for it.

Country singers both say they're really bad at assembling things. After a while, Jennifer schmoozes up to Cord and ask if they could get the other express pass -- and several other teams immediately notice this. Cord is hemming and hawing the whole time, and Jet finishes quickly. After a brief interaction, they give the express pass to the country singers and both teams take off, leaving the rest of the teams to fume.

Probably not a bad idea, really... the country singers are not long-term threats in the game, I'd say. Better them than to give to a really strong team.

At the Cultural Center, teams give their car to a child to drive.

Detour! Tether-ball (make ten passes on playing hacky sack) or China Cup (painful-looking therapy with ten cups placed on the back to suck up skin).

Mallory and Mark are really squawking at each other. Their personalities are completely opposite from when they were with their own partners (Gary and Bopper, respectively).

LAST EDITED ON 03-03-14 AT 09:30 AM (EST)

From a strategic point of view, it was a smart move for the cowboys. Knowing the country singers were going to use it immediately, it took the second express pass out of play. Not sure they actually planned it that way but it worked out that way. Don't think they would have handed over the Express Pass to any of the other teams if they were struggling in the same way as the country singers.

Cowboys better hope to stay in the lead on any leg with a U-Turn. They are the biggest targets.

LAST EDITED ON 03-03-14 AT 10:01 AM (EST)

Cowboys...are the biggest targets.

Maybe. But I wouldn't be surprised if their screwing up at the beginning didn't help move that target off of them. That was a leg they could've easily dominated just from the virtue of their head start. Not winning the leg helps make them look less threatining.

Still, they finished the task so quickly even after showing up so late. And it would be good strategy for another team to force them to use the Express Pass.

Mark and Mallory still ripping into each other.

Now at Liwanhu Park, Margie and Luke are there to do the feather-ball detour. Not off to a great start as Luke is already howling at his mom to pay attention.

Meghan and John are the last two teams still doing the Road Block. Meghan is actually helping John to finish his car and we get a flashback to Season 22 when these two teams had an alliance.

Team Kentucky still yapping in the car and they find the backpack. Mark says his opinion is nothing to Mallory. Mallory says she feels like she's going to throw up. They're just loafing and taking their time instead of rushing off to the next clue.

Margie and Luke get to 9 passes in a row before missing the tenth and having to start over again. Dave and Conner are the first to complete this detour.

They now need to make their way to the pit stop at Shamian Island.

Country Singers and Margie/Luke are the next two to finish. Some time later, Jet/Cord and Brenchel finish, soon after that are the Globetrotters and Leo/Jamal.

Mallory/Mark really have come unhinged.

Mallory/Mark really have come unhinged. Hate seeing that, always liked the both of them. Just goes to show how the race can turn on a dumb mistake.

Definitely, but it also shows that they just never had the right chemistry or temperament to work together. You never heard a cross word between Mallory and Gary or Bopper and Mark in their seasons, and the time Mark had to do all those dances in the extreme heat in their season was much more stressful than tonight's IMHO, yet he and Bopper never blew up at each other.

That's true, they were at a big disadvantage not really knowing each other very well before the race. With some more time together it might have started clicking, or not, but at least they gave it a go.

Rare at this stage that a Pit Stop is basically a bunching point, great how it worked out for the clap off though.

You know, I've always wondered if the show orchestrated some of the NELs after the fact once they knew who was last. But to eliminate Mark/Mallory like that does show that they probably don't orchestrate these NELs to keep lovable teams on the race.

They've never had a NEL so early in the game, not counting an end-of-the-first-leg-continuation but it's rare to see an NEL before the fourth or fifth episode.

I'm not sure this proves that they don't pull a NEL out of a hat to protect some teams - doesn't seem like Mark & Mallory would have gone far anyway. The first leg continuation in the other supposed All-Star season always felt like it was done to save the cowboys. Cowboys fans would have blown up if they were the first to be eliminated especially after the answer sharing that went on.

At Shamian Island... the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop is ... Brenchel! By mere steps ahead of Margie and Luke. Phil signs the placement for each of the first three teams for Luke's benefit. Country Singers arrive moments later in third place.

Fourth is Dave/Conner and fifth is Flight Time and Big Easy. Sixth are the cowboys and seventh are the Afghanimals. All seven teams are together on the pit stop, making for a real crowd around Phil.

Brenchel wins $2500 each. What, no sponsors this season?

Joey/Meghan and Jessica/John are the next two to finish, leaving Team Kentucky still battling it out with the feather balls and each other.

Jessica/John are team 8 and Joey/Meghan are team 9. Meghan helping John didn't hurt them after all!

Mark/Mallory finally finish and Mallory seems to make a move to hug Mark then backed off while getting their next clue. They're last and have been Philiminated. Each of the other teams have gathered around at the pit stop, which is indeed a rather rare event to see on this Race. They were complimentary toward each other at the pit stop so at least they were quick to make up after this frustrating leg.

LAST EDITED ON 03-02-14 AT 09:43 PM (EST)

We're in what looks like Indonesia or Malaysia. One team has a hard time climbing the rocks with a waterfall splashing over them. Globetrotters are dancing with some locals. Brenchel tips over in the rapids and are telling each other to be careful as they get swept down the creek.

ETA: Yes, it's in Malaysia.

It's official. I hate them all.

I do not think I can stomach watching these non-stars this season.

Ick. Barf.

I agree. Dave & Conner are the only team left that I have any lvoe for. While some of these teams haven't been as insufferable as they were on their first(or second) season, I still think it is just a matter of time.

Hmmm...bag or chance for $1 million dollars? SMH

thanks Agman!

That was only one of several mistakes. If they'd gone back for it as soon as they realized it was missing, it wouldn't have taken as long. Mallory wasting time while refusing to go back for it after they delivered the toy could have cost them enough minutes to make the difference (since the other teams were still on the mat, they weren't that far behind), and I'm pretty sure they could have done the other detour faster than the hackysack one, though we can't be sure since no one picked it.

Thanks to tribephyl for the sigpic!