Static Zombie

Re: The Yeild. My impression is that Rob's argument was that Ron and Kelly were the only team that was a real threat to beating them. If they are sure that U&J can't beat them in the finals, then Yielding R&K was the right move. Also, considering the amount of begging that R&K should have had to be doing, it was possible that they were way behind, and yielding them might have pushed them out. As it turned out the yield could have worked - if Meredith and Joyce had been bus drivers in former lives, R&K would have lost. Also, if R&A think M&G are going to come in dead last no matter what (a reasonable assumption), you might as well slow down R&K since you aren't going to affect the final three teams and this way you extend your lead on the 2nd place team. Personally, I would have yeilded U&J, but I don't think it is necessarily a slam dunk.

The bigger mistake I think was having Rob doing the Roadblock. He's DONE now. The roadblock counts are:
Rob/Amber = 6/4
Ron/Kelly = 5/5
U/Joyce = 5/4

That could be a major disadvantage if there is a brute strength roadblock or an eating one, although Amber should be able to do anything given enough time.

Finally, I could hardly watch during the (brilliantly edited) bus driving scene. I have so much love for U&J and so much not-love for R&K and M&G that I was sitting on the edge of my seat terrifed that Joyce would lose. I love this show.

Actually, I was looking at it the other way -- what does Ron see in Kelly (well, other than the obvious, of course). She's a brat.

And yes, huge mistake by Rob with the yield. I must say, I hope he winds up paying for it. I wasn't rooting for him before, but after last week I went from the somewhat neutral camp to the rooting against actively camp. Don't ever get cocky, dude. Instant karma's gonna get you.

i agree with eddie. kelly is a size zero in clothes, iq, and personality. ron is no prize, but kelly is a brat.

i am hoping that uchenna and joyce win, ron and kelly tear each other apart, and the police give rob a full body cavity search.

Is that hourglass really 30 minutes in duration (a half-hourglass I guess)? I don't think I ever heard how long the elapsed time was supposed to be, seemed more like fifteen minutes or so.

Kelly is just awful, after that POW comment and all. Great strategy to get your man by whining about how he doesn't hurry up and marry you.

I'm guessing that the finale features a 4000 mile plane ride East from Britain to somewhere in Asia. Exhausting even compared to previous seasons I would say.

Okay, I'll admit, I haven't been keeping track of the yields, but EACH TEAM gets one. And there can be MULTIPLE yields.

So if Ron & Kelly still have their yield - and again, I can't remember - then Rob & Amber yielding them is NOT necessarily the bonehead play you think it is... because R&K could have still yeilded Uchenna and Joyce... which, logially, they should have, since otherwise they've thrown away their yield for the game.

With that in mind, I really felt like it was 50/50. Especially since the only times U&J have come in first was that Fast Forward, and Rob's "earlier flight" fiasco, right? They have not shown themselves to be half the competitors that R&K have.

Again, not saying Rob shouldn't have done it the other way, but it's absolutely not as cut-and-dried as you claim.

If anything, it Ron & Kelly's game to lose for not using their yield.

(if they had used it earlier in the game and thus did NOT have one to use, then... uh... nevermind)

I'm pretty sure only one team can use a Yield on any given leg. I know that this week, one of the last two teams said they opted not to use the yield, but I believe they did so unnecessarily and were just doing it out of habit or paranoia over breaking rules. There's no place on the Yield station for multiple pictures, and if everyone could Yield it would be absurd.

There are only three yields on the whole race and that was the last one.

While M&G were sweet and I admire them for what they accomplished, if I never hear her whining the name "Meredith" again I'll die happy.

R&A...hate hate hate them. They are obnoxious and are constantly talking about how the other teams are talking about them. Hi, they aren't. And getting a tour guide for every leg may seem resourceful, but it really takes the challenge away from it and seems a lot like cheating which is R's forte. I used to have some respect for A but she's just as big of a dirt bag as he is, she's just quieter about it.

R&K...they are OK but not meant for a relationship. Or at least they don't work well together under stress. The comment about the POW thing was a little much and I'm sure a lot of people will take great offense to it.

U&G...good people doing good things. Totally good karma and the last I heard there was a rumor that they won. Some betting agency was getting so many bets for them to win after the first episode that they stopped taking bets on the show all together suspecting that the fact that they actually won leaked out.

Oh I hope Dave is right. U&G are the only ones worth rooting for in my opinion. I don't like the tour guide help that R&A have gotten - it totally unevens the playing field. I will be interested in seeing if there are any rules changes in upcoming seasons based on R&A tactics.

Speaking of which, has anyone seen news on Season 9 - back to 2 people teams?

Wordity word, Peter! They didn't show much of Rob's "logic" but what they showed made no sense.

Bottom line, they were so far ahead of the 3rd and 4th place teams, they were guaranteed to finish no lower than second in that leg. And since everybody's motto in TAR (according to me, if I ran the world) should be "Anything But Last" - at least until the finals! - why would Rob and Amber care about whether they, or Ron/Kelly, finished first vs second? Unless he's thinking there may be a reward at the end of the leg...or just don't want to go into the finals in anything but first place...but that's not keeping your eye on the bottom line.

So then the decision becomes - there are going to be three teams in the finals and we know we're one of them. Which other two would we want to face? OK, Ron & Kelly are basicaly guaranteed to be top three also. So it's down to Joyce/Uchenna, and Gretchen/Meredith.

HELL-O!!! Get rid of Joyce & Uchenna!

If the final comes down to a footrace, Joyce & Uchenna can haul ass (remember the boat stacking task in London? Joyce was RUNNING the boat trailer up and down the path, at least for the first three trips!) They're more of a threat than they look.

Oh, and Ron and Kelly? MORONS! If I had won a fancy suite in a hotel, but lost all my money, I would have done one (or both) of the following:

1) BEG THE NIGHT BEFORE the next leg starts, when you have lots of time to get a huge hunka cash together!

2) head for the hotel, find somebody checking in, and say "we have this fabulous suite, wanna trade with us for $200?"

In Ron and Kelly's defense, they were instructed that they could not accumulate money (i.e. beg) until the next leg started. So no suite swapping or hitting up tourists until the next morning...

But that is all I will defend for them, otherwise I think they are bozos.