Month: November 2008

The Amazing Race 13 Episode 10

Andrew & Dan continued to screw up in The Amazing Race 13 Episode 9, but try as they might, they could not get themselves eliminated and instead were greeted by a non-elimination when they arrived at the mat in last place.

One football game ended (late), then we were greeted with another one. With that, 60 Minutes is about 40 minutes late. A live blog will begin when 60 Minutes is over.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Toni & Dallas
Second: Ken & Tina
Third: Nick & Starr
Fourth: Andrew & Dan

Departure times aren’t given, and normally when they hide something like that, it means someone’s so far ahead or behind they don’t want to completely kill the drama. Either that or production difficulties messed with the departure times and made them more than 12 hours from arrival.

The first stop is a retired nuclear submarine, where they will look for an actor from the Hunt for Red October. The first three teams hit an hours of operation of 9:00.

The next stop is the Graveyard of Fallen Monuments, which means they’ll first need to deal with nightmarish Moscow traffic. Twice for Andrew & Dan, who went 40 minutes out of their way to the wrong park.

The road block is to identify the number of Stalin and Lenin statues in the park (labeled only in Russian), combine the numbers, and tell their guess to the shopkeeper. If they are correct, they will be given a book; if they are incorrect, they must wait 10 minutes before trying again. On the page that was the same as their correct guess, they’ll be directed to the apartment of a famous Russian author, Mikhail Bulgakov.

Road block (in order of arrival): Nick, Dallas, Tina, Dan

While Ken & Tina are arguing as they arrive at the road block, Nick & Starr steal their cab, which has GPS (though they still arrived at the road block third). Nick arrives at the shop and is correct on his first guess. Dallas is incorrect on his first guess, and for some reason he’s further complicating his wrong answer by reversing the numbers, apparently confusing Lenin and Stalin. He tries again and is wrong again. Tina is wrong on her first guess, but she’s on the right track. After working with Tina, Dallas is closer but still wrong. Tina is correct on her next guess and lets Dallas know what’s right. She’s kicking herself afterwards for this, as is Ken. Dallas finally gets it right. Dan’s clueless, but with the assistance of a local, he manages to get through the task pretty well. His first guess is close but incorrect, though. The good news for him is that Andrew has arrived to see Toni still sitting there waiting. He tries upping it by one and is correct on his next guess.

The better news for Dan is that Dallas left his bag with the passports and money in the cab. It’s possible to get through a leg without money and may be possible to get through it without a passport if they’re not going to another country, but sooner or later this will present a problem. This is not the first time Americans have begged on a street on this show, and that’s pretty much their only option at this point. They find a local to give them directions and cash. They decide to take the metro, which is a further complication because the clue specifically says to travel by taxi.

From there, teams will go to Sokolniki Park, where they’ll search for a lady with a shetland pony.

When Toni & Dallas arrive, they are denied their next clue (instead of just receiving a penalty) until they travel by taxi. Given that they’re neck and neck with Andrew & Dan, things aren’t looking good, but at least Andrew & Dan must complete their speed bump first. They get some cash to get back to the apartment building.

Andrew & Dan’s speed bump is to perform with a group of traditional Russian dancers. Based on last week when they couldn’t even march correctly, this should prove problematic, albeit entertaining. Their first attempt is rejected. Their second attempt is still pitiful but apparently close enough.

The detour is a choice between ride the rails or ride the lines. In ride the rails, teams will catch a train to a snack shop to receive a samsa (pastry) with a wrapper directing them to another train. Then they will find a statue of the man who created the Cyrillic alphabet, and there they will be given a postcard with the name of the station they’ll have to head to last. There are a lot of trains, and everything’s written in Cyrillic, but trains come so frequently that they should be able to catch another one to fix their mistakes quickly. In ride the lines, teams will ride a trolley bus to a keymaker. He will give them a key which they will use for a storage box after taking another trolley bus. The storage box contains the postcard with their final destination. The trolley buses travel on a fixed course, but they must make sure they’re on the correct mode of travel and will have to contend with Moscow traffic.

Ride the rails: Nick & Starr, Toni & Dallas
Ride the lines: Ken & Tina, Andrew & Dan

With Nick being from New York, it doesn’t seem he’s having any trouble with the subway. Ken & Tina are, as Phil warned, on the wrong type of transport, just a regular bus. This won’t do anything to help their continued bickering. Somehow, Andrew & Dan are doing their task with no problem, and they edge out Ken & Tina in a footrace to the mat. However, Ken & Tina need to go back and find their clue at the end of the detour, which they have not yet completed. Not that it’ll end up mattering.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is VDNKh Park.

First: Nick & Starr (win a trip to Anguilla)
Second: Andrew & Dan
Third: Ken & Tina
Eliminated: Toni & Dallas

Phil comes out of the place with the storage box and tells Toni & Dallas they have been eliminated. Dallas made a pretty critical mistake, but Andrew & Dan being in the final three is just wrong.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 13 Episode 11 You Look Like Peter Pan, where we will find out who The Amazing Race 13 winner is, which airs Sunday at 8/7cish on CBS.

The Biggest Loser Families Episode 11

After Amy turned on her team the prior week, Vicky decided she hated her guts, treated her like an outcast, and called her as many vile, hateful things as she could think of in The Biggest Loser Families Episode 10. So how did Amy get even? Rather than voting her out when given the chance, she instead voted out Coleen, thus handing control of the game back over to Vicky. This just doesn’t add up.

Jillian guarantees that Vicky will still get revenge on Amy, whether she was dumb enough to save her last time or not.

Amy believes they’re moving on. Like adults. Heba lets us know Vicky’s not exactly an adult, though.

This week is NFL week. Jerry Rice and Steve Young are there to meet them. They will be doing some football training drills. The winner will be able to give $10,000 to the school of their choice from NFL Play 60, which helps fight childhood obesity. Once they’re done with the course, they’re informed of a twist. They don’t need the fastest time. Rather, they need the best improvement over their first time, as they’ll be running it again. Vicky slacked off during her first run, sensing that there would be a twist.

Heba: 5 seconds improvement
Amy: 7 seconds
Michelle: 11 seconds
Ed: 12 seconds
Renee: 17 seconds
Vicky: 23 seconds

Bob’s worried about Ed, who’s having trouble keeping up with the girls.

At the competition, the players will need to grab balls and put them in another player’s bin at the end of the field. When you reach 10, you’re out. Reward is a Pro Bowl package in Hawaii. As an added incentive, every time they actually catch the balls being launched from the machines, they win $500 cash (Ed manages to grab one). Their uniform numbers are the amount of weight they’ve lost so far.

Blue team targets black, Michelle first. She’s out pretty quickly. Black targets Ed, who’s at 4. Renee is black’s next target, and she’s quickly out of the game as well. Now it’s every man for himself. The easy thing is to just keep going after Ed since he’s more than halfway out. Amy’s adding balls quickly now that black’s out. With Ed at 9 balls, Vicky has the chance to take him out. Instead, she opts to give Amy her fifth, making Amy the last person in the country to realize Vicky’s after her. As much talk as there is about how great a player Vicky is at this game, it’s times like this that show she doesn’t get the game as well as she’d like. There are times to show your second face. A competition that doesn’t mean much isn’t one of those times. Amy finishes off Ed. Heba finishes off Amy, who says there aren’t any alliances on the blue team that she knows of (are you kidding me?). Now it’s between Vicky and Heba, who have few balls in their bins already because nobody has gone after them. Vicky beats Heba, and America reaches for the antacid.

Jillian doesn’t like that her team got bullied. Nobody bullies her team. Except her.

Rocco DiSpirito’s back again. He’s cooked a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. A great feast to indulge in, but also one of the unhealthiest meals of the year for most people. So instead, he’s going to be cooking a healthy alternative to Thanksgiving dinner. He starts with boiled turkey breast. The stuffing is made with turkey sausage, Ezekiel bread, and no butter. The apple pie is made with a crumble instead of a crust, sugar substitute, and a little corn starch. These modifications change the calories from 480 per serving to 190 for the turkey, 500 down to 120 for the apple pie, and 400 down to 170 for the stuffing, for a total savings of 900 calories (about 2/3). After dinner, they get to go see some videos from home, with words of encouragement as we head into the final weeks.

Bob hammers into his team’s heads that they need to get down to one black shirt left. Amy seems to be buying it, in spite of everything she’s seen and heard.

Amy: 168 pounds (-5, 2.89%)
Heba: 224 pounds (-7, 3.03%)
Ed: 253 pounds (-9, 3.44%)
Vicky: 180 pounds (-7, 3.74%)
Renee: 199 pounds (-8, 3.86%)
Michelle: 176 pounds (-10, 5.38%)

That leaves Amy and Heba below the yellow line. I think we all know how this is going to go down. Amy has been the biggest loser on campus so far, but she threw the game away last week with a ridiculous decision to keep Vicky around, alliance intact.

Votes
Michelle: Heba
Renee: Heba
Ed: Amy
Vicky: Amy

Black team supported Amy as they promised they would. Blue team turned on Amy as we all knew they would. I wonder if she’s figured out yet that Vicky’s in an alliance. Due to the tie, Amy has been eliminated since she has the lowest percentage of weight loss for the week. She’s down from a size 22 to a size 8. Her college is supporting her by giving her access to their athletic trainers.

The five contestants who remain will be going to New York City for makeover week.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Families episode 12, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

NBC Midseason Schedule

Monday as of January
8-10 Superstars of Dance (premieres Sunday January 4 at 9)
10-11 Momma’s Boys

Monday as of February
8-9 Chuck
9-10 Heroes
10-11 Momma’s Boys

Tuesday as of January
8-10 The Biggest Loser Couples
10-11 Law & Order: SVU

Wednesday as of January
8-9 Knight Rider
9-10 Law & Order: SVU encores
10-11 Law & Order

Wednesday as of February
8-9 Knight Rider
9-10 Life
10-11 Law & Order

Thursday as of January 8
8-8:30 My Name Is Earl
8:30-9 Kath & Kim
9-9:31 The Office
9:31-10 30 Rock
10-11 ER

Friday
8-9 Howie Do It (as of January 9)
9-10 Friday Night Lights (as of January 16)
10-11 Dateline NBC (as of December 5)

Heroes Season 3 Episode 10

The last time an eclipse happened, everybody got their powers, and Heroes Season 3 Episode 9 led us up to another impending eclipse. Hiro was reverted back to a 10 year old, which didn’t help Ando any in getting him to stop playing pranks and reading comic books. Sylar saved Elle from herself in an act of empathy he wasn’t sure he was capable of. Parkman managed to reawaken Angela with Daphne’s help. Suresh figured out there’s a human catalyst (a third piece of the formula), and Claire suspects it must be her because she knows she’s different.

Arthur asks Sylar to find Claire and bring her back to him. Elle offers to go with him, saying that being a company girl is all she knows.

Nathan’s going to find the Haitian, Parkman’s going to find Hiro, and Claire, she’s told she has to just hide. Peter wants to go with Nathan, seeing as he doesn’t have any abilities and runs the risk of just getting in the way.

Suresh continues to mutate and wants to know what’s taking Arthur so long. Arthur’s got people working on it, but his concern is how his drawing of Claire dying is possible. There’s an eclipse today, and if Claire dies, the catalyst dies with her, removing Mohinder’s chance of being cured.

Daphne realizes she’s a betrayer, a liar, a thief, and selfish. Nonetheless, Parkman trusts her.

Parkman doesn’t have to look far for Hiro. The comic book says that Parkman has to fix Hiro, so Ando shows up at Matt’s door with a Hiro whose main concern is how he can stop doing the potty dance.

Claire’s been reunited with her dad, who plans to keep her (and by extension the catalyst) safe. She thinks it’s just business.

Daphne says she’s not a nemesis any more. She’s a good guy apparently. Regardless, she runs away, accusing Matt of pausing when he answered the question about whether he trusts her.

Elle’s worried about Sylar becoming a yes man. She wants to know who he really is, so she tells someone he’s a serial killer, which is not entirely untrue.

HRG wants his daughter to stop acting stupid and careless like a girl who can’t get hurt. In addition to insulting her, he wants to train her to make her stronger.

Tracy agrees to do as Arthur says, with Angela standing over her shoulder.

Parkman knows about Lawrence, Kansas from reading Daphne’s mind. With comic book in hand, Hiro agrees to teleport them there. Then they’re distracted by the start of an eclipse.

Whatever’s happened to Suresh, it doesn’t look good. He’s upside down attached to a wall in a cocoon. Strangely, he seems to be fine. Not at all mutating any more.

Nathan’s not sure what happened. He’s gone from flying to falling really fast. He and Peter land in the forest and are still on their quest to find the Haitian, whose village is nearby.

Parkman can’t use his mind control to convince Daphne’s father to let him in. Hiro’s powers are gone as well.

Nathan and Peter get lost, which leads to a fight. Nathan wants credit for saving his brother so many times and wants him to earn some respect. Peter thinks Nathan’s just a puppet of their father. In the future, Nathan chooses Arthur, which doesn’t sit well with Peter.

Claire’s got some anger issues to address. She wants to know why her father always leaves. Just then, Elle shows up, powerless like the rest. Sylar’s surprised by his powerlessness as well. So Elle will just have to do things the old fashioned way. She shoots Claire. HRG has managed to knock both Sylar and Elle to the ground and grabs Claire and flees. He takes her home but insists that no call be made to the hospital because gunshot wounds are reported to the police. Claire’s just happy to be feeling pain.

Parkman doesn’t think he can do anything without his powers, but Hiro wants him to know this is part of the hero’s quest, to triumph without powers. Either that or Hiro will continue to throw corn at him.

Arthur wants Suresh to get everybody’s abilities back. Or else.

Hiro and Ando head to a comic book store. It’s Wednesday. New comic book day.

As they’re walking with the Haitian, men with guns capture Nathan. His father warned them he was coming.

When Daphne’s father leaves, Parkman takes the opportunity to go to talk to her. He’s never giving up because he loves her. When he walks in, he sees her back in her old life, the one she was so afraid of going back to. It turns out she’s crippled.

Sylar’s relieved to not have powers. Elle blames herself for pushing him to become a monster.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Heroes Season 3 episode 11 The Eclipse Part II, which airs Monday at 9/8c on NBC.

Prison Break Season 4 Episode 12

After they came up with a plan to break through the impossible to get through Scylla security system, taking extra special care to not set off any alarms and alert the general, Prison Break Season 4 Episode 11 ended with the general being alerted and on his way down to see Michael.

The general arrives to a group of ex-cons holding guns at his head. He asks his team to lower their weapons. Michael’s got news for the general. He just brought them the one missing piece of the puzzle: his sixth Scylla card. The general’s not overly concerned about handing over his card, seeing as they need five more.

Trishanne’s not happy being held hostage, and she starts taking it out on Self. The yelling is all part of a plot to distract them, though. Self grabs a gun, starts shooting, and they both escape. In order to save Self, however, she has to shoot Fang, who they needed.

T-Bag’s boss comes in and notices that they’re holding some rather large guns. He’s smooth about it, but Gretchen doesn’t buy, knowing their cover’s been blown. She runs through the office, gun in hand, and creates mass chaos.

With their hands on Scylla, the boys escape. The general tells them they’re not even close to getting out. They’re not taking any chances and will be taking him with them.

The general tells Scofield that the whole building is under lockdown, that nothing will get in or out, and whatever he’s waiting for isn’t coming.

Trishanne arrives to see Gretchen and T-Bag’s little hostage situation. T-Bag wants to get out of there, but Gretchen tells him to just suck it up.

The general has Lincoln pull out a photo from his desk. It’s his father. He warns him he doesn’t want to make the same misguided fatal mistake he did. Then he tries to get to Sucre by promising to pay for his little girl’s college education. Then Mahone and how Pam needs him. Then Michael and some airline tickets for him and Sara. They don’t want any of this, though. Michael wants to see the company burned to the ground and the general in prison.

He warns them that if they shoot him, they lose their leverage. Seems Sara’s been getting them some leverage of her own, as she’s kidnapped Lisa and has her call to tell him that he either needs to let them leave or Sara will kill her. “Dad, please.”

Michael agrees to leave Lisa alone as long as the general holds up his end of the deal. He agrees to walk them out.

Trishanne sneaks in and wants to sneak people out two at a time to see how many she can get out before they notice. Unfortunately, T-Bag’s boss is a bit of a dumbass who insists on running out without even trying to hide it, which causes Gretchen to begin firing. In the ensuing firefight, Gretchen and T-Bag leave, but not before the boss is shot.

Lisa wants Sara to realize that Scofield and Burrows are bad men. Apparently she’s an innocent woman who just so happens to work for a homicidal company.

Gretchen convinces T-Bag to put down his weapon. Then she pulls hers on him. They can ID him, but without him, nobody knows who she is. He manages to get away as Trishanne’s car approaches and Gretchen gets distracted. Gretchen flees while T-Bag gets grabbed.

When they get outside, the general’s got some news for them. Their father was an executioner, who trained the men who will be coming after them.

The men who were with Lisa are getting suspicious, so they barge into the ladies room to find her tied up. Sara just left. Michael and the boys are on their way to the rendezvous in the company’s armored truck. When they arrive at the airport, every single flight is delayed. Scofield and Burrows stick together inside the airport, while Sucre and Mahone are outside to place a phone call. Michael hands over his bag to the general’s guy as requested, and as the guy holding the bag, the security people want to talk to him. When they empty out his bag, he doesn’t have what he wanted, but he does have a copy of the book All’s Well That Ends Well.

They hand over Scylla to Self, who agrees to live up to his end of the bargain. Some vans will be meeting them, along with an ambulance so Michael can get some medical attention.

Sucre and Mahone are looking forward to simple things like going to a restaurant or a game.

Burrows tells Mahone that things are okay between them.

Sara starts to get worried that it’s been an hour and the convoy has not yet arrived. Michael calls Self. His number has been disconnected. Meanwhile, Self is busy eliminating Trishanne, as he has no more use for her since she doesn’t know of any more buyers for Scylla. Michael opens the envelope they were given and sees nothing but some blank pages.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Prison Break season 4 episode 13 Deal or No Deal, which airs Monday at 9/8c on Fox.

The Amazing Race 13 Episode 9

Terence & Sarah made a dumb mistake in The Amazing Race 13 Episode 8 and paid for it. After they and Nick & Starr insisted on going for the fast forward knowing that whoever didn’t get it would probably be screwed, Terence & Sarah were unable to catch up to the rest of the pack and were eliminated. Having won the fast forward, Nick & Starr continued their winning ways. Meanwhile, Andrew & Dan as presumably part of some cosmic joke managed to get into the final four in spite of themselves.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Nick & Starr – 9:21PM
Second: Toni & Dallas – 10:47PM
Third: Ken & Tina – 11:17PM
Fourth: Andrew & Dan – 12:41AM

Dallas and Starr are continuing to get closer, but they still know they’re in a race. The way this whole thing’s played out, it’s helped them, rather than hindering them. Andrew & Dan, having left their shoes at the detour (they may as well have just gone back and gotten them considering how far behind they are anyway), are now in slippers they got from the hotel. It turns out there’s a 24 hour shoe store in the airport, and they have a good amount of money left, so they make sure they’re properly outfitted before leaving. They just hope they don’t run out of money after dropping $160 on shoes.

Teams will fly nearly 2000 miles to Moscow, Russia. This late at night we’re probably looking at an airport equalizer. When Nick & Starr arrive, they’re told the earliest flight leaves at 6:05AM. All teams are on the same flight.

When they arrive in Moscow, it’s back to the not being able to communicate with anybody problem again. Nick & Starr follow Toni & Dallas and are the first two teams to arrive. Dallas just wonders if Andrew & Dan are even in the right country. Andrew & Dan are next to arrive, followed closely by Ken & Tina.

From the monastery, teams will go to the outskirts of Moscow to a decommissioned military base Kolosok Camp. Toni & Dallas seem to have lost Nick & Starr somewhere along the way. Andrew & Dan and Ken & Tina are neck and neck, but Nick & Starr are in the unfamiliar position of last place.

The detour is a choice between boots or borscht. In boots, they will learn a traditional parade march. In borscht, teams will need to serve borscht to 75 Russian soldiers. Apparently the catch is if they’re sloppy, they’ll have to repeat part of the task. In each detour, teams will need to get properly dressed in full military gear.

Andrew stumbles over figuring out how to get dressed, so they decide to switch to the borscht detour hoping that they won’t have to wear the military outfit, but after switching they realize they still have to wear the uniform no matter what. They’re finally dressed but are in their traditional last place. Once that’s done, they provide much comic relief for the soldiers, as Dan has no coordination. So then they switch back to borscht. Lucky for them the borscht task seems pretty simple.

Boots: Toni & Dallas, Ken & Tina, Nick & Starr
Borscht: Andrew & Dan (switched from boots to borscht to boots to borscht)

From there, teams will go to a bakery in Zhukovsky. The road block is to be a delivery person, unloading fifty 55 pound bags of flour to an unpleasant counter person. Dallas knows this is his time to shine, and he insists on grabbing two bags at a time, even though his mom wants him to slow down a bit. He manages to get about 15 bags ahead of Ken by the time he arrives. Although Ken’s older, he is an ex-pro athlete. An exhausted Dallas retains a lead of about 8 bags and finishes first, but Ken’s not far behind. Nick & Starr are lost again, while Andrew & Dan have probably been at the detour for hours. When they arrive, Nick & Starr tell their cab driver to get lost, hoping they’ll be able to find another one if they need to. Nick tries to do two at once, but he’ll have to settle for one, as does Dan.

Road block (in order of arrival): Dallas, Ken, Nick, Dan

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Neskuchny Sad, which means it’s back through the crowded streets of Moscow they go. Looks like Nick & Starr will have to find a new cab. Too bad this guy doesn’t know any more than the last one, as Starr begins to have a nervous breakdown while Nick remains calm. Andrew & Dan have run out of money and are hoping their cab driver is understanding. Dan offers him his newly bought and expensive shoes, but he’s not interested. They do finally manage to make a deal with him, though.

First: Toni & Dallas (win a trip to the Dominican Republic)
Second: Ken & Tina
Third: Nick & Starr
Non-eliminated: Andrew & Dan

Non-elimination? Is this a joke? This is like when David & Mary just refused to be stepped on. Andrew & Dan will need to complete one additional task, a speed bump, which doesn’t bode well for them considering that they’re horrible at tasks. To further compound matters, they’re out of money, and cabs in Moscow seem to be pretty expensive.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 13 Episode 10 You’re Gonna Get Me Killed, which airs Sunday at 8/7cish on CBS.