The Amazing Race 27 Episode 5

The Amazing Race 27 Episode 4 was to be continued but not without its share of drama, mostly Tanner & Josh plotting (and miserably failing) to get rid of Justin & Diana.

Tanner & Josh have decided to give their express pass to Denise & James Earl, who they deem a non-threatening team but not the least threatening team. They don’t want to get behind anyone but also don’t want to influence the outcome of the elimination.

Logan & Chris are the first team to not donate all their money, instead donating $20 out of about $150. They change their minds after Phil tells them everybody else donated everything. I’m all for getting people to support causes they want, but shaming people into doing so is not the way to go about it.

Even in the battle for last, nobody bothers to U-turn anybody. This seems rather unusual. You would think the last place teams would do it just in case they get a bad cab ride. In the end, Tiffany & Krista place last, but they are not eliminated. As the last place team, they U-turn Justin & Diana because they made a promise (who didn’t?) to do so, but there’s no way they really think Justin & Diana have fallen behind them.

The road block is the very first challenge ever, a flashback that will have them jumping and swinging above a river.

Road block (in order of arrival): Justin, Josh, Kelsey, James Earl, Cindy, Chris, Danielle, Krista

Simple but scary. They’re right at the road block, but for some reason, Cindy & Rick go off driving somewhere, and Logan & Chris just follow them, putting those teams a bit in last place. I don’t get the sense that there is going to be any great differntiator in this leg, so this may be a pretty big mistake.

The detour is a choice between crocs or canoes. In crocs, they will be submerged in a cage and feed some crocodiles. In canoes, teams must cross the river and get their clue by hoisting their partners up a tree.

Canoes: Justin & Diana, Tanner & Josh
Crocs: Kelsey & Joey, Denise & James Earl, Jazmine & Danielle, Tiffany & Krista, Cindy & Rick, Logan & Chris

Tanner & Josh pick the task that they think is all about being physical. But they can’t catch up to Justin & Diana, who are competent paddlers. Everybody else does crocs, which seems to be the simpler choice.

Denise & James Earl must use their express pass this leg, which pushes them toward the very front of the pack.

From the detour, teams walk with the lions to find the next clue. This seems completely harmless, and by this point I’m assuming Logan & Chris, having had to wait in line at every single task because each task has limited availability, were done. But then Jazmine & Danielle return without finding the clue because they didn’t read their clue telling them where to look.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Masuwe Private Game Reserve. Their final task is to balance baskets of fruit on their heads on the walk to the pit stop, leading to a slow motion footrace.

First: Denise & James Earl (win a trip to Slovakia)
Second: Justin & Diana
Third: Tanner & Josh
Fourth: Kelsey & Joey
Fifth: Tiffany & Krista
Sixth: Logan & Chris
Seventh: Cindy & Rick
Eliminated: Jazmine & Danielle

I was looking forward to Logan & Chris getting eliminated because I’m over their bickering, but they caught a lucky break in what was an interesting but poorly designed leg when Jazmine & Danielle violated a basic concept of not reading their clue, costing them mere minutes, which in this leg was enough to be eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race 27 Episode 6, which airs Friday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Second Chance Episode 5

Jeff played hard trying to prove he was new school, so hard that he never really had a chance, and was eliminated in Survivor: Second Chance Episode 4, the week after getting caught conversing with another tribe at a challenge.

Kimmi and Monica get into an argument about how much food they should take out of the ocean.

For the reward challenge, three members will be tied together and roll one person in a barrel who collects balls to be rolled into holes. Reward is comfort. Terry and Kass sit out for Ta Keo; Stephen and Kelly sit out for Bayon. Bayon falls behind as Monica takes long to untie the bags, but it will come down to the ball toss. Jeremy starts to make things interesting but then falls behind again. Spencer takes over for him and gets Bayon back to a tie. Keith wins the larger comfort reward and refreshments for Ta Keo. Angkor places second to receive a tarp thanks to Woo’s tossing.

As Terry’s off fishing, the others talk about getting rid of him. Considering how weak they were at the challenge without him, I’m not sure how good an idea that is.

Woo tells a story about his mom’s transplant, which Abi interprets as an attempt to gain sympathy. Maybe it is, at least in part, but I don’t see what she’s gaining by telling that to Tasha.

For the immunity challenge, they will shoot with giant slingshots on platforms they must reach by climbing. Ciera and Kelly sit out for Ta Keo; Monica and Jeremy sit out for Bayon.

Joe scores for Ta Keo. Spencer scores for Bayon. Andrew scores for Angkor. Kelly scores for Bayon. Woo scores for Angkor. Stephen scores for Angkor, which is not his tribe. Tasha scores for Angkor. Terry scores for Ta Keo. Woo scores again to win immunity for Angkor for a change. Spencer scores for Bayon. Joe scores for Ta Keo. Keith scores to win immunity for Ta Keo.

Having come from the minority tribe, Spencer and Kelly are the two potential targets. As they’re discussing it, Monica tells Kimmi that they need to keep the girls’ numbers up, which Kimmi reports back to the guys.

Votes
Kelly
Spencer
Kelly
Monica
Monica
Monica

With 3 votes, Monica has been voted off the island. I didn’t think much of that little squabble at the top of the episode, but perhaps Monica should have because opening her mouth to the wrong person sunk her in the end.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Second Chance Episode 6, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Amazing Race 27 Episode 4

Having been behind the entire leg, Ernest & Jin were predictably eliminated in The Amazing Race 27 Episode 3.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Tanner & Josh
Second: Justin & Diana
Third: Kelsey & Joey
Fourth: Jazmine & Danielle
Fifth: Logan & Chris
Sixth: Denise & James Earl
Seventh: Cindy & Rick
Eighth: Tiffany & Krista

With knowledge there will be a double U-turn, Tanner & Josh have hatched a plan. They will use their express pass to skip the first task. Then they will U-turn Justin & Diana. The next team to get to the board will U-Turn Tanner & Josh to prevent Justin & Diana from U-turning anyone else, and in return that team will get the additional express pass. This is a decent plan with a shot at working, though it’s a little silly to go this far out of your way to eliminate someone based on personality conflict.

Teams must now fly across the Atlantic Ocean to Livingstone, Zambia. There are two flights separated by 15 minutes that can take four teams each.

First flight: Tanner & Josh, Kelsey & Joey, Jazmine & Danielle, Justin & Diana
Second flight: Logan & Chris, Denise & James Earl, Tiffany & Krista, Cindy & Rick

Road block (in order of arrival): Kelsey, Diana, Jazmine, Rick, Chris, Denise

The road block requires teams to spot their clue from the sky as they fly over Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. As planned, Tanner & Josh skip a task with their express pass. Aside from the heights thing, this is a pretty simple task to skip and one that doesn’t take very long.

From here, teams will cross the border into Zimbabwe.

Teams are questioning Tanner & Josh’s decision to use the express pass on the simple road block rather than on the likely much harder detour, and Tanner & Josh finally realize their mistake when they arrive at the next destination and find out that there is not another task today but rather they can select departure times that are 10 minutes apart, so their lead has now evaporated. Adding insult to injury, there are two 8AM departure times, and Justin & Diana get the second one. It’s not over yet, but this was a questionable plan poorly executed.

The detour is a choice between co-op and croquet. In co-op, teams must craft an animal out of wood. In croquet, teams must play croquet and score 5 points against a local player.

Croquet: Justin & Diana, Tanner & Josh, Kelsey & Joey, Denise & James Earl
Co-op: Cindy & Rick, Logan & Chris, Tiffany & Krista, Jazmine & Danielle

At least with the croquet, you don’t have to wait for it to dry, and there is no judge questioning whether it’s good enough.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Rose of Charity, an orphanage. Before that is the double U-turn.

Justin & Diana don’t want to waste a U-turn this early in the race. Tanner & Josh have no motivation to use the U-turn now that they can’t use it on Justin & Diana, and since this is a to be continued leg, they must choose right now who to give the express pass to, forcing them to choose a favorite, contrary to their original plan to give it to whoever cooperated with them. The plan they proposed at the start of the leg just completely blew up in their faces.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race 27 Episode 5, which airs Friday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Second Chance Episode 4

Peih-Gee’s feud, for lack of a better term, with Abi finally came back to bite her in Survivor: Second Chance Episode 3, and she was eliminated.

Immediately after the voting is done, the drama starts. Tasha tells Woo he’s good with her and that Jeff should have been the one to go. Seeing someone talking to Woo does not sit well with Abi, who confronts her and refuses to talk about their differences in private. Abi thinks she’s in the majority, but she just keeps digging her own grave and making enemies for no reason.

For the reward challenge, they will race to the water, retrieve sandbags, and launch those into a net back on shore. It’s a hero challenge. Andrew will compete for Angkor, Jeremy will compete for Bayon, and Terry will compete for Ta Keo. Terry seems like kind of an odd choice when they have Joe, but he builds a big lead on the others. All it takes is for Andrew to make a basket after one try to come back from dead last and erase that lead and win the better of the two food rewards. Terry holds on for second place.

Kass thinks she played a great strategic game last time (she didn’t), but she realizes she sucked at the social game. Nobody trusts her, but she’s going to play nice and see if that gets her further.

Spencer throws Kelly under the bus to try to save himself. It doesn’t work.

For the immunity challenge callers will direct blindfolded tribe members to pick up puzzle pieces. Monica sits out for Bayon; Ciera sits out for Ta Keo. The callers are yelling at the tops of their lungs, but everybody is complaining about being unable to hear anything. Then we get a montage of people getting hurt. Everybody is roughly even heading into the puzzle. Bayon wins immunity. Ta Keo places second. Angkor loses again, as they pretty much just give up.

For all the bumping into each other while blindfolded, Jeff is the one who gets most injured after dropping a piece on his foot after they take the blindfolds off. He hasn’t been much use in challenges so far, and this only makes things worse.

Tasha continues to pitch her idea that Jeff needs to go. He knows it’s either him or Woo and feels his saving grace may be he’s not the one who voted for Abi (twice). Of course, as comfortable as she feels, Abi is always a potential target because of her personality, but at this point they don’t have much choice but to keep her.

Votes
Jeff
Woo
Jeff
Jeff

With 3 votes, Jeff has been voted off the island. He played himself out of the game last week and was lucky to survive then.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Second Chance Episode 5, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Amazing Race 27 Episode 3

Having lost a cab race to the mat, Alex & Adam were eliminated in The Amazing Race 27 Episode 2.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Justin & Diana – 5:45AM
Second: Tanner & Josh – 6:12AM
Third: Denise & James Earl – 6:13AM
Fourth: Logan & Chris – 6:14AM
Fifth: Cindy & Rick – 6:21AM
Sixth: Tiffany & Krista – 6:28AM
Seventh: Kelsey & Joey – 6:30AM
Eighth: Jazmine & Danielle – 6:53AM
Ninth: Ernest & Jin – 7:16AM

Tanner stupidly injured himself at the end of the last leg to gain a 1 minute earlier start in this leg. He’s still probably more mobile than most, but he’s not in peak form and could easily injure himself more.

Teams will now travel by bus to San Antonio de Areco, a small town elsewhere in Argentina. There are multiple buses presumably not very far apart.

1st Bus: Justin & Diana, Tanner & Josh, Kelsey & Joey
2nd Bus: Denise & James Earl, Logan & Chris, Cindy & Rick, Tiffany & Krista, Jazmine & Danielle
3rd Bus: Ernest & Jin

The road block requires teams to hang meat on racks to be cooked.

Road block (in order of arrival): Diana, Josh, Joey, Chris, Rick, Danielle, James Earl, Krista, Ernest

This is simply a matter of attention to detail.

The detour is a choice between horse or carriage. In horse, teams must properly equip a polo horse. In carriage, teams must detail a carriage and have it harnessed to a team of horses.

Horse: Tanner & Josh, Kelsey & Joey, Justin & Diana, Denise & James Earl, Jazmine & Danielle, Logan & Chris
Carriage: Cindy & Rick, Tiffany & Krista, Ernest & Jin

This is another case of attention to detail. I’m not sure which is more advantageous, but it doesn’t seem to matter by this point. The dancers can’t be that far behind unless there was a large gap between buses, but they haven’t seen another team all day.

The biggest problem with the carriage task appears to be teams reading the clue. Both Cindy & Rick and Tiffany & Krista neglect to take the equipment with them from the area where they get the clue, so they must return to the start after they realize it.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Museo Gauchesco.

Denise gave James Earl a hint of sorts at the road block, which results in them getting a 30 minute penalty because only one person is supposed to participate in the task. This penalty provides them with more opportunity to bicker.

First: Tanner & Josh (win a trip to Cambodia)
Second: Justin & Diana
Third: Kelsey & Joey
Fourth: Jazmine & Danielle
Fifth: Logan & Chris
Sixth: Denise & James Earl
Seventh: Cindy & Rick
Eighth: Tiffany & Krista
Eliminated: Ernest & Jin

For some reason, as both teams reach the mat close together, Tanner & Josh tell Phil right in front of Justin & Diana that they’ll U-turn them. We get that you don’t like him, but don’t give him all the ammo he needs to get in your way.

This was a silly leg. Ernest & Jin never had a chance.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race 27 Episode 4, which airs Friday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Second Chance Episode 3

Shirin played hard and fast, controlling the first vote, which led to her demise in Survivor: Second Chance Episode 2.

Now Terry has himself believing he’s the one in control.

In contrast to the other tribe that keeps losing, Kass tells everyone at the challenge that she’s on the love tribe.

Well, with that in mind, drop your buffs. They are going from two tribes to three.

Bayon (Purple): Monica, Jeremy, Stephen, Kimmi, Kelly, Spencer
Ta Keo (Blue): Keith, Kass, Joe, Ciera, Terry, Kelley
Angkor (Yellow): Woo, Jeff, Peih-Gee, Abi, Tasha, Andrew

This leaves 4 original Bayon members on the Bayon tribe with Kelly and Spencer in the minority, though for Spencer, he’s probably higher on the totem pole than he was when he was being buddies with Shirin.

There are also 4 original Bayon members on the new Ta Keo tribe. This is a pretty brutal numbers advantage. They are joined by Kelley and Terry. With how he was talking, I was getting a dead man walking edit from Terry.

The last remaining tribe doesn’t get an established camp and must rebuild as if it’s day 1. Angkor consists of a 4-2 advantage for old Ta Keo with Tasha and Andrew being the odd people out.

Kelley immediately throws Terry under the bus, knowing it’s probably going to be one of them to go home first, even though getting rid of him over her wouldn’t make much sense.

Spencer says he was on camp macho before. I don’t think that was the problem. It was overplaying. The only reason he’s still around is that he’s not Shirin.

Abi and Peih-Gee obviously don’t like each other, which Tasha takes as a possible opportunity.

Jeremy and his group go searching for an idol. He gets a clue, telling him to look at the challenge.

For the challenge, they will push a cart through an obstacle course, collect chests, disassemble the cart, and use the pieces in the chest to solve a puzzle. Spencer, Tasha, and Kass previously participated in this challenge (and lost) as part of the Brains tribe, one of the dumbest tribes ever. Ta Keo build a decent lead heading into the puzzle with the other two tribes roughly tied. Ta Keo wins immunity, and so does Bayon.

And then Tasha starts talking about a rat. Probst is right there, and he doesn’t know what’s happening either. Look away for a second, and you miss it. I had to watch the replay of Jeff mouthing something to the other tribe. Following this, Woo learns that Jeff had made an alliance with Tasha and Andrew, though he told us he didn’t plan to honor that.

The logical conclusion regardless seems to be to be for whatever tribe that wins to remain united, but Jeff just painted a target on his back that was otherwise not there. Woo doesn’t think that getting rid of him would be such a bad idea. They still have a majority with Abi. Yeah, Peih-Gee’s best friend, who Woo voted to get rid of two weeks ago.

Abi presents an alternative. She refuses to cooperate with her tribe. So now Peih-Gee wants to get rid of her instead, like her arm needed twisting, and she won’t budge when Andrew and Tasha talk to her. That makes Peih-Gee their target.

As the other tribe implodes, that leaves Tasha and Andrew in the unique position of being in control, despite logic dictating one of them should be going home.

Votes
Abi
Peih-Gee
Abi
Peih-Gee
Peih-Gee
Peih-Gee

With 4 votes, Peih-Gee has been voted off the island. I didn’t think much of that feud, but it sure came to a head quickly. That leaves Woo, who voted for Abi a second time, and Jeff, whose game Tasha tried to end, all of a sudden at the bottom.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Second Chance Episode 4, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Amazing Race 27 Episode 2

After taking so long to solve a puzzle in The Amazing Race 27 Episode 1 Kelly & Shevonne were the first team eliminated.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Tanner & Josh – 9:40AM
Second: Jazmine & Danielle – 9:44AM
Third: Cindy & Rick – 9:48AM
Fourth: Denise & James – 9:56AM
Fifth: Logan & Chris
Sixth: Alex & Adam
Seventh: Ernest & Jin
Eighth: Kelsey & Joey
Ninth: Justin & Diana
Tenth: Tiffany & Krista

Teams will now head south to Buenos Aires, Argentina. All teams are on the same flight much later that night. This leaves them plenty of time at the airport for Justin to rub people the wrong way.

The detour is a choice between cartoneros or fletero. In cartoneros, they will pick up 100kg of cardboard from recycling bins. In fletero, teams must transport statues.

Cartoneros: Justin & Diana, Tanner & Josh, Logan & Chris, Tiffany & Krista, Ernest & Jin, Cindy & Rick, Alex & Adam, Denise & James Earl, Jazmine & Danielle
Fletero: Kelsey & Joey

Only 1 team chooses to do the statue detour, forcing Jazmine & Danielle to run around until there is an available cart, though they did have the option of switching detours, which probably still would keep them in last place anyway.

The road block requires teams to learn a tilted tango, which involves dancing on a wall for some reason.

Road block (in order of arrival): Diana, Tanner, Logan, Cindy, Kelsey, James Earl, Krista, Jin, Alex, Jazmine

The pit stop for this leg of the race is the cathedral of polo.

First: Justin & Diana (win a trip to Morocco)
Second: Tanner & Josh
Third: Denise & James Earl
Fourth: Logan & Chris
Fifth: Cindy & Rick
Sixth: Tiffany & Krista
Seventh: Kelsey & Joey
Eighth: Jazmine & Danielle
Ninth: Ernest & Jin
Eliminated: Alex & Adam

Tanner wins a footrace to the mat, which will give him a 1 minute advantage in the next leg, but pushes himself so hard that he pulls a hamstring in the process. This may be competing hard, but it’s not competing smart.

Though Alex struggled with the dancing, I thought Jazmine & Danielle were goners when they were still in last place at the end of the road block, but this time the editors weren’t playing tricks. Alex & Adam have been eliminated following the cab ride to see Phil.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Amazing Race 27 Episode 3, which airs Friday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Second Chance Episode 2

One potential flaw when they play a second time is that everybody knows everybody else, which is what led to Vytas being eliminated in Survivor: Second Chance Episode 1. There’s all this talk about old school vs. new school, and so far the schemers are beating the people who think they can just survive by working hard at camp.

Although he voted with the schemers, Jeff says he just did that because he wanted to show the people who are sitting back that they need to wake up and stop letting the overplayers control the game.

Joe has this theory that being nice and building things is going to save him. Sure, that’ll work for now, but I’m not sure anyone will want to keep him around much past the merge.

Abi’s annoying everybody. Nobody is surprised. Eventually, Shirin and Peih-Gee start talking about her behind her back… right in front of her face. Opportunity knocks for Terry, who goes to console Abi when she heads to the beach as she’s being laughed at.

At the challenge, they will race across a series of A-frames, each requiring more effort and teamwork than the last, use ropes to pull a crate, and solve the puzzle. Reward is a Survivor tool kit. Bayon has a decent lead heading into the puzzle. Only two people can work on the puzzle at a time, but they can tag out if they want, which they do. In the end, Spencer and Shirin seem to come from behind but incorrectly solve the puzzle, and Joe and Jeremy win immunity and reward for Bayon.

Shirin and Spencer thought they were in control of the game, but the camp is turning on them. Their allies fall in line and turn on them as it becomes clear what’s happening. Spencer and Shirin seem to be oblivious to it until Abi reveals the plan. Abi and Woo flat out refuse to help Shirin.

Probst points out the irony that Shirin has gone from the victim to the bully. Now that he’s about to lose his closest and only remaining ally, Spencer promises the tribe he’s going to forge relationships rather than continuing to try to be the strategist.

Votes
Spencer
Shirin
Shirin
Shirin
Spencer
Spencer
Spencer
Shirin
Shirin

With 5 votes, Shirin has been voted off the island. As far as challenges, it’s way too early to drop Spencer, and I don’t think they’ll miss Shirin too much. Coming out of the gate with guns blazing didn’t work, especially after she worked so hard to get rid of the person she considered the biggest threat.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Second Chance Episode 3, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.