Saving Miss Alli’s recaplet for posterity:

After universally unfortunate use of the word “choo-choo” on the way to The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the teams learn that it’s time to go to Egypt, yet another interesting new country that it seems like they would have gotten to before now, but haven’t.

Colin and Christie kick the crap out of the airport strategy and stake themselves to a multiple-hour lead getting into Cairo. Once there, they decide to take the Fast Forward while it’s there for the taking, and they wind up getting to the pit stop while everyone else is still a twinkle in King Tut’s eye.

The rest of the teams, led by a crafty (but still obnoxious) Mirna and Charla, spend a little time exploring the pyramids, both underground and at the surface. They take the opportunity to display their map-reading and puzzle-solving skills (or lack thereof), and even get a chance to haul rocks like the pyramid builders did.

Chip shows surprising generosity to Brandon and Nicole and even the undeserving Twinkies, Marshall’s knees scream with pain, Linda twists her ankle, and ultimately, the Moms land on the mat last.

Fortunately for them, the leg is non-elimination. Unfortunately for them, it is not without consequences — namely, the loss of all their existing money and the denial of any new money at the beginning of the next leg. How will poverty affect the next leg? We’ll just have to see.

One thing is for sure — running the teams around the pyramids and putting the mat within spitting distance of the Sphinx are moves that make for some of the most impressive shots the show has ever had. It’s a pretty, pretty trek, even if it does seem like they’re racking up an awful lot of airplane time.

Man, I Loved. This. Episode. Apparently a lot of other people did too, because there’ve been approximately 35-40 items in my TAR feed search with Bloglines today – usually it’s maybe 3 or 4 of a Wednesday, with more trickling in as the week goes on. Apprently the cousins are making a big splash, and there’s all kinds of media attention. It’s a wonderful thing when a deserving show gets this kind of notice: proof that not all TV is crrrrap.

As I thought, it was a non-elimination round. Also as I thought, Lufthansa hogged all the flights, but someone might be able to do better with a wacky-ass connection on an unexpecte airline – that would be Colin and Christie’s score with Olympic Airways (which by the way was a connection via Athens, and still operates the same schedule). Charla and Mirna’s Alitalia connection was almost certainly a connector via Rome Fiumicino Airport; I’m hoping against hope there will be Insider footage of Mirna speaking Desperanto (which is mostly Italian with a bad French accent) to Italians in Italy. Oh, how sweet it would be to hear her say “Dove il restrroom-o?” at last.

Once again I scream at the Twins: You suck, Duckgirls! you’re not bad people and all that, but your navigation/problem solving skills suck, and you deserved to be eliminated yet again.

Hellooooo? Puzzle??? Not supposed to just dump it to one side and not even try to figure it out.

Fortunately, the non-elim saved a team that is marginally less sucky at navigation than you are, the Moms Who Say “EEEEEE!” Also: if you hadn’t had a Friendly Local (who may be a fan – she seemed way intrigued by the route info packet) to guide you to the Prodigal Son, you would have wandered around L’Hermitage for hours and hours and hours. Cluelessly. Girls, you have to get your two brains working as one superbrain, and not half-a-brain, if you want to succeed.

Yep, let the screaming and note-taking begin: it’s TARsday today. In the previews last week, it’s obvious that everyone will scurry way down in Egypt land, because the pyramids and Sphinx shots are kind of hard to miss.

I don’t know if they’ll stop off somewhere first, as in pick up a route clue at some intermediate point like Frankfurt, but I decided to copy from schedules from a few typical dates in late January or February to try to make sense of the inevitable airport scramble. I’ve stashed them in the extended entry for easier readablity.

I have no idea who is out tonight: we’re due for a non-elimination leg for the first half of the season, but that might not be for another 2 episodes. However, there are a couple of teams who’ve barely managed to avoid elimination simply because better, nicer teams weren’t aggressive enough booking flights. As mentioned on the TWOP TAR boards, you have to take that Extra Step and keep working for a better flight once you get your team (and also sound and camera guy) confirmed.
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Kaufman leads a crew of misfits, some lovable some downright annoying, who work on CITIZEN TOXIE. The standout is “Stunt Master” T.J.. Glenn, a big guy with a salt-and-pepper mullet and handlebar mustache who, in one of APOCALYPSE SOON’s funniest sequences, performs a extremely unconvincing “full body burn” where one’s entire flame retardant gel covered body is set ablaze and the fire extinguished after a period of writhing and screaming.

Hey, I’ve seen T.J. Glenn in person! Jeebs, that takes me back. He did a martial arts demo at the first Highlander convention in Denver 10 years ago. I think he was angling for a guest shot or a stunt gig with the show, but nothing came of it. He was very popular with female HL fans, though – we were all suckers for a good looking man with a sword…mullet notwithstanding.

His movie career seems to be circling the bowl. Shame. Although the “Lord of the G-Strings: Femaleship of the String” credit as swordmaster looks slightly intriguing. Who knew there was a subset of porn for martial arts/swords and sorcery flicks?