I’m so confused. I have so many questions, and answers are unlikely (until at least next week, when the finale of TAR7 airs).
- Why did Meredith and Gretchen always pick the harder physical task?
- Why is TAR7 going backwards? They usually go west to east
- Why England? That’s too easy this late in the game.
- Why the hell do Rob and Amber always win prizes?
- Has Ron figured out his only chance at freedom is “Flee. Now.”?
The mini-recap is up at TWOP:
In a significant change from previous seasons, the Race course turns back to the West and heads from Turkey to London. Rob and Amber and Ron and Kelly beat the first direct flight by two hours when they find a connection through Frankfurt, so those who fell behind last week are ahead this week.
In London, a trip to Abbey Road leads in turn to a Detour that presents a choice between riddle-solving and boat-dragging. Surprisingly enough, both of the lead teams choose the riddles, and they both execute them without difficulty — Rob and Amber with the help of a cute Brit they locate along the way.
Following that, there’s a bus-driving Roadblock that challenges everyone’s steering capabilities, and it takes everyone who tries it several attempts. But Rob and Amber finish up the leg in first place — again — and pile on with an ill-conceived decision to Yield Ron and Kelly. Despite the Yield, Ron and Kelly finish in second place, and Uchenna and Joyce and Meredith and Gretchen fight it out for last.
After the trailing teams weirdly choose the physical Detour option, Meredith and Gretchen fall somewhat behind at the Detour and even possibly even farther behind at the Roadblock, and when they find themselves in last place again, there are no more chances and they get the boot at last. They were nice people, but that was overdue.
So the final three are Ron and Kelly, Rob and Amber, and Uchenna and Joyce, which isn’t a bad result, in terms of narrowing it down to the strong performers. Next week: the two-hour finale, complete with screaming and hollering.
Again, I’m so confused about the directionality thing, but at least the Season of Rob and Amber is almost over. Can they possibly milk this stunt casting thing any further? How different would things be if they’d been eliminated much earlier in the season?
Oh, wait, that’s more questions. The answers are
- Yes. See “The Wedding of Rob and Amber” on CBS.
- Very, but that would have screwed up the publicity campaign. See “The Wedding of Rob and Amber” on CBS.
The next season of TAR will feature the much-vaunted “Family Edition.” Pardon my total lack of enthusiasm for this re-tooling – if and when it airs, I’ll be rooting for whichever teams feature an interesting and entertaining mix of personality and train-wreck watchability, not for the ones with the kyooot widdul kids.