Merhaba asdiqayiy, kayfa haluk? Boy this episode certainly started with a shock, so we cannot ignore the elephant in the room. We knew from the previews last week that a team tested positive for Covid, but I was not expecting them to simply eliminate that team on the spot! Abby & Will were eliminated at the start of this leg by Phil whilst they were in quarantine in their hotel rooms. Ouch, I really feel so bad for Abby & Will because it was a dream of a lifetime to go on TAR and to be eliminated like that, under such circumstances, through no fault of their own. Oh man, I'll talk a lot more about it later as I felt it was totally unfair, but first let's take stock of where the teams stand now, after leg 6 in Amman.
Average statistics after leg 6 in Amman, Jordan
Marcus & Michael: 3.4
Derek & Claire: 3.6
Luis & Michelle: 4.2
Emily & Molly: 4.8
Glenda & Lumumba: 5.2
Abby & Will: 5.25 (eliminated in Jordan due to Covid before leg 6)
Quinton & Mattie: 5.4
Aubrey & David: 7
As much as I am a total geek when it comes to maths and statistics, I don't feel like these averages really reflect the situation right now. Luis & Michael have just done a hat trick by winning two legs in a row and have become the hot favourite at the moment, however they had a disastrous first leg when they finished 10th, that drags down their average by a long way. If we were to ignore that first leg, then their average over the last four legs is 2.75, which is far more indicative of just how strong they are and so far, they are the only team who has won two legs in this season and the first three legs were won by different teams. So even though a team like Glenda & Lumumba have had a bad day at the office in this leg, it still didn't affect their average as much and they are still statistically in the middle of the pack. I am going to go out on a limb and say that despite the fact that Marcus & Michael are clearly a very strong and consistent team (and you can't argue with the statistics - they are the strongest team so far), my money is on Luis & Michelle. They're very likable and I would be delighted if they won this season. Yes admittedly, that's me playing favourites but TAR is a lot more fun to watch when you like the teams.
How was the Covid issue handled on TAR Australia and Canada this year?
But let's get back to the issue of Abby & Will's elimination. I'm going to say it is unfair because it was not fair at all because Covid sucks - I've had it twice and you can be super careful but it is so infectious that you will get it if you're unlucky. This was an issue that came up in TAR Canada and Australia this year when various teams got Covid as well. In TAR Canada S8, three teams went into quarantine when they got Covid but when they were allowed to rejoin the race, they had to search a golf course for two clues - since there were three teams trying to rejoin the race at that point, the first two teams that found the clues could rejoin the race and the last team was eliminated on the spot. In TAR Australia S6, a total of seven teams got Covid and on top of that, even the host Beau Ryan got Covid. However, teams who emerged from Covid quarantine had to do a speed bump when they rejoined the race. Of course, in both the Canadian and Australian versions, the teams who rejoined after their Covid quarantines were at a disadvantage of course but at least they had the opportunity to rejoin the race. There isn't any kind of way to handle this situation completely fairly, the other teams who didn't get Covid had to fight it out to avoid elimination leg after leg to stay in the race; thus for them to watch another team waltz back into the race after missing a few legs because of their Covid quarantine doesn't feel fair either. Would you have rather seen Glenda & Lumumba eliminated in this leg and for Abby & Will to be allowed to rejoin the race after their quarantine period (but with a speed bump, as done in TAR Australia)? Yeah, my heart really goes out to Abby & Will as they were a really likeable team.
Is it hard to navigate around Amman? Do people speak English?
I don't think it is that hard to navigate your way around Amman to be honest, the major signs will have some English on it but if you're going to be looking at some very local signs then of course they are only going to be in Arabic if it is meant for locals to read only, such as if it is informing you about the local parking restrictions. But at major intersections or with important landmarks, there will be some English o help the foreigners. As for the locals, yes some English is spoken but it is often limited to the younger, more well educated people who speak it well, especially if they have been to university or have to use it for their work. Thus in a place like Jordan, if you want to ask for help, always approach someone under the age of 30 and I know this sounds mean but I saw some teams approaching people like security guards for help and even if someone like that was very useful, the chances of them speaking English well is considerably lower. I get the impression that TAR often want to depict these places as so exotic and different, when really, a bit of common sense goes a long way in TAR.
Detour: language lesson or dance lesson?
Well I am glad to see a detour that reflects the rich local culture and heritage. Personally I would have picked the Arabic lesson as the dance looked really difficult and I already speak some Arabic; you also have to factor in the heat, they were filming in Amman in June and it would have been very hot. Thus doing any kind of physical challenge like dancing would have been exhausting under such circumstances, but of course, we have teams who are professional dancers and cheerleaders, so for them, this was an obvious detour to choose. Whilst memorizing the 28 characters of the Arabic alphabet may not have been easy, at least they were doing it in the shade. Most teams chose correctly except for Glenda & Lumumba because they fell to last place when they struggled with the dance challenge - if they have done their homework and watched previous seasons, they would know that these dance challenges are not easy and it is the ultimate test of muscle memory, to memorize so many dance steps is a huge ask. On top of that, you're competing against teams who have had so much experience in learning dance and choreography on a regular basis so you will be at a major disadvantage if you haven't already done dance classes on a regular basis. Hence Glenda & Lumumba definitely made a tactical error there, they would have been far better off with the Arabic lesson side of the detour. Always choose your detours very carefully.
Derek and Claire made a silly mistake.
You know how Derek made a big deal about not being able to roll his Rs? Well firstly, he didn't need to do it as long as Claire could. Marcus & Michael got through that task as a team, with each member memorizing only 14 of the 28 letters and that's a wise strategic decision. Derek & Claire didn't read the clue properly and thought that they both had to memorize all he letters, so that's a silly mistake that dropped them back to 4th place on this leg. Furthermore, Derek is Chinese (his surname is Xiao, a common Chinese surname) and he claimed that his inability to roll his Rs is genetic - that's completely untrue. Some people are just better at languages than others and whilst the rolled R is not found in English or Mandarin, all you need to do when encountering an unfamiliar sound in a foreign language is to figure out exactly what you have to do with your tongue, jaw and lips to perfectly create that sound. It is like a little dance routine for your mouth, you just have to figure out what goes where and execute that choreography perfectly. I'm just as Chinese as Derek, yet I speak Spanish, Italian and Welsh fluently - those three languages have the rolled R which I produce with ease and there are even weirder, more unusual consonant sounds in Welsh like the notorious LL which is not found in most languages, that's why most English speakers annoy the hell out of Welsh speakers when they mispronounce Welsh place names with the LL sound by turning it either into an L or Y sound; I think it is utter bullshit when Asian people claim it is genetic if they have a strong accent or if they cannot make a certain consonant sound, I hate to be blunt but that's just plain laziness and no it is definitely not genetic.
What a weird choice for a roadblock?
I really don't get why they would choose such a roadblock. After all, Jordan isn't a poor country, not compared to some of the poorer places in Africa that TAR has visited before and the cart that they had to build was not reflective of what one would typically expect in a Jordanian market - they would use something a lot more modern. Whilst in some parts of the world, yes poor people would make carts out of scrap material like that but not Jordan. So why did they pick that task for the roadblock? It made little sense as it didn't reflect the local culture. Don't get me wrong, I love those tasks on TAR when the racers have to build stuff with their hands, this allows racers who are methodical to excel in such tasks where they need to pay attention to detail. But no, the task for this roadblock was at best an odd choice and no, I don't like it at all.
Who will win the next leg?
Marcus & Michael are still the strongest team by far - you can't argue with statistics and they are consistent. You would never worry about them messing up and getting eliminated, it is only a question of whether they are at the front of the pack or not. However, Luis & Michelle have just won two legs in a row and have a new found confidence in their stride, so it will be either of these two teams, though my money would be on Luis & Michelle. Three legs in a row, yes I am sure they can do it!
Who will be eliminated next?
Oh don't take this the wrong way, but looking at the statistics, the weakest team so far are Aubrey & David by quite a long way though they did perform really well in this leg in Amman, but statistically, they are still at the back of the pack. However, since Glenda & Lumumba finished last in this leg in Amman and so they will have a deficit of at least 10 or 15 minutes behind the third group. I know Phil made a big deal about them being 45 minutes behind the first group, but given that they are split into four groups at the start of the next leg in France, they actually caught up. It does look like Glenda & Lumumba were more than 15 minutes behind everyone else after really struggling at the detour and so to be only 15 minutes behind the next closest team does give them that chance to catch up. In the earlier seasons, team would depart in exactly the same order, keeping the same time gaps between their arrivals at the pit stop - they had led to teams departing many hours behind and never ever having a realistic chance of catching up. Thus I don't think Glenda & Lumumba are necessarily doomed in this next leg - they are not the weakest team left and that with a bit of luck, they will survive this next leg. My guess is that it would be either of these two teams who will be eliminated next, but much will depend on the choice of tasks in the next leg.
I will be in the United Arab Emirates from the 19th to the 30th November for work, so I may miss one week of blogging when I am there as I might not take my laptop with me given that it has crashed on me today and I'm not sure there's much point in taking it with me especially if I may be buying a new one soon. I am currently watching a lot of old seasons of TAR where they have visited the UAE and I am struck by just how far TAR has evolved. I do miss the old days when there was a lot of drama when teams scrambled to book flights at the airport, but at the same time, sometimes the drama at the airport takes on a life of their own and becomes the focal point of that leg (such as Colin almost getting arrested at Kilimanjaro airport in TAR S5 E8 after refusing to pay his taxi driver the full amount of US$100) rather than the actual tasks on the leg itself. Yes I will be visiting many of the sites that have been featured in past episodes of TAR in the UAE, but it's now a question of selecting exactly which ones to go to. As always, please do share your thoughts below and many thanks for reading.
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