Hej and welcome back to my review of this week's episode - we are back in Sweden and this is the fifth visit to Sweden on TAR US - we were last in Sweden back in TAR S25 when they raced through the city of Malmo. How's that for an episode that took everyone by surprise? My predictions last week were completely wrong (again) as the team that I thought would be eliminated somehow managed to snag their first win of the season and I am really upset as one of my other favourite teams is eliminated - sigh. Let's see how things unfolded in Stockholm that led to this outcome, but first, we must look at the average rankings after leg 10 in Stockholm. Interestingly enough, it wasn't the weakest team who got eliminated this time and even more shocking than that, the weakest team statistically was the one who won this leg making this an unusual situation, but I like being surprised after 35 seasons of TAR as we say goodbye to Todd & Ashlie.
Average rankings after leg 10 in Stockholm, Sweden
- Greg & John = 3
- Rob & Corey = 3.4
- Steve & Anna Leigh = 4.1
- Todd & Ashlie = 4.2 (eliminated in Stockholm)
- Joel & Garrett = 4.7
All the teams were placed on the same flights from Ljubljana to Stockholm - they must have transited somewhere like Austria as there are no direct flights between Slovenia and Sweden. I think they were shown boarding an Austrian airlines plane which makes sense, connecting them through Vienna and the signs in the plane were bilingual in German and English. This travel arrangement meant that Greg & John saw their lead slashed to nothing, as all teams dashed out of Stockholm-Arlanda airport at the same time; but Greg & John don't need that advantage in order to do well in this leg.
Skydiving is obviously an expensive adventure, but does it work within TAR?
There was a bit of drama about finding the numbers at the entrance to the airfield but really, the teams were all on the same plane and were jumping out within moments of each other, so there really wasn't that much the teams could do to speed up that process. So whilst they got some great aerial shots of Stockholm as the racers skydived, I really dislike tasks where the teams don't have any way to perform the task a bit better to improve their position. The only way this could have been more interesting was if there was one racer who was way too afraid to even attempt the skydive but this didn't happen in this case. Ashlie was very afraid but she just got on with it anyway. Still, I am not fond of tasks like that as they really don't work well within the format of TAR, therefore I think that they ought to have done something different.
Todd & Ashlie's elimination - what went so wrong?
I'm afraid Todd & Ashlie were doomed the moment Ashlie took the wrong strategy at the roadblock - she was so focused on what she was doing she failed to see how Anna Leigh used a completely different strategy to get through the roadblock. What Anna Leigh did was precisely and exactly what one had to do in such a situation, you do just enough to pass, your product simply meets the minimum standard and of course, Ashlie's wreath was a lot nicer but that was not the right kind of strategy to take in this context. Garrett and Greg noticed that at once and completely changed their strategy, but somehow Ashlie just totally missed all that for some reason which was their downfall. They had fallen so far behind after that roadblock that there was just no way for them to catch up before the pit stop despite the other teams having made some mistakes as well. Like I said before, I really like this team and I'm very upset to see them eliminated.
What a waste of an Express Pass, again!
I am sure many of you were screaming at your TVs and computers when Rob & Corey wasted their express pass on a relatively easy roadblock, that was a huge mistake. They just panicked, they didn't take their time to check how hard or easy it was - they were the last to arrive on the island of Tynningö and they made a poor decision under pressure. Hindsight is 2020 of course, the detour at the recycling centre took far longer and that would have been a better time to have used the express pass. This was a repeat of what happened in leg 3 when Morgan & Lena used their Express Task on a very simple task then regretted it afterwards. They might have won this leg if they had saved the express pass for the detour instead, but that's a moot point. This was their best chance to win a leg and unfortunately, they squandered it.
Why go to that island though?
I'm sure Tynningö is a very pleasant small island - I've visited Stockholm before and a few islands but not this one in particular, but it seems like that same task could have been done in any one of Stockholm's many parks, they didn't need to go all the way out to that island. I understand that they're trying to showcase an aspect of Swedish life where people do spend time in the peaceful islands to get away from the busy city, but there really wasn't anything that unique to Tynningö once they got there - couldn't they have at least picked a task which had to be done on that specific island and no where else? It does seem pointless taking the boat all the way out there for a task that can be done anywhere really.
Teams working together at this stage?
I was surprised to see teams working together even at this stage: Steve & Anna Leigh gladly helped Rob & Corey at the theatre when they simply couldn't find the violinist - then Rob & Corey helped Steve & Anna Leigh out when they couldn't tell the difference between a bus and a subway. Seriously at that point I was like, do you Americans drive all the time and have no concept of how public transport works? Can't you tell the difference? Anna Leigh was trying to tell the bus driver to go and imagine if the bus driver actually did drive away at that point before Rob could get on the bus and tell them that they had made a mistake. There was a kind of alliance between the two teams throughout the detour and I suppose for them, they had little to lose by working together knowing that Greg & John were probably going to appear out of nowhere and overtake them. In a foot race between Rob and Steve, I think Rob is probably going to win as well, but a lot of people on social media expressed concern that Anna Leigh was pushing her dad too hard and that he may get a heart attack or collapse. Steve is probably stubborn enough to just ignore her if he was really unable to run - he is letting her push her that hard because he wants to be pushed, he wants to make it to the pit stop. In any case, with any medical emergencies, the TAR crew will always have a medical team on stand by and all racers have to go through a thorough medical examination before being even allowed on the race. So whilst you may have older and more unfit racers on TAR, there is really little risk of anyone ending up in hospital as a result of that kind of exertion - that is to be expected on TAR.
Was it unfair to expect Rob to find the violinist in the theatre as he is deaf?
Some of you on social media have commented that the other racers were able to simply listen to the violinist, follow the sound of the music in order to find her and get their next clue. If it had been a roadblock, then yeah that would've been totally unfair but Corey can hear and I think in this case, it wasn't unreasonable to expect Corey to have been the one to have located the violinist by following the music. Yet somehow, he didn't manage to do that despite the fact it seemed like a fairly straightforward and logical way to solve that challenge. So in this case, I'm actually on the side of the producers - this was entirely Corey's mistake. Those of you hardcore fans of TAR will remember Margie & Luke from many seasons ago and of course, Luke is profoundly deaf. In an interview, he revealed that he actually first applied for TAR with another deaf friend and they wanted to be the first deaf duo on TAR but the producers thought that it would be too difficult for them and advised Luke to find a hearing partner for the race, which is how he ended up with his mother Margie. It was specifically in cases like this where the other partner can at least step up and complete a task that requires the ability to hear. If you wanna talk about unfair, well how about the amount of running/walking involved in this leg that had put Steve at a major disadvantage with the younger racers then? After all, the teams navigated their way around Stockholm with public transport and thus he was really pushed to the limit. I don't think you can expect the race to be totally 'fair' - if anything, I thought simply going into the theatre and getting a clue with little or no effort was probably a bit meh and boring. At least make the effort to showcase more Swedish culture - but it seems that their production budget could only afford just one solo violinist. That is surprising as they had a massive cast dancing on Tynningö island for the road block.
Do all Swedish people speak English well?
Oh this is a very complicated issue, let me explain as someone who has been to Sweden many times. Sweden is very multi-ethnic because Sweden as a country has accepted many migrants and these come in two forms: firstly you have the economic migrants from places like India and Turkey - these are people who have moved to Sweden for better economic prospects. Then you have the refugees who have come from countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia and Sweden has for many years provided a safe haven for those fleeing war and persecution. The birth rate in Sweden is very low in any case, thus it needs this influx of migrants to boost its working age population. Stockholm is hence an incredibly diverse and multi-cultural city, with 25.8% of the population classified as 'foreign born' and 34.4% of Stockholm residents are classified as having a non-Swedish foreign background. The Swedish education system is excellent, it is well funded and English is taught from a young age but as you can see, there is quite a significant portion of Stockholm residents who are migrants who did not grow up in Sweden and hence did not benefit from the Swedish education system. You may now sit up and say to me, now hang on a minute you can't assume that all migrants can't speak English? Well the well educated migrants would be working as university professors, engineers, doctors and business owners, but the less educated ones would end up working as taxi drivers, bus drivers and on public transport. So if an Iraqi refugee arrives in Sweden speaking only Arabic, every effort will be made to teach that refugee Swedish to help them assimilate into Swedish society but English isn't really taught to the refugees - the Swedish authorities are quite clear: we welcome refugees but we expect them to function as members of Swedish society. I remember how I once encountered a taxi driver in Sweden before who was a Somalian refugee: he spoke Swedish and Somali but only had a few words of English. I had to struggle on in Swedish to communicate with him as I don't speak any Somali. So if you meet a young Swedish person who was born in Sweden and brought up there, then of course they're going to speak English flawlessly. But if you encounter a bus driver who is a refugee who has been taught Swedish and not English, then you might be better off asking someone else who is more likely to speak English for help. I have been avoiding the elephant in the room but I'm just gonna say it: I'd approach someone who looks typically Swedish for help and I would not ask a bus driver in Sweden for directions as that's precisely the kind of job that those poorly educated immigrants do.
It did look rather cold, is this a typical Swedish summer?
Summer in Stockholm can vary - you can get very hot days with the temperature hitting 30 degrees (86 Fahrenheit) but it can also swing the other way and fall close to freezing - it all depends on the wind direction. Given Stockholm's position in northern Europe, you could get a blast of Arctic wind and the temperatures can fall dramatically very quickly but if you get a blast of wind from the south, then it can become very warm. Judging from the way people were dressed in that episode, it was probably a rather cold day even though it was June. At least the early morning rain did clear up and the teams didn't have to run an entire leg in the rain - it would have been so miserable to have done it all in the pouring rain!
Sort or serve: which detour was easier?
Oh I would have picked serve as sort sounding like such hard work - as for why the menu was entirely in French instead of Swedish, I have no idea. Having it all in English would make the task too easy but why French when we are in Stockholm? Perhaps French is associated with being posh and upper class and that was the image of the Nobel Banquet. According to the Wikipedia page for the event, there is nothing there to suggest why the menu should be in French so that might just be a decision by the producers in this case. I'd much rather do a memory challenge like that than hard labour - if you have the ability to memorize a long list of items, then it would allow you to get through it a lot faster whereas the other side of the detour at the recycling centre would favour teams with a lot of muscle power. I'm surprised only Greg & John went for serve, that was a good choice so that's why they are the strongest team in the race.
What happened on the way to the subway station? Why did they get lost?
I must give credit to Juha Takkinen for the detailed explanation. From Pampas Marina, the Västra Skogen subway station is only 450 meters away (and that would be like a 5 minute walk, but a lot faster if you ran), The problem happened when the teams didn't get clear instructions (or at least they didn't pay enough attention to what they were told). Upon leaving the Marina, there is a junction with a path through the park turning left and the main road turning right - the three teams that got lost followed the main road instead of the path in the park. The path in the park would lead them straight to the subway station but because of the trees, I suppose they couldn't see the station in the distance and assumed that they had to follow the main road. Juha worked out that the teams ran approximately 900 meters to the Tomteboda before having to double back, adding 1.8 km (1.12 miles) just to get back to the turning into the path through the park. If you walked that distance, it would take you 27 minutes but if you ran it, you could probably slash it down to 15 or even 12 minutes depending on your fitness. Needless to say, that was enough to give Joel & Garrett enough time to sneak into first place ahead of the pack. The lesson here is to make sure you listen to the directions you are given very carefully or else you could easily take a wrong turn. But wait, this wasn't one team getting lost - it was three teams all getting very lost together and it goes to show that it doesn't pay to simply follow another team in the race under such circumstances as they may be clueless. It was actually refreshing to see Greg & John make a mistake for a change, so at least we're not all just assuming that they are definitely going to win this season. Still we all know that they are the favourites to win.
So who will win the next leg in Dublin? Who will fall short of the final hurdle?
Oh this is really hard to predict as the weakest team just won this leg! We're off to Dublin in Ireland next, it is a city I know really well as I am married to an Irishman and I have visited Dublin many times before as we have family in Ireland. It's easy enough to predict that Greg & John almost certainly will win the next leg in Dublin, but as for which team will not make it, well we see a River Dance challenge. I am guessing that this is a roadblock, we see Corey dancing, so Rob is thankfully spared that. We see Anna Leigh in the audience saying, "that looked tough", so oh dear, I'm afraid Steve has to dance. So it is down to a Joel vs Steve showdown - who do you think will get through a difficult dance challenge faster? I'm sorry but neither of them look as if they have had any dance experience so your guess is as good as mine but since Joel is a good 12 years younger than Steve, I am guessing that fitness might be a factor for Steve if he has to keep practising for a long time to learn a complicated routine - thus based purely on that, I'm guessing that Steve & Anna Leigh are going to be eliminated in Dublin. I know they are a strong team than Joel & Garrett but their odds would have been so much better if it was Anna Leigh and not her father doing the dance roadblock. I'm putting all my personal feelings aside and basing my prediction solely on the evidence presented to me here - sigh, which brings me onto my next point.
On and unrelated note: jury duty.
On an unrelated note, I just got called up for jury duty - what are the odds? That will begin on the 22nd January Monday, there's no dodging it. I have done my research, spoke to loads of people and I've gone from denial to acceptance already, that just messes up my plans for January though. I was hoping to go off to a trip of a lifetime in Central Asia, visiting both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan but now that trip can only be planned after I finish my jury duty. I have no idea how long it could last, it might be a few days, it could be weeks depending on how complex the case is and that just means I can't make any plans. So to cheer myself up, I am nipping off to Italy for a bit of early season skiing next Friday and I'll try to do another short trip before the 22nd January next month. Thus next week's post will be relatively short as I'd have to rush it out on Thursday before flying off to Turin on Friday. TAR S20 E4 did race through Turin, hence I will visit some of the sites there before I fly back to London after skiing. Do you guys remember TAR S20 from back in 2012?
On my own quest to get on TAR the UK version
I can't actually speak openly about it as that's part of the process, but it's weird as the first season of that programme has already aired and I'm applying for season two. The format is different from TAR US in that elimination process is very different and every one of the nine teams could potentially win a million pounds, (US$1.27 million) but in the first season, none of the teams make it all the way to the end and three teams walked away with £300,000 each (US$380,500), most of the other teams left the game with some prize money and only two teams left the game with absolutely nothing. I am waiting for the next round to happen one weekend in January, so I'm just relieved that filming in scheduled to be much later in the 2024, so at least I can hopefully get my jury duty over and done with in January before all the fun things can happen later in 2024. That's it from me for now, please feel free to leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.
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