Average ranking after leg 8 in Bucharest
- Tucker & Eric 1.875
- Jas & Jag 2.125
- Joseph & Adam 4.875 (spared eliminated due to NEL)
- Izzy & Paige 5.25
- Kyland & Taylor 5.375
- Jack & Chelsie 6.5
Admittedly, I was wrong in my predictions last week but only slightly. Tucker & Eric could have won this leg if not for the dodgy taxi driver they got on the way to the pitstop and had the pitstop been in central Bucharest rather than the Mogoșoaia Palace, they would have easily won this leg. Still, statistically, they are stronger than Jas & Jag at this stage - just barely but they are stronger. It is really shaping up to be a two-horse race as the team that is statistically the third strongest was spared elimination in tis leg and none of the other teams actually stand a chance against the top two teams who are in a league of their own. I'm kinda disappointed at this outcome because I think a final would be a lot more exciting if there were three teams who equally stood a chance of winning but the statistics suggest otherwise for S38. But hey, this is still better than having one team dominate the entire season making the finale a forgone conclusion.
I don't like the Easter egg roadblock.
The Easter egg roadblock was a classic 'needle in the haystack' TAR task - you might argue that there was an element of skill involved in being meticulous and methodical, dividing up the search area up into grids so you are increasing your chances of finding the egg more quickly rather than just running around in a blind panic but there is always an element of luck with such challenges. I also observed that some racers who did this roadblock didn't understand that they had to find an Easter egg that matched the design of the giant Easter egg on display rather than just find any Easter egg on the ground - that's just a classic case of racers rushing into a task without first reading and understanding the clue properly. Furthermore, the teams at the front of the pack have a massive advantage as the first team was searching for 1 in 6 eggs, then the second team was searching for 1 in 5 eggs, then the third team was searching for 1 in 4 eggs etc - that ratio gets more and more unforgiving until the last team was searching for only that one last egg in the entire search area. The nature of this task keeps the teams at the front of the pack in front and without an express pass, there was not much chance of the teams at the back of the pack catching up. Finally, okay there was some element of Romanian culture in the way the Easter eggs were decorated, but that's hardly unique to Romania. It is done all over the Western world where Easter is celebrated, but you could argue that the style in which the eggs were decorated was Romanian.
Joseph & Adam had a really bad day in the office.
Oh dear, these guys made one mistake after another. Adam did the roadblock with the Easter eggs but failed to read the clue properly, so he was presenting random eggs to the judge without checking if they actually matched the giant Easter egg. That dropped them to the back of the pack and when they finally got to the detour, Adam's blood sugar was already low as he is diabetic. Yet they chose a very physically demanding dance challenge and it was at that point I stood up and yelled at my computer, "what the hell are you guys doing? No, don't do this!" Even if Adam wasn't musically inclined or had never played a musical instrument before, he would have been so much better off at the music challenge learning to play a tune on the panpipes as it wasn't a physical task. He could have sat down during the practice, had something sweet to bring his blood sugar level up and then be in a much better physical state. But no, instead for some bizarre reason, they chose to do the dance challenge. Like guys, have you never ever watched TAR before and seen some incredibly difficult dance challenges? If you are a dancer who has had years of dance lessons picking up complex choreography, then this will be a walk in the park for you. I have had the dance lessons, I have even performed professionally as a dancer and I know just how hard it is for people who have a dance background and for people who have never taken a dance class in their life before, the learning curve is unforgivingly steep. I would have definitely chosen the panpipes over the dance challenge anytime. It was Joseph who said "let's dance" when faced with the choice and I am shocked that Adam didn't protest at that bad decision, given how he was feeling at that moment. They were thrown a lifeline when Jack & Chelsie got hopelessly lost in Bucharest but Jack & Chelsie did choose the easier detour and that's why they managed to catch up. The NEL gave Joseph & Adam a second chance this time but they cannot afford to have another bad day in the office. I really hope they will shift gears and perform so much better in the next leg.
Detour: Find the beat or hit the note?
Come on folks, haven't you watch past seasons of TAR? Here's a golden rule about TAR dance challenges, unless you've taken at least five years of dance classes, always avoid the dance challenges. It requires a certain form of muscle memory to learn these very complex routines and it is never about the difficulty (like they're not going to make you do the splits) but rather it will be the volume - the sheer number of steps you have to memorize will challenge even experienced dancers. You are not going to discover that you're a super talented dancer who can learn very quickly if you've not put in the many hours of dance training, avoid all dance detours if possible when on TAR. The alternative will always be easier.
But still, I felt bad for Adam.
I admit, I was crying too when Adam got to the pitstop and started crying. I really didn't want this adventure to end for him. I did S2 of what I'd like to call the British version of TAR called 007: Road to a Million, it's not quite the same but hey, it's pairs of racers doing challenges all over the world to win a million pounds so it is very similar. I know what it feels like when you feel the burden of having been the weaker half of the pair who made the mistake, you feel that guilt about having let your team down and it is a really horrible feeling. I think they are a strong team, they are still statistically the third strongest team even with their rather poor performance on this leg and I think they are inconsistent. They have performed very well on some legs and terribly on some others, so we know they are capable of a lot when they do get their act together. That is why I was so glad this was a non-elimination leg and they are given a second chance. They are a likable team in spite of their poor performance on this leg. They didn't bicker and attack each other, even when things went wrong they supported each other through the difficult times. Now let's contrast that to Jack & Chelsie who turned on each other when they got lost on the way to the detour. I know it is always tricky to try to deal with the parent and child dynamic when running the race, but still it was shocking how they simply self-destructed under pressure over something like that - that is why I am so shocked that they are still in the race, whilst stronger teams have already been eliminated.
Let's deal with the issue of racers yelling "let's go" over and over again.
Yes, I find it very irritating too. I've seen tons of comments on social media criticizing these racers for having a very limited vocabulary when it comes to expressing themselves in the English language. I can think of many different ways to encourage a friend when they are doing a task, I am a gymnast and we always encourage each other during training. Instead of saying something generic like "let's go", I would prefer to offer specific, useful advice that would help my friend. So I'd say something like "keep your legs together when you twist" or "lean your shoulders forwards to keep your center of gravity over the bar". Yes it is a lot more technical, but it is so much more useful than something generic like "let's go" or "be careful" and I always prefer to be constructive than just yelling encouragement for the sake of yelling something like an excited child. When I was on 007: Road to a Million S2, I avoided saying the word let's go but I would opt for the equivalent in another language. I'd say allez (French), jiayou (Mandarin), dale/vamos (South American Spanish), davai (Russian) and hwaiting (Korean). I take issue with the overuse of "let's go" and I saw this in an interview with recently elected New York mayor Zohran Mamdani - he was giving an interview (it was not a serious interview but one to connect with younger voters on social media) and he was doing a pop quiz about New York culture, whenever he got a question right he would sat "let's go" and I didn't like that because of the context. That's not the right thing to say at that point but it is just the kind of unimaginative thing that Americans always say without thinking if there was a more eloquent way to articulate that emotion. The phrase "let's go" can make sense in the right context, like if the lady interviewing him was asking him, "Zohran, are you ready to take the quiz?" Thus the reply would be, "yes, let's go." Now in that context, "let's go" would make complete sense as in "let's begin now, let's get started" but not when he gets the answer right - if Mamdani was happy that he got the answer right, he should have come up with a better choice of words to celebrate that win than using the very hackneyed phrase "let's go" - well thank goodness he had very good speech writers when he won the mayoral election. I may choose to use loanwords from other languages to make my expressions more colourful but even if you happen to be a monolingual English speaker (as in the case of most of the racers in TAR S38), you can and should find more eloquent ways to express yourself especially when there is a camera in your face.
Speaking of foreign languages.
Izzy & Paige just about managed to say "mulţumesc" (thanks in Romanian) in this episode and in Croatia, Natalie & Stephanie managed 'hvala" (thanks in Croatian). But seriously, it is shocking how none of the racers made more of an effort and even those who did can just about manage one word in a foreign language. I have been in this situation before where I had no idea which country I was heading to but the moment I arrived at a new country, I always had access to the local crew and I could always ask simple questions like, "how do I say hello and thank you in your language?" It is a simple matter of respect and I just get the feeling that these Americans just expect the people in Romania to speak English to them. When I was on 007: RTAM S2, I struggled on in basic Thai in Thailand and then we visited three countries where I spoke the local languages fluently: Switzerland, Austria and Mexico (I speak French, Spanish, Italian and German fluently - I speak ten languages to a very high standard). Then we ended up in the Bahamas and I was like, darn they speak English in the Bahamas. Perhaps I'm in my own little bubble here where I'm dealing with multilingual people all the time, but now's my turn to ask a question: are Americans really that monolingual and useless when it comes to handling foreign languages? I noted that Natalie & Stephanie speak Spanish fluently but beyond that, it does seem like all the other racers are hopelessly monolingual. Look, it might be because I have lived in Europe for a long time and there are some countries like Switzerland, Belgium, Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands where being trilingual is not even the norm, it is the very bare minimum and speaking four or more languages fluently is the norm. Like if you only spoke three languages fluently, people would smirk and judge you for being lazy and stupid. But if you were an American who spoke three languages fluently, geez then you would probably be a multilingual social media superstar.
Do Romanians speak English?
Yes and no. Romania was a communist country until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, so older Romanians who were educated prior to that would not speak English but younger Romanians under the age of 40 and were educated in a free, democratic Romania would learn English at school. In communist Romania, the default second language was Russian and not English. And thus if you are in Bucharest and you need to ask for directions, try to find a younger person to ask.
Were the relative distances of the detour venues fair?
So the teams picked up their clue at Palace of Parliament (in Romanian: Casa Popolurui) and they had the choice between the music and the dance detours. The music detour was a 2.7 km walk away (that would have taken them 39 minutes to walk or they could use public transport), whilst the dance detour was a lot closer - a 1.5 km walk that would have taken them 22 minutes. The distance from the music detour venue to the Green Hours Jazz & Theatre Cafe were they had to make the mici was 0.6 km (9 minutes walk) whereas from the dance detour it was 1.3 km which was a 18 minutes walk.I had a look at the map of central Bucharest and it was evident that those who chose the music detour were at a disadvantage in terms of the distance they had to travel. The Palace of the parliament was located in south-central Bucharest - those who chose the dance challenge had to go to their venue in east-central Bucharest then return to the Green Hours Jazz & Theatre cafe in central Bucharest. Whereas those who chose the music challenge had to find their way up to a venue in north Bucharest and then travel back to central Bucharest, covering a longer distance. So that's 3.3 km vs 2.8 km - you might say an extra 0.5 km (about 8 minutes walk) is not a big deal but given just how close the teams were - Jas & Jag and Tucker & Eric were doing the mici challenge together as were Jack & Chelsie and Joseph & Adam, those 8 minutes would have been crucial. This situation would favour racers who would have chosen the dance detour anyway because they are experienced dancers but in my opinion, this is probably a situation that the producers didn't foresee when planning this leg. But since racers were allowed to use public transport, that difference wouldn't have been significant and that extra distance of 0.5 km would probably be like 1 or 2 minutes on the bus at most (the time it would take to travel an extra stop). Furthermore, I do think that the music challenge is a lot easier than the dance challenge, so one could even argue that this extra distance is only fair to even things out (a little) for those choosing the easier detour.
What's mici? Is it nice?
Firstly it is pronounced 'mich' (listen to the way Phil said it), the second i is silent - such is Romanian for you., This is a kind of sausage shaped hamburger and it is very common around this part of Europe from Croatia to Serbia to Romania to Bosnia to Slovenia where it is more commonly known as cevapi or cevapcici. It is quite simple and how enjoyable it is depends on what you serve it with. You can get it in a flatbread with salads, pickles and all kinds of sauces. Some people like it plain whereas I love to add loads of pickles and spicy sauces to it. Whilst it is common street food in Romania, I do feel that it was way too simple as a task though - it was not difficult enough to change the order of the teams. You wanna do a challenge with mici, how about this - mici can be prepared with different ingredients and spices. I would make the racers take an order from a table of six people, with each diner ordering a different kind of mici. The racers would then have to pick out the right mici from the kitchen but the staff in the kitchen only speak Romanian and nothing is labeled, so the teams will have to taste the mici to figure out which variety it is. I do wonder though what might happen if one of the racers turned out to be vegan and had to deal with a meat-eating challenge. For example, some very religious Sikhs are vegetarian and do not eat meat as part of their religion; Jas & Jag were clearly happy enough to eat the mici but what if it was against their religion? Thus I hope the producers did check with them in advance if they were happy to eat the mici.
How far away is the pitstop Mogoșoaia Palace from the Green Hours Jazz & Theatre cafe?
It is about 14.5 km and a 25 minute taxi ride - the pitstop was located way outside Bucharest, in a north-western suburb.
Who will win the next leg and who will be eliminated next?
The teams will travel to Athens, Greece for their next leg and this will get very interesting. There will be a live U-turn vote and the team that gets the most votes will have to complete both sides of the U-turn and we can see from the previews that there is a tie (presumably a 3-3 tie) so they would have to vote again. The only two teams that will be targeted would be Jas & Jag and Tucker & Eric - it would be one of the only chances to get rid of a super strong team. So one of them will get U-turned, the other team who are spared the U-turn will win this leg. But even with the U-turn, I can't imagine either Jas & Jag or Tucker & Eric going home in this next leg even if they had to complete both sides of the U-turn. Joseph & Adam have a speed bump in this leg to complete as they were spared elimination in this leg but I think I'm going to go with the statistics again. So here's my prediction, I'm guessing that the racers would have done their calculations and realize that Tucker & Eric are the strongest team at this stage, so they would be U-turned as a result, allowing Jas & Jag to win this next leg. Tucker & Eric will finish both sides of the detour efficiently to be safe and they would survive, as would Joseph & Adam with their speed bump. I can't believe Jack & Chelsie are still here so I am going to predict that they will go next. This is not personal, I am looking at the three weakest teams and they are significantly weaker, so logically speaking they would be the next one to go. I certainly hope it will not be one of the two strongest teams who will get eliminated next week for a simple reason: at least now, it is clearly a two horse race and it is hard to predict a winner with two super strong teams. But if you eliminate one of the two strongest teams at this stage, then the other strong team left will find their victory so easy and it will make for a very boring finale - so no, as a fan of TAR, I don't want that. Now I could be wrong with this prediction as it all comes down to the outcome of the U-turn vote, but let's see if the racers were trying to think it through the way I did. You must park your emotions at the front door and just use logic.
Okay everyone, so that's it from me on this episode, let me know what you think please and many thanks for reading.
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