April 26th Episode Summary: Bullhonkery!
Snapshot of the Leg Teams leave India by flying over 4,000 miles to Istanbul, Turkey. Once there, they take a train and then a ferry to a tiny island and find their next clue at the top of Kiz Kulesi (“Maiden’s Tower”). The clue directs teams to search the immediate area for Travelocity gnome statues before proceeding to Galata Kulesi (Tower of Galata) 12 miles away. The gnomes have differing symbols on the bottom of the statue, and the team that carries to the finish mat the gnome with a plane on the bottom will win a special reward. The clue outside Galata Tower is a Detour. In Columns, teams have to travel 2 miles to an ancient well held up by 224 columns, each of which bear a number. Teams use a grid map to locate 4 specific columns and record the numbers on each. They then must pull a box from the well and use the proper combination of the 4 numbers to open the combination and unlock their next clue. In Kilos, teams travel less than 1 mile to the town square of Yeni Camii, where they take part in a common practice in Istanbul: weighing people on scales. After receiving their scale from a guy with a box full of scales, they have to weigh a combined total of 5,500 pounds before receiving their next clue. Now...what the heck kind of activity is weighing people??? :shock: :lol: The next clue is a Roadblock. The teams travel from their Detour location 10 miles to Rumeli Hisari, a 550 year old European fortress. One team member must climb a 25 foot ladder, then make their way to the top of the fortress via tight, narrow stairwells and find a key hanging on the side of the parapet walls. They must then rappel to the courtyard and use the key to open their next clue, which directs them to find the Overlook of the Bosphorus (River?) inside the fortress, which is the next Pit Stop. First off, the departure times were all within 9 minutes of each other! :eek: Uchenna & Joyce, even with the Fast Forward, only beat Rob & Amber and Ron & Kelly by 2 minutes! Wow. Gretchen & Meredith were only 9 minutes behind. Uchenna & Joyce must have had a lot of trouble finding the Fast Forward last week. Now for this leg. Personally, I thought this leg was kind of boring. Maybe I was watching my recording too late last night and was just ready to get to sleep, but there just wasn’t much drama. Teams stayed in the same order for the entire race after leaving India, and even the non-elimination at the end was expected. The only suspense was who (if anyone) would carry the winning gnome to the finish mat? :grin: The biggest play of the leg came when the teams were flying out of India. Uchenna used someone’s cell phone to call Delhi and found an earlier flight to Istanbul via Dubai. I don’t know who he called, but apparently it was the only other person in Delhi who knew about the flight, ‘cuz Rob & Amber and Ron & Kelly (who even overheard Uchenna making his reservations!) couldn’t find anyone who could get them on the earlier flight. Like Jon and Kris in TAR6, they were misinformed by stupid/ignorant/dishonest/whatever people and it cost them dearly. Uchenna & Joyce pulled Gretchen & Meredith out of the cellar and got them on the earlier flight which gave the two teams a two hour advantage. Meanwhile, Rob/Amber and Ron/Kelly thought they were on the earliest flight available and when they didn’t see the other teams, wrongly assumed that they were in the lead. Rob even stated that Uchenna/Joyce helping Meredith/Gretchen was like the “blind leading the blind.” Oops! To quote one of the Travelocity gnomes, “Bullhonkery!” Uchenna & Joyce know quite well what they are doing. After arriving in Istanbul, Uchenna & Joyce left Meredith & Gretchen in their dust. They breezed through the Detour and Roadblock and made it to the mat first. They chose the Kilo Detour, and then Uchenna did the Roadblock. He had trouble finding the key at the top, but other than that he seemed to have no problem with it. Their gnome did not have the plane on the bottom, so they—again—did not win a prize. But, they are still first—and with a bigger lead than they started the leg with—so they were more than happy. They are bringing Meredith & Gretchen along for the ride because they “like them” but it also makes good strategy sense: there is no way Gretchen & Meredith will win a cutthroat final-three dash to the finish line. Meredith and Gretchen continued their bumbling and stumbling through this leg. If not for the two-hour lead they got by following Uchenna & Joyce, they would have finished last and had their money and belongings taken from them (again). They couldn’t find the clue box outside the Galata Tower and climbed all 12 stories to look for it at the top—twice! Then Gretchen didn’t go to the guy with the scales in the Kilos Detour because she thought they were looking for giant scales or something. :roll: One scene where she wandered aimlessly through a horde of pigeons, totally oblivious to them flying all around her, just made me chuckle. However, she performed the Roadblock and stormed the fortress like a trooper. :shock: Of course, she whined the whole time (during the rest of the game, too) :roll: , and then also had trouble finding the key, but she made it through and they finished second. Their gnome, which they named “Jerome”, also left them without a prize. Rob and Amber suffered some bad luck this week. I’m not sure how travel agencies cannot know what the heck is going on with regard to flight schedules, but Rob & Amber got bad info from three different sources! Even when they asked about specific airlines and times (that Ron & Kelly overheard Uchenna talking about) they were denied. :evil: :roll: It almost seems as if it were done on purpose to advance the cause of sympathetic Meredith & Gretchen, but I’m no conspiracy theorist. :wink: Without the usual bunching up at tasks, their two-hour delay destroyed their chances of finishing first this week. I was impressed to see Rob shaking hands with the final airport guy to tell them there was no earlier flight, though…just to silence those haters that think Rob is only nice to people that help him. :smile: :razz: They, too, chose the Kilos Detour and seemed to have no problem with it. At the Roadblock, Rob quickly stormed the fortress and was the only one to find the key immediately after reaching the top. He and Amber made their way to the mat in third place and their gnome also denied them a prize. Ron and Kelly suffered the same bad luck as Rob and Amber, but they also missed the subway train from the airport in Istanbul and got behind Rob & Amber. They argued a good bit. Even though Kelly is edited as argumentative, Ron seems condescending to her, in my opinion. They did kiss and make up in the taxi on the way to the Columns Detour, however. I was glad to see them choose the Columns, as I think that is what I would have picked. They did it well, and Ron even joked afterward that “nobody can say we can’t read a map!” They did not, however, seem to gain any ground on Rob & Amber, and when they arrived at the Rumeli Hisari Fortress, Ron reached the top only to look down and see Rob & Amber making their way to the Pit Stop mat. They arrived last and had all of their possessions (except passports) and money taken from them. However, their gnome was the winner and they got $20,000 to spend with Travelocity after the race! Additionally, they would get to spend the night in a first class suite at the Four Seasons hotel. Not bad, considering they will start the next leg as paupers. :cry: In the taxi ride to Dubai airport Kelly made her comment about Ron getting out of his commitment to the military “by being a POW.” That sounds harsh (what’s new for their relationship?) but she’s probably technically correct about his leaving the military early after returning from Iraq. Either way, it seemed to me that they had discussed this previously and brought it—along with all their other relationship baggage—along for the adventure. I thought it was interesting that Phil told Ron & Kelly “you need to start the next leg with zero dollars to your name.” Does that mean they can’t beg in the Four Seasons hotel or anywhere else? Do they have to open the first clue before they can start seeking financial aid? Guess I’ll just have to watch next week…

Great write up Brad. Romber thought they were on easy street until they were on the boat and found out there were two teams ahead of them! I loved it!! Serves him right for trying to pull a fast one on Gretchen at the airport and he had the nerve to call them "stupid". Rob didn't even know what a gnome was. Who's stupid?? Joyce and Uchenna come in first and no prize for them!! :evil: Wonder if Romber will lend some clothes to Ron and Kelly when they find out they've been stripped of all their belongings except their passports and the clothes on their back. Or even part with some money. Well, hell no! That would be helping the competition! I don't think they'll be as gracious as Joyce and Uchenna were to Meredith and Gretchen.

Great recap, Brad! I overlooked the part about Phil telling Ron & Kelly they had to start the next leg with $0 so I'm glad you brought it up. I bet you're right, that they can't use their time at the pitstop to beg for money because that would make it too easy for them to catch up to the other teams.

That was the sweetest episode I've probably ever seen: thanks to the editors and to Karma for showing up smart-ass Rob. I couldn't have scripted a better comeuppance than to see his silly little mindgame with Gretchen come back to bite him, to say nothing of his "they're stupid" comments. (In Robspeak, of course, that comes out as "stooopid". What a vainglorious schmuck he is.) Who knew there would actually be an earlier flight? Still lots of love for Uchenna & Joyce. Great leg for them. They were on their game. Too bad about them not winning a prize. Again. This whole prize thing is a whole lot of bullshit. Best Uchenna moment: calling Joyce his princess inside the castle. Anyone else's heart flutter at that?

Yeah Uchenna is a prince :wink: Should have called this episode "look who's stupid now" :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: I caught the "you must start" part too and figured it meant they could not try beggin for money until their departure. Guess the hotel would have been a good place to try.

What I thought was funny was that until Rob asked Gretchen "Did you get on the earlier flight to Istanbul?" Gretchen and Meredith and Uchenna and Joyce were not worried about whether or not they were on the right flight. It was only after Rob said that that Uchenna got on the phone and found an earlier flight.

Re: The Amazing Race
Uchena and Joyce ran an amazing leg this week, no mistakes whatsoever for those two. Because they came in third place this week, I think Rob and Amber will step it up a notch next time and come in first. I think this might have been a wake-up call for Rob and he won't underestimate Uchena and Joyce ever again. As for Gretchen and Meredith... :roll: How many times have these two overlooked a clue? They are truly the most remarkable team of the race. For all the mistakes and trouble they have had in this race, I can't believe they are still in it. Sooner or later their luck is bound to run out.

I forgot to include a quote & comment regarding Uchenna. When he and Joyce and their two lackeys got off the first plane in Istanbul, Gretchen said something like, "and there's no red cap to be seen," a reference to Rob not being there. Uchenna replied, "I already forgot about red cap," or something to that effect. In my opinion, that is the attitude that has them leading the race at the end; he's not focused on what Rob & Amber (or anyone else) is doing or where they are. He and Joyce are focused on winning this freaking race, just like Rob & Amber. Way back in the early in the race, Debbie & Bianca, Susan and Patrick, and Lynn & Alex started off all worried about what Rob & Amber were doing; they obsessed over them, it seemed. Those three teams are gone now. I think Rob & Amber and Uchenna & Joyce are the only ones who have been playing hard to win the entire time, and they've brought along Ron & Kelly and Meredith & Gretchen, respectively, and I think U&J are playing smarter to bring along M&G. It's kind of like taking a weak, undeserving player to the final two in Survivor, so in a way, if U&J end up winning, they will have beaten Rob & Amber at their own game. :shock:

I realize this is off topic, but I thought I would share: My husband and I are taking a class at our son's Catholic school. It's basically the 7th and 8th grade religion curriculum offered to any interested school parents (taught by the 7th and 8th grade religion teacher). Last night we took a tour of the church. As part of this tour, we had to climb a huge, swinging ladder and walk on rafters and climb over air conditioning ducts to get the bell tower. I felt very much like I was storming the castle on the Amazing race. Once we go to the top, we got to write our name on the brick wall of the tower with chalk--everyone who goes up there writes their name. We also had to crawl underneath the church where one of the first priests is buried. We had to army crawl under air conditioning ducts to get to his grave.