Rob Cesternino (@RobCesternino) and Amazing Race Blogger Jessica Liese (@HaymakerHattie) recapped episode 6 of The Amazing Race 23 – Choir Boy at Heart which took the teams from Poland to Austria.
Jessica says there were elements of this episode she liked, but believes on the whole the episode was designed poorly and unoriginally. Rob liked this episode and says it might be because he missed the season that this episode stole challenges from.
Poaching Taxi’s and Providence Amy
The top story at this hour according to Rob is Taxi Etiquette. According to Jessica, there aren’t very many rules of Taxi etiquette on the race. You are allowed to poach cabs, or tell cabbies what and what not to do in regards to other teams. The only thing you are not allowed to do is move someone else’s bag. Rob brings up the James and Abba incident from TAR 21 where the Taxi took off with their bag and asks why teams leave their bags in a taxi. Jessica feels it would be game over for a team if they left their bags in a taxi, but believes teams carry their passport with them. Jessica believes the rationale would be to claim the taxi as theirs, especially since after the challenge was open season for Taxi poaching.
Jessica feels that Jason and Amy should have been more direct with their driver about what the Amazing Race is and not to let anyone else take their taxi. She appreciated the stunt Marie pulled with telling the taxi driver that they were on the same team since their clue is blue and calls Marie quick on her feet. Jessica believes that Marie is an over thinker and that is what gets her in trouble. Rob feels on the Amazing Race, unless you are in danger, don’t screw anyone else over because it is not worth your while. Jessica feels that the last leg is the only exception.
Jessica called Amy “Providence Amy” because she is very Boston Rob like. Rob feels that Providence Amy came out at the check-in mat in the confrontation with Tim and Marie. Jessica feels that Jason didn’t have control over the situation and he took out his anger on Amy. Jessica feels that there should have been no penalty because Tim and Marie did not touch the bags. She brings up the Amazing Race Australia season 2 where a penalty was instilled for taking another teams bags out of a taxi. They mention that Tim did not say a word during the Check-In mat argument and Jessica takes back her comment that Tim was riding shotgun to Amy with reservations.
Rob congratulates Boston Rob on the World Series win for the Boston Red Sox. Jessica mentions that she is a Mets fan and says she would never be a Yankees fan because they are as self-important as Boston fans.
Singing the Blues for Oklahoma
The singing task is brought up and how it caused the demise of Tim and Danny (Oklahoma). Rob mentions how it was a bad decision for Tim to do the singing task. Jessica said on Twitter that she would sing the song, but now is going back on it because she has a cold. She feels that she would have slaughtered the competition on this task, because she knows German and sings Karaoke and covered “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk this weekend. Rob feels the one rule with karaoke is to be upbeat and they felt that was the one rule for the judge along with hitting the notes.
Jessica feels that the singing task was especially hard because it was very subjective as to what the judge was looking for and they had no idea what they were doing wrong. Jessica loves the vocal coaches and how they were trying to help the contestants so intently. Rob calls the kids in the Vienna Boys Choir “Little f-ers” because they were laughing so hard at the contestants. Jessica brings up how they most likely have stage parents and they don’t have many opportunities to really have fun and goof off.
Phil and the Afganimals need to speak up!
Rob feels that Phil was really understated with the confrontation on the mat. Jessica feels that Phil is a hands off host and that he was just there to do business. Rob feels that Jeff Probst would have been all over it and thinks that Phil did a bad job here. Jessica thinks that Phil didn’t step in because it didn’t affect the race. She also feels that it’s a little different that he wants everyone to get along, but it doesn’t make him a bad host.
Rob brings up the train station in Poland, where the Afganimals and the Ice Queens missed the train, but later got the opportunity to catch up on the layover. Rob likes when all the teams are together because it brings out all the drama. Jessica feels this is when the characters really start to develop. Rob mentions how everyone accused the Afganimals of u-turning Brandon and Adam and they denied. Jessica feels there was nothing to gain by not coming clean. She thinks there is nothing wrong with coming forward and owning it because they did not have a choice and Rob feels that it is much better to own what you did.
Jessica airs her TAR grievances
Jessica feels that Jason and Amy made the right move to wait for the Fast Forward and by leaving early. She feels that they had no control over the situation and they couldn’t put their race into a Bungee Jump operators hands.
Jessica did not like this episode because a lot of the tasks were a rehash of tasks from Season 4. Three of the Five tasks on this week’s episode were done in TAR4 (Masquerade, Bungee Jump, Running the Maze to the Pit stop). She feels the setting is like a character and although she doesn’t mind using locations twice, she feels that they could have put a little more effort on the tasks or calls it a Switchback and not try to sneak it by viewers.
We are joined in the Chat room by Brett of Amazing Race Canada who brings up how there is only 1 U-turn per race per season not to tip teams hands.
POWER RANKINGS
Rob and Jessica do power rankings of the Amazing Race 23:
(They note that this is not the order they predict the teams will finish in, but it could end up being accurate.)
#6 – The Icecababes (Ally and Ashley) – Rob and Jessica feels that them being an all-female team plays no effect on how they rank so low.
#5 – The Afganimals (Leo and Jamal)
#4 – The Baseball Bunnies (Nicky and Kim) – Jessica feels although they ran a great leg, but they have consistently been middle of the pack
#3 – Tim and Marie – Jessica feels they are over-thinking everything and it may lead to their downfall.
#2 – Jason and Amy
#1 – Travis and Nicole – Rob predicted them to win pre-season and Jessica agrees that they are the smart bet.
Jessica feels that the judge’s sass calling the teams “Acceptable” was fantastic. Rob brings up how Marie left the building saying “Let’s go steal somebody else’s cab.” She feels that this is because they either let their taxi driver go or they didn’t like their driver. They believe that the Taxi Driver took out the bags because he may have gotten an emergency dispatch.
Answering Your Questions
Jessica feels that the closing maze was too simple. She feels that it was not designed to get people lost in it forever, and it’s more for decoration then challenge.
Jessica says she would be surprised if she saw the Ice Queens win the race because they would be vanquishing more powerful teams. She feels that the Afganimals could become like the Beekman Boys who win the race on incredible luck. Rob compares the Beekman Boys to Trent Dilfer of the NFL, who won but is otherwise irrelevant.
Jessica calls the nickname “The Power Parents” awful, and feels this is a name they gave themselves. Rob calls this a name that Child Protective Services would take note over.
The listener calls the Oklahoma boy’s vocal coach overzealous with the children’s vocal exercises. Rob compares the coaches to the coaches on the Voice. Jessica believes that none of the coaches would have wanted Tim if it was the Voice style. Jessica believes they could have switched, but there would have been little benefit to it.
Jessica feels that the marriage with the Race Wife’s is still rock solid, but they aren’t really doing anything as a unit.
Jessica feels after this incident that there will be cold shoulders between Jason and Amy and Tim and Marie, but there will not be another blow-up.
Jessica feels that weather restrictions make the race more challenging and they add another element to the race.
Jessica feels that they could ask the drivers to remove the bags, but it wouldn’t have been in the spirit of the race. She also received clarification via Twitter that Marie’s cab was parked a mile away and was clueless when asked to wait.
Going back to Amazing Race Australia 2, the team who moved the bags received a won hour penalty.
Jessica does not believe that producers plan Non-Elimination legs around what team is going to be eliminated. Rob tells the story of how one of the husbands of Mona and Beth flipped off Rob in a picture because they were unliked on RHAP for being boring.
Join us for Survivor Know it-Alls with Stephen Fishbach which will be airing this week on West Coast time (9PM PST, 12AM EST). Rob will be joined on Thursday by the two people eliminated on this week’s Survivor from Redemption Island as well as Jonathan Penner on the recap podcast this week. He will also be joined this weekend by AJ Mass, who is a fantasy writer for ESPN as well as Primetime #99 Alex Stein who will be appearing on Season 4 of CMT’s Sweet Home Alabama.
Don’t forget to vote #RHAP daily at PodcastAwards.com!
Next week, we will be joined by Jodi from TAR 14 who is now involved in Amazing Race casting. Be sure to join us next Monday at 10:15 EST, 7:15 PST.
Special Thanks to Michael Shaheen for this extensive recap!
You Make the Call
Is this man giving Rob the finger?
