And Brian, wow, that man is a saint. Miss America is unbearable.

Yeah, last night was not her finest showing- but I really liked her at the start. I think she has succumbed to the Killer Fatigue (for a few weeks now). Him too. I did dig how fake-cheerful she was at eating the herring though.

Suzi - I loved that too!

It was very painful to watch the Poker Girls switch back and forth. I didn't like them - but that was a tough way to go. I also thought that it might have been a non-elimination leg.

Yeah, last night was not her finest showing- but I really liked her at the start. I think she has succumbed to the Killer Fatigue (for a few weeks now). Him too. I did dig how fake-cheerful she was at eating the herring though.

I agree. I mean, that sort of behavior under stress is why DH and I will never be on this show together.

I thought she was pretty funny the day she was saying she knew she'd get all sweaty and gross as each day wore on, but she had to at least start with proper hair and makeup. Honestly, I sympathize with the fatigue and frustration, too. I know I couldn't do some of the stuff they're asked to do, not without a lot of whining.

I have to admit, as much as she grated last night - the way they came together to calm down and start again was cool. He didn't flip his lid, just tried to gently calm her down and move on.

As for the Poker girls, I wish we had seen them actually do the bell challange. That they were able to skip through that (thanks Sam/Dan) irked me. There is helping and then there is crazy. That was basically letting another team do all the work for you.

Brian was the one who had trouble starting the Mercedes luxury car. I guess all the teams sat in the airport until midnight, then had an all-night flight to Holland. Can't have been much in the way of quality sleep for anyone.

As for the Poker girls, I wish we had seen them actually do the bell challange. That they were able to skip through that (thanks Sam/Dan) irked me.

Yes, that made no sense to me. I mean, if he'd whispered "Don't forget the secret room at the very top" or "Some of the bells are really small" that would have been a reasonably helpful hint. But just giving them the number? Dudes, QUIT IT. You're not pretending to flirt with them anymore, remember?

I was really surprised nobody tried to get an earlier flight out. I know there was only the one nonstop flight, but they had nearly twelve hours to find alternatives! Dubai is a major international port - surely they could have found a flight to somewhere else in Europe with a connection to Amsterdam, even if it meant taking two or three planes instead of one.

It's arguably a good strategy to offer help to people you know you can beat when the field narrows. Given how beat she was on the subsequent challenge, they'd have made an even more pitiful showing.

That was basically letting another team do all the work for you.

Um, no, it was doing all the work for another team. I'm not a huge fan of them but they didn't do anything at all to prompt that - it was entirely on Dan.

I did appreciate how non-bitchy with each other they were when the challenge(s) kept going so badly. Not a lot of teams would have gotten through that without more sniping at each other.

[Especially when one of them appears to be trying very hard and the useless keeps being exceptionally useless (except for all the times she suggested they switch challenges). But that's another issue.]