I blame this on killer fatigue to be honest. If I had very little sleep, saw a hay bale task and recalled what happened to the team from years ago, I might want to pack my shit and go home as the first response.

I really don't like needle in haystack challenges.

I'm totally confused by both the winner and bottom two this week.

I know! I mean, there's suspenseful editing, but that is just plain deceptive. Also? Annoying.

However, there was genius in putting the finish mat just about in view of the task, which meant the people who were still rollin' got to watch the teams ahead of them get checked in -- now, that's torture, er, psychological challenge. Plus no having to truck Phil out to the hay bales in case of a 10-hour search.

Loved Pinky using the Gnome as an impromptu stool! Or was I the only one who caught that?

I was getting so mad at the brothers and then they cried and apologized. So, still not good behavior, but I'm glad they kissed and made up. I was all, "why doesn't he just shut up?" at one point. I mean, it was clear he wasn't being helpful. He was driving me nuts, I can't imagine how the brother who was doing the labor felt.

Yeah, that was an ugly side to them. I'm not really looking forward to them having a show-down with the Globetrotters next week - even before seeing the preview it was pretty clear that they've starting going past competitive into a kind of snotty, assholish mindset about them.

Loved Pinky using the Gnome as an impromptu stool! Or was I the only one who caught that?

I thought that was great, too! Loved how he stuck the pointy end into the ground and then sat on the upturned bottom--brilliant idea.

I hope that the previews for next week were just an accidental takedown, not the deliberate dragdown it looked . As for Pinky not knowing the thing in the clue? Oy, these kids today!

It looked basically accidental (or at least mutual) to me. (Though I will say it seems plausible that Flight Time might be expected to be better than most avoiding that kind of accident.)

even before seeing the preview it was pretty clear that they've starting going past competitive into a kind of snotty, assholish mindset about them.

The Globetrotters or Sam and Dan? I missed the previews because I switched to Next Iron Chef.

Sam and Dan.

A lot will depend on whether it's slip-and-grab versus grab-and-slip.

Not that they aren't fallible and human, but you don't get picked for the Harlem Globetrotters if you aren't sportsmanlike and quite aware of the rules of the competition.

Loved that a bunch of the teams started spontaneously dancing when they went for the mat.

If I recall correctly, the first time the hay bale challenge ran, it was very early in the competition, maybe like the third leg or so? Which meant that Lena/Kristy had a bunch more energy still in their tank. At this point in this race, the teams had had an overnight in the airport, a flight, and a long day of activity before they came up on the bales, plus the intimidating knowledge that the same task had taken out a great team in the past.

They really are making some of these challenges downright fiendish, aren't they?

Yeah, it`s almost (but not quite) not fun to watch. I was thinking that the ride task was too easy, but I`d forgotten what they were in for. Oh, and I was disappointed that no one did the alphabet decoding task. So that meant that they`d already done a physically fatiguing task this leg.