I thought they had to drive in Russia, in those little cars.

I thought they had to drive in Russia, in those little cars.

There was a driving challenge, but in terms of just getting around, it was all about the taxis this season. At the very least, they should have been driving themselves in Hawaii. Part of the challenge in a race around the world should surely be knowing how to find your way around the world! Not how to randomly jump in the best cab.

I was fine with T&V winning - they ran a really good race.

Jaime and Cara not leaving Luke behind at the surfboards won me over to them as not-evil, so I was okay with them coming in second.

Yeah, that was really cool of them. I felt terrible for Luke, coming into that challenge with such a huge lead and leaving last.

And not getting the stuff they just did a couple of days earlier! On the flip side, he had been studying the earlier legs much longer.

I'm happy with Tammy and Victor winning but I do agree that there was really no reason why they shouldn't have been driving in Hawaii!

I give props to Luke & Margie for suspecting that they'd get a memory challenge right near the end -- which makes for good TV because you have a built-in reason for short clips of flashback.

All three teams were so competitive, and had played such a good game overall.

(Of course, sometimes just finishing the game without having =deliberately= killed your teammate counts as a triumph. I'm looking at YOU, Cara.)

Yeah, could have used some more drive-yourself-to challenges, but that's produced teams driving two hours in the wrong direction twice that I can remember....

but that's produced teams driving two hours in the wrong direction twice that I can remember....

Sure, but the same thing happens with taxis. I'd much rather teams lose time driving themselves in the wrong direction than be at the mercy of incompetent cab drivers.

Wonder what the insurance issues are when it comes to the teams driving themselves.

Regardless, I think they should have more self driving or public transport and fewer taxis, so that the race is more about competence than luck.

Sigh. I long for the days when they actually had to make decisions and figure things out. Which season was it when they had to get to Lands End in Portugal and some people took a bus, others took a train, and money actually came into play? Or the first season, when meeting a local on the train to the South of France meant that some teams were able to take a shortcut.

Yeah, that flexibility was one of the things I liked about TAR. It was so open. Gambles paid off. I miss the days of haranging the airline employees at random offices to get tickets

Yeah, I agree with that assessment. I can see how the producers would want to control the risk, but I think it was so much more interesting when those were decisions available to be made and mistakes mattered.