Find a giant water fountain, then off to the Chocolate shop where teams have take a number. Although it's not a number like you have to take in a deli, the shop is closed (no surprise there) and won't open till 10. Yep, that's right, 10 am. No wonder the Swiss are good at banking if their shops open at 10. Surprising, it's not one of the lead teams that gets #1, it's actually Burnie and Ashley. Actually, these guys have been near the top for most of the race, not winners but up there. I'd watch out for them, they've been pretty solid, no major meltdowns, no huge mistakes. Other teams get their numbers and off to the basement they go for a huge sleepover. Kind of fun, but I guess there are sparks flying between Brodie and Blair, promoting the hashtag Blodie. Lots of time is spent on this budding romance, and while it's kind of nice, it's probably not the first time people have hooked up on the race. And I'm not just talking about the Blind Date version, which was an attempt to get people to hook up that totally failed. Pretty much like most blind dates.
But the big story of the episode is not the romance but all the help the teams are giving each other. Like at the chocolate shop. A bunch of teams were running past it and I think it was Cole who shouted at them to come the correct way. Similar thing happened at the Detour, at least on the Bench side of it. Teams had to figure out how many people reading a newspaper could sit on a massive bench in a park. It was a bit annoying (and funny at the same time) watching teams move up and down, making their way across the bench, bothering various Swiss folks who were trying to enjoy themselves. I especially like the surliness of the dudes playing chess. "Come on you crazy American reality show types, I got him in Check and then you knock my board?" Probably my fav part of the entire episode were those two dudes. Sign them up for Season 29.
I'm not entirely sure what the clue said, so I have no idea if folks actually had to physically move across the bench. The smart way, and I know Gord would get this cause his wife is a math teacher, is to measure the width of the newspaper, then divide the entire length of the bench by that number. Odds are, you'd get pretty close to the range. Let's see the Aaverage broadsheet is about 630 or so millimetres wide when opened (I used to work in journalism) and the bench is 120 meters long which is 120,000 millimetres. 120,000/630 = 190.4. That's how it's done, thank you very much.
But instead of using their noggins, teams use the opposite side of their bodies over and over again. Again, I have no idea what the clue said about the procedure for the task, but the math way would have been faster. Surely, they left it open so teams could figure out an easier way?. And it takes many tries for one team to get done and it's the Frisbee Dudes, so stop calling me Shirley. And instead of taking their clue and going, they decide to tell everyone else the correct number. Not something Gord and I would do if we got finished this kind of task before everyone. It's a race, remember, you want to get ahead of everyone else and win. Well, they tell everyone except for the models and one other team, I think? To be honest, I was getting a bit bored with this. As well as with the other side of the Detour which was to build a swiss army knife. Takes a lot of patience to do but also takes a lot of patience to watch. Not a lot of drama in that. At least teams weren't helping each other.
So after the Detour, teams have to find the Broken Chair (awesome piece of public art Geneva, very cool) and the UN building. At the Roadblock, they have to find flags of 10 founding nations. Sorry I'm going to be terrible at describing this task, but you saw it, right? Get a book of all the flags of the nations and find the 10 that's listed on the board. I don't know about any of you, but as soon as I saw Phil describe the task, I could see that the board listing the countries was the map of the lines of flag poles. Anybody else get that early? Sure, it's a bit crazy on the race but man, it was right there in front of you. The key to the whole task you were looking for, the map that you were trying to find so you could do something instead of guessing. Right there, in front of you.
Finally, the teams figure it out, but man, it took them long enough. And again, instead of just doing it on their own so they could get ahead, they all form into helpful groups. But this time, it sort of makes sense for this task. I could see Gord and I working with another team with this if someone asked. Of course, once we'd figured out the flags, I wouldn't see us going around telling the other teams what the answer was. No siree.
Well, not all the teams are working in a team. The Models, who got lost a number of times and arrive at Roadblock last, can't find someone to help them. And they're annoyed that no one is helping them, especially the other girl teams. But hey, if no one's going help, then too bad, suck it up and move on. Don't walk through the task like you're on a catwalk with a pout. Get a move on, do the task fast. And that's why they lost.
Sure, there was a bit of drama when teams had to change and wait for trains in order to get to the pitstop in France (Holy cow TAR, you actually hit three different countries in the same leg; when's the last time that happened?). And this train situation brought up another Even Steven event, where all the teams, save for the models, were on the same train to that town in France. Race to the pitstop it's the Frisbee Dudes with their second win followed by Tyler and Korey. And no meltdown from the Dancers.
But the Models could have caught up with everyone, but it seemed like she was walking through the flag task. And instead of running from their train across the station to grab the one everyone else was on, they were walking. Total lack of motivation from them, very similar to the Mensa Brothers and their stroll through the airport. If you want to continue in the race, you can't walk while doing tasks, or to catch a train, you have to run your butt off. And thus, they missed that train by a few seconds and ended up in the back of the pack.
Next week, we're stuck in France. Zut Alors!