![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Glee Amazing Race: Ninth Leg - Detour
A Brooklynite friend with access to a roof deck is so annoyed that they've moved the big Manhattan fireworks display from the East River to the Hudson in recent years.
Last time, on The Amazing Race: Glee: India is behind them, traded for South Korea. Sadly, there's no repeat of the hilarious moment from Season 4 when severed octopus tentacles attempted to climb off racers' plates.
Team How Did This Happen
Quinn and Emma both bite uncertainly at their lips. Shipping yard: loud and dirty. Department store: loud and crowded. They're faced with a Sophie's Choice right the hell here. "Let's do Shopping," Quinn finally says.
"Are you sure?" Emma asks.
Quinn, who bought every type of Busan map she could think of at the airport, taps one of the subway system. "There's a stop with that store's name, like there's one for this place. We can go straight to it and be sure that we won't get lost; it's just efficient." She nods to herself. She's just being efficient. She's just going to win.
"Okay," Emma agrees when she's sure that Quinn is up for it, and they head off in search of the nearby subway station.
Teams Inevitable Family Team and PTC Worst of the Week
It's an easy decision for Santana and Brittany to go for Shopping. They are good at shopping and convincing other people to do work for them. They are not good with heavy machinery. They nearly head for a cab, but hear Quinn psyching herself up to take the subway over to the store and follow them there.
It's not such a clear-cut decision for the Hummels. On the one hand, neither of them has the slightest issue with machinery, they're used to figuring out how to work with new equipment, and Shipping seems pretty straightforward compared to the three-part task inside a crowded store. On the other hand, Kurt likes shopping. On the... third hand, Burt is already complaining about two-thirds of that task. He likes heavy machinery like Kurt likes shopping, and he is pretty sure he doesn't trust a lot of what they'll have to do there. On the, um, fourth hand, Kurt likes shopping but is also aware that there is far more potential for a dramatic accident to happen with the shipping crates. Assuming that's possible, though; there might be safety regulations. Maybe that's not a sure bet.
"Come on," they overhear Santana say to Brittany as they take off. "Quinn just said we can take the subway straight there."
Well, if he can't guarantee good TV right at the moment then the most important thing is to stay in the race. Kurt raises his eyebrow at Burt, who sighs and relents. There's definitely something to be said about an option that presents little to no chance of getting lost, and even if they have to spend their own money at the store, the far cheaper subway fare will balance it.
All three teams wind up on the same train. Fortunately for Quinn, going by the previous Korean subway experiences on the show, this non-rush hour train is well-used but certainly not filled to the brim with passengers. It's clean, quiet, fast, and it's an easy transfer to the next subway line when they have to make that change. Soon all three teams are coming up out of the subway station, seeing the massive store in front of them, and taking it head-on after deep, centering breaths.
Teams PTA and Dudebro
Carole would actually prefer Shopping. Shannon has no problems with it; she knows she'd look ridiculous ice skating, but she can just cling to the outside wall and pull herself along. That's not the issue: they're just both convinced that Shipping will be a lot faster. It's simpler than trying to locate three items inside a giant store, they can make constant progress on one task, and it's closer.
Puck and Finn had a much simpler take on it: big cranes and metal blocks are awesome, and the world's biggest department store is not.
They all head for cabs and soon discover what the other three teams were worried about: traveling by the surface eats up a ton of time, and the distance advantage they have is quickly eaten up by stop-and-start traffic. They eventually make it to the shipping yard and run inside. Finn automatically looks around for his mom, but to his surprise she's taken off in hunt of the marked spot. Carole wants Finn to do well, of course, but she also realizes that 1) they are down to five teams, three of which include members of their family and 2) the other members of that family were the ones who got featured on Survivor and it's time for her to kick a little ass.
Not that she doesn't love Finn, of course. But if need be, she will totally blow past him to the mat and then order pizza to make it up to him.
As there's no obvious advantage to either, Carole and Shannon rock-paper-scissors it to determine who goes first. Carole thus heads up the ladder first, gripping it so tightly that her knuckles turn white, and is safely ensconced in the cab by the time Puck and Finn finally find where they're going to go.
Summary version of what happens next: Carole gets initially frustrated at the controls and takes a while to calm down, but is then able to focus. Shannon yells up encouraging words about just needing to move that crate as smoothly as dropping an egg between two baskets. Puck keeps shouting that Finn needs to hurry up, because he wants to do the crane thing, too. And Finn...
Finn, faced with an incredible spectrum of identical shipping crates in a dozen different colors, is picturing legos.
It's not a good thing when Finn Hudson gets distracted.
Team How Did This Happen
By staying near the walls and looking at the high, well-lit ceilings, Quinn is actually able to focus successfully on the space around her rather than the crowds. She knows she's pushing herself, but at the same time it's working. It probably wouldn't have worked without so much space overhead, but it is working.
"I watched them prepare this noodle dish," Emma says as she carries it back to their table. She seems satisfied with the gleaming stainless steel kitchen and controlled, sure movements that the cooks displayed. It's not something that would have assured her the year before, but on that day she was able to watch a background employee cleaning a currently-unused counter with some local Lysol equivalent and be convinced.
Quinn takes a second to focus back on Emma, and when she does Emma is smiling. "I think we're still doing pretty good, don't you?" she asks as she hands Quinn a fork. "Here, I got another cup so we can split it up."
"We are," Quinn says with amused disbelief. Weren't they the random pairing that no one expected to go very far? "Well, let's eat."
Team Inevitable Family Team
"We should have done the cranes," Burt mutters to himself as he pulls himself along the ice rink walls. The camera crew dutifully records this hilarious footage.
Behind him, Kurt attempts to glide elegantly by. He assumes that, given his general agility, he will be able to put on a show for the cameras that contrasts nicely with his father's fumbling. Perhaps he would if he'd ever strapped on a pair of skates before that day. Instead of that plan, the cameras instead record two hilarious bouts of fumbling. Kurt also falls more than once.
Oh well: it still makes for good TV.
Team PTC Worst of the Week
While the girls' camera crew is just as dutiful as the Hummels', they're still not sure how Santana and Brittany managed to get half a dozen cute Korean boys leading them around the mall. They tried. It was just... magic, apparently.
Santana reaches and and adjusts her breasts, and then suggests to Brittany that she tug down her neckline again to show off her cleavage more.
Oh. That probably had something to do with it.
Team Inevitable Family Team
Unexpectedly, it's not Kurt's bizarre organizational skills or shopping knowledge that gets them through the Detour first: it's Burt's increasing panic over being stuck in this seemingly endless store. He pulls himself around that rink with all the effort of moving heavy bus seats in Chennai. He sucks down the noodle dish before Kurt's had more than a couple of bites. And his "point and buy it, it looks like it might vaguely fit" clothing philosophy actually works well for him when he happens to point at an kitschy, tourist-driven hole in the wall. Sure enough, that tiny place has t-shirts with the needed names, and soon they're headed to the named entrance on their instructions to check in and be given their next clue.
Kurt looks confused.
Did his dad just beat him at consumerism?
Team PTA
By the time Finn finally gets controls of the crane and stops making noises like he's a Transformer, Carole has already been replaced in the cab by Shannon. Puck looks highly irritated when he takes Finn's place, and Finn looks a little sheepish when he realizes his mom totally beat him on that task.
Carole smirks a little at him, and then yells up to her partner, "Just remember to keep calm! Like you're... uh... laying down in the grass for a nap?" From inside the cab, Shannon shoots her a weird look. That's not relaxing at all. Ants would be all over you. What a weird analogy.
Puck tries to focus on the task, but he gets frustrated at the controls and lets his temper take over. He pictures legos, too.
With only a minor flash of guilt, Carole leaves behind Finn at the cranes while her son looks after her with a faintly betrayed expression. It's a game, sweetie! And it's near the finish line.
Team How Did This Happen
Emma Pillsbury and Quinn Fabray face down huge crowds full of strangers, and still come out as team number three. They are efficient, supportive, and nothing like the random pairing they started as at the beginning.
Seriously, how did this happen?
Team PTC Worst of the Week
You know, helpful locals tend to contribute more toward the ultimate goal of coming in first when teams don't constantly flirt with them to keep them under their control. Santana and Brittany might be overplaying their hand a bit; they're both hot, and those boys would have helped them out whether or not they constantly leaned forward.
Yes, they get the boys to show them just where to go, but between needing to maneuver a large group of hangers-on through the store and taking time to corral them all together, they wind up as the last of the Shopping teams and team four overall. (And were tied with Dudebro in the votes; only their previous placement saved them.)
Of course, as they have no idea where the other teams are, they are not aware of the fact that they're very nearly in last place. Yet.
Team Dudebro
Puck and Finn aren't too worried when they finally finish. They're convinced that this task had to be faster than Shopping. Sure, they took a ton of times to grab onto their crates, and both of them agreed that they were picturing these totally amazing fortresses they built out of tiny plastic bricks, and maybe both of those big, strong jocks were silently scared out of their minds when they climbed up that tiny ladder... whatever. They're still fine. They get approval from the worker and are handed their next clue. "Roadblock," Puck reads.
Like Puck Said
Holly perches on the edge of a desk in a... business center? Computer lab? "South Korea has a famously modern telecommunications infrastructure," she says. "Do you know how much we pay for total crap service in America? I am never going to be satisfied with the streaming I get from Netflix again, let me tell you."
There's a short pause as someone offscreen tells her something.
"Oh. Netflix advertises with us? Really?" Holly smiles and shrugs at the camera. "Forget what I just said! Go stream Next Generation and do a drinking game where you take a shot every time Patrick Stewart is sexy." She leans in and winks. "Gonna spoil you a little: you get drunk fast."
She hops up and reveals that she seems to be in an apartment building; through a window you can see what looks like a residential setting outside. "Teams will make their way by cab to this address in central Busan. Once there they'll find this room, a computer lab for residents on the ground floor. They'll then play a simple little match of what's become such a popular game in this country that there are professional teams making six-figure incomes over it: StarCraft. Well, StarCraft II. All they have to do is play one short little five-minute scenario against a local gamer and win it, and they'll be given their next clue. They can try as many times as they like."
The camera pans over to the right to show those local gamers: elementary-age children.
The camera pans back to Holly, who grins. "Think whatever you want: it's going to be a lot harder than they expect. We're talking about something that's serious business here."
(Just to clarify: the racers get to play in English, and the locals get to play in Korean. It'll just impact what they see on their own screens.)
Team Dudebro
On the way to join the other teams at the address in the clue, Dudebro considers the teaser hint provided to them to make their decision: "Who's ready to defend the universe?"
This game is getting weird.
(Side note: if you're unfamiliar with real-time strategy games, do a quick readthrough before you vote. They're very different from platformers or first-person shooters, etc. It'll require a combination of quick reactions, foresight, basic video game skills, and—obviously—strategy.)
[Poll #1759102]
Last time, on The Amazing Race: Glee: India is behind them, traded for South Korea. Sadly, there's no repeat of the hilarious moment from Season 4 when severed octopus tentacles attempted to climb off racers' plates.
Team How Did This Happen
Quinn and Emma both bite uncertainly at their lips. Shipping yard: loud and dirty. Department store: loud and crowded. They're faced with a Sophie's Choice right the hell here. "Let's do Shopping," Quinn finally says.
"Are you sure?" Emma asks.
Quinn, who bought every type of Busan map she could think of at the airport, taps one of the subway system. "There's a stop with that store's name, like there's one for this place. We can go straight to it and be sure that we won't get lost; it's just efficient." She nods to herself. She's just being efficient. She's just going to win.
"Okay," Emma agrees when she's sure that Quinn is up for it, and they head off in search of the nearby subway station.
Teams Inevitable Family Team and PTC Worst of the Week
It's an easy decision for Santana and Brittany to go for Shopping. They are good at shopping and convincing other people to do work for them. They are not good with heavy machinery. They nearly head for a cab, but hear Quinn psyching herself up to take the subway over to the store and follow them there.
It's not such a clear-cut decision for the Hummels. On the one hand, neither of them has the slightest issue with machinery, they're used to figuring out how to work with new equipment, and Shipping seems pretty straightforward compared to the three-part task inside a crowded store. On the other hand, Kurt likes shopping. On the... third hand, Burt is already complaining about two-thirds of that task. He likes heavy machinery like Kurt likes shopping, and he is pretty sure he doesn't trust a lot of what they'll have to do there. On the, um, fourth hand, Kurt likes shopping but is also aware that there is far more potential for a dramatic accident to happen with the shipping crates. Assuming that's possible, though; there might be safety regulations. Maybe that's not a sure bet.
"Come on," they overhear Santana say to Brittany as they take off. "Quinn just said we can take the subway straight there."
Well, if he can't guarantee good TV right at the moment then the most important thing is to stay in the race. Kurt raises his eyebrow at Burt, who sighs and relents. There's definitely something to be said about an option that presents little to no chance of getting lost, and even if they have to spend their own money at the store, the far cheaper subway fare will balance it.
All three teams wind up on the same train. Fortunately for Quinn, going by the previous Korean subway experiences on the show, this non-rush hour train is well-used but certainly not filled to the brim with passengers. It's clean, quiet, fast, and it's an easy transfer to the next subway line when they have to make that change. Soon all three teams are coming up out of the subway station, seeing the massive store in front of them, and taking it head-on after deep, centering breaths.
Teams PTA and Dudebro
Carole would actually prefer Shopping. Shannon has no problems with it; she knows she'd look ridiculous ice skating, but she can just cling to the outside wall and pull herself along. That's not the issue: they're just both convinced that Shipping will be a lot faster. It's simpler than trying to locate three items inside a giant store, they can make constant progress on one task, and it's closer.
Puck and Finn had a much simpler take on it: big cranes and metal blocks are awesome, and the world's biggest department store is not.
They all head for cabs and soon discover what the other three teams were worried about: traveling by the surface eats up a ton of time, and the distance advantage they have is quickly eaten up by stop-and-start traffic. They eventually make it to the shipping yard and run inside. Finn automatically looks around for his mom, but to his surprise she's taken off in hunt of the marked spot. Carole wants Finn to do well, of course, but she also realizes that 1) they are down to five teams, three of which include members of their family and 2) the other members of that family were the ones who got featured on Survivor and it's time for her to kick a little ass.
Not that she doesn't love Finn, of course. But if need be, she will totally blow past him to the mat and then order pizza to make it up to him.
As there's no obvious advantage to either, Carole and Shannon rock-paper-scissors it to determine who goes first. Carole thus heads up the ladder first, gripping it so tightly that her knuckles turn white, and is safely ensconced in the cab by the time Puck and Finn finally find where they're going to go.
Summary version of what happens next: Carole gets initially frustrated at the controls and takes a while to calm down, but is then able to focus. Shannon yells up encouraging words about just needing to move that crate as smoothly as dropping an egg between two baskets. Puck keeps shouting that Finn needs to hurry up, because he wants to do the crane thing, too. And Finn...
Finn, faced with an incredible spectrum of identical shipping crates in a dozen different colors, is picturing legos.
It's not a good thing when Finn Hudson gets distracted.
Team How Did This Happen
By staying near the walls and looking at the high, well-lit ceilings, Quinn is actually able to focus successfully on the space around her rather than the crowds. She knows she's pushing herself, but at the same time it's working. It probably wouldn't have worked without so much space overhead, but it is working.
"I watched them prepare this noodle dish," Emma says as she carries it back to their table. She seems satisfied with the gleaming stainless steel kitchen and controlled, sure movements that the cooks displayed. It's not something that would have assured her the year before, but on that day she was able to watch a background employee cleaning a currently-unused counter with some local Lysol equivalent and be convinced.
Quinn takes a second to focus back on Emma, and when she does Emma is smiling. "I think we're still doing pretty good, don't you?" she asks as she hands Quinn a fork. "Here, I got another cup so we can split it up."
"We are," Quinn says with amused disbelief. Weren't they the random pairing that no one expected to go very far? "Well, let's eat."
Team Inevitable Family Team
"We should have done the cranes," Burt mutters to himself as he pulls himself along the ice rink walls. The camera crew dutifully records this hilarious footage.
Behind him, Kurt attempts to glide elegantly by. He assumes that, given his general agility, he will be able to put on a show for the cameras that contrasts nicely with his father's fumbling. Perhaps he would if he'd ever strapped on a pair of skates before that day. Instead of that plan, the cameras instead record two hilarious bouts of fumbling. Kurt also falls more than once.
Oh well: it still makes for good TV.
Team PTC Worst of the Week
While the girls' camera crew is just as dutiful as the Hummels', they're still not sure how Santana and Brittany managed to get half a dozen cute Korean boys leading them around the mall. They tried. It was just... magic, apparently.
Santana reaches and and adjusts her breasts, and then suggests to Brittany that she tug down her neckline again to show off her cleavage more.
Oh. That probably had something to do with it.
Team Inevitable Family Team
Unexpectedly, it's not Kurt's bizarre organizational skills or shopping knowledge that gets them through the Detour first: it's Burt's increasing panic over being stuck in this seemingly endless store. He pulls himself around that rink with all the effort of moving heavy bus seats in Chennai. He sucks down the noodle dish before Kurt's had more than a couple of bites. And his "point and buy it, it looks like it might vaguely fit" clothing philosophy actually works well for him when he happens to point at an kitschy, tourist-driven hole in the wall. Sure enough, that tiny place has t-shirts with the needed names, and soon they're headed to the named entrance on their instructions to check in and be given their next clue.
Kurt looks confused.
Did his dad just beat him at consumerism?
Team PTA
By the time Finn finally gets controls of the crane and stops making noises like he's a Transformer, Carole has already been replaced in the cab by Shannon. Puck looks highly irritated when he takes Finn's place, and Finn looks a little sheepish when he realizes his mom totally beat him on that task.
Carole smirks a little at him, and then yells up to her partner, "Just remember to keep calm! Like you're... uh... laying down in the grass for a nap?" From inside the cab, Shannon shoots her a weird look. That's not relaxing at all. Ants would be all over you. What a weird analogy.
Puck tries to focus on the task, but he gets frustrated at the controls and lets his temper take over. He pictures legos, too.
With only a minor flash of guilt, Carole leaves behind Finn at the cranes while her son looks after her with a faintly betrayed expression. It's a game, sweetie! And it's near the finish line.
Team How Did This Happen
Emma Pillsbury and Quinn Fabray face down huge crowds full of strangers, and still come out as team number three. They are efficient, supportive, and nothing like the random pairing they started as at the beginning.
Seriously, how did this happen?
Team PTC Worst of the Week
You know, helpful locals tend to contribute more toward the ultimate goal of coming in first when teams don't constantly flirt with them to keep them under their control. Santana and Brittany might be overplaying their hand a bit; they're both hot, and those boys would have helped them out whether or not they constantly leaned forward.
Yes, they get the boys to show them just where to go, but between needing to maneuver a large group of hangers-on through the store and taking time to corral them all together, they wind up as the last of the Shopping teams and team four overall. (And were tied with Dudebro in the votes; only their previous placement saved them.)
Of course, as they have no idea where the other teams are, they are not aware of the fact that they're very nearly in last place. Yet.
Team Dudebro
Puck and Finn aren't too worried when they finally finish. They're convinced that this task had to be faster than Shopping. Sure, they took a ton of times to grab onto their crates, and both of them agreed that they were picturing these totally amazing fortresses they built out of tiny plastic bricks, and maybe both of those big, strong jocks were silently scared out of their minds when they climbed up that tiny ladder... whatever. They're still fine. They get approval from the worker and are handed their next clue. "Roadblock," Puck reads.
Like Puck Said
Holly perches on the edge of a desk in a... business center? Computer lab? "South Korea has a famously modern telecommunications infrastructure," she says. "Do you know how much we pay for total crap service in America? I am never going to be satisfied with the streaming I get from Netflix again, let me tell you."
There's a short pause as someone offscreen tells her something.
"Oh. Netflix advertises with us? Really?" Holly smiles and shrugs at the camera. "Forget what I just said! Go stream Next Generation and do a drinking game where you take a shot every time Patrick Stewart is sexy." She leans in and winks. "Gonna spoil you a little: you get drunk fast."
She hops up and reveals that she seems to be in an apartment building; through a window you can see what looks like a residential setting outside. "Teams will make their way by cab to this address in central Busan. Once there they'll find this room, a computer lab for residents on the ground floor. They'll then play a simple little match of what's become such a popular game in this country that there are professional teams making six-figure incomes over it: StarCraft. Well, StarCraft II. All they have to do is play one short little five-minute scenario against a local gamer and win it, and they'll be given their next clue. They can try as many times as they like."
The camera pans over to the right to show those local gamers: elementary-age children.
The camera pans back to Holly, who grins. "Think whatever you want: it's going to be a lot harder than they expect. We're talking about something that's serious business here."
(Just to clarify: the racers get to play in English, and the locals get to play in Korean. It'll just impact what they see on their own screens.)
Team Dudebro
On the way to join the other teams at the address in the clue, Dudebro considers the teaser hint provided to them to make their decision: "Who's ready to defend the universe?"
This game is getting weird.
(Side note: if you're unfamiliar with real-time strategy games, do a quick readthrough before you vote. They're very different from platformers or first-person shooters, etc. It'll require a combination of quick reactions, foresight, basic video game skills, and—obviously—strategy.)
[Poll #1759102]
no subject
Brittany takes it and does surprisingly well. Lord Tubbington loves Halo even more than fondue.
Shannon takes it and it takes her a while to learn the controls. She's not a gamer at all, the buttons are everywhere and they're small.
Burt takes it and has the same problems as Shannon. He doesn't have any her strategic mind either so it takes him longer to get the hang of it. Yelling how stupid the coach is at the TV while he sits on his couch doesn't help in video games.
Emma takes it because well, she has to. And first she spends time cleaning the controller and insists on cleaning the kids' controllers too because germs are everywhere kids. Then she starts playing and video games are messy.