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| I had high hopes for Switzerland. |
At least we moved to a new location this week: Switzerland! I had high hopes as we trundled off to William Tell's monument, for two reasons.
1) The Cowboys missed the train and were now far behind...could they be eliminated?!
2) Could this be a rare, reclusive night leg?!?!?!
I love it when we have legs and challenges that take place at night. And I mean fully at night. The half of a leg or so that we had in Kuala Lumpur earlier this season was close(ish), but the most recent season I can remember that featured a nighttime leg was in Season 22, in Berlin. The teams had to transport fluorescent letters, build a train set, go base jumping, and enter a crazy psychedelic maze. Sound familiar? Well, it was one of my favorite legs of the Amazing Race ever, and I thought for a fleeting moment that it was going to be repeated here.
Alas. Silly me. My hopes were dashed in a few short words..."Wait for sunrise." Noooooooooo...should have expected it really.
Anyway, now that my complaining is over, let's talk about the episode for real. The teams had to find the oldest wooden bridge in Europe, which everybody except Brenchel (I'm just going to start referring to them as the Brenchels like everyone else does from now own) found pretty quickly.
They then rushed off to Hotel Schweizerhof, where we were treated to a Route Info task that was probably the hardest of the leg: cleaning a trashed room. I do enjoy when they have these sort of attention to detail challenges, although I thought Caroline and Jennifer would excel at this task (due to their emphatic proclamation of "I love cleaning!"), and they didn't.
Usually I savor every Route Info task we get, because it means we get a Roadblock, a Detour, and a bunch of extra cool tasks. Twenty minutes into this episode, however, it became clear that we weren't going to get both a Roadblock and a Detour, for reasons unexplained (or at least, unknown to me). Possibly just another cost-cutting procedure.
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| Helga was one of the greatest taskmasters we've seen so far this season. |
Helga was one of the greatest taskmasters we've seen so far this season, and one of the best from recent memory, although no one can beat the great Pencils Down teacher from Russia in TAR 21. She certainly made things difficult for the racers, though. The Brenchels and Caroline and Jen were battling it out for 4th place from here on out.
Next we went to the Swiss Museum of Transport, where teams had to correctly identify an enormous drill bit, and I grew continually disgusted by the excessive hand-holding (particularly from Dave, who shouted out the answer to the Country Singers) and Brenchel-bashing that the "Accidental Alliance" was employing.
This is really a terrible name, just to be clear. Not only does it sound stupid, it also is entirely false; no alliance is accidental.
But I digress. We then get a really cool (but too easy) challenge that allows the Amazing Race to advertise Ford like never before: a Ford Mustang museum search. The Cowboys quickly found the correct road signs and drove off (they should have been allowed to take a Mustang)
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| My new least favorite team of the season claimed the number one spot. |
I believe the next place that the racers had to go is given the easily pronounceable settlement of Oberrickenbach, located in the municipality of Wolfenschiessen. Once there, the teams chose a dog and carried empty milk jugs up a cable car, filled them up at the top, and then had the dog transport them once they descended the cable car, which was a heavy lifting task that seemed unfairly designed against Caroline and Jennifer, and also practically identical to a challenge the teams had to perform in TAR 22.
After all the dust snow had settled, and the Cowboys and Afghanimals made a wrong turn, it was my new least favorite team of the season Dave and Connor who claimed the number one spot, as well as (you guessed it) two Ford Mustangs. Or maybe just one. They were never quite clear. Perhaps another way of cutting costs? I doubt it, but you never know with this season.
Caroline and Jennifer brought up the rear, but were mercifully saved by the third and final non-elimination leg. Get your heads in the game, Country Singers! I'm counting on you to win this race and bring TAR 24 to a satisfying conclusion!
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| I've been pulling for these two all long. |
I will conclude this recap with a brief list of my ideal picks to win.
#1: Caroline and Jennifer-I've been pulling for these two all along. I wasn't too thrilled to see them back, but they immediately became twice as likable as they were two seasons ago, and have used their wits, flirting, and intelligence to thrive in a season dominated by male-male teams.
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| They certainly deserve the win after surviving 3 U-Turns. |
#2: Leo and Jamal-I really like these guys by this point, but they're starting to change my perception of them once again. If they continue their Brenchel-bashing, I will not be very happy. Nevertheless, they're solid racers and certainly deserve the win after surviving 3 U-Turns, as they love to say.
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| Rachel has proved herself a plucky, heroic underdog. |
#3: Brenchel-If you told me before the season started that I would be ranking Brendon and Rachel before Dave and Connor in any list, I would have said that you were crazy. But Rachel has proven herself a plucky, heroic underdog, and Brendon...well, if they win, I'll prefer to not think about him. He still annoys me.
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| I've come to the conclusion that these guys are actually not so bad. |
#4: Jet and Cord-I've come to the conclusion this episode that these guys are actually not so bad, and at least they're not taking part in the Accidental Alliance or the Brenchel-bashing. If they win, I guess I can be convinced to congratulate them appropriately. And again, they deserve it.
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| Dave and Connor have gone from the heroes to the villains. |
#5: Dave and Connor-In the span of just two episodes, Dave and Connor have gone from the heroes to the villains, making personal attacks and (even worse, in my mind) making the race boring. Helping teams and being helped can obviously often be beneficial for teams on the race, but for us watching at home, it's boring. The best scenario would be for Dave and Connor to be eliminated next week.
We're down to the Final 5! Let's head off to Seville next week and make it an ending to remember. Check back tomorrow for my Survivor power rankings, and stay tuned!
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