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| Tonight we were treated to an unorthodox but extremely enjoyable episode of The Amazing Race. |
Tonight we were treated to an unorthodox but extremely enjoyable episode of The Amazing Race. Departing first from the pit stop were cowboys Jet and Cord, who have been billed as early favorites to win the race. Boasting an impressive resume of 2nd and 6th place on the race (averaging 4th), they are topped only by fellow three-timers Flight Time and Big Easy, whose 2nd and 4th place finished give them an average of 3rd, and Brendon and Rachel, who placed 3rd on Season 20.
Anyway, Jet and Cord have to travel to the Chen Clan Academy, where they will be stamped on the forehead aggressively. The problem is, the cowboys can't seem to figure out that the Academy is a fifty minute run. Now, I don't know about you, but if I could choose to take a taxi somewhere in fifteen minutes or run to get there for almost an hour, I would choose the taxi. But Jet and Cord are in China, and so they waste a very long time fruitlessly running around before jumping in the cab.
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| After receiving their aggressive stamping, they arrive at a mall called Eday Town. |
Bringing up the rear are Caroline and Jennifer, who I'm worried about. After finishing so far behind the other teams last episode, they're going to really have to work hard to not be eliminated, right? Well, they discover that they're neck and neck with Jet and Cord, who finally arrive at the Academy. Maybe they decided to run after all.
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| One cruel child in particular (featured at right in this photo) taunts him, noticing his sweat and vowing to report him to the authorities. |
The Roadblock at Eday Town requires teams to construct a toy car. That's it? Well, as Dave soon figures out, the instructions are in Chinese. And to complicate matters, there are a lot of children involved. I always love it when tasks on TAR involve kids, because they just act so hilarious. Last seasons angklung challenge is a good example of this. As Flight Time/Big Easy (I don't know which is which) learns, kids can make things difficult. One cruel child in particular taunts him, noticing his sweat and vowing to report him to the authorities. I love it! Get that kid on TAR.
There were a lot of interesting things taking place at this challenge. Mark finishes first, to Mallory's delight, and the duo cart off the car to the next location (setting some other events in motion). But the biggest event here is the use of one of the Express Passes. Jen and Caroline and Jet and Cord arrive last, and Jet gets right to work, attacking the challenge. Jennifer gets right to work attacking Cord. She correctly realizes that she and Caroline could be in serious trouble. They arrived after all the other teams and don't have the challenge acumen that the cowboys possess.
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| Most of the credit has to go to Jen and her flirting ways. |
Another quick thing to take note of is Meghan's assistance in the Roadblock (YouTube/JJ alliance?). She helps John finish his car, a mistake that could have been critical if Mark and Mallory hadn't made a far worse one...which it's time to talk about.
The teams head off to deliver the cars to the Guangzhou Cultural Center, and this is where Team Kentucky has a problem, which the promos for this episode worked extremely hard to emphasize. While Mark is loading up the car to leave the mall, Mallory forgets to take his backpack, and leaves it on the side of the road. This leads to a breakdown in communications between them, which clearly stems from the fact that they don't really know or trust each other. It's a disappointing disadvantage that they had to deal with, and the outcome leaves nobody happy. Team Kentucky, at length, decides to drive all the way back to Eday Town and recover Mark's backpack, even though Mallory had his passport and medicine. I have to hand it to the people who made the promos for this episode. After seeing this mistake highlighted and displayed so many times, I thought that there was no way Kentucky would go home, so kudos to them if that's what they were aiming for.
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| Even after the backpack had been recovered, it seemed like Mark had given up, and Mallory had to egg him on. |
For the teams that weren't having a breakdown, it was Detour time. One option was some sort of Chinese remedy involving heat and cups and a sauna which I'm not too sure of because nobody chose it. So we'll focus on "Feathered Ball", a hacky-sack-like game that took place in Liwanhu Park. Unsurprisingly, it was a decently difficult challenge that put the first seven teams even with each other. This ended in an incredible finish where all 7 of these teams were racing for the pit stop at a park in Shamian Island at once. Of course, Brenchel had to end up winning the leg, and $2,500 each. Although I must say, Rachel has been manageable this season...so far.
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| For some strange reason, I've been rooting for John and Jessica since the show began, and I really wanted them to pull this out. |
But in the end, it was indeed Mark and Mallory who came in last and were eliminated. In a rare occurrence, all 9 teams were at the Pit Stop to bid goodbye. It was certainly sad to see Kentucky go home, but as I said, I felt worse for Mallory this episode than I did for Mark, because her attempts to race were seemingly stymied.
Oh well. On to Malaysia! I still have to go with Dave and Connor as my picks to win, and I was delighted to see the Cowboys knocked off their pedestal this week, even though they quickly rebounded. Margie and Luke and Brenchel also look like strong contenders, and after this past week, I would not count the Country Singers out.
Until next time, stay tuned! We'll be back with more Survivor coverage later in the week.
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