TAR Episode 10: Bull Down

This episode delivered in so many ways.

Finally! This is what I expect from a season of the Amazing Race titled "All Stars." This episode delivered in so many ways; it was memorable, funny, and featured great tasks. Let's dive in. (Image credit CBS)

We started off the leg with teams having to actually find their own flights from Switzerland to Seville, Spain.

Dave and Connor and the Afghanimals quickly nabbed the best flight, and arrived hours before the Cowboys, Country Singers, and Brenchels. Fortunately, the time equalizer forced them to wait until 8:30 a.m. to get their clue.

I know I sound like such a hypocrite after complaining about the equalizer last week...wait, I am a hypocrite. Yes, I have teams that I'm rooting for as well, so I was happy to see them have a chance to catch up. In terms of the equalizer in general, though, I think it needs to be revamped.

There are certainly times when it's useful--it gave this leg a more heightened sense of tension--but I think it could be employed in a better manner. For instance, the teams should somehow be equalized before arriving in Spain, or at least make there be some way that they don't have to rush around and then stop and wait for a couple of hours.

But back to the race. The next morning, the clue led teams to a Roadblock at a Barber's Shop (Malado Peluqueros) that featured an opera-singing barber. Or something like that; I missed the explanation for it. At this point, I was really hoping we'd see the infamous shaving-your-head Switchback that's plagued racers season after season.

It was a race against the clock.

Instead, it was a new and still relatively cool task. The teams had to shave shaving cream off of a balloon decorated to look like a customer with a razor in less than a minute. If they took too long, the barber popped their balloon. This was really a great challenge; I thought the difficulty would be ensuring that the balloon didn't pop, but it was actually a race against the clock. Nothing too tricky, but fun.

Next came the feature of the leg: bull fighting. Sure, there was some flamenco dancing thrown in there somewhere, but I know what you really want to hear about. The bull fighting challenge really was a stroke of genius; locking the racers in gigantic bubbles, forcing them to squeeze through narrow streets and be bounced and knocked over by other "bulls" in gigantic bubbles can only lead to disaster and hilarity, right?

Right. I never grew tired of Rachel crying "Brendon, come save me!" and Brendon rushing to her defense...only to be bounced along the ground by the bulls. The ambushes in the squares and alleyways were hilarious, and having the added difficulty of finding signs to put together a phrase was a nice touch.

"This was too dangerous for The Amazing Race!" you might cry. And yet I would argue that we just saw the best episode of the season. Honestly, who cares if it's dangerous? I doubt that the Race would purposefully put racers in harm's way (or at least, too much harm). And while injuries like Jamal received are certainly painful (and I did feel bad for him), they add an extra layer of interest to the Race.

Wait. There's more to this leg than a bunch of guys beating up the racers in plastic bubbles? Why, yes. We have another U-Turn! Shockingly, Leo and Jamal U-Turned the Cowboys instead of Brendon and Rachel, which left me very happy and the Afghanimals very smart. Even after all of the Brenchel-bashing and bravado from the Accidental Alliance these past two weeks, Leo and Jamal made the right decision and got rid of the bigger threat.

As soon as Caroline and Jen mastered the flamenco,
they were basically assured of staying in the race.

After that, it was simply a race to the U-Turn between Caroline and Jennifer and Jet and Cord. As soon as Caroline and Jennifer mastered the flamenco (which seemed to be astonishingly quick), they were basically assured of staying in the race. For me, this was pretty much the best case scenario.

Yes, I have grown to like the Cowboys over the last week or two, but I'm much more happy to see them go rather than Caroline and Jen or Brenchel. Just imagine the reaction we're going to get from Dave when he learns that the Afghanimals U-Turned the Cowboys and Brenchel's still here!

Next week, we'll narrow the Race down to three teams...leading us into the finale? I've heard it's a one-hour finale this year, so that would make sense. Rooting for anyone but Dave and Connor now.

Tomorrow I will try to post a BBCAN mid-week recap, and on Tuesday there'll be Survivor power rankings, so stay tuned!