Amazing Race: Week 4

The Episode

The episode began with eight teams, and ended with 7. I think we all know what that means-- a spate of non-elimination legs are coming up, and we can expect to see only a couple of eliminations over the next four or five weeks. Maybe I'm sounding that bell a little early, but mark my words-- it's coming.

The leg began with all 8 teams catching the same flight to New Zealand, home of kiwis, Flight of the Conchords, and Phil. Also, Phil's dad.

Teams left the NZ airport headed to a shipyard, where they had to unravel a huge knot on a dock. The clue said it was a Gordian knot, but no teams resorted to slicing it open with a giant sword, so the reference was a little weak.

At this early stage in the game, the fortunes of some of the teams was already becoming clear. Ken and Tina, who always seem to be first out of the airport, showed some hustle and beat out Andrew and Dan for the first Fast Forward of the season. They were able to successfully climb the needle atop some huge skyscraper, and therefore took an easy helicopter ride to the Pit Stop for their third consecutive first place finish.

Aja and Ty, whose relationship was clearly doing better when it was of the long distance variety, suffered a flat tire and were sidelined for a while.

Marisa and Brooke were the last team to the dock, and seemed to spend a long time wandering around in search of their knot, which was sitting in plain sight.

The Roadblock: "Who has attention to detail?" was the question, and the participating team member had to identify a particular full-face tattoo pattern among many. The tattoos in question were on the faces of a fierce-looking group of Maori tribesmen. It was a cool idea for a challenge, and forced the teams to get literally face-to-face with some tribal NZ culture. The tribesmen had a penchant for congratulating the winner by pressing their forehead against the winner's forehead. Sadly, the teams all seemed to blow by the Roadblock without much trouble-- everyone got it on the first try except for Terence (who had to do it in the predawn darkness) and Marisa, both of whom got it on the second try. So, great concept, but it didn't really work in terms of distancing good teams from bad ones.

The Detour: After a trip to the top of a skyscraper to look for a gnome, the teams were confronted with a choice between "More Time" and "More Skill." You would think that all of these cocky teams would have gone for "Skill" right off the bat, but nearly everyone displayed their self-doubts by choosing "Time," which involved stomping around in a big tub of kiwis and cultivating a certain amount of juice that flowed out of a spout in the bottom. The bottom of the tub was covered in what the players described as "jagged rocks," and it seemed to be causing a lot of people a lot of pain. So much so, in fact, that most of the teams that attempted it quit partway through in favor of switching to the "Skill" option. The exceptions were Kelly and Christie, who hilariously compared it to a spa treatment including exfoliation and stress massage balls.

So most teams wound up heading to "Skills," which consisted of assembling a wind-surfing go-cart and riding your vehicle three times around a track. Most teams seemed to breeze through this option, particularly Terence and Sarah, who checked in at the Pit Stop in second place (after the fast forwarding Ken and Tina).

The real lollygaggers this leg didn't seem to be in a particular hurry even though they were clearly near the bottom of the pack. Marisa and Brooke wandered around disinterestedly, while Aja and Ty cared more about their personal bickering than finishing the race.

Team Battle: The rivarly between Kelly and Christie, and Nick and Starr continues apace, although there were no big fireworks this week. In fact, after quitting the kiwi-juicing Detour, Nick directed Kelly and Christie to where it was. When Starr asked why he had helped them, he said that it was because he wanted them to have the same problems completing the detour that he and Starr had had. This makes no sense on its face, but I think it demonstrates that, for all of Nick's underhandedness, he wants to be liked by everybody, and is much more comfortable talking about them behind their back than in front of their faces. Next week's preview promises that the hugely likable Dallas and Toni will be fighting with Kelly and Christie next, so we have that to look forward to.


Funny Moments:
-- Marisa and Brook speculating about whether their blonde hair would be exotic and attractive in New Zealand.
-- Terence driving the car and asking, once again, for Sarah to demonstrate her love by playing with his hair or something.
-- Andrew flinching when the Maori tribesman tried to press their foreheads together
-- Phil's dad greeting people at the Pit Stop mat, which was great fun to see

Elimination: In the end, Marisa and Brooke came up the shortest, and the two blonds became the latest girl power team to go wrong. They join a long list of teams that think they are being underestimated, when they were actually being estimated just right. I was neither surprised nor sorry to see these two go-- they showed no hustle or personality, and it was just a matter of time before they fell prey to the teams that wanted it more.



Here are how the 8 remaining teams finished. The number in parentheses shows how they improved or slipped over the previous episode:

1st: Ken and Tina (no change)
2nd: Terence and Sarah (+1)
3rd: Kelly and Christie (+5 = biggest improvement)
4th: Toni and Dallas (-2)
5th: Nick and Starr (no change)
6th: Andrew and Dan (+1) 6
7th: Aja and Ty (-2)
8th: Marisa and Brooke (-4 = biggest slide)

The Pool

Only Mom and Dawn were bright enough to stick with Ken and Tina this week, and they're rewarded with 20 big points apiece. Marisa and Brooke's elimination was a huge positive for Mike, who predicted this would happen over a month ago (what a genius!), while it was a huge negative for Dawn, who predicted that they would come in second. Mike vaulted from 4th place to recapture first from Carl. The pool is still divided into two distinct halves, so I guess I should be happy that I'm at the top of the bottom-feeders. Better a big fish in a little pond, that's what I say.


1st: Mike 1036 (+50 +0)
2nd: Jen 1000 (-10 +0)
3rd: Carl 994 (-20 +0)
4th: Dawn 962 (-60 +20)
5th: Matt 878 (-20 +0)
6th: Kim 874 (-40 +0)
7th: Mom 866 (-20 +20)
8th: Paul 856 (-50 +0)

Don't forget to send me your FT picks, and good luck everyone!