Amazing Race: Week 6

The Episode

This episode was short, sweet, and of the non-eliminatory variety. These six speediest teams began by flying into India, and from the moment they stepped off the plane, there was no artificial bunching of any kind. This meant that every minute mattered, and things like bad cab drivers and slow challenge performance were game changers. Well, at least they would have been if anything in a non-elimination leg could be considered a game changer.

Another interesting thing about this leg was that it all took place in India, at night. It was like a Bollywood version of "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," with each team having their own wacky adventure (sans music numbers).

India has traditionally been very difficult on the teams. Something about the combination of intense heat, intense poverty, and intense crowding just seems to drain and frustrate them. We didn't really see that this time around, but if they keep them in India next week, I think we'll see some major meltdowns.

The Roadblock: The clue said "Who has artistic talent?," which was somewhat misleading, as per usual. The actual task was simple, straight forward, and less relevant to the local culture than we typically see. The team members just had to repaint an "auto rickshaw," which is essentially a very small, very lightweight car that functions as a taxi. The Roadblockers first covered the windows with newspaper, and then spraypainted the vehicles green.

It sounds very simple, and it looked very simple, but some of the teams got very frustrated while performing the task. Notably, Sarah got sick enough of Terence's badgering to give him some lip back. This caused Terence to fold like a cheap suit, and he essentially declared that he didn't want to talk about it.

Meanwhile, Tina was out-badgering Terence by a factor of 1o, but Ken bore it all in a stoic silence. Andrew and Dan, and Nick and Starr seemed to do best at the challenge, followed closely by Kelly and Christy.

Andrew and Dan immediately broke their arms patting themselves on the back for arriving at the Roadblock in second place, and leaving in first place. They've performed pretty poorly in the 10 tasks preceding this one, so I hope they don't get too cocky.


The Detour: Teams had to choose between "laundering money" and "laundering clothes." In "Money," which only Terence/Sarah and Ken/Tina chose, the challenge involved going to a wedding, finagling change so that they were left with 10 bills totalling 780 (I missed what the local currency was...rupees?). They then had to insert the 10 bills into a traditional necklace and present it to the groom as a wedding gift.

In "Clothes," teams had to go to a public laundry facility and iron 20 pieces of clothing, using a local iron that is filled with glowing coals. Holding the hot iron was difficult for some teams, and the clothes had to be ironed to the satisfaction of a local laundrywoman.

As soon as I saw the choices, I told Kim that, were we playing, we would have to do "Money," since ironing isn't my strong suit. So you would think that fellow non-ironers Andrew and Dan would have shown the same good sense, but it wasn't to be.

This option was chosen by Toni and Dallas, Nick and Starr, Kelly and Christie, and the hapless Andrew and Dan. The first three teams seemed to zip right through, while Andrew and Dan just couldn't get it together. They did a crappy job on the first few pieces, and then when the supervisor started rejecting their work, they kind of fell apart. They argued with each other, glared at the supervisor, and freaked out about a gust of wind that knocked some of their laundry to the ground. But hey, they're just two wacky, fun-loving guys, right?



The Pit Stop: Phil seemed weirdly giddy at the Pit Stop, especially when he welcomed Nick and Starr as the first team. He must have been drinking too much Thara or something. He was joined by a local woman with what looked like a huge piece of pottery with a fire inside it perched on her head.

The Elimination: It came down to Ken and Tina racing against Andrew and Dan, coming from separate Detour tasks. It seemed to be pretty close, but ultimately, Ken and Tina came up short. They seemed to suffer from a couple of bad cab drivers more than anything, although they also squabbled and seemed to be generally discombobulated. This was the first non-elimination leg (finally!), and so they will survive, at least this week.

The penalty this season is that they have to perform a "speedbump" next week. The speedbump is an additional challenge-type task that only they have to perform. This is probably the best punishment they've come up with to date, as it seriously disadvantages a team, and yet that team still has a chance to redeem itself. We'll see how it plays out next week.



Team Battle: It's Toni and Dallas battling with Nick and Starr, except for that the battle might be played out with tongues instead of swords. The storyline is that Dallas is carrying a torch for Starr, while Starr may or may not return his affections. Dallas had a funny moment when he called his mom "the world's worst wingman."

Funny Moment: Kelly and Christie turned an innocuous task choice into a setback for women's rights when they chose to launder clothes because they didn't "want to get confused about money."

This is how the 6 teams finished. The number in parentheses shows how they improved or slipped over the previous episode:

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


The Pool

Mike has just been unstoppable in this pool. This week, he was only 1 spot off on the elimination, and he gained 20 points for correctly predicting (along with Kim) that Nick and Starr would be the fastest team this episode.

I had a great week too, getting a fat 50 point bonus on the Ken/Tina nonelimination. If they come in last again next week, I'll get that bonus again, so I'm really rooting against them.

Meanwhile, Jen moved into a tie for second with Carl, and Dawn had the worst week of anyone, losing 50 points on Ken and Tina. Better luck next week, Dawn!



1st: Mike 1066 (-10 +20)
2nd: Carl 960 (-40 +0)
2nd: Jen 960 (-20 +0)
4th: Matt 898 (+50 +0)
5th: Dawn 892 (-50 +0)
6th: Mom 886 (-30 +0)
7th: Kim 814 (-30 +20)
8th: Paul 786 (-20 +0)

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