Amazing Race: Week 7

The Episode

This was probably my favorite episode of the season so far, at least on a visceral level. There were lots of moments when local citizens provided some color (in more ways than one), Ken and Tina busted their asses to overcome their Speedbump penalty, and the worst teams struggled with their own failings.

I assumed that, with a Speedbump on the table, teams would be bunched at some point, so as to give Ken and Tina a better chance, but there was no bunch at all. So, for at least the second week running, any time that you earned in the previous leg carried over and became hugely important. In fact, last week's finishing order closely resembled this week's.

The Roadblock: This roadblock seemed fairly easy and straightforward. The participating team member had to run into a courtyard among some local revelers, climb a short ladder, and retrieve a marked clue from among bunches of decoy envelopes. The catch was that the celebrants were throwing colored powder and liquid dye at each other, in accordance with a local tradition.

Predictably, the white Americans with camera crews were instant targets for the locals, and roadblocking team members were instantly bombarded with powder and dye.

Most of the teams were able to tough it out, but Kelly had a complete meltdown. Every time she set foot into the designated area, she became a walking cloud of thick, colored dust. She was forced to quit the field several times, and didn't help herself any by failing to read the clue (which has been a theme with this team). She started retrieving decoy clue envelopes at random, without realizing that the actual clues were marked.

Christie eventually read the clue and realized the error, but what was about four unpleasant minutes for all of the other teams seemed to be about a half hour of torture for these two. It dropped them from third to the back of the pack. They made things worse for themselves by sending their cab away at the beginning of the task. Since they were covered head to toe in wet dye, they had a hard time flagging down a new cab.

The Speedbump: Ken and Tina were in next-to-last place when they began the Speedbump task, which was basically passing out holy water to people on the street until no one else wanted any. Given the crowded streets, I think it would be a cold day in Calcutta before that actually happened, but at some point, the man in charge of the task decided Ken and Tina had served enough water, and they were able to rejoin the race. At this point, they were in last place again, with only a single detour task to make up the time.

The Detour: "Bleary eyed" or "Teary Eyed," as Phil explained. The Teary task, which Terence and Sarah chose, involved using a mortar and pestle to grind up some pepper. The hot pepper fumes seemed to be very difficult on the senses, and the taskmaster was a stickler, holding them long after they wanted to go. Terence, by the way, continued his tradition of being a huge baby by making it seem like the colored powder up his nose was somehow Sarah's fault (among other problems).

The "Bleary" task seemed to be the better choice, as long as you didn't screw it up. It involved walking along a busy street and identifying small numbered tags that were affixed to the power lines along the street. At the end of the street, they had to give their numbers to a silent, bookish little man who imperiously gave them the clue, or a dramatic thumbs down. Everyone except for Terence and Sarah chose this task. Frontrunners Toni and Dallas, and Nick and Starr zipped through the task, working together and getting their clues.

Andrew and Dan, and Kelly and Christie, on the other hand, had some problems. Instead of going for the numbers on the power lines, they individually came to the same conclusion-- that storefront sales signs were part of the task. This, of course, gave them numbers that were completely wrong. While they were wandering around, using their incorrect method multiple times, Ken and Tina caught up with them. Ken and Tina read the clue correctly and buzzed through the task. Andrew and Dan asked Kelly and Christie if they wanted to work together, but Kelly and Christie spurned them, worried that they would lose in a last-minute footrace.

After Ken and Tina won their next clue, they took pity on Andrew and Dan and explained the problem to them. Andrew, predictably, chalked this charity up to the fact that he and Dan were "cute dudes that everyone wants to help sometimes" rather than to the fact that Ken and Tina were being nice.

Kelly and Christie were the last team to figure out the tagging system on the power lines, and so they headed out to the pit stop in last place.




The Pit Stop: Phil's co-greeter at the cemetary pit stop seemed to be a groundskeeper of some sort at the cemetary. Every time a team ran up, Phil had to call him away from watering the grass so that he could issue a salutation. It was funny and strange. For the third week in a row, Nick and Starr took top honors. I think it's fair to call them the frontrunners now.

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


The Elimination: Kelly and Christie, after refusing to work with Andrew and Dan, paid with their game lives, as they were eliminated in 6th place. They started the leg with some tough talk, bragging about how they weren't the type of people who sat back and let other people come in first, second, and third.

They've shown weaknesses in other legs, and all three weaknesses appropriately contributed to their demise.


First, they've shown that they have a problem reading the clues properly. This time around, that hurt them at both the roadblock and the detour.

Second, they've had friction with at least two other teams. This time, their snippiness prevented them from at least having a chance alongside Andrew and Dan.

Finally, they have not done well under pressure in the past. If Kelly had kept her cool at the Roadblock, they would have probably gotten out of there much sooner.

This was a great example of a team that didn't deserve to stay in the race. In their exit interviews, they spoke disparagingly of their ex-husbands, but I bet their exes were laughing their asses off while they watched these two make mistake after mistake after mistake.


The Pool

Mike maintains an enormous lead in the pool, although he did lose a little ground to second-place Carl. Carl had the only positive score in the pool this week, by dint of being only 1 spot off in the elimination, and correctly predicting the Nick/Starr first place finish.

There wasn't much movement in the standings-- Dawn knocked me out of fourth place, thereby undoing some of the damage she incurred from last week.

When I look at our remaining picks, the biggest sad sack right now is definitely reigning Amazing Race Genius Paul. Of the six teams that have been eliminated so far, five of them were Paul's top five teams. Ouch. Mike, Dawn, and Carl are all looking pretty strong, with three more chances to hit the nail on the head (discounting non-elimination legs).

The bottom line is, unless Mike loses some major points in the next couple of weeks, we're all going to be fighting for second place. So, death to Mike!

1st: Mike 1039 (-40 +13)
2nd: Carl 963 (-10 +13)
3rd: Jen 930 (-30 +0)
4th: Dawn 885 (-20 +13)
5th: Matt 848 (-50 +0)
6th: Mom 836 (-50 +0)
7th: Kim 797 (-30 +13)
8th: Paul 776 (-10 +0)

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