Amazing Race Week 8: Hot midget-on-tranny action

This week, we saw the dramatic effects of what AR fans call "race fatigue." Race fatigue is what you call it when teams just kind of generally come unraveled due to the cumulative effects of weeks worth of stressful situations and not enough sleep.

A common symptom of race fatigue is stupid mistakes, and this leg had some doozies. Most notably, two teams (Mark/Michael and Jen/Kisha) each left their travel bags sitting on a dock while they took a traditional Thai fishing boat to destinations unknown.

Jaime and Cara have completely abandoned any pretense of being human, and now spend every episode shrieking like harpies at anyone who happens to be nearby. One of them used to be pretty when she smiled, but I can't remember which one it was anymore.

The whole leg took place in Thailand. Some people have been unhappy that there have been fewer countries showcased on this season, but I don't have a problem with it. It just means we get to see more of the countries they do visit.

Teams began with a Roadblock that asked them to screw a propeller onto a Thai longtail boat. Everyone got it right on the first try except for Victor, who got it on the second try. No team member can perform more than six Roadblocks, and so it's important to try to balance the tasks somewhat evenly. That way, you keep flexibility going into the later stretches. Here are the numbers so far for the remaining teams:
Margie 4, Luke 3
Jaime 4, Cara 3
Victor 4, Tammy 3
Kisha 4, Jen 3
Mark 5, Michael 2

So, only Mark and Michael have been doing a bad job with this, and they probably don't have to worry about it because they're on the cusp of elimination.

For the Detour, teams had to choose between matching dentures with dental patients, or singing Karaoke during a taxi ride. Since there was no opportunity to mess up the taxi option, I thought it was clearly the worse choice. For some reason, though, only Luke and Margie chose to match teeth with the appropriate gummy mouths. Despite the fact that Luke was terrrible at the task, and Margie had to find all 5 matches, they arrived at the Pit Stop in first place. So, teams that took the easy way out were punished.

The twist on the taxi detour was that they had to ride along with "kathoeys." As per Wikipedia:

Several popular Thai models, singers and movie stars are kathoeys, and Thai newspapers often print photos of the winners of female and kathoey beauty contests side by side. The phenomenon is not restricted to urban areas; there are kathoeys in most villages, and kathoey beauty contests are commonly held as part of local fairs. Some believe that this higher acceptance is due to the nature of the surrounding Buddhist culture, which places a high value on tolerance.

The show cleverly decided not to tell the racers that they were riding with men, and Mark and Michael were the victims of this incipient practical joke. They seemed to be actively flirting with the men without realizing their true gender. Funny stuff.

There wasn't much pressure on the three front-running teams, because both Mark/Michael and Kisha/Jen had to figure out the logistics of getting back to the dock where they had left their bags. This major obstacle predictably caused lots of tension within both teams. In the case of Kisha/Jen, Jen advocated going back to the dock very soon after they left it on the boat, but Kisha vetoed the idea with her older sibling power (just like Victor did to Tammy a few legs back). So, in their case, it was a big "I told you so." On the Mark/Michael side, one of them (I'm still not sure which is which), wanted to go back to get the bags, while the other was taking the viewpoint that nothing in the bags was worth throwing a shot at a million dollars.

Mark and Michael finagled their way back to the Pit Stop first, but there was some very bad news for them. Just one leg after they had to wait out a one hour penalty, they were hit with a crushing 4 hour penalty because they had twice given their cab drivers personal items in lieue of full payment.

I didn't know this was even against the rules, but apparently it is. It must have come about after last season, when the geeky frat members offered a disgruntled cab driver their new pair of shoes. I know it's also against race rules to stiff a cabbie outright. So I'm not sure what viable options a team like Mark and Michael have when they simply don't have the money to get from point A to point B. Jen and Kisha wrangled a free ride from their cab driver, which seems at least as bad as giving the driver a personal item.

At any rate, Mark and Michael arrived at the Pit Stop about an hour before Kisha and Jen, but wound up being the last team in by a margin of three hours. The good news: it's a non-elimination leg, so they have some chance to stay in the race. The bad news: they have a 3 hour lag behind Jen and Kisha, who are at least an hour behind the frontrunning teams themselves. In addition, they have to complete a special Speedbump task as a condition of the non-elimination. Given their poor decision-making history, and the small number of remaining teams, it doesn't look good for our diminutive heroes. On the other hand, a sparse flight schedule out of Thailand could even everything up.

Finishing Order

1st: Margie and Luke (+3 = most improved)
2nd: Jaime and Cara (no change)
3rd: Tammy and Victor (-2 = biggest slide)
4th: Kisha and Jen (-1)
5th: Mark and Michael (-2 = biggest slide = non-eliminated)


The Standings

Only Dawn predicted that Margie and Luke would take it all, and as a result, she picked up a big 42 point payday for herself.

1st: Kim 926 (-30 +0)
2nd: Carl: 914 (-20 +0)
4th: Dawn 899 (-10 +42)
3rd: Experts 830 (-40 +0)
6th: Matt 830 (+50 +0)
5th: Paul 780 (-40 +0)
7th: Mom 756 (-20 +0)

Kim is barely hanging onto her lead over Carl, who gained a critical 10 points against her this week. Dawn jumped a place in the rankings, and is now also a contender for first place. I was the only one to hit the Mark/Michael finish on the head, so I picked up 50 bonus points and have a chance for some non-elimination love next week, if they are indeed eliminated. Meanwhile, Mom and Paul are in a race for the bottom. The bright spot for Paul is that he is the only player to have Tammy/Victor winning in his original picks, so if they do indeed win, he has a chance for a strong finale showing.



Good luck, everyone!