November 30, 2009

I wasn't able to watch this week's episode of The Amazing Race until Monday night, so I apologize for the delay in my recap, but here goes...

- Brian and Ericka started off the night by declaring that it was to their advantage that they were in last place, because they had been there before and knew how to claw back up. Nice try on the positive spin, but if I had to chose between "not in last place-then in last place-then not in last place" versus "never in last place, I'm going with the latter.

- I'm still not sure what the deal is this season with making the teams strip down to their underwear constantly, but this challenge takes the cake. It was bad enough that the other strip-down challenges gave the racers a chance at hypothermia, but now they just force them to go into a chamber that is -160 degrees Celsius. Yes, you read that right, MINUS ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DEGREES CELSIUS. How is that safe? According to Cheyne, it was "gnarly." I would have chosen a different word: INSANE!

- And while we're throwing caution to the wind, why don't we get one team plastered on absinthe as a speed bump. Did I really see that correctly? I know I've said in the past that they need to make the Speed Bumps a little more difficult than "sitting on a bus for 5 minutes", but maybe getting a team liquored up on a drink that is illegal in most places probably isn't the best way to go. What if they had a recovering alcoholic on the Race, would they still have used this Speed Bump? Very odd.

- The phone challenge was interesting, although I thought it would be ridiculously simple once you got the letters. (On a side note, I thought it was hilarious watching Brian answer the phones and saying "Hello" into each one) And Meghan's declaration that questions like "what is your last name" were designed to confuse you and make you forget the letters was rather laughable as well.

Of course it's an English word, you fools! Let's break it down: you have 5 letters, A, F, Z, N, and R. Clearly the A is the 3rd letter in the word since you're not going to have 3 of those consonants in a row in a 5-letter word. That means you've got 2 consonants before the A and 2 consonants after the A. The only 2 consonants that can logically go together before the A are 'FR', which mean your word is either FRANZ or FRAZN. Seriously, how hard is that? Honestly?

So Sam and Big Easy 'worked together', and then once he got it, Sam left Big Easy high and dry. I guess 'working together' means something different in his world. An absolutely classless move, and between this and the cab-stealing incident from last episode, they have now earned themselves a spot on my 'Most Reprehensible Teams Of All-Time' list.

The choice to take the 4-hour penalty was a bad decision, keep trying until Phil comes to get you. Don't take the 4 hours unless you know for sure there is an airport stop coming up before the next Pit Stop.

- Lugging that Golem around Prague was painful to watch, both for Sam and Dan's incessant whining and yelling at each other, and Cheyne's constant grunting. I thought I was watching a Monica Seles match.
- Nice to see that the final leg is in Las Vegas. I saw them rooting through a giant pile of poker chips, that should be interesting. I wonder if they'll run into the Top Chef contestants...

- So the final three is set. I'm rooting for Meghan and Cheyne, because I can't stand the brothers or Ericka. Who are you cheering for?