Amazing Race Recap: "Run, Babushka, Run"

With all of the sheep-head eating completed (presumably) for this season, the Amazing Racers found themselves on the way to St. Petersburg, Russia. In this “city full of culture”, why are the teams dealing with manure and potatoes ? Is there anything Thomas hasn’t done? And since it’s Halloween and we just finished giving out candy to the neighbourhood kids, does the fact that I’m writing this recap while still dressed as Super Mario make you smile?

My Random Thoughts:

- Nat and Kat gave us a speech early in the episode on how they survive and thrive in a male-dominated world, and how they would be the first all-female team to win The Amazing Race. How bad do you think the Amazing Race producers wanted an all-female team to win this year, considering that there were four all-female teams?

- We got the old TAR classic that sees all the teams equalized by a train or plane that leaves so late, all teams have to travel together. However, we were spared the redundancy of watching every team leave the Pit Stop, rip open the clue, and find this out all together. Instead, we only saw Nat and Kat, and then all teams were together at the train station by 8:06 ET viewing time. They started this last season, and I’m happy it is continuing. Give us the good stuff, not manufactured travel drama.

- On the train from Norway to Sweden, Jill saw the sleeping quarters and said to Thomas: “This is crazy. Have you ever slept in one of these before?” Thomas once again answered condescendingly, ‘Yeah, of course.” Clearly Jill has forgotten that Thomas went to Notre Dame! Although we actually didn’t hear the words “Notre Dame” in this episode at all (and thank God, after a record setting episode last week), we were still reminded that Thomas has done everything.

- Mallory has never been on a train before? Seriously? Maybe for some bonding time, she should have headed over to the other car, where a slumber party scene broke out with Nat, Kat, Brook, and Claire. It started with smelling socks and shoes, and I half-expected it to turn into the 4 of them having pillow fights, doing each other’s hair, and making s’mores.

- Stephanie wasn’t up early enough, according to Chad. “Every other girl” was up and ready before her, so it was clearly her fault that they were the last ones to find a cab. Do you notice how Chad is all about the blame…all about whose fault it is? What a great teammate.

- Personally, I would have chosen the Music Detour over the Film Detour. Yes, it was hard, but I would always avoid the ‘needle in a haystack’ type challenges wherever possible. And here’s a question for you, which job would you rather have on this episode of TAR: the guy who just stands there saying ‘Nyet’ or ‘Da’ as the music folder is handed in, or the person sitting at the piano playing the same song over and over and over again?

- Yes, we get it. Sometimes the cab drivers get lost, and sometimes they don’t know where they’re going, but does it really warrant the ‘dramatic music leading into the commercial break’ all the time? I think half of the time the cab driver has that Deer In the Headlights look is because two people have just jumped into the back seat of his cab, while a cameraman has just jumped into the passenger seat. If you’re in Ghana, or Russia, or somewhere else halfway around the world, you’d be shocked too.
- Mallory seemed to be having a seizure while describing the Piano Detour, and then when they had to switch to the Film Detour, she once again asked for Jesus to help her.

- When Thomas was trying to explain to his cab driver what the clue said, he just spoke louder and slower, telling him: “We need a MARKED sign telling us where to DRIVE to.” When he said ‘marked”, he moved his hands side to side, and when he said “drive”, he moved them up and down in a gesture that seemed to more apt to describe milking a cow than driving a car. I’m shocked that Mr. Notre Dame didn’t already speak Russian…or at least decided to learn the entire language on the train ride from Norway while Jill was still amazed at the beds.

- Michael told Kevin that St. Petersburg is a city full of history and culture. He’s right, of course, but if you didn’t know anything about Russia before watching this episode, all you really would have learned is that they produced a number or Classical Music composers, apparently everyone owns a barking dog, and that groups of old men will try to lure young women into their shacks to drink vodka with them. What the hell was that? Did Mallory really let that guy lift her over the fence? That whole situation was a disaster narrowly averted.

- Chad is nothing but a complainer. I’m now referring to him as Captain Bitch-N-Moan. He never has any solutions, he just whines. He kept asking Stephanie, “Well, what do you wanna do?”, and even after her answers were clear and concise, he kept asking…and complaining that they should have left a long time ago.
- Nick on Nat and Kat at the Film Detour: “They got here last and they found it first? That’s the best luck I’ve ever seen.” Really, Nick? You live in Las Vegas, and that’s the best luck you’ve ever seen? Shocking.

- Switching from one task to another is dumb, but switching back is even worse. Drives me nuts every time I see it. It was obvious that Nick and Vicki were going to be last this leg.

- In the cab, after Jill completed the Babushka Roadblock, Thomas told her “Jill, god job. I’m so proud of you”, but let’s be honest, we all heard “I went to Notre Dame, I’m not doing a menial task that involves manure and planting potatoes.”

- 8:43 pm ET – Vicki declares in the cab “I’m just glad we never quit. You never know what’s going to happen.” Could it have been any more obvious that this was going to be a Non-Elimination leg? Nick and Vicki will now have to encounter a Speed Bump on the next leg, but based on the idiotic tasks (see my rant—and solution—in last week’s post) that we’ve seen so far, my guess is that their Speed Bump will be “Count to 100."

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Related Posts:
Josh Wolk’s Amazing Race Recap
Darren Franich’s EW.com Amazing Race Recap

Finally, and only because it’s Halloween today, please enjoy the video embedded below. A full year after seeing it for the first time, I still have no idea what is going on, but it’s funny every single time…and you’ll never hear “Ghostbusters” the same again.