Amazing Race Recap: "I'm Surrounded By Ninjas!"

Tonight was actually my own Amazing Race. I flew out of Toronto at 4:00 ET, and arrived in Vancouver at 6:00 PT. From the airport, to a quick stop at a friend’s house, to my hotel to check in, and a quick dodge out to grab a bite to eat, I had it all planned and ready to be sitting in front of the TV in my hotel room for 8:00 to watch tonight’s episode. It was a close call, but one scraped knee, a scraped elbow, a twisted ankle, and a spectacular pen explosion later…I limped to my hotel couch at 7:57. This is my commitment to these recaps, people!

My Random Thoughts:

- Is there a more redundant instruction when directing the teams to the border between South Korea and North Korea than “Do NOT cross the border”? Well, considering how bright Nick and Vicki have been on this Race, perhaps that was necessary. Does anyone really think it’s ok to even approach the North Korean border, much less cross it? Well…except for Sarah Palin.

- At the beginning of the leg, Thomas talked about how he and Jill were the team to beat, but that the other teams were made up of strong, athletic, and hungry women. Even the other racers have ruled Nick and Vicki out at this point.

- The airport seemed like it was going to be another great equalizer and give Nick and Vicki a chance to catch up, but it was a big ol’ swerve, and they found themselves an extra 3 hours behind.

- I liked how they made the rule about no panhandling or begging for money on the Race, but Nat and Kat circumvented it by convincing an English-speaking man in the airport to purchase a Korean travel book for them. I’m sure it was just out of the kindness of his heart, and had nothing to do with the TV cameras in his face.

- I loved the ‘Nick is a douche’ montage. It was nice watching him berate Vicki constantly in black and white.

- Look, I’m just going to say this: Rafting on the Race is great, but it’s a total waste of time if no one falls out of the raft. You know you were thinking the same thing when you were watching it.

- Similarly, what was the point of Phil specifying in the headband/ninja Roadblock that teams had to try to avoid getting hit? There wasn’t even a close call. How much better would that have been, though, if someone took a punch in the head from one of the “ninjas”?

- After the rafting, when the teams were at the Roadblock, did you notice that Jill and Thomas had changed out of their wetsuits and into their normal clothes, but Brooke and Claire still had their life vests on? Oh, they changed out of their wetsuits as well, but for some reason, put the life vests back on. Unless there’s some way to get a wetsuit off without removing a life vest that I don’t know about, that seemed very odd. Just how hard was it raining?

- When I saw the teams heading for the Seoul World Cup stadium, I was reminded of last season and how ridiculous cowboys Jet and Cord looked trying to kick a soccer ball and score a goal in their cowboy boots (Oh my gravy!). I was hoping it would be a Switchback where they repeat a challenge like last season’s ‘needle-in-a-haystack’ do-over, but alas, it was just a clue to send them all speed skating.

- Between the Rafting and Speed Skating, did someone at CBS get a big discount on spandex?

- We learned some interesting things about Jill and Thomas this episode: A) They said“we can skate. We suck at delivering stuff”, which made me wonder if the sample size to determine that really included them skating more often than delivering; B) That Thomas gets dressed much slower than Jill; and C) That they don’t like dealing with old people, whether asking for directions, or in cabs. Damn Ageists!

- I’m not sure if I heard this right, and I couldn’t go back and check, but when Brook (C’mon Claire!) was giving Claire instructions on how to push her at the Speed Skating, did she say “On the bum…just how I like it”? Did I hear that right? Speaking of the “C’mon Claire” count, I stopped counting at 20 this week.

- Nick thought that finding a man in South Korea who could direct their taxi might be their “lucky break” that could get them back in the Race. Well, unless this guy can actually stop time as well as having a keen sense of direction in Seoul, I don’t really think this was the break he was looking for. Although that whole situation seemed like just a smoke screen to allow Nick to say to Vicki “He wants you. I knew you were good for something.”

- Brook and Claire incurred a 30 minute penalty at the mat for taking a cab when they weren’t allowed to, and as a result they got to watch a trip to Argentina get handed over to Jill and Thomas right in front of them. Was there no camera shot of their reaction when Phil mentioned the trip? Opportunity missed…

- At 8:53, Nick and Vicki weren’t even at the Bridge yet. The result of this leg was never in question, as I speculated last week. Other than 10 seconds of them rinsing a tank (their Speed Bump), we barely saw them. Nick closed it out by saying about Vicki “I wouldn’t change her, not even for a second.” Then the cameras apparently were turned off as he yelled “Unless her damn Asthma acts up again!”

- Could we have heard any more about the possibility of history being made with the first All-Female team winning the Race? With this much Girl Power going on, I expected the closing credits to roll with the Spice Girls playing. I would say that all of the comments in the show tonight would pretty much assure that Jill and Thomas do not win.

- So, who do you think will pull it out: Team Home Shopping, The Hot Docs, or Team I-Went-To-Notre-Dame-And-You’re-Just-A-Cosmetologist? Let me know in the Comments section below. (Don’t be alarmed by the Comment Moderation, all comments will be posted)

Next Week: The Season Finale, and a “surprise” announcement about the next season of The Amazing Race
(visit the Comments section to hear what it is. I won’t post it in the main article for those of you who don’t want to know.)

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Josh Wolk’s Amazing Race Recap
Darren Franich’s EW.com Amazing Race Recap
Spoiler TV Recap