'The Amazing Race': more laughs *and* more tears
Finally got caught up on The Amazing Race last night after working until 1:30 a.m. the night before for the Oscars. Whew!
I didn't think anything would come close to last week's hilarity of rolling 50-pound wheels of cheese, but the contestants unexpectedly having to throw cream pies -- lots and lots of them -- into their teammates' faces during the detour was pretty funny. Funnier even that the other option, which was an obstacle course using a Segway.
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. At the beginning of the episode, the teams had to catch one of two flights to Munich, and brothers Mark and Michael made the first boneheaded move of the episode. Most of the other teams borrowed the cab driver's cell phone and reserved tickets, but M&M didn't and found the earliest flight was sold out. Whoops. Everyone but them and Christie and Jodi made the earlier plane.
For the first task, one teammate had to paraglide, or take a flying leap off a cliff (yes, really). At least that was the idea. When the wind conditions led to a delay, the contestants could decide to run down the mountain (about an hour's journey on foot over gravel). The wind delayed and delayed and delayed so much that everyone chose to run except for Mel, because he was injured.
It might seem like a bad idea to have Mel on that task in the first place, but he really wanted to be an active participant in his team and not leave all the hard stuff for Mike. And it's not like they could tell there was a run-down-the-hill option. Anyway, Mel was terrified he and Mike would have to give up if the wind conditions never changed. He had a little monologue with the camera about how he wasn't going to ask for God's help with this "because God has enough to do" (which continued to solidify his and Mike's place as the team I am rooting hardest for). A while later, things calmed down, and Mel got to take that flying leap, which got him to the bottom of the hill in the middle.
In the meantime, Linda had also decided to take on this tough task so her husband, Steve, wasn't doing all the hard stuff. But when she ran down the hill, she missed a route marker and ended up way, way off track.
For the aforementioned detour, most teams picked the cream pies. It seemed like Margie and Luke had a tough time with it -- Luke interviewed about how he knew it would take forever, but his mom wanted to, so what could he do. And seemed really put out by it, but we didn't get a true indication of how long they were there and how many pies they had to throw to find the one with cherry filling.
Anyway, siblings Tammy and Victor had another good leg, finishing first. But at this point in the race, it's all about who's close to the bottom, not the top.
In the end, it was down to flight attendants Christie and Jodi (who took a very literal-minded view of the last clue) and Linda and Steve, but Linda and Steve couldn't make up their lost ground and got eliminated.
I have to say, I was really touched by their relationship on this week's show. Linda was very worked up that Steve was going to be disappointed with her or mad at her, but he was very comforting toward her and interviewed several times about how much he loved and respected her and couldn't imagine doing the race with anyone else. (Yeah, last week, there was some yelling, but there was surely more pressure and disappointment this episode.) Check out the pep talk he gave her here.
What did you think of the episode?
Comments
The pie-throwing thing was kind of fun, even if it's a variant of the needle-in-a-haystack task. And it did appear that they were there a little longer than some of the other teams.
Steve & Linda, despite that creepy borderline abuse vibe, weren't too bad but the bottom line is that they're fans, not players, and their relative lack of preparation (did Linda think that no running would be involved?)would have done them in sooner rather than later. Perhaps, for those who sit at home and say, "Yeah, I could do that", this was a solid "oh yeah?" from the producers.
Mel & Mike won't win but they'll be fun to watch in the interim.
SKK: Ooh, I hope there wasn't an abuse vibe. I just felt like Linda is really unsure of herself and expects the worst and that Steve was trying to be supportive.
I do wish the show would cast some more "regular Joes" who were more capable. But at least it's not half model/actors like a few seasons back!
Posted by: Claude | February 24, 2009 3:19 PM
Our biggest laugh this week was when the flight attendant team was wandering around with the log they found on the ground and one of them saw the finish line for the segway course and thought that maybe all they had to do was carry the log across that finish line to get the next clue. Absolutely hilarious! Unless they get their act together, I suspect they will soon be following Steve and Linda off the race.
SKK: Oh my gosh, I almost forgot about that! That was hysterical. And remember, these are the two who know all the travel secrets because of the job! Doing a TON of good so far.
Posted by: etucker | February 24, 2009 3:50 PM
I'm sorry for Linda, but I never want to see Steve again. Nasty behavior followed by crying is Classic Abuser.
Posted by: Eve | February 24, 2009 4:11 PM
I am prevented from using my real name for this post, in order to maintain plausible deniability, but as someone who works for an airline, those two flight attendants dragging that log around at the end surprises me not at all.
Flight attendants are trained to evacuate an aircraft in 90 seconds, and are regularly tested on their ability to do so. So you should not take this comment wrong and quit flying.
But you give them something new to do, without training and recurrent practice, and you get...well, you get two flight attendants dragging a log around town, looking for someone to cut it and give them their next clue.
Classic.
SKK: Thanks, Anon., for your take. I needed a laugh just about now, and you provided it.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 24, 2009 5:59 PM
I noticed that there is another Chris that responds to these blogs sometimes, so to keep myself separated I'm changing my name to Chris in KS.
You could definitely tell last week that Steve & Linda weren't going to last very long. How can you not expect to have to run on this show? The title has "race" in it, which typically means you're going to have to hurry.
I would guess that the flight attendants are going to be looking for the nearest exit quite soon...
Posted by: Chris in KS | February 25, 2009 9:10 AM
Interesting thing about this show is that they always have a team that they know everyone will root against, and so they show everything about them in the worst possible way. If that team finishes last too early in the season, I think they make the decision then and there to make it a non-elimination leg. Seems that every season, the team that I dislike gets a free pass at some point. But this season, now that the hicks are gone, I'm not sure who to root against yet.
Posted by: Greg | February 27, 2009 3:13 PM
In order to fly a paraglider you must take off in good wind that is blowing towards you
Posted by: Paragliding | September 11, 2009 1:49 PM