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November 16, 2009

'The Amazing race' recap: Mud, more mud and vocabulary troubles

Bucky's back with a rundown on last night's muddy episode of The Amazing Race.  

This week’s leg of The Amazing Race begins with the Globetrotters, who finished first last week, departing at 2:23 a.m. to catch a ferry for a 16-hour ride across the Baltic Sea to Estonia.  They get to the ferry terminal and find that the next ferry leaves at 5:45 p.m.  This means, I calculate in my head, that they will arrive in Estonia almost a day and a half after they left the previous pit stop, even though it’s not all that far from Sweden to Estonia.  Why do the producers do that?

We learn that Sam and Dan have made up and agreed that bickering is no way to compete, which means that more bickering is on the way, I think.  We also learn that Matt has worn his black bandana, a signal to the other teams that he and his father mean business and are in the race to win it. 

In Estonia, the teams have to take a set of keys, figure out which one opens the door to the clubhouse of a secret Estonian society, go downstairs into the most secret part of the clubhouse and get a candelabra with a room number on it.  Then they are to go to the room and figure out how to read a secret scroll for directions to the next clue box. 

All the teams start working on this task, except for Gary and Matt, who have to perform their penalty Speed Bump for not being eliminated last week.  This turns out to be less like a penalty and more like a short vacation:  Take a five-minute sauna on a “saunabus,” which is just what it sounds like — a sauna on a bus.  Matt, however, walks around asking “What’s a saunabus?”  (That’s OK … I didn’t know there were places where they have saunas on buses, either.)  They eventually figure out what it is, find it and get into the sauna, where Matt is seated next to a very attractive Finnish girl dressed in a towel.  She looks at Matt with her sky-blue eyes and asks, “Why are you wearing that dorky black bandana?”  Ha Ha ha.  No she didn’t.  I just made that up.

Back at the secret clubhouse, all the teams eventually figure out how to read the scrolls and head to Pikk Hermann Tower Garden (the destination revealed when the scroll is held up to a candle) to find their next clue.  (Here I should point out that, for some reason, the wax thing with a wick is spelled “can-d-l-e” while the thing that holds them is spelled “can-d-e-l-abra”.  I hate the English language.)

 

The teams depart the secret clubhouse.  Gary and Matt finish the Speed Bump, depart the saunabus and head to the clubhouse, where Matt wanders around asking, “What’s a candelabra?”  I think maybe the black bandana is tied a little too tightly.  (However, during a commercial, I call Bucky Jr. and ask if he knows what a candelabra is.  He doesn’t.  Maybe it’s just because I’m old enough to remember Liberace that I do.) (Note from SKK: But, despite the weird spelling issue, it's not that big of a jump from candalabra to candle, right? When Matt was asking people if they were the "canDAluhBRA," I was cringing almost as bad as when hardly anyone could spell Chekhov last season.)

At the Gardens, the teams get their Detour choice:  Serve (play volleyball with some locals) or Sling (shoot a slingshot at a moose target).  They all choose Serve (and Cheyne informs us that Megan played volleyball in high school while he “has played some beach volleyball.”)

Megan & Cheyne arrive at the volleyball courts first and find they are really big mud (we think) pits.  However this doesn’t seem to hamper Megan and she beats the locals pretty much single-handedly, while that dope Cheyne moans, “I’m really tired.”  They head down a narrow wooden walkway to the Pit Stop.

Sam & Dan and the Globetrotters, who ended up sharing a taxi (and not willingly) arrive next.  Brian and Ericka arrive last and, since there are only two volleyball mud-pits, decide to switch to Sling rather than waiting for a volleyball court to open up.

Meanwhile, back at the clubhouse, Matt figures out what a “candelabra” is, finds the scroll, figures out how to read it, but doesn’t read the “Garden” part of the directions.  So they go to Pikk Hermann Tower and waste valuable time trying to figure out how to get in the tower.  Eventually they stumble onto the Detour clue and head off to do Sling.

Back at the mud-pits, neither the Globetrotters nor Sam & Dan are having a very easy time of it.  Sam & Dan seem to get points only when the local opponents miss, while Big Easy is totally mired in the mud, so his local opponents keep serving to him.  Finally, however, they win and head to the pit stop … BUT THEY HEAD THE WRONG WAY DOWN THE NARROW WOODEN WALKWAY!  They make this mistake even though neither of them is wearing a black bandana!

Sam & Dan win shortly thereafter and head the right way to the Pit Stop.  When the Globetrotters see this, they run, catch up to Sam & Dan and much elbowing occurs.  Somehow Sam & Dan survive the pushing and shoving to arrive at the Pit Stop first.  Phil brings Big Easy and Flight Time up on the mat, too.  He wants to see a rumble.  (Does anybody call it a “rumble” anymore?)  Words are exchanged, Big Easy says he is “6’3” and 260 pounds and a serious fracas is foreshadowed for a future episode.

Brian & Ericka complete the Sling Detour and are next to finish.

Finally, Gary & Matt arrive at the Detour, and Matt wanders around asking, “What’s a moose?”  No, he didn’t.  I made that up, too.  Gary & Matt finish this leg in last place and are eliminated.

I’m sad.

Who are you rooting for now?  I’d like to cheer for Megan and Cheyne, except I know that if they win, Cheyne will keep half the million-dollar prize, even though Megan has completed the last two legs single-handedly.

Oh, and Sam & Dan vs. Big Easy & Flight Time:  who ya got?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:39 AM | | Comments (10)
Categories: The Amazing Race
        

Comments

Seams like just about every episode they restart the race, and they staggered departure times, and they all catch back up at the first leg. Last night didnt make since, especially considering the boat ride was 16 hours. They just finished up from a rest stop. I do like Megan and dont understand what she sees in Cheyne. I still like the Globetrotters.

Sam and Dan's annoyance with the Globetrotters seems to all come back to one of the brother's comment that the Globetrotters just follow Sam and Dan and dont figure out much for themselves. This seems borne out by the finish, where the brothers headed the right direction toward the tower while the Globetrotters headed the exact wrong way. If Sam and Dan hadn't been there to "cheat" off if -- if they had taken even 5 more minutes to win their game -- the Globetrotters might have been back at the parking lot by the time they figured it out. (Remember how they couldn't figure out that the time on the watch from the yacht in Dubai was the combo for the case? They puzzled over that for a long time.)

SKK: Of course, in that same episode, Sam & Dan couldn't figure out the math on the gold challenge and got the answer from the poker players, while the Globetrotters figured out they could borrow a calculator *and* did the math themselves. I think there is a lot of people running the wrong direction and then noticing where all the other teams are, probably far more than we see footage of.

I agree that Cheyne is not holding his own. He's more like the girl out of the 2 of them. cannot believe that he let megan do the final challenge a week ago (hay bales). and his volleyball efforts were useless. also..was that really mud? if you noticed, it wasn;t sticking to the players or their clothes!

I absolutely believed that at least one team would set their scroll on fire while waving it around the candle.

My take on Megan & Cheyne is that he does all of the talking to the camera - much "we" jabber - and she does all of the actual work. I'm hoping she's just keeping her mouth shut until they get home and she can tell him to never darken her door again. (Do people still say that?)

I'm still for the Trotters.

Hold on ... I putting on my candlebra ... there ... all better ... I would LOVE to see Megan win ... just her ...since that won't happen ... Sam and Dan are next on my list ... There really wasnt elbowing there -- He was running and he fell ... it just happened to be at a time when they were neck and neck ... I replayed the DVR over again ... just trippage ... I'm clumsy ... so I know falling when I see it... which sometimes is often in my case...

Sally V, maybe the candlebra is making you lopsided and that's why you trip? Just a thought...

My 14 year old knew what the candelabra was from church since she had to light it as an acolyte. Otherwise, I'm not sure she would have gotten it immediately. I like the Liberace reference!

I'm rooting for Brian and Ericka, but won't mind if it's Megan and the Talker or the Globetrotters. Sam and Dan have annoyed me too much the last 2-3 episodes for me to cheer for them. I think if it comes down to it, the Globetrotters can easily take out the brothers.

What made you think that the blond girl in the Saunabuss was Finnish?

What made you think that the blond girl in the Saunabuss was Finnish?

I think they said that, didn't they? (Although, sometimes I do hear voices...)

I've deleted my recording of the show, so I can't double check.

Further research reveals that I was confused. The reference to Finland wasn't in connection with towel-girl.

Good catch, Ann.

No problem. I only asked because the girl looked very Estonian.

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About Sarah Kelber
Sarah Kickler Kelber, an editor in the features department since 1999, got sucked into reality TV with the first episode of MTV's The Real World in 1992. Then came Survivor and American Idol, and suddenly, the genre was everywhere. She started blogging about it for The Baltimore Sun in January 2006 and has logged more hours watching and writing about such shows as Dancing With the Stars, Big Brother and, of course, Idol, than she'd like to admit.
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