'The Amazing Race' recap: Needle in a haystack (redux)
Bucky's back with this week's recap of The Amazing Race. Take it away, Bucky ...
The teams leave the Amsterdam pit stop for their next destination, Sweden, in the usual staggered fashion—12 hours after they checked in—and head for the airport. Sam and Dan are the first team to depart and determine that the next flight to Stockholm is in about 10 hours. This, of course, means that all the teams will get to the airport, wait and end up on the same flight.
Nuh-uh.
It turns out that the first flight to Stockholm has only six seats available. Brian & Ericka and Gary & Matt will have to take a later flight, so Sam & Dan, Meghan & Cheyne and the Globetrotters gain a two-and-a-half hour advantage from the get-go.
Along the way, we learn that Sam and Dan are cranky and that it’s Flight Time’s birthday.
After arriving in Sweden, the teams must go to an amusement park where one person has to repeatedly ride a 24-story thrill-ride until they spy a big arrow painted on a roof and pointing to the next clue box. It is actually harder to explain than it is to accomplish, and every single team completes the challenge in one try.
The next clue directs the teams to a carnival booth ring-toss game where they must throw a ring around a cone and, if a Travelocity Roaming Gnome is under the cone, they earn their next clue, which is on the bottom of the Travelocity Roaming Gnome. The clue on the bottom of the Travelocity Roaming Gnome directs them to a detour where their choices are to: a) use dynamite to blow something up (and I’m praying it will be their Travelocity Roaming Gnomes but, alas, it isn’t) or b) a task involving the Viking alphabet, which I can’t explain because nobody chose to do it. And why would you? Who in their right mind would pass up an opportunity to blow something up? I wouldn’t, would you? (From SKK: Heck. No.)
The significance of the dynamite challenge, by the way, is that Alfred Nobel, a famous Swede, invented dynamite. The significance of the Viking challenge is that, contrary to what Minnesotans might tell you, Vikings came from Scandinavian areas other than Norway, too. Including, it turns out, what is now Sweden.
At the dynamite challenge area, the teams must fill sandbags and build a bunker to protect them from the massive explosions that are about to occur. (Not a single team, however, hides behind their bunker when the dynamite blows. What good is a big explosion if you can’t watch?) Oh, and there is apparently an unwritten rule that each team must set its Travelocity Roaming Gnome on the bunker and work in such a manner that every television shot includes the little fella.
Blowing up the dynamite reveals a box that contains directions to the Road Block, which is an iconic challenge from TAR Season 6: unrolling very large bales of hay to find very small flags hidden in them. There are 180 bales of hay and only seven contain flags. A flashback tells us that the previous time this challenge was used, one team spent 10 hours and never did find the very small flag. (SKK: I was so mad when I saw they were doing this challenge again. I still think that was one of the roughest moments in race history.)
Sam and Dan begin the hay bale challenge first, with Sam doing the work and Dan on the sidelines haranguing him for no apparent reason whatsoever. They get, like, an hour’s head start. Meghan and Cheyne start next with that dope Cheyne sending his girlfriend out to do all the hard work while he stands on the sideline weakly yelling encouragement. The Globetrotters show up next and Big Easy performs the challenge because he’s big and that makes it easy. Also, because it’s Flight Time’s birthday and this is some sort of a present. I would have wrapped up a Travelocity Roaming Gnome for him, myself. Brian starts next, followed by Gary who, Matt tells us, “works with hay a lot.”
Big Easy finishes first and the Globetrotters head to the pit stop, where they are met by Phil and a Swedish folk music trio, one of whom is playing what has to be the coolest musical instrument ever invented, a nyckelharpa. I know this because Great-Grandpa Buckstrom played the nyckelharpa, which is a fiddle with keys. It makes wonderful music. But I digress … (SKK: Was it just me, or was it a little weird that the pit stop was like 4 feet away from the final task? I know they do that sometimes, but it just seemed SO close.)
Meghan & Cheyne finish second, followed by Brian & Ericka. Sam finds the small little flag in spite of all the “help” from Dan and they are fourth. (SKK: And Dan was having some kind of major guilt issues, crying about how he was being jerky [his words] to Sam. It was a little over the top.)
Alas, all of Gary’s experience with hay doesn’t help him; he and Matt struggle to the finish in last place, where Phil says, “I am sorry to tell you (dramatic pause) that the next leg of the race will be tough.” Yes, this turns out to be a non-elimination leg.
I generally hate it when that happens, but I like Gary and Matt, so I’m OK with it this time. How about you?
Comments
I think they decided that this had to be a non-elimination leg once they decided to use the needle in the haystack challenge again. I think that is also why they had the check in mat right there, since they knew how hard the challenge was likely to be for the teams.
Having the flashback challenge, or whatever cute name they gave it in the show, got me thinking, they should do a greatest hits season - where every challenge is a "favorite" from past seasons. That might be fun to relive some of them all in a row. We could have the Wheels of Cheese back, the locks on top of the Great Wall, the couting of parts in Ikea, etc.
What else should come back for a Greatest Hits season?
SKK: Ooooh .... that's a great question. You just named some of my favorites. I'd love to hear what others would like to see in a greatest hits.
Posted by: etucker | November 9, 2009 2:27 PM
Maybe they should also do a fan vote for favorite teams to come back to do the favorite challenges!
I think they made the check in mat so close to the last challenge because they were getting tire of having to magically teleport Phil out to the challenge to stop the competitors. It's a tough economy, have to watch those costs!
Posted by: Chris in KS | November 9, 2009 3:39 PM
My favorite was the one with the girl with the annoying voice and the guy with the afro going against the twin models and pulling it out at the end and guy with the fro staying cool the whole time!
Posted by: David S. | November 9, 2009 5:41 PM
@David S. - I think you were talking about Zach and Flo.
I was thinking more, and I also remembered the Roadblock where a contestant had to eat 4 pounds of meat in South America somewhere. If I remember right something like 3 or 4 teams took the time penalty rather then finish that one.
Posted by: etucker | November 10, 2009 9:01 AM
I think the producers missed a golden opportunity, by not having Teri Garr from Young Frankenstein come out at the farm site and say, "Vould you like to have a roll in ze hay?"
I was amazed that Cheyne sent his girlfriend out to roll the hay. Did he really not know how strenuous it would be, or was he just a weenie?
I also think they telegraphed that this was a non-elimination leg by not coming out to stop the last team. I know if I'm that last guy out there, I'm asking them if I needed to continue, rather than stay out there another couple of hours, just to be last by a wider margin.
Posted by: bluzdude | November 10, 2009 10:46 AM
I loved that the Globe Trotters danced their way off camera after finishing first. My daughter pointed out that the reason they don't get ugly is probably because they have no emotional investment in each other.
This broke me up: Brian and Ericka confided to the camera that they're doing the race to prove to her parents that they are a good couple. He says her parents thought a white guy wasn't good for their daughter. So! They get to these hay bales that have to weigh in excess of 100 pounds each, and Brian not only doesn't step up, he pretty much backs away. Yeah! That'll win her folks over!
There is a Truth that goes, "Abusers always cry." Until this week I was neutral - as in, couldn't care less - on Sam & Dan. Now I dislike Dan so much, I want them both gone.
Posted by: Eve | November 10, 2009 10:48 AM
@Eve - Brian did the Hay Bales. You might be confusing them with Megan and Cheyene, where Cheyene sort of left his girlfriend dangling with his deer in the headlights look when they had to decide who was going to do the challenge.
Posted by: etucker | November 10, 2009 4:16 PM
That guy was an absolute J-A-C-K-#-#-# for letting his gf do that challenge. He knew it, after she started doing it. He had the nerve to yell out to her, reminding her that it took another team over 8 hours to do this same challenge in a previous season.
Posted by: Capt Jack | November 11, 2009 9:04 AM