It was a pretty intense leg of The Amazing Race this week with everything from tension at the airport to tension between and within teams that really shook things up, propelling a strong team to first and taking out another team that should have been a contender.
Teams must have been on pretty even footing at the start of the leg because we only got to see the first place team, Rachel & Dave, depart and head to the airport. Art & JJ were close behind and they got themselves placed on standby for a full flight to Paraguay. Suddenly all the teams were there, and the “teachers” alerted everyone else to try the same tactic. Rachel & Dave, Art & JJ, Nary & Jamie and Mark & Bopper all managed to get standby seats on the first flight out, leaving five teams two hours behind.
I’ve complained in the past about tasks that are less than exciting to watch — like counting cows and doing math — and, let’s face it, stacking watermelons and stringing a harp would normally fit into that category. They’re certainly physical and challenging for the teams who are racing against each other, but for a viewer … well, you could go to the grocery store any day and watch someone stack something with the same level of excitement. But, it turns out, stacking watermelons isn’t as easy as everyone except Elliot & Andrew thought.
Art & JJ blazed through the Detour, but everyone else stumbled, badly. Art & JJ made it to the Road Block, which required one of them to do a native dance while balancing a glass bottle on their head, and the Pit Stop before any other team had even completed the Detour! This gives them a huge advantage at the start of the next leg … which I’m sure will be erased at the airport or train station. They arrived at the Pit Stop sometime mid-day and the last place team checked in sometime well after dark. It’s going to be interesting to see how this time difference affects the teams.
Back at the Detour, teams struggled with collapsing watermelon pyramids and all of them but Ralph & Vanessa opted to switch to the harp stringing where Elliot & Andrew went, got fed up as teams arrived and passed them, decided to do the watermelon stacking and then decided to stick it out with the harp. That moment of indecision may have cost them the race because Ralph & Vanessa had refused to give up on the watermelons. Meanwhile, Dave stumbled at the Road Block, going through all of his bottles and incurring a two-hour penalty at the Pit Stop (they were the second team to arrive). One-by-one, teams started showing up as their time ticked away, but they lucked out and were awarded sixth place.
In the end it came down to balancing a bottle. Elliot & Andrew got to the Road Block first, and Ralph & Vanessa arrived. It was close but Ralph managed to do the dance faster than Elliot but it became a tight footrace to the end. It really seemed that the twins were going to be able to overtake Vanessa, but they were just a little too far behind to catch up, and were eliminated. Let this be a lesson to future racers … when in doubt, stick it out (or at least don’t stop and squander your time making a decision). I was really hoping Vanessa & Ralph would be eliminated simply for her childish taunting of Rachel (& Brendon) at the Detour. Even Ralph had to get her to focus on the challenge while she insisted on indulging in name calling. What do you think — childish behavior or just game play to get under Rachel’s skin?
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Mar 04, 2012 @ 21:54 EST5EDT
So Vanessa’s taunting was ridiculous. And Brendan and Rachel have been pretty supportive of each other, regardless of Rachel’s self-defeating breakdowns. She rocked the bottle dance and then had a breakdown at the end of the foot race. Brendan has been shockingly supportive.
Elliot & Andrew lost because they had a total breakdown as a team. They were not communicating or supportive each other at all. The harp challenge really shouldn’t have taken all day for them to do, but they kept second guessing each other, and got in the way of success. Vanessa might have been crazy in her obstinacy not to quit, but Ralph backed her play, they got it done, and were probably able to keep it together better than the brothers.
I loved that even as out of breath the border patrol was when they got the pit stop,one of them still was able to compliment the country’s greeter with, “wow, you’re really pretty.”
*POST AUTHOR*
To be fair to Rachel, I don’t believe she had an actual emotional breakdown at the mat. She does have asthma, and I think all the running in the heat may have contributed to her little collapse once they got to the Pit Stop.
. . . . .
Asthma or otherwise, Rachel needs to cut the comedy with all the whining. I find myself making fun of her or “Oh, geez!” -ing when she grouses …
*POST AUTHOR*
Trust me, I’ve been through two seasons of Big Brother with Rachel and Brendon. I know she’s a drama queen, and I’ve been pretty vocal about my displeasure of them being cast on the show (I’ve done plenty of eye-rolling already over the course of three episodes!). In this case, I was merely defending her “breakdown” at the Pit Stop this week, which seemed more attributable to her asthma than just her normal Rachel-ness. :-) If there was only a way for just Brendon to be eliminated, she could be a fierce competitor (I actually began to root for her after he got evicted from the BB house last season because she focused on the game and not him … together, they are a toxic combination in these situations). Alas, it’s either all or nothing on TAR.