It’s the tenth leg of The Amazing Race and, as it turns out, the penultimate episode with next week being the two-hour season finale. And let’s just get this out there now and move past our disappointment — Mark & Bopper finished last and were actually eliminated this time. Or were they? We’ll get to that in a minute. The Southern boys really had no chance to catch up in this leg, starting about three-and-a-half hours behind the fourth place team, Vanessa and Ralph. It didn’t even look like Mark was going to be able to continue, hooked up to an IV three hours before their start time. Bopper explained he hadn’t been in good condition since the Bollywood dance challenge, but he pulled through and they were off. But that time delay and the Speed Bump were too much to overcome, even with the Fast Forward.
Oh, the Fast Forward. This was a revisit to the infamous “shave your head and go to the Pit Stop” challenge, and the team that did it the first time went on to win the race. Dave & Rachel already had a Fast Forward to their credit, so they couldn’t take it. Brendon & Rachel were in second place, and it seemed the perfect opportunity to secure a first place finish. But, Rachel’s $500 hair extensions were much too valuable to her and she refused to partake in the Fast Forward … and we had to hear about for pretty much the rest of the episode. And not from Brendon, but from Art & JJ, who opted not to try it (as did Vanessa & Ralph) because they assumed someone in front of them had done it (which then left it open for Mark & Bopper). But JJ’s demonstration of his poor sportsmanship continued as he went on and on and on about Rachel not wanting to shave her head. Yeah, I’da been pissed too, but at some point you just have to let it go. Right? He was even trying to convince Rachel to go back and do it, even after they skipped it and completed the Road Block!
But now there are some questions — at least in my mind — as to what happened at the Detour. The choices were to pack ten boxes with ginger, stencil a label, and load them into a truck for shipping (which Art & JJ regretfully chose), or decorate an elephant and then clean up its poop by shoveling and transporting fifteen wheelbarrows full of the stuff to a manure repository. Brendon & Rachel started after Vanessa & Ralph, but they managed to catch up and overtake them. Vanessa claimed to be keeping track of each of Brendon & Rachel’s wheelbarrow runs, and said that they went from three to seven. When the two teams checked in at the Pit Stop, Phil was quite cagey with them, asking if he would have to hand out any penalties. Why would he ask that? That’s not a typical question, and certainly no team is going to admit to earning a penalty and sometimes they don’t even realize they’ve done something wrong. So does Phil know something, did the producers have a question about the wheelbarrow runs that could only be answered by reviewing the tapes from Brendon & Rachel’s cameraman? Or did someone just tell Phil to antagonize Vanessa and Rachel a little more to drum up some more drama for the next leg? If that was the case, his plan may have backfired because the women seem to have called a truce, sealed with apologies and a hand shake. But, the question still nags as to why Phil would ask that question.
It’s not unprecedented for someone to be penalized at the start of a leg for something they didn’t do in the previous leg, so will Rachel & Brendon find themselves falling from second to fourth place at the start of the eleventh leg? Will a penalty bring Mark & Bopper back in the next leg? I don’t think things will go that far (I do believe we saw the final four teams in the preview for next week), but it will be interesting to see if Rachel & Brendon do end up starting the leg with a penalty. Whatever happens, my last favorite team is now out so who to root for? I’m almost tempted to say Rachel & Brendon just because they’ve lasted longer than I ever thought they would … and just because almost everyone else is just plain unpleasant. I guess Dave & Rachel would be okay since they only seem to bicker with themselves (and they opted not to U-Turn anyone simply because it wasn’t strategic at that point), but I will not be happy now with Art & JJ (who have gone from viewer favorites to most hated this season) or Vanessa & Ralph … mainly because of Vanessa. So who do you want to win? Take the poll and leave your comments below!
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Apr 30, 2012 @ 03:42 EST5EDT
When watching, I remember a staff giving the thumbs up when Brendon took up his last wheelbarrow load, signaling they had done 15.
Also, Art & JJ used a previous Fast Forward (landing the helicopter on the helmet), so they were also not eligble to use this leg’s.