"The Amazing Race" managed to somehow be both inspiring and depressing at the same time on Sunday night. How?
Inspiring: The fact that you could find an unknown location, crawl across a carefully-crafted war zone, and ride a bicycle in a short amount of time.
Depressing: You could get U-Turned in the process.
Even with a bunch of tough challenges, this may have been the shortest leg in the history of the show. Teams could have theoretically finished this in a matter of a few hours.
Thankfully, they still found a way to make it entertaining.
The leg began with a tricky task: navigate your way from the middle of nowhere to a bakery to grab a baguette. Then, you had to realize that the clue was hidden inside the loaf. Louie & Michael -- who began the leg with a pretty substantial lead -- really didn't have too much trouble making this happen. The same could actually be said for just about every team out there.
However, Jeff & Jordan always manage to find a way to mess up. The "Big Brother" couple started the leg at the end of the pack, and then they drove around in circles for such a long time that they got little to nothing accomplished. Eventually they made it to the bakery, and Jeff couldn't figure out for the life of him where the clue was. Watching him start to eat the bread was on par with "technotronics" for the funniest moment in Jeff history.
Then...we go to war
I will applaud "The Amazing Race" for one thing this episode: this was the first time that I can actually say this season that they put a ton of effort into the detour. The World War I theme was creative (even if most of the teams thought it was WWII), the set was full of characters, and there were even special effects.
As for the detour itself, it was a no-brainer: crawl 100 meters on your knees or try and figure out Morse Code. One was clearly so much easier than the other that every team went for the crawl.
We started with Louie & Michael, who probably haven't crawled anywhere within the span of the last five years. Therefore, it probably shaved about at least twenty minutes off of their lead while Steve & Allie caught up.
Turning it around
Then, we get to the part of the episode that will probably have people talking the rest of the week: The U-Turn. There are some people out there who can't stand twists, but I personally think it is brilliant -- it gives us a chance to see the people who really out to play the game. However, that doesn't mean it's painless when it impacts a team as much as did Joe & Heidi this week.
Michael & Louie had a good goal in using it: getting rid of a major threat. On the other hand, wouldn't someone like Brent & Catie be a bigger threat than a guy with one knee? I understand the logic, but this move really seemed based out of Joe acting cocky on a bus ride. Seriously, guys?
Thanks to this, pretty much every team managed to pass up the married couple at the detour -- they finished the crawling part in third place, but they could not figure out the Morse Code message for the life of them.
Biking to the end
This ridiculously short leg had a ridiculously short ending: bike to the pit stop after you grab the necessarily clue. The main humor was seeing everyone don mustaches and silly French hats. (Aren't silly French hats always funny?)
Once again, there really wasn't any problem with the teams actually getting to the pit stop. The problem was actually finding the right clues. Brent & Catie arrived at the pit stop in sixth place, but they forgot to pick up a clue along the way. This created some temporary drama, but the other teams were so far behind that they grabbed it without a problem.
Jeff & Jordan were the last team to grab hold of the bikes. They fought on their way to the required Speed Bump (and fought while they were doing it), but they could have went back to the bakery and ate another baguette before Joe & Heidi even managed to figure out the task.
Therefore, "Big Brother" managed to squeak by yet again.
Next week...
Brent & Catie freak out! Is anyone surprised?
Who are you rooting for now on "The Amazing Race?" Let me know your thoughts with a comment below and stay tuned for more TV news.
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Comments
Obviously YOU aren't a Team Big Brother fan but I have to admit that I am! Those two are hilarious even when they don't intend to be. Having said that, I truly hope Team Cowboys win. Jet and Cord are two of the most unlikely cowboys but do everything with such ease and gentility. You have to admire those two.
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