Oh, man. I don’t feel to good. I think all this rocking and rolling is making me sick. Hurry up, let’s finish this up before I spew out my thoughts on this week’s episode….
1. Winners of the Week: One of the most interesting aspects of The Amazing Race is taking these so called typical Americans and placing them in a culture and surroundings that they are just not used to. Removing someone from their comfort zone and seeing how they react can give us a lot of good insights into a persons characters. Throughout the whole experience in Africa, which was definitely eye opening to many racers, Kris and Jon stood out as the optimistic group with good attitudes. While they may have made a few bad mistakes this leg, not checking out the opening time of the Town Hall Tower, and jumping into a cab before they really new where they were going, they never flipped out or we rude to any one. While others were saying, “Oh, this is so gross.” They were saying “Dude, look how cool this is.” Oh, and I’ll have to agree with Jon. She did look pretty hot doing that salt gathering challenge.
2. Weasels of the Week: So many choices, so few times. Of all the people who handled the African experience a bit poorly, Freddie and Kendra were the worse. There dealings with the taxi cab driver really highlighted their attitudes. First of all, if a cab driver thinks it would be safer to stop and put some air in the tire, maybe you shouldn’t give him such a hard time about it, and then decide you get the “we needed to stop for air” discount. Oh, and maybe I missed something, but I really didn’t know that Ms. Champaign and Flowers was such an educated Economist. Yet somehow she knew to explain to the cab driver that “you made more in one day than you do in a whole year.” What is she, his accountant? Oh, and I’m not a suspicious feeling, but walking on top of someone’s grave is not just creepy, it’s also pretty rude.
3. Lines of the Week: What a great week for quotes! I can really find a favorite, so I’ll just give you a nice sampling:
Victoria shrewdly learns that the word for fast is “vite” and encourages the cabbie by saying “vite vite” John of course wants to get into the action:
Jon: “Beep, Beep”
Victoria: “No, not beep beep Jon. It’s not the word.”
Don after suffering another set back of a flat tire. “The fickle finger of fate has diddled us.”
Mary Jean’s encourages Don’s unique fish bating technique “You can throw up again, maybe you can attract some more.”
Is Kendra smelling blood on the water? “Why is this water red? My first thought was, maybe it’s blood.”
4. Rebecca and Adam’s Lines of the Week: I decided that this week, the Rebecca and Adam deserve their own category. This has to be the one of the weirdest relationships I have seen on any reality show in a while. Rebecca intrigues me. She seems like a very strong and independent person, yet she ends up with a guy like Adam who is basically a man child The tone she takes with him reminds me of a mother scolding her child on public transportation. So, here are some of the most interesting exchanges between this two this week.
Rebecca treats us to her Bolo impersonation: “Bolo’s lips disappear when he gets angry.”
“Lori and Adam began at the same time. It’s baffling. Lori’s a women and Adams a boy…” In Adams defense, we are talking about the ultra buff Lori, but I find the choice of the word “boy” interesting.”
Adam “I’m physically week apparently.”
Rebecca “If you’d stop being a wussy boy, than maybe no one would say that.”
“I don’t have time to baby-sit my girlfriend.” Maybe a bit overly cruel, but he was a bit whiny at that time. Rebecca seems to turn towards emasculation as her defense against his self deprecating whiny attitude.
Adam “Do you want me to jump out of the boat?”
Rebecca “That would be awesome.” This is the second time that Adam has made some sort of seemingly joking suicidal comment on the show. The first time he threatened to lay in front of the tracks. I think Adam may have some real issues, first and foremost, he is quite immature. Rebecca’s response may be a bit harsh, but to me it is sort of understandable.
5. The standing ovation that Don and Mary Jean received was one of those great TAR moments. It’s proof that some things, like rooting for an underdog, in this world are universal no matter what culture we come from. Don and Mary Jean really didn’t run that bad of a race. They made one poor decision, and that was choosing the fishing over the fish stacking. Yet, even that turned into a positive when downs lack of intestinal fortitude attracted some fish. I guess a little spew will get you a long way. So, it was nice to see them saved for another week by a non-Philimination round. I won’t be needing to wish these guys good-bye just yet.
6, Get your hate mail and flaming ready. I actually liked Jonathan this leg of the race. He made some smart decisions and didn’t seemed so perturbed by his surroundings as some of the racers. He made a smart choice enlisting a local named Ejal to act as their tour guide for this leg. Wouldn’t it be nice if Ejal could travel with him across the world? Another nice TAR moment was when he gave candy to a bunch of the African kids. It was a nice moment for him. He even kept his screaming at Victoria to a minimum.
7. I really think their should be a “stupid” penalty. Now, I don’t get to worked up about the bunching aspects of the game. The world runs on a schedule and we are all victims to that. It would be nice if they could schedule a flight or open an establishment when it would most help the racers, but that is just not like. One of my problems with “bunching” is that it often nullifies what should be a more costly mistake. For a bunch of people to just take the word of some pedestrians about the tower’s opening time without checking it themselves was just ridiculous. I would loved to have seen Kris and Jon or Hayden and Aaron arrive at the mat and be told by Phil. “I’m sorry to inform you, but you have been accessed a 15 minute penalty for acting like a complete moron. No go stand over there on that mat and wait out your penalty.”
Well, that’s all for now. See ya next week.
