In Hindsight – The Amazing Race, Episode 10-2

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Another week, another episode of The Amazing Race as we go from China to Mongolia. It’s a good way to take your mind off things if, say, you were watching your football team lose again in the afternoon. Ahh, the perils of being a Texans fan.

Here’s the Leaderboard:

Travel – The teams ended up on two charter buses (separated by two hours) to get to the train station, but this ended up being a moot point since the first train to Ulan Bator was at 4pm. While they were waiting, Peter tried using Sarah as a tool to get some money from the locals, but no dice there. Peter really started to piss me off here.

Teams then went to the Chojin Lama Temple where the real difference makers – old Russian military jeeps were parked. Kellie and Jamie never really got the hang of using the jeep, and ended up going from first to last. David and Mary got a local to help them out, and that ended poorly since David manage to drive right into a mud pit. Tyler and James got a flat tire, and found out that their jack didn’t work. Later, Erwin and Godwin’s car broke down, causing them to go from a potential fourth place finish to an actual eighth place finish. And finally, the Cheerleaders and Single Moms ended up having to crank their engines after the Detour, which led to a huge mistake by the Cheerleaders that got them eliminated.

Detour – Take it Down or Fill it Up
This was pretty much where I was done with Peter and Sarah. Peter is pretty patronizing towards Sarah, and Sarah… well, she just cries a lot. You’ve got an artificial leg, you’ve completed the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon and you’re gonna whine about folding up tents and crazy oxen? C’MON! But even though they switched tasks TWICE, they ended up fine here.

Lyn and Karlyn weren’t so lucky, as switching tasks put them into a last place tie with the Cheerleaders, leading to the whole directions fiasco.

The self-destruction of Rob and Kimberly continued here, as Kimberly got [insert Tom Jackson voice here] JACKED UP [back to normal voice] by a branch while riding her horse. Rob didn’t show a whole lot of sympathy, and Kimberly really gave it to him.

Dustin and Kandice… you know, I understand that the nomad was looking for the missing helmet, but wouldn’t you think that at least one of them should’ve also looked, instead of having the both of them standing around looking like idiots while the other teams finished their tasks and moved on?

Roadblock – Aim High
This task pretty much depended on how quickly you could learn to use an arrow. There weren’t any lead changes as a result of this task, and actually I’m surprised that they even made the cheerleaders perform the task. In the past, if the last team was obviously last (and it obviously wasn’t a non-elimination leg), they’d get sent right to the mat to get Philiminated, and Phil could get a little more time to get to the checkpoints to film his segments. No dice here.

Miscellaneous
– Nice to see that the various breakdowns didn’t cause a leading team to get eliminated.
– They really need to stop with the bottlenecks. I suppose that this one couldn’t have been avoided, except for the fact that the buses were charters. You couldn’t have arranged for one of them to arrive at the train station closer to the 4pm departure time?
– Tom really needs to give it up and shave his head. That bald spot isn’t gonna go away, you know.
– Could Duke and Lauren eclipse Nancy and Emily as the best placing parent/child team ever?
– Teams I like: Duke and Lauren, Erwing and Godwin, Dustin and Kandice, David and Mary
– Teams I dislike: Peter and Sarah, Rob and Kimberly

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Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).