In Hindsight: The Amazing Race: All Stars Episode 11-2

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It’s funny how polarizing the reactions to Rob and Amber are. On CBS’ official Amazing Race wiki, posters complain about how Rob and Amber “don’t deserve to be there”, and how “everything was set up for them to win last time”. Both statements are, naturally, bullshit.

The first comment really just shows us how much dislike there is for the couple. I’m pretty sure that even had they won people would complain that they didn’t deserve to be there. The fact is that not only do they deserve to be in an All-Star edition, but ANY team reaching the Finish Line deserves to be here. Not only that, but no less of an authority than Phil thought that they should be there (he made a list of 15 teams he thought were deserving of another shot. 10 of them made the cut the eleventh team didn’t previously exist). That in itself is good enough for me.

The second is silly because whether you believe it was karma, shenanigans or otherwise they DIDN’T win. Rob simply used his fame and his strange influence over others to gain an advantage whenever he could. He never once cheated to win, although he did play dirty at times. Those who hate, SHOULD watch simply because Rob’s celebrity status is negated since the other Racers are also known commodities.

Regarding last week, I got an email from Arthur Perkins, who like Lei Tong (in my MMA posts), manage to find the errors I make in my columns. It probably helps that they seem to know more about the subject at hand than I do:

“I have admired most of what you have written about Amazing Race 11, but you have made a serious error when stating that good directions were responsible for Rob and Amber getting to Hacienda Yanahurco in the lead. Good directions had nothing to do with it. Try a hired taxi leading them all the way to the northern entrance to Cotopaxi National Park.”

Egg. Face. Me.

I’d print the rest of Arthur’s email, but it contains spoilers. He did note that the Race Insider (unavailable to Canadians, BOO!) has Romber getting a couple to buy them a $35 book on Ecuador, in the general Boston Rob manner. If you can watch the video, let me know what you thought of it (as well as a quick synopsis) so I can compare to what Arthur said. Not that I don’t believe you, my friend, but I just want to see alternate takes on the clip. But rest assured that I will be keeping a critical eye on the antics of Romber for the rest of the season.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled Episode 2 column…

Note: I mixed up the Guidos. Bill did the Roadblock, not Joe.

I wonder if she can she say “hypocrite” in a condescending, vaguely Spanish accent?
In one episode, Mirna managed to show many of the reasons why people didn’t like her the first time around. There was the fake accent, the whining about having to help Charla grab a “stool”, the faking-o of the accent-o, the complaining about people following her team while having no problems doing the same herself, the f*cking fake accent, having CHARLA give her a boost to tighten bolts, the drama with the taxi driver, and did I mention that accent? Mirna managed to run the table this week with her antics, AND managed to do what I didn’t think was possible – cause Mary to dislike them.

Seriously, Mary, who doesn’t seem to have a “hate” bone in her, has taken an active dislike to Mirna and Charla because they’re not trustworthy. Good thing she didn’t have an alliance with Boston Rob…

Let’s take another look at the taxi incident. Mirna noted that she was paying the taxi driver “all her money” to lead her to the Valley of the Moon. Dustin and Kandice were following (and at this point it should be noted that I have no problems with teams following one another, just when teams don’t practice what they preach when it comes to others following them), and they all stopped to see if the taxi driver knew where he was going. Mirna asked to split the cab money, which was reasonable. The Beauty Queens asked to see if the info was good, also reasonable. Then Mirna went into her histronics, and the blondes left. And later, after exiting the Valley of the Moon, Mirna and Charla followed the Queens around.

By the way, it was a nice touch with Mirna and Charla talking about the blondes, followed by a shot of the blondes doing an “evil laugh”. Oh, and nice talk about plastic surgery and the like, Mirna. I’ll call you and the Weavers if I need “expert advice” on that.

Roadblock
So I guess we’re back to tough Roadblocks, eh? That was definitely a difficult one to solve, and the person who got it the fastest did it by going against conventional thinking, and looking from the outside inward as opposed to the other way around. So way to go, Mary!

Meanwhile, the two teams that started the Roadblock first were among the last to leave. Eric, I’m not that surprised about – as he’d readily admit, the thinking tasks are not really his thing. So I’m not really sure what that says about Danielle. Joyce, however, surprised me – and obviously surprised herself. I think that had the two put their heads together, they’d have finished before many of the teams arrived… not that it ended up making a difference.

Detour – By Hand or By Machine
The Detour showed why Cha Cha Cha is such a dangerous team. Despite the fact that By Hand was a tougher task, their attention to the task at hand allowed them to complete the Detour with minimal errors, and once again finish second on the leg, behind – who else? – Rob and Amber, who this time chose the faster task first. Like the Roadblock, the Detour required some thinking first. After seeing that the nuts and bolts might be tricky to do, teams should’ve swapped tasks, and this created the four team logjam at the bottom of the Leaderboard.

It was probably for the best
Kevin and Drew were eliminated, and I think that it probably needed to happen. Drew was in a lot of pain, and the two were quickly turning into Lance and Marshall. I hope that he’s much better at this point in time (I’m sure recuperating in Acapulco – apparently only dangerous to Canadians – helped). Still, if we were to look back at why they were eliminated, it was because they listened to the ranger at the Valley entrance, but they didn’t pay attention.

Sir Linksalot: The Amazing Race: All Stars

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).