There was a lot of time this episode spent on the ticket agency in Burkina Faso and while most got the same flight to Lithuania (except for Ron and Christina), some got the good travel agent and had no problem while others had the bad travel agent (language barrier? Or not as sharp as her co-worker?) and had to fight a little harder.
However, everyone made it safely and it was in Lithuania where the teams separated themselves. Let’s break down their performance in this leg.
TK AND RACHEL: Said if people who stress over things don’t make it to the end. How true. TK had a great roadblock (deliveries to two places), using a local to guide him to the second location. TK also has a great run at the “Step Up” detour (complete a straight course on stilts). Rachel has more difficulty but with others having problems as well, she has plenty of time to complete the task and get to the pit stop first, where a trip to Japan was waiting for them (courtesy of Travelocity, which once again, product-placed their roaming gnomes on this leg). Now that Shana is gone, Rachel becomes the hottest woman left in the race.
KYNT AND VYXSIN: Another good leg for the cartoon characters (their words, not mine). Kynt also had a great roadblock, completing his two deliveries first. They tried the stilts as well but quickly switched to “Count Down” (counting 717 pickets on a fence). It may have cost them first, but they were never in danger. Fast becoming my faves.
RONALD AND CHRISTINA: Christina’s “I love yous” to her father are nice but excessive. But as we saw during the summer on Big Brother, there are many ways for a father and daughter to patch things up. He still has to learn to tone it down with her, but it seems she’s at the eye-rolling stage (without actually rolling her eyes) with his complaining. Ron did o.k. on the roadblock Christina made short work of the stilts and obviously had to wait for her old man. But he does get through it and even though, this pair still needs to do a lot of work with eachother’s personalities, they live to race another day.
AZARIA AND HENDEKEA: A mid-pack finish but still the team to beat. Azaria still has to learn to be a bit more patient with his sister. He says he does speak his mind with her. Hendekea loses her way a bit on the road block and that set them back. They too swiched detours, going from the stilts to the counting. But they did get that done in good order to check in fourth.
NATHAN AND JENNIFER: Jennifer got her wish. Someone other than Azaria and Hendekea finished first. The reasons it wasn’t them are manifold. Nathan took a wrong turn after arriving in Lithuania. The road block was o.k. but the detour cost them. They were distracted by the dancers around them and missed their first count by 10, meaning they had to start over. They got the count down, but barely managed to finish ahead of two teams who had much more trouble below them.
NICOLAS AND DONALD: Nicolas had a disasterous roadblock. He had trouble finding both his deliveries before finally finding someone to take him to his second one. They got the counting done o.k. but if it wasn’t for the blondes, grandpa would be going home.
SHANA AND JENNIFER: I am officially a fan of Shana’s. Unfortunately, she chose to race with Jennifer. Bad, bad move. Jennifer continued to express her displeasure at using the U-Turn last week to oust Jason and Lorena. Um, it’s not like you guys broke a rule or anything. You used a mechanism that The Amazing Race provided to eliminate a strong team. What’s wrong with that, Jennifer? On top of that, they got lost, came very close to getting hit by a bus, argue over who does the roadblock (Shana, eventually), then yell at each other while counting. Just a disasterous leg. Shana came across as a strong competitor hampered by her teammate. A bit of advice, girls. Don’t ever compete together at anything ever again. It just won’t work.
