So we go from the dry heat of Oman to the sopping wet hot stench of Bangladesh. This was a brutal leg of the race, even by brutal leg standards. A DOUBLE U-Turn! Oh, Bertram, you evil genius.
So there are a lot of airport shenanigans at the start and for once they all mean something. The Docs are so far behind everyone else (almost five hours) that they simply hop a plane to Dubai and they will figure it all out from there. Everyone else thinks they are on the same plane that will land in Bangladesh at noon, so newly engaged and glowing Rings head off for burgers and shakes. But The Firsts hang in there and lo and behold, their counter guy finds them a better flight! Even better, they get the last two seats!
The Dumbs and the MelonHeads also stick around, and the Dumbs land a better flight but the Melons lose out, and are stuck on the Noon Flight To Last Place with the now full (but screwed) Rings. All of this to some degree sets up the rest of the episode in terms of Double U-Turning, etc.
Once in Bangladesh they must find yet another fetid open-air market (this year's favorite place), make some juice, drink the juice, and then do the Detour. Choices are: bring 30 tins of snacks out to a boat or carry 100 bricks on your head. My 9-year-old and I assume everyone will do the food one, but no! The Firsts opt for the bricks and they bang out that sucker. Even Stick-Armed Never Went To College Girl.
The Firsts are so far ahead of everyone it is like they are in their own show. They wisely opt to U-Turn the Melons, and then move on to the Roadblock, in which the girl must build a rickshaw. Again, she bangs it out and off they go to Phil. And he gives them 15 THOUSAND DOLLARS. It's why we call it amazing, kids.
Meanwhile, back with everyone else, they all drink their juice and they all opt for the meal delivery. The Dumbs are next to the U-Turn board, but Dumb Girl goes all Zen and they don't hit anyone. When the Docs get there, they only have one choice to U-Turn and they do it: The Rings.
This is where the race gets really grueling and I think no one was exaggerating when they said they were going to pass out or throw up or could not feel their "extremities" (LOL). But the Rings and the Melons soldiered through, and in the end, the Melons eked it out and the Rings went home, engaged to be married but still technically losers.
This might be it, friends. This might be the season that an all-female team wins Amazing Race. I'm rooting for the MelonHeads.
Yay! Go Melonheads! I was worried for them near the end. Oh that cruel editing! What happened after the rickshaw building? It looked like they all finished at the same time, then next thing you know they are all scrambling around in the dark, lost. Will not miss the Rings. You spend half the leg talking about your strategy of u-turning a particular team. Then when you show up last in an extremely tight 3 way race for last place, you are upset that you were u-turned instead? Kat (or Nat? Still working on individual names...) handled Chad's taunting with more grace than I think I would have been able to. Ick. Don't like that guy.
ReplyDeleteI was so worried about the Melonheads our favorite team by far.I am psyched that we have two all female teams in the hunt. Can you go back one episode please and explain to me why Dumb and Dumber did not have a Speed Bump on the post non-elmination leg? (You were away so you did not blog that episode.)
ReplyDeleteteresa, conventional wisdom (and by that I mean me) thinks that the speedbump the Dumbs had was so inconsequential that they simply edited it out of the episode. I'm guessing.
ReplyDeleteBertram, I am truly annoyed at you: a 24-hour airport bottleneck? Really? Really?! Yes, I know, two teams found faster flights out... but... really?! Was ironic (and a little sad) to see The Rings go from first to last to eliminated. Amazed to see The Firsts arrive at the pit-stop only two-thirds through the ep.
ReplyDeleteTeresa, I have read elsewhere that there was some kind of "production" problem that had resulted in some of the teams being held back somewhere along the route so they decided that to be fair they wouldn't have to do the speedbump. Supposedly it was always meant to be a non-elimination leg anyway, but because of the production issue they decided to omit the speedbump penalty. I guess if you were to play back the mat meeting with Phil, they had edited to say that yes, indeed, it was a non-elim leg, but there was no mention of a speedbump in the upcoming leg. I wasn't paying close enough attention, but that's what I read anyway. I think they could have did some little voiceover or something at the start of that next leg to tell us. You can probably google the topic and still find some of the articles.
ReplyDelete