The Amazing Race 15: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Episode 8 – Spills But No Thrills
by David Bloomberg
-- 11/18/2009
This particular episode of The Amazing Race was not quite thrill-a-minute. Bog volleyball? Really? Woo. But that doesn’t mean there was nothing good about it – or bad or ugly, for that matter. Read on to find out what David has to say.
Cheyne & Meghan and Sam & Dan were smart to scoot into the door quickly at the secret society’s house before anybody else could see them. It turned out not to make any real discernible difference, but you never know.
I was very happy to see another clue that didn’t just hand them directions but required actual thinking to decipher – needing to hold the secret society scroll over the candle to make the writing appear.
On another level entirely, I was also happy to see the teams starting to get a bit more competitive fire. For example, after Megan & Cheyne got the taxi that Ericka thought should have belonged to them, the dating couple told the driver not to call another taxi for Brian & Ericka. Hey, folks, it’s a race!
Speaking of Brian & Ericka, it was smart of them to choose the slingshot option for the Detour rather than just standing around waiting for a bog volleyball court to open up. I know it seems rather obvious, but I bet there have been teams that wouldn’t have decided to do that.
My favorite team: Still the Globetrotters. Yeah, I know there was an issue getting to the Pit Stop (more on that below), but they are in this to win it and have a good time while doing so. It’s a great combination. Sam & Dan are a close second. I just can’t really find a reason to root for Meghan & Cheyne based on their personalities, though they’ve done a great job racing. And Brian & Ericka? Bleh.
The Bad
Jenn’s recap’s preview sums up this leg pretty well: “You’d think a leg that features a secret society would have some pretty exciting tasks. You’d be wrong. There’s mud, there’s candles, and there’s a sauna.” Not exactly the most thrilling race leg ever.
So the house they went to was the headquarters of a secret society for 600 years? Not anymore, since it’s on (inter)national television! Somehow, I suspect it wasn’t exactly a “secret society” anyway.
Flight Time thought he needed to color the scroll rather than holding it over the candle – and then when he did hold it over the candle, he didn’t notice the writing coming through! D’oh!
Even worse was Matt attempting the same task. Last week I took him to task in advance because of what we saw in the preview because he didn’t know what a candelabra was and wandered around aimlessly for a while, even asking people if they were candelabras. He eventually figured out that it sounded like candle and there was a candle sitting there, but he took way too much time on that simple part of the task. In answer to his question: Are you missing something? YES!
Earlier I gave props to Meghan & Cheyne for telling their taxi driver not to call another for Brian & Ericka. I’m not entirely sure what the situation was there, but Ericka sure believed Brian had the taxi first, and I think he should have fought harder for it – kind of like the Globetrotters did. Admittedly, the Globetrotters were fortunate that that the cab they were fighting over had room for both teams, but still – Brian, it’s a race!
After Matt finally figured out what a candelabra was, he and his father went running around the tower, unable to find the clue box. From what we saw, they were the only team that had that problem. Sigh.
Yes, it was an all-around bad leg for Gary & Matt. The fact that there was only one ferry at the beginning of the leg allowed them to completely catch up. The time spent on the saunabus was fairly short by Speed Bump standards. But as Gary said at the Pit Stop, they just didn’t have their A-game today. I would add: Or even their B-game or C-game.
The Ugly
Playing in bog mud? Ick. That just looked nasty.
What looked even nastier – and more unnecessary – was the footrace to the Pit Stop between the Globetrotters and the brothers that ended in a bit of a spill and some bad blood. There was no reason for the Globetrotters to push the limits like that when they were neither racing for first nor last. As for who was at fault, I don’t think there was an elbow thrown there – at least not intentionally. Things like that are going to happen when you have two competitive teams trying to beat each other out. But the end result didn’t need to happen the way it did.
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