The Amazing Race 20: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Episode 6 – Racing Risks & Rewards
by David Bloomberg
-- 04/06/2011
The sixth episode gave us a new team winning the leg (though Art & JJ still did a damned good job) and numerous other Good moments. There was also the Bad, of course, like Joey “Fitness” & Danny (right) taking a risk and getting knocked out. Conspicuously absent was Ugly behavior, but we’re okay with that! Read on for David’s highlights and lowlights.
Congratulations to Rachel & Dave for coming in first on this leg of the Race – and on winning new cars!
And also congrats to Art & JJ for being second when the Fast Forward was used and they were unable to do it. As they said, it’s pretty much another win for them (except for the car part, of course).
Art & JJ talked about how they were going to make sure not to take huge gambles and leave the pack – smart thinking! Also, unfortunate foreshadowing for somebody else...
Even though the temple didn’t open ‘til sunrise, I strongly suspect the producers were very glad the flight to Azerbaijan was on time, as the scenes at the Temple of Fire were much cooler in the darkness than they would have been in daylight.
Plus, the Racers got to have some fun and let off a little steam by dancing around with the locals.
I don’t think we’ve seen a Fast Forward at a bunching point too often before. That was interesting, as two teams (Dave & Rachel and Joey Fitness & Danny) competed directly against one another.
At the Fast Forward, Dave was just tossing hay bales out of the truck while Rachel had to lift and heave and move them all? I thought for sure they picked the wrong roles and should have switched. But then Rachel kicked serious Jersey butt! That was a good one to win, what with the cars as prizes and, you know, the fact that they didn’t end up getting booted from the Race entirely.
The escape-from-a-helicopter Roadblock was definitely a cool challenge – though also a rather scary one, I would think.
It’s kind of funny that Dave skipped this particular Roadblock, since he – as a helicopter pilot – might have had to do some sort of similar training himself.
I think cleaning off the oil bath was probably the quicker Detour option – though the grosser and weirder one.
The Bad
Dave said, “as long as we can remain supportive,” they would do okay. That’s a big “as long as”!
Vanessa doesn’t like closed spaces or being under water. Not a good Roadblock for her to do! (Though she made it!)
The locals supposedly soak in oil "for its healing properties"? Um... yeah, I doubt it. That is, I don’t doubt they do it, but it doesn’t actually do anything.
Vanessa & Ralph searched a shop for clues that were right in front of them! Good work, guys.
Vanessa: "We are buffoons!" – No argument here.
Scrubbing off a guy was definitely one of the stranger tasks ever performed on The Amazing Race.
Vanessa said searching for the apple was like a needle in a haystack, which is exactly correct – that’s why we call these “needle-in-a-haystack tasks” and there is so much left to chance when choosing to do them.
Gotta love how the producers tried to make it seem like there was any chance that Joey “Fitness” & Danny might be able to come back. Sorry, we weren’t buying it.
I’m really sick of hearing “cheese and crackers” from Vanessa & Ralph. That said, it was pointed out to me on Twitter that the producers have been known to take a clip of somebody saying a phrase like that and repeating it numerous times to make it appear like the person is saying it a lot more often. Doesn’t change the fact that I’m sick of hearing it, just that the producers might be the ones to blame.
Doing a Fast Forward when you know somebody else is also doing it is always a risk… and Joey Fitness & Danny paid the price for that. It’s just too bad we didn’t see more of them in the earlier legs of the Race – they seem like really good guys.
The Ugly
Wow – there really wasn’t much in the way of arguing or other ugly behavior this week. Hooray!
Well… until the previews for next week, with sniping between Vanessa and Radon’s Rachel. Sigh.
You can follow Reality News Online on Twitter and on Facebook! On Twitter, you can get up to the minute notifications on article postings and other reality TV news by following us. So head on over to Reality News Online’s Twitter page! On Facebook, you can become a fan, join discussions, and more!
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Amazing Race articles:
Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site! And take a look at the rest of the site. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!
And they released 
, as well as 
– you can also 
– one of many items in our 
!
