The Amazing Race 20: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Episode 7 – Tooth & Claw
by David Bloomberg
-- 04/10/2011
The teeth & claws came out in this episode of The Amazing Race, and we’re not talking about the “tigers” Bopper saw in Africa. Several teams got nasty and growled at each other (or even flipped up a middle claw), but who was the pissiest of them all? (Big hint at right.) When did these moments of conflict amuse and when did they get just plain Ugly? Relive the highlights and lowlights right here!
This was an odd episode of The Amazing Race from my particular perspective for this column, in that almost every remarkable moment was either really Good or totally Ugly – there was very little that just fell into the category of “Bad.” It certainly had its share of racer-driven drama – some of which was amusing, most of which was nasty. So let’s see which moments stood out.
The Good
Congratulations to Rachel & Dave for coming in first in this leg of the Race!
Bopper grabbed free candy at the travel agency. We all laughed in the Bloomberg household, and probably other viewers did as well – but we’ve heard from previous racers that food is in short supply, so even hard candy would be a good bonus!
Art & JJ are pretty good at their law enforcement jobs – they figured out that Nary & Jamie are also in law enforcement. I wouldn’t want to face them in interrogation!
Vanessa to Rachel: “I’m 38 and somehow I still look younger than you.” (By the way, Vanessa is not 38 – she’s 31.) And then: “Honey, get your nose done before you get your boobs done.” (Too late, but it was still funny.) Sometimes Vanessa can be nasty, but in this case – Awesome!
Art & JJ: Stirring the pot and laughing it up. Gotta love it.
I would think the jumping task would have been obviously easier than each player breaking a target. I really don’t understand why teams would think hitting the targets would be quicker than jumping for a predetermined minute. I mean, nobody took forever with the targets, but they could have – and those who chose jumping breezed right through it.
Bopper: “White men can jump!” Ha!
JJ, after seeing the bickering on some other teams at the tent-building task: "That's why we're not here with our wives." Ha! I have to note that Recapper Jenn mentioned it seemed JJ said that after Dave (not Rachel) was the one being a jerk, but I thought of it as a more general comment about all the drama within the male/female teams. Art & JJ tweeted in response to agree with me, noting: “we were [making it more of a general comment]. Our wives agree too!”
Nary & Jamie got to stick around thanks to a non-elimination leg. My kids predicted that as soon as we saw the final task was building their own camp, as they recalled that last time teams had to do that, it was also non-elimination. Yo, Amazing Race producers, you need to become less predictable when a 13-year-old (albeit a brilliant one, since he’s my son) can figure out your plans!
The Bad
Bopper looked out of the airplane and saw a herd of tigers. Er, tigers? Or wildebeests. Whatever.
After Art & JJ spent most of the episode chiding Radon for just following behind them, Radon were the ones who asked for directions first and discovered they were going in the wrong direction, while Art & JJ kept going the opposite way for a while longer. D’oh!
The Ugly
Rachel’s acting really is as bad as Vanessa said in their airplane line scuffle – and Vanessa’s imitation of it was pretty damned funny.
Really, Brendon? You pushed past Ralph and then flipped him off? I’d swear you used to be a decent human being – Rachel is wearing off on you.
Did Rachel really say something about Vanessa feeling better by insulting others? Look in the mirror, woman! I see the Bat-Poo Insane one is back.
After all the drama, it was fake pouting and crying (without tears) time for Rachel. And that bad acting came into play once more.
You know how I mentioned earlier that sometimes Vanessa can be nasty? That version of her came back when she was having problems riding her bike and Ralph dared to try to help her. Don’t get me wrong – we’ve seen him be a jerk during the Race too; but in this case, she was overreacting.
And Dave had to get in the act by bitching at Rachel (his partner, not the one from Radon). She was right to tell him to quit whining and come up with a plan. (And guess what happened? He calmed down and found the problem! Even though they ended up here in the Ugly category, they probably argued the least among the male/female teams in this leg.)
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