Amazing Race 4: Thinking Smart in Episode 8

Reichen & Chip. There is something to be said for using professional travel agents. Oswald & Danny used them to their advantage in The Amazing Race 2, when their flight beat out other teams by 20 minutes on the journey to Australia. However, when Reichen & Chip used them in this episode, they took a much larger risk in doing so. It took them more than two hours to get their ticketing arrangement, well after all the other teams had left India. It was a huge risk that wasn't worth the downside. In fact, they admitted that the end result would either be a big advantage or elimination. At this point, the potential gain isn't worth the possibility of elimination. It's almost certain a bottleneck will show up to equalize the teams again, and almost every other team has a Fast Forward option to use as well. It's not the first time they've taken a big risk for minimal gain, and I have a feeling it might be their undoing at some point in the race. They had some bad luck, such as when their cab driver missed the Monsopliad Cultural Village in Malyasia and when their boat pilot took to them to the wrong Detour. Despite all that, they still could have won first place, as they finished the Roadblock first. However, they got lost coming out of the Roadblock, which allowed the clowns to make up the time. While they've been a good team, there are consistently failing at the little things which make an elite team.

Millie & Chuck (have used Fast Forward). The virgins started off by trying to tailgate on Reichen & Chip's information gathering at the airport. However, it was completely unnecessary for them to try and eavesdrop on their conversation - all they needed to do was wait for them to finish, then ask the agents to tell them what they told the married couple. There was simply no reason for the agents not to - it would have meant additional sales at no additional work. Where this team showed real brains was by using the time during their layover in Singapore to push for a better flight to Malaysia. It paid off and put them on the first flight out, and is directly responsible for their third place position (they might easily have been last if they were on the second flight). Their boat driver took them to the fish Detour instead of the lobster traps (which they had requested), but I think this was to their advantage. Kelly & Jon initially tried the lobster traps and gave up, since they didn't have the needed muscle power to obtain that clue. Millie & Chuck as a unit are probably in the same strength category, and might have been forced to abandon the trap option. What they really did badly in this episode was their execution of the Detour. It was an inspired move to jump in the water and work the problem like that, but their execution of KEEPING the fish in the basket was dismal. They would have been better off making several partial deliveries to complete the task, and they failed to do the little things, like keeping the net over the top of the basket while draining the water out of it. They made the task unnecessarily hard, and lost time because of it.

David & Jeff. This team made plenty of mistakes in this episode. First, they failed to get on the fast plane, which pretty much doomed them to the bottom of the pack from that point on. When they arrived at the Detour, they went for catching fish instead of hauling up a lobster trap. At the Detour, they fumbled badly by making the simple mistake of not looking for the flag. The right fish pens were clearly marked, but instead they used the net in an unmarked pen and delivered a full set of the wrong fish. They did better when they found the right fish, making partial deliveries that eliminated the problems Millie & Chuck encountered during the task. All of this could have been avoided by taking the lobster option, which would have been smarter since they had the needed strength.

Kelly & Jon. This team had the same opportunity Millie & Chuck had in the Mumbai Airport, but squandered it by sleeping instead of trying to get an earlier flight to Malaysia. It dropped them to the last position, where they stayed to the end. However, they made matters worse for themselves by trying and finally giving up on the lobster Detour. While it was better for them to acknowledge their mistake rather than fight it out on a hopeless task, they should never have tried that option in the first place. I was a bit surprised they picked Kelly for the Roadblock, but she did just as well as the men who completed it, and maybe even a bit better than some of them. One thing they didn't do was give up, pushing forward even when they knew they were in last place. There is always hope that the leg is non-elimination (which it was), or that another team broke the rules and were hit with a time penalty.

Jeffrey Clinard lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his cats, Lam and Princess. He can be reached at jclinard@flashmail.com.

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