Race to the Altar, Episode 4: Ring Tossed

Last week on Race to the Altar, everybody fought over place settings for their weddings, Chris and Cindy fought because Chris wouldn’t get his shoes wet in a challenge, Susan and Coyt fought to win the blackjack challenge (and $18,000 in cash), Grace and Robert fought because he wouldn’t go on the roller coaster with her, and April and Vinny fought because they lost the mental challenge. I fought my annoyance at NBC for moving the show to Saturday nights. Coyt and Susan and Andree and Tonya were the two power couples. They eliminated April and Vinny. Who will be booted tonight?

The episode begins with an interview with Coyt, who says that he and Susan occasionally disagree. We see Susan telling Coyt that she doesn’t trust him when he’s out drinking with the other guys. Coyt says that after a while, you forget that the cameras are there and act like yourself. We cut to Robert and Grace being themselves as Robert tries to untie Grace’s bikini top. Then we see Ethan and Carolyn playing around on the couch. Carolyn tells Ethan that he is a stinky boy. Chris and Cindy bicker about whether or not to turn off all the lights in their room. Coyt says that everybody fights. “Any couple that tells you they don’t fight, they don’t have a relationship.” True, or they’re lying to you, or they don’t fight because both of them are holding everything inside, nursing it into a gigantic ball of resentment.

Two hours before the first challenge, the committed couples (Tonya and Andree, Coyt and Susan, and Ethan and Carolyn) play cards and talk about strategy. Tonya thinks she and Andree need to win. Carolyn thinks Coyt and Susan are at risk if they don’t win because they’ve dominated the challenges so far. Susan agrees. She says, “At this point if we don’t win, we’re probably the first pick to go home.”

A van ride to the first challenge finds everyone nervous. Cindy says that the setup for the challenge is very intimidating. She doesn’t know what the challenge will be, but it looks scary. Andree sees that Tonya is nervous and tries to motivate her. He says that she is afraid of heights, so he’s worried about how she’ll do. Tonya asks Andree if he could please focus on Robert instead, because he looks scared, too. Robert doesn’t deny it.

Lisa introduces “Leap of Faith,” the toughest challenge yet. The women will take turns standing on a platform twelve stories above the ground. The guys will be harnessed to an apparatus and will run off the roof, toss a ring to the woman, then swing back onto the roof to go again. Whichever couple catches the most rings in sixty seconds wins the game and is Power Couple #1. If a woman doesn’t catch at least five rings, the platform will drop out from under her, bungeeing her down to the ground. Yikes.

Robert and Grace go first. She is really scared. She gets three rings and plummets to the earth. Tonya and Andree are next. She is utterly terrified and says she can’t do it. Andree tries to talk her into it and asks her to have faith in him. Tonya starts to cry and says, “Please don’t make me do this.” Andree tells her that if they give up, he’ll be mad. She cries some more. Andree agrees to quit, then angrily throws down the ring. Tonya doesn’t want him to be mad, so she says she’ll do it. The rest of the couples cheer for her and chant her name, but Tonya is obviously still scared. Andree agrees to quit. He is mad and is afraid that they’ll get voted off. In an interview, Carolyn says that the two of them were pretty quiet after they quit and stayed out of each other’s way.

Tonya and Andree were right to give up on this event. Ideally, they would have been able to compete, but Tonya was so shaken and had been crying so hard that there is no way she would have been able to concentrate and catch any rings. They probably would have wound up with a score of zero anyway, and poor Tonya would have had to fall to the ground.

Ethan and Carolyn are next. They feel confident. Carolyn successfully catches five rings and gets to stay on the platform. They’re happy with how they did, but Ethan says, “I really wish we’d gotten more.” Chris and Cindy go next. She’s nervous, but says their goal is ten. Once she’s on the platform, her nerves seem to be gone. She is almost unnaturally calm, easily catching six rings. Coyt and Susan go last. Coyt says, “We just need a perfect performance.” They miss the first ring, and in an interview, a gloomy Susan says she thought they were doomed. She was mistaken, though – they catch six and tie with Chris and Cindy.

For the tiebreaker, the men and women swap positions. Lisa says that no matter how many rings the guy catches, he will be dropped. Susan and Coyt go first. Susan is having a lot of trouble controlling her movements. It looks like she’s a little too short for the harness. Her feet barely touch the ground, so she doesn’t get much momentum, then flails around once she’s in the air. Coyt catches two rings. “Damn it,” Susan mutters, as the time runs out. Chris and Cindy go next. Cindy declares, “I can do this.” She has the same problem as Susan with her feet not quite touching the ground. As a result, she swings slowly to Chris, but still manages to toss him three rings. They are the winners and the first Power Couple. Chris says it feels great to win. In an interview, Robert says he’s glad Coyt and Susan lost. He says, “The minute Susan and Coyt did not win the challenge, me and Grace were really happy. Everyone else wanted what we wanted, and that was for Susan and Coyt to lose.”

Back at the hotel, Andree and Tonya give each other some space so they can both calm down. Andree says in an interview that he understands that Tonya was scared. She says in her interview that if they get voted out, she’ll feel like she let him down. I think it’s very cool that they gave themselves time to settle down. They understand each other, but emotions were high. If they had tried to talk right away, they would have had a fight.

In their suite, Chris and Cindy celebrate the win by jumping on the bed. Outside the door, Coyt, Susan, and Ethan wonder how Chris and Cindy will vote. Chris says he doesn’t think any couples are in commitments. Chris is apparently an idiot. In a game like this, it makes sense to align yourself with others. If any of the other players are thinking strategically, then yes, they will have a commitment. Ethan tells Coyt that he thinks they’re all safe because Chris and Cindy are not in a commitment with anyone. Susan doesn’t think the Power Couple will vote out Coyt and herself, but you can never be too sure.

The next morning, Coyt and Susan worry about their loss. Coyt says they must do well at the next challenge. He tells Susan, “I need a little more support from you.” Susan sulks on the couch and tells him she doesn’t feel good. She says in an interview that they’re really down on themselves. Coyt tells her that she’s being a pessimist, and she does one of her famous eye rolls, one so long and hard that I think she must be able to see her own eyebrows.