The Amazing Race 10: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Episode 7: Salt of the Earth

We’re getting in that dead zone that all reality shows hit, where the dead weight is being eliminated slowly, one at a time, leaving the three or four top teams or people to battle it out. Of course, The Amazing Race doesn’t help themselves with non-elimination legs right in the middle of the dead zone.

What’s the answer? There really isn’t one. The normal answer is to try and put a big twist in the zone (the tribal swap and the Outcast twist in Survivor, for example), but that only works for one episode, if at all. The only real answer is the one I always preach – put in interesting personalities and hope they can hold our attention. The Amazing Race 10 started out with great personalities, but for one reason or another (some of which are mentioned below), they are losing me. We’ll have to see how the new big twist does in the next episode, but from the looks of it, it seems like more forced drama.

The Good:

Model Behavior: Yeah, the title is played, but I’m tired. I know I busted on them before for talking about their drug addiction. Someone wrote (I can’t remember where or I’d credit them, sorry) that the reason they talk about it is because their cameraman/producer asks them about it, thinking it will make for a good story line. Especially if they win.

I just wanted to point out that, despite my complaining, I like these guys and of everyone left, are probably my favorite. Even if they can’t navigate their way out of a paper bag.

Shut Your Trap: The absolute best part of this episode, and maybe the season, was the old “pit covered with branches” trap in the Sail Detour. Whoever thought of that deserves a raise.

The Bad:

Born Again… Again: I was definitely prepared to see David & Mary go home this week. They are nice people, had a good run, but it was time for them to go. Once again, I was irritated by the non-elimination leg, even though it saved a team I still actually like.

The thing is, the non-elimination twist didn’t save a good team that shouldn’t have been eliminated because they made one wrong turn. No, it saved a team that deserved to go – in other words, they kept an undeserving team in the race.

David & Mary made their share of simple mistakes, but none quite as egregious as deciding to leave the salt Detour. Now, there is the possibility that they figured the rest of the Back Pack would wait for them, but either way, it was a bad decision. There is NEVER a guarantee that one Detour is better than another, no matter how simple one sounds.

If anything, they should have known that the “needle in a haystack” tasks can be incredibly difficult. Just ask the Gaghans from AR8 or the female team who literally had to find a clue in the hay. I’m betting there are others that I don’t remember off the top of my head. My point is, unless the other Detour is “climb a sheer rock face with your bare hands,” it’s probably the better bet in the first place.

But having stuck with the task for so long, and knowing that they were the last team to stay, they should have toughed it out. Even though it was a killer task, it seemed to be one right in David’s wheelhouse – patiently searching for a small item in a large area. Besides, no matter how tough the task might be, remember that in the killer scenarios I mentioned before, all the other teams found their needle. And they had no idea what kind of problems the others were having. With the extenuating circumstances, they should have stayed. And Mary should have shut up and actually looked. This wasn’t a Roadblock.

Insert “Cho Brothers are Nice Guys, But Suck Strategically” Comment Here: Yep. As everyone who has watched this episode has no doubt stated, waiting for the other teams is nothing short of stupid.

The Ugly:

Dublyn: It took a while, but it’s now obvious who our “hypocritical team that treats everyone else like crap and expects everyone else to help them” is. Here I thought it was Rob & Kimberly. It’s been well-documented elsewhere what Dublyn have done, but what bothers me most is their hypocrisy. They hate the models for no other reason than that they get perks because of their looks, then insult Sarah for getting special treatment for her leg.

You can’t have it both ways. I think they’re the types who aren’t so much upset that other people get special treatment – it’s because they don’t, and they don’t seem to be willing to do anything about it either.

The fight between them and the models this episode was especially stupid, because they knew there was only one flight, and everyone was getting it. It was bitching for the sake of bitching. I don’t cut down Dustin & Kandice for it because it was obvious they did it just to piss Dublyn off, which was a smart move. Creating enemies hurts about as much as making allies helps.

One other thing. I’ll be interested to see how the Chos, who were willing to risk the game to give their friends David & Mary help, react to Dublyn’s incessant bitching and ragging on the other teams. It seems to me that the Cho Brothers think Dublyn are nicer people than they are.

Ugly American: I was called an Ugly American last week, for the crime of stating that I would rather go to Europe or Africa than Asia. Nevertheless, it was nothing compared to Dustin & Kandice’s behavior in front of the ticket agents. What is it this season with teams being incredibly rude at the ticket counters? Come to think of it, most of it has involved the Beauty Queens, with Peter, Tom & Terry, and now Dublyn.

Mauritius: I consider myself to be intelligent, particularly in geography. But I had never in my life heard of Mauritius, much less where it was or how to pronounce it. I’ll give that one more slack than the people pronouncing “Gengis” with a soft “g.”

Mike DeGeorge is an Accountant from St. Louis and is also Associate Editor for RealityNewsOnline. You can reach Mike at rno.mike@gmail.com.

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