After a few exciting episodes in some of the world’s northernmost, colder climates, The Amazing Race came back down to earth this week as teams traveled from St. Petersburg, Russia to Oman where they were met with 90 degree temperatures. Unfortunately, all of the excitement, not to mention the stamina of some of the teams, got sapped out of the race with the temperature change.
I think we had a couple of Amazing Race firsts this week, and both of them involved Chad and Stephanie. Even before starting the first leg, Chad and Stephanie overslept and missed their start time by two hours! I always thought that maybe a production assistant would get the teams up and ready for their departures but apparently that is not the case. Things were looking pretty grim for them, but they managed to get on the last flight to Oman and arrived just minutes behind four other teams. Of course, Nat and Kat were ahead of the pack without a care in the world.
As all of the teams arrived at the Road Block and discovered they would have to wait overnight to get going, we had another first before the teams hit the Road Block — Chad proposed to Stephanie and she … accepted! These two have been on a rollercoaster ride throughout the race with Chad being a jerk for most of it. Each week he’d say how he’s learning to control his anger and then he’d slip into the same behavior as before. But this week he actually admitted that they alone were responsible for their own shortcomings in the race, and with that and the proposal he instantly endeared himself to me. He didn’t lose his temper once during this leg (probably because they were in the lead most of the time), and they even managed to finish in first place with a little help from Thomas and Jill, who were penalized for paying a cab to lead them to the Pit Stop. Does no one read the rules anymore?
Of course, as soon as I declare my support for Gary and Mallory, they have a terrible leg, getting lost on the way to the Detour (but seemingly not too far behind Nat and Kat who went from first to last) and checking in last at the Pit Stop. I’m really out of people to root for now, but I seem to have a knack for rooting for each team that will be eliminated so I am going to throw my wholehearted support behind Nick and Vicki now just because Nick has become the most unlikable person in the race. Like Chad, he talks about how he’s learned not to lose his cool, but he loses it every week, yelling at Vicki and sometimes throwing things when all is not going well. This week a flat tire set him off, then he threatened to quit the race if Vicki insisted on giving information to another team. Okay, that part would make me mad, but I wouldn’t go bonkers over it. What’s done is done … just don’t do it again! Unlike Chad (at least this week), Nick just hasn’t learned his lesson.
A couple of questions I’m left with this week: are the travel agents the teams visit really open at all hours of the night, or have there been arrangements made beforehand with the producers? It just seems strange that there would be a fully staffed travel agency open at 2 AM in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get the market in Oman to stay open late, giving Nat & Kat and Gary & Mallory a bit of an advantage in locating Ali Baba in an otherwise empty market. And did the newlyweds in Oman ever get their traditional wedding soup? None of the teams chose that option on the Detour because it sounded insanely difficult … and I don’t blame them. But that couple could have had six bowls of soup and they ended up with none. And did Brooke & Claire kiss anyone this leg? I wonder if they were advised not to at this particular location. Now that Gary and Mallory are out, who are you rooting for?
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Nov 14, 2010 @ 22:28 EST5EDT
