The Amazing Race Episode 12

I will most likely not be recapping Episode 12 for TAR. To be quite honest, I have not seen the episode yet and it is not high on my priorities at the moment. I really would rather not watch my favorites be eliminated because of this new "marked for elimination" rule. I will cover the finale, though, once I watch it tomorrow or the day after.

Thank you all for reading my recaps and thank you to those who have left comments. Please leave me comments and/or email!

The Amazing Race Episode 11

Last week on Good Riddance (no, not the song):
The Bama girls realized that the Chos were holding them back. Hmmm, all this time the Chos have been making us think they've been helping Bama. Hmmm. There was a lot of bad rapping and some tank driving with Dennis and Andrew. (Okay, I know the joke's gotten old and most people probably don't even remember Season 3. Still..) The Chos sucked at life and got eliminated nine and a half legs too late.

This week on The Pretend Recap:
I will be honest. It's 1:15 AM and my Stats homework isn't finishing itself. However, I will also be honest when I say my recap deadlines are more important to me. Plus, the homework doesn't have to be done until 5 PM tomorrow.

And if we're being honest here, I'll also have to admit that I'm really weird about watching TV shows. With reality shows, I often watch episodes multiple times. It's easy on Bravo since they replay each episode a gazillion times. Lately, I've found myself falling into a pattern. I have a really hard time watching episodes in which I know something bad will happen beforehand. I had a really hard time watching this past Top Model episode because of the whole Caridee drama. I only watched it once. However, I can watch episodes like the one where Anchal was booted multiple times. I don't like watching really dramatic scenes like when people fight or get injured or get sick. I especially don't like watching when something bad happens to my favorites. I don't know, maybe I've been too effected.

Anyway, what I'm meaning to say is I didn't watch this past episode of TAR very closely at all. I knew that my Barbies would falter because I read on forums before I watched the show. When I watched the show, I didn't even watch it entirely. I mean, I saw the whole thing, but I was playing Minesweeper during most of it. I also got really angry and did my whole talking back to the contestants thing a lot. Basically, this recap might not be very thorough or accurate. I will, however, express my feelings on things.

The major gist of this episode goes like this: Teams travel somewhere.. this is bad, I don't even remember where they went. Barbies went through a lot of trouble with flights and connections only to end up on the same last connecting flight with everybody else. Everybody pissed and moaned about how the Barbies are great racers. The Barbies Yield Bama. The Roadblock had one team member riding on a chariot and pulling flags. Teams were really close together and the Barbies drove too far when going for the Detour. All teams went for grind it and there were only three work stations, which meant the Barbies had to wait around. This sucked and the Barbies were last at a NEL. Oh, and Bama raced twenty times better than they ever had, being alliance-less. We'll get to this later.

I just did three problems. Glorious. In this faux recap, I would like to cover several things: A.) Why the Barbies are great and why I hate how everybody hates them, B.) Why I think Bama is actually much better than the Chos were, C.) Rob and Kimberly's car trouble, D.) Two all-female teams in the top 4, E.) Typecasting and editing, who will be the final three, and how will they place.

A- Why the Barbies are great and why I hate how everybody hates them
As everybody knows, I love the Barbies. I will also admit that it's very hard to pull me from my favorites once I'm set on them. I will admit the Barbies have done some catty things that were a little unnecessary. However, it's almost impossible for me to turn on my favorites. Example: I really liked Danielle from Survivor 12, last season. No matter how much was thrown in my face about how useless she was, I remained loyal. I also liked the Mycoskies until the end in TAR 2 even though people thought they were sneaky and didn't play well with others.

I think the Barbies are great because they're a typical pretty model-y all-female team that is always cast every season. I would argue that the cheerleaders are a perfect example of the typical good-looks-bad-brains young female team that is in every season. Occasionally, though, we find a competitive girl in there somewhere (Tian from Season 4, the twins from Season 5 to a degree, although they did get really lucky sometimes). This is the first time that a pair of pretty girls have really surged ahead and been seen as a threat. They have been great racers this entire season. They've had some luck just like all the other teams and they've had two bad legs just like all the other teams, including Tyler and James. They don't depend on a strong all-male team to lead them along like many other all-female teams have in the past. They make it a point to race their own race and depend only on each other. They make aggressive plays and they think with their heads. It's just really refreshing to see such a strong young all-female team.

Now, what I hate is that because they are two pretty girls who are beauty queens, people will constantly mention it like it means there's no way they could be good racers. I hate that because they're racing hard, they're seen as conniving and manipulative. I am proud that for once, the young all-female team is the one that's trying to lose the other teams when they're driving to a location. I love that they're the ones that people are keeping an eye out for. I can't stand that when an all-female team is doing what all-male teams have been doing since the first season of this show, they're viewed as the villains. When an all-male team excels, people say it's because young males are athletic and make good decisions. Dustin and Kandace are just as strong as any of those all-male teams that exceled at this game. In fact, they've proven multiple times that when they're put up against Tyler and James, they often come out ahead.

I hate the perception of young all-female teams, especially beauty queens, as weak. I will say, I am a young female, definitely not of beauty queen caliber, and I'm in the demographic that often labels girls like these as a bad image of women and women rights. Oh course, I've never been that type, but I just want to say that I think it's significant for this to be said. I'm not saying it because I'm a guy that thinks the girls are hot. I'm a female their age. I just think it needs to be said. These girls are the strongest all-female team ever to be on this show. They have done consistently better than the majority of teams on this show. I'm tired of all the ratting on them.

I'm especially tired of all the teams complaining when D/K rush off on their own. They're trying to gain a lead. They're trying to leave before anybody else follows them. They're not giving any information to other teams. They work by themselves and don't have alliances. How is any of this a problem? It might be if all of the teams were on a field trip together and D/K left without letting anyone know. I'm not sure, but I'll ask Jonathan. Yup, this is a game for a million dollars. That's a '1' followed by six '0's. Wow. If I were there, I would be doing all of those things too. This is not The Amazing Best Friends Race (holla, Jade). I just don't understand when one of the teams says, "Oh, the blondes drove off. They're so sneaky. Let's try to follow them." How does this not prove my point? D/K are running their own race. They're doing really well and other teams are trying to follow them. This should be a refreshing sight to see. How dare those fools act like it's a crime to be blonde females and do well in this race.

If you have different views on this, please email me and I will immediately stop doing my homework and have a discussion with you.

B- Why I think Bama is actually much better than the Chos were
Now, you would think that if I love the Barbies, I would hate Bama. Here's the deal.. I don't hate them. I rarely truly hate a team ever. Jonathan and Victoria are an exception. I can't even say I hate Colin and Christie because I don't.. I actually respect them.. their racing, that is. Not their interpersonal skills. I attribute a lot of Bama's success so far as luck. Many people may think this about D/K. However, Bama's the one that's been second to last many times. They've made some stupid decisions as well.

However, this leg, I've started to wonder. Was their tendency to suck at life the result of their alliance? Everytime they did poorly on a leg, they were right back there with either Kentucky or the Chos. This leg, when they finally dropped the last of their baggage, they began to race much better. I guess we'll see next leg if it looks like luck or not. I personally think the Chos were holding Bama back. They were so adament at having another team with them at all times. Maybe it was because if they didn't hold onto Bama, Bama would beat them. If they held onto Bama, they'd easily beat the two moms in a foot race. We saw that when Bama ditched the Chos, they (Bama) soar way ahead and finished the leg smoothly.

I do think Bama is playing this game as well. They're probably intimidated by D/K a little and of course see them as competition. They're a prime candidate of those who see beauty queens and write them off as weak and stupid. They probably thinks that the Barbies "think they're better than everybody else." If only they could all look at this as a success for two independent female teams. Ahh, I'm sounding all feminist right now. I'm not. I'll stop.

C- Rob and Kimberly's car trouble
I think this is the funniest thing ever. When one of the Bama girls said, "When every car you drive breaks down, maybe it's not the cars. Maybe it's you," I said YES. This is so ironic and so funny. Everything Rob touches turns to crap. They've had, what, three car breakdowns? And Rob's had a couple breakdowns alongside. This is probably the most car trouble we've seen for one team on this show. Kimberly's horse also broke that one time when it knocked her down by the throat. Haha. Maybe the TAR karma fairy wants to torture them.

D- Two all-female teams in the top 4
I just wanted to mention that it's the first time this has happened since TAR began. It's taken TEN whole seasons. The closest we've come is Season 5 when the twins were fifth and the Bowling Moms were fourth. Stupid Brandon and Nikki not being eliminated when Brandon wouldn't shave his head. I probably dislike Brandon and Nikki more than I do Colin and Christie. They're so Freddy-and-Kendra-like. Teams that have no internal conflict but fight with other teams piss me off more than teams that have a lot of internal fighting. Except Ron and Kelly. Whatever fighting they had going on, regardless, I didn't like them at all.

E- Typecasting and editing, who will be the final three, and how will they place
Shows like this always typecast for their contestants. More importantly to me, though, is how teams are edited once they're on the show. People like to say you can never predict what will happen on these shows because everything that happens is unique to this one season. I say bull. I am a Communication major and this is some of the stuff we study.

Here's the deal.. nothing on any of these reality shows is happening for the first time, the only time, or the last time. This is not a live running documentary. This is an edited, produced show. When editors are piecing together the show, they know what has happened and they are bound both by the result of the game as well as previous storylines. When something works well, you don't change it. When it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? The producers know how the viewing public responds to certain teams. They know, especially by now, what combination of teams and what storyline will work. I repeat, nothing on this show is happening for the only time.

So, that said, the final four are examples of four.. maybe three.. classic types of teams. Tyler and James, who I actually just typed out as Eric and Jere.. before I realized what I had done, are the alpha-male team. We've always had an alpha-male team in the finals, with the exception of the seasons when we weren't given one (think power couples, seasons 5-7). They're the team that's fast and often finish first a lot early on in the race. When they're also smart, in addition to being fast, they're often unbeatable (seasons 1 and 2 in particular). They usually have very little interpersonal conflict.

There's our typical power couple. This season, we have our bickering power couple. This is the Frank and Margarita (although Rob and Kim do NOT hold a candle to Frank and Margarita at all.. Frank and Margarita were awesome), Tara and Wil, Flo and Zach, Kelly and Jon/Millie and Chuck, Colin and Christie, Rebecca and Adam/Hayden and Aaron, Ron and Kelly, and MoJo. That list is the template on which Rob and Kimberly were created. I'm not saying their personas were invented. They're just a spitting image of these other teams.

There's also our underdog teams. They're the teams that you would never predict at the start of the race to make it far. I would have said Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly preshow if I was asked who were the most likely teams to make it to the finals. I would not have predicted D/K or Bama. D/K have definitely proven to not be actual underdogs, but they are still an unlikely team as far as how their race credentials stack up. Bama is classic underdog. They're like Teri and Ian. That's my best example. They're Teri and Ian and I see a possibility of Bama sneaking in there and taking second place. I don't think they'll win, however.

Who do I think are the final three? Tyler and James, Bama, and Rob and Kimberly, probably finishing in that order, maybe with the second and third places switched. I would love to D/K in there, but I think the NEL has sealed their fate. Who knows, though. I would love to see them there, I just see them as more of the Hayden and Aaron than the Kris and Jon. It's hard to say that, but T/J, Bama, and R/K are classic final three characters. I would love if the alpha-males didn't win again, but Bama and R/K just aren't functional enough to take them out. I think D/K could do it, but unfortunately, I don't think they'll be given the chance. Please prove me wrong, please! It's just what the previews and my gut are telling me.

I won't have a "Next week on.." segment. It's all been covered. We'll see how it pans out.

Until next time..

The Amazing Race Episode 10

Last week on The Barbies are the Best All-Female Team Ever:
Teams traveled to Finland where Tyler and James and the Barbies lead the way throughout the entire leg. Rob and Kimberly missed a train by approximately 5 seconds and then proceeded to suck at life. The episode ended in a TBC as the models were almost done making their way down the tower, the Barbies were about to begin their rappel, and the other three teams were running around aimlessly.

This week on The Chos Have No Backbone:
Tyler and James make their way down the tower face first and receive their next clue that has some money and a note to continue on because the leg was not over yet. The next clue told them to go to the capital city of the country where Chernobyl is located. I immediately screamed "KIEV!" because that's one of the places I would love to go to.

The Barbies make their way down the tower and also get the next clue. They race off just behind the models. Meanwhile, the last three teams are running around like turkeys with their heads cut off. (Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!) They eventually all make it into the office to get their clue, but then run off towards the stadium in search of the rappel site. Alabama figures out to go up in the elevator first, followed by Rob/Kim, and lastly the Chos. This begins some major foreshadowing that lasts throughout this episode regarding Bama/Cho tension.

Everybody heads off to the airport. Rob is positive that Chernobyl is in Russia. Kim questions him and although he's the one who's wrong, he ends up making her look like a fool once again. This happened in episode 1 with the Thrifty parking situation, if you remember. I think it's funny.

At the airport, the models and Barbies are able to get tickets with an agent right before everything shut down for the night. They are on a flight that goes through Vienna and lands in Kiev at 1:35 the next afternoon. The back three teams arrive to find out they cannot purchase tickets until the next morning.

Come the next morning, the flight that the lead teams are on is sold out. The other three teams get a flight that connects through Warsaw and also lands in Kiev at 1:35 pm. Interesting. Somebody, maybe a Barbie, mentions that flights get delayed. This usually is used by the editors to make fun of whoever is talking. However, we are shown next that it is in fact the Warsaw connection that is delayed half an hour, putting the three teams originally in the back.. back in the back again. Haha.

The next clue has teams going to a Ukrainian military base, although the given address is gibberish to the teams. The models and Barbies get a taxi to lead them there and arrive with no setbacks.

They find a Roadblock. One team member would have to drive a tank through a military obstacle course. That's awesome. Surprisingly, Dennis and Andrew are nowhere to be found. Maybe they finally finished their FF from season 3. No way! Anyway, James and Dustin do the roadblock for their teams.

We see several shots of the two neck and neck on the course and then James stalls and Dustin pulls ahead. We also see James get covered in muddy water. Dustin makes it out of there clean, maybe even cleaner, as when she got there. Which is awesome. The Barbies always manage to stay fifty times cleaner than the models. Haha.

When they finish, teams find out they have to find apartment 33 somewhere in Kiev. Rob and Kimberly arrive next and Kimberly takes the RB. She goes through the obstacle course with no problems, I think. They head off and our lovely backpack "alliance" arrives. The Chos finish before Bama but elect to wait for Bama because they cannot do anything on their own. This is stupid. We all know it. Even Mama Cho is at home yelling at the TV for them to get a move on. Also, Godwin dirty in this task and Lyn makes it out clean. Karlyn asks her why she's clean and Lyn says probably because she was driving like a granny. See, I think Lyn is the much much more pleasant Bama team member. If she was here with someone else, I think I may like this team more. Unfortunately, she has Karlyn, the whiny woman of few smiles, as her partner.

So here begins the ridiculously agonizing montage of Chos/Bama driving and stopping every five minutes to get or confirm their directions. This is mainly because the Chos have no confidence, Erwin especially. Bama gets fed up and Karlyn wants to ditch the Chos. Lyn, however, wants to be nice back to those who were nice to her. Unfortunately, in this situation, I agree with Karlyn 100 percent. However, in the dispute, no matter what she says, I cannot bring myself to be on her side.

Rob and Kimberly at some point have car troubles. This usually means the team in trouble is passed by all other teams behind them and then proceed to mope and cry. In this case, Cho/Bama are so dysfunctional and useless that Rob/Kimberly maintain their third place spot. It's amazing, especially since those three teams were all on the same flight. They could not have been that far apart going to the RB. Suddenly, Cho/Bama seem to have fallen days behind. Stupid.

The models and Barbies find the apartment and discover the Detour. Teams have to choose between Make the Music and Find the Music. Once again, they've really run out of catchy rhyming choices, huh. In Make the Music, teams have to compose a rap about the race, using the names of all of the countries they've been to thus far. They have to don complete head-to-toe thugged out gear and rap to an audience of Kiev's underground hip hop movement participants. It's an amazing detour choice. Barbies choose it. In Find the Music, teams have to find a sheet of music for Tchaikovsky's Concert Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra. Once they have found this, they will have to search for a pianist in the conservatory's many practice rooms, who will play the piece for them and then give them their clue. This choice is not only find a needle in a haystack once, but basically find a needle in a haystack twice. For some reason, Tyler and James choose this option.

Now, the Barbies make probably their only mistake this leg. Instead of writing their rap while driving to the hip hop place, they just kind of come up with the first line and then write the rest once they're suited up. They should have used the time in the car like the later teams did.

We see the Barbies in gear and it's funny and sweet. They do as good of a job as is really possible, really putting themselves out there to look like fools. It's nice and they have fun and are entertaining, so they get their clue.

Tyler and James seem to find the sheet music fairly quickly and then find a pianist without too much trouble. They also get their clue and head off.

The models and Barbies are in a race to the pitstop. The models want to win because this would prevent the Barbies from winning three in a row. Would that have been a record or did Colin and Christie win three in a row on their race? There was that one time they had that flight that was like a hundred hours before everybody else's. I hear they're going to be on TAR All-Stars. Not that I was a Colin and Christie fan. It's just really hard to not admit that they were some of the best racers this show has had.

Anyway, so the models and Barbies are racing up and it's.. the models! Tyler and James, you are team number 1. You win a trip to somewhere that you can enjoy after the race. Sweet. The Barbies arrive next and are team number 2.

Rob and Kimberly elect to do Make the Music and Kimberly writes up something that rhymes, which she figures is good enough. We see them rapping and Kimberly looks so not enthused, but they seem to have a good time and do fine. They get their clue and leave. They are obviously team number 3.

Then we have Trainwreck Central. Yes, I love the term Trainwreck. Just because it describes so many reality TV contestants. And because just like actual trainwrecks, they're both horrifying to watch and impossible not to. Anyway, so Trainwreck Central. Erwin gets out of the car every five seconds to check their directions on route to apartment 33. Finally, Bama gets so fed up that they speed off. Funny thing is, the Chos tail Bama all the way to the next clue. Wouldn't it have been more efficient to let Bama lead? Hmmm. Idiots.

There's some talk amongst the Chos about how they're nice and stuff but Bama's willing to play dirty. Get off this show and go join the circus. You can be nice there, but this here is a race, kids. A race! Who would've thought..

Bama chooses to Make the Music and Chos choose to follow Bama. When they lose them, they choose to do Find the Music because most people don't know where the hip hop place is but know where the conservatory is. Karlyn writes up a rap on the way to the detour location. If the Chos did this one, I guarantee they would not have come up with two lines before arriving at the hip hop place, all confused.

Bama performs their rap and actually cheats their way through it. While the other two who chose this detour seemed to talk about all of the locations that they went to, Bama listed all of the countries quickly and then talked about how they would spend the money. The crowd seemed to think this was the best rap ever, though, probably because these were the only two black people who had performed for them ever. We know they're racist.. remember the dude who told Jaeda he didn't like black chicks? No, I'm not actually saying they were racist. I just wish it was pointed out that Bama took the easy way out. Whatever. I just don't like Bama. And this is huge because I liked them pre-show. As seen with BB6 and Ivette, it takes a lot before I will admit my pre-show favorites suck. I went maybe a month before admitting that Ivette was horrible.

At some point, Chos arrive at their detour option and their performance is glazed over, so we really don't know how long they took. They race towards the pitstop. There's a lot of faux anticipation building, but we all know Bama will arrive next. I'm actually happy because the Chos are pitiful. Horrendous.

Bama is team number 4. Chos arrive at night, two weeks later or something. They may or may not talk about being honorable again. I don't care because I will address it now anyway. Here's the deal. The Chos are not honorable people. This is how they roll: they don't care how far behind they are as long as there's another weaker team with them. They travel with the weaker team the entire leg. If they are one of the last teams, they know they will outrun the other team. This is dirty, dirty playing. Don't try to appear like saints. Don't. You're only upset because all of a sudden you have to play this game by yourself. You have to make your decisions and all of the credit as well as all of the fault lies squarely on your shoulders. Good riddance. These fools should have been gone episode 1 when they were last at the roadblock.

Next week on The Amazing Race:
I haven't seen the preview, but I imagine it's a NEL? Maybe not, though.. I'm lost on the timeline for this season. If the finale is in three weeks, there's definitely a NEL. If not, there still may be. We don't know how many teams will be left on finale night. I won't say who I think is going home because I don't want to jinx the Barbies. They're the first headstrong independent all-female team and they really deserve a shot at this. They're of the winner caliber. We'll see.

Until next time..

The Amazing Race Episode 9

Previously on TAR:
- Teams traveled from Mauritius to Madagascar.
- The Intersection was introduced in a last-ditch attempt at saving David and Mary.
- Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly choked on the Fast Forward, coming in after the Barbies, in second and third place respectively.
- The Barbies rocked that leg.
- Bama barely moved faster than a slow crawl because they knew they would definitely beat Kentucky's half hour penalty.
- Kentucky went home.

This week:
- Apparently Madagascar is the 4th largest island. I'm not sure why I was surprised, because thinking about it now, Madagascar is pretty big compared to Crete and stuff. I'm assuming Antarctica and Australia are considered continents and not islands. Greenland's pretty big. Anyway.. unimportant.

- Clue: Go to Helsinki, Finland, log onto aol.com to get the next clue. Tickets to Paris are provided, due to the lack of flights leaving Madagascar on any given day. Teams then have to book their own travel from then on, and they do not have to keep the Paris tickets, which put them on a flight that leaves in like 16 hours.
- Beginning of the leg observations: The Barbies are awesome. Kimberly washed her hair. The Chos are stupid.. this isn't friend camp.
- The first four teams manage to figure out it's faster to go through Johannesburg. It looks like Bama won't make it, but then the TAR fairy appears after having just finished having brunch with Rob and Brennan, Flo and Zach, Chip and Kim, and Uchenna and Joyce (all winning teams who noteably had some visits from the TAR fairy). They let them on the plane five minutes after it already departed or something. They flew them up in a hovercraft and dropped them into open seats.
- Karlyn actually smiles. Make note of this. I think this is smile number 3 so far this season.
- A little bit of Cho/Bama tension. Foreshadowing.
- Hmmm I wonder who the sponsor is. Teams get to see messages from home. The best one is when they show a Chos' girlfriend and then for the other one, it's his mother and sister.. who are actually both of their mother and sister. I just thought it was funny. It was like haha you are single. No one wants to be with you right now. Maybe not exactly.. I just thought it was funny.

- The family members give the next clue, which tells them to go to the cafe manager or something. Clue: Go to the city of Tampere via train and then taxi.
- Bama totally breaks down. They're the last ones there and I have to say the children are adorable. Lyn's three children read the clue together really slowly so they can be in unison and it's cute.
- All teams get on the same train.
- Barbies and Models "flirt"? I'm not quite sure because they're both aware of how important it is to play their own strong games. I think they kind of just pretend to lead each other on. I am so glad the Barbies are not Megan & Heidi, Dani & Danielle, Heather & Eve, etc. They know that nobody comes on a race for a million dollars to find a hot guy to hook up with. They don't cling to other teams for help.. they do it themselves. And frankly, if they did decide to use other teams for help, they would be wasting time because these two are very efficient.
- The Barbies and Models get off the train first and quickly find cabs parked in front of the station. The rest of them have to go to where there's a line, or as that part of the world says it, a queue. Kim and Rob ask a couple if they could please cut in line because it's an emergency and the couple says okay. This is fine and for once this team doesn't seem like the asses. Then, Bama proceeds to do the same thing, minus the asking for permission. They rudely jump into a cab as someone else is trying to get in and say, "Thank you sir!" in an obnoxious tone. Can it, Bama. The Chos then bitch about being polite and how it's gonna cost them. No, Chos, what's gonna cost you is this inability to work by yourself, for yourself, without concerning yourself with carrying the weaker teams around.

- Barbies and Models do a pointless race to the clue box, where they both find the Detour: Swamp This or Swamp That (they have run out of catchy ideas). In Swamp This, teams have to put on skis and go trekking through the swampy mud. In Swamp That, teams have to crawl through an obstacle course, at one point where one member has to carry the other. Both teams have to climb over a fence at one point and jump into the heavy quicksand-consistency mud.
- Teams that do Swamp This: Barbies and Bama. Teams that do Swamp That: Models, Rob/Kim, Chos.

- Tyler/James narrowly edge out the Barbies a finish the challenge first. They receive the next Clue: Take a train to Turku. Then drive 74 miles to Lorja.
- The Models decide to change clothes before getting in their car, but the Barbies don't because they're not prima donnas like the boys. Also, is it just me, or did the Barbies just not get dirty at all? In the short of them in their taxi right after the challenge, they look like they just spent thirty minutes shopping.
- At one point, Rob says something to the effect that Kim was heavy, or difficult to carry. She says, "Are you calling me fat?" Best part, there's no exchange after that. Rob doesn't say no, neither of them laugh, and Kim doesn't get angry either. I thought it was hilarious.
- Barbies and Models make the train and stand there urging it to hurry up and move. Usually, this is where the TAR fairy comes along and helps the back end teams out a little. Not this time. In an excellent display, Rob and Kimberly arrive in time to see the train leaving the station. It's fantastic.
- By the way, Kimberly's freshly showered look from earlier? Gone. She looks rough once again.
- In a strange exchange, Rob and Kimberly try to go past Bama/Cho on the train to go back to their seats and Bama/Cho are standing up for some reason and Bama goes on and on about "no party train with Rob and Kim."
- The Models find the next place and go into a mine, which is a classic example of doing something reminiscent of a former contestant. In this show and some others, the episode after a contestant leaves, there's a challenge that is something he/she would have loved or exceled at. This is a David challenge.
- Barbies have to wait because they don't quite find the marked flag as quickly.
- There is Bama/Cho tension again. Foreshadowing.
- Roadblock at the bottom of the mine ride: Bike into the mine, get a block of limestone, ride back up and break it open to get the clue, which is in a vile/container.
- Rob calls Bama Frick and Frack.
- James and Kandice do the Roadblock.
- James finds the clue first: Drive to Helsinki Olympic Stadium.
- Rob tries to drive into the mine. Chos and Bama find the mine clue before Rob and Kim.
- Models get to the Olympic Stadium first but go into the stadium and cannot find the marked flag, which is on a door outside of the stadium.
- Finally they find the clue: Go to the top of the tower. They find out they have to rappel down the tower face first. Excellent. One of the models is scared.
- Rob and Kim are a trainwreck as they fail to spot the marked door yet again when it seems they've right behind Chos/Bama, who spot it quickly. Rob and Kim display major trainwreck signs.
- After numerous mentions this episode by the contestants of how they're getting close to the pitstop, of course we have a TBC. It was about time.. I assumed it was time leg since it wasn't last leg. The Models get a clue after finishing rappeling and the Barbies are in the process of getting suited up and starting the rappel. Rob and Kimberly are cut off in this episode looking like a total trainwreck.

Next week: Tank time with Dennis and Andrew. I wouldn't be surprised if they were still in there, hoping to get the fast forward that will same them from behind five hundred hours behind. I think the Chos are toast next week. There's major foreshadowing of Bama screwing over the Chos and taking the final four spot. If so, this would mean two all-female teams in the final four. Would be a TAR first. And I'm crossing my fingers for a Rob and Kim trainwreck. Nothing is funnier.

Until next time..

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