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Sign up for FREE nightlife text alerts: More Info « 'Dancing With the Stars' recap: Rock and roll night | Main | 'Dancing With the Stars' results: Who's out tonight? » October 25, 2010 'The Amazing Race' recap: High on life Bucky returns with a recap of last night's Amazing Race. Take it away, Bucky!:
The fifth leg of The Amazing Race begins on the border between Sweden and Norway, last week’s Pit Stop, and the Doctors depart first. The instructions tell them to drive to Narvik, Norway, find the gondola and take it to the top of the mountain to find the next clue.
On the drive, we find out that Dr. Nat harbors an intense fear of heights. When she gets on the gondola and it starts up the hill, she is practically hyperventilating. Mrs. Bucky asks, “Why doesn’t she just close her eyes?” Which sends me on a stream-of-consciousness train of thought and, eventually, makes me wonder ... what happens to people who are afraid of the dark, when they close their eyes?
Anyway, Dr. Nat survives the gondola ride, the Doctors get the clue and we find that tonight has a Fast Forward. For those of you who have never seen the show before (more on this later) a Fast Forward allows the first team to finish it—the first team only, not every team—to skip all of that leg’s tasks, go straight to the Pit Stop, and have Phil award them a fabulous prize.
The Doctors read that the Fast Forward will require them to “partake in a Norwegian Christmas ritual.” They decide to do it. We viewers are told that the ritual is to eat an entire roasted sheep’s head. And you thought lutefisk was the worst Norwegian Christmas tradition. Ha ha ha.
On the way to the Fast Forward location, we learn that Dr. Kat is a vegetarian and hasn’t eaten meat in over 20 years. Wow, what are the chances that a team comprised of an acrophobiac and a vegetarian would have to ride a gondola and eat a roasted sheep’s head on the same leg of the race?
They arrive at the original Sheep’s Head Inn to begin the Fast Forward. Meanwhile, back at the starting line, Gary & Mallory, TV Hosts Brook & Clair, Michael & Kevin, and Jill & Thomas all read the instructions and decide to skip travelling to the Fast Forward, reasoning that if they do, and if the Doctors finish it first due to their head start, the other teams have simply added time to their race without any possibility of reward. These teams follow the rest of the instructions and drive directly to a big bridge, where they find tonight’s Road Block. This, IMHO, is proper TAR strategy.
Back at the Sheep’s Head Inn, Dr. Kat is having little problem (that we are shown anyway) in breaking her 20-year meat fast. She is, slowly but deliberately, scarfing down her half of the head.
At the Road Block, a member of each team must rappel down a rope, off the side of the bridge, and retrieve the next clue from a boat below, and then go back up the rope using a mechanical ascender tool. Guess which half of the trip is the most difficult? Correct! The climb back up.
Kevin, Gary, Clair and Thomas perform the Road Block for their teams.
At the Sheep’s Head Inn: we learn that roasted sheep’s eyeball is crunchy. mmmm ... sheep eyeball.
Which brings us to Evil Nick and his lady, Vicki, back at the starting line. They decide that, because “everybody else is probably doing it” (and will get to skip all the tasks, is their reasoning) they will do the Fast Forward, too. We add to the list of things that you should do, if you are picked to run The Amazing Race: WATCH PAST SEASONS AND LEARN THE RULES.
Evil Nick and Vicki head for the Sheep’s Head Inn at about the same time the Doctors are finishing Norwegian Christmas dinner and leaving for the Pit Stop, as this leg’s winners. When EN &V arrive, they find a sign on the door that says, “Fast Forward has been taken”. They don’t understand what this means and wander around, looking for help for a while. Finally, Evil Nick says, “I’m tired of this crap,” and they, too, head for the bridge.
All the other teams have also gone to the bridge, correctly strategizing that a trip to the Fast Forward will be a waste of their time.
At the bridge, Thomas overtakes Clair, who is having a very hard time hoisting herself back up the rope. She prevails, however, and finishes the leg as Vicki, Chad and Katie begin, in the same order that they departed the starting line. It seems that, due to staggered departure times, Evil Nick and Vicki lost time going to the Fast Forward, but haven’t lost their place in the race. The last three teams eventually finish the Road Block in the order in which they started it, with Katie and Rachel, the Volleyball Team, in distant last place.
Tonight’s Detour, the next stop, offers Teams the choice of:
Bike: teams ride mountain bikes along a course to a location that has a board displaying the combinations to bike locks. They have to memorize the combinations, ride back to the starting point and unlock the next clue.
Boat: using a map, the teams must direct the captain of a boat to a take them to a point where they put ashore, pick up a big chain saw and two big, heavy fish, and deliver the goods to a lodge at the top of a mountain. On foot.
Kevin & Michael, Brook & Clair, Chad & Stephanie, and The Volleyball Teams choose Boat.
Thomas & Jill, Gary & Mallory, and Nick & Vicki choose Bike. (Notice that he is no longer Evil Nick. That’s because, even with all those tattoos and all his blustering, he’s been exposed as a fraud. On the Bike challenge, while Vicki is pedaling her butt off and making good time up the hill, he’s trailing in the back, pathetically wailing, “Vicki? Viiiic-kiiii?” trying to get her to wait for him. Clearly, she has shown who wears the tattoos in this relationship and for the rest of the race he will be Pathetic Nick.)
Both Detour challenges are physically difficult but not so much that anybody switches tasks in the middle. Everyone perseveres with their choice. The Volleyball Team, as it has all episode, trails the pack, due to its last place starting time, not due to any particular difficulty along the way.
From the Detour, everyone heads for the Pit Stop and the final order of finish is:
1st – The Doctors, Nat & Kat (having used the Fast Forward; they win a trip to Costa Rica)
2nd – Gary & Mallory
3rd – Jill & Thomas
4th – Michael & Kevin
5th – TV Hosts, Brook & Clair
6th – Pathetic Nick and Awesome Vicki (my favorite racer at this point)
7th – Chad & Stephanie
8th – The Volleyball Team, Katie & Rachel, who are eliminated.
I am disappointed with this leg. If you look back, you will find that tonight’s order of finish mirrors last week’s, with one exception: due to Clair's difficulty in climbing the rope in the Road Block, and Thomas’ strength at that task, they flip places. Everyone else finishes as they start.
Borrrring ...
This is why the producers use a airline flight to level the playing field, I think. Otherwise, teams just tend to entrench in their positions. Also, the two episodes in Scandanavia haven’t involved taxi drivers or language problems, which have also contributed to teams maintaining their positions.
Finally, I know we all say we hate it when teams are mean and/or bickering, but doesn’t that actually add to the interest of the show?
What do you think?
Categories: The Amazing Race
Comments Wow, what are the chances that a team comprised of an acrophobiac and a vegetarian would have to ride a gondola and eat a roasted sheep’s head on the same leg of the race?
Made me laugh with coffee in my mouth! (I am, as a matter of fact, an acrophobic vegetarian.)
Thanks for the recap which was much, much more interesting than the show itself. I might not be bothered to watch this any more.
Posted by: Eve | October 26, 2010 8:51 AMthe Amazing Race I think has ran its course. Its now wear as close to as exciting as it use to be
Posted by: Tracy | October 27, 2010 10:26 PMvicki is my favourite racer too, if only for putting up with pathetic nick the whole way. this season isn't much fun though. am watching just because am a kevjumba youtube fan!
Posted by: jc | October 27, 2010 10:27 PM Post a comment All comments must be approved by the blog author. Please do not resubmit comments if they do not immediately appear. You are not required to use your full name when posting, but you should use a real e-mail address. Comments may be republished in print, but we will not publish your e-mail address. Our full Terms of Service are available here.Name:
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Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) Please enter the letter "n" in the field below: About Sarah KelberSarah Kickler Kelber, an editor in the features department since 1999, got sucked into reality TV with the first episode of MTV's The Real World in 1992. Then came Survivor and American Idol, and suddenly, the genre was everywhere. She started blogging about it for The Baltimore Sun in January 2006 and has logged more hours watching and writing about such shows as Dancing With the Stars, Big Brother and, of course, Idol, than she'd like to admit.Follow @realityck on Twitter
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