Amazing Race 17 Recap
By Daron Aldridge
October 4, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Here’s your departure breakdown from Eastnor castle to Accra, Ghana:
11:55 a.m. – Dating Jill & Thomas head out and she once again reiterates that he took charge but she doesn’t always have to be in the background. Race aside, there are some underlying issues with her feeling very unappreciated. On the race, this could be dangerous.
Noon – Doctors Rhyme Time Nat & Kat describe themselves as balanced because Nat is the Oscar Madison and Kat is the Felix Unger in this friendship.
12:20, 12:21, and 12:22 p.m. – It didn’t take long for us to get our first official alliance between Team Glee Jonathan & Connor, Team HSN Brook & Claire (she of watermelon face fame) and volleyball players Rachel & Katie (who I still can’t tell apart). They get some directions to Heathrow Airport from a random bloke on a tractor and Brook happily promises and delivers a kiss for his help. If I have learned anything from Survivor, women shouldn’t waste the flirting on people that aren’t really useful for them. That can be applied here.
12:40 p.m. – Father/daughter team of Gary & Mallory leave and Mallory is beside herself as she giddily proclaims that she “hopes to get hold some African babies.” She must have swung by the pub for pint before starting this leg because no one is that happy…all the time.
12:41 p.m. – Son Kevin laments the fact that his father Michael’s slow pace and bad legs will be slowing him down. Me thinks this is foreshadowing for the fate and fights within Team Generation Gap.
12:50 a.m. – Angry dating couple Chad & Stephanie are next and wearing cute matching orange caps. I really hope that Chad is unable to deliver on his goal of being less caustic to one another. We need someone to root against this season and you guys made the decision easy last week.
1:35 p.m. – Perfect Strangers Andie & Jenna again express that they are hoping to get more out of this race than a million dollars. The longer on the race the longer they have to share an adventure that they missed out on when Andie put her up for adoption. It may be sappy but I hope they stick around because of that.
1:45 p.m. – Dating human canvases Nick & Vicki are the last ones out and after blunder after blunder last leg, they just may be the ones that I overestimated in my initial predictions. I pegged them to make it to the fourth slot. Unless, they have the best luck on the planet, this is highly unlikely.
(For the record, I picked doctors Nat & Kat to be eliminated. I may 0-for-2 before the hour is done.)
Jill & Thomas arrive at Heathrow to the unwelcome news that Virgin Atlantic only has one flight to Accra daily, so the great Amazing Race equalizer has evaporated their two-hour lead and the need to show our teams hanging around the airport. Let’s just jump right past the six-hour flight and get to Ghana. Sir Richard Branson may have just saved the bottom-dwelling teams.
The teams land and dash for the taxis and the country of Ghana gets mixed reactions. First Team Tat’s Vicki is in awe of the people, as are Brook & Claire. And what does Captain Multiculturalism Chad muster up, “Wow…look at all that trash.” He is quite the sensitive soul.
Here is what Ghana is filled with based upon the next few minutes: crazy cabbies and people asking tourists for money. For the first that I can recall, every team seems to have hired a cabbie hell-bent on speeding and narrowly missing pedestrians and other vehicles. Good for the teams as they race…bad if you are trying to cross the street in Accra. I love how one close call actually cuts to the puckered/wincing face of the driver as if bracing for impact.
Thanks to a panhandling man begging for money from Jonathon & Connor while they are at a stoplight, who they denied (he paid them back with spit), we hear a nice, choral “Please drive faster” delivered to their cabbie. Father/daughter Gary & Mallory turn down another person asking for money but she is apparently more sweet and apologetic and escapes saliva-free. Big-hearted bio-mom Andie made a deposit in the karma make by giving some cash to a boy. Let’s see if that was an investment.
With no clear lead team and no one embarrassingly lost (i.e. Ron & Tony last leg), we have Team HSN, Chad & Stephanie, Team Tat, the volleyballers, Michael & Kevin, and Jill & Thomas all getting their clue to go to Makola Market within seconds of each other. The others filter in not far behind with Andie & Jenna in last…again.
Nick & Vicki use some keen eyes to be the first ones to spot the clue box in the hectic (which seems to be an extreme understatement) market. Time to see what this leg’s Roadblock is. A team member has to sell $10 worth of sunglasses in a sea of competing vendors. The task seems straightforward sitting on my couch but it’s likely going to be a tough one.
Nick takes the task for his team but virtually every other team is there now and their grasp of first place is tenuous at best. Here’s who will be joining Nick in the market: HSN’s Brook, Jill, hothead Chad, volleyballer Rachel, dad Michael (who says he is used to this type of market growing up in Taiwan), and Dr. Kat. By the time that Jonathan & Connor get done debating who will do the task (Connor relents and takes the Roadblock), a few of the teams have already racked up at least one sale.
Gary & Mallory are securely in last and are apparently going nowhere fast as their cab is making a horrendous grinding noise. Andie & Jenna are now at the Roadblock with Jenna reluctantly doing it.
Brook proclaimed at the start of the Roadblock that she could easily do this because sales is her job. But the fact that she is a pretty woman selling glasses to primarily men - whom she again kisses on the cheek upon payment - is probably the real reason for her success in this challenge.
Chad’s similar technique is not so effective, so there might be something to Brook’s claim.
Perpetually perky Mallory steps up to the Roadblock for her team and is not hampered by their cab issue. Luckily, only one team is done and that is Brook & Claire, who are now heading to the June 4th area to look for a motorcycle shop.
Immediately after Michael finishes the task in second, Team Glee’s Connor blazes through, thanks to one guy who paid about three times the asking price for a pair of glasses. Chad seems to have finally worn down one girl who was holding out on him and she gives him his last sale.
Brook & Claire get to the motorcycle shop and find a truly unique Detour – Tune In or Check Out. For Tune In, they have to install a crude TV antenna on a marked house and Check Out has the teams loading up coffins that essentially look like parade floats on a cart and taking them to a show room. We are getting quite the cultural lesson this episode as we learn that the coffin’s design determines the future occupant’s occupation or life (i.e. a photographer would get the one shaped like a giant camera…No, I am not joking).
Team HSN decides on Tune In and they quickly find the house for installation. They appear to be almost done when Michael & Kevin show up near the clue box. I say "near" because neither father nor son sees the route marker flag in front of the motorcycle shop. Future Amazing Race teams, ALWAYS look for yellow and red flags when searching for clues. It has ALWAYS been that way (except for one leg that stopped in Vietnam - I think - several seasons ago). Team Glee’s third place standing slips away as Chad & Stephanie get to the Detour in second and pick Tune In, while the volleyballers get the third Detour clue. They are the first team to opt for Check Out and get some help from locals in the pushing department.
Michael & Kevin finally start the Tune In Detour at the house right next door to Chad & Stephanie, who have worked surprisingly drama-free this leg.
Cut to Makola Market and we see Nick still floundering on sunglass sales but Jenna completes it for her mom. That means they leaped from ninth to sixth place in that task. Jill’s performance is making Thomas get an itchy trigger finger on using their Express Pass already. That would be a waste but not my call.
Former last place Mallory finishes the Roadblock in seventh and Jill finally comes through with her last sale in eighth. Jill seemed to have a legitimate concern for giving the people the best thing for their money, which is admirable, but Thomas doesn’t seem to be preoccupied with that because they are there to win their race. Personally, I can see both sides, yet in the heat of the race, I would probably lean to the competitive side.
Nick has to sell one more pair and must deal with the Ghana-equivalent of a Kardashian or Spencer Pratt, who only wants to ham it up for the camera. Of course, she finally gives Team Tat their final sale, which leaves the doctors haggling for their last one. Their lead isn’t huge as Kat finally gets done and must dig out of last place.
Despite being the first ones at the Detour, Team HSN has struggled to install their antenna, but finally get it tuned. Their final clue tells them to head to another market for the Pitstop. The footage shown of the market is more chaotic than the Roadblock, so it would be as simple and spotting Phil in an open field. This will be more like Where’s Waldo: Ghana Edition. Meanwhile, volleyballers Rachel & Katie have made it to the coffin showroom and proven that my inclination to the more straightforward task would have been the right one this leg. They have made up time and still could snatch a first place finish from Team HSN.
The wandering singers of Team Glee finally get to the Detour and follow the crowd by going with Tune In. Michael has proven himself to his son by taking charge and completing the Detour for them. Chad & Stephanie get tuned in next and head for the Pitstop.
After seasons of watching (and loving) this show, we know exactly what it means when they include a cut of a team trying to explain their destination to a cabbie and the cabbie is just not clicking with them. It means that such an edit of Gary & Mallory en route to the Detour, which everyone else found easily, spells doom for them and hope for the last place doctors, unless they get lost too, which is entirely possible.
Jill & Thomas opt for Check Out and select the aforementioned gaudy, camera-shaped coffin and Team Tat makes up a bit of ground by hitting the Detour in seventh place. Too bad, these guys who admittedly aren’t the most intellectual (remember their inability to find the battlements and boats last leg?), will likely have a hard time with this one too.
The race is on (yeah, I went for the easy pun) as Brook & Claire scramble around the market looking for the Pitstop and Phil, but volleyballers Rachel & Katie are also there on the same mission. Team HSN hits the mat first and proclaims they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The other girls are officially second and ecstatic, probably because they haven’t seen anyone else in a while.
Team Glee makes another questionable choice by switching tasks to Check Out when they can’t get their antenna tuned right. This rarely serves anyone well, especially when they were virtually finished with the task and just gave up. You just don’t switch tasks unless you absolutely have to, which I don’t think they did.
Michael & Kevin have risen from starting this leg in seventh to finishing it at the Pitstop in third. This is all due to the work of the old man too. Similarly, Chad & Stephanie leap four spots from eighth in England to fourth in Ghana.
The good news for all of the teams still unable to find the Detour shop is that all three cabbies were lost in the same direction and converge on the same spot to ask for directions. Gary & Mallory and the doctors get on the right track, or backtrack, as the case may be, but Andie & Jenna have lost their momentum.
As they get back from the last commercial break, the show is flying with the last three teams getting to the Detour and the doctors and mom/daughter teams going for Check Out and dad and daughter going with Tune In as Team Tat finishes. Dating Jill & Thomas reach the Pitstop in fifth place.
While these three teams appear to get through the Detour without incident, traffic has become the second equalizer on this leg as five teams are all within minutes of each other and we get another glimpse of crazy Ghana cabs. As Jonathan notes, “These cabs are nuts. But we aren’t complaining as long as we’re not dying.” To which Connor responds, “I am just so proud that I haven’t soiled myself.” So very true, because it is making me a nervous wreck just watching them.
Team Glee pulls up to the market right next to the doctors and delivers on their guess that they can beat the ladies to the mat. Officially Jonathan & Connor are number six and Nat and Kat are number seven. Team Tat has survived another non-stellar performance, this time for Nick’s lack of salesmanship, and hit the Pitstop as number eight.
We know this for sure: the team eliminated will be a parent/child team as Gary & Mallory and Andie & Jenna are the only ones unaccounted for at the pitstop. Phil decides to torture Gary & Mallory with a long silence before letting them know that they are team number nine.
With many, many tears flowing, reunited Andie & Jenna are eliminated. The good news is that even though they are no longer in the race, they will have a couple of weeks being sequestered until the last Pitstop to continue their reunion without cameras in their face because going back to the real world.
Well, I picked Andie & Jenna to be eliminated next week, so I wasn’t too far off the mark.
Next week, we get more hot fun in Africa with heated blow-ups from the so far jovial Nick and what looks like a race-ending heat stroke for Michael. Until then, enjoy your first full week of October.