The Amazing Race 17 Recap
By Daron Aldridge
October 11, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com

I'd have a doctor look at that, Phil.

After two episodes, we likely knew now-eliminated Andie & Jenna as well as they knew each other. But with them off the race, we get to pay attention to those who are left and awaiting instructions in Ghana.

Here’s your departure breakdown:

7:34 a.m. – Team HSN Brook & Claire captured first place last time and leave in that position.
7:35 a.m. – Leaving only a minute later, volleyballers Katie & Rachel (still indistinguishable at this point) weren't just creatively edited to be on HSN’s heels. They actually were.
7:45 a.m. – Father and son Michael & Kevin leave next and Kevin explains that they know they can’t compete physically with the other teams (thanks to dad who’s knocking on 60's door) but they are really in it for the adventure and to see the world together. That is a heart-warming and hopefully genuine sentiment.
7:52 a.m. – Newly removed angry man Chad & his beauty pageant girlfriend Stephanie are next to leave.
7:58 a.m. – Our next team is also our next dating couple Jill & Thomas, and they are quickly followed by Team Glee Jonathan & Connor at 8:01 a.m. and doctors Nat & Kat at 8:02 a.m.
8:04 a.m. – We are loading the fireworks into place with the as promised meltdown by tattooed Nick directly squarely toward equally tattooed girlfriend Vicki.
8:06 a.m. – Father and daughter Gary & Mallory are the caboose but don’t trail by that much since only 32 minutes separates first and last place.

All the teams will be not heading to the airport as is the norm at the start of each leg. Rather they are heading to another part of Ghana and looking for a boxing academy, which Phil explains is the second most popular sport here after soccer. I know it’s the show’s researchers, but I like to think that our fair host is just an abyss of cultural and geographic knowledge.

Team HSN gets to the clue first and it’s a Roadblock. Brook (the non-stop talking blond with the husky voice) eagerly takes the Roadblock. Here was she has to do: Properly tape both hands for boxing, punch a speedbag for one minute straight and then jump rope for another 60 seconds without messing up. This may be one of the simplest tasks ever on the show. This challenge is also when we learn that Claire’s nickname for Brook is Bamar, which I don’t get since she’s from San Diego and not Alabama.

Of course, Brook, aka Morgana the Kissing Bandit, plants one on the cheek of the guy approving her fist wrapping and she is off to the speedbag/excuse to shake her butt on national TV. While this progresses, Chad & Stephanie and the volleyballers get to the Roadblock with Chad and Rachel assuming the duties for their teams. Brook gets her clue and they are off to a supply depot in another part of town where their next clue awaits them.


Dating Jill & Thomas are at the mercy of cabbie who must stop to ask for directions pretty much immediately after hiring him. Both of them are actually appreciative that he had the sense to ask before wasting time driving around aimlessly. Meanwhile Team Glee is doing what Team Glee does best: serenading their driver Samson to drive faster. And Nat & Kat gamble big by pointing out that a good cab can keep in the game but a bad one can lose the race for you. This sounds just like the overconfident fool on Survivor who declares he is 100% safe and is then voted out by the end of Tribal Council.

With just as much foreshadowing, inked-up Nick & Vicki say they need to communicate and we know by now that at some point Nick’s communication will be to berate his teammate.

At the Roadblock, Chad arrogantly starts to do tricks during his jump rope session, which of course backfires and allows Rachel to finish first albeit by only a couple minutes. He actually laughs off the mistake, which means that he may fulfill his promise to not lose his cool anymore.

As they leave, Team Glee’s Connor and son Kevin each step into the ring for their team. Kevin is the first one to have to redo the wrist taping portion. Even if you messed up each of the three sections of this very straightforward task, you wouldn’t be that delayed. It’s just too simple. Thomas, Gary and Vicki are now there and trying to make up ground.

The lone void is Team Rhyme Time (the doctors), who are not only lost but also brilliantly in a jerky way stopped in the middle of the road in front of Chad & Stephanie and Katie & Rachel. Nat has the driver stop so she can get out and ask the others for guidance. Given they don’t have much of a choice, they point her in the right direction. Unfortunately for her, the driver refuses to turn around.

As the teams get through the Roadblock, Gary & Mallory make up the most headway with by moving from ninth to sixth place. With everyone else gone and Team Glee leapfrogging ahead of Team HSN on the way to the next clue, the doctors finally arrive and complete the Roadblock.

Team Glee gets the next clue and they must load of a pair of wheelbarrows with the supplies listed. Illustrating how thorough and put together Jonathan & Connor are, they have no issues with the task but then get a new task on the race – the Pop Quiz. They go to a mock class and when it is time to identify Ghana on a map of Africa, they must do so correctly to proceed. It’s time to either make their fellow Princeton Tigers proud or wish they had told everyone they went to Yale instead. They are several incorrect attempts into the task when Team HSN finally arrives to load up their supplies.

Team Glee is now directed to this leg’s Detour – Bicycle Part or Language Arts. Bicycle Parts requires each team member to roll a bike rim with a stick the length of a soccer field and back. For Language Arts, they must select a list of eight phrases and then decode the correct symbol for each phrase. Finally, they have to find their eight-symbol code on the world’s largest word search that covers the entire side of a building that looks about 100 feet long. The catch is that the decoding legend is on one of the ends of the building adjacent to the word search grid.

Connor & Jonathan go for Language Arts and quickly find the legend. Methodically, they start looking. In all their haste to catch up to the singers, Team HSN fails to get two wheelbarrows as instructed and must go back to the start to retrieve it. With gameplay on full display, Brook & Claire recognize that Michael & Kevin also failed to get a pair of them and shrewdly don’t say anything to them about the mistake. Volleyballers Katie & Rachel, on the other hand, determine they need two wheelbarrows but forget to bring two trowels. So far, we have had four teams at the task and three haven’t done it right the first time. These teams are validating the producers for making a simple task a bit more complicated.

As they are retracing their steps, the remaining teams (save for the doctors who are still in last place) pull up and load up their supplies. It’s too bad for all of them that Team Glee just finished the Detour and is checked in as team number one. This was one quick leg. We have barely reached the 30 minute mark and already have someone done.

Brook & Claire are still in second place and settle into the classroom with wrong guess after wrong guess. The belligerence and insults start flying now with Nick ripping into Vicki for incorrectly saying they needed two bags of cement. Here’s a sample: “You have no common sense at all,” “I don’t give a ---- about ‘I’m sorry,’” and “This is fifth grade reading.” It’s like he’s possessed by spirit of Chad. So much for that light-hearted, self-deprecating humor from the first two legs.

Meanwhile Gary & Mallory are easily pulling themselves up from their last place start this episode and get the supply task right the first time, as well as the Pop Quiz. They opt for Bicycle Parts in the Detour.

Dating duos Jill & Thomas and Chad & Stephanie are now at the Pop Quiz at the same time as HSN and the volleyballers. The edit shows all four teams are done at the same time and opting for Language Arts. Then it gets comically ludicrous. In a case mob mentality, a boneheaded decision by Team HSN to circle the eight children playing nearby results in each of the others doing the same nonsensical thing.

At least, they finally notice the GIGANTIC word search grid but are clueless about how to decode it. Volleyballers Katie & Rachel are the first to recognize the fruitlessness of the task and hop on over to Bicycle Parts, followed by Chad & Stephanie, which leaves Jill & Thomas still aimlessly pillaging kids’ schoolbooks for a decoder and Team HSN floundering. It cracks me up that each of the teams walk right by the decoder legend on their way to switch tasks.

Gary & Mallory quickly conquer the bicycle task and are officially checked in as team number two. These guys may prove my hunch correct and be a formidable team on this race. They just need to avoid the bad cab luck that almost got them knocked out last time. Around this time, we see that Michael & Kevin are taking on the Pop Quiz as the doctors with dad and son going to Language Arts and Nat & Kat going to Bicycle Parts.

Now it’s time to reflect on two polar opposite reactions to the Detour. Nick continues to crack under pressure and tells Vicki that he doesn’t care what the clue says because he can figure this out. Yes, this is the same guy who just read her the riot act for not reading the clue correctly. Out of frustration and failure, Nick hurls insults and bike rims. Then there is the reformed Chad, who notices that the kids playing outside are just like any kid in the world and he admires that they have an honest and pure view of the world. He is either that sensitive or laying it on thick to impress his lady. I will give him the benefit of the doubt because I want to the think he is not the raging a-hole I assumed him to be.

Positivity pays off as Chad & Stephanie get through it and hit the mat as number three, following just a few minutes by Katie & Rachel as number four.

Finally, after wasting enough time to actually create a brand new language, Brook & Claire and Jill & Thomas bail on the word search. The heat and pressure of task has gotten the better of Vicki and her as-yet-unmentioned asthma has flared up. The light bulb of self-reflection turns on above Nick’s head and realizes that he needs to curb his enthusiasm for being a jerk and talk her through her spell.

The physical demands of the task always weigh heavily on Kevin as he knows that switching to the more demanding bicycle option would be taxing for his dad. As a side note, I find it humorous that so many teams are complaining about the 98 degree heat. I guess that spending a lifetime in the Texas heat of about two dozen (or so) days of 100+ degree days every summer makes it where I don’t feel much sympathy for them. The heat complaint is also a bit odd to me because Michael and Kevin are actually from Sugarland, Texas, so this shouldn’t be too much of a shock to their system.

The teams are faring much better on the bicycle parts and Nick is actually proving that you attract more flies with honey than vinegar. They finish up and race Brook & Claire to the mat. The tattooed twosome is number five and Team HSN is number six. Dating Jill & Thomas check in at number seven and the doctors are wandering all over with no luck.

Pushing through the pain and following a visit from the show’s medical staff, dad Michael finishes his last pass on Bicycle Parts and they head to the Pitstop. Thanks to the holy union of creative editing and what is shaping up to be the most directionally challenged (or unlucky) doctors, Nat & Kat narrowly beat Michael & Kevin to the mat.

Ever the sly one, Phil tells the father and son that he is sorry to say they are the last team…..BUT…..this is the first non-elimination leg. This means the race is still on for them, but they are reminded of the impending Speedbump on the next leg. Personally, I am glad that this team was spared elimination, probably because they seem to be a great example of a healthy parent-child relationship.

Two observations about the non-elimination: First, this seemed to show up early this season (I love that the producers don’t follow a set schedule for them) and second, the great thing (for me at least) is that with this being a non-elimination leg, I basically get a bye-week on my prediction. Don’t worry; I can be wrong again next week. Also, The Amazing Race ups the karma and apparently the teams will help fix up the classrooms used for the Pop Quiz task as a chance to pay it back to these students.

Next week, from the heat of Ghana to the snow of the Arctic, The Amazing Race is going to send the racers’ bodies into shock. Also, it appears that Chad’s introspective turn this week was short-lived as his meltdown with Stephanie makes the preview reel. I will vicariously dream of the snow and cold in the upcoming episode over the next seven days.