The Amazing Race Season 17, Episode 8
By Daron Aldridge
November 15, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
This week’s leg begins like a few others this season with doctors Nat & Kat in first place and ripping into their route info. Say so long to the land of borscht and say hello to Muscat, Oman. Despite it being after 1 a.m., the ladies decide to locate a travel agent that is open and secure tickets before the airport. Don’t be too impressed by this thinking, because within an hour every other team shows up at the same travel agent with one exception…Chad & Stephanie. I guess after the near-elimination experience last time, they were all tuckered out and slept in way past the 2:45 a.m. start time.
(Side note: Nick states in their confessional interview that he really doesn’t like making friends. Well, Nick, I don’t think you will have a problem with that goal because I don’t even see how your girlfriend puts up with your belligerence.)
While they snooze, Nat & Kat and Team HSN Brook & Claire get seats on the first flight to arrive in Oman with the remaining three teams on a flight that arrives about an hour and a half later and wondering aloud where the sleeping beauties are. Cue the shot of their hotel room with what I hope is fake snoring. If not, then Steph must have a killer set of earplugs.
At the one hour and 52 minute late mark, the couple finally wakes up and staggers out the door with a look of hazy sleep and unmistakable regret in their eyes. Both of them think that they are their own worst enemy and have simply self-destructed but not been outright beaten by the others. Way to rationalize your suckitude.
While all the others are waiting at the airport, they desperately try to find a flight that isn’t going to weigh them down for the rest of the leg. Fortunately, the magical travel agent finds one that is set to arrive just ten minutes later. This is sizable break for a team whose own carelessness nearly knocked them out of the race.
After 4,000 plus miles of air travel, the first teams (Nat & Kat and Team HSN) arrive and head to their destination. Unfortunately, any feeling of distance separating them from the back of the pack is now gone. The producers have found another way to level the playing field in the form of teams being given an assigned time to climb up a tower for their clue. Since only two teams will get one of these times (7:30 a.m., 7:45 a.m. and 8 a.m.), the girls pull up a nice piece of concrete on a bridge and get some more rest.
As the second flight lands, their minds are still pondering the mystery of the missing team. Then…poof…Chad & Stephanie come walking toward them in the Oman terminal. I highly doubt any of them were excited to see them because now they don’t have that cushion that there is one severely trailing team.
The taxi cab shuffle ensues with Jill & Thomas hitting the location next (and well ahead of the others) getting the 7:45 a.m. time slot. A rather nondramatic footrace follows with remaining teams, who basically saunter up to the get their times. There appears to be an extreme lack of urgency on their parts. Anyway, Chad & Stephanie will be joining Jill & Thomas atop the tower at 7:45 a.m., which leaves Gary & Mallory and Nick & Vicki vying for last place.
Stephanie acknowledges that they made a huge mistake at the beginning of the leg but they are going to “wipe the slate clean and just move forward.” Thank you for the segue, ma’am, as the sun rises in Oman, we are treated to some non-Race doings.
It’s time for the aforementioned romantic interlude. Chad urges Stephanie to take a walk the next morning, as Chad’s voiceover explains that before coming on the race his stepdad gave him his mother’s wedding ring, so he could propose. He has apparently been carrying it around the entire race looking for the right time and place. The show’s location scouts must have done a good job in Oman as Chad expresses his love for her and drops to a knee. Of course, she says “Yes” and here’s wishing them that more patient and cooperative Chad 2.0 sticks around for the marriage. The producers then get the pleasure of switching their team status from “newly dating” to “engaged.”
Back to the race at hand. The first teams get their clue and are directed to Jebel Shams or the highest mountain in all of Oman. Since only 30 minutes will be separating first from last at this point, Nat & Kat and Team HSN get a move on. The teams have to drive themselves until they get to the mountain base at which time a safety driver will take them to their task.
Here is where the navigation decisions of the teams parallel Robert Frost. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” and one team asks for directions while another just follows a suspiciously vague map – Brook & Claire are the former and Nat & Kat are the latter. It becomes clear quite quickly that local help is the more desirable of the two.
After getting their clues next, the newly engaged and the not (now or probably ever) engaged both opt for asking for help. This situation is ideal for local support because it is unlikely that you will get anyone in this area that couldn’t accurately answer “How do I get to the tallest mountain in your country?”
With the last pair of teams, Nick & Vicki head to a gas station for directions and Gary & Mallory bust open their map. I think that we know where this is heading. At the gas station, Team HSN pulls up behind Vicki as she is getting directions. In what appears out of just instinctive politeness, Vicki points Brook & Claire in the right direction. In what is exactly out of just instinctive rudeness, Nick breaks off another “dumba” toward her for sharing the information. Granted, this is a race and she should have kept the niceness in check but c’mon, Nick, let it go and be happy that you are obviously not dating someone with your abrasive personality.
Chad & Stephanie are the first to reach the mountain and find a Roadblock. The person has to rappel 500 feet and then search for a "magic" lamp containing Aladdin’s ring from the many lamps scattered on a cliffside. Chad takes the task for them. Jill & Thomas are right behind them at the base of the mountain. Surprisingly, Jill wearily chooses to do the task. I am thinking that if you come up to a task that is on a mountain and you are afraid of heights; you might want to put two-and-two together that the task will be somewhat daredevil-y.
On the road again, Gary is 100 percent convinced that Mallory’s map is wrong but keeps following her navigation. I guess a parent’s love really is unconditional.
The lead Chad did have gets slimmer as he finds the lamp but Jill does the same only about five minutes later. They are directed back to Muscat to find a giant stack of books in a roundabout. Who knew that with its novelty structure, the city of Muscat could fit nicely in the U.S. Midwest as a stop between the world’s largest ball of twine and a giant rocking chair?
Gary finally relents on their misguided guidance, as do Nat & Kat who have fallen from first place to being tied for last place.
No Fear Vicki happily steps up for her team as she explains that the only things she is afraid of are bugs. That is why I think that without Nick weighing her down, she would be a strong competitor on the Amazing Race. Sadly, she still has to put with her toxic boyfriend. For Team HSN, Claire suits up. In an attempt to mug for the camera, teammate Brook says she was shocked that Claire would volunteer, complete exaggerated facial expressions. I don’t follow why this is so out of nowhere because this is the same woman who descended the same distance off a bridge in Norway.
The doctors are supposedly now heading in the right direction, as are Gary & Mallory. All it took was a asking a question of a local.
Our engaged leading team gets to the stack of books and it is the Detour. The choices are Water Table and Wedding Table. For Water Table, they have to find a certain well pumping station, fill a truck with water and deliver the water to a home. For Wedding Table, they have to collect the ingredients for a wedding dish, cook and deliver it. That explanation is more time that the show itself gave to Wedding Table task because all the teams rightfully went with Water Table. As has been the case this leg, Jill & Thomas are right behind them.
On Jebel Shams, Claire has caught up to Vicki during the lamp search and they both get their clues. Not so fast, our illustrated friends. There is a flat tire on their car, so it must be time for a string of blurred and censored profanity from Nick. He is a petulant child - that is, if a child has an affinity for getting tattoos and being an overall douchebag to his girlfriend. Taking a breath and a commercial break, they get the tire changed and are off again.
Chad & Stephanie confirm with their water truck driver that he can’t help them find the home address. They are only a few minutes ahead of Jill & Thomas. It is the same case for third and fourth place with Nick & Vicki and Team HSN.
Way back in fifth place are the doctors and Kat does their Roadblock because of a deal they made that she would take any tasks that were height–related. Even farther back in sixth (last) place are a regretful Gary and a sobbing, apologetic Mallory. Short of a complete implosion by the doctors, who have, until this week, been fairly flawless in executing on the race, Gary & Mallory are too far back in the pack to not be last.
As Jill & Thomas search for their delivery house, they get some assistance from a local who says to follow them. Come to find out, the good Samaritan is the cousin of their delivery home owner. It’s either sheer coincidence or a plant by the family that the teams and their cameraman will be there on that day. The non-engaged couple has eked past Chad & Stephanie but not enough to get cocky. The teams are now pointed to the Muttrah Souq market, where they have to find a store to pick up frankincense and then locate a vendor dressed by Ali Baba.
Still mirroring the leaders, Nick & Vicki are only minutes in front of Team HSN at the Water Table task. Wouldn’t you know, Kat is still looking for Aladdin’s lamp and Gary & Mallory have finished their tour of Oman and are at the first task of the leg. That’s right, folks, the daddy/daughter team is the only threat to their own survival in this Race.
Anyway, Kat’s long-suffering search for the ring to complete the Roadblock has concluded and as they drive off, father and daughter show up. I don’t know if she is the queen of the hyperbole or not but Mallory confesses to their safety driver that they had been driving around lost for nine hours!!! That cannot be right but given the exasperation on Gary’s face, it is probably true. Overall, the theme of this leg could be “Passing by” because it seems that for every task one team is barely ahead of the competition and we are treated to many shots of teams zooming past the team right behind them.
At the market, Jill & Thomas are looking to solidify their place on the leader board by finding “Ali Baba” first. It’s off to the pitstop at Al Alam Palace but Chad & Stephanie are still right behind them. In Thomas’s haste he makes the decision to enlist a cabbie to follow. While the audience isn’t told this rule as it is usually called out, he of the arched-eyebrow explains their mistake when he is unable to check them in as first. They are slapped with a Michael & Kevin-worthy one hour penalty. This allows Chad & Stephanie to claim first and a trip (possibly for a honeymoon).
Let’s break down this leg for Chad & Stephanie: Overslept by two hours, got a flight that actually land early, get engaged in Oman, remained in either first or second place from the Roadblock on and benefited from someone else’ mistake in a big way. Not a bad way to spend the day. Oh, and congratulations.
That means that Phil checks in Jill & Thomas next as team number two. They are understandably bummed but I am pleased that Thomas owned up to his mistake and didn’t try to deflect blame onto Jill.
Meanwhile, Brook & Claire and Nick & Vicki are through the Detour and heading to the market. Thanks to Brook driving the wrong way on a one-way street (it was actually quite a mundane incident), Nick & Vicki pass the girls barely but it is enough for them to take third place. Team HSN basically mauls Phil out of joy when they find out they are team number four. Based upon their reaction and that of Team Ink, this leg was so fractured for teams that aside from the one team they were in direct competition with the entire leg, these racers each thought they were much worse off than they were.
It comes as no surprise that the order established after getting the initial clue in Oman is adhered to and Nat & Kat have tumbled from first off the mat to fifth back on the mat. This means that for the second time, one of the teams I pegged to make it to the finals is out – Gary & Mallory. Phil doesn’t even try to fool them or dangle nonelimination in front of them. He just comes right out and says, “You’re eliminated.” Farewell, Miss Kentucky and dad of Miss Kentucky.
From a critical standpoint, I think that this episode was a disappointment. Aside from the engagement and the fact that Oman might be one of the most Race-friendly countries ever chosen as a destination, there was a lack of notable outcomes, tasks or race team dynamics. Simply, it was kind of a boring episode. Sorry, Phil & Friends, but next week looks to rebound with the introduction of the Double U-Turn and the less than welcoming setting of Bangladesh. Vacation is calling me, so David Mumpower and Kim Hollis will be pinch recapping next week’s episode. Happy Thanksgiving (for U.S. readers) and Happy rest of November (non-U.S. readers).