The Amazing Race Recap
By Daron Aldridge
October 29, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
As I mentioned in this week’s rankings, I am pegging this week as the first non-elimination leg, so this whole episode is possibly an exercise in wheel-spinning. Let’s get this under way and see if I am correct and how badly Natalie & Nadiaya will annoy me.
The show immediately addresses the family situation hinted at in the preview for James of Headbangers’ Ball (James & Abba). Two hours before they get to leave in first place, thanks to the Fast Forward, James finds out that the cancer diagnosis for his father has come back Stage 4 with no chance of remission. Instead of just bailing on the race (which would have been completely understandable), James says that he will use his dad as motivation to win the race.
At 7:30, James & Abba rip into their clue and are being pointed to the Jatrabari Market for the next clue in the hands of an eggplant vendor. As the rocker and the lawyer are looking for the market, about two hours after the leaders, dating divorcees Abbie & Ryan and nails-on-a-chalkboard twins Natalie & Nadiaya leave. Ryan explains that aside from the large amount of prize money (remember they are still playing for $2 million), he wants the distinction of being the most dominant team ever. But they have a long way to go to match the record eight wins. It’s good to have goals and all but you’re just getting greedy now, Ryan.
James & Abba are at the next clue box and it is the Roadblock. Here’s what they have to do: build a balance scale and then measure out a stack of wood that is equal to the weight of four stones. On the last leg during their search for rats Fast Forward, Abbie tweaked his knee, so James happily takes this Roadblock for their team.
On his first attempt at assembling the scale, James explains that the three bamboo pole structure of the scale is very much like what we often had to use to build things in the Boy Scouts but with a devilish smirk, he adds the disclaimer that during the ‘80s (and White Lion’s heyday), he was no Boy Scout. Oh those randy ‘80s.
Back to the task, his assembly gets shot down by the judge on the first time because he used the wrong ropes to secure the poles together. His overlooking the small, lashing ropes hanging above where the judge is sitting gives divorcees and twins the chance to narrow the gap between them. These two teams are now at the Roadblock clue box. That means there appears to be an hour travel time between the Pit Stop starting point and Roadblock or in other words, a heck of a long cab ride in hot, sweaty Bangladesh.
The twins give us a bit of a language lesson. They urge their cabbie to beat the “goras” (Abbie & Ryan). What is a “gora”? Natalie & Nadiaya say it means “bad white people” but then try to deflect the possible connotations of the word by saying, “it’s not derogatory. It means the color white…kinda.” Basically, it’s the girls trying to rationalize the use of potentially inflammatory language to get a slight advantage. They are even more despicable in my opinion now. Meanwhile in his cab, the heat and chaos of traffic seems to be pushing Ryan to the brink of an anxiety attack.
As both teams arrive at the clue box, Team Beekman Josh & Brent, monster truckers Rob & Kelley and Team Beefcake Jaymes & James are leaving the mat within a span of 13 minutes.
Metal James has perfected his scale at this point and finally gets the rocks to balance with enough wood to get their clue before any of the other teams arrive at the task. The clue takes them immediately into the Detour. This leg is moving at quite a clip and one team hasn’t even left the mat yet. This fact gives me more justification for thinking it will be a non-elimination leg.
Anyway, this Detour is a choice between Straw Dogs or Bamboo Jungle. Straw Dogs has teams untangling 20 bundles of jute and taking it to the machines that will then manufacture it into bags. At the end of the production line, they will get their clue, which appears to be the picture of their next destination on one of the straw bags. For Bamboo Jungle, they have to transport 40 pieces bamboo from a marked area using a bike rickshaw across town to a construction site. When all the pieces are delivered, they are given a section of bamboo with the same picture on it.
Headbangers’ Ball decides to go with Bamboo, but I am not sure that the more physically demanding task it the right choice for a team that has intentionally avoiding putting Abba’s knee in such situations. Once again (and much to Ryan’s dismay), the divorcees and the twins are side-by-side at the Roadblock as Abbie and Nadiaya are the chosen team members. The role of the viewing audience this evening will be played by Ryan, who asks Natalie if she will be yelling “Twinny” the entire time because if so, he will go get his earplugs. Then Natalie has the disillusionment to label Ryan “rude and obnoxious.” She must be like the kids who want to be singers and their parents never have the honest conversation with them that they are not very good at singing. Clearly, no one ever told these girls that their constant, high volume “encouragement” isn’t endearing but annoying.
Back to the starting line, Team Beefcake and monster truckers have loaded up in cabs and Longhorns Trey & Lexi are the last ones to leave the mat about 20 minutes after the strippers…I mean…performers. While the Longhorns correctly believe they have a lot of ground to make up, there is less ground than they initially thought thanks to Team Beekman being completely clueless about the location of the marked taxi cab area. Josh & Brent are standing slack-jawed and overwhelmed in the middle of the street.
James & Abba have arrived at the Bamboo market for their Detour task and quickly inspect the display. As they begin searching for their bamboo, Abba notes that the clue says that they are to only collect bamboo from the marked area. This little bit of instruction has “screw-up” written all over it for at least one team. Which one? Based upon the teams this season, it could be any of them.
At the Roadblock, Nadiaya is making much better progress than Abbie. Typing that sentence is more painful than you can imagine for me but she deserves credit for a job well-done. She has completely assembled her scale and is working on the getting the rocks and wood to balance. Abbie has to correct her assembly that got a thumbs down from the judge. The next two teams (Jaymes & James and Rob & Kelley) have received their clue at the market pointing them to the Roadblock. Side note: This week, it finally dawned on me, who monster trucker Rob reminds me of – Sloth of The Goonies. He’s not deformed but his tuft of blond hair on the top of his head and exposed scalp all around it are a perfect match for Sloth.
The week that I finally decide to give them props and a third place power ranking, Team Beekman repays me by stalling out at the starting point. As they get into a cab, they are now tied for last with the Longhorns.
James & Abba have completely loaded up their rickshaw and are about to heading out, which is a good thing for their position because the twins are now done with the Roadblock and have selected Bamboo Jungle as well. I can see that if Bamboo is too arduous, that this may be the leg that we see Natalie & Nadiaya pull out the Express Pass and skip on over to Phil. Before they leave the Roadblock, though, Kelley is there and starting to tackle her own Roadblock. Joining her is a Jaymes from Team Beefcake.
While Abbie gets approved on the assembly, she has to take a step back to adjust the length of the scale ropes because they are nearly sitting on the ground. The Roadblock’s clue of “This ain’t heavy, it’s a Roadblock.” has completely fooled at least two team because both Ryan and Rob express regret that they didn’t do this more physically demanding task.
Team Beekman and Longhorns are at the market and heading to the Roadblock now. We’ll see if Trey & Lexi pay enough attention to the Roadblock in progress and decide to let Trey take it on. That may allow them to make up more ground.
Fortunately for James & Abba, they receive some unsolicited assistance from locals who help guide their loaded up rickshaw to its destination. I suspect it was done out of self-preservation because of the footage of them nearly taking out several people with the longer bamboo poles.
Abbie gets her approval and clue as Brent and Trey step up to the Roadblock for their teams. With the Detour clue in hand, the divorcees opt for Straw Dogs. Of the remaining teams at the Roadblock, we have Jaymes, Kelley, Brent and Trey. Even though Jaymes is denied any motivation or cheers from the observers, he is the first one of this group finished putting them in fourth place for now and off to Bamboo. This is clearly not the same type of crowd that Team Beefcake is used to getting worked into a lather. But I have to admit that Team Beefcake is growing on me more and is more entertaining than grating.
Natalie & Nadiaya are now at the Bamboo Jungle task as Headbangers’ Ball has arrived at the construction delivery site. With the seal of approval from the foreman, they get their cryptic bamboo shoot picture clue. According to a Phil voiceover, they have to figure out that the Pit Stop is Lok Shilpa Jadughar, a museum. The guys load up in a cab with a driver who seems confident that he knows where it is.
Over at the Detour, the twins are apparently on a mission to administer as many bamboo-related concussions as possible to locals and even their own cameraman. While they struggle, Abbie & Ryan are attacking Straw Dogs with gusto despite the heat in the factory. Leading up to the factory, Ryan offers up “We have it so good at home.” I take this as more appreciation than an Ernie & Cindy-like belittling of another culture. Ryan seems to be legitimately grateful for the lifestyle he has back home.
At the Roadblock, Trey is moving on the weighing portion but Brent is oblivious to the fact that he has the wrong pin position on the scale. This is just the type of minor detail on this complicated-looking set-up that is going to be easily overlooked and a source of frustrated outbursts when they are the last team at the Roadblock.
Kelley has officially passed up Brent as well and she & Rob leave the Roadblock just minutes after Trey & Lexi head off to Bamboo Jungle. Let the anger begin to boil over for Brent.
James & Abba may not have used a Fast Forward this leg but they still reaped the rewards of it by never allowing the other teams to whittle away at their lead. They are checked in as team number one and did not encounter their fellow racers once this leg, which is exactly the way they seem to like racing.
At the jute mill, Abbie & Ryan didn’t sufficiently untangle the jute, so they have to redo it. Their mistake it seems is with the fact that they were just hitting the jute five times like the demonstration but it wasn’t the number of times that should’ve been their focus but how the jute looked when it was done.
Team Beefcake is at Bamboo now and the twins are still on the scene making slow progress. They both are quickly joined by the Longhorns and monster truckers. And we are treated to more of the same: racers hitting people with bamboo.
Still at the Roadblock, Brent has unassembled and reassembled the scale but continues to put the pin in the wrong position. This may be the unrolling of the haystacks from several seasons ago all over again if he doesn’t collect himself and closely examine how the others finished theirs.
Despite being the only team at the Straw Dogs, Abbie & Ryan seem to rightly be focused on just plowing through the task and not on where the others might be. They get approval on their jute bundles and complete the rest of the Detour. With the picture clue passed off to the cabbie, they are in second place at the moment and heading to Phil to make it official.
Back at the Roadblock (or should I say…STILL at the Roadblock), Brent fails another scale inspection. At this point, the mental and physical fatigue is bearing down heavily on him. Based upon the editing, all Brent needed was a commercial break because we come back and he has recuperated and seen the error of his weighs (see what I did there…puns are fun).
While he finishes that task, Abbie & Ryan finish the leg in second place. Ryan is disappointed because he did the math and knew that they needed to claim first on this leg to stand a chance a beating last season’s Dave & Rachel for the record number of first place finishes. He acknowledges that the pressure to meet that goal was unfair to push onto Abbie and apologizes. He is a much more stable and rational person than I pegged him for at the beginning.
The twins are the next to leave the Detour and get to construction site. Surprisingly, Rob & Kelley pass Team Beefcake, who are having issues with securing all their bamboo. In an unfortunate case of willing something into existence, Beefcake James (brown hair, no ‘y’) tells the camera that they are just making sure that they get it right the first time so they don’t have to return. As they leave, the camera pans down to three poles of theirs laying on the ground. Oopsie.
But Trey & Lexi don’t get the same slo-mo treatment so theirs must be correct. Team Beekman arrives at Bamboo to see the others leave. As they point out, they may be last but they won’t quit. They begin to slowly make their way through the Bamboo Jungle task. Rob & Kelley have successfully delivered their bamboo and received their clue.
As the twins are checked in as number three, I have come to the realization that these teams are short-sighted about how the Race works. Natalie & Nadiaya are disappointed that they weren’t first. Do they not realize that each of these legs is only a battle but hitting the final mat in first place is winning the war? Prizes are nice but if I was on the race, I would be thrilled with a second or third place finish on a middle leg because it meant that I was still on the race and in a nice position to claim first.
As expected, Team Beefcake is denied their final clue because of their bamboo shortage. As Jaymes is collapsed in a fatigued heap on the sand, the Longhorns show up to deliver their complete load of bamboo. They vow not to quit but take a breather to regain some strength.
On the mat with Phil now is team number four: Rob & Kelley. They have rebounded nicely this leg, I suspect in part to the brute strength needed for the Detour and Rob filled that void. As Team Beefcake retrieves their missed bamboo, Trey & Lexi are checked in as team number five.
It’s time for editing tricks to make sure we think that Teams Beefcake and Beekman are neck-and-neck. In actuality, we know that Jayme & James have enough of a lead for them to hear the magic words from Phil that are still on the race as team number six.
The final question is elimination or non-elimination. The answer is, as expected, non-elimination. So Team Beekman now faces overcoming the time deficit between them and the others, as well as the Speed Bump task that only they have to do.
See you in a week. Have a great one.