The Amazing Race 13, Episode 1

Bees Are Much Calmer Than All This!

By Reagen Sulewski

October 1, 2008

Can you read? Me neither. This could be a problem.

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Kelly and Christy are another Pretty Girl Team, but with the added twist of both having gone through recent nasty divorces. They don't say why, which leaves us free to speculate. I'll go with "wanted a sex change" and "was a spy for Russia" as the reasons.

Terence and Sarah are in wuuuuv, having just started dating. They seem normal, except for Terence's stupid faux-hawk. Seriously, who is still doing this?

Mark and Bill are upsetting the balance of the universe by being proud of their geekdom. Forty-something ubernerds, their intro video has them playing Guitar Hero and chess, which bodes ill for the physical portions of the race.

Phil gives the signal for the teams to head to their bags and their first clue (there's no word if Mark and Bill roll for initiative), which sends them to Salvador, Brazil. As usual, there's a set pair of flights the teams have to travel on, and it's the usual dash to the airport with the unofficial Roadblock of Not Getting Lost On the Freeway.




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A few early narratives: Nick and Starr plan to mooch off other teams for the entire race – Aja proves to be a pretty canny navigator – cheating is always wrong, but I understand where Ken was coming from – and The Hippies think they are not slow, but are.

Getting to the airport and getting to the right counter are two different things, with some teams just getting in the first line they see instead of finding a marked counter. This doesn't end up costing Aja and Ty, who shed their lead but still get on the first flight. Hopefully for their sake they learn from this. They do seem to have a head on their shoulders as they actually bother to ask which of the two allowed flights arrive first, as opposed to leaving first (always the most important flight question on the race), but in this case, the first is first. Six teams get on the first plane, with five left three hours behind.

However, the speedier flight is delayed a little in Rio, closing the gap a little for the teams behind. In Salvador, the teams have to find a sandwich shop, where they'll receive their next instructions. The teams have to take a traditional vending cart to a local plaza for their next clue. The carts are like the SUVs of the vending world, as they're about six inches wide and four feet high and prone to tipping, making this just a little bit more miserable for the teams. Mark and Bill hit upon the idea of draping their coats over the boxes of candy (mostly made up of something called "Blong" – mm, tasty, tasty Blong) on the cart to stop it from falling off every seven seconds, and this helps them get out to a bit of a lead.

Terence and Tina get the early award for least helpful team members, as Tina falls into passive-aggressive nagging of Ken, while Terence gets so stressed out that he yells at Sarah for talking to locals in Portuguese. Yes, heaven forfend you talk to people in their own language.


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