The Amazing Race 13, Episode 2

Do You Like American Candy?

By Reagen Sulewski

October 9, 2008

Three minutes later she kneed him in the groin.

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Kelly and Christy finally realize their error once they reach the cab, and resolve to "Read. The. Clue", which seems kind of basic, but there you go.

Mark and Bill reach the park and find the Roadblock first (and are told to have their cabs wait), which tells them to locate their next destination from a clue on the wall in front of them, which stretches out for a hundred feet or so. They're told to embrace the laid back lifestyle to solve their challenge, which really isn't all that helpful, as it turns out. Bill gets the call for his team, trying to search for any hints he might find on the wall, including symbols and a repeating number. There's a big list of destinations on the end and a repeating number 11. He tries the 11th with the waiting clue-giver, which isn't the right one. Going back, he realizes that brute force might get him there faster, which doesn't make this much of a test. In fact, we're not shown any other way to do this, which means this might be the way they intended it. Tina unfortunately sees him doing this, and starts writing down all the place names as well.

After rattling off the list, he gets to the right one, and is given the final clue of the day. The Pit Stop is at children's park across the city, meaning we've got a cab race ahead of us.

Remember two paragraphs ago when Kelly and Christy had supposedly learned their lesson? Yeah, not so much. They've let their taxi go, and as we've seen from Terrance and Sarah's grand adventure, they're not so easy to come by. Screwing up a clue twice in one day should be an instant elimination. Seriously, Phil should just step out and pull them off the leg and send them on the first plane back.

After the cab race to the finish, we've got a footrace, between Ken and Tina and Mark and Bill – guess if the videogame nerds win! Ken and Tina are given a set of offroad vehicles for winning the leg, and it's probably a good thing they're given a prize that's separable. That leaves Mark and Bill in second place.

At this point, the Roadblock turns into the Funniest. Challenge. Ever. Perhaps they were on to something with this "oversimplified" business as it is both revealing of teams and throws some off their games.

Some hit on the brute force idea, while others team up, or pretend to. Nick goes around making "alliances" with other teams to share info, but once he realizes they can't just give him the info, pushes them aside. Yeah, that won't come back to haunt you.




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Kelly and Christy are third "away" from the Roadblock, but are now stuck without a cab. They're passed by Aja and Ty, Terrance and Sara and Toni and Dallas (who have been basically invisible this leg).

The hope is that they can find one before all of the soopergeniuses left at the wall (Nick, Anthony, Andrew and Marisa) can puzzle out the Roadblock. Anthony is frustrated by all the words, Andrew is barely making the connection between this wall and the race, Nick has run out of smart people to mooch off and Marisa... well, Marisa offers the helpful comment that she thinks "it's something on this wall", which immediately vaults to the top of the list of the dumbest things anyone's said on the race.

At the mat, Terrance and Sarah squeeze in for third, just ahead of Aja and Ty and Toni and Dallas, making a case for both being as irritating as possible and being quietly competent.

Seconds after Nick promises to share info with Andrew, he figures out the Roadblock and skedaddles away as fast as he can. I think every team will actively try and screw these guys over now. Meanwhile Kelly and Christy figure out their cab was waiting for them the whole time. There seems to be no middle to their intelligence.

We're down to our last three teams, and our poor suffering clue giver must now listen to all these destinations read off to him, poorly, in broken Portuguese. It starts to wear on him a bit and he even finishes off a few for the racer, just to end his misery a little faster. Notably, Marisa doesn't even get close to the actual destination pronunciation, but he gives it to her anyway. This prompts her to boast, "South Carolina girls are not stupid!" I'm afraid I'm going to require more evidence.

Nick and Starr and Kelly and Christy become teams six and seven, leaving one of three teams to be deservedly eliminated. Andrew and Dan and Marisa and Brooke at least know to hustle, and find their way to the mat in eighth and ninth, though it's not looking good for these groups. Anthony and Stephanie are bid adieu, and I kind of wonder if this isn't just cover for Anthony not wanting to get married. But hey, he says, at least he has his looks. Ummm....

BOP is doing a link exchange with our good friends at Buddy TV this season. For more The Amazing Race info, visit their site.


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