The Amazing Race 13, Episode 7

My Nose Is on Fire

By Kim Hollis and David Mumpower

November 9, 2008

Maybe you ladies shouldn't be so quick to high five each other.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
Ken & Tina are 55 minutes behind the first place team; however, as last place finishers in the previous leg, they will have to perform a task that no one else does. This means that their deficit is much larger than an hour. In a way, making last week a non-elimination round was like pulling a cruel prank on them. They clearly can't stand to be around each other.

Once teams arrive at the first clue block, they must do a Roadblock that has them taking part in a Holi Festival. One team member, must make their way through an Indian version of a paintball tournament. They go a bit more old school here, throwing powder and water on the festival participants. The contestants must find their way to a ladder, where they will have to search from dozens upon dozens of cards to find one that says "The Amazing Race" instead of "Try Again". Just from the images they show of people throwing powder at each other, this looks like it's going to be nasty right from the start.

Starr is the first person to attempt this task. She makes it through the crowd to the ladder with no problem, and we wonder if we've miscalculated the awfulness of this challenge. Once she gets to the top, though, we realize it was a trap. No fewer than seven men start bombarding her with colored powder, making a man-made colored dust bowl. Our asthma hurts just watching this. To her credit, she accomplishes her goal before anyone else arrives.

Their next clue has them traveling through Old Delhi to find the Charity Birds Hospital. This is a haven for injured birds, and they're required to look through the creatures' cages for their next clue. How sanitary.




Advertisement



Before the siblings can leave, Nick performs his dutiful task as Starr's brother and attempts to clean her face from the powdery beating it has absorbed. During the middle of this act of benevolence, some random guy comes up and spikes Nick's face with pink dust. What's the opposite of Ugly American? Obnoxious local?

Kelly & Christy get lost, allowing Toni & Dallas to arrive at the Roadblock in second place. As Dallas starts the challenge, the editing adds some ominous drums. Wait, that's not the editing. There are actually a few psychos loudly banging drums to let the new entrants know they're about to absorb a beating. Right on cue, a tornado of paint dust heads his way. We thought Starr had gotten it bad, but the ante is truly upped on Nick. We don't even know how he can see inside that color cloud. He's like Pigpen with colors surrounding him. To his credit, Dallas finishes quickly and is a good sport about the whole thing.

Eventually, Kelly & Christy find the clue box, and Kelly offers herself up for humiliation. At this moment, she is like a bride leaving her wedding. The onlookers line up to pelt her with paint instead of rice, but the effect is the same. In the span of seven seconds, we count 23 blasts of paint dust thrown at her face. Before she gets near the clue box, she's already had it worse than the other two contestants combined. It's almost like the Holi Festival participants understand who is most deserving of paint molestation. They block her from going to the ladder, and it's so bad that she has to go back to Christy to get some water to clean out her mouth. In sporting vernacular, she's run out of the stadium.


Continued:       1       2       3       4       5

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Friday, April 26, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.