Amazing Race 15: Episode 7

By Daron Aldridge

November 11, 2009

Bork bork bork!

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The brothers, Meghan and Cheyne, and the Globetrotters are on the first flight. That's a tough break for the others.

They land in Sweden and make a mad dash to buy the tickets on the train. The brothers and Meghan and Cheyne get on the train with only one minute left. The Globetrotters are left waiting for the next one, which they board as Sam and Dan and Meghan and Cheyne are now on the ferry.

At the amusement park, one member of the team gets on Frit Fall (the Swedish version of Six Flags' Superman Tower of Power) and has only 15 seconds at the top to spot a yellow and red arrow pointing them to the next clue before plummeting back to the ground.

Cheyne and Sam get aboard the ride and work together to find the arrow. It appears the brothers aren't too capable of proceeding in the race without the security blanket of another team there to help them.

Almost every season, the blatant product placement of the Travelocity Roaming Gnome rears it pointy hat-wearing head. And this is that episode for season 15. The teams have to play a midway game of ring toss and win a gnome that they must carry with them until they check in; thus ensuring continual super-liminal advertising. Hold on, I am feeling an overwhelming urge to book a vacation, I think I'll visit Travelocity.com. All right, I'm back.




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The brothers and Cheyne and Meghan easily ring a gnome and are heading to a detour. Phil gives us a history lesson that Sweden has two notable historical figures – Alfred Nobel (the guy who invented dynamite and ironically has a peace prize named after him) and the Vikings (which for some reason Phil describes as great crusaders...I think that might be whitewashing the Vikings' history a bit). For Nobel Dynamite, the teams have to build a sandbag wall of a certain height and then detonate dynamite to get their clue. For Viking alphabet, they must decode a message using the stones marked with that alphabet and find a certain Viking for their clue.

If I am on the race, there is not a snowball's chance in the Dubai desert that I would pass up the opportunity make something explode but that's just me and my long-dormant pre-adolescent destructive streak. Both of these first two teams apparently have the same inclinations as they head off to Nobel Dynamite.

Flight has to do the Frit Fall because of a height restriction of 6'4". Big Easy with mocking anger suggests that they should just put in the clue that Big Easy can't do this one because he is the only one over that max height. Flight Time finds it easily and they get their gnome. They decide to go blow some stuff up too.

The second flight lands but the teams quickly get separated on the train as Gary and Matt are left on the platform when Ericka and Brian's train takes off.

On their way to the Nobel Detour, Flight and Easy decide to name their gnome. This conversation has little relevance other than the fact that it allows the producers to give more screen time to the Travelocity mascot. I wonder if they feel dirty about this continual shilling. It doesn't compare to the half dozen product placements that occur in a single episode of The Biggest Loser but it is still undeniable.


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