The Amazing Race Recap
By Daron Aldridge
October 22, 2012
Welcome to week four of The Amazing Race. Last week’s ugliness was rewarded with elimination. It makes me wonder if Ugly Americanism on The Amazing Race is like the mythological hydra. You chop off one head (i.e. Caitlin & Brittany’s elimination) but two more grow back in its place. Unfortunately, most of the remaining teams have the capacity to fill this void. I think the easy money (thus, my vote) is on monster truckers Rob & Kelley.
There is no time like the present, so let’s get the fourth leg under way.
So long, Indonesia. Hello, Bangladesh. Dating divorcees Abbie & Ryan leave the mat just two minutes ahead of Longhorns Trey & Lexi, which is inconsequential, considering that the travel agent bursts their bubbles that the first flight to their destination doesn’t leave for nearly 12 hours.
As the teams huddle onto the plane, substitutes Gary & Will are trying to play it cool about suspecting Rob & Kelley as the team that U-Turned them, which is correct. And Rob in turn has already adopted the blatant lie that it wasn’t them if confronted. But since both of these teams are bottom feeders at the end of each leg, any duplicity is probably for nothing.
As each of the teams deplanes, those very monster truckers appear to a have an excellent idea - visit the cab stand in the airport terminal, instead of trying to muscle their way outside to hail a cab. With that, they nudge their way into first place. Granted, with the quick succession of teams grabbing taxis, Rob & Kelley’s stint in first place is as short-lived as you would expect. To add insult to injury, the cabbie they did end up with promptly got lost and took them to the landfill instead of the auto body repair shop.
The teams are now holding on tight for dear life as they speed through the crowded streets. Who gets to the clue box first? Abbie & Ryan again, but not with as comfortable of a lead as they and I would like for them to have because twins Natalie & Nadiaya are right behind them. The twins mutter to one another that “these two idiots are here first.” I suspected that the twins had good amount of unmerited arrogance but I didn’t realize how full of themselves they really were. For them to call the clear frontrunners of the Race “idiots” means they are as diluted as they are annoying.
The clue reveals this leg’s Roadblock – Fill in the gaps. The team member has to use auto body putty to repair the damaged section of a bus and then take three pairs of seats out for repair. This is one of those tasks that may not be that hard if the task judge isn’t very picky about the quality of their repair work.
Ryan jumps at the chance take the Roadblock and Natalie does so for her team. As they get to work, Beefcake James (dark hair; no ‘y’) takes the task for his team. For some inexplicable reason, all three teams are dismissive of the option of a Fast Forward that was with their Roadblock clue. WHAT?!?! The teams in the first three spots at the beginning of the leg aren’t even entertaining the notion of the Fast Forward. This blows my mind. Abbie rationalizes that they are already at the task, so they should just do it. Clearly, she doesn’t realize that winning the Fast Forward allows them to skip ALL the tasks on this leg.
As for the other two teams, they seem to have adopted the 'follow the leader' mentality and stay because Abbie & Ryan are ready there. This may be the first time ever that no one even attempts the Fast Forward because typically after the first few teams, the middle and back of the pack assume that of one of the leading teams has already claimed the Fast Forward.
Each of the teams starts the Roadblock and leave it to Nadiaya, one of our obnoxious sisters, to make the painfully unfunny and offensive joke that “we are the only brownies” so she must win to represent minorities. Nadiaya laughs at her own “hilarity” and I bristle at the thought of what they will say next.
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