New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

5) Margie & Luke (Mother/Son) – I would have expected some sort of wipeout from Luke by now, knowing his emotional volatility and occasional immaturity. Perhaps because Margie has been insistent on taking the lead for the most part, they’ve managed to do okay. There were some signs of vulnerability last week, particularly during the building of the raft and the stress of the journey on the rough rapids, but they were able to pull through all right mainly on the strength of the fact that they were amongst the first set of teams to arrive in Malaysia, giving them a head start. You know that Luke is going to do something to set them back at some point, though. That might just open the door for…

6) Brendon & Rachel (Big Brother/”Team Fetch”) – It was a tough week for Brendon & Rachel last week. A lot of their troubles were really due to no fault of their own. After starting the leg in first place, they were the only one of the early teams to get caught in traffic, thereby putting them in the back of the pack on the second plane to arrive in Malaysia. During the rafting portion of the challenge, we saw a little bit of Bad Rachel come out, but to his credit Brendon was able to deal with their craft coming apart in a calm, efficient manner. Sure, they were at risk of losing, but we’ve certainly seen the two of them in situations where adversity affected them in a far more negative way. Since it was just one bad leg, we still have to put them ahead of…

7) John & Jessica (Newly Engaged Couple) – Jessica is fine, but John is far too prone to make boneheaded mistakes. Watching him endeavor to put a raft together was actually painful. The problem is, even when Jessica knows he’s wrong, she never challenges him. At some point, this is going to lead to their eventual elimination from the race, but even so I still think they’re better than…

8) Jennifer & Caroline (Country Singers) – Their biggest problem this season is that they don’t have anyone to flirt with, and thus they’re up against it when they find tasks/directions/instructions that are difficult. And they don’t seem willing to stoop to trifling with the Afghanimals (though to Leo & Jamal’s credit, they might not be susceptible this year since they understand that the Ice Girls were actually a liability for them last season). I’m sure the girls thought that it was their coquettish nature that convinced the Cowboys to hand over their Express Pass, but we all know that is not the case. Jen & Caroline were lucky enough to get on that early plane last time, but at some point, they’re either going to get lost, fail to read a clue properly, or align themselves with the wrong team.

The good news for Jennifer & Caroline is that it does look like a meltdown is in the offing for Margie & Luke (well, specifically Luke), and also that they’ve got a decent enough lead on Brendon & Rachel and John & Jessica at the moment that elimination may not be in the cards for them tomorrow night. But evaluating on performance and potential, they’re the team with the least skill remaining.

Daron Aldridge returns to take over the recap this week, which seems timed about properly for a non-elimination, actually. Check in Monday to see how it all played out.

Continued:       1       2