The Amazing Race 24: All-Stars - Episode 11

By Daron Aldridge

May 12, 2014

I thought you said nice guys finish first.

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If you thought that Connor, the young, fit cyclist, could breeze through this task, like I assumed, then you would be wrong just like me. Both members of Team Murphy’s Law struggle but the Sad Trombone Award for Overall Ineptness goes to Connor. He even admits that he doesn’t do well with using his feet. Ummm…Aren't you a cyclist? The last time I checked cyclists use their feet and legs pretty much the whole time while racing.

Regardless, the youngster gets shown up by dad, who scores his two goals before the boy gets one. The montage of missed goals from Connor finally concludes with his two successful shots. Even the judge/coach gives the young man a backhanded compliment of “Eventually, yeah?” But with the British accent, it probably comes across as less sarcastic sounding as it could’ve been.

Leo & Jamal are having a devil of a time finding this aqueduct in Wales and pull over at a gas station. As they harass customers for directions, Team Fetch pulls up and Brendon chooses to ask the attendant instead of random people. With directions in hand, the newlyweds drive off and the cousins hop in their car to follow. Mr. Big Brother isn’t too keen on Leo & Jamal just following them to the locations, so he loses them by exiting off the main road. And now the boys are lost and Brendon & Rachel are feeling pretty good.

In a semi-surprising turn, Jennifer & Caroline arrive first at the next destination but only seconds before Team Fetch. It’s time for a Roadblock. The team member has to take a 15 minute ride on a boat along this elevated waterway during which they will work with a dialect coach to learn an eight line poem in Welsh. If they correctly recite it, they get their clue. If not, they have to take another 15 minute ride before their second attempt.




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Caroline takes the task for her team and Brendon does for his. They chug along the water and get a crash course in Welsh, which isn’t too far removed from Old English it seems. This is one task that on paper it could be easy but in reality, this could be a long afternoon of slaughtered poetry. In high school, it took me way more than 15 minutes to memorize the first 18 lines of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Old English but I can still get through the first six lines 20 years later. So, the eliminated team will have that consolation prize.

Connor and Jamal arrive and board their boats and all the teams are getting schooled…Welsh-style. It’s near-impossible to convey how painfully awkward and awful each of them are as they deliver their lines. The most notable for all the wrong reasons is Jamal, who sounds like a man trying to hock up phlegm in slow motion.

Back at the starting point, it seems that all the ill will that infected the last couple legs because of the U-Turn has finally dissipated. David notes that while they wait, they ALL are just hanging out and joking around. This includes outcast Rachel. It’s nice to see that with the end of the Race in sight, the teams understand that there is nothing to be gained from directing so much hate toward one another. It doesn’t have to be a shiny, happy love fest but civility and sportsmanship should be the minimum effort. David has done some damage control in my eyes.


Continued:       1       2       3       4       5

     


 
 

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