Who Went Home on THE AMAZING RACE?

Last week’s season premiere of THE AMAZING RACE certainly didn’t lack drama.  The two hour premiere saw one team eliminated before they even got on a plane.  A non-elimination save in the first leg of the race. An eating challenge. And finally a Philimination. Whew. And you wonder why this show has never lost the Emmy for Outstanding Reality TV.

A new week. New places to be seen. So grab your passport and let’s be on our way.

The first stop for the 10 remaining teams was Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. The teams had to find their way to the city and grab a clue from a dragon puppet theater before making their way to the post office to get the first Detour of this leg of the race.

I know this race is pure chaos, but it’s amazing to me how some teams don’t take the time to really read through the clues.  Mika and Canaan wasted time dancing in front of the dragons rather than reaching in to grab their clues.  Perhaps they were confused, but since no other team did a jig, it seems they were just a little careless.

At the Detour, teams choosing ‘child’s play’ had to transport a ceramic animal from one side of a park to the other side where the children’s park resided.  The other teams had to scan the city streets from above and identify six letters. Once they had all six they had to find a local to help them unscramble the letters to spell the Vietnamese word for ‘independence’.

Flight and Big Easy communicated well and were the first to finish ‘child’s play’. I suppose being teammates every day gives them a one-up on the other racers.  The rest of the teams made it to the park, but with a few slip ups along the way.  Marcy and Ron were the only ones that went for word play. You can never tell with all the editing, but it seems they made it through the challenge relatively unscathed. Again, had they read the clue and asked for help right away rather than trying to figure it out themselves they would have been better off. Despite their apparent timeliness with the task, they were still the last to arrive at the Roadblock.

At the Roadblock, one of the team members had to disassemble a VCR and carefully put all the parts into piles for recycling. The challenge wasn’t difficult as much as it was time consuming.

Flight and Big Easy were the first to arrive and the first ones to complete the Roadblock.  As other teams were still arriving, they were off to The Reunification Palace, the historical site where a North Vietnamese tank crashed through the palace gates and ended the Vietnam War.  The palace served as the Pit Stop for this leg of the race.

The Globetrotters got a little held up trying to find a taxi driver who knew the location of the palace. Assuming they could beat them in a foot race, Flight and Big Easy decided to take a big chance and follow the taxi of the Meghan and Cheyne who finished the Roadblock just minutes after them. It did come down to a foot race, but not even the guys and their long legs could beat Cheyne.  That guy is super fast.  Unfortunately, despite her best effort, Meghan wasn’t able to land on the mat with her partner, and they had to take second place.

As for the other teams, Gary & Matt finished third. Brian and Ericka arrived at the mat a bit after them to take 4th place.

Brothers Sam and Dan were smack in the middle with their 5th place finish. Poker players Maria & Tiffany took 6th place, while Myka and Canaan finished 7th.

One of my favorite teams, Zev and Justin, narrowly beat my least favorite team, Lance & Keri, in a footrace to Phil, to take 8th place. Lance & Keri came in 9th after a very impressive finish at the Roadblock.  Lance smoked it.

And finishing last in the competition was Marcy and Ron.  Unfortunately for them, they were Philiminated in the third ousting of the season. I’ll be honest, they both seemed a little relieved.

After last week’s exciting premiere, I found tonight’s episode a bit lakcluster. The tasks weren’t all that interesting or challenging? I know we are new into the season but I’m hoping to see some truly difficult challenges soon that challenge the physically and the mental dominance of the teams.

Also, I’m a big fan of the challenges that demonstrate some kind of cultural element of the country they were in.  I’m not sure moving the children’s toys, identifying letters or breaking apart VCRs taught me much about the Vietnamese cultural. Yes there were some educational associations, but not as strong as they have been in past seasons.

Our toes are wet, TAR. Let’s crank it up next week.