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Flashes of brilliance, arguments between teammates, muddy racers, and people with unexpectedly appropriate skills. All combined to make a most excellent episode.
Recap
The Second leg of The Amazing Race 12 opened with each of the remaining 10 teams leaving the pit stop and heading back into Shannon, Ireland to catch a flight to Amsterdam. With all flights having to connect through Dublin, the teams ended up split arriving in Amsterdam with 7 teams arriving on the early flight and 3 teams on the later flight.
A Detour choice between hauling furniture up to a 3 story window or finding two bicycles among thousands led to shuffling of the race order, a poor showing by the men on the knot tying portion of the challenge, and intra-team fireworks with Ronald & Christina. With the Detour completed, it was a short bus ride to the roadblock and an opportunity for various teams to demonstrate their skill (or lack thereof) in vaulting across muddy ditches. Having missed the final bus, Kate & Pat brought up the rear and were eliminated.
Commentary
The disastrous showing by the “strong men” in the furniture lifting detour was quite appalling. I’m not saying that I could necessarily do any better when it comes to tying knots, but it seems as if they managed to cast a whole group of men who never learned how to tie knots, either from their dads or from the Boy Scouts. Don’t embarrass us next time, guys!
Ronald needs to seriously tone down his motivational speaker/salesman gimmick. It’s clear the Christina has had enough of it, and we’re not even 4 days into this race. They’re right that they need to work on their communication, but Ronald has got to learn to work as a team. And teamwork does not involve insisting that your partner make a choice, and then blaming them for making the wrong choice. And it especially doesn’t work if they end up choosing both and you berate them for both choices. I’m willing to give Ronald one more episode before I write him off.
Kynt & Vixsyn aren’t doing to bad, but I have to wonder about Kynt. His first comment upon seeing the Roadblock was that he was a “prissy boy” who doesn’t like to get dirty. Has he never watched this show? That is one of the easiest things to predict about The Amazing Race. There will be a Detour and/or Roadblock during the race that involves one or both of you getting dirty. Usually really dirty. And they often enjoy having more than one such task on the race. If you don’t want to get yourself dirty, then stay at home.
Nicolas & Donald are doing well. But the sight of Donald stripped to us underwear (and further if you believe his response to Phil’s question) was almost too much. I understand that the mud makes you clothes heavy, but there are some things that just shouldn’t be shown on television.
Summary
All told, I really enjoyed this episode. As expected, some teams are becoming favorites, and some are beginning to lose me. But thankfully, there aren’t too many in that latter category. Here’s hoping it stays that way for the rest of the race.
I agree with everything you said. I’m glad they’ve had a couple of great episodes to start the season off. I think you’re one of the few people willing to give Ron another chance. Last week was just too much!!
November 16th, 2007 at 6:24 pmGiving people a second chance is just the way I am. If he keeps up the attitude, I’ll probably end up writing him off though.
November 18th, 2007 at 6:12 pm