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'The Amazing Race' - 'They Don't Even Understand Their Own Language' Recap
by Jackie Schnoop, posted May 2nd 2010 11:10PM
(S16E11) Yikes, it's the penultimate episode of 'The Amazing Race' already? Where did the season go? But, thinking back, I barely remember some of the earliest departing teams. I would have predicted that two of the teams in the final four would be here due to their early successes on legs. The other two, not so much.
However, on this show, the final four means little. It's the final three who finish the race, win or lose. If the final four were the criteria, perhaps we'd have a season finale which lasts more than an hour. For a top Emmy-winning reality show, the hour season premiere and hour season finale just doesn't cut it with me. I want more!
Of the four teams remaining, I'm cheering on the cowboy brothers, Jet and Cord. I think I've probably been cheering them on since there were ten teams remaining, but that's beside the point. Although they haven't run a perfect race, they've been a breath of fresh air. I'd rather hear "oh, my gravy" than to see Brent's mouth blurred because of an expletive. The cowboys are running a darned good race and they're taking troubles in stride.
Brent and Caite have been a relatively strong team throughout the season, definitely not due to their cheerful and pleasant dispositions. When Caite said she was out to prove she's not dumb and since she figured out the streets of Shanghai and "everyone can go screw themselves" -- well, that said it all. Maybe we mistook dumbness for being obnoxious? It's probably not easy to recover from making a fool of yourself in front of the world. Caite is proving her point. What's Brent's excuse?
I'm very surprised that both the young brothers, Jordan and Dan, and the cops, Louie and Michael, have made it this far. To give the boys their due, they've really made some smart social moves in the race in addition to performing the legs halfway decently. They have had some luck, too. They should realize that their pronunciation of Chinese places might be a tad off from the locals. The locals do understand their own language when it's spoken correctly. Louie and Michael? What can I say? They're not in great shape and not quite what I expected from cops.
The real thrill of tonight's episode seemed to be roaring through the streets of Shanghai in a cool motorcycle with a sidecar while wearing nifty eye goggles. Nope, no life-threatening plunges or anything like that and the motorcycle ride was just a way to get from Point A to Point B. At least we were back to a single roadblock and detour instead of the two roadblocks we had in the last leg.
The roadblock, while a bit interesting on a cultural level (how many golden Buddhas can you fit in a temple?), was just another counting game. Yawn. I found it more interesting when Brent was looking around outside at the various local folks and what they were doing. My only wish is that Caite wouldn't have been able to get the count right for about another five times.
As for the detour, I'm not sure why everyone always goes for those "needle in a haystack" kind of deals. It seems to me that if you have a good sense of balance, delivering ten orders of dumplings through the marketplace might be a lot quicker. But we'll never know because no one chose that detour. I bet the locals involved felt let down that no one did their part of the big show! Instead, all of the teams looked for stamps (chops), searching for two out of a gazillion stamps and having to pick up each one.
Although they tried to edit for excitement at the pit stop when it seemed to be between Brent/Caite and Jet/Cord, I don't think the teams were quite neck-in-neck, the same for the other two teams later. Alas, Brent and Caite won first place, winning a trip to Spain. She showed me, I guess. Jet and Cord came in second, while Dan and Jordan arrived third.
So there's our final three teams. Louie and Michael had a coin throwing speed bump due to their non-Philimination last week and just didn't have a great leg. They're history now. I'm not surprised. I'm just surprised they weren't gone long ago. How about you?
| No, an hour's fine | |
|---|---|
| 90 minutes would be nice | |
| Two hours with a Q&A session hosted by Phil Keoghan! |
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