Love those Amazing Race episode titles. They blow Survivor away on that score.
Of course it was easy to guess the reference after last week's ep, but still fun to watch it play out. My fave character, that sweet, gracious Kris ended up delivering it so innocently. And so like her. The other teams were (understandably) cackling over Jonathan, and she just sweetly offered that constructive thought.
I adore that team.
Especially after this week, when they continued to treat each other wonderfully, and as the other teams complained, we so them marvelling at the local town they were passing through. Of course we could be seeing them edited as the angels, but I choose to believe they really are.
They're so physically at ease with each other. An arm will drape over a shoulder without an apparent thought, a hand will reach out and another will find it . . . They seem like they were born to find each other.
Such a nice antidote to THE HORROR!
(At which point I launch into my post from last week. I waited so long to get it up I thought I'd save it for tonight's renewed interest.)
The most revolting Race moment ever.
Right on the heals of one of the best.
As the sequence began to unfold, I was out of my seat, jumping up and down squealing for joy. The team from hell, Jonathan and wife/victim, were steadily losing ground to the models. The demons bickered like children on the final dash to the finish mat, and crumbled before our eyes in the process. The models worked together, treated each other like human beings, and zipped right by them.
So gratifying to see horrible people go down in flames--especially watching the horrible behavior itself dragging them down.
Of course it would have felt all the better if it was the devil incarnate Jonathan
doing the wailing. But it was still beautiful to see their evil team self-destruct.
But when he actually whacker--or her bag--I was suddenly speechless. And when they finally hit the mat and he continued to berate her as she sobbed . . . Good lord. She's been pretty disgusting too, and she married him and enables him, but nobody deserves that sort of treatment. Not even him.
(We had already seen signs of her enabling--and do we need more evidence than the mere fact that she has remained married to him?--but when she was interviewed at the start of this leg, and brushed it off with a cheerful smile as that's just Jonathan, I wanted to vomit. That woman needs the counseling. Badly. And they better not bring any kids into this world. And if she lets him pull that shit in front of the kids, she's going to have a lot of 'splaining to do when she dies herself.)
Phil handled it perfectly: accepting Jonathan's handshake with a grimace, asking
after Victoria and then telling that asshole he needed to go talk to his wife. I
had a thin hope that he might get to disqualify Jonathan for striking another opponent,
but technically it looked like he shoved her bag rather than her body directly,
so he probably got off on a technicality. Has there been anything quite that revolting
on a previous race?
The preposterous part was that the alleged entreprenuers were disintegrating in
rage because they were falling to second. On an early leg where second is virtually
the same as first, except for the possible bonus prize. If they come unglued over
that triviality, and after only a few weeks of the race, I can't even picture them
vying for the million dollar prize, after more than a month of sleeplessness and
stress.
I can't see them winning working together that way. That's a great comfort. They
probably won't even make the finals, though I imagine they'll get close.
Too bad it was the models who beat them. The same week that that princess reached
a new low insulting the locals, and then topped it by disbaraging them for continuing
to breed. Her man seems like a saint putting up with her, but anybody who let's
racism and eugenics like that go unchallenged has some 'splaining to do of his own.
Luckily, the nicer teams continued working together wonderfully. It was great to
see Kris and Jon inviting Gus and Hera to join them on the mat and linking arms.
Those to are nice to EVERYone they encounter. And respectful of the cultures. It
was great to hear her ask him to say a prayer at the slave house, and watch them
hold hands bow their heads. They may be my favorite team since The Smilies in Race
#2--the young brother/sister team from Texas who had never left the country before,
but made it to the final three. And the grans continued to be a joy to behold. One
last time.
But what's with all the teams having their boys do the soapbox challenge? Many of
them have had the guy do nearly everything. What are they thinking? Especially the
teams out in front? This seemed like an obvious chance to have the physically weaker
member step up. (The wrestlers and the hellboy team have stronger females, and they
made the same mistake by sending her down.) At least the grans thought that through.
Wonderful watching grandma flying down that hill. I love them.
---
Meanwhile, this week's To Be Continued was revolting. So they cut back to three non-elim rounds--and slipped one in early, so we thought we only had one or two left to be pissed about (perhaps going back to one in the 2-hour final), but instead they stick us with this meaningless episode. Arghhhhhh.
Dutton (Penguin) in early 2009. 
