This year we start out in Seattle, rainy, dreary Seattle. I'm not complaining because we're watching The Race! Plus it reminds me of another show that starts this week that I can't wait to see. Grey's! We meet all of the teams, too hard to go through them all, but if you need a reminder of who everyone is, take a look at this... http://primetimetvblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/amazing-race-time.html
Phil gives his typical spiel and tells us that this year there'll be new surprises around each bend, and to expect anything. He then sends them on their way. We find out the first destination is China. Yay, China. There are two flights leaving Seattle, United and Korean Air, leaving about a half an hour apart. What I love about this show is the unpredictability. We don't know, the flights could get in with the first one getting in last. Not this time though.
Kentucky
I accidently posted this picture with the rest, but couldn't take it down because that's just too funny.
Traffic slowed a lot of the teams down, but Peter was able to get off the freeway and get around it. Also slowing some people down were the instructions at the airport. They had to drop their car off at the Thrifty parking lot, but some people took that as dropping it off at the car rental area, a whole different part of the airport. I knew something was up since when they showed the car rental area sign, it went into slow motion. Thanks Amazing Race people for pointing that out to me. This is why they have Emmys! Everyone finally made it to the airport, half on one plane, half an another, getting in an hour apart. When they board, they ask if anyone needing special assistance needs to get on the plane first. Sarah uses her leg as an excuse and this pisses off some of the teams, especially Lyn and Karlyn who say she can't say she needs help and run the Iron Man at the same time. I completely agree with this. If you're gonna use it, use it to get OFF the plane, not onto it. We've seen this before, but done in a much better way by Charla, the little person from a few seasons ago. She pulled it out only when it was beneficial, so that all the teams, and us, knew she was just doing it for that. We'll have to see how this plays out later in episodes but I hope she uses it in a good manipulative way.
That's one way to use chopsticks
Once in China though, the first flight was delayed by about twenty minutes, allowing the second flight people to catch up. The first place they had to go to was the "Gold House". There they realized it was a Roadblock. A Roadblock is a challenge that only one team member can do. Man, I love the first episode, it's always so fast, but come to think of it, they're all this fast paced. This Roadblock the person has to be "hungry". Okay, I would totally do it. I'm hungry right now. Although, it turns out the person has to eat between 6-8 fish eyes. They're boiled, at least. They have to pick them out with the chopsticks. Okay, the Korean team is so gonna rule this one. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get all Survivor on you.
The teams start arriving and doing it. They're not having too bad a time with it. Once the teams finish, they have to go to The Forbidden City and pick times for the next morning. 7, 7:15 and 7:30. We're also told there's a surprise waiting there as well. Please let it be Phil, please let it be Phil. On their way to the Gold House, the Miss USA girls have a cab driver that takes them to the wrong place. They waste alot of time going around and trying to find the right place. As the teams arrive at The Forbidden City, it's Vipul and Arti and Bilal and Sa'eed who roll up last. Vipul and Arti pull the second to last tag, and it's Bilal and Sa'eed who pull the last tag, which simply says "Last Team". Uh oh. Suddenly, Phil appears, with the mat. The other teams gather around as Bilal and Sa'eed get to him and Phil tells them that they knew there'd be different twists and turns, and this is one of them, even though it's not a Pit Stop, they're being eliminated from The Race. This is such a sad time, really. These guys seemed really nice. Some of the other teams are even tearing up a bit.
I just love Lauren's eyes in this.
Well, you shouldn't cryver spilled milk. Back to the race. The next morning the groups leave in intervals and make their way by motorcycle and side car to pedicab stand where they'll get their next clue from the manager of the stand. With Peter and Sarah, Sarah tells us that there's hydraulic fluid leaking out of her fake knee. It just makes her running a bit harder. Hey, be thankful you are running. Sorry. She's starting to irritate me.
The first group makes it there and we find out it's a Detour. A Detour's a choice between two tasks. Labor and Leisure. In Labor the teams go lay some bricks in a pattern. In Leisure, they have to go participate in a dance that looks a lot like Thai Chi and you have to balance a ball on a paddle. Most people choose the bricks, which is harder then they look. What the teams take awhile to figure out is that there are grey bricks on the outside they have to position.
Tyler and James come in and immediately figure this out. I thought for sure I'd hate these two, but I kinda like them. They're best friends who met in rehab. After they finish the brick laying, the next clue says to make their way to The Great Wall of China. How exciting. Once there they have to scale a vertical wall to make it to Phil. The Cheerleader team and Tom and Terry decide to do the Leisure instead. The cheerleaders think because they have coordination they'll be able to do it. Never underestimate a Queen though. Tom and Terry finish first and head off to The Great Wall.
Peter and Sarah make it to The Great Wall around the same time as Tyler and James, but unfortunately they go up it the wrong way. The messed up thing about this is Sarah runs up the steps, lots of steps, with Peter encouraging her the whole way, until they realize they went the wrong way. Poor girl. Poor cameraman too, she was flying up those steps. They finally make it to the wall and start climbing. Tyler and James gets there and up and over pretty quickly, making it to the mat first. Phil tells them that they've won $20,000. You can buy a lot of heroine for that price. Sarah struggles going up the wall but the girl has some great upper body strength and pushes her way up. Peter yells how proud he is of her.
Another proud team is Duke and Lauren. Lauren even breaks into tears watching her father complete it. I admit I got a little teary eyed too. The team I'm really worried about is Lyn and Karlyn. Not because they're black, Mark Burnett, but they don't look like they work out. Unfortunately it looks like Vipul and Arti may be eliminated, the other teams race by them at the brick laying. Editing makes it look like some come and leave before they even have the outer grey area layed.
Most of the teams struggle up the wall, and I'm thinking one of them is going to have to really mess up for them to do their normal fancy editing to make me wonder who's going to make it. Then I thought, hey, they've already done an elimination, maybe they won't get eliminated. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and Vipul and Arti were eliminated. All in all a good start, and I can't wait to see what happens, hopefully Sarah's knee will stop leaking hydraulic fluid. Ick.
