The Amazing Race: Unsupported

At approximately 8:01 p.m. Sunday night, I thought to myself: You know, I’ve been really hard on this show this year.  While it’s true that there are clearly some ninnies (Terence and Sarah), overall there are some people I can certainly root for, like the comic book geeks, Mark and Bill, who will surely stick around for awhile due to their clear fondness for each other, game savvy, and ability to read carefully.

At approximately 8:15 p.m., I thought to myself: well, sh!t.

More on that later.

First, I’ve got to talk about THE question the season so far:  Who’s more bitchy, Starr or Kelly and Christy?  Kelly and Christy almost got my vote early in the episode when they remarked to the camera that their method of comic relief during this race is to not get annoyed with each other, but to get annoyed with other people and then laugh about it with each other.   At first I thought this comment a little too mean girls, until I remembered that if you substitute “marriage” for “race,” you pretty much have the glue that holds me and my husband together.  So I’m left with analyzing sports bra-gate, i.e. Christy’s accusation that Starr pushed her bra of a ledge.  Unfortunately, this incident took place during the teams’ hiatus between legs, and so went undocumented by the cameras.  Moreover, Christy did not say that she saw Starr throw her sports bra off a ledge, only that the sports bra was off the ledge and Starr was in the same room.   Still, I’m left to wonder, is this accusation too ridiculous to be true?  Or is it so specific that it must be true?  And, more importantly, how will Christy’s supportless boobies affect her game?

Starr denied this allegation, but did note that she should be more cognizant during the race about “how you play with the other teams because you don’t want to put a target on your back and you can really piss some people off.”  This doesn’t much make sense to me, because it seems to me that if you’re a good team, you automatically get a target on your back, and you shouldn’t want to be a bad team.  Thus, the only way you would put an unnecessary target on your back is if you’re generally an unlikable person, and I don’t get that vibe from Starr, although I must note that her everyday pre-race make-up routine does appear more elaborate than the one I used on my wedding day.

This leg contained a U-turn which Kelly & Christy planned to use against Nick and Starr, but the Siblings Superior got to the U-turn first, but not after they passed Aja and Ty and told Aja and Ty to U-turn Kelly and Christy should they get to the U-turn before the Divorcees.  Aja and Ty seemed to resent this, and I agree with them that it would have been stupid to get in the middle of the feud.  Yet, Aja did exactly that when she later told the Divorcees about Nick and Starr’s request.  At first, I was completely befuddled by Aja’s decision, until I realized that she had nothing to lose.  Why not let these guys gun for each other?  Keeps any target off Aja and Ty.  Then I realized that I might be giving Aja entirely too much credit . . . she just might like stirring up drama.  Which, as a viewer, I appreciate.

What I don’t appreciate is Nick and Starr’s decision not to U-turn Kelly and Christy themselves.  Because if they had, maybe Mark and Bill would have been spared.  You see, Mark and Bill forgot the eternal Race truth – Reading is Fundamental. (I suppose Yoda must not have stressed this in those Star Wars movies?)  At approximately 8:14, TV-watching time,  Mark and Bill failed to comprehensively read a clue that specifically told them to walk instead of take a cab to their next destination.  This resulted in a 30-minute penalty that led to their elimination.  Sucks!!

In other race news, Aja learned that Ty is a wee bit more competitive than she thought and Tina got to watch Ken get beaten up by cholitas (which I totally thought was a racist term but apparently is not) as part of a wrestling challenge.  Andrew and Dan continue to be less interesting than the team name “Frat Boys” would suggest, and we learn that pedaling a crotchety bike with bad breaks downhill at a high altitude is no joke.  Marisa and Brooke are still blonde, Dallas is seeing his mother in a different light, and Sarah has just figured out all the other teams are in it for themselves.

Oh, and Tina and Ken came in first.  Apparently, the separated couple feel so positive that there’s a correlation between winning consecutive legs of this race and lifelong marital happiness that they will not be divorcing for at least another episode.  Yay?

See you next week!

Season 13, Episode 3: Did You Push My Sports Bra off the Ledge? (originally aired October 12, 2008)

For another take on this episode, check out Ready to Rumble by Paul Secrest.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photographs courtesy of CBS