The Amazing Race: The Transylvania Mania

I’ve given this season’s teams three whole weeks to get a feel for their personalities, and after last night’s Romanian themed go-round, I’m ready to call it: Kisha & Jen and Brad & Victoria are officially less interesting than whole wheat toast. At least Victor helped spice things up by emerging as a control freak drama queen with serious pride issues!

Setting out from Salzburg, Austria, the nine remaining teams hopped a train back to Munich to then catch a flight to Romania: land of Dracula, gypsies, and more aspiring Olympic gymnasts than you can shake a parallel bar at. The airport antics proved to be among the most surprising and dramatic that I have ever seen on TAR as Tammy & Victor saw an early lead dissipate thanks to mechanical failure and an emergency turnaround and Brad & Victoria saw their viability in the race disappear completely when what should have been the first flight to arrive turned into an overnight fog delay in Amsterdam.

Upon arrival, teams made their way to the national gymnastics compound for an amusing spandex clad comedy of errors aka the road block. The basic balance beam, parallel bars, and floor exercise moves the challenge required may have been a cakewalk for an ex-cheerleader and a stuntman with a uniquely low center of gravity, but put Mike White in a leotard and the hilarity creates itself. This challenge was also notable for displaying Victor’s bizarre need to micromanage his sister’s tumbling skills with panicky shouting. Truly a sign of things to come.

After heading into the fabled Transylvania region of the country and retrieving a clue from a Christian cathedral named, I kid you not, The Black Church (only in vampire country) they dashed in near equal numbers to the week’s detour challenges, both of which proved deeply entertaining. In Gypsy Moves, teams including Mike & Mel and Amanda & Kris helped load a horse cart with all of a gypsy family’s belongings (who needs that many rusted out car parts???) to take them to a new encampment. The depictions of gypsy life were all sorts of bizarre, whimsical, and fascinating and I learned that not only do they possess a wonderful sense of rhythm and mad accordion skills, but also that gypsies have found a way to create ANYTHING involving metal and wheels. 3-wheeled bike suspended on wires? Check. Crazy roller skates with giant wheels at the toe and heel? Double check. Gypsies rock.

At the Vampire Remains challenge, teams dragged a coffin down the autumnal hillside to undo some shackles and impale a bunch of “blood”-filled panels to find the pit stop destination. Victor really let his a-hole flag fly during this challenge as he forced poor Tammy to take the wrong path up the hill for what must have been hours, with Tammy desperately trying to convince him of his idiotic wrongness the entire time. I rarely take delight in the humiliation of others, but I definitely had a blast watching Victor cry when forced to admit his mistake. If not for Brad & Victoria’s cataclysmic airport snafu, Tammy & Victor would have literally gone from first to last. But that travel delay proved too much for the bland marrieds to overcome, and I get to tease Victor for at least one more week. Hooray!

Season 14, Episode 3: I’m Not Wearing That Girl’s Leotard (originally aired March 1, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Taking The Fun Out of Dysfunctional by Alana D.

For more on The Amazing Race, click here.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photographs courtesy of CBS