Losers Bite The Bullet on The Amazing Race

The best thing about The Amazing Race continues to be the locales. I’m frequently tempted to just mute the television so that I can enjoy the scenery and not have to listen to the obnoxious twits that dominate the “reality.”

The teams take to the Persian Gulf this week, and first up they’re scrambling to find the Burj Dubai, a structure we learn will eventually be the tallest building in the world, dethroning the Taipei Financial Center I assume. Once there, they have to find a fountain and then ride an elevator to the 124^th floor, at which point they receive their next clue.

There are two shuttles leaving for Burj Dubai, leaving fifteen minutes apart. The first four teams—Maria & Tiffany, Brian & Ericka (who continue to consistently remind everyone that they’re an interracial couple, just in case it wasn’t clear already), Sam & Dan and Meghan & Cheyne—leave on the first shuttle, while Mika & Canaan (duct tape them please), Lance & Keri (boil them in molten lava please), Flight Time and Big Easy (make them use real names please), and Gary & Matt bring up the rear.

Everyone arrives. Acrophobic wimp Mika starts to have a conniption, which I must admit was a little funny to watch. The next clue: the teams must head to the Dubai Mall, where they get cars and race to the Dubai Conservation Reserve. 4x4s await them there to take them to the next clue. It’s all kinda like See Spot Run, except instead of Spot you have mostly idiots. See Idiot#1 run. See Idiot #2 whine. See Idiot #3 whine while running. Everyone just goes from A to B to C. It gets rather monotonous, at least for me.

At this point in the show, we come across something called the Fast Forward, a challenge that if completed means the team can skip ahead in the race. The challenge: complete a lap of the Dubai Autodrome in less than 45 seconds. Only Meghan and Cheyne decide to try it. I would have thought the Harlem Globetrotter guys who insist on not using real names would have gone for it.

Concurrently, the rest of the teams (from the first group) drive across the desert and encounter their Roadblock, which involves one member taking a bag and looking for water stored in urns. When the bag is filled, they give it to a guy and he gives them their next clue. Obnoxious blowhards Lance and Keri bring up the rear this whole time. They just can’t get it together and watching that is the highlight of the show. And seeing what happens to them is the reason to keep watching through the end. The only reason.

For another take on this episode, check out Cold Karma by Alana D.

Season 15, Episode 4: I’m Like Ricky Bobby (originally aired October 18, 2009)

For more on The Amazing Race, click here.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photographs courtesy of CBS