We All Like Sheep Have Gone Astray

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 2 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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The last TARAS episode we saw here in Australia was the premiere episode of the season, and ended with John Vito & Jill being the last team to reach the Pit Stop and the first team to be eliminated from the All Stars edition of the show. The Pit Stop was located at the top of Mirador Cotopaxi, a mountain in the Cotopaxi National Park, just outside the city of Quito, Ecuador.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the race:

1. Rob & Amber
2. Oswald & Danny
3. Teri & Ian
4. Eric & Danielle
5. Joe & Bill
6. Dustin & Kandice
7. Uchenna & Joyce
8. Charla & Mirna
9. David & Mary
10. Kevin & Drew


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the Pit Stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').



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1. Rob & Amber


Last week: 1
This week: No change

Although it’s Kevin & Drew’s mantra, “Worst to First” certainly applied to Rob & Amber this week. Thanks to this episode’s “airport equaliser”, Rob & Amber (together with Oswald & Danny) were overtaken at Lima Airport thanks to a delayed first flight, which caused them to miss their connecting flight (on which all the other teams were already passengers). Thinking about it, this seems to have been a pretty stupid move. If they’d caught the same flight as everyone else, they wouldn’t have risked missing their connection onto that same flight – but as it was, they risked (and paid the price for) reaching a stop-over airport sooner than the others. I’m not clear what they were hoping to achieve by this, although I guess it was all part of Rob’s “master plan” to create unrest within the other teams. His theory (and I agree with his theory even if I think this example of his methods was a silly mistake) is that if the other teams can’t see Rob & Amber and don’t know where they are, they’re likely to focus on their absence so much that they’ll make pivotal mistakes of their own, due to not paying 100% attention on what they’re doing. I think that’s some smart game play, but due to luck of the draw, they happened to shoot themselves in the foot by missing their connecting flight to Chile. Of course, none of that ended up mattering too much, because once all teams had landed in Chile, Rob & Amber were again one of the first teams to reach the Detour, and were in number one position again when they headed off to the Pit Stop. The rapid turnaround of their fortune was surely enough to make even the most level-headed team steam, although cracks started to show in the Rob & Amber armoury when Rob gave Eric grief about joining a new line at the airport ticket office (apparently – so he claimed later, technically after he’d had time to re-evaluate his outburst and potentially make up a story, bear in mind – purely to incite distrust and anarchy amongst the other teams), Amber came to Eric’s defence, which annoyed Rob because he wasn’t keeping a united front. They’re not as tight a unit as last time! If Rob was being honest about his motives here when he was being interviewed to camera afterwards, I can understand his frustration with Amber ‘breaking ranks’ like that – but we’re seeing a softer side to Amber this time than (perhaps we’ve ever been allowed to see) before. Remember, when Eric was lost and confused in the boardroom Roadblock (having come so close to solving the puzzle a long time previously), Amber confirmed for him that there was an H on a pen … which she really didn’t have to tell him (and if I were in her position, I definitely wouldn’t have said anything). All these points combine to make me wonder if this leg was Rob & Amber’s smartest one so far. Methinks not, but Javatari may disagree with me (and I think it’s likely that he will, especially seeing he tipped them for Smartest Team).




2. Oswald & Danny


Last week: 2
This week: No change

I was disappointed with these guys this week, considering they showed so much promise last week. I even backed them as being this week’s “smartest team”, which they clearly weren’t. We barely saw them, apart from when Danny complained about his fingernails after the Detour, and when Oswald commended him on his ability to change the bolts on the wheel of the giant truck, Danny replied that maybe he was a man in a previous life. We also bore witness to Oswald’s tears as they drove through Moon Valley and saw the sandy dunes. (Okaaaaaaaay.)




3. Joe & Bill


Last week: 5
This week: Up two places

For a couple of old fogies who didn’t read their Detour clue properly (and technically should have been penalised for that, IMHO – the clue said they had to take turns shovelling the dirt, so one of them doing the whole task and then the other adding a token amount on top at the end clearly doesn’t adhere to the rules; it’s possible they’ll be given a time penalty at the start of the next leg), Joe & Bill did very well to finish in 3rd place. There’s not much else to say about them because they barely featured in the episode at all; evidence in itself from the very beginning that they weren’t in any danger of being eliminated.




4. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 4
This week: No change

I’m not sure what Eric was trying to do when he said “Humpty Dumbass” while they waited to open their first clue envelope, but I think he was just killing time by talking about crap – we all do it from time to time, and his just happened to be on camera. Interestingly, Danielle’s biggest role in this episode was to look bewildered at this comment, and then to look nervous with Uchenna while Eric and Joyce were inside the boardroom, trying to complete the Roadblock while all the other teams overtook them. What an amazing set of abilities she brings to the team. Eric should have stayed partnered with Jeremy, his original partner from season nine. The ad for next week looks like – although Danielle has a bigger role to play this time – she doesn’t do Eric any favours by continually doing so poorly in the water tank. But more on that next week (and perhaps the ad is misleading, anyway). When Eric finally did have the boardroom puzzle explained to him, he returned to his old tricks of lying to the other teams who were still struggling with the Roadblock (and who had been helping him earlier), telling them, “I have no idea” as he left the room. Cheeky! (Drew eavesdropping over Mary’s shoulder as she gave her answer to the guard was also cheeky, while Mary opting to say the word out loud while Drew was standing behind her – whereas everyone else had simply pointed to the word, as the clue instructed them to do – was just plain stupid). I still quite like Eric and hope he drags Deadweight Danielle (Aha! The true origin of the 'Double D' nickname has been revealed!) kicking and screaming into one of the top few positions in the coming weeks.




5. Uchenna & Joyce


Last week: 7
This week: Up two places

Joyce really stuffed up big time for Uchenna in this one. Her inability to take notice of the words under the pictures in the boardroom Roadblock was just stupid – and she clearly wasn’t paying any attention to the other teams before they left the room, either! What was she doing?! She was so caught up in her own notepaper that she didn’t even think to watch what everyone else was doing in order to solve the puzzle. I think Uchenna would have been a far better contender at that particular Roadblock, but who can really say. Still, they did well in all to move up the ladder a couple of places from their position in the last leg.




6. Dustin & Kandice


Last week: 6
This week: No change

These girls – although snippy here and (apparently) rude in season ten – know how to run a smart race. They overtook the other teams who were lined up waiting to enter Moon Valley, and the guards on duty waved them through instead of making them wait. So clearly it was not essential to wait. So why were they waiting?!! As far as I could see, the guards were only telling the drivers what they already knew from the clues they’d received in their envelopes, but I guess they weren’t to know that. It might explain why the girls took the wrong turn at that T-intersection, though (but it doesn’t explain why everyone else did the same thing), and is certainly the reason they had to stop and ask someone for directions. All that being said, however, they were exceptionally good at the boardroom Roadblock which seemed to stump almost every other team.




7. Teri & Ian


Last week: 3
This week: Down four places

For such an apparently clever team from last week (and a former cop into the bargain), I was surprised that Teri & Ian did so relatively poorly in this episode. They’re the team that dropped through the ranks the most (going from 3rd place last week to 7th place last night), and Ian’s “observation skills” – particularly for a cop – were pretty darn poor during the boardroom Roadblock. They also proved themselves to be quite unobservant when they finished the Detour and were looking for the marked cars … they got in their taxi and drove in the opposite direction to where they were supposed to go (and to where at least one team was running at the time), wasting a lot of time and falling a few places back in the order of arrival at the Pit Stop.




8. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 8
This week: No change

Whoa, what a blow-out Mirna had at the taxi driver last night! Thrusting her bag into his arms and asking – nay, pleading – with him to lead them to their destination was quite full-on (and after they said last week how well they get along with the locals on the Race, and how much they love that aspect of it!). One of the funniest moments (and definitely when they earned their title as Biggest Argument) was when the two of them started yelling at each other during the Detour: “I NEED A STEPSTOOL!” One of the many teams who turned the wrong way at the T-intersection, these girls were lucky to finish in 8th place, considering they were right at the back of the pack for a fair section of the time during the final part of the leg.




9. David & Mary


Last week: 9
This week: No change

This couple is pretty dumb. Well, maybe that’s a bit harsh, but they certainly don’t pick up on things very easily – and they have some strange ways of making decisions. Not learning from their “buy tickets now, ask airline staff later” approach to booking the wrong flight in last week’s episode, last night Mary instructed David to turn the wrong way at the T-intersection because that direction had “more words” on the street sign. Wait a minute, that’s how you’re determining which way to go?!? You’re a nutbag, woman! As I’ve already pointed out, Mary was also an absolute dill to ‘speak’ the answer to the Roadblock out loud – whether she was aware that anyone was behind her or not (and she clearly had no idea Kevin was hovering over her shoulder just out of sight). The instructions had stated that she should show her answer to the guard (as everybody else did), because clearly if you say it out loud, the other teams will hear it and benefit from your hard work. It was also surprising that Mary should be surprised about other teams playing to win. You can’t make friends on the Race! Surely she knows that by now! Getting upset because your ‘best buddies’ (about whom you’d come into the Race feeling distrustful towards because you’ve seen what they did when they were on the Race the first time) apparently played selfishly (well, derr!) is just plain ridiculous. What were you expecting?! Maybe David & Mary are popular because they’re a road crash waiting to happen (figuratively, not literally – I hope!), or perhaps people just find great humour in their wacky decisions and mistakes. Either way, I think there are a lot more teams on this Race who are smarter and more deserving of being there, so I hope David & Mary are the next ones to go. It was lovely of them to tow Charla & Mirna out of the mud at the start of the leg, but they shouldn’t have thought that meant they’d made solid friends who wouldn’t try to overtake them on their way to the Pit Stop (this was Charla & Mirna’s whole “crime”, incidentally – all they did that earned them the venom of Mary’s anger was to overtake them on the road). Seems to me like someone’s being a little too sensitive!




10. Kevin & Drew: ELIMINATED!


Last week: 10
This week: No change

This was no surprise. From the very first shot of the episode (which was footage of Drew having oxygen administered to him by a medic at the Pit Stop and hearing that he was treated four times during the night for altitude sickness), it was clear that these two were destined to come in last and get eliminated. The fact that Drew slipped on one of his very first steps was also a pretty bad sign of things to come. It was quite amusing that Kevin was able to tow their car out of the mud on his own, and even more hilarious (plus a little scary) that Drew then drove off, dragging Kevin with him on the tow rope. This episode held more and more evidence that Drew appears quite ill – forgetting that his buddy was tied to the car, his constant aches and pains (the fall during the previous leg didn’t really look very bad, after all), their inability to realise they were now driving in a 50km area rather than the 40km area they’d left (a lack of observation that ultimately cost them their position in the Race, due to everyone else overtaking them), and the list goes on. So many teams turned the wrong way at that T-intersection, particularly the five or six teams who decided to follow each other in the wrong direction. It was a bit crazy that no one used a map to determine which way they were supposed to go. Kevin & Drew got a bit snappy with each other, and they seemed a far cry from the wise-cracking, happy-go-lucky guys we first saw five years ago in season one. Friends of mine who never saw season one have heard me promising that Kevin & Drew are funny guys and to give them a chance (after last week’s episode), only to have them prove me wrong – in a BIG way – with their atrocious effort last night. Oh well, at least they can go and get medical help now. The less said about Drew’s little hissy-fit when he was told they’d been eliminated at the Pit Stop, the better for everyone.



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Last week's tips:

First Team: Rob & Amber. Correct!
Last Team: Kevin & Drew. Correct!
Yield? No. Correct!
Fast Forward? No. Correct!
Elimination Week? Yes. Correct!
Biggest Argument: Kevin & Drew. (Wrong) - This was clearly Charla & Mirna.
Smartest Team: Oswald & Danny. (Wrong) - Personally, I reckon it was Dustin & Kandice.


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Next week's tips:

First Team: Rob & Amber.
Last Team: David & Mary.
Yield? No.
Fast Forward? No.
Elimination Week? Yes.
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle.
Smartest Team: Joe & Bill.



If you haven’t already done so, check out Javatari's review of this same episode on his blog (once he's posted it).


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