Stop Horsin' Around!

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


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 2 of The Amazing Race Season 10 (TAR 10), do not read any further!


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The previous season of TAR that we saw here in Australia was the ‘All Stars’ version of the show – which was actually filmed after this season and featured two of the teams we official ‘met’ for the first time last night – which may provide some answers to any Aussie viewers who might have been confused by seeing these particular teams introduce themselves to each other like they’d never met before.

Here are the particulars for this first leg of the Race in last night’s episode:

Leg 2 (People's Republic of China – Mongolia)

* Erenhot (Chinese) (Erlian Train Station)
* Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Flag of Mongolia (Choijin Lama Monastery)
* Terelj (Gorkhi-Terelj National Park), Detour (“Take It Down” or “Fill It Up”)
* Gorkhi (Hotel Mongolia), Roadblock ("Who's ready to aim high?"), Pit Stop (Leg 2)

The Detour for this leg was “Take It Down” or “Fill It Up”. In “Take It Down”, teams had to take down the cover of a yurt, roll it up, and attach it to a camel. In “Fill it Up”, teams had to put four water containers on a cart pulled by a hynik, an ox-like animal indigenous to the area. Then they had to fill them up at a stream, bring them back by their hynik, and fill a barrel to the designated line. The Roadblock was to shoot a flaming arrow and hit a target 160 feet (49m) away. Additional Task: Teams had to put on traditional Mongolian army hats and ride two and a half miles on a horse.

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. Tyler & James
2. Duke & Lauren
3. Peter & Sarah
4. Dustin & Kandice
5. Rob & Kimberly
6. Kellie & Jamie
7. Erwin & Godwin
8. Tom & Terry
9. Lyn & Karlyn
10. David & Mary
11. Vipul & Arti
12. Bilal & Sa’eed


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. Peter & Sarah


Last week: 2
This week: Up two places

Wow, these guys did really well, considering their communication issues and the fact that they changed back and forth between their Detour tasks twice! Not to mention Sarah’s leg thing. Speaking of which, a friend of mine at work today pointed out that Phil's greeting to these two when they arrived at the Pit Stop could have been taken as a nasty swipe of a joke (which is not how Phil would have intended it, it’s fair to say), when he asked them if they’d have expected to be in the lead two legs into the Race. Their hynik was an absolute mad-and-crazy animal, so I wasn’t surprised when they decided to skip back to the other Detour (although couldn’t they have selected a different hynik if they’d wanted to?). It made sense that Sarah didn’t want to stop moving (that’s a normal method of coping – even if it’s a crawl, just keep moving forward), while it also made sense that Peter wanted to ensure Sarah was okay and calm and coping by stopping to talk to her (although in their rush and adrenaline, the ‘talk’ sounded more like snapping than he would have meant it to). So I could understand both sides of the situation, and I’m glad they worked it out and finished well. The fact that they actually finished first was just an added bonus.


2. Tyler & James


Last week: 1
This week: Down one place

These guys looked like they were going to be in trouble, early on. They were taken to the wrong monastery for the show, and ended up losing their initial lead. They then got a flat tyre and couldn’t work out how to use the jack (it worked fine once the helpful local showed them how it was done). But pretty much from there, they took off again – leaving most other teams behind and only being beaten by Peter & Sarah by what appeared to be a narrow margin. But I may be wrong about that. I like these guys and hope they continue to do very well.


3. Duke & Lauren


Last week: 2
This week: Down one place

There’s not much I can say about Duke & Lauren this week, apart from still liking them. Duke’s soft, quiet reassurances that it was okay as they struggled to tie the knots at the Detour were both sweet and sensible. They were also seemingly out in the lead at one point, but goodie-two-shoes Duke obviously didn’t want to get caught speeding, so that meant he allowed a couple of other teams to overtake them.


4. Tom & Terry


Last week: 8
This week: Up four places

If I were still using catchy little nicknames for the teams (like I did in these reviews a few seasons ago, using just the acronyms of my nicknames to reference each team), then I’d have given these guys the moniker ‘Gay Broadway Style (GBS)’. The GBS boys are absolutely hilarious when they’re carrying on, and Tom’s first attempt at shooting the fiery arrow made me laugh out loud (that’s ‘LOL’, to you youngsters reading). Despite their justification on not stopping to help Tyler & James when the latter team had a flat tyre (it’s really interesting to hear how each team justified being so selfish like that; understandable in the Race though it is), there’s not much to dislike about this pair. Yet.


5. Dustin & Kandice


Last week: 4
This week: Down one place

The beauty queens were probably the most ‘robbed’ of the win out of everyone, I’d say. They were the first to finish the Detour (what a team they are!), and Kandice tore through the Roadblock in record time as well. But because they couldn’t find Kandice’s helmet after finishing the Detour, they lost heaps of valuable time where many other teams overtook them. It was hard luck, but they still ended up in the middle of the pack – comfortably within reach of the top spot next week. If watching these girls in the ‘All Stars’ version of the show taught me nothing else, it taught me that Dustin & Kandice are a force to be reckoned with.


6. Rob & Kimberly


Last week: 5
This week: Down one place

I don’t know what to say about these two. Rob’s so helpful and considerate and loving toward Kimberly (like when she fell from her horse and injured her ankle, and he stayed on his horse and lamely assured her that the nomad was fetching her horse for her … yeah, thanks, buddy). But Kimberly ain’t exactly the brightest spark in the fire, either. She qualified her fear of horses by telling us – wide-eyed – that they have minds of their own. Exactly what she expected of the animal kingdom I don’t know. Like I said last week, just because they cheer and hug when things are going well for them, that doesn’t mean their treatment of one another (largely the way Rob treats Kimberly) is in any way acceptable. He’s not Jonathan (from Jonathan & Victoria fame) or Colin (from Colin & Christie fame), but he’s on his way and needs to curb the way he treats (and therefore, by extension, thinks of) the woman he claims to love. It wouldn’t be much of a loss for them to be eliminated soon. Oh yeah, and what’s with Rob’s “decision” to go off-road at some random interval (presumably following a hunch of some description) and tell a questioning Kimberly to hold her tongue because “this is why you’re on the Race with me”. Why’s that, then? To get lost? To look like a pair of d!ckheads? To end up in therapy? Seriously, he’s a complete tosser.


7. David & Mary


Last week: 10
This week: Up three places

This team is the little coalminer and his hen-pecking wife that could! Talk about surmounting obstacles and coming out on top! They were clearly at odds when they were trying to do the Detour, and David almost had more trouble than Tom with the Roadblock’s fiery arrow. But they kept pushing through adversity and surprised themselves with their resourcefulness. They showed good initiative in ‘kidnapping’ a local to take them to the National Park where the Detour was, but they suffered terrible luck when they got bogged in the mud (although why they decided to go off-road at that point anyway is beyond me). Especially heartwarming were the two comments by Mary (wherein she was overawed) about never having known any Asians (“We love you guys to death,” she told Erwin & Godwin – was she being literal??), and never having been around any gay people (“We like ‘em!”). So gorgeous.


8. Erwin & Godwin


Last week: 7
This week: Down one place

I’ve been expecting more of this twosome, to be honest, than we’ve been able to see so far. They struck me last week as a pair of jokers (in a good way), but I’m yet to see them truly impress me with their sense of humour. Maybe it’s just that we don’t have much time for it in an hour’s episode while there are still ten or more teams to cover. If that’s it, then fair enough. I just hope they stay in the Race long enough for the numbers to thin a bit so we can get to know them a bit better. Their water-pistol prank in the airport last week was a fizzer; that’s not the kind of thing I’m thinking of. I’m hoping to hear funny remarks and stuff that keep me smiling. They’ve already showed that they’re not afraid to stop and help people or offer assistance in finding the next location (for karma purposes), so I hope there’s more of that to come.


9. Lyn & Karlyn


Last week: 9
This week: No change

I really don’t care too much for these hypocritical women. They’re quick to pray to Jesus and expect his help when they’re in a jam, but frankly they were the rudest and most un-Christian about driving right on by Tyler & James when the boys had that flat tyre. Have they never heard the story of The Good Samaritan? And is it any wonder, then, that their car didn’t start after the Detour? I’m not sure if that’s God teaching them a lesson, or karma coming back to bite them on their selfish, pessimistic hyniks. I was actually hoping that the cheerleaders had experienced a rare moment of clarity when they turned their car back the other way, because that would have meant we’d be free of Lyn & Karlyn from this point on … but alas, that was too much to expect of The Cheerleaders From Duh.


10. Kellie & Jamie: ELIMINATED!



Last week: 6
This week: Down four places

Stupid girls. Why would Dustin & Kandice “just be chillin’” after completing their Detour task? And why would they look so ashen-faced and stricken? It was no real loss when these two were told they were eliminated. They couldn’t even complete the Roadblock, which they didn’t abort until after it had turned dark and after they had both cried many futile tears. The only thing I’ll miss about these two is their carefully choreographed clapping routines. Oh, wait – no I won’t.


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I’ll be back next Friday with a recap of next Thursday night’s episode. Leave any comments below, agreeing or disagreeing with me as you see fit. And if I’ve forgotten any golden moments, feel free to add them. Cheers!


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