Welcome to Pure Amazing Race

I had a feeling this week of The Amazing Race wouldn’t have a lot of action in it when they spent so much time showing the teams leaving the Pit Stop and getting to the airport - and I was right.

The teams started out in Cambodia and had to travel to Delhi, India. At the airport we learned that Dallas aka The Heat Miser and Starr are crushing on each other. I wonder if the producers hoped for this when they cast the show; if they got together, they’d be team Dallas Starr. Something to look forward to in a future All-Star season, I guess. As if seeing them in their matching headbands this season wasn’t enough.

We also learned that Tina is one bossy woman. By the end of tonight’s episode I got a very clear sense of why Ken cheated on her. He probably was looking for someone who believed in him more and who didn’t constantly question his decisions. It has got to be frustrating going through life like that.

All teams took the same flight to Delhi, so they were all on equal footing heading to the Roadblock. A combination of bad luck, bad taxi drivers, and bad decisions prevented all teams from getting to the Roadblock at the same time, however. I wonder what the deal was with the taxi drivers in India. Do they suck as a rule? Or did they crack under the pressure of having a camera crew riding along with them? Or perhaps they don’t like Americans and got lost on purpose.

At the Roadblock, one “artistic” team member had to paint a tuk-tuk half green to indicate their green status. This task ended up being a lot harder than it seemed and it took teams a long time to complete. Here we saw Terence show his true colors as he did nothing but nag Sarah the entire time. “I need you to go fast here.” You do?? Really? I wonder if the other teams need to go fast here, too? The amount of control Sarah has is incredible; I would have lost it on him I think. And guess who was doing pretty much the same thing to her partner? Tina! She and Terence need to get together. That relationship would be a Deadmatch worth watching.

Team Dandrew pulled out a surprising first-place finish at the Roadblock. Could there be hope for them yet?

At the Detour, teams had to choose between “Launder Money” and “Launder Clothes”. The “Money” task seemed pretty complicated when Phil explained it, but that didn’t stop me from laughing out loud at Kelly & Christy when they declared they were choosing “Launder Clothes” because they “didn’t want to get confused by money”. Basically, the teams had to put certain denominations of Indian rupees around a necklace, ensuring the total was correct, and then wade through an Indian wedding to present the rupee-laden necklace to a groom. Terence & Sarah and Ken & Tina both chose this task.

The clothes laundering task was more straight-forward. Teams had to iron 20 articles of clothing with coal-powered irons provided to them. Nick & Starr continued to dominate the game and showed off their mad clothes-ironing skills. Kelly & Christy and Toni & Dallas also did well here. Team Dandrew, on the other hand, really faltered here. They were both such big babies and were incredibly rude to the Indian woman who was judging whether or not they ironed an article of clothing well enough. I’m ready for them to get off of my TV screen now.

Alas, I’ll have to see Team Dandrew at least one more week. Here’s the finish order for this leg of the race:

1. Nick & Starr - who won a pair of electric cars
2. Kelly & Christy
3. Toni & Dallas
4. Terence & Sarah
5. Andrew & Dan
6. Ken & Tina

Tonight was the first non-elimination leg of the race, so Ken & Tina did not get eliminated. Instead, they will have a Speed Bump on the next leg - a task only they will have to complete in addition to all the other tasks. I felt so bad for Ken during their team interview at the end. You can tell he loves Tina so much and is struggling with his decision about what to do regarding their marriage when this race is over. Unless Tina changes her nasty, domineering ways, I don’t have a lot of hope for them.