Amazing Race, Season
22, Episode 2
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| Off to the Red Carpet |
French Polynesia -- OK, spoiler alert, etc. If you were watching
the Oscars and haven’t fired up the DVR yet to check out Episode 2 of this
season’s Amazing Race read no
further.
What? Five minutes of the Red Carpet show watching host Kristin
Chenoweth interview herself – “Bradley Cooper, do you remember when you last
saw me” – turned you away from the Awards and toward the race. Well, hello, we
can talk.
So what did you think of that waterlogged 60 minutes
somewhere in the area code for Bora Bora?
Were you shocked when Bates Battaglia of the hockey playing Battaglia Brothers took out his front dentures and talked about flossing with rope?
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| Bates Battaglia |
Hey, couth or uncouth, the icemen came in first, successfully diving for pearls and walking stilts in the sand and doing whatever else natives do out there in the Pearl of the Pacific.
Were you surprised that fear of the water did in Idries
and Jamil, the twin doctors? Of course you weren’t, that fear was
established last week, but it wasn’t pretty to watch the terror take hold.
The guys just didn’t want to dive for oysters (or were they clams?) containing pearls. No, the docs debated, brooded, hesitated, tried,
quit, tried, did it the slowest possible way, switched challenges, succeeded, but lost
so much time that they finished dead last. Phil Keoghan (who’s looking a little
scruffy with what seems to be the start of a beard) sent them home. No mercy.
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| Koda Doell |
So what else caught you off guard and/or delighted you in
Episode 2?
Maybe it was the self-important, cheerfully diabolical John
and Jessica, first last week, third this.
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| Schemers |
You remember that by winning last week they picked up two
Express Passes, those get-out-trouble documents that allow a team to skip a challenge on their way to the finish. They got to keep one to use when needed, but eventually they have to give the other
away.
By the rules they agreed to, the pass should go to Dave and
Cameron, the father-and-son cancer survivors. But Jessica and John aren’t
saying they’re going to hand it over. Rather, they’re calling for some groveling.
“We want the joy of other teams basically sucking up to us,” John explained.
And speaking of Dave and Cameron, what did you think when
Dave ruptured his Achilles tendon just a few steps from the finish line and
second place?
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| Dave and Connor |
He limped in, but will he be able to race some more? On crutches? Never been
done that I can remember. And if he can’t, could Idries and Jamil be allowed
back in? Of course, even on crutches
Dave could outrace Wynona of Team Alabama. Lordy, is she slow.
So what else would you like to chat about?
I bet you were a little taken aback by Winnie’s grammar. “I
think me and Pam just went a little crazy?” No wonder the pair got lost at sea
for a while.
Weren’t YouTube sensations Joey and Meghan an awful lot
easier to tolerate this week than they were last? And how about those roller-derby moms, Beth
and Mona? Tough, resilient, cheerful.
The Buffalo newlyweds, Katie and Max? Does he ever stop
talking, scheming, boasting, falling (well, at least when he’s on stilts). And
when, oh when, are the country singers, Caroline and Jennifer going to sing? Bring it on.
Overheard:
Connor: My dad
and I, we don’t quit, that’s something cancer taught us.
John: This is a race, not an honesty contest.
Wynona: We’re not
as young as the other chicklets.
Bates: Even with
our brains, two are better than one.
Max: I am very
skeptical about pursuing any kind of friendship with them.
Wynona: Chuck’s legs are twice as long as mine; he
works at Walmart and he runs up and down the store.
Order of finish:
1) Anthony and Bates
2) David and Connor
3) Jessica and John
4) Joey and Meghan
5) Chuck and Wynona
6) Beth and Mona
7) Caroline and Jennifer
8) Max and Katie
9) Pamela and Winnie
