The Scottish play

Amazing Race, Season 22, Episode 10

By Jim Memmott

Edinburgh, Scotland – Bagpipes, kilts, haggis, whiskey, Robert Burns, etc.

Whiskey

All the Scottish stereotypes with the exception of golf and the Loch Ness monster came into play on an episode that narrowed the field by one team, leaving four to go into next week’s two-hour finale.

So let’s sing “Auld Lang Syne” for the eliminated Joey and Meghan, the YouTube stars who didn’t  make the cut, taking the pool’s Team Showers with them.

Throughout the episode, lots went wrong for the cheerful, crowd-pleasing best friends.

For one thing, Meghan had trouble with the bagpipe challenge, even though she once played the trumpet. (“I’ve got a good set of pipes,” she declared.) And she and Joey got U-Turned and had to do an extra challenge.

But the real problem for them came earlier when they got the second flight out of Berlin at the start of the episode. The time lost was never gained back.

Beth and Mona, the Roller Derby moms, were also on that flight and were also U-Turned, thanks to an alliance made by the other remaining three teams long ago. (Alliances are made to be broken, but this one seems to have held. Stay tuned.)

The moms edged out Joey and Meghan for fourth place and survival because a) their “speed bump” challenge, an extra task incurred the week before, wasn’t that hard and b) they proved better at whiskey barrel rolling than the YouTubers.

While the race for fourth supplied most of the drama, there was action at the front.

Max and Katie, the newlyweds from Buffalo, got to the finish line first for the second week in a row, where they were welcomed by a somewhat cheesy Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Speaking of split personalities, Good Max may have switched back to bad Max. Success is going to his head, and he’s beginning to gloat again.

The hockey playing Battaglia brothers took second, thanks in part to their Scottish heritage and their superhuman strength.

Instead of rolling the 200-lb. whiskey barrels up an incline, they picked them

up and carried them on their shoulders. It looked like a clear rules violation, but Phil Keoghan refused to put them in the penalty box. Go figure.

Their would-be girl friends, country singers Caroline and Jennifer, took third, Caroline having had difficulty with the bagpipe challenge. “I’m so sorry but my mouth isn’t working now,” she explained. But she proved to be an ace on haggis despite, or perhaps because of, an annoying Robert

Robert Burns

Burns impersonator who watched her every move.

Overheard:

Katie: We can see the million bucks dangling in front of us. We just have to get there.

Caroline: That’s key when you’re driving a stick, you have to take the frickin' parking brake off.

Max: I’m getting used to the whole skirt thing; what I wore under the kilt will forever remain secret.

Bates: I kept the old undies on.

Meghan (on her bagpipe coach): Like I basically made out with that guy…. We exchanged saliva.

Joey: I still don’t know what haggis is, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.

Mona: We’re not just moms, and we’re not just roller derby girls; were all of that and more.

Joey: I’m so proud of us.

Order of Finish

1) Max and Katie

2) Anthony and Bates

3) Caroline and Jennifer

4) Mona and Beth

5) Joey and Meghan