By Jim Memmott
Amazing Race, Season 23, Episode 4
Lisbon, Portugal–Svolvaer, Norway —Veteran race watchers could
see it coming a mile away.
 |
| Brandon and Adam |
Only one team had arrived at the pit stop with just a few minutes to go.
“You’re still racing,” host Phil Koeghan told hippies
Brandon and Adam, the first arrivals, sending them on their way to finish the episode.
 |
| Steven Van Zandt |
And a fairly cheerful land, as well, which may come as a
surprise to fans of Jo Nesbo, the gloomy Norwegian crime novelist, and to devotees of Lilyhammer, the Steven Van Zandt
Netflix series featuring an American monster hiding out in the cold and snowy former Winter
Olympics local.
Whatever, it turns out that life above the Arctic Circle was
made for the bearded guys from Northern California, so much so that the episode
was titled, “Beards in the Wind.”
“They (Brandon and Adam) eat gross stuff, and they do gross stuff all the
time,” explained Marie, the more acid-tongued of the team of fighting exes, Marie
and Tim.
There was no dining on gross stuff (why not?), but the first
smelly detour offered the choice of skewing, transporting and hanging 60 cod
heads or fetching some dried cod and hammering it into cod jerky, a Norwegian
delicacy.
 |
| Liquid cod jerky |
The next challenge, which involved bungee jumping off an
80-foot high bridge and then dropping into ice-cold water, proved to be child’s
play for Brandon.
“This was made for him; he can swim like a seal, like a
shark,” Adam said.
After the ice bath they were off to a bit of product
placement, as the guys had to chain a boulder to a Ford Ranger pickup, tow the
rock a few feet and then find the next clue and a bag of coins buried in the
spot where the rock once was.
“It’s just second nature hooking up trailers, working with
chains,” Adam said before they made quick work of the challenge.
 |
| Product placement |
So that’s where we left them, bouncy, cheerful, not all that
full of themselves, well ahead of the other competitors.
Or maybe not that far ahead, you never know what the Race editors have done to build
suspense.
We do know that Marie and Tim are driving around without a
clue, having overlooked it as they finished up the rock pull.
And Nicole, of the ER doctors team of Nicole
and Travis, has offered to help Marie and Tim in exchange for one of the express
passes they won on the first episode.
 |
| Nice guys: Tim and Danny |
Marie is mean; the Okies, Tim and Danny, are nice, even willing
to help the LA Ice Crew’s Ally and Ashley find reverse on their Ranger. (But
really, shouldn’t all competitors practice on a standard transmission before the
Race begins?)
In other news, the dating couple, Jason and Amy, are getting
along just fine – she even goes out her way to praise him.
The Afghanimals, Leo and Jamal, had a rough outing, stymied,
in part, by a bad wheelbarrow.
And Kim and Nicky, the baseball wives, stand eighth of eight
teams at this moment, having had trouble with the cod-pounding Detour. (To
their credit, they haven’t turned on each other.)
 |
| Earlier Double U |
Of course, this episode is only half over. And everything
could be scrambled after next week’s dreaded Double U-Turn. Skoal.
Overheard:
Travis: I’ve had
the pleasant surprise of seeing that Nicole is even tougher than I thought of
her after all of these years.
Ally: We’ve never
been somewhere were the sun never sunk. (Pause.) Set. The sun never set.
Adam: Who doesn’t
want a mustache?
Adam: Marie is a
little manipulative to begin with.
Marie: Are you
done? Did you puke? Did you faint?
Brandon: Let’s
get some beards in the wind.
Marie: Nobody is
in charge of this operation.
Where they stood:
1) Brandon and Adam (only team to finish first let)
2) Jason and Amy
2) Jason and Amy
3) Nicole and Travis
4) Leo and Jamal
5) Tim and Marie
6) Tim and Danny
7) Ally and Ashley
8) Nicky and Kim
