Sunday, March 9, 2014

Down the river, sometimes with a paddle

By Jim Memmott

Amazing Race, Season 24, Episode 3

China/Sabah, Malaysian Borneo – Things heated up, on, near or in the water, in this, the third segment of an All-Star season featuring duos from races past.

Bad news first:

They may be veterans, but in the end it was a rookie mistake that sent YouTube sensations Joey and Meghan home. Could you believe it? They didn’t hold their taxicab early in the race and went on to lose valuable time hunting for another ride.

The duo was chipper after being eliminated, Meghan’s only regret being that they had let down their fans (not to mention their pool sponsors, Team Bushnell).

“Fans?” one viewer asked, prompting a Google search that shows JoeyGraceffa (one word) to have 3,136,256 subscribers.

Strawburry17, Meghan Camarena’s nom de Tube, has 640,393 subscribers.

In other words, they’re the real deal.

Dave and Connor
So, too are Dave and Connor. The father-and-son team took first on an episode that featured Dave rappelling down a waterfall and both of them making a raft and floating it down a river.

Along the way, they overshot a checkpoint and had to go back on foot to receive the next clue, lugging about 50 pounds of fruit and vegetables.

Almost obsessively, Dave kept contrasting their healthy showing this time around to their bad luck on Season 22 when they had to drop out early after he ruptured his Achilles tendon.

The Cowboys, Cord and Jet, were not that far behind in second place even though Cord had to rappel the 10-story waterfall twice because he zoomed by a clue the first time down. (The brothers commit about one serious error an episode but they always make up the lost time.)
Raft design 

The Afghanimals, Leo and Jamal, came in third. In an ah-ha moment, they decided that they were going to play nice this season rather than be “sneaky and manipulative” as they were in Season 23.  (We’ll see how long this lasts.)

The Animals crashed their raft, as did some of the other teams. Newlyweds Brendon and Rachel (their shirts say “Brenchel”) capsized the most and finished eighth, or next to last.

Brenchel
Rachel also showed more of her derriere than is normal on Amazing Race – really, the kids are still up on the East Coast . 

True to her Season 20 form, she took all calamities personally, forgetting to express concern for the water-logged Brendon as she feared for herself. “I didn’t want to die,” she explained.

The other racers?

Margie improvised and used her shirt to tie together the raft she and Luke had built after the rope tie was lost;

Big Easy of the Globetrotters got banned from the rappelling challenge because he’s too big (has that ever happened?);

Jennifer channeled her grandfather, John Wayne, and made child’s play of a blow-dart challenge;
John Wayne

Jessica and John built a disaster of a raft that nonetheless floated.

The Travelocity Gnome? Product placement was alive in the jungle, and the racers carried a gnome throughout the challenges. Up the river, down the river, the Gnome was an All-Star. Some things never change.

Overheard:

Meghan: The Internet is our job, and to unplug completely has been incredible.

Caroline (on where Jennifer put a clue):  Shoving it in the breast, she’s got a spot for everything.

Caroline (on raft building): We’re like Huck Finn and Oliver Twist

Brendon (to Rachel): I’ll massage your butt tonight.

Flight Time: After we got our birds we had to party with the locals.

Rachel: I don’t want to go home. I’m not ready yet.

Meghan: It was so cool; it was like something out of the Jungle Book.


Order of finish: 

1) Dave and Connor
2) Jet and Cord
3) Leo and Jamal
4) Margie and Luke
5) Flight Time and Big Easy
6) Caroline and Jennifer
7) Jessica and John
8) Brendon and Rachel
9) Joey and Meghan








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