In Spain, the Amazing Race also rises

By Jim Memmott

Amazing Race All Stars, Season 24, Episode 10

Switzerland/Seville, Spain –  In the afternoon, the sun was good and true and he ran. With the bulls.

But it was The Amazing Race. The bulls were't really bulls. They were people in huge

Ernest Hemingway

transparent beach balls.

And he wore a beach ball, too. And he ran and bumped the other beach-ball bulls. He showed as much grace under pressure as you can show when you're a beach-ball bull. 

In Spain. With the Travelocity gnome. In the afternoon. In Seville. With the bulls. The beach-ball bulls.

I know, I know, Ernest Hemingway would have absolutely loved this episode, but since he's not here to report let's speed dail a recap:

Who won?

Dave and Connor

Yawn. The father-and-son team of Dave and Connor O’Leary arrived first at the finish for the fourth time, continuing their quest to be the first parent-child team to win the Race. 

Credit their victory to Connor’s dexterity with a straight razor in a challenge requiring him to shave a balloon while an annoying Spaniard sang opera in his ear.

The guys also did well in the particularly demanding, even dangerous, race challenge mentioned at the start of this report. 

Yes, I'm not kidding. Partially  encapsulated in plastic bubbles (their legs were free) the racers had to “run with the bulls,” enduring the attacks of mad Spaniards, who were likewise bubbled up.

Along the route, they also had to find the parts of this phrase: “A matador never thinks about his own death.”

Real matador 

“I’m clearly not a matador because I was thinking about my own mortality the whole time,” Dave said afterwards.

(For the record, Dave, who reminds us that he’s “old” whenever he can, is 59. His son, Connor, is 22.)

Who lost?

The Cowboys, brothers Cord and Jet McCoy rode off into the Spanish sunset – actually Cord was on a horse, Jet was walking – eliminated from the Race after they came in fifth and last.

They owed their exit in part to a U-Turn thrown at them by the Afghanimals, cousins Leo Temory and Jamal Zadran.

Jet and Cord

Slapped with the U-Turn, the Cowboys, already lagging, had to take on an extra task. It destroyed their chances and the chances of Team Showers, their pool sponsors.

What happened? I thought everyone wanted to U-Turn the loathed team of newlyweds Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly.

At the beginning of the episode, some of the teams did swear that they would U-Turn Brendon and Rachel as a kind of revenge for B and R doing that to Dave and Connor in a previous episode.

It looked like this would happen when Dave and Connor arrived first at the U-Turn station.

Rachel and Brendon

Not to be, the O’Learys couldn’t play the U-Turn card because they had already used their one-per-season U-Turn in a previous episode.

The Afganimals were next to show up at the station and, though they would have liked to U-Turn the Brenchels, they chose the Cowboys, the better, and therefore more threatening team.

“They did the smart thing, not the popular thing,” said a surprised and relieved Rachel.

How did the country singers do?

Caroline and Jennifer

On paper, the team of Caroline Cutbirth and Jennifer Wayne was the most likely to be eliminated in this episode.

They haven’t had a strong season and they faced a Speed Bump (an extra challenge) because they were last in last week’s non-elimination episode.

This came in fourth, next to last, but their’s was a strong fourth. They polished off the Speed Bump with dispatch and then did  especially well in a flamenco-dance challenge, which they wisely chose so they could avoid running with the beach-ball bulls.

Overheard:

Connor: Justice will be served.

Leo: Shave that balloon, Jamal.

Jamal (on balloon shaving): It was kind of depressing for me: Connor, who hasn’t gone through puberty, who hasn’t got any facial hair, (was) getting done before me.

Caroline: Jet does have a slow and steady tender hand.

Leo: These Bubble Boys were no jokes.

Rachel: I’m just a girl; you don’t need to hit me so hard.

Jet: We were really disappointed in Leo and Jamal.

Cord: I have no complaints and no regrets. … Oh my gravy, I’ve been around the world three times.

Order of finish:

1) Dave and Connor

2) Brendon and Rachel 

3) Jamal and Leo

4) Caroline and Jennifer

5) Cord and Jet