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 |
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 |
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
