Paging Nurse Hayley, just what the doctor didn't order

By Jim Memmott

Amazing Race, Season 26, Episode 6 preview

Thailand/Munich – Seven teams remain going into tonight's (Friday's)  Episode 6 and by this point the strongest plot line is the on-going-blind-date-from-Hell, the unlikely pairing of Nurse Hayley and Dr. Blair.

Blair and Hayley in rare happy moment

At first he seemed to be the problem – arrogant, patronizing, etc. – but by now we know that she is well, unbearable, whiny, impatient, a chip ever on her shoulder. 

Even the other teams have noticed. “I’d rather be sitting here than dealing with her,” said Tyler during last week's episode as he and Laura cooled their heels waiting for his fanny pack to show up.

Speaking of plot lines, last week did see a comeback by the committed couples, people who were actually dating each other before the race began. Up to that point, three of these duos had been eliminated and all the blind daters had survived.

Kurt photo bombs Bergen

But blind-daters Berger and Kurt got the heave-ho in Episode 5, dropping Team Bushnell out of the pool. The lookalike B and K thus went from first to worst, as they had won the previous episode. Even with the earlier win, they were, by their own admission, incompatible, so their departure wasn't a total surprise.

Still, it was shocking to see them abandon a challenge (and essentially abandon the Race) because neither one of them could handle a manual transmission. 

“I don't know how a team can go on the Race, after 25 previous seasons, and not know how to drive stick shift,” said Ben Shapiro, a University of Rochester tennis standout with encyclopedic knowledge of the Race. “Almost every single season they are required to do it, and without fail, at least one team has problems with it.  You think they would learn.”

Episode 5 was won by Aly and Steve, Olympians who have been dating for seven months. (They may be this season’s version of surfers Adam and Bethany, extraordinary athletes who like each other, too.)

Aly and Steve

If you’re keeping score at home, three relatively long-term couples remain: Aly and Steve, Ashley and Matt, and Mike and Rochelle. Four blind-daters have so far survived the race and each other: Jeff and Jackie, Jelani and Jenny, Hayley and Blair, and Laura and Tyler.

The biggest comeback of last episode may have been that of the Ford Focus, which featured in a somewhat silly challenge in which the contestants had to drive backwards through a snowy scene using their rear-view camera. By that time, Blair and Kurt had lost their Focus, so they didn't have to find reverse.

The episode also showed that stereotypes are alive and well on the Race.  Everyone slapped on some Octoberfest garb upon arrival in Munich from Thailand. One challenge featured German beer steins – lots of them. 

What can happen tonight?  Perhaps speeding on the autobahn is next up, or some really disgusting sauerkraut. 

Or maybe it will just be more of Blair and Hayley and love not in bloom. Which could be fun.

Overheard:

Tyler: Laura and I are in the friendship zone, for sure.

Jackie (to Jeff): Don’t cut me off yet, ever again.

Jeff (to Jackie): You’re so annoying.

Blair: Hayley, you have pissed me off to the point of no return.

Aly: I’m from Wisconsin, so I have an appreciation of beer.

Mike: We don’t really know where we’re at; we don’t know where we’re going; we can’t drive a stick.

Ashley: The singles are falling apart.

Rochelle: You totally made my heart flutter up there on that ladder.

Order of finish

1) Aly and Steve

2) Matt and Ashley

3) Jeff and Jackie

4) Jenny and Jelani

5) Hayley and Blair

6) Laura and Tyler

7) Mike and Rochelle

8) Bergen and Kurt