By Jim Memmott
Amazing Race, Season
26, episode 9 preview
Monaco/Namibia – Once again we’ve got to shuffle the deck.
Going into last week’s double episode Olympians Aly and
Steve were dubbed (at least by this writer) as the race favorites.
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| Aly and Steve enroute to elimination |
Well, they had an astonishingly bad outing in Namibia,
finishing last in the first episode – a non-eliminator – and last in the
second. Host Phil Keoghan sent them packing. (Team Walkworth is thus out of
the Pool.)
My gut says that blind-daters Laura and Tyler, who took
Episode 8, are the new favorites. They get along. They’re self-aware. They have
generally done well.
Then again, though the recently engaged Matt and Ashley may
seem a little excitable – he had a brief bout with paranoia while at the wheel
in the desert -- but their finishes in the last four episodes, a second, fourth,
first and second, are the strongest of the remaining teams.
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| Matt freaks out checks cars on his trail |
I’d rule out blind-daters Jenny and Jelani, as they have never
recaptured their earlier form, perhaps because her control-freak personality is
getting to Jelani.
Likewise, Blair and Hayley, the Bickersons who haven’t been
bickering that much of late, still seem like a match made in Hell. She simply
can’t be quiet.
Which leaves us with Mike and Rochelle, perhaps the longest
of long shots. The do love each other; they don’t panic; but they always seem
to be struggling.
Good heavens, he operates a truck stop back home in
Michigan, and yet he has trouble with a stick
shift, or, for that matter, problems even starting a car.
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| Mike and Rochelle, a little dazed but still racing |
And yet, sometimes those crafty Race editors lower our expectations just to surprise us in the end
(think Beekman Boys).
Sometimes, too, they raise our expectations merely to smash
them to pieces. Witness the implosion of Aly and Steve in Episodes Seven and
Eight.
Previously on The
Amazing Race, they had seemed an ideal couple. And yet she proved to be a
whiner last week, especially when she had to do a physically demanding Road
Block pitching a straw hut with the help of some scantily clad natives. (Don’t
worry their private parts were digitally fig-leafed.)
But fault him for not listening to her backseat driving. She
told him to stay in the middle of the road. He ignored her. Cue the flat tire
and a chorus of I told you sos.
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| A tire flat, Aly rebukes Steve |
So it didn’t go well for them, except perhaps when they had
to butcher up some wildebeest remains so they could feed some wild dogs. (What’s
with that, anyway? Can’t wild dogs get their own grub?) Aly liked the
butchering. Indeed, she said it was in her genes. So she had at least a little
fun in Africa.
Footnote: Follow this link to an interesting posting on the blind-date gimmick. Does it work? Doesn't it work?
Footnote: Follow this link to an interesting posting on the blind-date gimmick. Does it work? Doesn't it work?
Overheard:
Blair: The saving grave is that Hayley has a big
crush on our pilot.
Hayley: We’re in
a really little plane with a really hot pilot.
Aly: I’m bleeding
all over.
Jenny: I’ve never really touched my meat; this is a
first.
Tyler: Let’s go
feed some dogs.
Hayley (to Blair):
I can’t see what’s going on. So can you communicate with me?
Aly: I would be
fine with a lion coming and eating me right now.
Laura: The
Bickersons (Blair and Hayley) have shown up here.
Tyler: They suck.
Rochelle: I couldn't
ask for a better partner in this race or in life.
Matt (to Ashley):
Look at me, look at your boy, look at your fiancé.
Hayley (to Blair):
I’m just giving you a friendly heads up... You have to admit you haven’t been the
best of drivers.
Mike: I have the
strongest girl on this entire race.
Tyler: I’m
walking a zebra; now this is so cool.
Jenny: If there
is a situation where we can single a team out, we will single out the team that
U-turned us.
Aly: We actually took ourselves out.
Order of finish,
Episode 7
1) Matt and Ashley
2) Laura and Tyler
3) Hayley and
Blair
4) Jenny and Jelani
5) Mike and Rochelle
6) Aly and Steve
Order of finish,
Episode 8
1) Laura and Tyler
2) Matt and Ashley
3) Hayley and
Blair
4) Jenny and Jelani
5) Mike and Rochelle
