Season 29, Episode 7
Venice, Italy: By now everyone knows what came down here in Episode 7. Racers
sang, racers lugged luggage, racers painted masks. Six teams started; six teams
finished. No team was eliminated.
And
for the second time this season, Liz and Michael were spared an early trip
home.
 |
| Michael |
I've never understood whether the non-elimination legs are preset or whether
Phil Keoghan, our host, makes the call on his own. There’s a team he likes. He keeps them on. Could be. Or not.
Michael
and Liz are good theater. He’s burly and bearded, a big tough guy, but beneath
that rough exterior is a soft heart. He began this episode wailing away because
he misses his daughter, Pearl. “Everything I do is for my daughter,” he said.
Which is good.
Liz,
who’s an auctioneer back home in Missouri and describes herself as a “firecracker,”
is surprisingly fragile. This time, she cracked while painting an
actor’s mask. “I just want to cry,” she
explained, almost crying.
 |
| Liz |
Michael
and Liz would seem to be soul mates, even though, like all the other
contestants, they were strangers at the start of the season. And, perhaps like soul
mates everywhere, they tend to test their relationship from time to time. In
other words, they snipe; they carp; they whine. Good theater.
So
they’re still with us, as is the strange duo of Brooke and Scott. She breaks
down continually, but he has adopted a strategy of silence. “Any kind of
reaction I have tailspins her into negativity,” he explained. So those of us at
home are, of course, ever alert to watch Brooke tailspin. Life is good.
Redmond
and Matt finished first for the first time. At the end of the leg, Redmond removed his prosthetic leg (get it). “We
wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for this little guy,” he told Phil, brandishing his leg.
 |
| Redmond |
Becca
and Floyd, Team Fun, finished second, doing well on the singing challenge (they
had to serenade a couple in Italian, and they had to do it with emotion, which
they have in great supply.)
Tara
and Joey were third. Once again, she showed herself to be multi-lingual.
Indeed, has there every been a racer who was fluent in more languages? Joey
came through on the luggage-carry challenge, yanking a cart full of bags, each
weighing 30,000 pounds by his estimate, up and down and through Venice’s narrow
streets. (Who knew? Venice isn’t just waterways.)
 |
| Tara |
So
it looks like a team will have to get the heave ho in Episode Eight. Liz and
Michael couldn’t be saved from themselves for a third time. Or could they? Stay
tuned.
Overheard:
Liz: We’re having hard times; he
was missing his family; I was missing back home.
Scott: I want to find romance in Venice.
London: We did a bad, bad thing.
Tara: Joey’s a machine.
Brooke: (To Scott). Oh, you’re a
pleasure. I love hanging out with you.
Liz: The mask that I chose was the
exact same style of a cow skull I painted at home before I left.
Floyd: Slow and steady wins the
amazing race.
Liz: Sometimes you have to put
your big girl panties on.
Order of finish:
1) Matt and Redmond
2) Becca and Floyd
3) Tara and Joey
4) Brooke and Scott
5) London and Logan
6) Liz and Michael
