On the Race, the laughter ends

Season 29, Episode 10

Viet Nam -- Say it ain’t so. The fun is gone. Actually, Team Fun is gone. The ever peppy, strangers-when-we met-but-soul-mates for-eternity team of Becca and Floyd bit the dust in Hanoi.

Floyd

It was all rather scary. Floyd, kind and cheerful Floyd, kept failing in a challenge that asked him to deliver 100-or-so shrimp baskets on a bicycle. He tried and tried and tried, finally succeeded and then conked out, lay down on the side of the road, heat-exhausted (the temp was about 120 degrees.)

It was one of the few times I remember seeing a medic on the scene at the Race. The situation was basically Code Red. Phil even left the finish line

to deliver the bad news in his best undertaker voice:

“I’m sorry to tell you that Donald Trump has been…” Wait a

Becca

minute, this season of the Race was filmed back in mid-2016. The GOP primaries were just heating up. Hillary was riding high. That’s not what Phil said.

Anyway, the Funs are gone (taking Cindy and Jim out of the pool), and four teams are left. Be still my heart.

Overheard:

Scott: The race is all about building an alliance when it's necessary and then dropping an alliance when it’s time for you to win.

Scott: What this race has taught me is that I actually have more patience than I thought I had.

Becca: I want Mom and Dad out because they’re a strong team, and they U-turned us, and they’re tricksters.

Tara: This is harder than giving birth.

Brooke: We nailed it today. I am so proud of us.

Phil: Sorry man, you’ve had a tough day.

Becca: (Floyd’s) undying positivity just ran him into the ground.

Order of finish:

1) Matt and Redmond

2) Brooke and Scott

3) Tara and Joey

4) Logan and London 

5) Becca and Floyd

 

From great heights, the Race moves on

Season 29, Episode 9

Greece/Viet Nam – OK, it was a two-hour, two-episode broadcast, and I’m recapping them about five minutes before the next episode (11) airs. So let’s hustle.

Scott

All you need to know about Episode 9 is that it started out in Greece with an absolutely gratuitous and absolutely terrifying bungee jump. I couldn’t watch, but it looked like they were on a walkway about a mile about some canal.

Scott, yes, Scott, the most height-averse contestant ever on Amazing Race, drew the short straw for his team and, wobbly knees and all, bungeed. Does Brooke, his partner, ever have to do anything at all?

Whatever. The Race moved on to Hanoi and Joey, and Tara, aka Mom and Pop, finished last because Tara misread a clue. However, they were not eliminated because it was a non-elimination and and/or Phil K. must like them. Let’s go to the audio tape:

Overheard:

Joey: We’re not going to be schemers like Brooke and Scott…that’s not being competitive.

Scott: I have a fear of heights and falling, and bungee jumping is the number one fear of that fear.

Scott: It was actually OK. Can I go again?

Brooke: Oh my god, oh my god. I’m going to get hit by a car.  I’m going to get murdered.

Matt: I got some experience in moving furniture. It’s all about the angles.

Order of Finish:

1) Becca and Floyd

2) Matt and Redmond

3) Logan and London

4) Brooke and Scott

5) Tara and Joey (non-elimination)