Down to five, backstabbing on tap

  

 

Amazing Race, Season 32, Episode 8/9

By Jim Memmott

 

Hyderabad, India -- It took a while, but the haves have eliminated the last of the have nots in this Race around the world. Now the real back-stabbing and double-crossing can begin.

 

What Phil Keoghan touted as the first-ever Mega Leg in Amazing Race history – basically, a two-hour show that took place in one spot with no elimination in the middle – ended as everyone believed (and I feared) it would end:

 

Sisters Kaylynn and Haley Williams were finally eliminated, taking Emily and Drew out of the pool, thanks in part to the other remaining teams ganging up on them in order to preserve their alliance, the self-labelled Mine Five. 

 

Which I kept hearing as “Mind Five,” which didn’t make any more sense than “Mine Five.” Research revealed that, in the second episode in a salt mine in Colombia, the five teams swore an oath to help each other, thus the Mine Five. Those teams are: 

 

The volleyballers Riley and Maddison (left, LA Times) who finished first on the Mega Leg; Boyfriends, James and Will; parents Hung and Chee; ex-NFLers DeAngelo and Gary, and siblings Aparna and Eswar.

 

In the Mega Leg, the Miners hit the Sisters with two 20-minute Yields (delays), a bit of overkill that certainly smacked of abuse. 

 

Though the case could be made that the Sisters would have been eliminated anyway, as they seemed more like cheerful tourists than focused racers, quite resigned to the fact that that things will always go wrong when you're in new places.

 

All of this played out in Hyderabad, which offered up a host of good challenges, including food delivering, code breaking,

dental-plate making (ugh), bangle sorting, place-mat setting and turban sorting. 

During most of this, the Alliance teams helped each other, though Will and James, ever angling, tried to play favorites within the favorites.

 

So who will be eliminated next? Based on past performance, Aparna and Eswar would be the most likely to go. They didn’t do that well in Hyderabad, finishing fifth, even though at least one of the challenges allegedly played to their strengths as software engineers. 

 

DeAngelo and Gary have the second-worst overall showing, though Gary has proven himself to be quite brainy. Still, no one in the Alliance thinks the NFLers have been pulling their weight, so there’s always a chance that they will thrown them to the lions.

 

Of the other three teams, in a just world, Will and James would be gone as payback for their scheming (or gamesmanship, if you’re on their side.) Hung and Chee would survive, based on her acts of charity alone. And it would be a major shock if the Volleyballers were to be eliminated. They’re simply very good.  

 

Overheard:

 

Aparna: We’re techies. I hope they’re going to ask us to code something.

 

DeAngelo: What’s a rickshaw?

 

Hayley: We get lost everywhere we go.

 

Will: It would be us to get blood on our hands.

 

James: Yield the blondes: We're trying to make our own luck in this race, and they’ve had the best luck.

 

Hung: Being a parent, kids are so disgusting you can’t imagine what kinds of disgustingness comes out of their little bodies.

 

DeAngelo: The girls are like cockroaches. Every natural disaster they come back strong.

 

Kaylynn: We had our nine lives, and they just ran out.

 

Order of Finish: Episode 8/9

 

Maddison and Riley

James and Will

DeAngelo and Gary

Chee and Hung

Aparna and Eswar

Haley and Kaylynn

Alliances could crumble, the last could become first

 

Amazing Race Season 32, Episodes 6 and 7

By Jim Memmott

Germany and Kazakhstan – It will be hard for Wednesday’s Episode 8 to top last week’s double-episode, two hours of Amazing Race mayhem. 

 

There was strange strategy, lots of local color (Berlin loves disco, especially in a phone booth, see left). Plus, there were the  now usual standard-transmission issues, and the wonderful case of a team that’s so bad they’re actually good.

 

Let’s start with that last point first. The ever-confused, ever-cheerful, and ever-late Williams sisters, Kaylynn and Haley, managed to non-eliminate themselves for the second time.

 

They got to the finish line in Germany last in Episode 6, just as they did in Episode 4. But host Phil Keoghan let them know it was a non-elimination leg again, and they are still alive. 

 

This raises some questions about non-elimination legs. Are

they pre-determined? Can Phil make it up as he goes along? When does the Board of Elections certify the result? When does Rudy G, file a lawsuit?

 

Who cares? It’s good to have the sisters alive, even if not well. And, take heart, they may benefit by some division amongst the top-performing teams.

 

It’s kind of odd, but the five better duos this year have been in an alliance against the two worst teams, the sisters and the duo of Alana and Leo (below). 

 In other words, the strong have spent a lot of energy beating up on the weak, when they should be focusing on thinning their own ranks. (For more, check out “The Art of War,” by Sun Tzu.)

 

The alliance only survived Episode 6 intact because of the innate kindness of Hung of the husband-wife team of Chee and Hung. She was able to unscramble the letters on a wall as she was lowered, quickly, from a tall building, head first. (Don’t try that at home.)

 

Hung then tipped told some of the other alliance teams that the letters spelled “Sauerkraut.”

Then, in Episode 7 in wintry Kazakhstan, she tipped off the NFLers about need to decorate their yurt with a boiled goat’s head. Head slap! “I wasn’t thinking race smart,” she told Chee.

 

This came after terrific challenges involving the making of films in Kazakhstan. There were stunts and swordplay, some of which stumped the team of Alana and Leo, who couldn’t seem to count spears, despite their academic credentials. Thus, they were eliminated, taking Team Boston out of the pool.

 

Six teams remain, five strong, one not so strong. But, who knows, perhaps the weak shall inherit the earth.

 

Overheard:

 

German taxi driver: Why don’t you run faster? You don’t look fat.

 

Aparna: Amazing Race is even more cutthroat than Berkeley.

 

D’Angelo: I didn’t see any letters; all I saw was my life flash before my eyes. 

 

Hung: I keep my word, and my word means everything.

 

Alana: I don’t think there was a moment on this race when I didn’t feel loved and supported by Leo.

 

Order of Finish Episode 6:

 

Order of Finish:

DeAngelo and Gary

Riley and Maddison

Chee and Hung

Will and James

Eswar and Aparna

Alana and Leo

Kaylynn and Hayley

 

Order of Finish Episode 7:

 

Will and James

Riley and Maddison

Chee and Hung

DeAngelo and Gary

Kaylynn and Hayley

Eswar and Aparna

Alana and Leo