A case of Covid strikes The Amazing Race

 The Amazing Race

 

Season 34, Episode 5

 

By Jim Memmott

 

Amman, Jordan – The drama was in the start, not the finish.

 

With seven of the eight remaining Race teams lined up before him for the leg, host Phil Keoghan announced that the missing team had “received a positive COVID test.”

Thus, because safety is the Race’s “number one priority,” childhood sweethearts Abby Garrett and Will Freeman (right) were eliminated from the Race. (Thus sending Denny and Emily Showers out of our pool).

 

Press reports indicate that it was Will who tested positive, perhaps having been infected earlier in Italy.

 

The Race had been taking precautions, the contestants traveling in a kind of bubble. They were quite often masked up, even though the people around them, in Italy and in Jordan, weren’t.

 

The elimination of Abby and Will at the start of the broadcast

(Phil talked to them via video on his phone. Photo CBS) turned the leg into a kind of non-elimination episode, something that wasn’t supposed to happen this season.

 

But the Racers did have a stake in the game, as the better they did in the episode, the earlier start they would have in the next episode. Finishing last would be especially bad, as it would mean a 45-minute wait to get going.

 

In a bit of déjà vu, Phil got the racers off and running with his “travel safe” instructions, much as if it were the beginning of a season. (And it was reminiscent of the restart in Season 33, when seven teams returned for the COVID-interrupted contest.)

 

Perhaps because the racers knew they would survive to race another day, the episode seemed more relaxed than usual. It may be, too, that the racers have gotten to know, and like, each other.

 

Once again, as in Episode 2, it helped if you could dance.

 

For the second week in a row, Michelle Burgos and Luis

Colon (right, CBS), a married couple from Miami took first place. One of the challenges, a dance routine, played to their strength, as she’s a dance instructor.

 

Aubrey Ares and David Hernandez (below CBS) finished second.

You guessed it, they’re ballroom dancers. Third place went to Mattie Lynch, a dance coach, and Quinton Peron, a choreographer.

 

A cynical viewer might conclude that the episode was rigged, but it’s often the case that people bring different skills and different weaknesses to the Race.

 

Both Aubrey and David, as well as Michelle and Luis, were nearly eliminated in Episode 1, an outing that tested their prowess, not on dancing, but on log sawing and other feats.

 

While the dancers danced, most of the non-dancers chose to memorize all the letters of the Arabic alphabet.

 

Claire Rehfuss gave her partner, Derek Xaio (below, CBS)

a lesson in "r"-rolling (basically, gargle), and they eventually recited the letters.

Military brothers Marcus and Michael Craig divided up the alphabet.

Sisters Emily Bushnell and Molly Sinert leaned on their knowledge of Hebrew to master the letters.

 

Meanwhile, back on the dance floor, the ever-optimistic newlyweds Glenda and Lumumba Roberts were, well, struggling. It took them 11 tries to get the judge’s approval, which meant they arrived at the cart-building final challenge far too late.

 

Thus, they finished last, but weren’t eliminated. Though they’ll have to deal with a pretty fierce penalty next time out.

 

Overheard:

 

Luis: Whenever you see Phil before a leg starts, that’s not good.

 

Abby: The Amazing Race is rolling with the punches, and unfortunately, this is one of the punches.

 

Derek: I took Spanish in high school, couldn’t roll my r’s. I think that’s a genetic diability.

 

Claire: I have not experienced building anything. ... I build software.

 

David: I’m a helicopter mechanic. I work with my hands at a lot.

 

Glenda: I don’t make stuff at home.

 

David: I feel like we’re the team to beat.

 

Aubrey (to Phil): Every time we see you, you have this unpleasant look on your face, because we know we’re probably the last or second to last. But today you have a smile on your face.

 

Glenda: Anything can happen, stay tuned.

 

Order of Finish*

 

1. Luis Colon, Michelle Burgos (Married couple)

2. Aubrey Ares, David Hernandez (Ballroom dancers)

 

3.  Quinton Peron, Mattie Lynch (Former LA Rams cheerleaders)

4.  Derek Xiao, Claire Rehfuss (Big Brother graduates)

 

5. Marcus Craig, Michael Craig (Military brothers)

6.  Emily Bushnell, Molly Sinert (Long-lost twins)

 

7.  Glenda Roberts, Lumumba Roberts (Newlyweds)

 

*The teams will start the next episode in pairs separated by 15-minute intervals. Glenda and Lumumba will be delayed 45 minutes

 

Eliminated:

 

Abby Garrett, Will Freeman (Childhood sweethearts)