Amazing Race 36: A couples crisis cries out for therapy

Amazing Race Season 36 Episode 7

By Jim Memmott

 

Montevideo, Uruguay – There are episodes of the Amazing Race that should come with a trigger warning. This was one.

 

We needed host Phil Keoghan to tell us at the start that “some of what you are about to see may make you comfortable.”

Uncomfortable? That’s too mild a word to describe what it was like to watch dating anesthesiologists Amber Craven and Vinny Cagungun interact, or not interact.

Basically, he persisted in patronizing her, destroying what little confidence she has.

You wish the Race had a couples counselor on call, someone who could rush in, sit Amber and Vinny down and give them some survival strategies.

 

Whatever, even without counseling, they survived, finishing a fairly solid fourth, in part because he’s not a bad welder.

 

Yes, welder. Welding was key to one of the challenges, perhaps an Amazing Race first. (Left, shows Shane Bilek, torch in hand.)

More familiar to Race fans was a Detour option that required contestants to put on local garb and sing and dance.

 

That challenge was a gift from the gods for Cesar Aldrete (near left) and Ricky Rotandi who belted out the song (in Spanish, Cesar’s native tongue, again giving him an edge) and high-kicked with abandon.

They went on to capture their fourth first-place finish, meaning they’ve won half of the episodes so far and finished second in the other half. Yawn.

 

Alas, firefighters Bizzy Smith and Sunny Pulver finally saw their luck run out. They’d come from behind in several previous episodes. However, this time, they just couldn’t make up the ground they lost because they couldn't navigate as they went to every plaza in Montevideo before finding the right one.

 

To their credit, they were remarkably happy at the end – Phil noted he couldn’t remember bigger smiles from a team he’s eliminated. (Their departure took Cindy Schmitt out of the pool.)

 

Other news:

 

Married couple Leticia and Rod Gardner had another steady race, finishing third for the second straight time. They’re a contender.

Danny Butler, the resident Race strategist, declared alliances dead. Bye-bye détente.

 

Juan Villa, who’s teamed with his fellow pilot Shane, was a little wobbly, having come up with food poisoning the night before.

 

Given all the traveling the teams do, it’s surprising this doesn’t happen more often. The illness did slow Juan and Shane down, as they finished next too last.

 

Dating couple Yvonne Chavez and Melissa Main were next to last, surviving despite a wince-inducing singing and dancing debut.

 

Overheard

 

Ricky: There’s a weird sense of calm now. I’m not sure why

 

Bizzy: The other teams, they make the mistakes, and we just step over their bodies.

 

Vinny: I hope you learn from experience what you’d doing to us as a team.

 

Juan: I was feeling like dirt.

 

Amber: Don’t start blaming me, you don’t even know where it is.

 

Order of finish

 

Ricky and Cesar

Angie and Danny

Leticia and Rod

Amber and Vinny

Yvonne and Melissa

Juan and Shane

 

Eliminated

 

Bizzy and Sunny