The Amazing Race – Season 12, Episode 6

“Cherry On Top of the Sundae That’s Already Melted”

December 9th, 2007

This will be briefer than in past weeks, but tonight’s episode of The Amazing Race was just so all over the place I feel the need to try to dissect some of it. You see, we are left with six teams at this point which are interesting because there is not a single alpha-male team in the bunch. Mind you, there were none to begin with, but it is specifically interesting in the context of an episode like this one. Some physical tasks which could have resulted in some fundamental shifts in the race ended up being largely irrelevant, and the whole thing was decided by some missteps with flights. But, anyways, some thoughts after the jump.

My favourite moment of the episode was definitely when Nathan and Jennifer were running up to the pit stop for the second time, having jumped into a car with some random guy instead of a taxi (as the clue instructed) the first time around. It cost them a place, but you can tell Jennifer was frazzled when one of the guards fired off a small gun. Why? Because she was shocked, despite it going off the first time too. Her mental state was a bit rough, no doubt: she and Nathan are at wit’s end, and are pretty much about to self-destruct.

Which is why I wish we’d gotten rid of them: we’ve still got a lot of non-elimination legs left at this point, which means we’re stuck with our final five for a long time. And they’re not an awful final five, but Nathan and Jennifer have got to go at this stage. Azaria and Hendekea, while also a little self-destructive in this episode, are just somewhat more pleasant to watch.

At this point, Kynt and Vyksin (Outside of their preview meltdown that looks like the editors playing with our heads) are the team I’m rooting for: Donald is just too slow and Nicholas too annoying, Ronald and Christina are fine until Ronald goes batshit crazy, and TK and Rachel are just kind of boring despite being the least objectionable male/female “likely to go far” team in a while. The goths are supportive and helpful, and I will thus assume the preview is misappropriating the truth.

I’m curious to see whether the race might calm down a little: there’s been a lot of tough situations, like this week’s flight debacle, that have sent racers to the brink of insanity. Azaria and Ronald got especially hotheaded (In Azaria’s case, BEFORE the Economy/Business issue reared its ugly head and made for an insurmountable obstacle), and I have to wonder whether this group were picked for their inability to handle intense situations – Jennifer’s meltdown after the cab incident was another example of this.

In Two Weeks: (December 23rd? Uh, I have work I need to do, if that’s only two weeks away) Don and Nick run into a tough fast forward where Don is lifting up his sleeve. So, either they’re injecting him with a deadly virus, or he might have to get a tattoo (That seems like an odd fast-forward, though, and I’m not a huge fan of the idea of it being something ostensibly permanent. But anyways, we’ll see in two weeks.)