The Amazing Race 20: Eps 1 to 3
Mar. 12th, 2012 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsThe Race embarks on its 20th season. Hard to believe, huh?
Ep 1:
1. This season on TAR we have: soccer players, golfers, married clowns, former Big Brother contestants, combat pilot and wife, border patrol agents, and a couple guys from KY with a Southern accent. We start in Santa Barbara, CA, with teams pulling down balloons to find their next clue. Most (apparently) find theirs quickly, while Misa/Maiya (sisters/golfers) take 1:40 hours (!) to get theirs, before getting on a product-placed Ford telling them to head to another Santa Barbara... this one in Argentina, to be more precise, with the balloon task deciding who gets on which of two connecting flights from Buenos Aires to the nearest airport in Salta.
2. Next stop, some aerodrome, with a clever bait-and-switch Roadblock: "Who's got a good sense of direction?" One player drives to a given location, while the other "non-participating" contestant, well, skydives out from an airplane (!) The golfers' woes continue with the Roadblocker having to get towed out of sand on her way to pick up her teammate. That's right, even on TAR, they manage to get into a sand trap :-D
3. Next stop, some cultural center for a task for making empanadas, which are basically a South American version of ravioli or gyoza (the latter of which M/M actually compare it to), to the satisfaction of The Empanada Nazi (tm Art/JJ, border patrol) :-) Bopper/Mark (guys from KY) manage to call them pinatas :-D
4. Pit Stop is right outside the cultural center, and Rachel/Dave (combat pilot and wife) edge out Brendon/Rachel (BB contestants) for the express pass, but the big story is M/M not only leaving their bags in the car and having to go back to get them later, but also running in the wrong direction away from the Pit Stop after finishing the empanadas before Joey/Danny (fitness instructor and friend and also self-proclaimed Guidos), thus allowing the latter to edge M/M out of the race. Between this, the balloons, and the sand trap, you could say that M/M's racing skills were a little bit... wanton ;-D
Ep 2:
1. Basically, everyone gets bunched up to get their next clue from some mailman on a donkey. Interestingly, Nary/Jamie have decided to tell the other teams they're schoolteachers (they're actually federal agents), similar to Maria/Tiffany (professional poker players) calling themselves charity workers, except since N/J's line of profession isn't exactly conductive to fame, their cover is unlikely to be blown at the airport like M/T's was.
2. First Detour of the race is between boiling water and lighting fire. Former involves setting up "solar kitchens" (with pictoral instructions on the side of the box!) and putting on a kettle. Latter involves gathering wood and clay and carrying it by donkey to light a fire. Art/JJ (border patrol) are the only guys to do the latter, even comparing it to their line of work :-) While setting up their solar kitchens, a couple contestants say a lot of TV-friendly swear words :-D while Dave/Cherie (clowns) make a point of not looking at their kettle, because, well, a watched pot never boils :-D Bopper/Mark are great at putting together their kitchen because Mark's kid loves Legos :-)
3. Next stop, Buenos Aires, by bus. Second of the three buses contestants are taking gets a broken window, allowing the last bus to get in 2nd. Next clue is a Roadblock: "Where's the beef?" Given the total weight of a bunch of cattle being auctioned off, count the number of head and divide (using pencil and paper, not a calculator) to find the average weight. Most Roadblockers team up, while Vanessa(/Ralph, dating divorcees) rocks it on her own and Dave the clown struggles, prompting Cherie to reference Smokey Robinson (for the 2nd time in as many legs!)
4. Pit Stop is at some rubber tree downtown, and Rachel/Dave win another leg and get a trip to Grenada. Since the greeter is a lookalike of Diego "Hand of God" Maradona, Eliott/Andrew (soccer playing twins!) play a little soccer with him :-) Clowns are eliminated, and they even get a "comical" walk off into the sunset :-D
Ep 3:
1. Next stop, Paraguay. Art/JJ hope to do well because they speak Spanish. Well, considering how hard it was to find the other Detour option, you'd think they'd know that it takes more than speaking the language to do well in another country :-)
2. After we spend a good chunk of the ep in the Buenos Aires airport separating the teams onto two flights (and see Mark/Bopper tell a cabbie to "Drive it like you stole it" :-D), first stop is a outdoor yard shop for a clue pickup, with a Detour between stacking watermelons into a pyramid and stringing a harp. Art/JJ make easy work of the melons, without any watermelons falling down, unlike the other teams. Bopper takes a melon in the head, though it's quite unlike Claire's infamous incident. Meanwhile, the soccer twins think that since one of them is in a rock band, stringing a harp should be like stringing a guitar.
3. The twins are later joined by several times who have given up on the melons after a couple collapses, though after seeing what the harp task entails, Rachel/Dave wisely use their Express Pass (probably the earliest it's ever been used).
4. Next is a wide public area for a Roadblock, which involves dancing with a bottle on one's head. Penalty for breaking all the bottles on a table is two hours. Art/JJ finish before anyone else is done with the Detour, while Rachel/Dave are the only team to get the penalty.
Pit stop is a six-block walk away, and Art/JJ, not surprisingly, take the win and a trip to the Bahamas (and note that their win has nothing to do with speaking español). Phil also remarks that Rachel/Dave are still in the race in spite of not finishing any of this leg's tasks (they are in 6th).
5. Soccer twins and Vanessa/Ralph finish their Detours at night (turns out stringing a harp is much harder than stringing a guitar) and it's basically down to who can finish the Roadblock first. You'd think that soccer players would be able to use their heads better than anyone else, but Ralph finishes first, and ultimately edges out the soccer twins. So in the space of the first three legs, we've eliminated the two athletic sibling teams. Huh.
6. Incidentally, Mark/Bopper aren't the first guys to tell a cabbie to "Drive it like you stole it" (Louie/Michael), or even the first guys with Southern accents to say it (Ryan/Chuck, though not to a cabbie).
Ep 1:
1. This season on TAR we have: soccer players, golfers, married clowns, former Big Brother contestants, combat pilot and wife, border patrol agents, and a couple guys from KY with a Southern accent. We start in Santa Barbara, CA, with teams pulling down balloons to find their next clue. Most (apparently) find theirs quickly, while Misa/Maiya (sisters/golfers) take 1:40 hours (!) to get theirs, before getting on a product-placed Ford telling them to head to another Santa Barbara... this one in Argentina, to be more precise, with the balloon task deciding who gets on which of two connecting flights from Buenos Aires to the nearest airport in Salta.
2. Next stop, some aerodrome, with a clever bait-and-switch Roadblock: "Who's got a good sense of direction?" One player drives to a given location, while the other "non-participating" contestant, well, skydives out from an airplane (!) The golfers' woes continue with the Roadblocker having to get towed out of sand on her way to pick up her teammate. That's right, even on TAR, they manage to get into a sand trap :-D
3. Next stop, some cultural center for a task for making empanadas, which are basically a South American version of ravioli or gyoza (the latter of which M/M actually compare it to), to the satisfaction of The Empanada Nazi (tm Art/JJ, border patrol) :-) Bopper/Mark (guys from KY) manage to call them pinatas :-D
4. Pit Stop is right outside the cultural center, and Rachel/Dave (combat pilot and wife) edge out Brendon/Rachel (BB contestants) for the express pass, but the big story is M/M not only leaving their bags in the car and having to go back to get them later, but also running in the wrong direction away from the Pit Stop after finishing the empanadas before Joey/Danny (fitness instructor and friend and also self-proclaimed Guidos), thus allowing the latter to edge M/M out of the race. Between this, the balloons, and the sand trap, you could say that M/M's racing skills were a little bit... wanton ;-D
Ep 2:
1. Basically, everyone gets bunched up to get their next clue from some mailman on a donkey. Interestingly, Nary/Jamie have decided to tell the other teams they're schoolteachers (they're actually federal agents), similar to Maria/Tiffany (professional poker players) calling themselves charity workers, except since N/J's line of profession isn't exactly conductive to fame, their cover is unlikely to be blown at the airport like M/T's was.
2. First Detour of the race is between boiling water and lighting fire. Former involves setting up "solar kitchens" (with pictoral instructions on the side of the box!) and putting on a kettle. Latter involves gathering wood and clay and carrying it by donkey to light a fire. Art/JJ (border patrol) are the only guys to do the latter, even comparing it to their line of work :-) While setting up their solar kitchens, a couple contestants say a lot of TV-friendly swear words :-D while Dave/Cherie (clowns) make a point of not looking at their kettle, because, well, a watched pot never boils :-D Bopper/Mark are great at putting together their kitchen because Mark's kid loves Legos :-)
3. Next stop, Buenos Aires, by bus. Second of the three buses contestants are taking gets a broken window, allowing the last bus to get in 2nd. Next clue is a Roadblock: "Where's the beef?" Given the total weight of a bunch of cattle being auctioned off, count the number of head and divide (using pencil and paper, not a calculator) to find the average weight. Most Roadblockers team up, while Vanessa(/Ralph, dating divorcees) rocks it on her own and Dave the clown struggles, prompting Cherie to reference Smokey Robinson (for the 2nd time in as many legs!)
4. Pit Stop is at some rubber tree downtown, and Rachel/Dave win another leg and get a trip to Grenada. Since the greeter is a lookalike of Diego "Hand of God" Maradona, Eliott/Andrew (soccer playing twins!) play a little soccer with him :-) Clowns are eliminated, and they even get a "comical" walk off into the sunset :-D
Ep 3:
1. Next stop, Paraguay. Art/JJ hope to do well because they speak Spanish. Well, considering how hard it was to find the other Detour option, you'd think they'd know that it takes more than speaking the language to do well in another country :-)
2. After we spend a good chunk of the ep in the Buenos Aires airport separating the teams onto two flights (and see Mark/Bopper tell a cabbie to "Drive it like you stole it" :-D), first stop is a outdoor yard shop for a clue pickup, with a Detour between stacking watermelons into a pyramid and stringing a harp. Art/JJ make easy work of the melons, without any watermelons falling down, unlike the other teams. Bopper takes a melon in the head, though it's quite unlike Claire's infamous incident. Meanwhile, the soccer twins think that since one of them is in a rock band, stringing a harp should be like stringing a guitar.
3. The twins are later joined by several times who have given up on the melons after a couple collapses, though after seeing what the harp task entails, Rachel/Dave wisely use their Express Pass (probably the earliest it's ever been used).
4. Next is a wide public area for a Roadblock, which involves dancing with a bottle on one's head. Penalty for breaking all the bottles on a table is two hours. Art/JJ finish before anyone else is done with the Detour, while Rachel/Dave are the only team to get the penalty.
Pit stop is a six-block walk away, and Art/JJ, not surprisingly, take the win and a trip to the Bahamas (and note that their win has nothing to do with speaking español). Phil also remarks that Rachel/Dave are still in the race in spite of not finishing any of this leg's tasks (they are in 6th).
5. Soccer twins and Vanessa/Ralph finish their Detours at night (turns out stringing a harp is much harder than stringing a guitar) and it's basically down to who can finish the Roadblock first. You'd think that soccer players would be able to use their heads better than anyone else, but Ralph finishes first, and ultimately edges out the soccer twins. So in the space of the first three legs, we've eliminated the two athletic sibling teams. Huh.
6. Incidentally, Mark/Bopper aren't the first guys to tell a cabbie to "Drive it like you stole it" (Louie/Michael), or even the first guys with Southern accents to say it (Ryan/Chuck, though not to a cabbie).
