After the last leg of the race, which would be best described as ho-hum, the drama level starts to ratchet up as the hatred against Team Big Brother starts to come from all sides. Can Rachel handle it, or will she fall into a heap of sobs and bitterness?
Transfer Tensions
The teams start off the night in Azerbaijan, but learn that they will be leaving to Tanzania, Africa. Team Army Couple is the first to leave and they head to the nearest travel agent to get tickets. They are told that the first flight will be leaving at 8am the following morning, so it looks like everyone will be on the same flight.
Even though this is obvious to me, the Border Patrol agents seem intent on not giving any information to Big Brother, if for no other reason than they are annoying. While I agree, this seems like a bush league move. Everyone gets on their flight the next morning and arrive in Nairobi for their connecting flight.
To prove that everyone should hate them, team Big Brother pushes, shoves and flips the bird to everyone in front of them, even though they are all getting on the same flight. This causes Divorcee Vanessa to start berating Rachel as being an old looking hag with a big nose, while the other teams look on and laugh. This only goes to show why this season sucks, because there are no good people to root for. If that wasn’t enough, Border Patrol start to confront the Female Feds about lying about their job as teachers, which the Feds simply don’t reply to.
Window Seat
The teams arrive in Tanzania and head to an airstrip. Once there, the teams sign up for three separate flights to see the volcanic crater of Kilimanjaro. Border Patrol and Big Brother are on the first flight, Army and Kentucky on the second, with the Divorcees and Female Feds on the third. When each group lands, they are told to take a safari truck and find a local warrior with bikes to go to their next stop.
After finding directions, Border Patrol and Big Brother get their next clue. They can choose to either throw sticks at moving targets or do a jumping ritual for one minute. For some reason, Border Patrol chooses the targets, even though they know that they only have to do the jumping for one minute.
The teams ride their bikes to the village, and of course Big Brother finishes first, but Border Patrol is close behind. They get their clues which tell them to go to the Simba Camp for their next task. As they leave, the second group arrives, with Army choosing the targets and Kentucky choosing the jumping. For the second time, the jumping group finishes first.
The last group arrives, and this time both groups choose to do the targets. As the Female Feds take off on their bikes, Vanessa is having problems. After falling 40,000 times, she finally tells Ralph that she will be walking the bike the rest of the way.
Tent Mansion
Border Patrol is in the lead with Big Brother follwing close behind when they reach a camp. The only problem is, it’s the wrong camp. Border Patrol decides to keep driving, while Big Brother does the smart thing and asks for directions. It turns out they were driving the wrong way.
Big Brother turns around while Border Patrol keeps driving the wrong way. This allows the Army couple to arrive first at Simba Camp, where they are told they have to put up a tent and shower system. That sounds easy, but these are the most intense, heavy duty tents I have ever seen.
They begin work on the frame, and one by one the other teams arrive. Border Patrol finally asks for directions, and are told they need to turn back, but they are not the last ones to arrive. That honor goes to the Divorcees, due to Vanessa’s inability to ride a bike. When they finally arrive, everyone is mad at their teammate. No one is having an easy go at building their tent, with Army Dave leading the charge of being an overbearing blow hard.
Finish Line
It looks as though Kentucky will be the first team to finish, but they forgot to fill up their shower system with water. I bet they used their in-depth knowledge of building moonshine stills in the wilderness to help them with this challenge. The Army couple finish first and are told to go to the pit stop. Kentucky fills up their water bucket and are a close second.
The rest of the teams finish with Border Patrol taking third, Big Brother in fourth and the Divorcees in fifth. Phil takes the time to ask the teams about the fighting going on with Big Brother. The answers vary from Border Patrol saying that they are going to stay above it (even though they are clearly instigators) to Vanessa saying that she flat out doesn’t like the Big Brother team. The Female Feds come in way behind in last place, but luckily, they are told that this was NOT an elimination leg of the race.
It looks like all the time on planes and trains are finally starting to get at the teams, and we may end up with a huge feud building between multiple teams. While this would make for great television on a show like Survivor, one of the great things about The Amazing Race is that, while teams may snipe at each other, it doesn’t get too ridiculous. We may be reaching that level soon.
Chase Gamradt
Contributing Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
