Sometimes on The Amazing Race it’s not about how quick the team is or how well they do in the challenges. The Race can really just come down to decision-making and how the teams do under stress. This was certainly the case for week 2 of season 28 of The Amazing Race. “You Look Like Gollum” opened and closed on two big mistakes for two teams. One mistake caused a team their spot in the competition and the other caused a team to pay a huge, but not fatal, price.
Diving in Mud for Treasure
The teams start their leg by going to Cartagena, Colombia. The only thing of note that happens at the airport is with Cameron and Darius. Despite the fact that these two are a part of the earliest group to arrive at the airport, they end up on a flight that is 30 minutes later than every other team. They go from the front of the pack to dead last. Things do balance out a bit for them though when Marty and Hagan’s second to last flight is delayed and then the pair manages to get the slowest taxi possible in Cartagena.
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Once the teams have landed in Cartagena,they must head to the Roadblock. The designated member of the team must dive into a mud volcano and search around in the goo until they find a satchel. Inside the satchel, they must locate an emerald. The catch is that not every satchel has an emerald. This means that if you are like Dana, and don’t know that emerald is synonymous with green, you can get a bit tripped up.
Brodie and Kurt arrive first to the mud volcano and finish first. Brodie is the one to do a Roadblock and I know this because Kurt repeatedly screams Brodie’s name as he cheers him on. Kurt also calls Brodie baby, which I find disturbing behavior for two men who are not in relationship but to each their own.
Pop-Up or Parrilla
From the Roadblock, the teams head over to the Detour. They are given a choice of Pop-Up or Parrilla. In Pop-Up, the teams must construct a carport of sorts where they build a shaded tent on the beach for a cart to park underneath. In Parilla, they have to cook some fish. That’s it. It is super boring. OK, the tent building isn’t riveting, but I’ve done enough camping in my days to understand the teams’ frustration. And the teams do get plenty frustrated in Pop-Up. Especially Dana and Matt. Maybe Dana is just angry at herself for not knowing what the color green looks like and is taking it out on Matt. I don’t know. The point is that this engaged couple (who still haven’t set a date for their wedding) start biting each other’s heads off. Correction: Dana yells at Matt at the top of her lungs with tears in her eyes and Matt just sort of shrugs.
Tears and Mud
Back at the mud volcano, Marty and Hagan and Darius and Cameron are the last two teams to arrive. Cameron and Darius arrive slightly behind the girls. Thanks to an extra bit of luck, Cameron finds his emerald quickly and leaves. Hagan is not so lucky and quickly desolves into a sobbing mess, covered in mud. She’s looks like a very depressed, attractive female orc from Lord of the Rings.
Meanwhile, Blair has a bit of breakdown of her own. It doesn’t involve tears, but there is a lot and lot of ear-piercing wails. Scott and Blair have to do their Speed Bump before the Detour. The Speed Bump requires them to pull in a fishing net from the ocean and grab the live fish as the flop on the beach. Blair isn’t too wild about the whole touching dying fish part of the challenge and makes it known by squealing in terror. It gets to the point where only dogs can hear her screeches. It doesn’t appear to be that strenuous of a challenge however and they quickly make up time they lost.
Grilling for Glory
After the Detour, the teams proceed to the Pit Stop. Tyler and Korey are the first team to arrive, so that means a lot of infectious or annoying (depending on your perspective) giggles from Tyler Oakley. The rest of the teams finish behind them until it’s the perpetual back of the pack. For this leg, Darius and Cameron and Marty and Hagan are the ones left to arrive.
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Both teams choose Parilla and a boring episode of a boring Food Network show begins. Well, it’s a boring episode of a Food Network show where half of the chefs still have flecks of mud on their bodies. I’m assuming that never happens on the real Food Network.
Marty and Hagan finish their Detour challenge first but they stupidly left their cab back at the clue location. This means that they’ll have to run over a mile to get back to their cab and this gives Darius and Cameron a chance to catch up. They finish their challenge, pile into their cab and pass Marty and Hagan huffing and puffing on the side of the road. Despite their big mistake at the beginning of the leg Darius and Cameron manage to beat Marty and Hagan to the finish line. Marty and Hagan come in last and are eliminated from The Amazing Race.
The Amazing Race airs Fridays at 8pm on CBS.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
