Ladies and gentlemen, it took me a full ten minutes just to work through the conniption fit I had during tonight's "Amazing Race 14" episode over the brothers Mark & Michael. It is mind blowing that one team somehow managed to inadvertently trigger four hours of penalties on one leg, a combined five hours over two separate legs.
What truly takes the cake though is that Mark and Michael somehow still managed to survive to race for yet another leg. Never was a non-elimination save any less deserved than the one received by Mark & Michael.
The only consolation is that approximately three hours and ten minutes of their penalty will carry over to the start of the next race leg. Unfortunately, even 3:10 of extra time could end up being equalized out by the wait for a flight out of Thailand.
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The truth be known though, the running of leg eight was more worthy of a double elimination than a non-elimination. Both the Kisha/Jen and Mark/Michael teams left baggage behind in their respective taxis after the Roadblock task.
The sisters and brothers used different approaches to resolve their duel dilemmas. Despite Jen's protests, she and Kisha went ahead to run the remainder of the race leg anyway, doing a karoake singing Detour inside a party taxi.
Unfortunately, the sisters were turned back from the Pit Stop by host Phil Keoghan as without the needed travel documentation, the sisters would not be able to depart Thailand. Phil would not check Kisha & Jen in until the baggage was retrieved, turning a third place finish into what would have been a last place finish.
Mark & Michael took the opposite approach to their dilemma at Michael's urging, hiring a taxi so they could go back and retrieve their lost baggage. Unfortunately, the cost of that extra ride left the brothers short on cash, leaving them to attempt the bartering that triggered their prohibitive penalties.
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As for the teams that didn't make hellacious mistakes, Margie & Luke recovered nicely from Margie's heat collapse back in Phuket to lead the field in Bangkok. Margie's unofficial mechanical experience came into play preparing a boat propeller for a Roadblock while her official nursing experience help the team fit five set of dentures for their Detour task.
On a side note, there's an old WWE saying that its wrestlers are there to "put smiles on people's faces." In my as yet imaginary TAR audition tape, I had planned to state that my team would NOT be there to put smiles on people's faces. As it turned out though, putting smiles on people's faces is exactly what it took for Margie and Luke to win this race leg, their third of eight.
Ex-NFL cheerleaders Jaime & Cara established a strong second place margin on arrival for the Roadblock, a margin that gradually evaporated against the other teams. Jaime struggled more than Margie on the propeller affixing task, then the team lost more time trying to retrieve their own baggage.... though Jaime & Cara should at least be given credit for not leaving the boat harbor first before making their retrieval.
Jaime and Cara would go on to a second place leg finish, their second such
result.
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Finally, we saw Tammy & Victor display an actual weakness in their skill sets as Victor's lack of a mechanical inclination dropped his team to last place after the Roadblock task. Even after gaining approval from the Roadblock judge, Victor's propeller still didn't work, prompting a redo until it met the field test.
Fortunately for the siblings, the bizarre performances by the bottom two teams allowed Tammy & Victor to clock in for an official third place. On this leg eight, just avoiding monumental mistakes would be enough to guarantee a top three outcome.
____________________________Labels: recaplette, tar 14.8, the amazing race, the amazing race 14
