Amazing Race: Better Than A World Series Ring?

The worst part of the show last night: the local CBS station ran commercials in full, then cut in with a "Breaking News" update on the Donovan McNabb trade. Bastards! They could have run a crawl! I only missed one or two minutes, though.

Once again, a long flight -- this time from the Seychelles to Malaysia -- put the six remaining "Amazing Race" teams on equal footing beginning the next leg of the race, but it didn't lead to Team Moron (Brent and Caite) taking the lead as it did on last week's show. At one point, though, they passed Carol and Brandy, to Caite's extreme delight. Her continued harping on "getting rid of the lesbians" is getting ridiculous. And their new buddies, detectives Louie and Michael (or, as Caite called them, "the Daddies") are encouraging it. The EW.com recap seems to think L&M are using the morons strategically to try and get C&B eliminated. I can definitely see that.

Adventures with taxis caused upheavals at various points. At first, headed from the airport to their first clue box, Dan and Jordan's cab zoomed ahead of the other teams' rides. But when the brothers got their clue and returned to the street to head for their Detour, the driver had left.
Headed to a Buddhist temple for the "Buddhist Tradition" task, where they had to carry giant incense sticks up 150 steps and light them on fire, three cabs -- those of the cops, the brothers, and Steve and Allie -- were stuck in traffic. S&A and D&J got out of their cabs and started walking, only to see traffic lessen and Louie and Michael ride on past. Steve and Allie told their cab to follow, so they got back in, while Dan and Jordan followed them on foot. But the S&A cab wound up at the wrong location, so both teams were delayed.

Dan and Jordan tried to take Steve and Allie's cab, but the driver wouldn't let them, so the brothers had to find another cab to get to the next clue box, and the Roadblock: break coconuts until finding one with a brightly colored inside, take a piece of the coconut and other local materials to create a Hindu offering to float out to sea. Jordan didn't build it properly at first and was chastised by his brother ("Read the clue.") Their delays caused them to fall to fifth place this week, barely still in the race.

Meanwhile, Steve and Allie had decided to switch to the other Detour -- "Chinese Custom," in which they both had to balance a 32-foot long flagpole on their foreheads for a 120-foot walk. They originally had chosen the flagpole option but changed their minds and headed for the temple. Now at the flagpole site, Allie couldn't balance the pole and they decided to go back to the Buddhist Tradition task. All of this indecision would seem to make sense, based on Steve's performance as Phillies third-base coach for two years. And it led to the father-and-daughter team's journey's end, as they finished last and were eliminated. Interviewed afterwards, Steve said that "I got a World Series ring...and this jumped ahead of it." He also complimented his daughter, who "worked so hard" -- although, really, I can't remember her doing much of anything. It seemed like it was Steve who did most of the tasks.

Another team was the last to even find a cab after arriving in Malaysia, and yet ended up being the first team to the Pit Stop. The cowboys, Jet and Cord, even had a Speed Bump to complete that none of the other teams had to perform (finding a lady grinding some spice, take a whiff, choose which of three teapots had tea made from that same spice, take it and serve it to a "guru") since they weren't eliminated last week. They were also the only team to choose "Chinese Custom" and complete it, without much difficulty, while the other teams struggled lugging incenses sticks up all those steps. It's the first time a team had to complete a Speed Bump and still finished first in that leg. It's hard not to like the cowboys -- polite, respectful, upbeat, funny. Oh my gravy!

On the other hand, it's very easy not to like Team Moron. It was sooooo much fun to see Brent and Caite's cab get lost headed from the Buddhist temple to the Roadblock, and for Caite to have to smash coconut after coconut after coconut to find one with color inside. That left the morons in 4th place -- yes, behind the lesbians again, as Carol and Brandy finished 2nd. Louie and Michael were third, as Louie only had to smash two coconuts.

So the reason I started watching this season to begin with is now gone. At this point, though, I want to see how it will end, so I'll be sticking with the last few episodes. As long as the morons don't win, I think I'll be happy with whatever happens.