All the talk of alliances – pro and con – took center stage over the tasks this week. The producers didn’t even show the roadblock! Everyone is affected by the Back Pack, now Six Pack, Alliance and it influenced every stage of the race.

Starting with Mary’s opening quote “In a heartbeat, I would sacrifice this race for the friends I made. We’re now the Six Pack, Back Pack sounds so negative and losers. We’re not losers, we’re a team.” The alliance has made her lose sight of their original goal which was to win the million dollars and get out of the coal mine. At the end of the race, Mary states “When I get there, I’m going to wait on the ‘Bama girls.” This contrasts with Lyn and Karlyn who said at the beginning of the race, “Our alliance is fine. We know where to draw the line between the race and friendship. It’s not like we’re going to bow down and not run the race and let our friends win. I tell them don’t put yourself out for me because I’m not going to do it for you.” This was echoed at the end of the race, “I doubt they’ll wait. I don’t expect them to. I wouldn’t.” Erwin and Godwin’s interpretation of the alliance falls in between, “the concept of alliance is working for us. We sacrificed something when we gave the Fast Forward to Kentucky…the more we can help Alabama and Kentucky now, the more we’ll have help down the line.” In the end, they said, “we’ll all probably run, I hope no one takes it personally. It’s just the way it is.” You can see the potential for disaster for them as they now all have a different interpretation of their alliance. Lyn and Karlyn are in it for themselves and could outlast their alliance.

The Six Pack alliance has turned the attention of all the other racers on them and could force them to work together at times. Dustin and Kandice tried to help Tyler and James at the airport. “It’s not in our best interests to help them, but we’d really like ‘Bama to go today.” Rob and Kim discuss the possibility of aligning with Dustin and Kandice but decide the Blondes don’t want help. Rob says, “It’s everybody for themselves.” The none-six pack alliance can’t help but look at themselves as a group. James said, “Looks like our pack is the top pack and the Six Pack is the back pack” at the pit stop. When Dustin and Kandice took a different way to Case Noyale they said, “Happy to be our own.” I think that signified more than losing Rob and Kim’s tail. They don't want to be part of an alliance. At the beginning of the race the Blondes and the Models voiced similar sentiments about the alliance. Both teams think that at the end each team is out for themselves and only one team can step on the mat at a time and that is how Tyler, James, Dustin and Kandice (and Rob and Kim) will race. I think at least one Six Pack alliance will outlast a team from the “other pack,” but the nature of their alliance is doomed to fail eventually. The editing this week seems to point that way.

There is a great montage of clips that starts when Kandice and Dustin are in the car driving to Case Noyale that visualizes the alliance in action. It’s really funny. The Blondes comment, “’Bama and Kentucky didn’t look so strong out there. Where’s your Six Pack now?” is interspersed with a shot of Mary with her life jacket around her ears. Then James comments on the Cho brothers’ strategy, “they’re obviously aligning with the weaker teams to take out the stronger teams and take the two weaker teams to the final three.” The models jump in the water and say, “Let’s see if we can catch up with them.” (They almost do.) Godwin “replies” with, “A bitter and cynical person might think we’re keeping them around because they’re ‘weaker,’ but if we stick together we can be stronger than those who tend to fend for themselves only.” Then we see a shot of Lyn, Karlyn and Mary struggling to swim to shore. Tyler and James then say, “You wanna go home? No! Let’s catch them!” The visuals of the women struggling shows how this alliance won’t succeed. Rob and Kim were not seen or heard at all in this montage of events.

There was so much talk about alliances that you need to sift through what was shown or not shown to see how it reflects on each team. David and Mary’s story is coming to an end. Their story was about the experience, the people they’ve met and the friends they’ve made. Mary has stated that friendship is more important than winning, and they are marked for elimination yet again. I think Rob and Kim’s story could also be coming to an end. At the beginning of the leg, they were the only team who didn’t comment on the alliance, Kim talked about taking control and that when she’s assertive Rob trusts her. Rob commented that Kim is in survival mode and in this situation is thriving and she’s awesome. There were no more comments about needing to chill or communicate better. They’ve come to terms with each other. They had no other confessionals during the race. Lyn and Karlyn have replaced Rob and Kim as the villains! Lyn who seems like a nice, calm and rational person was barely heard from, but we heard numerous nasty comments from Karlyn. She had an altercation with Tyler at the airport where neither of them looked good, but the focus was on her. She wasn’t sympathetic when Rob and Kim’s car broke down and Dustin commented that she doesn’t have a friendly bone in her body. Karlyn did, however, make the wisest comment by anyone in the Six Pack alliance, “At least one of us should be ahead. It makes no sense for us all to be behind.” If they get a lead, they could break away from the alliance first. Erwin and Godwin are technically in the best position of the Six Pack Alliance. They are the strongest team and they can outrun the other two teams to the mat. It is a positive sign when another team comments on your strategy, but the visuals mentioned before don’t help it to carry much weight.

Tyler and James’s edit is a bit murkier for me. A mean streak emerged when Tyler acted immature arguing with Karlyn and then called them names. James had a confessional where he calls Tyler “snickety,” but knows that Tyler just wants him to do the best job possible. At the pit stop, they comment “Back on top!” I’m not sure what the producers what us to think of this team. At lot of time has been spent showing them getting lost. Does this affect their end game or are they hiding something?

There were two quotes at the pit stop which stood out to me – Dustin saying to Kandice, “Get your run on,” (foreshadowing that they’ll make it to the final three?) And Mary saying, “No doubt in my mind we have an alliance to the final three,” (not going to happen!)

Side note: I loved how Phil quirked his face when he was describing the motor scooter they won to the girls, “…and you can take a date for a ride…” When Dustin replied, “Can I take you, Phil?” I thought for sure he was going to say something about the accident. That had to be going through his mind, it was mine!