Michel – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was especially appropriate this week! Congrats on 2K posts (almost)!

None of the five remaining teams changed too much in their overall outlook – Bill and Joe and Uchenna and Joyce didn’t have much of a story line, Oswald and Danny continue their nice guy, good racers story and our proposed final three got most of the attention (some good, some bad, some ugly!). There was some change in the week-to-week edit though, so I’ll comment on that. There is some overlap in our analysis, but with two episodes, there are lots of different examples! I won’t cover the Auschwitz segment since Michel did a nice recap other than to say it was well done and very moving. You can’t go to Poland without visiting Auschwitz and it gave me chills to see it. All of the racers were properly respectful.

It seems as if Uchenna and Joyce are starting their swan song. They came back from “marked for elimination” to finish first in leg eight. Danny and Oswald even let them have the first place prize. But even if we saw them, we didn’t hear them say much of anything. They referred to their relationship again, and this time in a positive light, so it seems as if their story is about to be wrapped up. They comment, “Our spirit has definitely been lifted by making it through being marked for elimination. Having special times together helps you to grow together as a couple. It is the excitement that I think our relationship needs.” At the pit stop in Warsaw, Joyce says, “Uchenna and I communicate very well when we have the same goal. I know I rely on Uchenna for a lot and I don’t know what I would do if he wasn’t there.” There were no confessionals on the race or their strategy.

With Danny and Oswald, it is still “what you see is what you get.” They left the first pit stop saying, “Danny and I are having fun and enjoying ourselves while being competitive. We’re not stupid, we’re competing, and we’re going to help people to a degree, but no alliances or joint ventures.” We have seen them being friendly and helpful with all the other teams, but that is the end of their story. I loved that Danny played “heart and soul” at the "Perfect Pitch" detour instead of a scale! We are having fun racing around the world with them, but how long will it last?

Dustin and Kandice had two very good legs, including a first place finish. This was the racing we saw in TAR10: they navigated well, read the clues carefully, kept their cool and had fun. Dustin acknowledged the other racers, “I think this race is more challenging. Everyone knows how to work every angle in every situation. All the tricks we thought we had, they have too.” Kandice added, “There’s time in the race where you stay in the middle. This is the point where you have to step it up.” Not only did they step it up, their camera time was expanded as well. We learned that Dustin plays the piano and she was used to further explain about piano tuning. At Czapski Palace, they stopped a moment and enjoyed the piano player and commented, “This is gonna be fun.” Dustin’s character was further expanded in describing Charla and Mirna. Dustin is assertive in a polite way and she was used to describe Charla and Mirna’s unorthodox and impolite style of racing (versus their style which was far more successful). When they won the first leg, Phil reintroduced their story line of wanting to be the first all female team to win. Kandice replies, “We definitely think it’s possible to be the first all-girl team to win. We just have to have the focus that we need to stay on top and consistency. The Blondes are back on board.” I note that they say they think its “possible” to be the first female winners. Last season, they were edited as “Yes we will be.” It’s a different nuance and I think they will do better than fourth place this time. They ran a good second leg, and ended up in third because their cab driver wasn’t familiar with Krakow, allowing the Cha Cha boys and Uchenna and Joyce to get to the intersection ahead of them. They were grace under pressure waiting at the intersection (I think most other teams would have displayed some angry behavior!) They kept up their good humor and kindness working with Charla and Mirna, their last choice of a partner. Lastly, they were the first team to correctly read the clue to the roadblock. Kandice and Dustin have stepped up their racing. Now the story will be can they keep it up and be the first all-girl winners of The Amazing Race?

Charla and Mirna began the episode in first place, but their only talk of strategy was talking about how it’s easier not being in first! “We really love the feeling of coming in first, but it’s almost better to be UTR than have all these people see you as a threat.” Their first place giddiness quickly disintegrated and they returned to the self-pitying whiners they were earlier. They were portrayed well in the recap (although the editors chose to point out that Charla had been seasick). Dustin commented on the cousins, “Charla and Mirna are rude. They’ll lean across the desk and get in someone’s face. I’ve seen the ticket agents become pretty frazzled.” Later she comments, “I think it’s funny they way they interact, the way that they bark at each other.” We are supposed to see them as slightly villainous and as comic relief. Michel commented earlier about Charla and Mirna being good with locals. It didn't seem as if a lot of Poles spoke English, but Charla and Mirna were the ones we saw complaining about it. And neither of us noted the irony of that statement, especially in light of the fact that Mirna had already had one meltdown in front of a cab driver! Schmirna may have book smarts, but their comments at the “Perfect Pitch” piano tuning detour were nonsensical, “clean it off, rub it a little, it’s dirty.” I don’t know of any instruments that get tuned that way! Although Charla did know when they hit a wrong note, “it sounds like an ambulance!” (I felt bad for the pianists watching the racers with their piano. You could feel them wincing at they way the piano was treated by Charla and Mirna, Danny and Oswald, and Eric and Danielle!) They completed the "Perfect Angle" detour quickly once they got there, but we were shown more of their comedy of errors getting there (the mannequin losing a leg and a hand). But Mirna didn’t see the comedy or fun in these tasks, she kept saying everything was ridiculous and criticized the country, “I don’t want to be around these people. I don’t want to be here.” I don’t think the producers would include a winner complaining so much about a particular country if they were to be the winners of All-Stars. The biggest difference in the way that Charla and Mirna and Dustin and Kandice are edited was evidenced at the “Eat It Up” detour, and this is why I can’t take Charla and Mirna seriously. They are edited as comic relief. When Dustin couldn’t keep her sausages down, she quickly puked off camera. (Best line of the night was Eric’s, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss California,” which Dustin acknowledged with a laugh.) It was just awful (and awfully funny) the way they showed Charla sticking a knife down her throat to lose her sausages and then a close up of her face with vomit on it. (I was laughing along with the Blondes. Charla’s sound effects and their affect on the teams still eating was hysterical.) Mirna is very negative and Charla can be too. It seems as if their story is “against the odds” they make it to the final three.

For a team that ran most of the two legs in last place, a lot of time was invested in –Danielle and Eric, their relationship and their racing strategies. Earlier in the season we saw Eric making juvenile comments; the past three legs we have seen the immergence of Danielle the complainer. “This race is testing our relationship. We were never put in such extreme situations and we argue a little bit, but I’m his teammate and I have a right to put in my opinion and he gets snippy.” Earlier we thought that Danielle had to prove herself to Eric, now I think that she has to learn to respect Eric. She threw several temper tantrums and her come back to him was, “oh grow up.” If Eric has been ignoring her, we haven’t seen it. He explains his reasons (i.e. for denying her her coffee, they need to stick to a budget. It’ll be interesting to see if someone has a money shortage at some point in the future.) At the airport near Zanzibar, Eric comments, “We definitely want to improve our position. We’re very competitive. We don’t like where we are and we want to move up.” First on the agenda: beat the Guidos. They reach a truce in Kilimanjaro and end up racing with them the entire way to the second pit stop. Eric stays calm and doesn’t waste any energy freaking out. I admire that Eric has been able to stay calm being in the back of the pack and with Danielle harping on him. They bickered from Zanzibar all the way to Krakow! At the seventh pit stop, Phil asks them, “You haven’t lost confidence have you?” Eric replies, “Well, we don’t feel that horrible about it. We think we can win this if we’re in with everyone else, but it’s a matter of being with them.” Considering they were in fifth place, it is a telling mat chat. These comments come at the same pit stop where Phil asks Dustin and Kandice if they were going to be the winners. These two teams haven’t interacted much, but they will have to down the stretch. In spite of their bickering Danielle is very happy at both pit stops not to have been eliminated; she hasn’t given up even though she talked about how miserable she was. All of the racers were moved and spoke eloquently about Auschwitz, but Eric was the only person to also put the experience in the context of the race. “For Danielle and I to go to Auschwitz puts things in perspective. All the dumb little fights over nothing, bickering, it turns that stuff into nonsense. It’s stuff that doesn’t matter…” To place so much emphasis on the fact that they aren’t getting along makes me think that they do figure out a way to work together.

To me it seems as if the editing has given Dustin and Kandice and Eric and Danielle a challenge to overcome. The one that meets the challenge the best will be our winner.