On the surface it seems like viewers will expect Dustin and Kandice to win with perhaps Charla and Mirna making a run for it; however I think the recap from the previous week hints as to what might really happen:

Dustin and Kandice to Oswald and Danny: “We have forty-five big smackers for you to use your yield on Danielle and Eric.” It makes the yield seem like the Blondes idea.

Eric and Danielle: “We’ve been yielded again. You guys are pieces of sh*t.” (They are the underdogs and they’ve had bad luck again.)

Mirna, “Some people don’t realize that sometimes the yield can backfire.” (Foreshadowing for Dustin and Kandice).

The Noodle detour emphasizes how fast Eric and Danielle are doing. While Charla and Mirna argue and work inefficiently, Phil points out that Eric and Danielle make up for lost time and finish quickly. Then Charla moans, “Eric and Danielle finished the detour and we’ll still here.”

We are reminded that Dustin and Kandice used the yield on Eric and Danielle and it might come back to haunt them and that Eric and Danielle have had bad luck but they are fast racers when they are in the middle of the pack. Charla and Mirna are merely observers. Okay, I’m done. I don’t have to write any more!

Dustin and Kandice finished in first again last week and lead off with the first confessional by Dustin: “We are so pumped for this leg because we realize it’s kind of do or die for us. Win or go home. We’ve gone home before and we know what it feels like. We didn’t like it.” Combine this with their quote last week of fighting like wild animals to get into the final three, I think this could be their story; they did better than last time. They won’t finish first, but they will finish better than any other all-female team has. They ran an almost perfect leg, (and on Sunday night, Michel, I focused on the things that you mentioned regarding Dustin and Kandice) but on second viewing, there were some attempts to portray Dustin and Kandice as shallow and perhaps phony this episode. Kandice shouts out, “You look buff in your white shirt today Eric,” and the Blondes oh and ah over their Navy escort’s cute hat, cute uniform and cute nails. We also saw a hint of cockiness by them at the airport after they booked their flight, Eric steps up and says, “Can we do the same thing.” Dustin says in an aside, “The beauty of being first, we do all the work and they say ‘we’ll have what they have.’” At the Engine Care detour, Dustin and Kandice worked hard and fast to finish, but then we hear how they wanted to charm the sergeant. Kandice said, “There was no charming the sergeant. The sergeant was all about business. We weren’t getting anywhere with a smile. We had to scrub.” We have guessed that they have had some luck over the past two seasons with their smiles, but it’s never been alluded to before! But they raced so well and efficiently and enjoyed it so much that it is debatable how much damage the negative swing to their edit did to them. They both comment on how beautiful Guam is and on two different occasions Dustin remarks how patriotic she feels on Guam, including “I’m proud to be an American.” That is a pretty positive statement. Dustin was perfect in the Search and Rescue roadblock and we felt like we were there with her experiencing it too. In the coming attractions, we see that Dustin and Kandice have a little tiff. If Eric and Danielle didn’t have such an underdog edit, I would say that this is misdirection. However, in their mat chat with Phil, he says “Congratulations guys, you are one of the three teams that will be racing to the finish line for one million dollars.” Kandice replies, “We’ve been waiting to hear that!” Phil mentions that they have the chance to become the first all-female team, but he glosses over that to start talking about the next toy they’ve won, an ATV. Their fairy tale streak of first place wins could be at an end.

This week Charla and Mirna’s edit was “kinder and gentler,” and served to show us that they deserve to be in the final three. Charla said, “At first I was hesitant to come back to the race because it is challenging on my body and having the best racers of the Amazing Race competing against you, it’s scary. You have to be tough. There is no other way of playing this game.” This is the first time Charla has acknowledged her size and handicap and the difficulties she faced. At the ferry terminal, Mirna makes fun of the Blondes saying that they can’t use the internet. Charla corrects her, “No, I said I haven’t seen them use the internet.” Mirna is trying to discredit the Blondes as she has on several occasions in the past few weeks. To me is seems as if karma is going to come back and bite Mirna for not giving enough credit to them for being intelligent women. Later while exiting the Guam airport, Mirna says, “We beat the Beauty Queens, that’s nice.” I don’t think they’ll beat them in the end. Mirna wasn’t that annoying this episode, but she was a big goof starting with her comment, “How do you say airport?” to her taxi driver. When he responds airport (with a straight face!), she said, “We have to do the right accent. It makes all the difference in the world.” If she truly believes this, and this is their strategy, then they are really lucky to be in the final three! But then she borrows a cell phone and makes her airplane reservation which has been her best and most successful strategy of the game. Charla, who we haven’t heard from much this season, gets her second confessional, “We decided to do the humanitarian care package because I like to help people in need.” This reminds me of Lyn and Karlyn’s edit when during the last two legs we started to hear more from Lyn, the rational member of the team. But then we switch back to Mirna whining, “Charla can you run, please, it’s for a million dollars.” As Oswald predicted (in general) earlier at the airport, “they’re running around like a chicken without a head” Mirna is running around the tarmac like a crazy lady. The Air Force man chides her, “Please put it in with some degree of love.” She replies, “I love it,” with a quick kissing noise. He insists, “Don’t just throw it in like garbage.” Mirna has no sense of planning; she goes off half-cocked. The editors would like us to consider Charla and Mirna as candidates for the win, but this scene just showed how they can’t compete against the stronger, more focused teams of Danielle and Eric and Dustin and Kandice. Mirna has book smarts, but no strategy. Their experience on the C-17 was really cool; they enjoyed it but then they had to wreck it by telling the USAF to go faster! (Some nerve!). After the detour, they were back to being drama queens when they got lost, “It’s a matter of life and death.” Charla was almost crying, “We want to come in first place…when you try this hard…you want to be rewarded.” When Phil tells them they are the third team to make the finals, we don’t hear the same ear-splitting shrieks that we did last time. Their spot in the final three is further validated when Danny and Oswald say that “we would love for Charla and Mirna to win because those ladies are a class act.” They live in Mirna and Charla world and I don’t see them overcoming that to win. If they were to win, we’d see them as stronger racers and some of their flaws would’ve been hidden (Like hearing “Ma’am please don’t touch the buttons” over and over again!)

Eric and Danielle are still considered the underdogs. As they leave the pit stop in Macau, Eric flat out says, “It’s down to everything. It’s been a long road; we didn’t come all this way, through all this crap, to lose.” Early on Eric makes three juvenile comments about Danny and Oswald (they suck, I hope they get lost and the ferry sinks etc.) furthering their underdog story (but giving them a negative characterization). They must knock out the Cha Chas to make the final three, but even if Eric was talking smack about Danny and Oswald, he was still on the alert for Dustin and Kandice, and he searched the ferry to see if they were on it. (Eric knows there is still one more team that he has to beat to win the million dollars.) At the airport Danielle bemoans their luck, “Hopefully we’ll get a good flight because we all know our worse luck comes with flights.” Eric adds, “There is so much at stake, there are three teams going into the final leg. That’s it, one team is done.” Perhaps there was a bit of foreshadowing at the air traffic controller tower in Guam when Eric says to Danielle, “Hurry up. They’re going to beat us.” Up to the top of the tower maybe, but not at the end? During the Engine Care detour, Eric is encouraging to Danielle, “Keep it up, I know you’re tired.” They bicker, but I believe that he spoke to her this way the entire race. I don’t understand why they were portrayed so negatively. They came up against a lot of bad luck (being kicked off the plane, having TAR confirmed tickets we overbooked, two yields) that an underdog edit should have been enough. At this point, they’ve stopped worrying about Danny and Oswald, but they’re still the underdogs. At the roadblock Eric moans, “The roadblock is more suited to me. Danielle is doing the roadblock because I’ve already done all mine. She doesn’t know how to read a compass.” (Ah Eric, A GPS unit is a lot easier to read than a compass!) But he’s right as Danielle cries, “I’m such an idiot…I don’t want to do this…Why is this so difficult for me?...Eric is going to kill me…we’re not going to be in the top three because of me.” But not all is lost, she finishes second and Eric greets her with a hug and a “Good job, Dan, nice job.” At the pit stop Eric responds to Phil, “You’ve got to be proud of Danielle, she’s beat out a lot of really strong teams in this race.” “She’s awesome, she’s doing good. “In spite of all the bickering and stuff which is no big deal, she’s doing awesome. I’m really proud of her.” (If he discounts the bickering, should we also?!) If Eric and Danielle do win, perhaps we will understand why they were portrayed the way they were after the season is over. Dustin and Kandice have reached the peak of their story arc; Eric and Danielle still have momentum.

On a personal note, I have enjoyed watching Dustin and Kandice and Danny and Oswald race, along with Rob and Amber earlier, so no matter who wins, I will have enjoyed this season and probably rate it in the middle of the seasons I’ve seen. However judging from the lvoe lists, if Eric and Danielle win, there may be a lot of disgruntled viewers next week!

Good luck in the casino. Me? I was conflicted (aka wimpy) last Sunday! I thought Dustin and Kandice had already peaked.