Greetings fellow Amazing Race fans. Sorry for the one day delay. I notice through my DVR recording that the show aired at its normally scheduled time at my east coast home. However I had some work to do on a Sunday that prevented me from seeing the show until the next evening. But better late than not at all.
We left the previous broadcast knowing that Mark & Michael violated race rules twice and were to wait out a FOUR HOUR penalty before they can continue with the race. Also , they were in a non-elimination leg and with Mark & Michael in last place, they avoided elimination but would have to face the “speed bump” challenge on the next leg in addition to the long penalty wait. So I begin this week’s blog knowing that I predicted Mark & Michael are guaranteed elimination as there was a lot stacked against them.
So we begin in Bangkok, Thailand with teams leaving the pit-stop during the daylight morning hours. Margie & Luke left at 9:36am, Jaime & Cara at 10:30am, Tammy & Victor at 10:40am, Kisha & Jen at 12:43 pm and Mark & Michael at 4:08pm.
By the time Mark & Michael left the pit-stop, everyone else had made their first flights leaving Bangkok.
Teams had to fly to Guilin, China by making a connecting stop in the city of Guangzhou, China. Margie & Luke flew as a solo team and Jaime, Cara, Tammy and Victor flew on the next available flight and would meet Margie & Luke at the airport. All three teams were scheduled to take the same flight into Guilin, China. That flight was to leave at 8:30pm but was delayed.
Kisha & Jen spent the entire day traveling as a solo team bypassing the three teams whose flight was delayed. Their 9:10pm flight to Guilin was on schedule and they would arrive ahead of the other teams. Mark & Michael arrived the next morning. So the teams were pretty close to equal at this point.
Once teams finally arrived in Guilin, they had to take taxis to locate a hair salon for their next clue. That clue had teams travel to a bridge for the “roadblock” task. More on that later but things got interesting on The Amazing Race. A little competitive drama came into play.
This is the point when the competition finally got heated especially between the mother and son team MARGIE & LUKE and the sister team KISHA & JEN. It was both a physical and verbal confrontations as Luke appeared to elbow Jen as she pushed him while they both were racing to a clue box, then Jen called the deaf gay Luke a “Bitch” which Jen stood by very proudly saying she called Luke a bitch because it was a bitch move.
Luke’s mother would tell him in the taxi that he was called a bitch to which Luke responded in sign language that “it was a good thing that I was deaf because if I had heard her call me a name, it would have been ON”. Looked like fighting sign language to me. But we also saw in the separate taxi that Kisha & Jen also believed that the game was “on” for them too. Jen continued to refer to the mother and son team as “bitches”. Luke told his mother that it was time to play dirty but she cautioned him against it. But looking back on earlier legs of the race, Luke was ready to play dirty a long time ago. One of the eliminated racers referred to Luke jokingly as the “sinister deaf kid” with a few surprises up his sleeve.
Luke and Jen had another pushing match as they both reached the same clue box at the same time again. This time words were exchanged between Margie & Jen with Margie telling Jen to “cut it out” as Jen did push Luke to get the clue before him and Luke also pushed Jen into the clue box. Kisha stayed out of the physical fight but said that Luke’s behavior was “unacceptable”, defending her sister and teammate who was just as guilty if not more because of her name calling.
Back to the “roadblock”, it was a fishing task to be performed by one team member. They had to use a trained retrieving bird to get ten fish from the water and place into a bucket before getting their next clue. Four teams were performing this task at the same time with Kisha & Jen finishing first and former front runners Tammy & Victor and Margie & Luke slipping back.
Upon leaving the “roadblock”, Jen & Kisha referred to karma as during the “roadblock”, Luke was bitten in the hand by one of the birds. When that happened, you saw one of the many bits of drama queen diva come out of Luke. His reactions to being bitten by the bird and the small amount of blood the bite drew were definitely “diva” like.
Before Mark & Michael could proceed to the “roadblock” they had their “speed bump” task that had them washing and drying customer’s hair at the hair salon where the first clue was located. The “speed bump” was not a hard task and Mark & Michael appeared to have fun with it.
After the “roadblock” teams had to travel to an ancient gate across town for the next clue, the “detour”. The “detour” task choices were “Choreography” where teams would go to a local island to learn and perform dance routines or “calligraphy” where teams must copy Chinese lettering that would spell out the name of four calligraphy artist stations. They would have to meet all four stations before getting their next clue. That clue would include a photo of their next destination which would also be the next pit-stop called “Banyan Lake”.
The arrival at the pit-stop was the “amazing” in The Amazing Race. It was a three way foot race with the first three teams to choose the “calligraphy” detour and a near equal arrival at the pit-stop mat followed by more drama.
But first the arrivals at the pit-stop in order were
FIRST: Kisha & Jen and for being the winners, they won a vacation package to Barbados.
SECOND: Tammy & Victor
THIRD: Margie & Luke
The drama between Jen & Luke continued as they told their sides of what happened during the race. Tammy & Victor just stood there with confused looks on their faces and Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan tried to play referee. There was a moment when Luke played “diva” and walked off and angrily sign language the word “bitch” then Phil asked Luke to return to the mat so everyone can talk about it.
The drama escalated as Kisha & Jen smiled and even laughed which set Luke’s mother Margie into an angry response yelling about how Luke had been laughed at for his situation by people all of his life and compared it to the challenges that Kisha & Jen may have faced for their being black. Margie & Luke were clearly upset at Kisha & Jen for their constant smiling and chuckling during this confrontation to which Kisha responded that smiling and laughing is how they dealt with difficult situations. They tried to apologize but it appeared that Margie & Luke were not accepting it. Luke was especially angry and Margie eventually said she just had a bad day and wanted the day to end so she could forget about it.
The first three teams at the pit-stop were the also the first ones to choose the “calligraphy” detour choice while JAIME & CARA chose the dance routine “detour” first. It seemed to be a natural for them as they were cheerleaders and knowing and performing dance routines were their best suit. But this time, they could not meet the approval of the judges. They were repeatedly turned down and because of the language difficulty they considered giving up and performing the other “detour” but stayed with it and successfully completed the dance routine. Jaime & Cara’s struggle set them behind only slightly while Mark & Michael had no problems and broke no rules as they tried to regain their lost time. And while their physical size may make what I say next seem like an insensitive pun, Mark & Michael came up short. Jaime & Cara would eventually make it to the pit-stop in FOURTH PLACE and Mark & Michael were last to arrive and were eliminated.
So this season’s Amazing Race continues with the strongest teams of the season vying for the top three and for me, predicting the next team to be eliminated will be difficult. The previews show Jen struggling with her fear of water at a swimming task. The previews for the next broadcast show her wanting to give up. I doubt that would be the result.
It’s anyone’s guess as to who will make the final three. At this point anything I say about predictions is probably more of a preference than a prediction. I would like to see Luke & Margie and Jamie & Cara at least make the final three. I don’t really care which team of Tammy, victor, Jen and Kisha makes the final three. I could base any predictions on recent performance. If a team is having relationship problems or they are too focused on playing against another team more than actually playing the game they will struggle and suffer setbacks.
If the previews for the next broadcast are an indication, then Kisha & Jen will fall from their first place position. If Luke and his mother Margie remain angry with Kisha &Jen then they will fall out of this race very quickly. They have enough challenges travelling internationally with Luke’s hearing impairment. If they aren’t completely focused then the race is over for them. Tammy & Victor are the strongest team in terms of physical, mental and relationship strength. I am sure they will make the final three. Jaime & Cara have some catching up to do and one of them needs to check her attitude and impatience so they both can win. They get along with each other very well, but one of the former cheerleaders is a bit of a hot head.
So with those thoughts I have come up with these predictions.
THE FINAL THREE: I predict TAMMY & VICTOR to be included in the final three with a strong possibility of winning the Amazing Race. I also predict that Jaime & Cara WILL be in the final three. The third team in the final three is a difficult choice.
However my prediction for next ELIMINATION is not the team that appeared in the previews to be giving up due to a fear of the swimming pool (Kisha & Jen). My very reluctant prediction is that MARGIE & LUKE will be the next team eliminated. I hope I am wrong but I don’t get the impression that Luke will let go of his anger with Jen too soon and along with his mother’s support and defense they won’t be focused enough on the race to compete effectively and it will cause them to slip in their performance.
I really hope I am wrong in this case, but as it stands my prediction for next elimination is Margie & Luke with strong predictions that Tammy & Victor and Jaime & Cara will make the final three with a chance at winning the race and a stronger chance of Kisha & Jen being in the final three over Margie & Luke. However I would not be surprised if there were another non-elimination leg before the end of the race.
My preferences are that Jaime & Cara step up their game and become the first all-female winners of The Amazing Race. But that is very biased on my part because they are former cheerleaders of my hometown NFL football team, The Miami Dolphins. I would love to see them win.
I wouldn’t be upset with any of the teams winning The Amazing Race this season. This season saw the eliminations go as they should. The weakest were gone one team by one and there were no real manufactured superstars who are expected to win just because of who they are.
I am looking forward to a good finish to The Amazing Race in the coming weeks. And wish my readers a happy and safe week. Enjoy the great spring weather too.
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