And then there were three. Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way. That was without a doubt the most expensive bathroom break in the history of The Amazing Race, right? Even as I sat watching the episode last night from my hotel in Maryland, knowing what was about to happen, I still couldn’t believe it. I know that it was really tough on Jen and that she felt truly responsible for their elimination…especially considering they had battled through the U-turn, the eating challenge and even moved ahead of the redheads and still came up several minutes shy of the final three. Both Kisha and Jen have competitive natures and I’m sure that elimination stung.
But I have to say, Kisha really impressed me again with her stoic response to the entire situation. She could have easily lost her cool on baby sis but she didn’t. She never blamed her or even get that upset…she knew that Jen was doing enough of that on her own. Kisha held it together like a great big sister should. Kudos to her.
I know that some people don’t like the eating challenges, but youhave to admit they are an excellent test of a person’s will anddetermination — especially at this stage in the game. If I were to makeit this far in the race, I can promise you that a starfish or a scorpion wouldn’t keep me from getting to the next leg. At that point I’meating anything I need to in order to advance. But even I was trulyimpressed with the ease with which a couple of the teams handled thoseAsian delicacies. They blew through that challenge. Cara was a machine.
Speaking of team Redheads — I think it goes without saying thatJaime might need to work on her people skills, specifically with taxidrivers. Each and every week I am truly amazed at her impatience withthe language barrier she faces in these foreign countries. Seems likeCara should have stepped in to assist in communicating with the driversby now but Jaime is still doing all the screaming.
Can’t believe we are almost at the end of this season. I feel likethis is one of the best editions we’ve ever done. The cast was amazing,the challenges were creative and unique and the pace was unstoppable. Ihope you guys feel the same.
Here’s my quick tease for the finale episode:
After 3 continents, 9 countries, and 40,000 miles, it all comes downto one final leg. The final three teams will square off in a leg thatwill test everything from their endurance, their memories, and eventheir sea legs. And one racer’s Karma may come back to haunt them. Twoteams will put their friendship first when they set aside the Race andhelp each other finish a task, and the final three teams will findthemselves racing neck-and-neck in their last task on the road to themillion dollar prize.
Final-Three Team Breakdown:
Cara and Jaime: Fiercely tough competitors but you have to wonder ifa local is going to lose their cool on them at some point with all thescreaming. Having said that, they definitely have the strength tobecome the first all-female team to win the Race.
Victor and Tammy: Seem to be coming on strong now. They’re focused,determined, and they feed off of each other’s tunnel vision. Definitelya stronger team heading into the final leg than they were when we firststarted this race. I love when team’s relationships grow on the Race.
Luke and Margie: Communicate better than any team left in the Race,but do they have the strength to battle it out against two very strongteams.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see next Sunday.
More ‘Amazing Race’:
Comments (1-30) of 100 Add your comment
Thanks Phil, informative as always
Phil,
Can you give us the exact amount of time between Jaime and Cara’s check in and Jen and Kisha’s? Would it have made a difference if Jen didn’t use the port-a-potty? Thanks!
The pee break still has me shaking my head. I totally would have peed my pants for that million. There are worse things to be remembered for on national TV.
I would think the karma coming back to one racer would be in the promo when they showed the taxi dispatcher yelling at Jaime. Although I wouldnt put it past the promos to try and trick us!
The first elimination because of an elimination in Amazing Race history.If it had been me in that same situation knowing how close the girls were,I’d have peed on the mat to get there first!
Speaking of the red heads,no wonder they’re divorced.
I HOPE JAMIE AND CARA win
and well i like them the most
seriously they worked the hardest
luke and margie are annoying (so were kisha and jen)
i dont mind tamy and victor although Jamie and CARA deserve it the most
We are such Amazing Race fans. That said, I think Victor and Tammy had too big an advantage to be able to speak Chinese in China for so many legs of the race! It also seems like Margie has done almost all of the challenges rather than Luke. I thought they had to do an equal number. Lastly, how come everyone knew to eat just the insides of the starfish except for Jen who ate it all? Thank for blogging and doing such a great job on the show!!!
How many legs have each of the final three won? It seems like Victor and sister have won 90%
To CB:
Phil said 10 seconds late – on the show, I believe….
CB, I think he already pretty much said that it cost them coming in third. But I would also like to know the exact amount of time. And I’m with Erika, I think I would’ve just had to pee my pants and then asked to go change and clean up once I got to the mat. Ah, well. I was impressed with K & J making up the time on that U-Turn, although I think J & C getting lost helped. I was impressed with how well the teams did on that food challenge,too. That’s the best I’ve seen any group of teams do with one of those. I did find it funny that out of all that stuff, the one Victor was worried about the most was the starfish. That one I think would’ve been of the least concern to me. I think it’s going to come down to Luke & Margie and Tammy & Victor, but I truly hope T & V take it. They’re my favorites. Also, Phil, putting the translations of what Jen & Kisha were saying at the restaurant? Genius. That was hilarious.
Thanks for the great blog, Phil! Just wondering, was the potty break really what caused them to lose? How late were Jen & Kisha? 1 minute? 5 minutes? Personally, I would’ve focused on dry things (sand. the crust of the fried bugs. etc.) and waited until after checking in to hit the bathroom.
if the time difference really was just 10 seconds then J&K would have had to have seen J&C leaving the matt. not quite buying it. Phil, did you just say that to further torture poor Jen?
I want Luke and Margie to win. Luke is so cute.
Folks, if you actually READ the blog up there, you’ll see the answer. He says right there that it was “several minutes”. The Pee-break was a non-issue…just editing and drama for TV.
one more comment for you, Phil…I’ve been following your ride across America. The video blogs are GREAT. I hope you have recovered from that nasty fall.
Phil, you said that you’d have thought Cara would have stepped in to communicate with the locals, rather than the rather psycho Jaimie “handling” that aspect. But do you think Jaimie would acutally LET her?? It seems that Cara has — in my mind sensibly — decided that her best approach is to just be quiet and not poke the tiger, as it were. In this epi, when Cara (for once) made a comment about Jaimie’s negativity, Jamie practically bit her head off, calling CARA negative. I was as flabbergasted as Cara looked. Better for her to just stay quiet, don’t you think?
Phil;
I think that T&V got a huge advantage over the other teams but especially in the last leg (fluent in Chinese….a task about speaking Chinese, they’ve been to the Big Nest…pit stop at the nest). It is unfair becasue it was clear that the other teams wasted a lot of time trying to communicate with the people on the streets, talking to the taxi drivers. Just saying….it is unfair.
I want the redheads to win, they’ve been miserable all this time and they are competitive. It will be a good price. It seems like they split the work 50/50. Karma will come back and bite the teams that used the u turn!
I’m wondering if Keisha and Jen really did get the dinner orders right. I loved the translations when they were off. It seemed like an impossible task for those who don’t know any Chinese. It didn’t seem like a fair task to be u-turned on.
Phil said, “I feel like this is one of the best editions we’ve ever done. The cast was amazing. . .” Oh, Phil, dream on. When you lost Mel and Mike, you lost the only truly nice team, and a lot of the interest in who would win. Now I’m just hoping that Team Ugly American (the cheerleaders) doesn’t take it.
It’s weird that CBS/Phil never seem to address the HUGE advantage that Tammy and Victor had by being able to speak Mandarin. It almost seems like flagrant bias by including China as a destination—it’s not like they took a crash course in Chinese before they started the race, clearly it was a skill set they had long before. And rarely (if ever?) have I seen a contestant admit that they had traveled a race location before, much less know the language fluently. I was rooting for Margie and Luke before the major meltdown last week, now I could care less who wins.
hate the cheerleaders find them rude was so hoping they would be eliminated. I don’t know why luke likes her maybe because he can’t hear them. I like his mother but I’m with her if he yells mom one more time at her. Anyway pulling for tammy and victor at least they learned after they trek to nowhere with the coffins in transylvania to get along and work together and they don’t yell
aw, i was hoping that jen and kisha would make the final 3, but that means we won’t have to hear margie and luke complaining about them, was kind of getting tired of their grudge. when the show first started, i didn’t really like tammy and victor, but they’ve grown to be one of my favorites, and i hope they win the $1 million! both of the challenges seemed fun, although the language one did seem kind of hard for people who aren’t familiar with the chinese language, and it was interesting when someone got a phrase wrong, and they put the english translation up, because victor is right, any change in pronounciation completely changes the word. i’m not an expert in chinese, but i know a little bit of japanese. in both languages, the characters are the hardest to learn. i wonder what you mean by one racer’s karma coming back to haunt them. could it be margie and luke’s grudge on kisha and jen? on the eating challenge, the bugs on a stick didn’t seem too bad. can’t wait for the finale!
Geez people – Tammy & Victor did have an advantage but…….it isn’t “unfair”. They didn’t know they were going to China when they signed up. They’ve had people speaking alot of different languages before. Some people were very well travelled & spoke multiple languages. Yes it helped on this leg with the restaurant. But knowing how to swim well helped Luke/Margie. Is that unfair? etc etc…… Just enjoy the show.
Doesn’t anyone remember the couple that had lived in Paris having a language advantage because they spoke French? I think they actually won the race that edition. It’s all luck of the draw.
@CBD: Joe and Bill (Team Guido) in season 1 crowed that they had lived in Paris for a few years when the race had a leg there. Of course, it didn’t seem to help them very much.
Based on what I know of game shows, it’s a good bet that the people who are responsible for casting can’t legally have anything to do with the people who devise the tasks and do the route planning. So I highly doubt that the pairing of Tammy/Victor and the legs in China is anything other than a coincidence.
CBD– there was also a year they went to Japan, and one of the contestants had lived there and spoke the language. Do we then laso eliminate everyone who took 4 years of Spamish in high school? They go to South America a lot.
Loved, keisha and Jen, really were hoping they would make the final three. I agree really got tired of the grudge thing with Margie and Luke–really find some gracious attitude somewhere-accidents happen. As for the language barrier, maybe Cara needs to take a step back and think about how she would like to be treated if roles were reversed, I would have let her out of the cab as soon as she got rude. Her partner may want to softly suggest using more honey than vinegar in her tone when they are in a foreign country. you go Tammy and Victor!!!
I hope there is never another contestant like Jamie. I am so tired of hearing her slam China and the Chinese people. What makes her think people of foreign countries are obligated to speak English–she is a GUEST in their country. She is an embarrassment to every American that travels overseas. The only feature of hers that shines like the sun is her ignorance.
I don’t think there’s anything unfair about the race being in China and the fact that Tammy & Victor can speak Chinese–they aren’t the first racers who have known a local language. My problems with it are 1) that there was a task that was essentially all about being able to speak the language; and 2) it is quite unusual, if not unprecedented, for the race to spend 3 straight weeks in the same country. We’re used to a little more variety in every season, but no Africa or South America this time.
Cara is one of my all-time favorite competitors. Relentless, and so relentlessly positive that even after weeks of Jamie that harshest thing she’s done is shrug! Between the massage challenge last week and the food one this week, she is all-round amazing. Which is ironic, because Jamie is one of the all-time worst. What are they, Zach & Flo 2.0?