Eyebrows and Pitstops: Week 9

One reason I’ve always liked The Amazing Race is that it’s one of the few reality completion shows that doesn’t play on the worst parts of the human condition. While I certainly don’t have a problem with those that do (witness my Thursday blog on The Duel), I’ve appreciated that the Race keeps it clean. However, I’d be lying if I hadn’t spent the last week salivating at the advertised throw down between sisters Jen and Kisha and mom/son team Margie and Luke.

The great marketing minds at CBS certainly played up the confrontation from the get go and it’s a damn good thing because otherwise this could have been the most forgettable episode of Amazing Race since the family edition. Mark and Michael started so far behind the rest of the teams that you knew before the show started that they’d be eliminated. Kudos should go to the guys for not walking through this leg in a morose fog and instead enjoying their journey to the fullest. So with their departure a preconceived notion, the only real drama was the slotting of the other teams and of course the much hyped altercation.

As we wind down on the season this certainly appears to be one of the most competitive final four we’ve had in a while. The self proclaimed ex-cheerleaders continue to be my most hated team and if not for the four hour deficit of Mark and Michael were clearly in the most danger this week. This week we were presented with further proof that Jaime and Cara are not really ex-cheerleaders as they couldn’t dance their way out of a detour. Meanwhile Victor and Tammy excelled with their use of the native language but found that it didn’t give them as big of a time advantage as they thought it would. In the end they finished in a pack with Kisha and Jen and Margie and Luke.

So that finally brings us to the two fighting teams. After reviewing the incidents over and over again thanks to the multiple replays in the episode it does appear that Luke is a bitch. In incident number one Jen and Luke did arrive at about the same time to the clue box and Luke damn near elbowed her in the face. On the second incident Luke was clearly the aggressor as he nearly shoved Jen to the ground. Now I’m willing to give the kid the benefit of the doubt on the first incident but on the second he clearly was up for some physical shoving. Luke’s bitchness though was nothing compared to the bitchassery his mother displayed at the pit stop. When she pulled out the old “you’re black you should know how oppression feels” card on Jen and Kisha I thought things were going to get a lot worse but thankfully the sisters stood back and smiled. Speaking of smiling I also get Kisha’s reaction to Luke’s attack. I often will smile or laugh at someone when they’re attacking me as a way to diffuse the situation. Sometimes it works and sometimes it unleashes attack mothers or in my case gets me choked.

In the end the fight was a lot of posturing and preaching and a fun distraction to an otherwise boring episode. Stay classy Amazing Race.