Amazing Race Tidbits
CBS' The Amazing Race 10th Edition
Thoughts on Episode Six -- Kuwait City, Kuwait
Episode Six was an elimination leg. The saga of Peter and Sarah ended with a surprising last place finish. The Kentucky team of David and Mary caught up on the flight from Mumbai, India to Kuwait City, Kuwait.
In Kuwait City, teams took marked cars from the airport to Kuwait Towers for the Roadblock. David and Mary used the Fast Forward from the Kuwait Towers and a delaying tactic by their friends, the Cho brothers, to leap ahead of other teams. David was excited to do the Fast Forward, which involved getting a clue at a simulated oil well fire. David had always wanted to become a firefighter. They successfully completed it and finished first, avoiding the penalty.
The Cho brothers took a huge risk by helping David and Mary, but their moves at the Towers did not affect their placement. The Cho Brothers are the class team of Race 10, and one of the classiest ever.
At the Kuwait Towers in downtown Kuwait City, one team member had to climb outside one of the spheres on one of the towers, actually a water tank, and find a satchel at the top. THen they took the elevator down with the satchel that contained puzzle pieces and opened a trunk with more puzzle pieces. Once completed, the puzzle revealed the name of a market where they would receive their next clue from a bead merchant at a marked stall. The Roadblock did affect some placements, and impacted times as teams appeared to complete the Roadblock in differing times, especially the puzzle portion.
Erwin and Godwin got much needed help from a policeman who escorted them to the market.
Episode Six Roadblock |
||
|---|---|---|
Team |
Team Member |
Result |
| Tyler and James | Tyler | First to complete puzzle |
| Peter and Sarah | Sarah | Second to complete puzzle |
| Karlyn and Lyn | Karlyn | |
| David and Mary | Completed the Fast Forward | |
| Rob and Kimberly | Kimberly | Third |
| Dustin and Kandice | Kandice | |
| Erwin and Godwin | Erwin | Last |
Manual: Teams have to find a commercial feed market called Souk Sulaibiya.
Automatic: Teams have to find the Kuwait Camel Club and load a radio controlled simulated jockey onto a camel and start the jockey up to drive the camel 140 yards down a race track.
The Automatic, or camel race, Detour was very easy. Those that missed it lost a lot of time. Lyn and Karlyn picked up a place by choosing it, and Tyler and James avoided elimination by switching to it.
Episode Six Detour |
||
|---|---|---|
Members |
Detour Selected |
Result |
| Tyler and James | Automatic | Switched Detours after becoming badly lost to save sixth place. |
| Peter and Sarah | Automatic, then Manual | Totally lost on the way to both. |
| Karlyn and Lyn | Automatic | Gained a place |
| Dustin and Kandice | Manual | These women are strong! |
| Erwin and Godwin | Manual | Lost a place to the Alabama moms |
| Rob and Kimberly | Manual | Worked quickly and efficiently to finish first. |
| David and Mary | Completed Fast Forward | |
James and Tyler were so lost on the way to the site for the Manual Detour, and drove around for hours, they gave up and took the easier Automatic Detour to save sixth place.
Peter and Sarah were totally lost, as they explained on the FINISH LINE webcast on the Amazing Race 10 website. Sarah could not read the map, although Peter made more sense of it, but he waited a long time to look at it, after reaching the Kuwait Towers again, near sunset. The map may not have been the best as it did not show Sixth Ring Road, which was hard for at least three teams to find. There was confusion in the name for the Manual Detour location, and many locals did not know about the Kuwait Camel Racing Club either. Souk means market, but the place name, without the word for market, was a neighborhood miles away from the feedlot for the bagging challenge. The last time they got to the neighborhood, well into their long journey into night, they had to be extracted for their safety. They were as close as two miles to their destination, and as much as 80 miles away before finding the right way. They traveled over 450 kilometers or 270 miles, needing to stop for gas.
Outlook for Episode Seven
The Amazing Race 10 has been less predictable than the previous couple of editions, with teams that are very competitive. The six remaining teams have diverse backgrounds, including a team of black single mothers and another all female team. The six teams are skillful and resourceful. Each of the teams has a unique combination of strengths and weaknesses that have emerged.
Comparison of Teams in AMAZING RACE 10 |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
Place |
Members |
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
| 3 | Rob and Kimberly | Athletic, fast enough in footraces, good at tasks | Arguing, fighting, hot tempered. Rob loses patience easily and has flair for the dramatic, Kimberly fights for control. |
| 6 | Tyler and James | Most athletic team, intelligent enough | Not paying attention to details of clues, immature, trouble communicating with locals |
| 5 | Erwin and Godwin | Very intelligent, athletic enough | Small in stature, bad luck |
| 1 | David and Mary | David is athletic and has traveled. Mary has sweet personality, and is a quick read | Mary is weak, does not like to hear advice, afraid of unknown, and has an injured ankle |
| 4 | Karlyn and Lyn | Communication, determination | Limited traveling experience, short in stature, slow at tasks, fair in rowing, Karlyn is not as strong in upper body, Lyn may be slower in footraces |
| 2 | Dustin and Kandice | Competitive, college educated, athletic, Dustin is fast driver | Not paying attention to details of clues--or even preservation of clues, try to push ahead of others, not fastest in foot races, emotional, boy watching. Dustin is bossy and domineering. |
Dustin and Kandice finished a strong second, and because David and Mary took the Fast Forward to win, the beauties posted the strongest performance in Kuwait, completing all regular tasks first. They were aggressive, but effective, coming back from being lost in the market by passing Kimberly and Rob. Likewise, Kimberly and Rob posted a steady performance to nail down third place.
Lyn and Karlyn posted their best performance thus far with adequate navigation and by choosing the easier Detour, Automatic. The Cho brothers sacrificed their good position for David and Mary. They fell only a place back to fifth when they chose to do the Manual detour over the easier Automatic that Lyn and Karlyn took. If Tyler and James could avoid mental errors, and they have already committed several blunders, they would be virtually unstoppable. Tyler and James have the habit of mocking locals and not listening to them. As a result, they got seriously lost on the way to the Detour, only to be exceeded by the hapless Peter and Sarah. Mary has a badly sprained ankle that could slow her way down, something to watch for as they benefited from the Fast Forward.
The theme of Amazing Race 10 is the promise of twists, turns, and surprises never seen before in the Race, clearly seen in Episodes 1, 3, and 5. The non-elimination leg arrived on schedule, but with a twist. What will Episode 7 reveal about the teams and who will be eliminated next? Watch Sunday, October 29 at 8PM Eastern/Pacific after 60 Minutes. Also, be sure to catch the FINISH LINE at 1 PM Monday October 30 on the THE AMAZING RACE 10th Edition Web site.
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