gambitch - now available in blue

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Having watched the latest episode of The Amazing Race 6, where Don and Mary Jean were eliminated, joining Avi and Joe, Meredith and Maria, and most tragically, Lena and Kristy, I was compelled to log on and blog about the way this episode had finished. Freddy and Kendra somehow finished first, which is surprising but not particularly notable. What was actually was the fact that they beat Jonathan and Victoria in a frantic foot race to the Brandenburg Gate.

Actually, Freddy and Kendra beating Jonathan and Victoria was not particularly out of the ordinary. But it was probably the first time the Playboy model and her husband ever came this close to winning a leg. I will ignore last week, because there was a boat ride and they essentially missed the first boat. There would still have been a foot race to the Pitstop even if they did catch that boat. But this was different - the team was a sprint away from the Pitstop, and so their destiny was in their hands. No wonder Jonathan was frantic and decided to dump his bag, and probably screamed for Victoria to dump hers.

No doubt, TAR6 viewers around the globe will have all sorts of negative comments to say about Jonathan's behaviour during and after that sprint, which they eventually lost. Jonathan was horrible, absolutely horrible to his wife, I won't even bother to deny that. He made the poor woman cry when she realized there was no way she could outsprint Freddy and Kendra, not when she was carrying the bags. And instead of slowing down, tracking back and helping her, he yelled as all abusive husbands do. The fact that Phil could see the distress and had to tell Jonathan to go and talk to his wife said it all. Never in the history of The Amazing Race, or even in the history of reality television, has the host had to step in and try to help a contestant in distress. Which just goes to show the severity of this marriage meltdown.

You'd hope that they'll sort of make up and heal during the 12-hour break between entering and leaving this Pitstop, and just race properly. I would not count on it, just as I would not count on them quitting this race - Jonathan would not let her. He needs that million bucks to fund his next entrepreneural venture, or pay the next instalment for his Ferrari.

Anyway, everyone will have their opinion on Jonathan's terrible behaviour, and just about everyone will condemn him for his shoddy treatment of poor Victoria (who is made to look more than just dumb, but almost emotionally hopeless). For those who want to see what people have to say, you can start with this forum hosted by Television Without Pity. They're a fine bunch. But I want to do a different take on this particular incident.

Apart from being terrible and abusive, I would like to say that Jonathan, who claims himself to be a big fan of the show, is an absolute idiot. At the Roadblock, which was as straigforward as it probably gets, Jonathan, who got the envelope out of the clue box, should have realized that there were many envelopes still in the box. He actually reached the Roadblock in first place, and even though it is asking a lot for him to actually know that, he should have known that he and Victoria were somewhere in front. And when parking his car back at the Brandenburg Gate, both of them should also have realized there weren't that many cars around, which would again suggest that they were somewhere in front. The simple truth is that even if they did lose the foot race to Freddy and Kendra, they were in no danger of finishing even second to last, never mind get eliminated.

Oh, yeah, it's definitely nice to finish first, and get a free cruise or holiday trip sponsored by American Airlines. But as Colin and Christie, probably the most competitive team ever in the history of the show, told us last season, while it's nice to finish every leg in first position, the one that really matters is the first position in the final leg, and the million dollars that come with it. So, never mind Berlin. Just let it go, keep your wife happy, and pick up later, stupid!

And another thing - stopovers at the Pitstop last 12 hours, so a team checking in at noon will depart at midnight. Now, at the time Jonathan and Victoria had checked in, it was daytime. There is no reason to believe that they checked in at 10am or thereabouts, so they were probably going to leave late at night, late enough, perhaps, for either an Hours of Operation equalizer or airport equalizer to come into play soon enough. That means any lead you gain by sprinting that bit faster would ultimately be cancelled out. Surely Jonathan, being the big fan of The Amazing Race he claims to be, would have had no problem figuring that out. Or did the frenzy of the race already get to him and rob him of his intellectual faculties?

Stupid Jonathan.

gambitch [ 7:57 PM]