Last-place Brian & Greg, the brothers who became everyone's favorites, were eliminated from the race last night, but donned swimsuits and winter hats and strolled up to the mat like the alpha men they are. God bless them. They were the classiest losers of any reality show ever.
I'm going to miss the fun they had and the one-liners. Driving through Africa and seeing a sunrise with your kid brother is priceless: "Dude, We should be dating."
Team Survivor won yet another leg of the tour. Rob and Amber reached the finish line first in Botswana, and won a trip to Monte Carlo. They've already won trips to the Bahamas and London previously on the show. They got off to a good start in the goat-milking competition (I scored 'em a 5.5), while having a good time, enjoying the race, and being with each other: "It's just a blessing," Amber said. "We're the two luckiest people in the world."
Not so, Ron and Kelly - the former Iraqi War POW and his bitchy girlfriend. He had mildly ragged on her earlier for not being able to balance a bucket of water on her head ("You do ballet. You should be able to do this.") before giving up and milking the goats. Later, at the roadblock, Kelly became unglued:
Ron: "Kelly, chill for a minute."
Kelly: "I have nothing to say to you. What you just said to me was absolutely . . . rude. You need a new attitude."
Ron: "So what did I say to you? I don't even know what I said."
Kelly: "You said, 'Shut the F up' to me."
Ron: "I did not! I really don't think that I said 'Shut the F up.'"
Kelly: "Yes, you did. You've really been acting like a jerk to me. You're a piece of trash redneck."
Whoa. Either CBS did some editing, or 12 million viewers were just blown away like Ron was. Kelly is a serious bitch and the writing is on the wall for these two - their relationship is not going to last.
Meanwhile, Uchenna and Joyce continue to be fan favorites. While carrying the baskets balanced on their heads (the only team to do it), Uchenna said: "The village people. The people from my father's village did this. I've seen it a thousand times. My African roots are kicking in." The couple had a boo-boo with removing the flag instead of the entire post, but they were still far enough ahead that the 9-mile return to the roadblock area didn't drop them down further.
Lynn 'n Alex continue to have bad luck with transportation. They've had boat and car problems before, and needed TWO replacement vehicles in this leg. That's the bad news, the good news is they were supportive of each other and were more focused on the race. Lynn let the younger Alex drive through the crocodile-infested river crossing and do the driving roadblock task, even though Alex was not as familiar with driving a manual transmission. And pretty funny that the guys thought they were last, and hoping it was a non-elimination round, put extra clothes on in case Phil confiscated all their money and backpacks. They were shocked to learn they were in 4th place.
Merideth and Gretchen continue to surprise everyone. Once again, the older couple goofed and missed the clue but still finished safely. How do they do it every week? They are one of the final FIVE teams -- I think the highest finish of any of the senior contestants on any of the shows.
All in all, it wasn't the most exciting leg of the race but was cool to see giraffes, wart hogs (Lynn didn't know what it was), hippos, crocs, elephants, ostriches and zebras in Botswana. I like this type of racing (in vehicles through game reserves) more than the constant shots of the racers in line at the airport counters.
Tonight (Wednesday 4/6) CBS will air a one-hour retrospective episode (8 p.m. ET/PT), which will include never-seen footage from the current Race.
