Rob and Ambuh made to the mat first again this week but this time host Phil informed them it was NOT the pit-stop and was only there to hand them their next clue! Think your tired now! Race on!
I love this new twist the Amazing Race producers have thrown at the teams - a couple of which (ahem, Lynn) were complaining about how tired they were. So Phil's raised eyebrow was our clue that he was throwing a wrench into everyone's plans for a rest stop. Which means no one was eliminated last night as the episode was the first of a two-parter.
Rob and Amber, the Survivor couple, keep up the pressure on the other teams but refusing to give up the lead. I loved it when Rob told the ticket agent in Botswana not to let the other teams book on the same flight as he and Amber, and Ron 'n Kelly did. The lady was shocked, and asks what to say when they ask her about it, and Rob just tells her to "point to me and I'll look at them and smile." And she got it. Only Rob could have the charm to pull that off.
Arriving in India, gutless wonders Ron & Kelly wimped out at the Yield and chose not to give the hour-delay to Rob & Amber who were right on their heels -- literally, standing right behind them. How incredibly stupid. It was a perfect opportunity to set Team Survivor back and Ron lost his nerve. No million dollars for these two with such stupid thinking.
So the five teams arrived in the teeming streets of Lucknow, India, where apparently, hundreds of people (and a few cows) have plenty of time to stand around and watch an American TV reality program being filmed. Oh, here are two TV stars?!? Marvelous! [applause] What the heck for?
Teams arrived to search 600 boxes that contained only 10 clues -- sounds hard but most teams managed easily. The producers could have thought of something more interesting in India than rumaging through shinny boxes. And it definitely was not as good a Roadblock as that wonderful bonbon eating fest in AR6 when teams had to eat through thousands of chocolates to find just a handful of vanilla-filled centers to earn their next clue. Or the one with the rolls of hay that kept one team 8 hours in a field. Now those were roadblocks! This task was lame.
The detour saw all five teams elect to do the "liquid" task which meant serving tea to five strangers in a huge office building where they had to find the correct employee, give him the tea and collect his business card. Too bad it wasn't in one of those infamous customer service phone centers -- I want to see who "Chip" or "Gary" is that talk Americans through how to fix our damn computers and internet crashes.
Gretchen got off a good line when she said, "You took the man's tea! Shame on you!" after a misunderstanding with an Indian office worker. You tell 'em Gretch!
Speaking of Merideth & Gretchen, the older couple continue to be flummoxed (is that a word?), frustrated, overwhelmed, cranky, frazzled, rattled, exasperated, and often cluelessly moaning . . . honestly, I don't know how these two are still in the game. Rob's been bragging on being the lucky one, but he's got nothing on the luck that these two seem to have. The AARP team will be eliminated and soon -- either next week or the week after. I can't see them in the final three.
Lynn 'n Alex and Uchenna 'n Joyce raced well as usual. Wierd, though, that Lynn is so obsessed with Rob that he was shocked when he found that Rob didn't yield them. And why should he? Lynn would be hurt to know that Rob doesn't think about him all the time or has made it his life's wish to beat Lynn on Amazing Race. Rob will use a yield on Lynn only if it is absolutely necessary in order to win the $1 million prize -- a goal that Rob dreams about, but Lynn seems to forget quite often.
