Eric and Danielle are barely still in the race after coming in last in the ninth leg of the Amazing Race: All Stars. Once again, stubborn Eric refused to stop and ask for directions and his frustrations are causing his team to lose time. Since it was a non-elimination leg, the fighting Eric and Danielle have another week to insult and scream at each other, watch Team Shmirna pass them by, and roll their eyes at the beauty queens.
This leg of the race began at the deserted Kuala Lumpur airport where teams waited in the wee hours for ticket counters to open at 5 a.m. The three teams that got on the 8 AM and 9:15 AM flights were in a race to the mat, but Eric and Danielle couldn't get a flight until 3 hours later. That was about it - half an hour into the episode and the racers are still at the airport!
Danny and Ozzy were first to the roadblock in Hong Kong and nabbed the fast forward - an easy car ride on a movie set, even if the driver did deliberately roll the car. "You have to do a good job here. My mother wants me back," Ozzy told the stunt driver. "If I wet these pants, they're the only clean pair of pants that I brought."
Another waste of a fast forward for the producers. The FF should be offered only on legs where teams are bunched up at the front, otherwise why reward the people who are already ahead? It's a given who goes for it, so there's no strategy or suspense here. The amazing part of this season's Amazing race is how easy all of the tasks are - even the fast forwards have been ridiculous. (Oh we miss those days when Brandon refused to shave his head, then said it was because he couldn't let Nicole shave her head.)
In the detour, team had to choose between "Kung Fu Fighting" and "Lost in Translation." In "Kung Fu Fighting," teams had to climb up an 11-story bamboo scaffold while avoiding an ongoing battle between stunt kung fu guys flying all over the scafford. In "Lost in Translation," which no one choose, the teams would have had to look for a specific sign among hundreds of nearly identical Chinese signs.
Then teams took the ferry across to Hong Kong Island and went to an abandoned police building where one member kicked down doors to find the clue at the Road Block. Little person Charla handled the task easily but Eric had the most fun - kicking down doors seemed to ease his frustrations a little bit.
Meanwhile beauty queens Dustin and Kandice continue to make the race look easy, racking up another second place finish. Danny and Ozzy were a walk to the mat in first place and won a trip to return to Hong Kong. Mirna and Charla were third but we won't know until next week when we see the start times to know how far behind Eric and Danielle are. Hopeful, this race will get more exciting soon, since it has largely been a snoozefest all season...
