Simply Amazing: Mad-at-ungassed-car
By Wade Kwon
It’s make-or-break time for the hapless alliance known as the Six Pack on “The Amazing Race.” Birmingham’s Karlyn Harris and Lyn Turk have survived bad finishes, but can they survive their compatriots Team Kentucky and the Cho brothers?
The island-hopping African safari continued as six teams headed to Madagascar (the island, not the animated movie) to further their alliances in unexpected ways. Would a Six Pack team run out of gas?
Highlights from the eighth leg of the series …
Route: Mauritius to Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Cross purposes: The six teams arrive in Madagascar on the same flight, chasing down a black angel (“I don’t know why we’re looking for it, because I’m right here,” Karlyn quips).
Host Phil Keoghan introduces another new twist for the season, the Intersection. Teams pair off to work together until further notice. Even scarier, they’re surgically made into conjoined quadruplets!
Junkie models Tyler and James pair off with their bickering buddies Rob and Kimberly. They leap for the Fast Forward, the second and last of the race.
Beauty queens Dustin and Kandice are odd blondes out, as they await their mortal enemies, the Six Pack. They swipe the Chos, Erwin and Godwin, leaving Team Birmingham and Team Kentucky (David and Mary) to Six Pack like they’ve never Six Packed before.
We’re gonna need new nicknames.
Lip service: The jerky/models find the Fast Forward hard to swallow. Because they each must eat a plate of cow lips. They may have bitten off more than they can chew.
Because they’re idiots.
Their potential magic lead quickly shrinks with each passing retch from Kimberly. Wait, shouldn’t the models be puking out of figure-fixing habit?
Once upon eight mattresses: Blondes and Braun and Team Southern face a Detour between delivering mattresses on foot or making paper. Both megateams end up at the mattress challenge.
The B and B team speed through the challenge, while Team Southern stumbles all the way through. Still, they seem to be making more progress than the jerky/models … Is it an upset in the making?
Stamped out: Following the Detour or Fast Forward, the three megateams return to their original six-team configuration. At the Roadblock, one member must find four rubber stamps (plane, train and automobile, and boat) on a crowded vendor street, while the other member is chauffeured to the mat (lame). The beauty queens arrive ahead of the Chos, who end up waiting for the cab driver to refuel the car.
Dustin speeds through, as does Godwin. But alas, Godwin ends up with a second cab driver who stops for gas.
Later, it’s Kentucky vs. Alabama, not in football or basketball, but stamp collecting. Mary speeds ahead but still helps out lost Lyn. That’s class, but potentially costly.
As Lyn heads to the Pit Stop, her cab driver … stops for gas. What is this, the national pastime?!
Pit check: Karlyn and Lyn finish fifth out of five teams remaining. The beauty queens are first for the second leg in a row, beating out both Fast Forward teams. And David and Mary, who arrived before Team Birmingham but had a 30-minute penalty, are last. Strike three, they’re out.
Lyn can’t stop crying, saying “I’ve formed a lasting friendship with them, and I hate to see my friends go. … I just appreciate the spirit of who they are.” Six Pack … crushed.
“The Amazing Race” airs at 7 p.m. Sundays on CBS 42.
Next episode: Single moms Lyn and Karlyn cry some more, this time from their children’s video greeting. And everyone goes mudding.
Also:
- Consolation prizes for Team Kentucky? MacBook, digital camera, $1,000 gift card, SUV, house, vacations and a cruise. Damn, it’s good to be a
gangstercoal miner.
• • •
Pit stop: more “Amazing Race” coverage.
Thursday, November 9, 2006, 12:44 am
I’m sorry — they won a house? Like, an actual house, or something better than the holler-based lean-to they currently live in?