This episode starts off where we left off last week – in Burkina Faso. The first task has teams hiking to see a local man who presents them with a chicken that they must catch, bag and tote around all day long. They then headed to a town called Bouda Pelletenga in a taxi — Azaria and Hendekea were in first but a bathroom break allowed Nate and Jen and TK and Rachel to catch up, much to Azaria’s chagrin. The blonds decide to name their chicken Phil after the host, who they call ‘cute.’ (Woo woo)
The task that followed was a choice between panning for gold and dancing for a panel of judges. Most teams chose dancing, unfortunately for the viewers. Jen and Nate did an especially awful dance – she was ok, but he did little more than jump on the spot, so they got a 10-minute penalty, as did Ronald and Christina. But the dance that I thought was the worst was the one by the blonds – their’s looked more like a stripper dance than a traditional African one. But it worked – the judges passed them. The best dance? I loved Kynt’s creative moves.
Then teams headed to a nearby market, but only after passing a U-Turn. Every team passed up the opportunity to screw another team over except for Shana and Jennifer – they chose to delay Jason and Lorena, so the unlucky couple had to do both the gold panning and the dancing to get their next clue. This was not a very popular move and I said a few colorful words to them through my TV screen because I really like Lorena and Jason and was rooting for them to catch up after last week’s bad luck. TK and Rachel saw the blondes put up the U-turn and let them know they didn’t think much of the decision. I get that it’s a game and you’ve gotta do what you gotta do, but it just seemed like a catty move. What do you think?
The next task had one team member carting a bunch of stuff (including a goat!) to a market where they had to deliver it. The hard part was finding the place to deliver the stuff, and several teams fell behind doing this, including the blondes and TK and Rachel. I was secretly hoping the blondes wouldn’t make it back and would be eliminated but no such luck – they made it to the pit stop and were still in the race. Lorena and Jason put up a good fight but ended up being the ones to go home. Boo. They took it well, though, and I found myself tearing up just a bit when Jason consoled Lorena, telling her that they’re already rich because they have each other, among other cheesy but sweet things.
As for who came in First? Not surprisingly, Azaria and Hendekea took the top spot and won themselves some Yamaha motor scooters. Jen and Nate came in second and Jen ventured back into her toddler years by throwing a wee temper tantrum — apparently, it’s *her* turn to come in first for once, and it’s not fair that the engineers get to take the top spot again. Um, hello? It’s a race?
All in all, it was a bit of a boring episode if you ask me, but maybe that’s because I was a bit peeved that Lorena and Jason were sent home.
According to the previews, next week will have the blondes fighting and in a potential car accident. Is it karma coming back to get them? Stay tuned.
(All photos from CBS)