Culturally Preconditioned

Continuing from the last episode… teams arrive at the pseudo-pitstop in the following order :

1. Ann & Diane
2. Marc & Roviltwat
3. Collin & Adrian
4. Paula & Natasha
5. Daichi & Sawaka
6. Henry & Terri
7. Pam & Vanessa

.. only to discover that this leg of the race wasn’t over yet. So they get their next clue to the race, which is to travel to Hakata Port, the international ferry terminal where teams had to board a ferry to Busan in South Korea. Personally, I was really bummed that they didn’t have an actual pitstop in Japan, but life .. I mean, the race.. goes on.

All of the teams were again bunched up for the 320 km ferry ride. Well at least this is a brand new mode of transportation to move from different countries. Once in Busan, they had to find the Jongro Taekwondo Academy and had to break three wooden planks each. I wasn’t expecting there to be so much chaos (scratching that word cause that fucking Roviltwunt used that word full of ‘wit’) pandemonium going on trying to find the location. But it did, and finding this initial location pretty much painted how the order of pitstop was roughly going to be.

Once at the academy, almost everyone managed to break their planks with not much trouble. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the teams were allowed to actually keep their TaeKwonDo uniforms. I don’t think this ever happened in previous tasks that involve them wearing uniforms or outfits. They next had to take a taxi and go to Jagalchi Market and find a clue near the Golden Pig statue. Teams were cautioned that Yield was ahead. They were so much smack talk coming from Sawaka and Daichi, and also Paula and Natasha about yielding the Dancing Mums. I’m still trying to figure out where much of the hatred were coming from.

I thought nobody was going to really yield anybody, but Terri and Henry yielded… Marc and Roviltwat, which was surprising considering Marc and Roviltwat had already arrived there. However, as some viewers have pointed out, (thanks MrsG!), it might’ve been a calculated risk on their part, since they can’t really tell if Marc/Roviltwat is either ahead of or behind them - and if any teams needed to be yielded, these two were definitely the ones because they are becoming incredibly dangerous and super incredibly annoying in this race. So, in short, the yield was wasted in this leg.

The next detour was to either (1) Slither - where they had to fish for two tokens from a tank full of slimy octopus, or (2) Deliver - where they had to eliver food to three different addresses. All of the teams performed Slither. I mean, after watching a gazillion episodes of Amazing Race, 99.99% of the time, delivering things to places with weird addresses is NEVER a good thing to do.. so I was surprised when Daichi and Sawaka opted to do it. I was also laughing my ass off when Natasha screamed “OMG the octopuses are mating!”. (I don’t know why.. but I miss Aurelia.. imagine the even weirder stuff that she could’ve said here).

They next had to travel through the APEC building to get a clue. The next clue leads them to the final roadblock in this leg. Teams had to travel to Yongdusan Park, where a gatekeeper will hand them a key, and they need to find a matching lock on the gate (they were probably around a hundred locks there?). Pretty unoriginal and lame considering this has been done before on the season with Romber on it - and at least THAT one gave an actual chance for teams to catch up (they must’ve had over a thousand locks there). Finally teams had to get on a taxi and head to the final pitstop of this race. In the order of arrival at the pistop :

1. Marc & Roviltwunt - they’re pretty competent racers and have been really lucky. Both are still douchebags though, what with the camera whoring through and through. I mean, they’re aware the cameras are there, I get it. But stop shoving the unfunnny and lame antics down our throats. For fucks sake.. I have had enough of this team. Bring back Edwin and Monica!
2. Adrian & Collin - I really wished this team had won this leg. Bravo on them for stealing the cabs away from the twunts.
3. Terri & Henry - As MrsG had commented on Sucks (hahahahah welcome to the dark side!!!!!), someone must’ve dropped her some happy pills this episode, cause she didn’t even screech once! Bravo! And they did relatively well this episode.. Now, finally, I can root for this team back again. Let’s just hope the happy pills effect will last a couple of episodes at least, huh?
4. Pam & Vanessa - I’m still loving the Chong sisters. Hearing them speaking in pseudo-Scottish in the cab was kinda cute. Now I’m kinda glad it wasn’t an actual pitstop in the last episode, cause that would’ve spelt the end for this team.
5. Paula & Natasha - They’re getting more visible now.. perhaps because the teams are dwindling down.
6. Ann & Diane - I was pretty certain that this team was FUCKED halfway through the episode. And the hatred from Daichi and Sawaka was totally justified from how the moms’ faked their dialogues to mislead the team. But can you blame them? You’re the second last team, you HAVE to do everything you can to stay in the game. Things are not looking so good for this team.. too many bad ju-jus from their editing.
7. Daichi and Sawaka - Truthfully, I was totally sad to see them leave, especially Sawaka who’s heart, as you can all see, was really in this race (the farewell song was unnecessary.. but that’s okay). They rocked the first half of the race, and lady luck was certainly not smiling on them in Korea.

That said, no matter how good racers Marc and Roviltwat are, I honestly don’t see how anyone can get behind this team. They are probably my most hated TAR team ever, even surpassing Victoria and her abusive husband Jonathug.

I will leave all of you with this amazing Lost recap (Seasons 1 - 3) since season 4 will be premiering in a couple of days.