The Amazing Race 18:Unfinished Business--Episode 5--Stuck in China

It's been a week since the last episode and I have been so busy reading comic books and watching DVDs that I haven't had a chance to blog about it. Here it is Sunday and the next segment will be on tonight. I may as well just blog about the two together, but I have been doing that too often lately. So I'll just give my impressions as best as I can recall. I could watch the episode again on CBS.com, but I have better things to do like read some more comic books and watch DVDs. (I actually watched half of Twelve Monkeys on the train to upstate and the Blu Ray of Alice in Wonderland last night, the best thing about the latter is the employment it provided for so many British actors like Helena Bonham Carter, Frances de la Tour, Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman, and Timothy Spall.)

Episode 4 ended in the middle of a leg which is the second time they've pulled that trick this season. I think they are trying to save money by making the racers take trains rather than jets to the next destination. It also avoids multiple non-elimination rounds. Everyone had reached the midway point, thinking it was the finish line, except for Justin and Zev and Kent and Vyxsin (I probably misspelled her name, but what do expect if she gives it an eccentric twist with that y in there?)

The Goths had to go back to the gondola to get their missing fanny pack, then catch up with the others who were all on the same train back to Kunming, where they had just come from the previous night. Zev and Justin had checked in and got to the train station in time to watch the Globetrotters play basketball with the cowboys and the volleyball players.

The Goths were met with icy stares when they joined the others and lied about not being told by Phil they would receive a time penalty for missing the plane from Tokyo. This is another new wrinkle in the race, if you miss a flight--even if it is required--why should you get a time penalty? You've lost all the time, it's not as if they got another earlier flight which put them ahead of everyone. Anyway, they got back to Kunming in the middle of the night and the Goths wisely U-turned the redheads because they were right there! They explained that last time they stupidly u-turned a team that was ahead of them. This way they knew they weren't making the same mistake. It would up costing the redheads the race because they had to go back and play with the dolls and then they had a tough time assembling the dinosaur.

Zev and Justin turned into the Globetrotters by leeching onto another team--Ron and Christina--figuring they wouldn't get lost because they know Chinese. But the ploy backfired on them when the father and daughter's cabdriver took them to the wrong location. Despite the language advantage, Ron and Christine wound up near the bottom and Zev and Justin barely escaped elimination. Gary and Mallory, another victim of the Ron-Christina caravan fiasco, used up their express pass when they got the dinosaur park and saw how difficult the task was. The cowboys still beat them to the number one spot and the Globetrotters survived despited getting the second U-turn from the redheads.

In the previews for next week, now tonight, it looks like Luke will be crying to his mommy because he can't figure out the differences between some Indian tea. Hopefully, it will be a single leg with no cliffhangers. The flight to India will probably put everyone on an equal footing again and it's still anyone's race.

Day 8--Leg continues, teams take train from Lijiang back to Kunming
Day 9--Teams arrive in the middle of the night to perform roadblock,dawn is breaking as they hit Double U-turn, get to park, assemble dinosaur, finish leg

Justin and Zev--two wins, trips to Cancun and Costa Rica
Jet and Cord--one win, $5,000 each
Luke and Margie--one win, trip to Aruba
Mallory and Gary--one win, Express Pass (used)