Leg thirteen of "The Amazing Race 13" started with one of the more bizarre accusations in memory. Apparently, Christy of the divorcees team accused sibling Starr of dumping her sports bra off a ledge. Starr denied the charge, claiming she didn't do it because it wouldn't gain her team any kind of advantage on the race.
I have no bloody idea what to make of such a bizarre allegation except to hope that the offender (if there was one) was Starr if only because the alternatives would be a whole lot creepier.
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Whether Starr did anything wrong or not, the episode revolved in large measure around the new Kelly & Christy vs. Nick & Starr rivalry. With both teams wanting to avoid being victimized by the other via the U-Turn feature, the pressure was on to complete the Detour before there counterpart.
Both the Nick/Starr and Aja & Ty teams passed Kelly & Christy during the Detour task of riding "locally crafted" bicycles. Christy seemed to have particular trouble handling her bike, wrecking along side the road at least once.
While the sports bra allegation remained unproven, we did see Nick & Starr try to convince Aja & Ty to use their U-Turn against Kelly & Christy. The long distance daters ultimately declined as did Nick & Starr themselves. Aja later let Kelly know about Nick and Starr's failed surrogate U-Turn scheme. For a team that claims not to want to make enemies, Nick & Starr were making them all over the place.
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The third leg of TAR13 seemed a breakthrough for Marisa & Brooke. The southern belles gained an extra pep in their step, gathering band musicians together for their Detour challenge and leaving much the less enthused Andrew & Dan in the dust in the process. The frat bros dropped from first place to fifth during the course of the Detour. Why do people like Team Superbad again?
Also without much pep for more understandable reasons were Toni (of the mother/son team with Dallas) and Mark (of the geek team) who both suffered exhaustion from the high altitude of host city La Paz, Bolivia. Fortunately, Dallas took up the slack for his mom this week, succeeding in the wrestling simulation Roadblock to lead his team to second place. Succeeding more thoroughly was the Ken & Tina duo as Ken handled the pseudo-wrestling Roadblock for his team which scored a second straight leg win.
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As to that Roadblock, it involved one member of each race team learning to perform a series of six basic moves in a simulated match with a female "cholita" wrestler that would conclude with the racer and cholita teaming together to defeat an outside interloper. Racers who couldn't execute the sequence correctly were whistled out and sent back to relearn the moves.
While the lead racers did well, others struggled including Mark whose physical ailments made the wrestling a struggle and newbie dater Sarah who initially couldn't get the taunting right. Yes, knowing how to incite the crowd is an absolutely essential skill of pro wrestling. Taunting seemed to go against Sarah's real-life personality.
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On a side note, I'm jealous beyond words of the nine racers who actually got to play act at being pro wrestlers. As someone who has a sister wrestling blog and a longtime wrestling fandom, I've gained some appreciation over the years for the people who spend their lives doing that kind of entertainment.
I was particularly impressed that the show depicted the pro wrestling by its true nature as a choreographed presentation. Professional wrestling is a strenuous, highly physical form of dance. It takes the cooperation of all the parties involved to make such an over the top form of entertainment successful. Maybe more people can appreciate that just a little more now.
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Back to business. While Mark & Bill suffered physically from the altitude, their ultimate doom occurred by the loss of their greatest strength. The master game-players simply made the mistake of not reading a Detour clue card correctly, taking a taxi to their Detour site instead of going by foot as required. (Terence & Sarah made the same mistake but self-corrected in time.)
Mark & Bill eventually arrived at the Pit Stop in 8th place but were assessed a 30 minute penalty, more than enough time for the trailing Kelly and Christy to arrive and take their places on the next leg. I don't know what's more ironic... that the Mark & Bill were eliminated by a mental mistake or that the players saved by that mistake were the most chronic clue misreaders in Kelly & Christy. Go figure.
____________________________Labels: recaplette, TAR 13.3, The Amazing Race 13
