Episode Recap: Amazing Race 10, Week 1

Episode: Real Fast! Quack! Quack! Original Air Date: September 17, 2006 Seattle, famous for the Space Needle and... some other stuff I'm sure. This city is the starting point for this season's Amazing Race. Surprise, surprise - it happens to be raining in Seattle this day. As the show opens, the 12 teams are dramatically flown to their starting point by sea plane. I guess there are no major roads that lead to Seattle. It must be so remote that the only way to get there is by sea plane. As the teams leave their sea planes, we are introduced to them one by one: Sarah and Peter - Triathalon training partners who've recently started dating. She has an artificial leg and he builds artificial limbs. I wonder if they'll be carrying a "spare" with them in their backpacks. Bilal and Sa'eed - Two American Muslims from Cleveland. "In reference to the race," Bilal declares, "there's no question we will fall over and take five minutes and pray". Rob and Kimberly - Dating couple. In the pre-interview, Rob proceeds to spill his guts about his relationship with Kimberly, "Kimberly and [my] relationship is at that point where we either move forward or we don't... Kimberly wants everything her way. But I'm a human being, she can't control me. She needs to learn that." Sheesh, Rob. This is the The Amazing Race, not Dr. Phil. At least wait until you're all stressed out from the race to vent. Dustin and Kandice - Reigning beauty queens (Miss California and Miss New York, respectively). These girls are so much alike I believe they are interchangeable. They shall henceforth be known on this site as "The Doublemint Twins". David and Mary - Married couple from Kentucky. He's a coal miner. She's a homemaker. Referring to the time they met, Mary gushes, "I didn't think he'd want anything to do with me, 'cause he's so cute." I guess "cute" is a relative term. Of course, in Kentucky everything's relative, if you get my drift. Erwin and Godwin - Body-building brothers. "When look at me, they think, 'There's a meathead'. But the difference is I studied at NYU," Godwin says, then adds, "for my master's." Not be overlooked, Erwin details his educational resume then declares, "I don't think there'll be a problem the two of us can't solve." Well, at least they're not snobs about it. Of course, they neglected to mention that the reason they went into bodybuilding is probably because they would regularly get beaten up by the other kids for having names like "Erwin" and "Godwin". Duke and Lauren - Father and daughter. Duke states he loves his daughter they starts to cry as he begins to talk about the fact that she is gay. Enough with the Dr. Phil moments! Their info online says that having been estranged, these two decided to take part in The Amazing Race to 'strengthen their relationship'. I can't imagine a better place to work on one's relationship with a loved one than a highly stressful, physically demanding spectacle that will be viewed by millions of people. Vipul and Arti - Young married couple. From their brief segment, there would appear that the only interesting things about these two is that they are Indian-American and Hindu. But their online bio states that they are both well-traveled and speak several languages. This may be the team to watch. Kellie and Jamie - Cheerleaders from South Carolina. Talking about how they amuse each other, Kellie says, "You could put us in a cardboard box and we'd have fun." I don't doubt it. These two seem like they'd be entertained by flickering lights. Jamie adds, "We both have the kind of personality where we could have a conversation with a doorknob." I wonder if they'd know the difference. Tyler and James - Best friends. Both are recovering drug addicts and male models. They say they met in rehab and started modeling "together". How do two guys model together? In spite of how that sounds, this is not the Obligatory Gay Couple that shows up on every season of The Amazing Race. Lyn and Karlyn - Single moms from Birmingham. They are independent women who don't need anybody - unless there's a spider in the house that needs to be killed. Tom and Terry - Obligatory Gay Couple. The narration describes them as "boyfriends from New York". And in case we didn't get the point, the next shot is of them getting manicures. The teams gather on a hill to receive their first instructions from Phil Keoghan. Phil alludes to new twists in the game this season. The teams are told to run down the hill, pick up their backpacks, read the instructions left on their backpacks, then grab one of 12 SUV's wating for them. Their written instructions tell them to fly to Beijing, China on one of two specified flights. On their way down the hill, one of the contestants (I can't tell who) trips. Off to a great start already! Most of the teams take off at the same time, however beauty queen Kandice can't figure out how to start the car. She eventually has to turn the car over to Dustin. But she's not the only one having trouble. Coal miner David can't figure out how to get the car in gear, even though it has an automatic transmission. "I ain't use to these new vehicles here." I guess if it the car isn't outfitted with a gun rack on the back, David's going to have trouble with it. Duke and Lauren are also having trouble. But all teams eventually leave. Cut to Bilal and Sa'eed. "I'm very agressive," Bilal says, "He's somewhat a passive guy, which is good, because you need that blend." Um, wouldn't that blend be "passive-aggressive"? Cut to Lyn and Karlyn discussing China. "Remember... what they said about how people in China feel about people like us from Alabama. They like us because of Forrest Gump." David and Mary seem to be having the most trouble finding the airport. David has to stop for directions. When Mary tells him he's taking the long way, he responds by telling her to be quiet. Cut to pre-interview "In Kentucky," Mary explains, "we're used to the mans makes all the decisions and the wife just sits over and takes care of the kids. He just needs to see on this race we're gonna be 50/50." Cut back to race - "You need to start listenin' to me if you wanna win this race!" These two don't have a prayer of winning this race. However, they do manage to be the second team to the airport. The first is Sarah and Peter who avoid a traffic jam that slowed down everyone else by taking an alternate route. Meanwhile, Bilal and Sa'eed can't figure out the airport parking lot. Only the first six teams will be able to make the first flight, which is scheduled to arrive in Beijing an hour before the second. Most of the teams catch up with each other at the ticket counter. After meeting Bilal and Sa'eed, one of the cheerleaders ask the other, "So... do Muslims believe in Buddha?" You know, it might be good to learn a little bit about other countries and cultures before going on a race around the world. Irwin and Godwin start spraying everyone else in the group with water pistols, which promptly get confiscated by airport security. You can't expect these guys to know beforehand that items like toy guns would not be allowed at airports. It's not like they have Master's degrees or anything... oh, wait. Both flights eventually arrive in China. Their first task is to get to the Gold House restaurant. On the cab ride over, Lyn and Karlyn grouse about Sarah receiving special treatment at the airport and on the airplane due to her artificial leg. Because of her disability, she and Peter had been able to be seated first and then avoid the line at the Beijing airport. "It's not fair," they complain. Wah. Duke and Lauren, who are the first to arrive at the airport find out that their "Roadblock" (a task that can only be performed by one team member) is to eat all of the eyeballs found in a bowlful of fish heads. Yum! Lyn and Karlyn arrive shortly thereafter and are the first to complete the challenge. Other teams arrive and finish the challenge as well. For many of the teams, eating fish eyeballs is not as rough as figuring out chopsticks. Next, the teams must go to the Forbidden City and find the Meridian Gate and locate a kiosk where they will select one of three departure times for the next morning. As David and Mary jump into a cab, Mary instructs the driver, "Real fast! Quack! Quack!" Mandarin, Cantonese, Duck - it's all the same. Meanwhile, Kandice and Dustin find out that their driver took them to the wrong restaurant. They still manage to beat three of the other teams to the Gold House even though they have to walk around looking for it. All of the teams complete the restaurant roadblock and make their way to the Forbidden City. Lyn and Karlyn are the first to arrive. Bilal and Sa'eed are the last to arrive and find out the hard way what the first surprise in this race is - even though this is not a Pit Stop, they have been eliminated. The next morning the teams have to take a motorbike with a sidecar (driven by one of the locals) to a junction where they will then take pedi-cabs to their next destination. On the way to the motorbikes, Sarah finds out that there is a malfunction with her artifical leg - a malfunction that Peter can't fix. They plod along anyway and manage to be first to arrive at the pedi-cabs. Once at the pedi-cabs, the teams are presented with a Detour (a choice between two tasks). Either they can choose "labor", which entails paving a street with bricks and mortar, or "leisure" - taking a class in Tai Chi. The catch with the Tai Chi class is that if the contestants don't do it right the first time, they could find themselves spending hours there. All but two of the teams, the Chearleaders and the Obligatory Gay Couple, choos "Labor". Pretty boys Tyler and James are the first to finish this task. The next task is to travel to a certain point on the Great Wall and scale it with a rope to the next Pit Stop. Sarah, with her malfunctioning artificial leg, has an incredibly difficult time with this task. But she and her one-man-pep-squad, Peter, still manage to come in third on this task. The Pretty Boys come in first, winning $20,000 for winning this leg of the race, making me hate them even more. Meanwhile, the other teams are struggling to finish their Detour tasks. Rob and Kimberly and the Braniacs Erwin and Godwin finish about the same time and jump into seperate cabs. "The Great Wall," Kimberly instructs the driver, "The Great Wall of China." I'm sure the driver appreciated her clarification. He would've been really embarrassed to have taken them to another Great Wall. Vipul and Arti, who don't finish until much later, resort to charades to instruct their driver. "Big wall, " Arti says as she gestures with her arms wide open, "Big wall." I take back what I said about this team being the team to watch. Apparently no dialect of Chinese is among the "several languages" that either Vilpul or Arti speak. Of course, why would they bother to learn Chinese? Only a billion people speak it. Tom and Terry finish the Tai Chi, which involves being able to flip a tennis ball with a racket from under your bent leg, then being able to catch it on the racket. They make it to the Great Wall at the same time most of the other teams do. The cheerleaders finish a little later and arrive at the Great Wall shortly. Kentucky wife Mary is having a harder time scaling the wall than Sarah had. David tries coaching her, "Push up with your legs!" "Shut up, Dave!" she yells back. "I love you!" "Yeah, I'm sure." Mary finally manages to climb the wall. She and Dave end up in 10th place. "What?" Mary asks, "You mean we're not last?!" Vipul and Arti don't even get to the Wall until all of the other teams have already finished scaling it. They are eliminated. Next week - Trouble with horses and other animals.