The Amazing Race 20 Secret Scenes, Episode 7:  Fight!

Did you not get enough coverage of Vanessa and Rachel’s (pictured, with Brendon) fight?  Fear not, the majority of the secret scenes this week will give you all, and I mean ALL, the dirty details.  Wondering if Art & JJ are truly staying out of the drama?  I think you know the answer, but did you know that they’re now issuing ultimatums to the “weaker” teams to pick sides?  The drama doesn’t end this week, so read on and figure out which side you plan on taking!

Extra Race Footage

Featured Team:  Brendon & Rachel, Vanessa & Ralph

More Drama, More Tears:  Looks like there’s more footage from the Vanessa and Rachel catfight that went unaired!  Ralph pleads with Vanessa to let it go even if it was just Brendon pretending he was a man by sticking his middle finger up at Ralph.  Vanessa just can’t let it go.  Over with Rachel, she insists that everyone was running and Vanessa straight-up pushed her and followed it up with insulting her nose, her weight, etc.  Vanessa is tired of Rachel and even the barb Rachel made about her age is silly. She knows that all the remaining teams are sick of both Brendon & Rachel.

Rachel is upset that even Art & JJ got into the trash-talking and Brendon contributes that Art & JJ are “old and slow.”  Rachel is tired of everyone being down on them as she & Brendon try harder than everyone.  Sigh.  She insists that this race is not about being mean to others and pushing and trash-talking.  Rachel feels like the whole game has been about Vanessa being mean to her and trying to make her cry, and it’s not fair to try to break someone down just because you think you’re better than them.  Rachel is again near tears, but just as in Big Brother, it’s not clear how real these tears are.  Vanessa can see that Rachel is crying and defend herself to Ralph, insisting that Rachel’s low self-esteem made her cry, not her.  Vanessa thinks she will apologize about the nose remark she made to Rachel as that was uncalled for, but Ralph thinks Vanessa has said enough.  

A little later on in the airport snack shop, Rachel is in full hysterics and Brendon is trying to salvage the situation and calm her down.  He reminds her that Vanessa is just trash and Rachel doesn’t need to take anything she says seriously.  Rachel just can’t understand what she did to Vanessa to earn such treatment.  Vanessa & Ralph seem to be right around the corner and can hear Rachel’s cries and complaints and continue to look at each other awkwardly.  Rachel tells Brendon that she’s sorry she’s a girl who has feelings and who also happens to be self-conscious.  Vanessa can’t believe how over-the-top Rachel’s crying is and tells Ralph that if she can’t take it, she better not dish it out.

Featured Team:  Everyone

Extended Airport Fight:  Like a DVD extended scene, we get to see even more of the airport fight.  The teams tell the camera “hakuna matata” and “hello Africa” as they disembark the plane in Tanzania.  The teams realize they need to find the transfer area so they can get to the next plane.   We see the scene that was aired before where a jogging Brendon pushed past the walking Ralph, and Ralph comments to him and gets the bird in return from Brendon.  Even Art & JJ see it.

In the Transfer Services line, Ralph & Vanessa are ahead of Brendon & Rachel.  Ralph mentions to Brendon that he better mind where he puts that finger.  Brendon indicates that he didn’t hear Ralph so Ralph repeats it.  Brendon tells Ralph that he’s here to play, but Art, who is behind Brendon in line, jumps in and says that Brendon is here to follow, not play.  Rachel turns on rage mode and tells Vanessa & Ralph to get out of their faces.  Ralph calmly tells her that he’s talking, not yelling, to Brendon.  Art brings up that Brendon flipped Ralph off which Rachel disputes, but when everyone insists that really happened, she is compelled to say that Vanessa ran into her.  Vanessa claims that couldn’t happen as she’s much smaller than Rachel and doesn’t take up that much space.   

Elsewhere in the line, Rachel (Major Dave’s) can’t help but laugh but Dave cautions her not to laugh so she won’t get involved.  Nary comments that everything is getting feisty!  Back at the fight, Rachel insists Vanessa shoved her but Vanessa points out she was in front of her so how could she be the aggressor.  Ralph & Vanessa turn to keep moving forward in line but Vanessa can’t help herself and tells Rachel to put on more sparkles.  Brendon is obviously amped up which amuses JJ, who comments that with only one team ahead of them in line, Team Big Brother should still have someone to follow.

Brendon points out that Art & JJ have just been following Dave & Rachel the entire time.  JJ laughs and tells Brendon that he & Rachel can’t even follow their own shadow.  Rachel wants to know if JJ talking trash makes him happy but he responds that he just doesn’t like that they follow them everywhere.  JJ mockingly asks Art if the game is really called “Follow the Leader.”  Brendon wishes they would lead and points out that he & Rachel are ahead of them in line.  That gets a sarcastic laugh from Art & JJ who aren’t impressed by this momentary “lead.”  Art asks JJ how many times has it been that they’ve won and JJ thinks it could be three.  Both wonder how many legs Brendon & Rachel have won.  

Nary & Jamie are further back in line and are wisely staying out of it.  Bopper tells us that he wishes everyone would race with respect for each other and keep this drama out of it.  Another person in line asks Dave where they’re from and he embarrassingly admits that they’re from America.  Rachel tells Brendon to ignore everyone but especially Vanessa, as she called her fat.  I don’t even think Rachel cared about the Art & JJ aspect!  Vanessa & Ralph explain that Brendon & Rachel were in their face first.  Vanessa quips to Rachel, “no more sequins!” Rachel is not amused.  

Rachel confronts Vanessa and asks what she did to her.  Vanessa points out Rachel shoved her but of course, Rachel thinks it was the other way around.  Rachel hopes that Vanessa’s meanness makes her feel good about herself, while Vanessa retorts that she hopes Rachel running her mouth makes her feel good about herself.  Ralph asks Vanessa to stop, which Vanessa momentarily does.  Mark wishes everyone could just get along.  Rachel isn’t done and claims Vanessa is 38 and should grow up.  Vanessa sarcastically agrees yet insists that even at 38, she still looks younger than Rachel.  Rachel’s rage meter explodes.  The fight-ending line is then spoken: “honey, get your nose done before you get your boobs done.”  

Featured Team:  Brendon & Rachel, Vanessa & Ralph, Art & JJ

Brendon Apologizes to Ralph:  In the Tanzania airport, Brendon & Rachel head over to where Ralph is sitting down.  Brendon apologizes to Ralph and offers a handshake as he admits that it was immature to flip him off.  Ralph accepts his apology and knows that everyone is just frustrated.  Brendon & Rachel begin to walk off and Vanessa mutters to Ralph that of course this would occur off-camera.  Rachel turns back in disbelief and then continues to walk off while rolling her eyes.  Later on to us, Brendon tells us that he apologized because it was tense, competitive situation but that he got riled up mostly because of Vanessa and Rachel’s altercation.  Brendon admits that he did flip Ralph off and it’s something he does regret as it was immature.  Yet Rachel now tells him that as soon as he apologized, Vanessa snarked on Rachel.  Brendon tells Rachel that he can’t take it out again on Ralph for things Vanessa is doing.

Back at where Vanessa & Ralph are sitting with Art & JJ, they’re doing the mean girls clique thing.  Vanessa jokes to JJ that she can’t understand who would get their boobs done before their nose, as you have to pick where you want people to look first, your nose or your face.  Really?  It’s strange to her that people would choose boobs first.  Art & JJ cackle and Art admits he never thought of it that way.  Art points out it’s likely you’ll get more jobs with big boobs rather than a nicer nose.  Vanessa isn’t sure.  

Featured Team:  Brendon & Rachel

Brendon & Rachel Sound Off:  Brendon explains the length of Vanessa’s hostility extends back to the watermelon stacking Detour, which is when Vanessa started sniping at Rachel.  Rachel points out that when Vanessa first saw Rachel & Brendon, she immediately said “are you kidding me?”  Rachel is tired of it as is Brendon, especially with Art & JJ piling on too.  Rachel rants for a little about all the insults that Vanessa has hurled her way, including the stuff about being old, being ugly, being on Big Brother, etc.  Rachel doesn’t think it’s fair that the game is being played with such meanness, but I think the most galling thing to Rachel was Vanessa’s insult about her nose.  Of all things, that definitely makes Rachel tear up the most.  Brendon figures that misery loves company and Vanessa & Ralph are a match made in heaven.  He wants Rachel not to sweat it and to remember to have a good time.

Brendon is happy with the people they’ve met that have been very nice and cool, meaning Nary & Jamie and Bopper & Mark.  He can’t wait to start this leg and is optimistic about the upcoming leg.  Rachel isn’t over it though by a long shot and can’t believe there’s so much cheating and meanness as she thought the Amazing Race was about fun and traveling around the world.  Rachel is tried of Vanessa’s attitude and the fact that Vanessa has been mean to her the entire race.  Brendon tells her to forget about it, but that seems to be a hopeless request at this point.  The insult is far too fresh for Rachel to get over it.  

Featured Team:  Bopper & Mark

Bopper & Mark’s Masai Adventure:  Bopper loved getting to jump up and down with the Masai warriors in their Detour.  It’s not an experience you typically get to have.  It’s an overwhelming feeling that he was able to do it with authentic tribespeople.  There was true and uninhibited emotions from the people there.  Mark was happy to experience wearing some of the authentic tribe clothing.  They’re both on a natural high from such a true experience.

Featured Team:  Bopper & Mark, Art & JJ

JJ Gives an Ultimatum:  At the airport, JJ tells Bopper he’s nuts if he hitches on to those two teams, those two teams being Nary & Jamie and Brendon & Rachel.  If Bopper & Mark join on with his group of teams, it will be a four-team race to the end.  Mark comes up and JJ repeats what he told Bopper, plainly stating that with the U-Turn coming up, there could be issues.  Mark clarifies that they haven’t hooked their wagon with anyone.  JJ then just wants to know who they would use the U-Turn on, and Bopper & Mark claim they won’t be using it at all.  Bopper clarifies that the only time they’ll use the U-Turn is if they have to use it.  JJ doesn’t think that shows much strategy.

Flash forwarding to after this leg, Bopper & Mark tell us that JJ basically told them to U-Turn Nary & Jamie or Brendon & Rachel, otherwise Bopper & Mark would end up just like the Mississippi girls.  Bopper tells us he wasn’t fooled by JJ’s ultimatum as it is clear what his angle is.  Mark is more offended that JJ seemed to be telling him what he was and wasn’t allowed to do.  Last time Mark checked, JJ wasn’t in charge of the whole race and Mark is doing just fine running it in his own way.  Bopper explains that you don’t talk like that to country boys.  In fact, there are two things you don’t do to  a country boy:  1) you don’t kick his dog, and 2) you don’t threaten him.  Bopper & Mark tell us JJ did the worst one and they aren’t going to stand for it.  

Featured Team:  Dave & Rachel

Staying Out of the Drama:  In their cab, Dave & Rachel tell us they’re well aware of all the drama going on amongst the other teams but they are choosing to stay out of it.  Dave admits they have an alliance of sorts with Art & JJ but those two have been intentionally stirring the pot and making waves.  Rachel recalls that Bopper & Mark told them that they didn’t like Art & JJ’s bullying ways which means that Rachel & Dave are going to work even harder to watch what this alliance does.   Dave tells us that JJ also issued an ultimatum to him, just like he did to Bopper & Mark, indicating sides had to be chosen.  Dave wasn’t having any of it and basically didn’t answer him.  Dave hopes to stay cool with all teams, including Team Big Brother and Team Kindergarten Cops.  Speaking about Nary & Jamie, Rachel has noticed that the girls don’t even notice nearby kids, which is strange as teachers normally would.  Rachel also picked up on Nary & Jamie’s fluctuating marital status as well as what their husbands allegedly do for a living.  Their stories are definitely not being kept straight.

At the Pit Stop

Featured Team:  Vanessa & Ralph (fifth place)

Vanessa Tells Her Side:   Vanessa tells Phil that people tend to paint Ralph as an aggressor, due mainly to his size.  The Mississippi girls did it and tried to paint themselves as little girls who did nothing wrong at all.  She explains that Ralph isn’t the mean one in this team, it’s her.  Ralph smirks at that.  Vanessa hates it when people pick on him and feels the need to defend him, especially since he is not a bad guy.   Phil asks her if she got into it today and Vanessa honestly looks confused as it seems she can’t remember if her fight with Rachel was today.  Ralph reassures her it was.

Ralph encourages Vanessa to keep the story short so after illustrating that Rachel got in their faces, in the end Rachel called her old.  So Rachel’s sensitive topic is her nose and it’s clear that Vanessa is sensitive about her age, as that’s what she is focused on.  Ralph reminds her that she then made the nose comment, which Phil asks about.  She tells him about her nose-before-boobs jab and the fact that it’s not clear where Rachel wants people to look.  Phil isn’t sure how to answer that.  He asks Vanessa if she’s sure that Rachel has had a boobjob and while Ralph looks away, Vanessa mutters that she’s pretty sure.  Phil asks if this fight arose out of frustration and Vanessa indicates it got spurred on because Rachel wouldn’t shut up even after Vanessa repeatedly told her to shut up.  

Phil points out that Rachel thinks this animosity from Vanessa is because Rachel was on Big Brother.  Vanessa tells him she doesn’t care about Big Brother and both say they’ve never even watched that show.  They didn’t know she had been on it.   Phil asks why Rachel would think that’s the reason and Vanessa thinks it’s because Rachel has formed a whole persona around her experience there.  If Rachel had another real personality to fall back on, she wouldn’t care at all about what people say about her.  Vanessa doesn’t care about Rachel calling her old (although I think that’s a lie based on her emotion earlier in this video).  

Featured Team:  Brendon & Rachel (fourth place)

Getting Sucked into the Drama:   Rachel tells Phil that they’ve been focused on working hard on the race.  The other teams accuse them of getting into the drama but she points out it’s everyone else causing the drama, not them.  Phil asks if their Big Brother experience helps them deal with all the drama and the politics.  Brendon answers that it has helped him but he knows that Rachel still has a problem with letting her feeling get hurt.  Rachel brings up what Vanessa said to her during their airport fight and Phil is astonished that Vanessa did so.  Phil thinks Rachel has a very nice nose.  Awww, Phil.  That compliment does a world of good as suddenly you can see that Rachel is feeling better.

Brendon explains that all these experiences help to bring he & Rachel closer together.  When all this drama occurs, they know how to deal with it together.  It still can hurt, but for Brendon, he hurts mostly because he can see how much the drama hurts Rachel.  Rachel is tired of the petty insults.  Brendon thinks Vanessa is pretty on the outside but ugly inside.  They’re both going to do their best to not let petty comments get to them now.  Rachel still can’t understand why Vanessa dislikes her but it seemed to start with Rachel wearing sequins.  Phil laughs at that and wonders where Brendon’s sequins are.  Rachel loves her sequins and thinks they’re a part of her personality.  Brendon concedes to Phil if they win the race, he’ll wear sequins.  

After the Race

Featured Team:  Dave & Rachel

Moving the Target:   Dave wagers that some of the negativity and drama seen during the last few legs of the race could get redirected towards them after having been mostly focused on Art & JJ.  Especially since they now have won four legs.  Dave figures that they can try to work with all the teams on the sly to keep things amicable.  They will probably give some of the weaker teams (Big Brother, Bopper & Mark, and the Teachers) a better flow of information than they’d give to Art & JJ or Vanessa & Ralph.  He hopes that these gestures of goodwill will translate into not getting U-Turned.  Rachel admits they’re counting on emotion overriding logic when it comes to the U-Turn.  She hopes that U-Turns will be used against teams that made fun of or were mean to other teams.  Dave is prety confident emotion and vindictiveness will reign supreme over logic and strategy.  He knows that the animosity between Vanessa and the other Rachel will play into the U-Turn, even if Brendon does have a logical side.  Dave is sure that Brendon will be overridden.

Featured Team:  Nary & Jamie, Brendon & Rachel

Nary & Jamie’s Confession:  Nary tells us that even in everyday life, they typically don’t tell people what they do for a living.  After the events of that night where Art & JJ confronted them, Bopper & Mark and Brendon & Rachel asked them about it.  Nary admits that they like those two teams and were tired of the lie, so they did reveal that they were federal agents to them.  They just asked that that information was kept amongst that group though.

Brendon & Rachel were pretty sure, even in that first leg, that Nary & Jamie weren’t teachers.  He wasn’t sure what they did, but it seemed like they were trying to come across as less intimidating.  Brendon thought maybe they were nurses or doctors, or at least something that implied high intellect.  He actually felt bad that they had to lie and both he & Rachel tried to convince themselves they were really teachers.  When Nary & Jamie finally came clean about it, Brendon admits that he was happy for them and impressed they told the truth.  They weren’t mad about the lie either as coming from Big Brother, both he & Rachel understand the need for deception especially to avoid being unfairly judged.  

Rachel explains that she & Brendon are in an alliance with Nary & Jamie which she thinks informs why they came clean to her & Brendon as well as Bopper & Mark.  Those three teams have  managed to form a friendship as well as a trust.  She appreciates that friendship especially on this race, as there are definitely other teams you want to kill at times.  Brendon explains that they’ve been down this “reality road” before and after the show is done, there will be people you’ll keep in touch with and some you’ll never speak to again.  Nary & Jamie and Bopper & Mark are definitely teams they’ll stay in touch with.  The other teams, it’s not certain yet, but there’s definitely one team they won’t keep in touch with, implying obviously Vanessa & Ralph.  They’re excited about Nary & Jamie as they live in Los Angeles, just like Rachel & Brendon.  

Featured Team:  Nary & Jamie

Nary & Jamie’s Elephant Experience:  Nary recalls that while they were heading to the Pit Stop, they both knew they were in last place.  Jamie happened to see elephants off the road and they both immediately shouted to stop the car.  They figured that Phil could wait a few more minutes while they enjoy the African wildlife.  There was a palpable sense of relief at this point as they had finished the challenge, they were heading to probably elimination, so Jamie recalls figuring this was time to enjoy the scenery.  There were about 20 elephants in the herd they saw, including some babies.  Awwwww…  They enjoyed the moment and then prepared themselves for what was coming next, whatever it ended up being.  Nary appreciates that they could take that moment as if they had been racing another team, there’s no way they would have stopped.

Featured Team:  Art & JJ

Art & JJ’s Detective Work:  Art admits that he & JJ really didn’t talk that much to Nary & Jamie throughout the race.  In Azerbaijan all the teams were sitting around the fire and there was time to relax and talk.  Art was chatting with Dave and was talking about the facial hair he’d grown and that back home, he’d have to shave any facial hair he’d grown whenever he put his uniform on.  Jamie chimed in at this point about doing “UC work.”  Immediately Art & JJ knew something was off as civilians would never use that term.  More than likely, they’d say something like undercover.  UC isn’t a layman’s term.  As the conversation continued, Jamie asked a question about what kind of cases they use.  Art’s radar again beeped at that odd observation from an alleged civilian.

After thinking about it some more, Art started watching how Nary & Jamie interacted with others.  He noticed that their conversations never involved school, kids, or parents.  Art knows that is all teachers talk about outside of school, including stuff like “this kid did that” and “this parent said this.”    Art’s experience is very personal as his wife is a school administrator and that’s what a lot of her conversations center around.  She never shuts up about it!  Art doesn’t care if that is the game Nary & Jamie want to play, but JJ doesn’t really understand why they won’t fess up.  Art admits he enjoyed calling them out and even if they are teachers, it was fun to cause a stir and keep people on their toes.  

Hobie Barnes lives in Santa Monica, California and can’t stop reading the Game of Thrones series of books.  He recently traveled to Turkey, Italy & Greece and can’t wait to see if the places he visited end up on this season of the race.  When not busy fighting the 405 and 101 freeways on the commute to Burbank, he is patiently waiting for an Amazing Race or Survivor scout to cast him!  He can be reached at <a href=”mailto:hobiewan76@gmail.com”>hobiewan76@gmail.com</a>.