Mar 29, 2011, Ep 6: The Season 14 Curse Continues

The Amazing Race 18 Secret Scenes, Episode 6: The Season 14 Curse Continues

In this week’s assortment of secret scenes, Margie & Luke pledge to break the apparent Season 14 curse while Kisha & Jen (pictured) are just glad to have survived China without getting eliminated like they were their last season.  Kent & Vyxsin get themselves ready to tackle their own Waterloo in India (the site of their first elimination) and leg victors Gary & Mallory realize their safety net is gone.  Finally, Jet has an emotional experience that hits far too close to home.  Read on for all this and more!

Extra Race Footage

Featured Team: Margie & Luke

Luke’s Race Girlfriends Gone:  Right before their leg begins, Luke tells us that he’s sad that Jaime & Cara are gone.  It’s actually the first time they’ve ever raced without Jaime & Cara there in either season, so it’s strange.  Jaime & Cara were a team that they trusted and now that they’re gone, that camaraderie is absent.  Luke realizes that now three teams from season 14 are gone (with one more soon to be)!  Luke jokes that if that streak continues, hopefully it will be Jen & Kisha.  Margie groans at that but Luke was mostly kidding as they fully intend for the streak to be broken.  Jen & Kisha are strong racers and they’d love if they were in the final three with them.

Featured Team: Kent & Vyxsin

Goth’s India, Take Two:  As Kent & Vyxsin take a Chinese cab to the airport, Vyxsin exclaims how excited she is to be going to India.  Her sister has just returned from there after spending a month there for dancing.  Kent remembers India from their first season when they traveled to Mumbai and is excited to see a new part of it in Kalkota.  Both of them are excited to see the color, splendor, culture, people and wildlife of India. Vyxsin just hopes that history won’t repeat itself as India ended up being where they got eliminated the first time around.

Featured Team: Ron & Christina

Home Court Advantage Gone:  Ron loves India and all it entails but admits that they don’t speak any of the Indian languages so they’re losing the advantage they have in China.  Christina is bummed to lose that home court advantage but is hopeful they can make friends with the locals and continue forward.  The plan is to still stay under the radar which has worked so far for them as their placements in the previous legs haven’t made anybody target them yet.

Ron is excited about the sensory overload in India and hopes that same overload disorients the other teams.  Christina speculates and hopes there’s an eating challenge in India as Ron rocks those.  He figures any eating challenge will lean towards being vegetarian since India holds cows sacred.  But they both think there’s the possibility an eating challenge could be gross such as eating guts.  Of course now I’m thinking about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’s infamous dining room scene.  Blech.  

Featured Team: Jet & Cord

The Cowboy Way:  As they wait to start this leg, Cord believes that the race is mostly a mental game.  Everyone was subjected to the same exhausting travel over the last few days especially on the recent train rides, so if you can suck it up and run off of the train when the time comes, you’ll succeed.  Jet doesn’t think they necessarily are better suited to uncomfortable conditions but he admits that they have the mental ability to not let it get to them.  If other teams can’t hack it, then that just means it’s better for Jet & Cord.

Featured Team: Kisha & Jen

Second Time’s a Charm:  In their cab to the airport, Jen still can vividly remember their experience in China their first season when they had to wear an ornate Chinese getup complete with makeup.  It was a long and tiring leg so it was nice to experience something new and different in China this time around.  Kisha mostly remembers that they were eliminated in China the last time so it’s nice to get out of China and still be in the race.  Kisha starts listing all the things that didn’t happen this time, including walking around for hours in makeup and getting into a fight with Luke.  They both laugh a lot at that one!

Featured Team: Gary & Mallory

Who Needs the Express Pass?:  In the midst of their Indian leg, Gary tells us that they no longer have the safety net of the Express Pass.  It was possible they could have powered through the dinosaur Roadblock but the other factor was bad cab problems.  Their cabs kept abandoning them so they just didn’t want to tempt fate.  Mallory is a little sad to not have it as it was always that ace in the hole if they were in the back of the pack.  Now there’s no more buffer and they have to give every leg their all.

Featured Team: Gary & Mallory

Checked Off Her List:  Mallory has been checking off places right and left on her “places to go” list.  Australia was taken care of this season and Africa last season, so it’s exciting to finally get to India as that was in the top three.  She is a bit reluctant to admit this as she was excited about Africa too and that turned out to be a very hard leg last season.  Mallory isn’t even sure what the fascination with India is, although it could be the colors, the elephants, or the impromptu musical dancing that she sees in movies set in India.  As a Catholic, Mallory was raised on stories of Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta so that is another thing she is excited to see for herself.

At the Pit Stop

Featured Team: Gary & Mallory (first place)

Father and Daughter in First:  Phil bets that Gary & Mallory are feeling proud now that they’ve come in first place six legs into the race.  Mallory feels blessed that they’ve been given this second chance and is so happy to be racing with such a supportive and kind dad.  Mallory gets choked up and tries to stop but Phil loves it and encourages her tears.  She treasures this alone time with Gary as she normally has to share him with her three siblings.  Gary points out that today is his wife’s (Mallory’s mom) birthday and Phil suggest they raise a bottle of Snapple in her honor.

Despite it being a tough couple of legs, Gary tells Phil that he’s feeling great even with almost no sleep.  The traffic in Kalkota is frustrating and the mobs of people are overwhelming, but he knows you can’t let it rattle you.  They even managed to focus on going the right direction more so than they have throughout much of the race so far.  Mallory admits that she was certain they weren’t last but didn’t think they were in first place.  Mallory’s tears confuse Phil though as it seems she’s going to cry whether they’re in first place or last. Gary & Mallory suddenly realize that this is their very first win on either of their seasons.  Is that true?  They came in first on the first leg but that wasn’t the end of the leg.  Congratulations, if that’s the case!

After the Race

Featured Team: Zev & Justin

Zev & Justin Are Ready For More:  Silver-pajama’d Zev admits he doesn’t like to travel at all but he recognizes that the overall experience is worth it and will be something he’ll look back in fondly.  But at the moment, Zev still hates traveling.  Justin says that the traveling is just a means to an end of getting a second chance at The Amazing Race.  Whatever comes their way they refuse to let it get them down or complain about it.

Featured Team: Ron & Christina

The Same, But Very Different:  Christina explains that while Gary & Mallory are another father-daughter team just like she & Ron, Gary & Mallory are different because they tend to follow the group.  That’s not how Ron & Christina work as they pledged to work independently.  Christina can tell Mallory is definitely concerned with the team standings and dynamics and not focusing on just her own team’s performance.  She admits that Mallory has her charm and blonde hair going for her with regards to getting help from strangers.

Christina knows that she has to take a different approach as there can’t be the assumption that all Indians will speak English.  In fact, Christina got help in this leg by mellowly asking for help and not resorting to screaming and yelling.  She actually would like to make friends of strangers and not just use them as a source of information.  Ron agrees with that approach and thinks that is how most strangers would like to be treated.

Featured Team: Jet & Cord

Jet’s Reminder of Home:  Jet thought he was going to lose it during today’s leg as during their travels in Kalkota, a young girl touched his leg and asked for money.  The clincher was that she very closely resembled his own young daughter.  It was hard to see it and he admits that he didn’t give her any money.  Even now that girl’s face has been burned into Jet’s memory and he’s not sure he’ll ever forget it.

Cord was mostly scared for the girl’s survival as here she was this little three- or four-year old making it through the treacherous crowds and traffic of Kalkota.  She kept following them for a few yards and he got concerned that she was going to get hurt or that her parents would get worried.  Cord later saw a two-year old sitting on the handlebars of a motorcycle that was driving on the crazy roads.  Seeing those kinds of occurrences is just amazing. 

Featured Team: Margie & Luke

A Second Chance Ends:  Margie thinks she got more out of this season’s race than her first one.  She was able to relate to Luke more as an adult because the first time, he was fresh out of college and still in somewhat of a teenage mindset.  Margie noticed that this time Luke was much more aggressive with her, but not in a bad way.  Luke actually would stand his ground and wouldn’t always defer to her just because she is his mom.

The video then cuts to Margie alone and she admits that she was disappointed in herself.  In her first season, she kept surprising herself as she met and prevailed over challenges that she was sure were going to be impossible.  But this season, Margie isn’t happy with their performance in Tokyo and she understands that Luke feels bad about what happened this leg.  She also thinks that Luke had to pull her along a lot more this season, but I would not agree with that assessment.  I think she was a rock star on the race. 

Phil’s Video Diary

Episode 6 – Kolkata, India:  It’s 3:00am in Kolkata, India and Phil is headed for his hotel and he’s amazed at how clear the streets are.  There’s no traffic anywhere, which is quite a nice surprise.  As we all saw in the episode itself, the traffic gets ridiculous during the day.   Cut to the daytime and Phil’s blissful empty streets are just a pleasant memory.  He’s now surrounded by traffic and the sound of horns.  Phil enjoys it when the race comes through India as he loves watching the teams’ reactions to the color and the sheer impact of India’s people.  It’s always a challenging leg for the racers.

Phil has arrived at the Detour location where the book challenge took place and is now at the St Victoria Primary School.  He is surrounded by the kids and thanks the principal for letting them come there.  After filming his segments for the show, he’s back on the road and can’t believe that some of the trucks actually have the words “blow horn” on their tailgate.  Why would you need to add more honking to the cacophony of noise already present? 

At the Pit Stop location, Phil plays cricket with a bunch of local kids.  As the pitcher sends a nice lob Phil’s way, Phil whacks it directly back at him forcing the kid to nearly fall over avoiding it.  Phil hit the ball so hard that he actually broke the kids’ bat!  Barry the Sound Guy gives Phil a lot of grief and Phil realizes that a whole lot of kids are glaring at Phil for breaking their equipment.  He promises to buy them a new bat and kvetches to us, “way to ruin the game, Phil.” 

Hobie Barnes now lives in Santa Monica, California after enjoying the hectic Manhattan life for 3.5 years.  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>.

 

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