TAR is Hell!

OMG! The constant bickering is nerve-racking! The stress of the race is really beginning to show! What's worse is that none of the tasks has been really mentally challenging. Physically, yes, but no so much mentally — until this leg, and only one team had to do it!

Somewhere in France...
The teams were taken by bus to an undisclosed location in northern France. Michael and Louie referred to the trip as a "mobile pitstop". Somewhat surprising that the "mandatory rest period" was spent aboard a bus!

Once at their location, the teams took off in search of a bakery where they were instructed to obtain a baguette — loaf of bread — and their next clue. Some of the teams were "clueless" as to what a baguette and fortunately were not expected to know as the baker simply handed it to them on their arrival.

Michael and Louie were the first team to leave. They quickly found the bakery and their clue, and left for the Detour. Sleepers Steve and Allie left next. Why are they sleepers? Because no one is expecting them to do well, not me certainly, and none of the other teams are either. Yet, from the first leg onward, they have been moving up so I'm going to call them my "sleepers." They might challenge for the final three if they keep this up!

Joe and Heidi were the third team to leave, and Joe was still suffering from his knee injury from the last leg. Joe limped down the street as Heidi ran ahead, and frankly, I felt a little sorry for him. A little sorry!

Speaking of injuries, Caite managed to recover well from her leg injury that nearly put them in last place during the previous leg. I'm a little suspect of her injury, but that's just me. Maybe she was thinking they were in last place and was hoping for a little sympathy.

Only Jeff and Jordan struggled to find their way to the bakery. They ended up in the maze of streets that are legendary throughout that area. Jeff does not handle stress well, and his reaction is to lash out. Jordan, on the other hand, comes close to shutting down. The more upset he becomes, the less Jordan responds — until she's had enough. Jeff was supposed to be navigating and he should have taken some responsibility to get them to their destination, instead he became agitated with her driving skills.

Detour to Hell!
The Detour for this leg of the race was a re-enactment of a World War I battle. The teams chose between a Morse Code translation task and traversing a field of barbed wire mesh while "under fire" to retrieve a message and bring it back.

All the teams chose "Under Fire". Michael and Louie hit the field first and Louie became extremely winded while crawling under the wire. They managed to maintain their lead, however, and headed south down the road which lead to a blind "U-Turn".

Decisions, decisions! Should they U-Turn Steve and Allie who placed second in the last leg, or Joe and Heidi, who are a thorn in their side? The decision is finally made, and Joe and Heidi's photo is slapped onto the U-Turn, meaning they had to do the other part of the Detour too. Michael and Louie's rationale was that Joe was cocky on the bus. They may have been, in light of Joe's injury, a bit too self-assured, but then again none of the teams would have started the race if they did not feel they had a shot at winning!

U-Turn are the Worst Turns!
Steve, the oldest contestant left in the game, and Allie made it through the task with very little complaining, and they were followed closely by Joe and Heidi. Upon reaching the U-Turn they discovered that Joe and Heidi had to go back and do the Morse Code portion of the Detour.

Unfair? Maybe. But at the same time, it's a game. So Joe and Heidi headed back to do the Morse Code. I know this was a difficult challenge but it was one that could have been accomplished if they had settled down. Dots and dashes — dots are single tones, dashes are multiple tones in quick succession. Each letter is signified by a different series.

Following the Detour, each team changed into early 20th century bike riding clothes, complete with mustache, and headed off on a four-mile bike ride to the pitstop. Michael and Louie arrived first, with Steve and Allie on their heals.

Bickering Will Get You Nowhere!
Meanwhile, back at the Detour, Brandy and Carol complained about the task not being "what they signed up for." Ummmm! It's The Amazing Race! Nothing that says they can't re-enact World War I as a task. Brandy was decidedly worse than Carol, in my opinion. It's a game for a million dollars and doing things like this is all part of the game. Brent and Caite arrive and exchange words with them showing that the bad blood from the start of the race remains.

At this point, I have to say that the amount of energy many of the teams are expending on complaining about tasks, other teams, etc., is going to cost them in the end. It's simply not good strategy to waste time and energy tearing down their teammate or another team while trying to do a task.

Returning to Jeff and Jordan, we discover they are still trying to locate the bakery. Once they do, Jeff seems to have trouble figuring out the clue is inside the bread. It's the little things that are setting this team back as the other teams somehow managed to find the clue more quickly. Back in the car, Jeff continues to complain about Jordan's driving. There's a correlation between Jeff's attitude and Jordan's performance. The worse his attitude gets, the worse Jordan's performance.

Great Representation of our Educational System!
In one of the dumbest moves of the show, Brent and Caite are shown reading the clue which says to go south down a road. Brent consults his watch compass, which "astoundingly" and obviously has North at the top. He turns and points to North as being into some field ahead which would mean that south was behind them at that point. Instead, Brent points to his left, which if North were in front of him should have been West but was really North. Confused? Well, then you know how Brent feels every time he navigates!

So the pair sets off in the opposite direction of their clue happily walking "south."

Joe and Heidi are still trying to resolve the Morse Code. They listen, think they hear a "V" and quickly write down the message they received on the "under fire" portion of the Detour. Maybe I would have done the same thing but they should have listened to at least the first word to determine that it was not the same. Shear desperation to move beyond the Detour lead to a downward spiral for this team.

Bringing Up the Rear
This year, it seems like the producers are focusing more attention on the teams that are not doing as well. We know exactly what is going wrong for them, and I will admit that it's entertaining!

Jeff and Jordan finally arrive at the Detour, long after Louie and Michael have already won this leg of the race. Jeff continues to criticize Jordan for her driving, for her pace, for her decisions! It's almost like he did not spend two months locked in a house learning how she functions under pressure, which is not well when someone is harping at her.

In a separate confessional, Jeff is critical of the fact that Jordan is not putting in the effort for a million dollars that he thinks should be there. I wonder if it occurred to Jeff that her share of the prize would be $500,000. She's already won $500,000 and she's already aware that Uncle Sam takes a large share. Add to that the fact that only two months before, Jordan won BB, a show that she really was not that interested in. Now, she finds herself in another reality show that she's never viewed except youtubes. I think she's done amazingly well!

So when I see Jordan, walking slowly, laces untied, leggings flopping to the side, it's not really surprising. Jeff's impatience grows and they still have to accomplish a "Speed Bump" before they can move on to the Detour. The Speed Bump resulted from their last place finish during the non-elimination leg. Their task is to reinforce the trench with tree branches.

Their arrival, gives hope to Joe and Heidi who seem to have resorted to pulling random phrases out of thin air to try them. Jeff and Jordan finish the Speed Bump and move to the Detour, where Jeff continues to prod Jordan to finish the task.

Clueless
At about the same time, Brent and Caite have stumbled upon the clue to the pitstop, donned their bicycling gear, and headed off to find Phil. As they step onto the mat, Phil informs them of their sixth place finish and gives them the bad news that they missed a clue and will have to go back to retrieve it. So off they go, south this time, to find the missing clue.

Joe and Heidi are equally clueless as they listen to the morse code again. Is it a "T"? How about an "H"? They would have been better off simply choosing random letters and rushing them to the man standing to the side. Dismayed, they watch as Jeff and Jordan finish the Detour and head off to find their next clue.

Unfortunately for Joe and Heidi the Detour was too much and they gave up on even finishing. Fortunately for Jeff and Jordan, the Detour was too much for Joe and Heidi, and they finished in seventh place, still at the bottom but in the race.

I did not expect Joe and Heidi to go this round. I halfway expected it to be Brandy and Carla!

Looks like next week Caite and Brent disintegrate, but the previews are always a little misleading.