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The Amazing Race 15: Episode 1 & 2 - Victor Jih's Top 10 Moments

Posted on 09/28/2009 by Gina in The Amazing Race

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The Amazing Race 15

 

by Victor Jih
Winner of The Amazing Race Season 14

 

Fresh off winning its seventh Emmy in a row (go Season 14), The Amazing Race kicked off Season 15 with a supersized double-episode in Tokyo (Japan) and Cai Be (Vietnam).  Admittedly, I watched the start of this new season with a bit of sadness and jealousy—much like Ms. Dunlap must have felt as her would be successors began competing for Miss America 2005.  If Episodes 1 and 2 are any indication, it is clear this cast of racers are in for a wilder, crazier, and more amazing ride than we were.  I will leave the episode recaps to those who clearly have more time than  I do.  Instead, I wanted to share the top ten random thoughts from someone who was just there.
 
1.  THE STARTING LINE ELIMINATION
The new twist this season is the elimination of a team at the very start.  The sad victims of this new twist were Eric and Lisa Paskel, the extreme yoga instructors from Southern California  On the mat, Eric talked about “the shame” and “the pain” of being the first eliminated.  There is no question that the biggest fear for every racer on the start line is being eliminated first.  Before this season, though, the racers always had a full leg to overcome any nerves and to get into racing mode.  Not anymore.  I like this new twist—because it forces every racer to start racing immediately and to learn the importance of really reading the clue.  I also thought the choice of challenge was appropriate.  It was not a physical feat that would advantage certain teams over others.  It was not an intelligence or knowledge test that would advantage the more educated or better traveled.  It was not ultimately a needle-in-the-haystack task in which luck determined your fate.  It was a read-the-clue test that tested a skill used at every stage of the race.  That said, I do feel for Eric and Lisa, who—after months of anticipation—get to drive half an hour home instead of embarking on a month-long trip around the world.  It was tough, however, to watch Lance and Keri (and by that, I really just mean Lance) gloat for the rest of the two hours when they barely survived the first ten minutes.  And did anyone else notice Lance blame Keri for not “reading the clue” when he could not figure out the “clue” either?

 

2.  THE LIE
As the teams got to know each other, Tiffany and Maria (the “hot poker girls” and this season’s only hope for an all-female winning team) revealed their pre-race decision to lie about what they do.  Since successful celebrity poker players are unlikely to win pity points from fellow racers, Tiffany and Maria decided to tell other racers that they work with homeless charities in Los Angeles.  Tammy and I had a similar strategic decision to make.  Like Tiffany and Maria, we worried what other racers would think about two Harvard lawyers.  Unlike Tiffany and Maria, we decided not to lie for several reasons.   One, we didn’t want to risk karmic backlash.  Two, we were worried what other teams would think if we could not maintain the lie.  And third, we didn’t want to waste any of our energy trying to maintain the lie.  We didn’t volunteer that we were Harvard lawyers and I don’t even remember if anyone asked—it was essentially a non-event.  Tiffany and Maria were unable to maintain the lie for long, and you can already see other teams labeling them “sneaky” and “shady” for being so transparently conniving.  I think it will help them that the cover was blown early.

 

3.  ASIAN PRIDE

In Tokyo, the teams had to participate in a mock Japanese game show, “Sushi Roulette”, as several hundred Japanese tourists chanted “Wasabi Taberu” (“eat the Wasabi”).  Despite being the sole Asian racer, Maria struggled with the “wasabi bomb” and was unable to complete it in the two minutes allotted.  Just as Tammy and I would have been mortified if we had been eliminated in Beijing, I think Maria should be at least slightly mortified for struggling with the wasabi so much.  I’m not sure if it was punishment from Maria’s ancestors or divine intervention, but Maria immediately got a “second chance” to eat the wasabi bomb again!  After a split second of doubt (and a commercial break), Maria stiffened her resolve and successfully completed the task.  (Sidenote: Brian/Ericka—why would you choose Brian to do the wasabi bomb if he’s never eaten/has thus far refused to eat sushi?)

 

4.  LAWYER PRIDE
Tammy and I were very aware last season that, as the only Asian racers our season, we were necessarily representing Asians when we raced, whether we liked it or not.  Partly as a joke, I liked saying we were also racing on behalf of lawyers everywhere, with the goal of showing America (and the world) that lawyers can be likeable too.  I took pride in the fact that by the end of the season, a lot of America (and many at TarCon) were rooting for and not against the team of lawyers.  Well, it looks like Lance the Lawyer from Massachusetts is single-handedly trying to undo all the work Tammy and I (and Rob and Brennan—the winners of Season 1) have done for the cause.  It will be interesting to see if this is an act, if Lance changes, or if Keri starts taking over.  But at least for now, I can only agree with Tiffany when she says, “I just can’t picture Lance in a courtroom.”  I also worry for this team because I didn’t see much humility.  One would have expected a self-reflective “this is the lesson we learned” epiphany after barely losing at the start line.

 

5.  THE DUCK WHISPERER
My biggest fear going into Season 14 was having to handle animals.  Fortunately, all I had to do was go near camels, but did not actually have to do anything with them.  Having never grown up with dogs or cats, never gone near a farm let alone a farm animal, and having killed every goldfish I won at a school fair, I considered animals the Achilles Heel for our team.  To prepare, I wanted to arrange some one-on one time with a horse or a cow, just so I would be comfortable interacting with large animals.  I never had the chance to do so, but I did take a lot of internet notes on how to deal with recalcitrant mules, how to ride a horse, how to milk a camel, etc.  Having watched prior seasons, I even looked up tips on how to handle sheep and flocks of birds.  (As Bertram Van Munster noted in interviews about this season, he unveiled the duck challenge in a prior season as a detour, but no one would take it because it seemed too difficult.)  As a student of the race, I knew that animals could easily derail a team.  That proved to be the case again, as both Ericka and Jessica struggled with the ducks.  While the task was riotous to watch, I’ve always been frustrated with these types of tasks because—even with the benefit of hindsight—it’s not obvious what the “trick” or “lesson” was to be learned.  It’s not clear why certain racers handled the ducks with such ease while others struggled.  Sam and Zev clearly win the award for “Duck Whisperer.”  The only thing I learned from watching the duck task is that Tiffany is way better at herding ducks than people.

 

6.  SIBLING COMMUNICATION
The question this season is will another sibling team win again?!?!  (Nick and Starr did it in Season 13; we did it in Season 14.)  I think Sam and Dan, the only sibling pair this season, have a good chance to make it a three-peat.  Sam and Dan came out of the duck challenge in first place, but how did they relinquish that lead on the way to the pit stop?   In a moment eerily reminiscent of Romania, we see Sam and Dan lost in the back streets of Vietnam arguing over what direction to go.  As Sam explained, “both of them are trying to take a leadership role.”  Sam laments that it’s difficult to convince Dan “to keep going one more block, as opposed to turning back.”  Ahh-memories of hills in Transylvania.  We don’t see how that battle is going to resolve, but we do see Sam call his younger brother “a moron.”   I’m not biased, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Dan should listen to his older brother more.  We’ll see if my hypothesis proves true.

 

7.  THE DIFFERENCE
To be a successful racing team, two people with different strengths and weaknesses need to find a way to work together and bring out the best in each other.  I’m a strong believer that every team will face its share of bad luck and have to overcome a bad mistake.  Teams that do not give up and that can learn from those mistakes/bad luck are more likely to succeed.  In Japan and Vietnam, we’ve already seen many teams make mistakes (Zev/Justin losing a clue; Canaan/Mika losing a Japanese woman; Tiffany/Maria losing two of them) and teams getting bad luck (Sam/Dan and Brian/Ericka having bad sushi roulette luck).  Those teams survived.  Jessica learned the secret (in her words, “stop and remain calm and not freak out”) a little too late at the duck challenge, and Garrett was unable to be a voice of reason and support in a situation of extreme stress, which proved to be their undoing.  I sympathize because I know how hard it was for Tammy to listen to anything that came out of my mouth when we tackled our first extreme challenge on Cheese Hill.  We had to learn quickly how to interact without pushing every button in the other person.   Sometimes there is a lot of baggage to deal with before  partners can communicate constructively.  Ultimately, in a race that tests the strength of relationship in a crisis, it probably did not bode well that Garrett and Jessica’s relationship was described from the start as “dating on and off.”  Whether the description was intended to be a joke or not, this day was an off day.  (If you haven’t seen it a cbs.com, Elimination Station was an “on” day.)

 

8.  WINNERS OF THE WHAT-AM-I-GOING-TO-DO-WITH-THIS AWARD
Both Meghan/Cheyne and Gary/Matt have to be congratulated on winning Legs 1 and 2 of the Race.  I am probably the only person in America who found this amusing, but I couldn’t help but wonder what Gary/Matt are going to do with a pair of sea kayaks in Montana.  Having won our own pair of sea kayaks in Season 14, I can tell you that they are nearly the length of a garage, take a two-ton truck to move around, and take up a lot of space.  My sister and I live in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and we’re having a hard time figuring out what to do with the kayaks (anyone want to buy them?).  I laughed out loud when I heard the two Montanans now have their own to deal with.  Maybe CBS wants to ship them ours?

 

9.  THE POKER GIRLS
To me, the two-hour premiere was all about the Poker Girls.  In the first week, Tiffany/Maria have already gone from first-to-last (starting line challenge to Tokyo pit-stop), have had to survive a near-fatal mistake in Japan, and have had to claw back from last place and overcome a speed bump.  Note:  If it weren’t for the non-elimination, the only all-female team would have been eliminated after the first leg.   Wow,  I don’t know if they have it in them to become the first female team to win the whole thing, but I do think they are going to make it pretty far in the race.  I say this even though they apparently have the worst gaydar in America and do not lie as well as you would think two top poker players could.  I like them because they are competitors.  Out of the gate they were in race mode.  I like them because they are survivors.  They’ve already faced an unimaginably bad leg with two wasabi bombs and two missing tourists.  I like them because they learn from their mistakes.  As Maria put it, the leg in Japan “humbled them.”  For Tammy and I, being humbled in Romania (and surviving that lesson) was a key to our success because it forced us to work through our issues and to figure out quickly what we were doing wrong.  (In contrast, I think Lance/Keri are doomed because I don’t think the starting line fiasco humbled them.  The race demands your respect.)  I also like them because they are a team.  Even though they bicker, I noticed that they always cling to each other for support.  In particular, I thought Maria was very supportive of Tiffany when she lost the two Japanese ladies, though I did find it amusing that Maria had to first make clear that it was Tiffany’s fault.  While they are a little unnecessarily antagonistic to the other teams at times, I’m hoping that doesn’t continue—especially as they submit to Sam/Dan’s charms.

 

10.  EARLY FAVORITES
For me, the early favorites are Sam/Dan, Tiffany/Maria, and Cheyne/Meghan.  I haven’t said much about Cheyne/Meghan because, frankly, not much happened to them.  They had a slight difficulty with the ducks, but Meghan quickly regrouped.  She stands out to me as one of the stronger women in the field.  In fact, if Cheyne were a girl, I’d bet on them to be the first girl-girl team to win.   (Incidentally, if I’m right about the need to be “humbled” by the race, then Brian/Ericka will fare well too.  In the additional clips on the CBS website, Brian/Ericka use the “humbled” word when they are talking to Phil at the mat after near elimination.  If they have in fact learned from the first two legs, they could go far, too.)

 

Next week we’re still in Vietnam.  Can’t wait to see what happens and to learn more about the teams.  Until then…

 

 

The Amazing Race airs Sunday nights at 8pm ET on CBS.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

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