This season of The Amazing Race has been unlike any we’ve seen before. Teams seem to actively want to be helping each other, with no ulterior motive beyond the fact that they genuinely like each other. Perhaps it’s because this pool of teams all share something in common, having been picked because of their social media influence. Or maybe they’re all just nice people who would rather help each other out than win a million dollars. It doesn’t seem like the teams are any less competitive than in seasons past, with teams like Kurt/Brodie and Tyler/Korey duking it out for first place the last few weeks. But in an episode that ended with every team except one arriving to the mat at essentially the same time, you’ve got to wonder how long they’re going to keep this camaraderie up. Because if it lasts any longer, then the race will simply be about who can win in a foot race to Phil.
From the start of this leg, everyone began on even ground, taking the same flight to Switzerland. This meant that most of the teams arrived at the Detour at around the same time, leading them to communicate and work with each other. For the teams that chose to build the Swiss Army knife, it really was every man for himself, as it wasn’t as cooperative of a task. You actually had to have the skill and ability to follow the precise directions and put together the knife. The few teams that picked this task breezed through it though, not needing any help from each other.
The other half of the Detour was another story, as it required teams to count how many people could fit on one of the longest benches in the world. As soon as the first team, Brodie and Kurt, successfully guessed the correct number, they immediately told all the other teams, claiming that they were friends with all of them. It’s nice to have friends but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should that easily let a handful of other teams in on the answer to a difficult task, ensuring that they’d be in competition with you for first place that leg. Unfortunately for the models, Jessica and Brittany, they had arrived at the Detour a bit too late and weren’t privy to the knowledge that all the other teams were.
This ended up hurting them as everyone arrived to the Roadblock at around the same time and began pairing off and working with each other. For some reason, it was incredibly difficult for them to realize that the map of countries they were looking at corresponded with the actual layout of the flags on the grounds. But once they finally used common sense to deduce this, they worked together to run around the grounds and determine which countries flags they needed. With Jessica and Brittany being the last to arrive, everyone else had already started working together and they all realized one essential fact: someone needed to take last place. Despite her pleas for help, no one would offer assistance to Jessica.
While the girls spent a good deal of time complaining about this, I find it hard to believe that they would have acted any differently if they were in the other team’s position. And perhaps if Jessica had spent less time complaining about no one helping her and more time actually doing the challenge, they would have landed on the same train as everyone else that took them to the Pit Stop for that leg of the race. They could have easily joined the other teams and been a part of the foot race to Phil and would probably still be in the race. Instead, the time wasted complaining and walking through the challenge instead of putting forth real effort ended up costing them valuable time and sealed their last place fate.
All the teams being together for this leg in the race also allowed for a very interesting development in terms of showmances. Having not seen each other since the start of the race, sparks flew between Brodie and Blair when they were finally able to meet up. As Tyler and Korey affectionately named them “Blodie,” probably the least romantic ship name in the history of ship names, it became clear that all the other teams are rooting for this couple to get together. And understandably so, as they really are rather adorable together. While neither is outright fessing up to their feelings for each other, they did get in some cuddle time and have admitted that they don’t dislike each other’s company. As the race continues and teams either realize they need to fight for themselves or continue working with each other, it will be interesting to see how this couple fares. Hopefully Brodie won’t let his feelings get in the way of running the best race they can.
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