Amazing Race: Twinnie Hot Mess

noweddingshop

The 24th season of Amazing Race is an all-star season with contestants from past seasons given another chance at winning a million dollars while traveling the world, arguing with one another, lying to other teams and possibly having a nervous breakdown at some point. Come join the commentary from Amy, Steve and me as we watch the first episode, “Back in the Saddle.”

When this season was announced, the show made it sound like fan favorites would be running this all-star season. After seeing who would be running, we found half the teams to be annoying. Were they the only ones available or did the show just want to cause drama by having teams that made us crazy the first time around? We voiced our opinions as we were reintroduced to the teams:

jetcord
Cowboys – We love the cowboys so we are glad they are back, even if it is for a third time.
carolinejen
Cowgirls – They are really country singers, but this is what we call them half the time. Amy and I both found them annoying before when they convinced the hockey brothers to just do everything for them. We are ready to be annoyed again.
 natalienadiya
Twinnies – Both Amy and I like the twins. Steve was not as much a fan of their yelling. I enjoy that their yelling disturbs the other teams so much and they just shrug it off.
 brendonrachel
Brendan & Rachel – There was so much crying last time. Both Amy and I hated the crying last time.  We did both laugh when he said they would fight less because they are married.
 jessicajohn
Express Pass Freakout – Did they even have a nickname last time we watched? As soon as they showed this couple, Amy said, “Oh lord, this guy.” Then we laughed at him freaking out and wasting his express pass the last time they raced. We were also confused why she is engaged to him. He’s obviously a spaz.
 flighttimebigeasy
Globetrotters – We love them! We didn’t remember they had been on it twice before. This will be their third time racing.
 daveconnor
Achilles  – They both beat cancer and dad cried about it constantly. That’s all we remember about last time before he tore his Achilles and had to quit the race. Please, no more crying about cancer.
 joeymeghan
YouTube – They were so ill prepared to race last time and he was always freaking out and crying. Amy said, “Please let them be eliminated today.” I also don’t understand why people follow them on YouTube.
 leojamal_0
Afghanimals – We actually liked them a bit more at the end of the last season, mostly because the other teams were out to get them so badly. Will they not be such dorky spazzes like they were at the beginning of last season? Let’s hope.
 margieluke
Margie & Luke – This is their third time. Every other season, Luke has had a crying nervous breakdown so we are just waiting for it to happen again.
 mallorymark
Kentucky – It was supposed to be Mark & Bopper, but the day before the race, Bopper was informed that his pancreas might burst at any moment so he shouldn’t race. He still wanted Mark to race so they flew Mallory in because she’s from Kentucky too. It would be the first time that people have raced that didn’t have some kind of connection before. We were excited about Kentucky since they were so freakishly good at tasks last time they were in the race, but we also liked Mallory when she raced before with her dad.

After all the drama of the introductions, Steve said the Afghanimals were going to win the million dollars. Amy picked the Cowboys. I thought it would be the Twinnies since they surprised people last time they were on. Amy and I thought YouTube would be eliminated first because they were usually at the back of the pack of people the last time they raced.

The teams started out on the UCLA football field with the marching band behind them. Their first task was to run up to the two band leaders and look at the Chinese symbol on their hats and then find a matching symbol on one of the band members. Once they did it, they would have to drag the poor band member over to Phil to get their spot on one of two flights leaving to China.

draggingbandmembers

The cowgirls proved their dumbness almost immediately by wondering if the symbol was on the band member’s capes. They just had to look up to find it in the same place that they found it on the band leader.  The Afghanimals, Cowboys, Achilles and Twinnies were all on the first flight. Express Pass Freakout were right behind the Twinnies, but ended up on the second flight with the rest of the teams. Then it must have been too boring to watch the rest of the teams check in with Phil since we then got to watch everyone run to their cars and drive away.

While at the airport, son from AchillesTeam said, “Being on the first flight is huge. Virtually, you have to be on that first flight if you want a chance of winning the leg and getting those two express passes.” Virtually? I know people use “literally” wrong all the time, but that’s the first time I have heard virtually. Okay, dude!

After landing in China, the teams had to take a taxi or the metro to  the street of wedding dresses and find one of three stores, each containing a limited number of clues. The store names they were given were not always on the signs of the shops or were only in Chinese so that made it a bit more difficult, besides the fact that there were hundreds of dress shops in a small area. After hearing what they had to do, I thought they should have had to try on wedding dresses as part of the task. Opportunity missed!

The Afganimals, Twinnies and Achilles all jumped in cabs when they landed. The Cowboys were the only team to take the metro.  The Cowboys laughed about how they were on their own, like usual, but their gamble paid off since they were the first team to arrive at all the dress shops. As soon as saw all the wedding dress shops, they said, “Holy cow!” Steve said, “We don’t have dress shops where we come from.” They found a local that pointed out where one of the dress shops were located so they headed in that direction.

The other three teams arrived in their taxis. The Twinnies were yelling at each other like usual. One of them saying, that it was all written in Asian so she couldn’t read it. Asian? I think she meant Chinese. We also learned that Jamal got married since the last season. I thought that was fast since he was busy flirting with the blondes last time.  The Twinnies and Afghanimals got out of their taxis at the same time so they started looking for the shops together.  They did not get along. The Afghanimals were joking around while looking and the Twinnies were not amused. One of them said, “This is not funny!”

The Cowboys saw them working together, but they were still trying to find the shop they were given directions to so they kept on their own path. The Achilles Team saw the Cowboys so they got out of their taxi and started looking in the same area. The Cowboys had to ask a few people, but finally found one of the shops in a tiny alley. They got the next clue that was telling them to find a tall building that had side ferris wheel on top of it.

The Cowboys moved onto the next task around the time the second plane landed. All teams headed to the Metro, but some ran faster than others since only some made the first train — Brendan & Rachel, Margie & Luke, Globetrotters and Kentucky. The last three teams — Cowgirls, YouTube and Expreass Pass Freakout — had to catch the next Metro train.

Meanwhile, back at the wedding dresses, the Achilles team found a local to help them locate one of the dress shops. Before heading off to the ferris wheel, the dad made the shop lady very uncomfortable with a hug and kiss on her cheek.

nohugs

The Afghanimals and Twinnies were directed to the correct wedding shop, but since the sign was confusing, they didn’t think it was the correct shop. They had a local point them right to it, but instead of clarifying with the local or asking the shop if it was right, one of the Twinnies declared it was wrong and they all moved on. They found another local that tried to help them, but they ended up walking into someone’s house. It didn’t even look like a wedding shop. Amy said, “What the hell? You can’t just walk into scary places Twinnies!”

They were still being lost when four teams (Brendan & Rachel, Kentucky, Margie & Luke, Globetrotters) from the second plane all showed up on the wedding street and found one of the wedding shops immediately. That meant that the second plane was now ahead of teams on the first plane.

chinaview

The cowboys were the first to arrive at the tall building with sideways ferris wheel on it. They oohed and aahed at the nice city view before jumping into one of the very slow moving pods. They were still checking out the view all around them while the door closed. That’s when they realized that there was a clue on the back of the door. When they opened it, it said “Try Again.” They couldn’t get off the pod until it went all the way around. Did I mention it was slow?  It didn’t matter. They were so far ahead of other teams that no one else had shown up when they got out of their pod and into another one.  They found one with a clue that told them to go to the stadium below. They had to wait to get out. While waiting to slowly go around, they watched Margie & Luke, Brendan & Rachel, Achilles and Kentucky show up. They were shocked since some of those teams were on the second flight. I know Cowboys, we were shocked too.

Back at the wedding dress street, the very last teams showed up at a wedding shop at the same time as the Afghanimals and Twinnies. That’s when they realized how horrible they were at finding clues. All of the teams were just sorting through dresses looking for a clue, but they weren’t in the right store. If they were, the owner would just hand it to them. The cow girls decided to work with the Twinnies to find someone that spoke English, even though I swear the Twinnies had done that already and gotten nowhere. When the Afghanimals were on their own, they found someone that showed them a correct shop almost immediately and they were finally on their way to the ferris wheel building.

The Cowboys were busy laughing at other teams in the pod while they looked around trying to find the clue. They all eventually found it on the door. Brendan & Rachel were the only ones that had an actual clue. The rest only had “Try Again.” They all saw the Cowboys take off so they knew that pod was a good one. Before the other teams can go all the way around, the Afghanimals showed up. They lucked out and got in a pod with an actual clue. That meant that Brendan & Rachel were right behind the Cowboys with the Afghanimals being slightly behind. Margie & Luke got into the correct pod on their second try.

The remaining teams were all running together when the Express Pass Freakout and YouTube decided they didn’t want to follow the Twinnies anymore. Why did it take them so long to figure out that? That team had already been doing poorly for so long before they arrived. Steve said the Country Girls and Twinnies were a hot mess. As soon as Express Pass Freakout and YouTube distanced themselves from the Twinnies, they found a correct shop. When the hot mess teams realized they were last, they had a mini freakout and then regrouped. They found a guy that knew where all the shops were located. Amy said, “All the shops in the world! He is the world’s #1 shopper.” He took them to two different shops that were correct, but all the clues were taken at that point so they finally got their clues at the third shop.

At the ferris wheel, the Afghanimals took off while Kentucky and Achilles got into pods with the clue and three other teams arrived (Globetrotters, YouTube and Express Pass Freakout). They all got the clue except YouTube. Well, everyone read the clue, but Mallory really didn’t believe that the stadium that they could see from the pod was actually a stadium. No one else seemed to have this confusion. Twinnies and Country Girls showed up. When the Twinnies got into a pod that didn’t have the clue, they started blaming each other and yelling, “You are such a fool!”

All the other teams took off to the next task except YouTube and the Twinnies who had to get in another pod.  YouTube went into a pod that the Country Girls got out of so they knew it had the clue. The Twinnies were pretty certain it was only the even number pods that had the clue, but then they also wanted to get into one that they saw another team get out of before. They wasted some time and let an even pod pass them by before they finally decided to just get in an even one. They were in last place already, but now they were just even further in last place.

When teams finally got down to the stadium, they found the very boring road block.  One person had to do five high wire flips on a cable while hanging 300 feet above the ground.  Beyond someone freaking out about the heights, it wasn’t difficult. The person that performed it probably had fun, but it didn’t do anything to slow any one team down or cause any team to pass another one. I don’t understand why they set up road blocks like this, especially on the first leg with two Express Passes up for grabs. Unless someone freaked out so much that they had to take the penalty, which is never fun to watch, there was no gain in having this as part of the race for this leg. The only good thing were the outfits they had to wear. They were pretty ridiculous.

flipoutfit

The cowboys were the first team to get to the pit stop, so they won two Express Passes — one that they can use and one they have to give to another team before the end of the fifth leg. Brendan and Rachel were the second team to arrive and Rachel didn’t cry once during this leg! Achilles, Margie & Luke and Afghanimals checked in next.  Next batch of teams that came in were Kentucky and Globetrotters. When Express Pass Freakout checked in with Phil they said they were glad they didn’t have the Express Pass again so they didn’t have to worry about using it. I am glad I don’t have such burdens in my life.

After the Country Girls checked in, it was only YouTube and Twinnies left. There was no doubt it would be Twinnies in last place since everyone was in the same order as when they left the ferris wheel building. The Twinnies were eliminated. Even though they did annoy some people, I did laugh at them yelling at each other. They would yell one second and then laugh the next. I found it amusing.

What do you think about the teams that were picked for this season? What do you think about the race set up for this first leg, especially the road block that didn’t make a difference in how teams ended up at the pit stop? Were you sad or glad to see the Twinnies go?

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