'The Amazing Race': Tammy and Victor fall from grace

I hate seeing a team I like on The Amazing Race fall apart. Whether it happens due to poor teamwork, bad luck, or in this case both, it's troublesome. When it happens, it always makes me want to reach into the television and strangle the offending party. It's even worse when that team starts the leg in first place.

Tammy and Victor, began their leg mid-morning, an auspicious time to start. When people get started in the middle of the day rather than the middle of the night, it allows for less bunching. Tammy and Victor made a standby flight to Bucharest that no other team could because they got started early. It gave them a decent lead, a lead that they couldn't hold. Because their airplane took off and then turned back around, they ended up missing another flight that they had tickets on too.

Brad and Victoria had airplane trouble also, they made their first flight, but missed a tight connection. Unlike the rest of the teams, they had to wait all night at an airport to get a connection. Clearly the travel gods were not with our racers this evening.

Those with slightly more luck landed in Bucharest late in the evening and had to do some gymnastics moves. They were the sort of moves that look really easy when a 12 year-old does them, but tend to prove far more difficult in reality. There were cartwheels involved, if I were doing the task my team would have been in deep trouble. I've always wanted to do a cartwheel, I just don't have the ability.

None of the teams really seemed to have issues with the gymnastics, which as far as I can tell meant only one thing -- the judges were too soft. I saw missed steps, bad dismounts, and other issues, yet we only saw a judge complain about Tammy's moves (once she and Victor arrived). If this were the actual Olympics, I'd suggest that the judges had been bought and paid for.

Luckily for them, none of Tammy's problems with the gymnastics made any sort of difference. It was the middle of the night and as the next stop, Transylvania, required a train ride, all the teams (save Brad and Victoria) were on the first train in the morning.

Tonight's detour required teams with no sense of fun to pack up the belongs of a family of gypsies and move them from one encampment to another, while the rest could, Dracula-style, drag wooden coffins, bust locks, impale wooden frames that bled on stakes, and generally have a great time. The folks who chose the gypsy detour got exactly what they deserved -- to move parts of a car among other things. Yes, the Dracula one was more difficult, but they were in Transylvania, how do you not do the Dracula task?

Tammy and Victor chose the right detour, but failed to find the right path, Victor followed white and red markers instead of The Amazing Race's yellow and red ones. Tammy knew he was wrong, but the big brother simply failed to listen. They ended up climbing up the side of a mountain that they didn't need to climb. Tammy would stop Victor from time to time and say that they should turn around, but it took forever -- and some tears from Victor -- before the big brother agreed to turn around.

Chris and Amanda chose the wrong detour, but still could have been first to the pit stop, had Chris not lost his fanny pack. He found it, but Mel and Mike, who also chose the wrong detour, still managed to pass the couple and arrive first.

Tammy and Victor were slowed down by both bad luck and poor teamwork, but still managed to come in second to last. Brad and Victoria's missed connection got them eliminated this week. It was sad to see them go for that mistake and not to see Tammy and Victor disappear for their foolishness. However, maybe, just maybe, Tammy and Victor will learn from their problems and get back on track next week, there's sure to be another bottleneck down the line that will help them.

Here's what I want to know -- do you ever feel like a team ought to be eliminated solely based on poor performance even if they don't come in last? Issues like Tammy and Victor's this week always make me wonder.

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - we're past forming, norming, and storming, and onto performing.