'The Amazing Race': Racing against Michael Phelps

After a great beginning to the season, I've thought that the past few weeks of "The Amazing Race" have been a disappointment (yes, even the fight). Just as I was beginning to think that the show was going to go all boring in its final episodes this season, tonight happened. Boy did tonight happen.

There was no leaving China this week, instead this leg sent the teams to Beijing. It again gave Tammy & Victor a serious advantage, not that they were able to use that to win the last leg. The two definitely tried today though at the airport, asking the airlines folks to put them at the front of the plane and the other teams at the back. It didn't give them any sort of real advantage, but it showed that they were thinking about using every possible means at their disposal to help the win.

Just like Tammy & Victor, at the Roadblock, I figured that the teams were going to be giving foot massages... wrong, wrong, wrong. They were getting foot massages, awfully painful ones. It looked excruciating, but I couldn't help but laugh. Come on, tell me you didn't laugh, it was hysterical.

I'm not sure though why the show put in the bit about allowing the teams to cry "uncle" if the pain was too much, because they made it quite clear that the massage would start again from the beginning if players needed a break. I would have expected teams to be allowed to end the massage at any point but with a clear time penalty for it, not just doing the massage again.

With the team's all pretty close to one another, they headed from the Roadblock to the Detour, which required them to either do some synchronized diving or relay swimming. Again in the "I'm not sure why" file, the teams were getting clocked for the swimming against one of Michael Phelps' record times. They didn't have to beat the time, but they were racing against it. Why? What difference did Phelps' time make? Obviously the teams weren't going to be as fast as Phelps... no one has ever been as fast as Phelps.

Tammy & Victor and Lakisha & Jennifer did the dive, while the other two teams did the swimming. Well, Lakisha & Jen started at the dive, but moved to swimming after chickening out on the diving platform. Then, after Lakisha did her first lap in the pool, they switched back to the diving. They wasted a ton of time with their indecision, but Tammy & Victor, who got to the diving before Lakisha & Jen, were still trying to time their dive correctly when Lakisha & Jen returned to that task.

What was up with that Detour? It derailed two teams. Tammy & Victor ended up switching to the swim and Jennifer couldn't handle either choice. She broke into tears and said that she wanted to go home. I would have felt really bad for Jennifer if it wasn't for last week's incident, but it was still hard to watch her completely collapse at the pool. By the time Lakisha could coax Jennifer into the water, the other teams had already left for the Pit Stop.

Jaime & Cara finished their Detour first and got to the Pit Stop first as well, making it the first time they've finished a leg in the lead... or not. It turned out that the Pit Stop wasn't a Pit Stop. There was a mat and everything, including Phil, but it wasn't a Pit Stop. Cara & Jaime were all happy about finishing first and were so not amused when Phil said that the leg wasn't over and handed them their next clue, thereby ending tonight's episode.

Those poor women, Cara & Jaime were so happy to have won a leg, it looked like they were crying. Phil crushed them. I wonder if they'll be able to come back from that next week.

Odds and ends:

• Last week I defended Luke & Margie, at least I defended them more than I did Lakisha & Jen. However, I can't defend Luke's bumping the sisters on the way out of the airport tonight. That wasn't right, there's just no way that it was right.
• So, what did you think of the ending? The leg isn't finished, how did you like that?

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - it's not over till the fat lady sings.