The Amazing Race 17x10 Review
Nov. 29th, 2010 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iaria‘I Hate Chinese Food’
• Nick was so hideous this episode. I thought after the last episode that I could handle him winning because it meant Vicky would be winning as well and Vicky is awesome – she doesn’t give up, she tries her hardest, she’s polite and seems like a genuinely nice person, she’s in excellent shape and thus is a great competitor and she’s smarter than she gives herself credit for (she’s ignorant but I think she is smart). If only she’d come on the race with a different partner! But after this episode I really couldn’t stand it if he won. That would really piss me off. I hate him. He is just so horrible, and god, she needs to leave his ass. Nick losing his temper when they missed the ferry, yelling at Vicky and calling her stupid and his reaction to her crying, was horrible but almost expected from him at this point. And even if it wasn’t caused by her asthma forcing her to be slower than usual his words were still completely uncalled for. Also somehow his reaction to her crying, the snidness of his ‘oh, stop crying’, pissed me off more than him insulting her. I wanted to smack him upside the head so much. I really hope this ends with her leaving him.
And that wasn’t even the worst part! At the food challenge he was okay – he wasn’t being mean and their interaction when she was throwing up (asking if she wanted to take the penalty, that it was suppose to be fun and wasn’t worth this) was maybe even nice – but then he decided to cap the episode off by being a petulant child. Nick giving up on the detour, actually lying down and napping and leaving Vicky to do the work, and then basically pushing her into accepting the penalty via his whininess and bitchiness made me so angry! And it wasn’t even a difficult detour! There was no thinking or strenuous activity or skill required! Just sit your ass down and look at numbers on boats! God! Hate, hate, hate. Re-watching some of the episode and the Nick freak out upon missing the ferry had these gems: “You’ve got to suck it up”, “I’m not here to lose”, and “We can’t stop. We stop we go home” (if only) – and when you think about his behaviour at the detour (and then think about Vicki’s reactions both time) and he’s just so freaking nasty.
Nick’s gleeful laughing when Claire went running for the bathroom to throw up and then when she returned (“Ralf number one (laugh)”) was insufferable. Shut up, Nick. And then in the best comparison of the difference between Nick and Vicky, as he’s laughing at Claire, Vicky takes the time to ask “Are you okay?” because she is just so much better a person than he could ever be. Honestly if they ever do another all-stars I’d love Vicky to come back, sans Nick, and perhaps hooked up with say Brook (who can be annoying but is also supportive and friendly usually and who I think would find a physical equal in Vicky, and they could kick ass), or frankly pretty much anyone else.
• Vicki saying that Nick basically quitting ‘kind of makes me mad’ is such an understatement when she should have been pissed off. I kind of want to shake her and say ‘stop taking his crap!’ She did stand up to him a bit later – telling him that he didn’t deal well with anything that day and saying that his temper makes ‘everything ten times worse’. Although she also said that they needed to ‘listen to each other more’ which – what? Best of all I loved that after his apology her response was ”I need to see more of the changes, then to hear the sorrys.” It’s great in itself that she didn’t just accept his apology, though she could be a little more forceful, but it becomes kind of awesome when you realise that it was basically what he said to her when they missed the ferry at the beginning of the race (though more polite of course).
• Nat/Kat were their usual excellent selves and I was really happy they won first place again. It seems like Nat got through the roadblock quickly (certainly quicker than everyone else) but then they took a lot of a time on the detour. As usual they were just so drama free and quiet and good-tempered. I can kind of see how people can think they’re boring – they don’t cause drama – but I really like them and they are clearly strong competitors (just stop taking so long on the final task! They keep freaking me out!) They were pretty adorable at the mat with their “I’m so glad that you’re doing this with me”/”Me too” and laughing. The fact that they’ve now won four legs, and thus have received four prizes, does make me go ‘spread the wealth a bit!’ but I still want them to win.
• I loved that quick shot of Kat and the karaoke singing dancing up against her.
• Brook annoyed me, mostly during the run off the ferry to the first clue box. I get that she was going much slower then she could in order to stay with Claire and that left her irritated but she was a bit obnoxious. Her response to Claire’s “I’m not giving up but I need to do it at my own pace”, which I thought that was very reasonable, of “heaven forbid you do it at anyone else’s” came off as snide which I don’t think she is. But she was very supportive of Claire at the roadblock in a non-irritating way.
• I was confused that Claire read the clue at the roadblock and somehow thought that ‘peckish’ meant singing karaoke and not eating. I felt horrible for her, I hate throwing up and I totally empathise with her being a picky eater, and I found myself getting pretty anxious for them. It appeared though that once she threw up and no longer had that consuming her every feeling/thought she found what she was looking for pretty quickly (but time on this show is weird so who knows). I loved their glee after passing the food challenge and how into it everyone else got. It did get a bit embarrassing but it also made me smile a lot. Their jumping up and down, screaming in glee, Brook hugging the clue guy, and Claire hugging a random bystander and every bystander grinning and clapping and being so happy for them – it was just a really nice moment. That said Brook’s dancing during that road block hit my embarrassment squick a number of times. Sometimes she is so ridiculous. You know if these two win the million that will really be something to see. She will freak out.
• I found the Brook/Claire and Thomas/Jill reunion mostly drama free but also a little eye rolling. I was on Jill/Thomas’s side – it was a part of the game, and frankly they should have been complimented that J/T thought they were more of a threat than Nat/Kat (even though they were wrong). Brook/Claire being all about Thomas and that ‘we know who the mastermind is’ and shaking Thomas hand but not Jill’s (or at least that we saw) annoyed me as well.
• Nick was so hideous this episode. I thought after the last episode that I could handle him winning because it meant Vicky would be winning as well and Vicky is awesome – she doesn’t give up, she tries her hardest, she’s polite and seems like a genuinely nice person, she’s in excellent shape and thus is a great competitor and she’s smarter than she gives herself credit for (she’s ignorant but I think she is smart). If only she’d come on the race with a different partner! But after this episode I really couldn’t stand it if he won. That would really piss me off. I hate him. He is just so horrible, and god, she needs to leave his ass. Nick losing his temper when they missed the ferry, yelling at Vicky and calling her stupid and his reaction to her crying, was horrible but almost expected from him at this point. And even if it wasn’t caused by her asthma forcing her to be slower than usual his words were still completely uncalled for. Also somehow his reaction to her crying, the snidness of his ‘oh, stop crying’, pissed me off more than him insulting her. I wanted to smack him upside the head so much. I really hope this ends with her leaving him.
And that wasn’t even the worst part! At the food challenge he was okay – he wasn’t being mean and their interaction when she was throwing up (asking if she wanted to take the penalty, that it was suppose to be fun and wasn’t worth this) was maybe even nice – but then he decided to cap the episode off by being a petulant child. Nick giving up on the detour, actually lying down and napping and leaving Vicky to do the work, and then basically pushing her into accepting the penalty via his whininess and bitchiness made me so angry! And it wasn’t even a difficult detour! There was no thinking or strenuous activity or skill required! Just sit your ass down and look at numbers on boats! God! Hate, hate, hate. Re-watching some of the episode and the Nick freak out upon missing the ferry had these gems: “You’ve got to suck it up”, “I’m not here to lose”, and “We can’t stop. We stop we go home” (if only) – and when you think about his behaviour at the detour (and then think about Vicki’s reactions both time) and he’s just so freaking nasty.
Nick’s gleeful laughing when Claire went running for the bathroom to throw up and then when she returned (“Ralf number one (laugh)”) was insufferable. Shut up, Nick. And then in the best comparison of the difference between Nick and Vicky, as he’s laughing at Claire, Vicky takes the time to ask “Are you okay?” because she is just so much better a person than he could ever be. Honestly if they ever do another all-stars I’d love Vicky to come back, sans Nick, and perhaps hooked up with say Brook (who can be annoying but is also supportive and friendly usually and who I think would find a physical equal in Vicky, and they could kick ass), or frankly pretty much anyone else.
• Vicki saying that Nick basically quitting ‘kind of makes me mad’ is such an understatement when she should have been pissed off. I kind of want to shake her and say ‘stop taking his crap!’ She did stand up to him a bit later – telling him that he didn’t deal well with anything that day and saying that his temper makes ‘everything ten times worse’. Although she also said that they needed to ‘listen to each other more’ which – what? Best of all I loved that after his apology her response was ”I need to see more of the changes, then to hear the sorrys.” It’s great in itself that she didn’t just accept his apology, though she could be a little more forceful, but it becomes kind of awesome when you realise that it was basically what he said to her when they missed the ferry at the beginning of the race (though more polite of course).
• Nat/Kat were their usual excellent selves and I was really happy they won first place again. It seems like Nat got through the roadblock quickly (certainly quicker than everyone else) but then they took a lot of a time on the detour. As usual they were just so drama free and quiet and good-tempered. I can kind of see how people can think they’re boring – they don’t cause drama – but I really like them and they are clearly strong competitors (just stop taking so long on the final task! They keep freaking me out!) They were pretty adorable at the mat with their “I’m so glad that you’re doing this with me”/”Me too” and laughing. The fact that they’ve now won four legs, and thus have received four prizes, does make me go ‘spread the wealth a bit!’ but I still want them to win.
• I loved that quick shot of Kat and the karaoke singing dancing up against her.
• Brook annoyed me, mostly during the run off the ferry to the first clue box. I get that she was going much slower then she could in order to stay with Claire and that left her irritated but she was a bit obnoxious. Her response to Claire’s “I’m not giving up but I need to do it at my own pace”, which I thought that was very reasonable, of “heaven forbid you do it at anyone else’s” came off as snide which I don’t think she is. But she was very supportive of Claire at the roadblock in a non-irritating way.
• I was confused that Claire read the clue at the roadblock and somehow thought that ‘peckish’ meant singing karaoke and not eating. I felt horrible for her, I hate throwing up and I totally empathise with her being a picky eater, and I found myself getting pretty anxious for them. It appeared though that once she threw up and no longer had that consuming her every feeling/thought she found what she was looking for pretty quickly (but time on this show is weird so who knows). I loved their glee after passing the food challenge and how into it everyone else got. It did get a bit embarrassing but it also made me smile a lot. Their jumping up and down, screaming in glee, Brook hugging the clue guy, and Claire hugging a random bystander and every bystander grinning and clapping and being so happy for them – it was just a really nice moment. That said Brook’s dancing during that road block hit my embarrassment squick a number of times. Sometimes she is so ridiculous. You know if these two win the million that will really be something to see. She will freak out.
• I found the Brook/Claire and Thomas/Jill reunion mostly drama free but also a little eye rolling. I was on Jill/Thomas’s side – it was a part of the game, and frankly they should have been complimented that J/T thought they were more of a threat than Nat/Kat (even though they were wrong). Brook/Claire being all about Thomas and that ‘we know who the mastermind is’ and shaking Thomas hand but not Jill’s (or at least that we saw) annoyed me as well.
