All I can say, without indulgence, is that I feel fortunate to have been residing in California last night. It was Thursday, August 14, 2003, and the largest blackout in U.S. history unleashed its pandemic assault on several Northeastern states, and parts of Canada, to burden over 20 million people with the inability to check-in with Phil and the Final Three of AR4.
I can’t tell you what I would have done in that situation. All one has to know is that The Amazing Race is no mere time-filler or flickering distraction in my house. Since September of 2001 it is one of the only reasons I turn the bloody TV on. The Amazing Race has become my motif; my paramour. That said, my frenzy to catch the show in a darkened world wouldn’t have been pretty.
Thursday night’s penultimate, Episode 12, was one of the more kinetic installments this season. From the opening trek by the three teams to the “Australian Wool Shed” to obtain their first Route Info envelope, no leg, Detour or Roadblock came without a struggle.
At this late point in the race, no matter which team one is rooting for, I think it is readily apparent that David and Jeff are the team to beat. While I can admit that David and Jeff were almost vaporous in the opening segments of the season, this very trait they both possess - to remain keenly focused on race essentials only - has been the bulwark upon which they can claim their many successes.
One excellent example of their flair was during this episode’s initial competition to grapple through heaping mounds of just sheared sheep’s wool to obtain their first clue. David and Jeff were the first team to arrive at their respective shed, complete with gloves, yet both Jon and Kelly, and then Reichen and Chip, found their envelopes before “The Goats.”
Had the circumstances been reversed on either of these two teams one could only imagine the emotional train wrecks that would have ensued - the verbal invectives on each other or on the other teams. Kelly unbraiding Jon for rummaging too quickly through the wool, or visa-versa; Chip letting loose with a barrage of surly epithets and maybe a quick pounding of the shed wall - yet David and Jeff merely acknowledged the other teams’ departures, gave each other some quick motivation, and pressed onward. They soon found the clue.
This graceful detachment served them soundly on the remaining Detours and Roadblocks as well. In contrast, during the Alligator-fish-feed and Photo-shoot at the Wild World Tropical Zoo, in Cairns, Australia, Jon and Kelly read through their instructions (actually, it was Jon) about “grabbing a Kodak Easyshare Camera” to start the competition and then failed to grab one. This emotional quirk to not grasp what you are reading, saying, or hearing thrust Jon and Kelly to the rear of the pack, for good.
While high-stress hijinks tapped-out Chip and Reichen at the Wild World Zoo souvenir shop’s photo docking port (they couldn’t figure it out but blamed Jon and Kelly for being “lucky”); Jon and Kelly missing the rightward turn-off at Wangetti Beach (actually, again, it was Jon’s misstep; and he actually took the blame. Glory!); Chip’s frantic and fractured off-road crack-up at the “Off Road Rush”; Jon’s own testosterone-induced “flip and crash” at the same dirt track all served to plunge these teams into an emotional, time-burning quagmire while David and Jeff were embedded in a parallel universe of focused drive and resolve which ultimately thrust them to another first place leap to the mat, about thirty minutes ahead of the next team.
Yeah, they lack some drama, but, personally, I have to admire the fact that David and Jeff have refrained from verbally badgering other teams, on or off camera. They have a similar communal spirit as did the Clowns, though lacking in Jon and Al’s heartfelt panache. In essence, they’re just good guys.
Yet, naturally, most anything can happen - like a slow taxi driver or a missed flight (just ask Jon and Al) - anytime or anywhere, and usually will. But I think odds-on are that David and Jeff have the edge going into the final leg of Amazing Race 4. They are certainly not the most entertaining or compelling team on the race but for sheer pluck and tenacity, dude, they rule.
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