So Cuba to Cape Breton where they got to grab a Chevy that's got some kind of teen stalking app and the team that travels the least amount of klicks gets five grand. Nice. Out of the airport, Steph and Kristen peel out like a bunch of teenager, or like me when I drove as a teenager. Off to the Coast Guard Training Centre where they have to jump on a zodiac, navigate the waters using nautical terms and rescue a dummy. I could make a Gord joke here but I won't.
It's the Softballers, Big Brother and Frankie and Amy out first. Guess the other two teams got lost. No money for them I'm guessing. Steph and Kristen get to the body first and since they're wearing wetsuits and rescue gear, it's hard to tell one from the other. Who am I kidding, I'm terrible with visual things like recognizing faces, so I'm still having trouble trying to tell them apart. Rita and Yvette are the same cause you know, twins.
Rescue, rescue, rescue. Steph and Kristen are first, followed by Jillian and Emmett followed by Amy and Frankie. Yep, it's the correct dummy so off to the Detour. Something with Highland Dancing, something with Highland games. We all know which one Gord and Wayne will take. No dancing for us. And no dancing for the next three teams, all take games. First one is toss a caber between the two lines. Softballers get it done pretty fast, thought Jillian misses. So Steph and Kristen are off to the Farmer's Carry, which is to lug to big logs twice around a lap. That's tough especially since Steph cut her finger pretty bad in the last leg. I wondered if that would play into this leg, and yep it does. Still, she powers through cause these two women are tough. Heck, all the the racers left, especially the women, are tough. Although Emmett isn't too pleased that the log for the men seems a lot bigger than for the women. Ha, that's pretty much how it works, buddy. The log always seems bigger for the men when it reality it's not. Terrible joke from me aside, Amy and Frankie finish caber and take a different tact with the Farmer's Carry. Instead of carry two, twice around, they take one four times.
Back at the rescue, the two Edmonton area teams finally arrive and are in the water. Joel and Ashley find their dummy while Rita and Yvette can't seem to make heads or tail out of the nautical directions. So instead of reading their clue and doing they own thing, they follow Joel and Ashley and rescue the dummy. Unfortunately, it's the wrong dummy (Insert Wayne joke here) and they have to go back. Yikes! That's gotta hurt, especially when you have to do a Speed Bump somewhere down the road. Joel and Ashley move on, head to the Detour and pick the dance side. That's become their choice this race since Ashley has had a bunch of dance training.
Over at the Farmers' Carry, the top two teams are done and over to the Rock Throw. And they're going for accuracy rather than distance. Hit the chalk mark on the throw, not the bounce or roll. Emmett wisely worries that Softballers skill with softballs with work in their favour. And he's right. Steph and Kristen hit their marks on their first try while Big Brother misses. But not by much. They are only a few seconds behind, a race to the W-Turn. As they run, the Softballers discuss who they'll choose. Or who they won't. Probably a good idea to have that figured out in your head before you even land from Cuba. So they pick Joel and Ashley cause they are a strong team. I would have picked Jillian and Emmett cause they are right behind you in the leg. But their reasoning makes sense. I think if Jillian and Emmett were U-Turned, they probably would have chosen Joel and Ashley. As it is, they pick Rita and Yvette, a team that has a Speed Bump. And their reasoning is that they want Amy and Frankie to stay in the race cause of some type of analogy between sharks and remora fish. Nice analogy but the truth, sharks die faster than remora fish. And when a shark dies, the remora just moves on. So maybe not so much. I would underestimate Amy and Frankie.
Then teams have to race to the Fortress where they have to roll six barrels of gunpowder through the fort, uphill for the most part. Tough tasks in a series of more tough tasks. Especially when you have bad cut on your finger. So that allows Big Brother to move into first. Obviously Steph and Kristen were thinking more long term, stay in the race, rather than short term finish in first. So while I would have u-Turn Big Brother, I don't fault their plan. It makes sense. Soon Amy and Frankie show up at the Fort, happy not to be U-turned. And also come up with a different way of doing the task, all six at once instead two at a time. Not sure if it makes any difference time and effort-wise but thinking differently seems to work for them cause they are still here.
Okay, I've forgotten Rita and Yvette who finish their rescue task, do the Speed Bump, which is carry two bags of letter to the special Xmas Island post office and then stamp all the letters with a postmark. Time consuming but not too bad. Off to the Detour where they choose Dance where Joel and Ashley are still working on it. Both teams fail a couple of times but when their done, they discover they've both been U-Turned. Pissed is a word I would use to describe Ashley's reaction. Joel just says, let's get it done, but yeah, I'd be pissed to be U-Turned twice in a season. Doesn't look good for Rita and Yvette either.
Big Brother finally get the barrels up the hill and before they can go, they get to shoot off a cannon. That would be loads of fun. Emmett wants to enjoy the moment while Jillian just gets on his case to hurry it up so they can race to the pitstop and come first. But her plan to hurry things up backfires when she leaves behind one of her shoes. Really? You go so fast, you leave behind a shoe? Good thing it wasn't a clue or passport cause you need one of those to check in. Still, missing a shoe is going to make things difficult in the next two legs. Wonder if it will play a role in the end cause that would suck for them if it did.
Anway, there's a bit of a race to the mat for first but by a few seconds, it's Jillian and Emmett. They seem happy cause it's their home province but I don't see the excitement that much. I don't mind Jillian and Emmett but they are not one of the most exciting teams to watch on the race. Sure when Jillian was freaking out in the early legs, that made for good TV but without, it's a bit meh. Nice folks, I'm sure but I'm having more fun watching the other teams.
Amy and Frankie power through the rest of the leg, love Frankie's maniacal laugh when the cannon is shot off. Yeah, that's the way to enjoy something and show true enthusiasm. But the best two lines of the episode come when Joel and Ashley finish pushing the barrels and shoot of the cannon. Joel quotes AC/DC or was he paraphrasing the Friendly Giant? Naw, it was AC/DC. It's a great line, a good choice for the Episode title. However, Ashley's line of "I think one of my ovaries burst" after the big boom is much funnier. Big laugh out loud for me and in my opinion, that should have been the Episode title. Much more descriptive and funny.
So while the editing shows it's sort of close between the last two teams, Joel and Ashley come through, surviving another U-Turn. We Cree (and other indigenous people) are tough, doesn't matter what you do to us, U-Turn us, implement policies of forced assimilation and residential schools, we not only survive and come back, we come back stronger than before. Joel and Ashley are a great role model for indigenous folks everywhere.
And though Rita and Yvette are last and eliminated, they were great role models for young women. Many fans, bloggers, etc. had pegged them as one of the first teams to be eliminated, but they proved all those predictions wrong. They were a lot tougher than people thought and represented our hometown of Edmonton very well. I'm not sure Gord and I would have made it that far. Possibly but you never know. Look for our interview with them in the next couple of days.
Next week, the race stays in the Maritimes but it doesn't look easy. See you then.