This episode was filled with more close calls than any in recent memory. First BJ and Tyler barely beat Joseph and Monica to the mat at the first checkpoint, and true to their promise they yielded them. Frankly, I was a little disappointed. I am all for people keeping their word, but as we saw later in the episode, the yield rarely does much in the course of the game.
As we saw in Segesta, Italy earlier in this race when Lake and Michelle yielded Danielle and Dani, the yield served only to generate more drama in the game, and may or may not have actually affected the outcome of the leg (in that case, problems with the challenge may have caused the loss on that leg, perhaps exacerbated by the yield, but not strictly caused by it).
The race could likely do with the complete elimination of the yield with no apparent loss of function, and getting rid of the fast forward would likely do the same. If the powers that be don’t want to do that, making it interesting by allowing only a laggard team to use one of those items would be much more compelling. A yield used by a latter team against a forward team, who really has no clue where that team is on the race, would be much more entertaining, and a last-place team with a sudden burst to the front of the pack would shake things up much more than a first-place team who gets even further ahead because they complete a fast forward first.
But I digress. Because Joseph and Monica felt slighted, they fought back tears while everyone else moved ahead of them at the skydiving challenge, then decided applied themselves. Here’s where I would have royally messed up our chances if we were on the race. It seemed to me that the “wet” challenge of a river course was the faster of the two choices, but in watching it happen, the “dry” challenge seemed to be completed much quicker, allowing team MoJo to catch up to Eric and Jeremy and BJ and Tyler in a three-way race to the finish (Ray and Yolanda easily cruised to a first-place win).
Luckily for BJ and Tyler, it was the second non-elimination leg, or they would have found their way to the exit of the race. As it is, it looks like BJ will be racing sans shoes next week. What in the world was he thinking, running to the finish line without shoes on, and especially making some kind of wacko jump over the rocks? You have to wonder what goes through his head. I’m just happy to see they’re still in it, but I’m equally happy to see Ray and Yolanda doing well. They seem to be good people.
