'The Amazing Race': For whom the bell tolls

Lots of tears on this leg of "The Amazing Race." And a lot of hugs, for that matter.

Adversity is the name of the game on "The Amazing Race" and producers throw all manner of obstacles at our racers to overcome, but none of these are as destructive as the contestants second-guessing themselves and, well, misreading the clues.

This week found the teams jetting off to the Netherlands, where they had to engage in a series of eccentric behaviors, from cross-dressing and stripping down to their underwear to counting bells and eating raw herring. Fortunately, no one attempted to force anyone down a slide for a million dollars this week, making it a relatively calm leg without any tantrums or shoving.

In fact, with Mika and Canaan out of the race, things seemed pretty quiet all around, other than Ericka's constant screeching at her husband Brian and her tears while attempting numerous times to count the bells at a church outside Amsterdam. Repeat attempts at various roadblocks and detours seemed to be a recurring theme this week; not only did Ericka make effort after effort, but  Maria and Tiffany (left) also found themselves switching back and forth between two different detours several times over.

The professional poker players should have had this leg in the bag, given the help they received at the church from the brothers (who took the opportunity during some downtime at the airport to come out to their fellow racers). I've expressed my opposition to alliances on the Race several times in the past; here it was extremely grating as Dan simply gave Tiffany the answer on her way up the stairs. I get that you guys are working together but COME ON. There's helping out your competitors and then there's handing them solutions on a silver platter.

Ericka, meanwhile, spent two hours wandering about the church tower and repeatedly ended up short of the 62 bells she needed to count; I have to give her husband Brian credit for remaining not only calm but supremely supportive towards his panicked wife. It was a pleasant change of pace compared to Canaan's behavior with Mika last week. The duo faced other problems later as well, as they failed to read their clue correctly and ended up walking in wooden clogs for miles rather than taking bikes.

But it was Maria and Tiffany who had the most difficulty this week. Unable to ring the bell of the strength-tester (in order to get into the dancing detour) after 71 attempts, they then switched back to the golfing detour (their original choice) but couldn't complete that challenge either. In fact, they were out there for so long that Phil himself came to them as it didn't appear likely that they'd ever finish ... and they withdrew from the race.

I really liked Tiffany (Maria, on the other hand, was pretty useless this whole time) and she did try her best with the strength-tester, even if she couldn't quite get the weight to hit the top. And, despite their tears, the poker players did remain fairly calm instead of freaking out, so I have to give them that. 

How awesome were the Globetrotters this week? After falling behind, they quickly rallied, donned some hysterical costumes, and nailed that dancing challenge without breaking a sweat ... even as they turned green with the prospect of eating that herring. I'm also extremely glad that Ericka and Brian managed to avoid elimination, even after incurring a 30-minute penalty for not following their clue properly.

All in all, a fun episode that was far less controversial than last week and demonstrated some truly impressive support and teamwork from several individuals. What more can you ask for from "The Amazing Race"?

What did you think of this week's episode? Sad that Maria and Tiffany are out? Concerned that Cheyne and Meghan are winning (or coming close to winning) several legs now? Who do you think will take home the top prize? Head over to the comments section to weigh in.

-- Jace Lacob (Follow my musings on television, food, and more television on Twitter at @televisionary)

Photo: My-my-my poker face: Maria and Tiffany lay down their cards on "The Amazing Race." Credit: Monty Brinton / CBS

Related:

'The Amazing Race': Slip and Slide

'The Amazing Race': Zev and Justin's heartbreaking exit

Complete 'Amazing Race' coverage on Showtracker 

Comments

[RyanT]

I wasn't really upset that Dan just gave the answer to the girls. As they've said before, it's all strategic wanting to keep the girls in the competition because it's one more team they KNOW they can beat when it comes to that final leg and they're probably right (no two-female team has ever won Amazing Race). In the end, didn't really matter did it? I feel a bit sorry for Tiffany and Maria. They were definitely giving it their all. Just couldn't physically do it.

Next week the hays are back! SO excited.

[Pat Hazdovac]

I would be more entertained by watching teams that had a reasonable chance to complete the challenges. It always seems to come down to who can run the fastest, has the most muscle, etc. Which means two young males......very predictable, and not very engaging.

[Markus H.]

While I was sad to see Tiffany and Maria go, I'll be happy with any one of the five appealing pairs left to go to the finale. It's been such a nice change-of-pace season that we somehow managed to weed out the annoying jerks and screamers early on. I was worried we were going to have to suffer the abrasiveness of Lance/Keri and the stupid yelling of Mika/Canaan (two of the most un-Christian Christians to ever appear on the show) for much longer than we did. Sure, Ericka can be a bit of a screamer, but I still love the basic supportive dynamic she and Brian's relationship enjoys. I don't remember a season of TAR I've enjoyed more.

[Christopher S]

I think the "bell-ringing" part of the dance challenge was completely unnecessary and actually made the game extremely unfair for Tiffany and Maria. Usually one challenge will be more physically challenging, the other will be more mentally challenging. The golf challenge was physically difficult and, as we saw, impossible for two girls to complete. So why was it necessary for the contestants to ring the bell before going in to dance? It added absolutely NO challenge for the other teams, because every other team had at least one guy. And in each case, the guy took one swing and hit the bell. But women do not have the same upper body strength that a guy has. It's just a physical fact.

So I would like to see an explanation from the producers: why did teams have to ring the bell before they could go dance?

[Donna Valerie]

I completely agree with Christopher. If it's all about physical strength then make it an all guy show. Probably not a co-incidence that of the 10 contestants left only 2 are women and 3 of the 4 all male teams are still around. Listen up Amazing Race people.

That said it is Meghan and Cheyne all the way!

[Jeff J]

If the girls had simply skipped the bell completed the dance and gone to the pit stop they could have waited a 30 minute penalty and finshed in the top 5.

[Cheri E]

Hey, I really want to know why the didn't penalize the second team for counting the bells together. I thought only one team member could perform this task at a time, they had two.. The producers need to rethink their outlook on this one.
Yes, that challenge was definately geared for the men. Congrats on the girls for giving it their all. They truly never gave up.

[Michelle]

Actually, the dancing was Maria and Tiffany's first choice. They tried a few times to hit the bell, failed, went to do golf, failed, went back and tried to hit the bell, failed, and went back to do golf again. And failed.

[Charlotte Witherell]

Would someone please tell me why Meghan and Cheyne where allowed to cheat in the Bell Tower comp????? One of the two contestants was to go up and count the bells. Both of them went and did it together and no penalty given Does not seem fair to the rest. charlotte witherell

[Luke]

More than anything, the thing that is annoying me about this season is the fact that every leg of the race seems to be "starting form scratch". I get that airports are always bottle necks, but more so than ever, it seems to be true this season.

In this leg, for example, the teams left somewhere between midday and early evening, a pretty huge spread, and prime hours for commercial flights, yet somehow, every team ended up on the same direct flight leaving at midnight. This just doesn't add up. At one point we heard Sam and Dan specifically asking for a direct flight, as if the producers knew there was only one, and specified direct in order to intentionally create a bottleneck.

It annoys me, because although it creates this artificial tension we have occasionally seen, it also removes almost any genuine race strategy, removes the genuine tension (will my gamble to take the connecting flight pay off?) and breeds these alliances.

It means teams are handing answers to others because they believe they can beat them in a foot race, because, from leg to leg, that is all that matters. It means that the best teams can be eliminated due to a single mistake, and that teams can make up huge disadvantages due to no skill at all on their part.

Advantages used to carry from one leg to the next. It was rare to see more than a couple of teams on a single flight, and the race was filled with real tension, you could see different racers different strategies (connecting flights which COULD arrive earlier vs waiting for a direct flight for example).

The airport used to be one of the tensest race locations, now however, it seems to be the single most boring.

I know this didn't really come up in your episode review, but all of the annoyances i have with this years race (handing competitors answers, being the big one this week) would be avoided if the racers believed there was a genuine advantage to be had in arriving second over 4th. Since (I feel) racers only really care about first and last places, the middle groups don't really care, and there is very little real tension any more.