'The Amazing Race': Breaking language barriers

Ethnocentrism reared its ugly head this week on "The Amazing Race," as the four remaining teams fought to stay in the race long enough to end up in the final round. 

Tempers flared with the end of the race -- and the $1-million cash prize -- almost within their grasp, leading to some irate encounters with errant taxi drivers, team members and bladder control.

With detectives Michael and Louie earning a reprieve last week from elimination, the duo would have to push more than ever if they hoped to stay in the race, considering that they'd have to complete a Speed Bump at a pre-determined point during this leg and make up the time they had lost, checking in last.

But while their struggle might have been the focus of these week's installment, the Wonder Twins -- that would be models Caite and Brent -- instead took up the lion's share of screen time, offering yet another series of shocking, head-scratching and plain ignorant comments that certainly didn't prove Caite's point about demonstrating that they could do anything they set their minds to. That said, Caite did undermine herself by issuing the blatant "People you can go screw yourselves" comment at the beginning of the leg after correctly reading a -- shocker -- map. (Still, it was a map of Shanghai rather than "the Iraq.")

The two continued their antics throughout the episode, as Caite attempted to count gold statues at Longhua Temple and, convinced that the Chinese man overseeing the challenge had misunderstood her efforts to count, attempted to use sign language to "spell out" the numbers of her guess. (She was, not surprisingly, wrong.) Brent, meanwhile, stood nearby, telling the cameras, "She's not as dumb as everyone thinks."

I've yet to see any indications to the contrary and, this week, the two turned on each other at the Detour when Brent seemed to require urgent use of the restroom and continued to hound Caite to leave the challenge so he could relieve himself. So desperate was his need that he altogether stopped searching for their quarry, instead badgering Caite, who seemed to have no interest in pausing what they were doing or allowing him to go to the bathroom, resulting in a strange urination standoff that led Cord to note, "I thought he was going to go in the room." Caite finally relented as Brent called her "stupid" and they headed off in search of a loo.

While that was bad enough, Brent uttered what must be the most naive and ignorant comment ever said on "The Amazing Race" as he attempted to instruct a cab driver where to go: "They don't even understand their own language." Um, Brent, you do realize that you're not speaking Shanghainese, Mandarin, Cantonese or any Chinese dialect but rather a severely mangled English phonetic pronunciation, right?

But before that, there were a number of obstacles standing in the way of all four teams, not least of which was that pesky language barrier, one that resulted in several teams not being able to make their way from the first clue box to their first stop on the Garden Bridge. Cowboys Jet and Cord faced major taxi-related issues, but it was really the least of anyone's problems this week.

Brothers Dan and Jordan spent two hours attempting to find the Garden Bridge before giving up and waiting for last-place team Michael and Louie so that they could find it together. Their theory: that it's not good to be alone and in last place. Armed with binoculars, Louie scoured the city until he spied two jackets hanging off of a road sign. The quartet headed out to investigate as what could possibly be the significance of two lone jackets cast off in an urban setting? It MUST be some sort of clue from the "Amazing Race" producers, right?

Wrong.

But, using a translation service, the cops were able to locate the correct Garden Bridge and headed out, with the brothers behind them ... at least for the first bit. It seems that Dan and Jordan didn't learn any foreign translations for "follow that cab" and their driver aimlessly took off without really understanding what they wanted, leading Dan to have a breakdown in the back seat. "I want to hit someone," he said, seething. "I'm going to get violent." (Fortunately, it didn't come to that.)

Meanwhile, at the Longhua Temple, Caite twice attempted to count the number of gold statues (it was 523) before finally getting the right answer, but not before Jet breezed through the challenge on his first try. (They were delayed after a local incorrectly told them to catch the metro rather than taking the bus.) Both teams hopped on motorcycles and made their way to their next stop, way ahead of the other two teams. 

While the front-runners reached their Detour -- Pork Chops or Pork Dumplings -- Michael and Louie completed their Speed Bump (a jaw-droppingly easy task that had them flinging coins into an incense burner) and then entering the temple to count the 523 gold statues. Michael sent Louie in, jokingly saying that he was a "mathematical genius."

Elsewhere, the teams both chose Pork Chops, a challenge that had them searching a store containing engraved stamps looking for two that contained pigs and their individual names. Despite the need for a bathroom break, Caite and Brent finished first, with Jet and Cord right behind them as both teams headed for the Pit Stop at Riverside Promenade. Snagging a taxi, the cowboys seemed to be in first place until they chose the wrong path at the Promenade, allowing Caite and Brent to slip into first place and walk away with a trip for two to the beaches of Spain. (Grr.) The lasso-prone brothers finished in second, securing a spot among the final three.

But it would prove to be a race between increasingly irate brothers Dan and Jordan and coppers Michael and Louie for that final spot as both teams searched through all of the stamps neck and neck after the detectives caught up. 

Ultimately, however, only one team could advance to the final round and, as darkness fell on Shanghai, it was brothers Dan and Jordan who would continue to race for a million dollars, leaving Michael and Louie out in the cold.

What did you think of this season's penultimate episode? Should Louie and Michael have been the ones to get eliminated? Happy with the final three teams? Who do you think will walk away the victors of this season of "The Amazing Race" and who will be left empty-handed? Head to the comments section to discuss. 

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

Photo: Detectives Louie and Michael on "The Amazing Race." Credit: CBS / Monty Brinton.

Related:
'The Amazing Race': Shanghai surprise
'The Amazing Race': Marching to the beat of a different drummer
'The Amazing Race': Leave no coconut behind
Complete 'Amazing Race' coverage on Show Tracker

Comments

[erica stephens]

First,Let me comment on this bloggers,s preoccupation with Caite! Stop already,she is young,immature and doing a great job!The whiney brothers were my least favorites,but their in,I liked the detectives but I am not sorry to see them go.I am rooting for the cowboys,mainly because of how they play the game,they don,t complain,criticize others or engage in personal attacks.

[Julie]

I have to agree with the last comment. Bloggers really need to leave Caite alone. She's acting like a typical teenager, what do you expect? You all are grown people, act like it and stop stooping down to her level. Why not bag on the brothers who became insanely irate because the cab driver didn't understand english? Screaming or saying them slower isn't going to suddenly make one understand. They're the real idiots of the show.

[Tidmore]

Jace,
I agree, Caite didn't do her self any favors last night. I don't necessarily think she's a complete moron (I think nerves probably factor into her humiliating pageant answer), but I think if she'd get over that and play the game instead of constantly drawing our attention back to that incident, she could have gone a lot further in taking the attention away from that and changing the public perception of her.

Personally, I was sad to see the Cops go. I really liked Louie and Michael, but after their super easy Speed Bump, if they couldn't beat the brothers, it was their time to go. Also, I will say I've come to like Dan and Jordan a lot more over the season than I did initially.

Overall I am rooting for the Cowboys, as a Texas boy myself, I love their very Texan attitudes towards the game. They don't go out of their way to screw people over, the don't complain, they don't seem to talk bad about the other teams, and when they do keep details to themselves (I'm thinking back to the teams that missed their bus twice in the 2nd or 3rd episode, because Jet and Cord didn't tell them that their bus was at the other station) it's just good old fashion trying to get ahead, without sabotage.

[savvydude]

Caite is 'acting like a typical teenager'? Uh, I pity anybody who is subjected to anybody as despicable as this 'beauty queen'. She is foul, racist and an egotist, and it is doubtful she could spell any of those terms.

The cowboys are just great guys, and I hope, hope, hope they win the million. BTW, they're from Oklahoma, not Texas.

[Jeanene]

I like the cowboys, and am totally hoping they win. They are humble and are gentlemen. I dig these guys.

[Jon]

I don't think it is an either/or scenario between the models and the brothers. Both teams are boorish, ugly Americans with no respect for the other teams or the cultures they encountered on the race.

I agree that it seems more has been made in general of the models' foibles than the brothers, but that doesn't mean the criticism of the models has been undeserved.

Last night, the models' behavior was obnoxious and rude, but at least the abuse was mostly kept between the two of them. Nothing came close to the abuse heaped on the brothers' taxi driver. There was no excuse for that. And while I don't like the models sniping at each other, I would rather see and hear that than the brothers' pitching a fit and whining like four year olds.

[O-town]

Sadly, what many people tend to miss, is the fact that when these racers, particularly those idiots Caite and Brent, visit other countries, they represent the U.S. So these poor countries and their citizens are exposed to what they're assuming are typical Americans in these two morons. There should be no excuse for how ignorant and moronic these two come off as. Those who choose to chuckle to themselves and scoff, "Those two sillies" are living in a fantasy world where stupidity is excused just because they're pretty.