‘The Amazing Race 26’ episode 7 review: Aly & Steve hit a bump in the road
Tonight, CBS is giving us a double-dose of “The Amazing Race,” and we are here to go through the events of the first hour in Namibia! Due to our own programming schedule tonight, we’re going to have to check back later for our review of the second episode.
For now, we’ll give the show some credit for what is the sort of leg we tend to have every season. There is almost always a leg in here that revolves around being out in the middle of nowhere, having to complete a series of grueling tasks in the heat. Ultimately, these are the ones that tend to doom the teams that are a little weaker physically, and with that in mind, we were petrified for Mike & Rochelle going into this. They need to basically be perfect to make up for their deficiencies, and they weren’t perfect from the get-go, as they struggled to get their manual-transmission car up and running. Maybe they made up a little time when some teams (Tyler & Laura, Hayley & Blair) botched the salt lick retrieval before the Roadblock (which was all about building huts). Unfortunately for them, Rochelle struggled with getting that done.
Interestingly, though, these two managed to actually get lucky because they were so far behind that some of the other teams (Jenny & Jelani, Tyler the Buildmaster & Laura, and Matt & Ashley) actually completed the Pack version of the Detour (cutting up meat and feeding dogs) before they arrived. Only three teams could do this at a time, and this left the other teams stranded having to do the Track Detour (having to track down animals using some complicated apparatus). Let’s just say that the roadblocks this season have been horribly unfair and unbalanced, and we’re not sure why. Remember when each task “had its own pros and cons”? Unless you didn’t know how to use a knife, this was easy to figure out.
Despite almost all we’ve said here, Aly & Steve just had a terrible leg. They argued over a bad Roadblock decision (having Aly build), they were stuck with the bad Roadblock, and Steve also caused their car to get a flat when he drove to far onto the side of the road. Had they not made their mistakes, they would’ve most likely been able to beat Mike & Rochelle to the end. Fortunately, this was a non-elimination leg!
We do think that Team Truck Stop is still in the biggest danger of being sent home next … but we’ll be back later with more news on that. Grade: B-.
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