‘The Amazing Race Canada’ review: The dance of death

One week ago, we were praising Holly & Brett as one of the best potential “Amazing Race” teams on any version of the show, and they are still personally a favorite thanks to the drama they cause, both within their own team and to everyone else. But this week’s episode of “The Amazing Race Canada” was proof that any one leg of the race can doom a team, even someone that you label as “strong” in the early going.

The married doctors showed this week that their biggest flaw is something that many drunk people face on a weekly basis: Bad dancing. Holly struggled mightily on the line dancing detour, and then they violated a rookie movie: Picking the detour that was not “haul a bunch of stuff.” Even if you’re not the strongest team out there, you always pick the lifting task! It’s bound to be easier, and if you come up with a good method (see Tim & Tim Jr. picking up the wheelbarrow), you can finish very quickly. These two would be facing a Speed Bump right now if the Tims knew how to read directions properly.

The most impressive team right now simply has to be the gang from Body Break, mostly because they are the oldest team, and yet are flying through the challenges. They are not really doing any one thing amazingly, except for getting along and staying focused. While being first probably won’t help them next week, when we’re going to see the teams take off to Yellowknife (hooray!), it’s a nice testament to them now. Jet & Dave also reestablished themselves as a team to watch, since this leg did not involve having to travel through a Chinatown.

Now, the main point of controversy came with Kristen & Darren giving Vanessa & Celina the Express Pass, which annoyed the doctors and their definition of “integrity” (which apparently does not include hiding maps at the airport as part of the equation). Was it a smart move? We’re not entirely sure for one simple reason: If you already know that there is another really strong team that will be in competition with you, why not give the pass to them? This way, the pool of potential racers messing up behind you is much larger, since that strong team was going to be competition to begin with. Given that you can only use the Express Pass for a few weeks, it’s not going to impact the finale.

The “Amazing Race” MVP for this week goes to the miner with the mad mustache . Though, we also have to admit that the line-dancing guy did look like Cowboy Anderson Cooper, and his reaction to being called that was hysterical.

We’ll be back next week with another full review, but for now, share your thoughts on this episode with a comment below!

Photo: CTV