‘The Amazing Race 25’ episode 5 preview: Preparing for the U-Turn

Friday night’s new “Amazing Race” episode is going to be an interesting one for a variety of different reasons, but the biggest one revolves around the return of the U-Turn, and some of the strategy that is going to come along with that.

Let’s put this in the most basic of terms: If we were racing in this leg, we’d use it on dentists Jim & Misti in a heartbeat. We know that they have a Save, so it’s nothing more than an attempt to flush that out, and level the playing field for this season more than we have seen from it so far. Plus, with their Speed Bump from the last non-elimination leg there are probably going to be many teams who are ahead of them.

One other thing that should be interesting to watch here is some of the tension that comes for teams even before that, since the way you run the race will probably be factored in heavily to the decision. For example, Keith & Whitney’s attitude probably makes them easy targets, and the fact that they are also in good shape justifies the move. Meanwhile, the positive attitude that Bethany & Adam have (coupled with Bethany’s notoriety, which could be an advantage in some places) will enable them to be significant threats a little later in the race. The only danger there is that there’s not a big point in U-Turning someone with an Express Pass, since they’ll just use it and will most likely pass you anyway unless they’ve burned it already on the first half of the Detour.

With the Moroccan setting and plenty of conflict between the teams (watch out for Shelley & Nici versus Keith & Whitney), this could be a crazy, exciting leg. We’re looking forward to it already.

If you missed it, head over here to read our review of the most-recent “Amazing Race” episode. Also, take a look at our newsletter page to see if you want to sign up for weekly updates! (Photo via CBS.)

http://youtu.be/BN9FIJxTOTc