‘The Amazing Race 28’ episode 6 review: Who got the Express Pass in Armenia?
Tonight, “The Amazing Race” did a pair of things that were rather unexpected. First and foremost, they visited a country in Armenia that they have never visited before. Also, they brought us a rare appearance of the Express Pass this late in the game. Typically, this is a twist that is handed out within the first two episodes of the show. So why introduce it now? Well, it did bring in some competitive spark in a Race that really has not had much of it so far.
We saw a little bit of that competitive spark at the Roadblock, when Brodie & Kurt refused to help Sheri & Cole at a Roadblock that was all about doing an oil change at an extremely high altitude. First and foremost, Cole really should’ve just done this, since it was apparent that physical strength could be a component in it. It didn’t make sense for the Frisbee guys to help her with this, mostly because they needed this Express Pass for future U-Turns as a threat. Once it was clear that these guys were going to get the Express Pass, it then made sense for people like Scott and Burnie to temporarily help her. Tyler & Korey had a rough leg, and if they could eliminate them, isn’t that the move at this point? Sheri & Cole are solid racers, but they haven’t been dominant.
At first, no one was able to really help Sheri & Cole enough to spare them from being in danger, and eventually Tyler offered to help Scott so that he could take his place at the Roadblock faster. One of the interesting strategic twists here was that only two teams could work on this at the same time, which also kept the race from being a friendship circle for a little while. Ironically, after Scott finished the Roadblock he went and helped Sheri, even in spite of Tyler offering to help him earlier. Tyler still finished first.
Ultimately, it was a close finish between Tyler & Korey and Sheri & Cole, but the two guys managed to stay ahead of them thanks to her stumbles at the Roadblock. The good news? This was not an elimination leg! We feel happy for Sheri, mostly because she felt so terrible about how she performed. (To Cole’s credit, he was a total trooper about the whole thing, supporting her both during and after the oil-change disaster.)
Let’s backtrack a little bit to the rest of the episode: The Detour was for the most part fun, especially the bread-making part. Meanwhile, there’s also something fun about watching teams completely miff on finding a clue that is right in their face, which is what happened in the theater and put teams like Tyler & Korey and Scott & Blair behind to begin with. This leg was fun! We don’t necessarily love mechanical tasks, but the location and the culture made this a leg to remember. Grade: B+.
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