‘The Amazing Race 22’ review: Did Jessica & John make the biggest mistake ever?

After spending all week long trying to hype up the future of Dave & Connor on “The Amazing Race 22,” the show wasted almost no time at all when it comes to letting the air out of our tires. Ultimately, we learned within the span of a few seconds that the father / son team would be moving forward in the race yet again, and despite Dave’s Achilles injury, these two are showing right now that there really is more to this show than just racing. You have to be smart, strategic, and careful to not have a meltdown over a surfboard. (More on that later.)

What the placement for this leg shows us above all is that anything really can happen on this season, and we have some of the best parity here that we have seen to date. We also have what may be the dumbest move in the history of the show that caused a team to go home with what is the “Amazing Race” equivalent of an immunity idol in their pocket.

1. Dave & Connor – We have to say for a team that wanted to “go out the right way,” it’s a pretty shady way to do so. Connor basically just looked off of another team, and then got to the Pit Stop much faster than the competition. For those curious, though, it doesn’t look like these two are going to be quitting anytime soon.

2. Pam & Winnie – This really was a heck of a strong episode for the team in Bali. The ladies hardly even looked like the same people who were lost at sea weeks ago. They were focused in the challenges, stayed confident, and communicated together very well. They have a great relationship and a fun personality, and this could help them go very far.

3. Max & Katie – This is about where we thought these two would finish for most of the race. We still haven’t seen the “villain” edit that they seemingly want, but they seem to be getting along fairly well now … and this could help them go far.

4. Caroline & Jennifer – This is probably the most misleading placement of the leg. They got a good flight, and this helped them make up for the fact that the final roadblock (which involved finding a surfboard that had a clue on it from a past leg). There was a complete meltdown here, and they ended up getting it based on luck.

5. Joey & Meghan – Team YouTube had a pretty great leg, but the one mistake they made along the way here was having to walk their way to the roadblock from up a hill.

6. Mona & Beth – The roller derby moms continue to hang on. We’re still not sure that these two are going to be around for the long haul, but they are consistent at least.

7. Bates & Anthony – These two managed to overcome a ton of terrible mistakes, including bad drivers and getting completely lost, to manage to still stay in the race.

8. Chuck & Wynona – Really, these two are definitely not around much longer. Chuck is at times clueless, and has Wynona really done anything since the first luck? Chalk this one up to a horrible, earth-shattering move by another team.

9. Jessica & John – When it comes to stupid moves on the show, these two made the biggest error we have seen in quite some time. You had an Express Pass! Why in the world would you not use it, especially when you know that you are in danger of going home. We feel for Jessica, since it was really John who was so ridiculously stubborn as to not want to use the silly thing. While she looked visibly angry at the end, he still held on to the delusion that he had no regrets. We do want to bottle up some of his positivity, but we don’t know how in the world he cannot look back at what happened here since he could have kept racing in the blink of an eye.

What did you think about this “Amazing Race” episode as a whole? If you want to see some more from this episode, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: CBS