TAR - All Stars Episode 2.

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 2 of The Amazing Race Series 11 – All Stars Edition (TARAS), do not read any further!


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(Bevis's Recap Begins)

The last TARAS episode we saw here in Australia was the premiere episode of the season, and ended with John Vito & Jill being the last team to reach the pit stop and the first team to be eliminated from the All Stars edition of the show. The pit stop was located at the top of Mirador Cotopaxi, a mountain in the Cotopaxi National Park, just outside the city of Quito, Ecuador.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the race:

1. Rob & Amber
2. Oswald & Danny
3. Teri & Ian
4. Eric & Danielle
5. Joe & Bill
6. Dustin & Kandice
7. Uchenna & Joyce
8. Charla & Mirna
9. David & Mary
10. Kevin & Drew


Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the pit stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').

(Bevis's Recap ends)

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1. Rob & Amber


Last week: 1
This week: No change

My favourite team came in first, yeah! At the start of this episode it was a bit worrying due to their planning an alternate route to Chile from the majority of the other teams, which would have gotten them there a little earlier. But due to bad luck this flight was delayed and so everyone else apart from Oswald and Danny got to the next airport before them. Thankfully (from my thinking at least) due to the equalising nature of certain spots in this game the delay didn't end up costing them much. This factor of the game where bad luck can be cancelled out by these 'time equalisers' can be pretty frustrating and adds to the random nature of the whole thing.

Rob proved his background in construction could come in handy during the detour task when he and Amber had to operate a large front end loader to shift a large pile of dirt. They finished this task first which allowed them to stay in front until the pit stop which was the next stage in this leg.

Although they tried to be too smart for their own good, perhaps with the initial delayed flight problem, the fact that they still came first demonstrated that they were the smartest in this leg IMO.

2. Oswald & Danny

Last week: 2
This week: No change

Not too much to say about these gays, I mean guys, cause the editors decided they weren't interesting enough to show much of. They must have had the same idea as Rob and Amber with the initial flight plans, and still managed to come in second place, so apart from the bad luck, they must be doing something right. The highlight was seeing Oswald crying at the apparent beauty of some desolate piles of white rock called Moon Valley!

3. Joe & Bill

Last week: 5
This week: Up two places

Another fairly boring couple. One of them read the instructions correctly in the detour task that stated that each member must take turns and the other ignored him. Only at the end did he realise his mistake and the other guy had one turn with the loader. I haven't seen anything yet to endear these two to me.


4. Eric & Danielle


Last week: 4
This week: No change

I'm not sure if Eric implied that Danielle was a dumbass near the start of this episode, but such a term could have been applied to him in the puzzle task. One member of the team had to enter a room that had pictures of various locations and their names on the wall. There were also a number of alphabet letters scattered around the place. It shouldn't take a genius to detect what the idea was. Still Eric ended up being the first or second into the room and one of the last few out.

I feel that Eric has a lot in common with Rob in terms of how ruthless they can be with their lies and behaviour, but of the two, Eric comes off more bullying and less personable IMO. I don't like him, but I would totally sleep with Danielle! ;)

5. Uchenna & Joyce

Last week: 7
This week: Up two places

The funniest thing about these guys was the way Joyce somewhat bragged of her observational abilities and yet nearly finished last in the letter finding puzzle! The look on Uchenna's face in the cab when Joyce was admitting that she didn't do too well was priceless. I've never seen anyone do a better facial impression that expressed the word, "DERRRR!"

6. Dustin & Kandice

Last week: 6
This week: No change

Whichever of these two did the letter puzzle, figured it out very quickly (or so the editors showed us), so there is some cleverness there. There was a funny scene where they were scared off by 'Mirna and Shmirna', who lost the plot over them following their car!

The only stuff up they made was taking a wrong turn, but they rectified that by asking directions. I'm curious to see how they go next week.

NB. I understand why Bevis thinks they were the smartest team, but they finished too far back in the pack to classify as 'smartest' in my book.

7. Teri & Ian

Last week: 3
This week: Down four places

These guys did nothing notable in this episode that I can recall.


8. Charla & Mirna


Last week: 8
This week: No change

I take back what I said last week about liking these two. They are clearly nuts! They get so stressed about everything and start yelling at each other and anyone else who's around. They made such a stupid mistake cause of their hotheadedness when they stopped their car (they were following a taxi-driver) cause Dustin and Kandice were following them. They confronted the beauty queens and demanded that they share the amount they were paying the taxi driver or get lost. Dustin and Kandice smartly decided to leave and went ahead while Mirna yelled at the driver about money and a couple of other teams overtook them! Absolute morons.

9. David & Mary

Last week: 9
This week: No change

Why the editors didn't incorporate 'dueling banjos' into the show's soundtrack for this couple is beyond me. They were very nice at the beginning when they stopped to tow Charla and Mirna out of some mud. It actually seemed like they might make an alliance. Then towards the end of the leg C&M overtook Dave and Mary in their car and it was 'game on moles'. Mary realised that being nice to other teams wasn't working for her and it was no more mrs nice hillbilly.

Oh, and calling out the answer to the puzzle test while a nufty from another team who hadn't solved it yet is standing behind you, ain't too clever either!

10. Kevin & Drew: ELIMINATED!

Last week: 10
This week: No change

Oh, lol, lol! Are these guys are a joke, seriously? How did they make it to 'All-Stars'???? Apparently Drew was the only person to need oxygen after getting altitude sickness after going 10m above sea level or something like that. Then Drew got them bogged in the mud and after using Kevin as a tree to pull them out, he almost dragged him along behind the car! Very dangerous and thoughtless.

Drew was just mean spirited when he pulled the hillbillies bags out of the overhead compartments at the front of the plane. It achieved nothing apart from annoying other people. He is either a hypochondriac, or is on some serious painkillers, cause he was clearly more focused on his own discomfort rather than what was going on around him.

The icing on the cake for these guys was when Drew insisted on driving at 40kph even after they had moved into the 50kph area as neither of them saw the sign. This stupidity of course allowed every other team to get ahead of them. When Drew stormed off after Phil told them they were last, it was a case for good riddence to bad rubbish for me.

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Last week's tips:

First Team: Rob & Amber. Correct!
Last Team: Kevin & Drew. Correct!
Yield? No. Correct!
Fast Forward? No. Correct!
Elimination Week? Yes. Correct!
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle. (Wrong) - This was clearly Charla & Mirna.
Smartest Team: Rob & Amber. Correct! (although Bevis disagrees - and I'll state here that in my tips whomever I say is the 'smartest' team has to come in the top 4 teams as well as doing something I consider 'smart', because smarts without application is useless. Ultimately Bevis and I don't have to agree on these things and such is the beauty of us both doing reviews. But seeing as how I'm right and he disagrees, logically he must be wrong! ;p hehe)



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Next week's tips:

First Team: Rob & Amber.
Last Team: Charla & Mirna (mostly to be different from Bevis, who I suspect will be right).
Yield? No.
Fast Forward? No.
Elimination Week? Yes.
Biggest Argument: Eric & Danielle.
Smartest Team: Rob and Amber (I can't help it, I like em. They do have to come in the top 4 and do something smarter than the others in that group though).



If you haven’t already done so, check out Bevis's review of this same episode on his blog (once he's posted it).


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