The Amazing Race 20 -- Leg 10 -- Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

With who is left in this race after this week's leg it's shaping up to be a case of hoping the lesser evil wins.. As strange as it is, I'm finding the lesser of the evils to be Big Brother's Rachel and Brendon, the team everyone hates and finds annoying. I'm not saying I don't find them annoying myself, but I find them less annoying then the other racers that are left.

Anyway. the first task was to go to a temple and greet the head priest to receive your next clue. Rachel and Dave see there's another Fast Forward, but because they can't do another one, they head to the next task. Rachel and Brendon, who are second, go to do the Fast Forward, unfortunately, it requires shaving your head and Rachel won't do it. She just paid $500 for extensions and she needs her hair or she'll look ugly, so they leave the Fast Forward and head to the next task. Strangely enough, it doesn't really matter that they didn't do the Fast Forward because it doesn't adversely affect their standing in the race.

The next task is to work in a 55 year old facility working coconut husks into a rope. And once you have gotten the rope the correct length, you have to go and wind several skeins of rope onto a spool.

Border Patrol doesn't want Bopper and Mark to do the Fast Forward and possibly get ahead of the pack, so they try playing with Rachel's head to get her to go back and do the Flash Forward and shave her head. She doesn't fall for it. Her revulsion at the idea of shaving her head is stronger than any of their mind games.

Next, you go to Fort Kochi to search for a barber that will give you your next clue. Vanessa trips and falls and I hoped she'd be out of the race. They way she was hooting and hollering you'd think she was badly hurt. She claimed she may have popped something in her ankle or sprained it but got back up because of her huge pain threshold.

Teams have a choice between Pachyderm or Pack A Box. In Pachyderm, you have to decorated an elephant and then shoved 15 wheel barrels full of elephant manure. During the task Vanessa claims she's counting Rachel and Brendon's wheel barrels and they're cheating and haven't filled the right amount. She even suggests the same thing when they check-in at the pitstop. This is how the trouble started, with her paying attention to Team Big Brother instead of her own team and trash talking and insulting them.

Border Patrol is the only team that picks Pack a Box where you have to paint a box, shake ginger through a sieve and then box up 10 crates. For a team that likes to go on about how Team Big Brother whines, they did their fair share of whining. I've got a cold and it's affecting my sharpness. I hurt my hand spinning the rope. Team Big Brother are losers. They actually picked the worst task and it took them longer than the ones doing the elephant task.

Bopper and Mark started out just as it seemed like the other teams where on their last task. They had to do a Speed Bump that involves painting a tiger's face on dancer's bellies. Then they finally make it to the temple and decide to do the Fast Forward. It seems to take them forever to get to the site of the Fast Forward and they have no problem shaving their heads.

Right to the last moment when repulsive Border Patrol checked in before them, I was hoping they'd make it and we'd at least be rid of Border Patrol, but it wasn't to be. Bopper and Mark should definitely be brought back if the show does another all-stars. They were great racers.

The racers checked in as follows:

1. Rachel and Dave who won $10,000 each.

2. Rachel and Brendon who had trouble at the pitstop when Vanessa tried to suggest they didn't count their barrels of manure correctly. Rachel pointed out that Vanessa started the whole thing. The two women shook hands but both teams still loathe each other.

3. Ralph and Vanessa

4. Border Patrol

5. Bopper and Mark, who were eliminated.

The overall racing standing is:

1. Rachel and Dave 2.0

2. Border Patrol 2.3

3. Rachel and Brendon 3.5

4. Ralph and Vanessa 5.0

I remember when Border Patrol was whining about Team Big Brother following them. I bet they wish that was still the case, as now no one is following the, because the two nasties are dead last. From the moment their nastiness took over they've been steadily falling to the bottom of the pack.

Even refusing to do the Fast Forward, Rachel and Brendon made it to number two. I have to be honest, I've always had a fear of being bald, so I don't know if I could have shaved my head, either. Although, I don't think I would have used $500 extensions as an excuse when I could win a million dollars.

Rachel and Dave seem to be the ones to beat. They're come in number one consistently through out the race, minus a few times when Dave's daveness got too much for Rachel to handle. Unfortunately, from the scenes for next week, it seems that Dave's daveness comes back in full-force and Rachel finally snaps.

It also seems the team that checks in first make a mistake that could cost them the win. Right now, even Team Rachel winning is fine with me, but having to see either Ralph and Vanessa or Border Patrol win after their repulsive behavior would be a bitter pill to swallow.