Episode Report Card M. Giant: N/A | 78 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Double or Nothing
By M. Giant | Season 21 | Episode 9 | Aired on 2012.11.25
The race's relocation to Amsterdam seems like the potential for a fresh start for everyone, but it doesn't quite happen that way. Natalie and Nadiya are the first team to reach the Dutch capital, where they quickly complete a fish-eating Fast Forward and thus win the leg before any other teams have even started the Detour. The Chippendales take a boat ride to a floating pastry stand that gives them not only their next clue but also some tasty treats, and then they break out the cuffs and collars to shill for tips during an organ-grinding Detour. After that, they hop a bus to the outlying town of Ransdorp, where James hops a ditch in a familiar pole-vaulting Roadblock before they check in as team number two. Trey & Lexi, following in their footsteps, remain in third place from start to finish.
But you will not believe the leg Abbie & Ryan have. Starting eight hours behind the team ahead of them, they might still have a chance to catch up while flying to Amsterdam. But they've once again booked a connection through Frankfurt, and it appears that airport has not finished messing with them yet. The first flight they try to board closes early, and the second one has mechanical issues that forces the entire manifest to change planes before taking off. So by the time they actually get to Amsterdam, the formerly last-place Josh & Brent catch up to them despite having started the leg almost three hours later. So the League of Losers from leg seven is reformed as they resolve to run the rest of the leg together again, not that it's clear what that even means.
But it's not going to work this time either, because the three lead teams made a pact to U-Turn Abbie & Ryan right out of the race. According to the agreement, the first team to reach the U-Turn would use it on Abbie & Ryan, and then the team following would "use" it on the team who U-Turned Abbie & Ryan, for no other reason than to prevent Abbie & Ryan from U-Turning anyone else. And that's exactly what happened. Jaymes felt terrible about it, but ultimately decided that his family -- including his cancer-having dad -- are more important than Ryan and Abbie. Whom the other two teams hate anyway, so Trey & Lexi were more than happy to carry out their part of the plan.
So on top of everything else, Abbie & Ryan find themselves screwed by the last team they expected to be screwed by. They sadly go back and do the organ-grinding Detour -- after already having completed the other Detour with the goat farmers, in which they arranged actors and themselves in a live recreation of Rembrandt's The Night Watch -- while the goat farmers go on ahead. Josh experiences some painful twinges from his Stockholm syndrome (which is odd, because he and Brent transferred in Oslo) and then an ankle injury while running across the field to the ditch-vaulting Roadblock, but he and Brent make it to the mat in fourth place. As a near-final insult, Ryan is the only racer unable to successfully vault the ditch on the first try. And as the final insult, when he and Abbie finally make it to the mat, in last place, after sunset, and find out that they're Philiminated and will be doubling a prize of bupkes, he's standing there in wet pants. It's almost enough to make you feel bad for him. Almost.