The Amazing Race: Get on the train

This week's theme: Complete and total exhaustion. Phil informs us when the episode starts that Rob was treated for heat exhaustion between legs, and things don't get any better for him, or for anyone else. It seems like this leg is specifically designed to break everyone down, with a rock-climbing Roadblock and a Detour that involves rowing a boat all around a little harbor. As you would expect, the stress and fatigue also aggravates all the little personal problems that teams are having, with Rob and Kimberly and Peter and Sarah getting the worst of it (and yet, those teams come in first and second. Maybe arguing is the key?).

Phil's voice-over for next week asks if Sarah is on a one-person team, but I say she's on one already, or should be. She's the one who goes up the cliff face, while Peter lies back in the boat and talks at her. When Peter does do something, i.e. row the boat, he orders her not to talk to him, because he needs to concentrate. I think she would be better off firing him as a partner and running the rest of the race alone. Sarah thinks so, too, judging by her interviews. She talks about discovering things about him that she doesn't really like, but if you parse the Tim Gunn levels of niceness from her comments, she's saying: "Peter's a jackass, and he's about to get a prosthetic boot to the head."

Happily, Mary continues to be awesome. Sure, she yells at David some, but it's more a symptom of her strong personality than of any dislike she has for him. And even with a twisted ankle, she keeps going. Mary's Love Train (pulling out of the station with Erwin and Godwin, Lyn and Karlyn, and Tom and Terry) picks up another passenger this week in the person of her cab driver. She just completely takes to him, the way she takes to everyone else. And now that Tom and Terry have been eliminated, that's two more open seats on the train. I have no doubt they'll be filled.