The Amazing Race: Nice guys finish... fifth

Phil decides to mix it up this week and give the teams departing the mat a "hint" rather than a clue. Go to Kuwait City and find this, he tells them, providing a picture of the Kuwait Towers. Why tell them what city it's in? Just give them the picture and have them figure it out on their own! I think it would be funny to see teams end up in Berlin. As it turns out, a few teams find the towers on the internet before they leave, and the others get help from locals, so no one really has problems.

At the towers, the teams are given the options for the Roadblock and the Fast Forward, and the Chos fall on a sword for David and Mary. As you'll recall from last week, David and Mary have to come in first to avoid a penalty, so the Chos tell the beauty queens that they're thinking of taking the Fast Forward, which dissuades the beauty queens and allows David and Mary to make a getaway to the FF. It sure is nice of the Chos, but it's not good for them at all. Because they're in last, they're afraid of heights, and the Roadblock involves climbing up the outside of one of the towers. I worry about the Chos, because I think they've gotten themselves into an alliance that doesn't benefit them at all. David and Mary and Lyn and Karlyn aren't great racers, and Erwin and Godwin could be strong racers if they weren't slowed by the other teams. The reason they were last at the Roadblock is because they were waiting, along with their other alliance-mates, for a local who could show them the way. Just ask a taxi driver!

But anyway, David and Mary do make it in first, and the Chos get some good karma in the form of a helpful cop, who takes them to the next clue with sirens blaring. They are also helped by poor navigation skills from the other teams. While Tyler and James take four hours to find the Detour, if what they tell their camel can be believed, Peter and Sarah drive around forever, and by the time they actually do find one of the Detours, night has fallen and they are told to go straight to the pit stop. Hey, Phil's got places to be, you know. They are eliminated in short order, and this is when Peter pretends that he and Sarah have both decided that they're better as friends. Yeah, you both decided. It has nothing to do with you wanting to head Sarah off at the "let's be friends… who never see each other again" pass. Bye, Sarah! Get that knee fixed!

Next week: The beauty queens rear-end someone. I'm just surprised that more teams haven't gotten into car accidents before this.