* Warning: Spoilers ahead from last night’s episode of Amazing Race Canada.
If we didn’t believe before that we could get ahead by living a healthy, active lifestyle—just like Body Break taught us—we’ve got all the proof we need after Hal and Joanne’s performance on The Amazing Race Canada this week.
It’s fitting at this point to call them the “Peoples’ Champions,” ‘cause how could any good Canadian cheer against them? They’ve played intelligently—the taxi whistle was smart, but asking the airline to put them on standby on the first leg was brilliant—worked well as a team, and competed hard enough to get to the front of the pack without trampling over everyone else.
That hasn’t been the case for a couple of the other teams, each of whom made a convincing case as villains of this race. Holly and Brett, the Cocky Doctors, arrived at Vancouver Airport early enough to hide the maps of Calgary at the gift shop, a move that didn’t so much slow everyone down as turn everyone against them.
Brett gave up on the Mr. Congeniality prize altogether by backdoor bragging to their competitors that, “[Holly] doesn’t fail at things,” then insisting they’d have no trouble assembling a dinosaur skeleton because, if you hadn’t heard already, they’re doctors and they know anatomy and dinosaur skeletons are so much like human skeletons.
They weren’t the only ones making enemies, though. Sisters Vanessa and Celina seemed to build a rivalry with The Tims, refusing to give them any hints and trying to psych them out at the coal mine because, “They made it clear they’re not our friends.” Meanwhile, they had no problems blowing past Jody and Cory on the highway en route to the finish line at Horse Thief Canyon, despite having gotten themselves lost and, when they stopped a man to ask for directions, not even listening to the stranger trying to help them. It feels so un-Canadian for a team to go out of their way to shoot themselves in the foot, then elbow past another team to make up for their mistake.
It was hard not to laugh, though, when Vanessa swung her shovel wildly at the pile of coal while the man with the old timey moustache rejected their haul over and over and over. If you had to make a Vine video of their race thus far, that six seconds would capture it perfectly.
Jet and Dave are slowly beginning to look like a team to cheer for, as they’ve put some of their early struggles behind them and are making friends and fans along the way. Their elated reaction to passing the line dancing roadblock and lighthearted banter during the coal shoveling challenge—“I’ll put it all on, put this whole pile on.” “I think he thinks we’re gonna quit.” “Well, Mr. Moustache, we are tough. We’ll fill another one for fun”—tipped the scale towards “fan favourites,” while their hints to other competitors sent them straight to the top of the fair play rankings.
The Tims managed to survive to race another day, even though they hardly deserved to. Next week’s journey to Northern Canada will likely be the last we see of them, unless the chillier climes cause one of the other teams to freeze up.
