* Warning: Spoilers ahead from last night’s episode of Amazing Race Canada.
With the competition down to just six teams after last week’s elimination in Yukon, recent fan favourites Jet and Dave begin this week’s journey with a solid head start on their competition, while brothers Jody and Cory have a lot of ground to make up to get out of last place.
The race begins with a jog to a steamship, where the teams find the first clue and learn they’re on their way to Regina, Saskatchewan. Jet and Dave again show they’re the nicest team in the game by asking a passerby to call them two cabs to the airport—one for them and one for doctors Holly and Brett, who are right behind them. It’s a great strategy that keeps a steady stream of goodwill and good karma aimed in their direction.
Once at the airport, the teams discover two ways to get to Regina: a flight through Calgary that arrives a day later or a stopover in Edmonton that gets them to Saskatchewan slightly quicker. There’s just enough room on the Edmonton flight for two teams, but Hal and Joanne aren’t going to take “this flight is full” for an answer. As soon as they land in Calgary, Hal somehow finagles seats on the Edmonton flight and a trip from Calgary to Edmonton. The trick is impressive, but with everyone already worried about how strong the Body Breakers are it puts a target squarely on their backs.
After landing in Regina the teams dive into enormous trailers full of lentils to dig up a pair of small stuffed moose—call it the Canadian equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
Jet and Dave don’t have much trouble maintaining their lead on the pack, despite having little in the way of strategy—unless you count shoveling “like a dog” or swimming through lentils as strategy. Team Body Break begins showing cracks as the sun beats down from overhead, while Dr. Holly wears a thousand-yard stare of exhaustion.
As each team moves on to the next challenge, doctors Brett and Holly and Team Body Break languish in the hot sun until they can’t stand it any more and choose a two-hour penalty over continuing to dig. They leave Cory and Jody wondering how they could just quit, though the brothers know they may have just gained a timely advantage.
The next stop is a Road Block at the RCMP Training Academy, where one member of each team has to arrange a cadet’s room to official specifications. Two racers in particular, former military sniper Jody and police officer Jet, seem to have a natural advantage, though Jody admits he hasn’t had to pass inspection in years. Jet tries to pal around with his RCMP superior, but to no avail—his “pit” isn’t up to spec, and that’s the only way he’s going to make friends around these parts. It takes five tries, but eventually Jet passes muster and earns an unexpected smile from the officer.
The Body Breakers finish just ahead of the doctors, giving them a slight edge to avoid elimination for now, but with a U-Turn still on the way, anything can happen.
After a brief stop near City Hall to do a little Ukrainian folk dancing, the teams head for the most obvious stop in the race thus far: Mosaic Stadium, home of the CFLs Saskatchewan Roughriders. There they run into a detour where they pick between running a series of football drills or learning a cheerleading routine—judging from how difficult line dancing was for many teams in week three, football would seem the obvious choice, but of course Dr. Brett and Dr. Holly are too smart to be strong, so they choose cheerleading.
Jet and Dave should have little trouble with either challenge—being a strong physical team with an experienced cheerleader (Dave)—but the drills are no cakewalk and they find themselves running lap after lap. They keep their lead and their good karma, though, finishing first and electing not to use the U-Turn.
Of course, the one team with a target on their backs—Team Body Break—wind up getting a U-Turn courtesy of the Tims, who seemed the most concerned with Hal and Joanne from the beginning of this leg. Body Break sticks the doctors with the same fate, leaving the two teams to battle for last place. Brett and Holly finish ahead and the tension is palpable as they offer good luck and get a bitter “f— off” from Joanne in return.
Jet and Dave hit the finish line first for the second week in a row, erasing any memory of their early struggles, while the Tims climbed right over Hal and Joanne’s backs and into second place. Holly and Brett finish third, but have to wait out their two-hour penalty while sisters Vanessa and Celina and brothers Jody and Cory pull ahead.
Shockingly, the consistent front-running team of Hal and Joanne wind up eliminated by the U-Turn and their own penalty from the lentil challenge. They head home with a free flight to anywhere in the U.S. from their top finish in the third leg, as well as the knowledge that every Body Break fan in the country is now rooting against the Tims.
Next week the teams better brush up on their français as they head to La Belle Province.
