The Amazing Race was much more interesting this evening. Some personalities started to come out and we started to have teams we liked and disliked. That makes for a more entertaining competition.

The show begins based on last week’s finishes. The leaders get to start first. But as is the case in almost all Amazing Race episodes, who starts first means nothing? Why? Because they all eventually have to hop a plane to somewhere, and there are rarely planes available to go exactly where you want to go when you need them.

The teams begin in Salvadore, Brazil. Where they ended last week. Nick and Star get to depart at 4:07 AM. The teams have to fly to Porteleza Brazil. The key, of course, is they have to fly. And one by one at different times, everyone scrambles for the airport.

Ken and Tina get to go next, followed by Terence and Sarah. Mark and Bill were next. They tried to play out some drama by having the people speak of their relationships, but it was just filler.

Now, as you would expect, Nick and Star arrived at the airport first. But guess what? The next flight was hours away. Ken and Tina catch up and they all scramble to find a faster way out. By the time they do, they find a 6:45 flight, but it is full. They get on a waiting list with Ken and Tina now in the lead negotiating.

What we found out here is that Tina is narcissistic. The airline notified everyone that they had a larger plane than planned. Tina somehow thought she was the one responsible for the choice of the airline. They had rolled out that bigger plane just for her pruned and painted on eyebrows! Hardly.

Of course, now everyone caught up and everyone got on the plane. They were actually arguing over who got the seats closer to the front. That was what happened to the lead, it was gone.  This very silly saga repeats almost every week. We think it would be much more fair if the flight were not part of the issue. If the teams have to fly they should fly and resume where they left off (with appropriate time gaps). But the drama may be lost as the leading team expands its lead, so they have to keep on causing ties to give the weaker teams a chance.

Ken and Tina somehow ended up behind Terence and Sarah. Things happen funny on airlines. But Tina informed Terence and Sarah that they wouldn’t have even gotten on the flight if she hadn’t arranged it. This was stupid on Tina’s part. If it didn’t get arranged (by the airline with a larger plane), Tina wouldn’t have a seat either. The fact that it was got everybody seats. We hate narcissism. And we hate husbands that endorse it in their partners acting the hero. Terence stood up to Tina because he did not believe it. Neither did we. Ted said he didn’t care and tried to act the tough guy. He swore and was rude. We do not like Ted. We know had we been in Terence’s situation, we would have told him simply to go to heck.

They kissed and made up though and got on the plane. Then everyone scrambled for cabs off the plane. Some got lost in the airport so some made it out faster than others. Terence and Sarah made it out first, which we appreciated after Terence’s run in with Ted and Tina. In this episode, we decided we want Ted gone. We don’t like him, he cheats on his wife and he cheats in life.

First to the clue box was Terence and Sarah. They had to grab a Dune Buggy to drive up the beach. One by one the teams had to get in the Dune Buggies and boogie up the beach. At the end of the Dune Buggy run, a detour got laid out. Beach it, to roll boats to the sea. The alternative was Docket, which was to find a container in a shipyard after finding it in a database on a computer.

Almost everyone chose the boats. But it was difficult. The nerds took the Docket, but were alone. The scramble was tough, and as usual, at this phase, it was hard to see who is in front. All you get are people bickering with each other.

We watch one by one the folks getting the boats to the water. We could see them flashing quickly who was in what place, but we weren’t sure it meant much.

They had to confront a wall with a ton of foreign language destinations and advertisements and had to pick out their next destination. Mark and Bill were right apparently in choosing the Docket, because they were in first although we never saw them actually find their container. They found their destination on the wall first and got their next clue.

Why someone didn’t just follow them to the cab and follow them we don’t know. Tina somehow caught up and was next to guess. And it turned into a cab race. Kelly and Christy let their cab go when they got their clue and realized they still needed a cab. D’oh.

We were disappointed that Ken and Tina made it first. They won an off-road vehicle. We were disappointed because we don’t like Ken after his posturing at the airport. The nerds got there second. Mark and Bill lost by a hair. The rest in order:

3. Terence & Sarah
4. Aja & Ty
5. Toni & Dallas
6. Nick & Star
7. Kelly & Christy
8. Andrew & Dan
9. Marisa & Brooke
10. Anthony & Stephanie

That makes Anthony and Stephanie dead last. And they were eliminated.

End of story. Night.