Amazing Race update: Shanghai surprises

We’re down the final four teams and all the pretty couples left from Sri Lanka around midnight for Shanghai, China. Of course, there’s only one flight so everybody’s bunched together but (for once) this episode features a lot of, um, racing. In fact, I can’t recall a leg of the Race where so many envelopes were ripped open.

After a good night’s sleep, the teams head to the Yu Yuan Gardens in Shanghai and search for the next clue. They must find a tall building downtown and search for the next clue – caution: Yield ahead! On the cab ride over, Freddy and Kendra waste no time conspiring to use the Yield. For a split-second, they consider yielding the strongest team, Kris & Jon, but eventually decide to deal some payback to Adam & Rebecca who yielded them in the Ethiopia leg. At the clue box, F&K yield A&R and rip open the clue envelope.

Roadblock: one team member must go to the roof of the building and put on window-washer gear, lower down to a window and clean it to uncover some words. Once they know the words, they lower themselves down the remaining floors (I would guess about 40 stories) to get the next clue. Aaron, Kendra and Kris all perform this task while Adam & Rebecca bicker on the street. There’s a humorous moment where time runs out on the Yield and the camera hovers on the empty hourglass while they snipe at each other. This is a Race, racers! Adam is muttering something about how Freddy was stupid to Yield them, forgetting the recent history of “Stupid Yields.”

Rip! - Off to the waterfront and a Monument to the People (or somesuch Communist thing) where teams must search among people doing Tai Chi for the next clue. The racers pretty much just go from person to person saying: “Clue? Clue?” All the teams are pretty close in spacing, but not bunching. It’s like a real race now. This next clue tells them to go to the end of a street about three miles away for yet another clue.

Hayden & Aaron and Freddy & Kendra arrive at the clue box and the Detour: Bricks or Ice. Teams must either carry 300 bricks off a barge and stack them in a warehouse or transport two bricks of ice to a fish market somewhere in Shanghai. All the teams (eventually) pick the Bricks but for the moment Kris & Jon are in a slow burn because of their trainee taxi driver who seems to have no idea where he’s going. The yielded Adam & Rebecca are in last place but making up time on Team Mellow.

The previously unflappable Jon jumps out of the cab and shows his driver a map which can be read in either English or Chinese. The light goes on and finally they’re heading in the right direction. But now they’ve arrived at the clue box only seconds ahead of Adam & Rebecca. They hit the bricks just as the other two teams are finishing up. Hayden & Aaron finish first and rip open the next envelope: head to the Pit Stop at the Peace Hotel South. Freddy & Kendra are close behind.

Anybody who’s been watching Team Mellow so far this season knows exactly what happened next: Kris & Jon turn into machines. They don’t argue or debate, they encourage each other, they never complain, they focus only on the task at hand. That’s why they’re the team to beat this season. Unsurprisingly, they finish ahead of A&R and head off to the Pit Stop. Meanwhile, if you saw how Adam whined and struggled at the salt lake in Senegal, you can imagine how he performed with a load of bricks. Adam & Rebecca arrive last but this is the final non-elimination leg before the season finale next week, so they’ll be back next week.

Final results:
#1 Team Actors – Hayden & Aaron
#2 Team Models – Freddy & Kendra (used Yield on A&R)
#3 Team Mellow – Kris & Jon
#4 Team Androgynous – Adam & Rebecca (non-elimination)

Next week: season finale! Which team will win the Race?