Okay, here's the scoop from Ruth Myles of the Calgary Herald on the Blackberry crawl ad (run during the show) that ruined the ending of Ep. 3 of Amazing Race Canada by saying something along the lines of "This non-elimination leg of the race brought to you Blackberry" just before the last commercial break. Note the avid fan (and crime novelist) quoted in this story.
Apparently only Alberta was subjected to the in-episode spoiler, which is kind of ironic since all the tasks in the leg happened in Alberta. Good of Bell Media (the parent company for CTV) to apologize for the mistake.
As I said in the Herald, this was a great episode, save for the Blackberry spoiler. The teams started in Vancouver and had to head to Calgary, booking the Air Canada flights online at a internet cafe. The teams fly to Calgary, barely an hour apart on flights and then the excitement begins. The Hippies who made a deal in Ep. 1 to give their Express Pass to the team in their alliance that came in second behind them, decide to renege on the deal. Instead of giving to the Docs, they had it off to the Sisters. So much for all that positive energy, dudes. Evil Hippies it seems. Don't know why they picked the Sisters, maybe they bonded somehow in the Pitstops. Or maybe they see them as a weak team (they got lost a lot in this episode) and thus wish to compete against them in the final three. Or maybe they just happened to be the team sitting in front of them on the airplane. They didn't really explain why that well. They should have just stuck with their deal. I would have.
But the Docs take it in stride and just get rid of all the Calgary maps in the airport. Not a bad move but in the end it didn't really slow anybody down. Best just to get your map and move on instead of spending time trying to sabotage another team. I'm not 100 percent sure but there may be a rule if you take sabotage too far, so watch out Docs. Still, I loved Brett's reaction when Kristen told him they weren't going to honour their alliance. Being doctor, he said, he honours his promises but you do what you got to do. Funny stuff, but I really understand why she wanted to punch him. He kind of gets under the skin but heck, the Docs understand that it's a game and they are playing it well. They didn't seem to take the snub personally.
Although Holly's dancing skills aren't great. Especially line dancing. And since the teams are in Calgary, they have to do something cowboy related (forget that the city's a dynamic cosmopolitan place let's perpetuate the stereotype). So line dancing at Ranchman's it is. To be fair, this was a much tougher Road Block than the lame skating one in Vancouver. Most teams had a tough time, especially Holly, Tim Sr. and Jody. But Jody's got no ankles, which he states during the task. And if it's one player I really love in this race, it's Jody. Sure, he's got no legs below the knee and some tasks are tough but he just does it, without complaint or asking for special treatment. I also loved his comment on the coal task during the detour. Something about you when you gotta dig a hole, you know it's going to be hard but you just do it.
Back at the Ranchman's, Joanne from Body Break gets done in three tries, heading out to Drumheller for a Detour. Dave from the Bicep Bros also gets done in three tries (he's a cheerleader known for "chucking girls"). But they had trouble, not just finding the Ranchman's but also finding the clue for the Road Block. "Does exterior mean something different in Alberta?" one of them asks as they cluelessly stand right in front of the clue.
The cluelessness of these boys continue as they shovel piles of coal into the coal cart. That's the one half of the Detour in Drumheller; the other half is to build a dinosaur skeleton from memory. But the Bicep Bros don't read the clue and so they shovel coal, take out coal, shovel more coal, make fun of the guy judging the task, whine and complain about the situation and don't realize that you have to hang this little thing on a special hook. Which they hadn't done. So more coal shovelling and complaining. It was hilarious to watch them get all uppity about the situation when in reality it was all their fault. Rule # 1 about Amazing Race: Read the Clue. Rule #2? Read the Clue.
The Hippies also have a bit of trouble with clue reading but figure it out faster than the Bicep Bros. The Sisters, though, have huge trouble with the task. Sure, they've read the clue but they look so tiny and it was no doubt pretty tough for them to load that cart. After a really long time and much histrionics, they get it done. Only to get lost. Again.
The only team not doing the coal task was the Docs and it made sense they chose the dinosaur. But the pressure seemed to be getting on Holly because she was falling apart. Good on Brett not to harp on her. He just tried to keep her on task and centred. No Jonathan and Victoria from these guys; at least not yet. But boy, was he surprised when Jon told them were Team #6. I've seen every single English language version of Amazing Race and I've never seen a reaction like that. Pretty funny.
In the end, Body Break won the leg handily. They are like most married couples that age, calm, cool and connected. They will be a tough team to beat. Only a total meltdown will destroy them. That or a couple of bad cabs. The rest of the teams come in later, the Sister better thank whatever God they worship (or don't) for running into the Brothers on the way to the pitstops. These girls have terrible direction, map and listening skills. They got great directions from some stranger but neither of them heard a single thing he said. They were tough to finish the coal but will have to pick things up to survive.
Coming in last were the Timmies and thanks to some control room mistake, I and all of Alberta knew this was a non-elimination round. But until that point, it was a great episode. Great tasks, great drama, great team interaction and quotes. Things are starting to pick up and I hope they keep this momentum going.
But no more in-episode spoilers, please; that one really hurt.
Update: Forgot to give props to the producers for mentioning the flood in Calgary and how people could help or donate. The US show has done this a few times so it's good that the Canadian version is following in their footsteps in that manner. Nicely done.
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