Last night's Amazing Race took place entirely in Vietnam. This is usually a disappointing development; I like watching continent to continent traveling and I have a strange affliction for airports and air travel in general. Anyway, the contestants raced around Vietnam and ended up in the midst of some beautiful, frozen-in time islands. The challenges were as difficult as I can remember any challenge ever being on The Amazing Race. One involved climbing a sheer rock, the other saw the Racers manning a crappy little boat around the wind-swept isles. Let's just say that few of the competitors were expert rowers. Even with these exciting, grueling challenges, however, the most interesting thing to come out of the episode was the behavior of two of the men towards their significant other.
Let's begin with what should be the ultimately destructive relationship between bartender Rob and his girlfriend Kimberly. They joined the Amazing Race as a long-term boyfriend/girlfriend who were billed as “close to taking the next step�. I presume this to mean marriage. These two are not ready for that; they wouldn't make it down the aisle without bickering. Their relationship feels almost sitcom-esque. During high-stress times, there is never an instance when they're not having an argument. Rob is consistent in his berating of not only Kimberly, but anyone on the Race who has vaguely wronged him (bus drivers, cabbies, clerks, annoying inanimate objects). Kimberly is good at not taking his crap; she'll bicker right back, sometimes even taking the initiative and becoming the instigator. This should not be a healthy relationship, but as The Race goes on, it seems more and more likely that Rob and Kimberly work fine as a couple, even with the yelling. Rob is not a jerk (misleading article title be damned), it just seems that way. Kimberly admits that Rob has a rage problem, but they are always quick to make up, and his outbursts (and, in turn, hers) are almost exclusively heat-of-the-moment. The real jerk on this season's Amazing Race is, as per usual, the one you'd expect the least. Peter and Sarah are newly dating triathletes. They met when Peter began helping Sarah train. The catch? Sarah only has one leg. Coming into the race, it's safe to say that Peter and Sarah were the easy sentimental favorites. It's hard to root against a player with one real leg and one hydraulic one. By extension, Peter was also immediately a sympathetic guy. After all, he has the patience, wherewithal, and open-mindedness to date and train this one-legged woman. The reality (and I thank CBS for the interesting casting), however, is less uplifting: Peter is an unrequited jerk. He berates Sarah constantly, often leaving her on the verge of tears. He is sarcastic and cold. In the last episode he yelled at Sarah quite a bit, and put forth considerably less effort than he could have. Peter acts like he's embarrassed to be a part of The Amazing Race, which, obviously, is weird. The future prospects for Peter and Sarah's relationship are bleak at best. Which is good, because Sarah deserves better. The funny thing is that Rob and Kimberly finished first in last night's episode, and Peter and Sarah came in second. So, I guess being a jerk is a helpful attribute on The Amazing Race. At least we know it doesn't hurt. -Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer