My dad will never give up and that’s why sometimes you have to give up for him.

Boooo, Mike, boooo!

Ok, I get it.  Mel is 70 years old and probably should not be wallowing around in the mud in 30 degree weather for hours on end wearing a diaper.  Mike quitting for his father this week was a totally different scenario.  One I can not approve of.

Had Mel been the one to give up because of his age, everyone would have understood.  It certainly was crazy for a 70 year old man to be rummaging around in mud at night.  But, he didn’t!  Mike gave up first and then pressured his father in to quitting when he didn’t want to.  Mel even had a great quote about it:

Better to die here with you than home in bed.

Amen, Mel, we love that spirit.  Sadly, your son, 30 years your junior, can’t handle as much adversity as you can. 

Mike’s decision to not finish the Detour (and Mel finally giving in to Mike’s pressure) was the worst of a number of puzzling moves and decisions by the teams on the race this week.  The first culprit to discuss has to be our favorite, the cowboys, Jet and Cord.

As good as Jet and Cord were in their first run on The Amazing Race, they’ve been equally as bad this second time around.  Time and time again Jet and Cord continue to run the race seemingly without thinking.  Oh yea, they keep getting bailed out of their bad decisions as well.

First in the opening leg Jet clearly did not read the clue thoroughly at the flag detour and spent an absurd amount of time trying to finish the challenge.  This week, the duo drives aimlessly through Tokyo blowing a 1.5 hour advantage.  Each time, either through a fluke of the leg set up or some other team being equally foolish, Jet and Cord rally from behind and finish the leg in good position.

The sloppy race running is not isolated to Jet and Cord.  Another fan favorite, Flight Time and Big Easy, had two perplexing moments as well.  First they blindly followed Gary and Mallory because they didn’t buy a map.  Second, at the Detour, the Globetrotters grabbed the first fanny pack they saw (Ron and Christina’s) and then didn’t put it back when they realized their mistake, incurring a completely unnecessary 30 min penalty. 

Who else joins the list this week?  How about Mike and Mel, Jaime and Cara, Kent and Vyxsin and Margie and Luke for deciding to caravan to out of Tokyo to the Detour?  As Mike eventually figured out, it made no sense to do that considering they were all playing for last place. 

Despite all of the head scratching moments, one that does not make my list is the decision by five teams to travel with a connecting flight that landed in Tokyo fifteen minutes earlier than the direct flight.  Every time the teams that did not take the connecting flight route kept down playing the significance of fifteen minutes I kept looking at the starting times this week.  Fifteen minutes was the difference between first and fifth.  Seems like something worth trying for, right?

Sure, a delay with the second flight was possible.  However, it was just as possible with the direct flight.  Or with the first leg of the connecting flight option.  Teams can’t make decisions on the possibility of a flight delay.  Every edge you can get during the race is worth trying for.  Especially in an All-Star edition where the race is clearly more challenging than a normal season.

Any dissatisfaction with this week’s episode (and to be clear, I loved it, even if it wasn’t well played) should have been washed away by the awesome moment with Jaime and Cara at the Pit Stop with Phil.  They played the part at the Pit Stop perfectly by assuming they were eliminated and attempting to take Phil’s words out of his mouth.  After Phil gave them the good news, their reaction was priceless.  Their interview as even better, with Cara giving it with a huge hunk of mud still on top of her heard.

More from this week:

• Vyxsin clearly wears the pants in her relationship with Kent.  Not only that, she’s like twice his size.  That’s not an indictment of her, he’s just that small.
• Christina is engaged to Azaria from season 12?  I would have guessed that something like this would have been mentioned differently than just in passing as Christina did.
• Zev and Justin are leading the real race, the race for who’s the funniest, and it’s not even close.  Flight Time and Big Easy are way behind.  Hopefully there’s plenty of time for more evaluation.
• I was surprised how many teams choose the “find a needle in a haystack” Detour option.  They must have been really scared off by the verbal component to the Prayer of Purity choice.