IMHO: The Amazing Race (14.02) "Your target is your partner's face"

It's been ages since I followed The Amazing Race, but this re-invigorated season has been full of the things that made me fall for this series in the first place: the breathtaking locales, the offbeat games and unexpected reversals of fortune.

With Brian liveblogging the Oscars last night instead of watching The Amazing Race, it's my chance to jump in and give it an up-arrow, with bonus points for giving the season's gay competitors some great moments.

***WARNING*** Spoilers below!

I was looking forward to the sight of competitors throwing cream pies in each other's faces. The first Roadblock challenge, however, was compelling enough to momentarily make me forget my hope of hearing someone go "Nyuk, nyuk" in between pie throws. This Roadblock involved riding a trolley to the top of a 6,000 foot mountain, with one team member taking the trolley back down while the other paraglides down.

Mel waits for the winds to change

To ensure a safe jump, the right wind conditions are needed and, if one doesn't come along, they can hike down the mountain instead. After a wait, everyone decides to take the hike except for Team SuperGay's Mel who is still nursing a groin muscle injury and wouldn't be able to handle the strain of the walk. It starts to look like Team SuperGay is about to end up in last place, which Mel takes in stride, saying he won't pray for God to change the wind because "God's got enough to do." Hooray for reality show contestants who don't think God spends time picking out the winner of every game show.

If that weren't enough to cement Team SuperGay as one of my favorites, the wind suddenly dies down and gives Mel a chance to paraglide, after all. As Mel flies down to earth, he cries out that he'd be happy to lose the race for the experience. I'm so glad Mel has turned out to be the kind of Amazing Race contestant who is more interested in the experience than the competition. The change in winds lets Team SuperGay jump into fifth place moments after tasting defeat.

Most of the racers don't have a problem hiking down the hill but Linda of Team Slingblade misses a sign and takes a wrong turn. She quickly starts to suspect things aren't going well and becomes overwhelmed and helpless. Despite the fretting, Linda keeps on moving. She gets to the end of her path and manages to find a driver to take her back to the finish line. Aw, I always find myself cheering for the 'In over their head' team, even if I know they'll be lucky to make it to the fourth episode. At least they outlasted 'The Team with the Stressed-Out, Competitive Jerk', who were eliminated last week.

The second Detour challenge has the racers choose between "Balancing Dolly" and "Austrian Folly". "Balancing Dolly" sends racers down an obstacle path on a Segway which, based on how little we see of it, must have been a pretty boring challenge to watch (no one makes it look anywhere as hard as Phil tried to make it sound).

"Austrian Folly", meanwhile, is the here's-cream-on-your-face challenge I've been waiting for. (And if you're keeping count, that's two challenges in two episodes involving food and locals laughing at the racers. May this trend continue.) The team members have to throw cakes at each other until they find one with the cherry filling and can show the sticky, dark red stain to a judge.

Luke looking cute in different ways

Team SuperGay, to my disappointment, picks the "Balancing Dolly" challenge, since they're "Sedgeway pros". However, Team Deaf(gay) go for the cake throwing, though Margie is far more enthusiastic about wearing frosting than Luke. I haven't got to mention how adorable Luke is and he's definitely the "cute when angry" type, as well. Luke should be thanking his lucky stars he didn't have to actually eat cakes until he found the one with the right filling.

Despite a moment where it looks like Team SuperGay might Kelly Bundy their way out of the game (Mike has trouble with the gate, pushing when he needs to pull, an error I've made way too many times myself) they manage to finish in second place. Team Deaf(gay), meanwhile, manages a solid fourth place finish, which isn't bad considering how they had the worst luck with the cake-throwing.

Luke, cute even when annoyed

In the end, Linda's wrong turn leaves Team Slingblade in last place and eliminated from the race. Considering how guilt-ridden Linda was, that makes me feel bad, but they're going out while Linda's self-imposed guilt trips still inspire sympathy and not irritation.

So two episodes in, we've seen little team bickering and a good number of competitors who take the time to notice what a cool little adventure they're on. That gives this season a pretty solid entertainment-to-irritation ratio, so far. Hopefully, that doesn't go away next week when one member of Team Asian makes the other cry.

What did you think?