IMHO: The Amazing Race (14.04): Wandering the streets with a caravan of idiots

This week's The Amazing Race sent the racers to Siberia, introduced a new twist and delivered the kind of reversals of fortune that make TAR so incredibly dramatic even without hot-headed Type-A personalities. All in all, this is the show I found so enthralling when it first debuted.

For the details on why I'm giving this episode the up-arrow, watch out for the SPOILERS below.

The new twist is the "Blind U-Turn" which is a variation on the U-Turn, where one team can target another to go back and perform the both detour tasks. In the traditional U-Turn everyone knows who tried to sabotage another team, but the Blind U-Turn lets the saboteurs go anonymous.

The U-Turn had the potential to be devastating since both Detour tasks turned out to be very time-consuming. "Stack" required the racers to assemble a large pile of wood while "Construct" required them to build window shutters and install them in a nearby house. The shutters shouldn't have been so bad, except that no one that did it could find the house in need of the shutters, forcing them to waste time wandering the streets. Worse, everyone who picked the window shutters had already given up on stacking wood after watching their stack fall, so it was a case of one frustrating experience after another.

Team Supergay experience the heartbreak of watching your wood fall

This week it was gay dad Mel who got to shine, starting when gay son Mike declared him "part Woody Allen, part Billy Graham with a splash of Judy Garland." Not only was he quick enough at stacking lumber to impress Team Doublemint: Ginger (who called Team SuperGay "a couple of lumberjacks"), but Mel also turned out to be handy at assembling shutters. Plus, while everyone else is wrapped up in thick jackets, Mike seemed fine in a mere t-shirt.

Mike White's idea of winter wear

It was Team Deaf(gay) who used the U-Turn, sabotaging Team Breeder in the hope of helping their race buddies Team Doublemint: Ginger. The move turned out to be unnecessary, however, since Team Breeder was already in last place when they found out they were hit by the U-Turn. Hilariously, when asked who might have sabotaged them, Team Deaf(gay) was mentioned as one of the least likeliest suspects. That, of course, is because no one would suspect someone as cute as Luke, who just radiates a "Who, little ole me?" vibe.

Would you suspect this guy of sabotaging your team?

I know a few viewers have wondered how being deaf could be much of an obstacle to overcome in The Amazing Race and this week we saw a bit of that in the Road Block, where racers had to find letters placed along a bobsled track and unscramble them to spell the name of Russian playwright "Chekhov". It's a tough challenge for Luke because, as Margie reminds us, English is his second language (American Sign Language being his first). It's easy to forget that ASL is a language of its own, as opposed to a way to convert English into hand signals, but watching Luke's frustration at trying to spell a Russian name definitely reminded me of that.

That said, there's something about a frustrated Luke that makes you just want to hug him before telling him to try again.

This week's reversals of fortune left Team Doublemint: Flight Attendants, who have twice barely-escaped elimination, to win the leg. Team SuperGay, meanwhile, started out in first place and end third to last. In last place were the U-Turn victims, Team Breeder. That kind of unpredictability is what makes this show so exciting without the help of the usual reality TV villains.

Interestingly, Team Breeder's elimination means this is now a couple-free season with only the family and friend teams remaining. Muck like Team Bidens last week, Kris and Amanda stay classy to the end, focusing on the adventure they experienced.

Next week: Luke in a speedo

Next week has a treat for those of you bummed that Luke refused to wear a leotard in the gymnastics challenge, as he is one of the racers who take a jog in a little swimsuit (it looks like he would have looked good in that leotard) while Mike declares him the "sinister deaf kid" after learning he used the U-Turn.