The Amazing Race 18 Secret Scenes, Episode 8:  “Full of Schnizzel”

Lucky Gary & Mallory (pictured) were definitely full of schnitzel (or schnizzel, as Kisha calls it) but Mallory had to rebuild Gary’s motivation just to get him to the end.  Additionally, it turns out that we have two Psychology degree holders and one of them may definitely surprise you.  If you like passive-aggressiveness, then this week’s installment of All My Goths (too soon?) will really get you.  All this and more await you in these secret scenes!

Extra Race Footage

Featured Team:  Kent & Vyxsin

Goths’ Long Day of Bickering:  In the car, Kent drives while Vyxsin continues to berate him for not listening to her last-minute directions.  Kent admits he’s frustrated as she won’t plan ahead and continually decides on impromptu shortcuts.  She also won’t tell him until it’s too late for him to make the turn.  Vyxsin says she asked him to make his first left and he corrects her that he was supposed to turn right.  That warrants a “whatever” from her and an eyeroll from him.  These two are going the distance, I tell ya!

As they continue driving, Kent tells Vyxsin they’re stuck on the road they’re currently on for a little while.  She asks that they turn around as soon as they can but in the meantime for him not to cast blame on her.  They need to focus on working together better.  Vyxsin reminds Kent that he’s made plenty of mistakes on the race too and she doesn’t always point them out.  As she says this I wonder if she’s forgotten Tokyo already.  Obviously Kent hasn’t because he tells her that it’s probably not a good idea to play that particular list game.  Vyxsin tells him that’s exactly right as she doesn’t do that and isn’t like him.  Awkward!

A few moments of tense silence later, Kent points out that there still isn’t a way to turn around yet.  This sets Vyxsin off again as she asks him if he thinks that she really sent him on the wrong way intentionally.  She asks him to stop attacking her and he claims he’s quite calm.  She points out it’s not the tone, it’s what he’s saying.  Passive-aggressive arguments are the best!

Featured Team:  Kent & Vyxsin

Vyxsin’s Home Court Advantage:  Vyxsin informs us that her parents actually met in Germany.  Her dad was stationed here and her mom taught on the base.  Accordingly they spoke plenty of German and would speak lots of German phrases to them as kids.  Vyxsin feels comfortable with pronunciation of the language but what German she actually formally studied has been mostly forgotten.  It has been coming back to her slowly though.  I took four years of German in high school and can attest that whenever I am in Germany, it does come back.

Featured Team:  Flight Time & Big Easy

Globetrotters in Harmony:  Big Easy explains that their strong team and partnership dynamics from their existing Globetrotters relationship has been key in helping them not sweat the smell stuff on the race.  They can disagree and get it out of their system and easily move on.  He can’t see it being that easy when there are family or romantic relationships in play.  Some of the tense things he overhears teams like Kent & Vyxsin saying are things that he can’t imagine ever saying to Flight Time.  Big Easy doesn’t deny that they’ll have disagreements but the important thing is that they won’t cut the other’s head off.  He knows the other teams probably aren’t as able to let things go and just move on.

Featured Team:  Jet & Cord

Cowboys Remember Europe:  While riding to the airport, Jet admits he hasn’t been to Austria.  He has only been to Germany and France in Europe.  Cord humorously points out that he thinks he might have been there with him.  Of course they’re talking about their first season and Cord remembers in Germany is where they drank their first beer.  Jet remembers it fondly.  Cord also learned how to play soccer there while Jet got to do the first leg of the Tour de France as well as bungee jump.  Cord remembers running through French vineyards and knocking the top off of a champagne bottle.  What, no mention of your favorites, Carol & Brandy?

Featured Team:  Gary & Mallory

Mallory’s Pep Talk:  Mallory tells her dad not to give up.  Gary sounds noticeably defeated though.  She reminds him a lot of people have assumed they were eliminated and show up to the Pit Stop and are fine.  He solemnly tells her that they’ll just keep racing hard until the end.  Mallory’s getting frustrated that he obviously doesn’t believe what he’s saying.  Gary admits he’s just too frustrated that they went for the eating Detour.

Mallory laughs because she wishes that Kisha & Jen and Zev & Justin had told them they didn’t finish the Detour.  She understands why, but still.  Gary is stuck on his decision though and thinks that they chose the wrong seat as Mallory was already getting nauseous.  He just figured he could eat his and part of Mallory’s if needed.  Gary also wishes that they had just chosen the “right” Detour in the first place, as the Cowboys, Globetrotters, and the Goths did.  He notes that the three teams that chose the eating Detour now sit mostly on the bottom but before they were in the lead.  Mallory wants Gary to stop sounding so defeated and get positive.  Gary starts listing out possibilities for this leg, including it could be a non-elimination leg.  

Featured Team:  Kisha & Jen

An Exorbitant Amount:  In their cab to the airport, Kisha reports that their cab driver wanted to charge them an exorbitant rate.  Jen loves the big word.  Kisha threatened to leave and take a different taxi which caused some further negotiations of the price down to a reasonable level, about 700 rupees for a three-hour ride.   It was originally 1700!  They had a comparison from before when a cab driver was offering 2000 rupees for 10 hours.  Meanwhile, Jen keeps saying “exorbitant” to herself in a happy way.  That cracks Kisha up and Jen calls it a great GRE word.  Jen is so proud of her sister who went to college and now she just wants to hear more of those big words.

Featured Team:  Gary & Mallory

Gary is Prepared:  At the airport, Gary shows off his expensive (250-rupee) travel guide to Austria that he just bought.  It has train schedules, maps of Vienna, and highway maps which are all things Gary knows they’ll need since they’re going to be driving.  Mallory looks less than impressed but she could just be tired.  Gary is ready to do plenty of research on Austria tonight on the plane!

At the Pit Stop

Featured Team: Gary & Mallory (sixth place)

No Blame Game:  Phil asks what Gary was thinking when he decided to head toward the eating Detour.  Gary reasoned that he would be able to eat for both of them, and didn’t realize how much easier the other challenge was going to be.  Mallory reassures Gary that it’s all good now, even if they had been eliminated.   Gary is glad they get to see another day especially after having put Mallory through the eating Detour in the first place.  Phil asks Mallory if she should have been more insistent on not going to the eating Detour.  She admits that she could have tried, but there was just no way to know how much food there was going to be.  Plus, she trusted Gary.  If he said it was good and he’d be able to take care of her share, then she believed him.

Phil wonders what it will mean to them if they win the race, especially considering in the next leg that they have a Speed Bump to overcome.  Gary is certain they can persevere and it will mean that much more to come from last and continue on in the race. All they have to do is outlast two more teams and then they’re in the Final Three.  At that point, they’re going all the way.  But it’s one team and one step at a time.  Mallory really wants to be the first parent-child team to win the race and she still has a feeling that it’s going to happen.  Phil worries how crazy Mallory may go if she ends up winning.  She warns Phil that he needs to guard his shoulders but Phil thinks the stage may just launch into the air with all the energy she’ll project.  

Featured Teams: Kisha & Jen, Jet & Cord (fourth & fifth place)

Siblings Together on the Mat:  Phil grills Kisha & Jen first on what happened at the Detour.   Jen explains that they loved the atmosphere on the dining car and she even managed to eat all her entree, but couldn’t eat the chocolate.  So Kisha was going to finish the cakes and Jen would finish Kisha’s entree but they ran out of time.  Phil asks if they even considered eating again but Kisha & Jen both knew that wasn’t going to happen.  Phil asks if they knew the importance of the couches at the Freud challenge.  Both shake their head so Jet and Phil explain about Freud’s psychology.  Kisha then admits she’s a Psychology major but at the time, her mind was so “full of schnizzel” that she didn’t care about Freud but only wanted to finish the challenge.  Phil wonders what Freud would think about that.  Kisha figures it would have something to do with her childhood.

Jet tells the group that he has a minor in Psychology but that just means Kisha should know twice as much as him about Freud.  She just laughs.  Jet tells Phil that he & Cord could spend the whole day in Vienna and then they realize they actually did.  There’s so much architecture and history that it was distracting and maybe even slowed them down.  Phil points out that the race is down to six teams and technically, the Cowboys are now in last place.  Jet isn’t dissuaded and their strategy remains the same, which is keep racing until Phil tells them otherwise. 

Featured Team: Kent & Vyxsin (third place)

The Secret of Their Success:  Vyxsin is relieved to hear they’re in third place and admits it’s been a hard day.  Phil asks if they’ve been screaming at each other but Kent clarifies they’ve been more like bratty little kids.  There wasn’t too much name-calling but more a sense of panic and disorientation.  Kent then heaps praise upon his personal Mapquest, Vyxsin.  She looks happy to hear him say that even when he says they only made one wrong turn.  Luckily they knew they did so immediately and recovered as soon as they could.  Phil points out to Vyxsin how nice Kent was with his words about her, unlike what she called him, a word that starts with b.

Vyxsin smiles and tells Phil that Kent wasn’t being that nice back at their wrong turn.  She says that Kent doesn’t call her names but definitely can push her buttons.  Kent denies that he does that and only asked for her to figure out the right way to go.  Luckily Vyxsin doesn’t harp on it and changes the subject to how happy she is that they’re still there.  It would have been disappointing to her if they had gone home due to their issues earlier in the leg.  Kent just wants to express the fact that having made it through this eighth leg, they’ve beaten their last season’s performance.  Additionally this progress was made against teams far more challenging than in their first season.  Kent is feeling better now than he’s ever felt yet on this second chance race. 

Featured Team: Flight Time & Big Easy (second place)

Sitting in Second:  Phil laughs at the fact that Big Easy could get into the house as he seems to be nine feet tall with the chimney sweep hat on.  Big Easy laughs and tells Phil that while it was a good day, they should have been there first.  They ended up getting bad directions and were getting sent everywhere.  Phil can’t believe they look so down still but Flight Time reiterates that they thought they should have been first.  But they’ll take still being in the race anyway.  Big Easy figures that his boys (Zev & Justin) are in first so it’s still a one-two finish.

Featured Team: Zev & Justin (first place)

Teammates, Not Partners:  Zev & Justin are shocked that they came in first.  Zev explains that they shot themselves in the foot earlier but managed to recover.  Phil casually mentions that they’re doing great as partners, but Zev immediately corrects him.  They’re teammates, not partners!  Phil realizes that Zev is referring to the fact that they’re not life partners but Zev is quick to point out, much like Seinfeld years ago, that there’s nothing wrong with that.  Phil asks for their passports and Justin digs them out with pride.

After the Race

Featured Team: Gary & Mallory

Gary & Mallory Still in It:  Gary points out that of the eight legs they’re raced, they’ve placed first or second in half of them.  He thinks they made consistently bad calls today, although Mallory’s face shows she assesses today a bit differently.  He thinks they did good driving and navigating but everything else was bad news.  Mallory finds the silver lining in their desperate last place finish as they ended up buying tons of maps along the way.  She’s hoping that their strong navigation skills combined with their plethora of maps will give them an advantage in the next leg.  Concerning the Speed Bump, Mallory isn’t too concerned as she’s seen previous teams push through it and survive.  They just have to make sure to get on the first flight available and rock the challenges.  That’s all.

Featured Team:  Jet & Cord

Jet, the Cowboy Psychologist: Jet surprisingly (to me, at least) tells us that he has a minor in Psychology.  He then explains that he of course knows Freud as Freud was the main starting point for the science of psychology.  Jet admits that he’s not sure how helpful having that minor is on the race.  He knows that once you’ve learned a little about psychology it makes you look at how people act in a different light.  You also realize that everyone has some sort of psychological problem.  Jet enjoyed the chance to see Freud’s apartment as it is referenced directly when you learn about Freud.  He bets that there are plenty of his psychology professors who never had the chance to see Freud’s apartment.   Cord points out that Jet definitely one-upped them.

Featured Team: Kisha & Jen

Jen’s Least Favorite Food:  Kisha explains that when they asked locals where the Freud museum was, no one knew.  When they finally found out that it was about 15-20 minutes away, she reasoned that when you had to move a couch a mile that would add another 20-30 minutes.  So why not go eat for under 12 minutes?  After the fact Jen asked Kisha why didn’t they just pick the Freud challenge first?  It’s easy to say so after the fact but Detours are notoriously deceptive so who knew.  Kisha didn’t want to do the frogs-in-the-mud challenge but Jen did and she went along with it.

Concerning their eating efforts on the ferris wheel, they were nearly done and Kisha told Jen she’d take care of her chocolate cake too.  Jen isn’t a fan of chocolate so Kisha figured she could trade out some of her chicken for Jen’s cake.  Jen was up for that plan as she knows she would have thrown up if she ate the cake.  She just doesn’t like chocolate anymore and she noticed that the cake looked like it was dark chocolate and filled with stuff.  This wasn’t going to happen.

Featured Team: Zev & Justin

Zev & Justin’s Filling Detour:  While Justin was eating his food as if he was at a hot-dog-eating contest, he noticed that Zev was carefully cutting all the food as if getting it ready for a child.  Even though they had agreed not to talk to each other during the challenge, Justin couldn’t help it as Zev’s technique was bothering him.  There was a moment of tension but it did pass.  Zev defends himself as he didn’t want to choke to death and decided not to take his advice.

Justin actually looks a bit annoyed again and points out that perhaps Zev doesn’t quite have the necessary passion for the race.  Zev laughs at that as it was just wienerschnitzel.  Justin continues to give him the look which prompts Zev to speculate that he thinks he may have eaten even more than Justin as he ate most of his cake too.  Justin would like to see the tape on that one.

Phil’s Video Diary

Episode 8 – Vienna, Austria:  Phil notices the stark contrast it is to arrive in winter wonderland Vienna compared to where they just came from in India.  After a quick break at the hotel, it’s daylight now and Phil is shaven and outfitted in new clothes, ready for a new leg.   Phil notes they’re not in Delhi anymore as they walk amongst some of the peaceful outdoor vending carts (Christmas Markets) which aren’t surrounded by tons of people.  They can see carts selling meats, breads, jams, and donuts.  Phil is stunned by the beauty of the Public Library and loves the horse-drawn carts.  Soon enough, we see his recorded segment for the show introducing the Library race marker. 

Phil stands outside the Freud museum and contemplates his own need for therapy.  He is then back in the car but they’re having to drive slowly behind a horse-drawn carriage as the streets aren’t big enough to let them get around.   Cue the clip where Phil introduces the ferris wheel Detour.  Barry the Sound Guy takes his turn at the Detour challenge and likes not only what he hears from the schnitzel, but also what he tastes. 

Hobie Barnes now lives in Santa Monica, California after enjoying the hectic Manhattan life for 3.5 years.  When not busy fighting the 405 and 101 freeways on the commute to Burbank, he is patiently waiting for an Amazing Race or Survivor scout to cast him!  He can be reached at <a href=”mailto:hobiewan76@gmail.com”>hobiewan76@gmail.com</a>.