The Amazing Race 17 Secret Scenes, Episode 10:  The Nick of Whine

If you haven’t had enough of Nick’s (pictured with Vicki) whining, well, just in the nick of time, here are some clips for you.  Watch as Nick berates Vicki over how research doesn’t help!  Watch Nick complain to Phil at the Pit Stop!  Listen as Nick regales us with tales of how rude the Hong Kong people are!  All this and more, including the Elimination Station gang packing it up and Andie & Jenna possibly separating for good, are within!

At the Pit Stop

Featured Team: Jill & Thomas (second place)

Woulda Coulda Shoulda:  Phil complements Jill & Thomas on how fast they blew through the fake-food Roadblock as other teams took up to two hours to get through it.  When they hear that it took that long both Jill & Thomas get a little excited as they did indeed find the fake food quite quickly.  Thomas is relieved that he didn’t end up eating for hours as his stomach has been having issues and while some of the food was okay, some of it wasn’t.  Thomas thought on some of the food it must have been fake as it tasted terrible.

Phil notices that Jill & Thomas appear to be much happier, which triggers Jill to complain about the fact that they came in second only because they were a few seconds behind in getting a taxi. Thomas discourages her from continuing while Phil isn’t having any woulda-coulda-shoulda moments.  Jill apologizes for her little outburst and they both tell Phil they’re very happy as they really thought they were going to be eliminated.

Featured Team: Nat & Kat (first place)

Nat Stays Strong:  Phil comments on the fact that Nat, as a diabetic, has been winning legs and at the same time also having to monitor her blood levels.  Phil asks her if she has anything to say to those who are also diabetic but don’t think they can do something like The Amazing Race.  Nat wanted to take part in this experience in order to show that having diabetes doesn’t hold you back from doing anything.

Featured Team: Nick & Vicki (last place)

The Worst Day:  It’s raining at the Pit Stop and Nick is complaining that he’s tired and fed up.  He claims he’s not a quitter but here he’s done as he needs to sleep.  Phil asks Vicki if they’ve had similar days like this back home or if this is a testing day.  Vicki claims it’s a testing day and probably the worst day of their lives together.  Nick agrees that it’s been a test on their relationship, friendship and the race.

Vicki tells Phil that they’ve learned a lot from this as the amount of pressure they’re under now is much more than they ever have in their regular lives.  She’s learned that Nick has a temper and she is the only one who can calm him down.  It’s very hard to do so as once Nick gets something in his mind, he’s stubborn and refuses to bend.  Vicki admits she’s stubborn too and they knew coming into the race that they’d butt heads.  It’s actually been an okay situation for most of the race but today was the worst.

Phil wonders how they’re going to recover from this experience now that they’re in last place and have a Speed Bump.  Nick claims being positive (ha, good one Nick!) and sleep will help.  Vicki figures that the airport and reservation thing is what they can work on as the other teams are so smart and always get an edge in that arena.  She knows she’s not the brains of their team (does that mean Nick is?) and is mostly physical but she is learning things every leg.  She’s managed to get outside her comfort zone a bit.  Nick is confident that rest and doing their best are all they need.  I sincerely hope they don’t win this race.

Featured Team: Brook & Claire (third place)

Don’t Judge a Book:  Phil takes a stroll down memory lane back to the beginning of the race and puts himself in the other racers’ minds and what they must have thought of Brook & Claire.  He figures everyone had Brook & Claire pegged as a team way out of their element and likely to go home first, but here they are in third place after 10 legs of the race.  Brook agrees and actually likes being in the underdog position.  They’ve been the underdog every leg and have proven themselves over and over.

Phil begs to differ though and knows the other teams don’t consider Brook & Claire underdogs anymore.  He figures that perception disappeared after six legs or so when it was clear that they were a tough team.  Claire knows that’s the case as that’s why they were U-Turned.  They do understand the U-Turn was a complement of sorts as the two teams they believe are in front of them even told them that.

Brook & Claire tell Phil they’re excited to be in third place and plan on keeping there so they can make it into the Final Three.  Phil asks them to imagine what it’s going to be like if they are running up to Phil at the final Pit Stop knowing that they’re the winners of the race.  They confess they imagine it every leg and can hear Phil tell them that they’re the first female team to win The Amazing Race.  Phil loves the impression and has them say it over and over until it sounds perfect to his ears.  He even shows them his trademark face turn to the camera.  Brook & Claire imagine a gong or fireworks going off behind them when it happens.

Extra Race Footage

Featured Team: Jill & Thomas

Slice of Life:  In their taxi through Bangladesh, Jill laughs as she sees a man giving a haircut to another man right there on the street.  She figures that she could also just set up a chair and cut hair like that right on the street, except the heat is a bit extreme.  Thomas recalls a guy wearing a stiff yellow mask in a parlor they passed by yesterday.  He imagines it wasn’t very comfortable and Jill agrees that it probably wasn’t a product neither of them would like very much.

Featured Team: Nat & Kat

Kat’s Big Fear:  On their way to the bird-delivery Detour, Kat tells us that since childhood she’s had a fear of birds.  When she was two years old, a giant crow flew into their house and she can remember it screeching and flying around vividly to this day.  Since then, she hasn’t been a fan of birds and apparently that sentiment is returned as she’s been pooped on by birds more than anyone else either she or Nat knows.  If this challenge goes well, Kat is willing to let this be a turning point in the relationship.

Featured Team: Nat & Kat

Singin’ Sushi:  In their cab from the fake-food Roadblock, Nat is all smiles as the overall experience was awesome.  She also loved how entertaining Brook was to the entire restaurant.  Nat found the food to be actually pretty good, but I’m sure it helped that she didn’t eat it for over two hours.  Kat asks if she ended up eating additional food just because it was good.  Nat admits that she knew it was going to be hard to tell when the mussels and cream were fake, so she went towards the sashimi as she is able to eat plenty of that.  After eating just one sashimi roll, she saw the fake sashimi.  It was a relief when she found it it was obvious that challenge could take a long time.

Featured Team: Nick & Vicki

Nick Keeps Talking:  On the ferry, Vicki asks Nick to try to put the negativity out of his mind.  He tells her that he is trying as he’s sitting there…what else can he do?  Vicki isn’t going to take the blame that they’re in last place and Nick claims he isn’t blaming her.  He’s just tired of always chasing the other teams.  Weren’t you guys bragging about that in the last set of videos?  They then start to argue about the research they should have been doing at the airport that the other teams all did do.

Nick claims it doesn’t matter because they beat all the other teams off the plane and into customs and they’re still last.  Vicki argues that the other teams knew where they were going though and that was the important difference.  Nick doesn’t get how the other teams could know where to go and Vicki answers him, again, with the fact that they researched.  She admits that she & Nick just aren’t that good at researching.  Nick proceeds to vent about Brook & Claire as once again he’s chasing after them and they suck as they’re only two little girls.  Vicki knows that Brook & Claire are smart but Nick shoots that theory down.

Featured Teams: Brook & Claire, Jill & Thomas, Nat & Kat

Brook Always Runs:   Brook explains to us that it’s necessary to always run in the race as it could make the difference between making or missing the ferry.  You always have to be on top of your game and sprint everywhere.  The camera pans around and we see that Jill & Thomas and Nat & Kat are also grouped around the area.  Thomas agrees with Brook’s sentiment as even though it’s a lot of work to run hard, it’s the key to success.  They’ve now got an hour to rest because they pushed hard.

A moment later, Claire tells us that she just can’t blink and make herself a marathon runner like Brook or the other teams out here.  She can’t keep up with them.  Brook comes from the mindset that she’ll pick up a car if her child is in danger and that there is always a reserve of inner strength you can tap into.  Claire knows that she has tapped that strength but Brook doesn’t recognize it and keeps getting frustrated.  Brook’s frustration makes Claire upset as she doesn’t want to disappoint her.  She’s not sure what else she can do, which prompts Brook to respond, “just keep going.”

Featured Team: Brook & Claire

Feeling Renewed:  In a Bangladesh cab, Brook & Claire are happy as they each have a lei of fresh flowers around their necks which they received from a local poor little girl.  Both of them are sad at the condition the girl was in and the fact that lots of little kids like that are out there hustling a living.  Claire finds the disparity between American children and these kids to be extremely wide, as American kids are upset if they don’t get the PS3.

Brook is exuberant and full of energy as the flowers have made the start of this leg almost feel like the way they felt on the very first leg.  They both feel good and that there is good karma on their side.  Claire appreciates getting some time with the locals like the little girl who gave them their leis.  That little gift was heartwarming and it’s something they can take with them the rest of the race.  They’ll both always remember the people here.

After the Race

Featured Team: Nick & Vicki

Language Barrier:  On the way to the Pit Stop, Nick & Vicki ended up taking three different taxis as none of the drivers knew how to get to the Pit Stop location.  Up until then Vicki felt they’d been doing good with the language barrier, but by the third driver, she’d lost it and was yelling at the driver why he even drives if he doesn’t know where he’s going.   Vicki feels bad as of course she knows that he doesn’t understand her and it’s not his fault, but it had been a bad, long day.  She regrets taking it out on a taxi driver but gestures at Nick and says that’s how he always talks to people.

Nick shakes his head and tells us that he finds the Hong Kong people pushy and rude.  He figures if someone is asking you for help, you do your best to do so.  Vicki defends these rude strangers as in their defense, they have no idea what he’s talking about.  Nick doesn’t appreciate that the people will just shoo you off and he doesn’t buy that there aren’t some of them who do understand but just don’t care.  So while he finds Hong Kong beautiful, Nick isn’t a big fan of the people.

Featured Team: Nat & Kat

Not Comfortable:  Nat refuses to feel confident as all it takes is one bad map and you’re out of the top spot.  They were certain that they lost their lead at the boat Detour.  There’s no chance that either of them will ever feel comfortable as the other remaining teams are still so strong.  Kat thinks that they are more comfortable playing the game but they respect that every leg is completely different as just two legs ago, they were lost in Oman and were six hours behind the leading team.  There’s no more room for error at this point in the race.

Featured Team: Jill & Thomas

No Regrets:  Jill doesn’t really regret using the U-Turn on Brook & Claire as she’s sure even if they used it on Nat & Kat, they would have stayed in the race too.  Thomas points out that Nat & Kat are very smart but also very hot and cold.  They are either team number one or team number seven.   Brook & Claire have been first, second or third throughout almost the entire race so Jill is confident that they chose correctly when using the U-Turn.

Elimination Station

The group discusses the fact that there are two U-Turns on the race and that they haven’t shown up yet.  Ron is familiar with the drama that is associated with U-Turns so he’s curious to see how that all plays out.  The phone rings and they all hear Chad & Stephanie on the other end of the line.  The group is disappointed to hear their voices and want to know what happened.  Stephanie explains that they went from first place the previous leg and then through a combination of bad flights, the U-Turn and bad directions, they got eliminated.  After finding out the rankings, Stephanie excitedly tells them that she & Chad are engaged.  Everyone cheers!  Ron wonders if the engagement is still on even though they just lost.  Chad jokes that he’s kicking Stephanie to the curb as she is such a loser.  Oh, Chad, never change.

After they hang up, the group realizes there’s only four teams left.  Rachel looks especially concerned as now half of the teams left are all-girl teams!  Oh no!  Jenna loves that it’s very possible an all-girl team will win.  The group talks about who they’d want to see in the final three, and Connor jokes that everyone’s list is the exact opposite of Katie & Rachel, as everyone else wants Nat & Kat and Brook & Claire in the top three.   Andie is still perplexed by their steadfast hope that an all-girl team not win.  Rachel repeats that sentiment again, in case you ever forget that she is a horrible sport.

It’s the next morning and it is time to pack for the flight to End City.  Kevin asks Michael if he’s happy they were on the race and Michael shockingly says that he thinks they could have gone further in the race.  Kevin retorts that’s exactly what he has been trying to tell him, and Michael admits that he had lost confidence in himself and that it’s something he knows he has to work on.  Kevin always had confidence in him as well as them as a team.   He just wishes that his dad had this realization before they got eliminated, not afterward.

Andie would love it if End City was in Atlanta because they’d be home already.  Jenna agrees and lightly jokes that she’s tired of Andie.  Andie has a momentary look on her face and realizes it was a joke.  Privately, Jenna tells us that it’s hard to spend that much time alone with a friend, let alone someone like Andie.  They’re in a weird place in their relationship and after they both go home to their own lives, they won’t see each other for a while.  Jenna knows that their continued relationship is not meant to be and that they are meant to be with their respective families.  Awkward silent packing ensues.

Everyone is now packed and strolling out of the beautiful Elimination Station villa.  Thoughts turn to where End City is going to be.  Rachel bets it will be on the East Coast since that’s where the race started.  Jenna thinks it’ll be on the West Coast.  Andie hopes it’s somewhere she’s never been before.  Jonathan speculates Arizona while Michael thinks Seattle.  Katie really hopes it’s in New York.  The door closes and the next time we join up with them, I’m sure we’ll know then where End City really is.  My guess is random:  Charleston, South Carolina.

Hobie Barnes works in NYC at 30 Rock (the building, not the show). While not conquering Midtown, he might be found watching DVR’d reality TV, mastering intermediate guitar (Is that you F chord? Get ready to be rocked!), or getting lost on the subway. He can be reached at hobiewan76@gmail.com.