'The Amazing Race 9' - Ep. 10 -or- "Warning! Crocodiles bite. They also move quickly."

It's down to the Final Four teams. Who will be eliminated next?

Last week we left our amazing teams in Perth (Australia) at the 9th Pit Stop of the race. Since Eric and Jeremy were the first to arrive there, they were the first to leave after a 12 hour long mandatory rest period. At 11:47 pm, they opened the clue which directed them to the Swan Bells Tower located about 15 miles away. The last team to leave, Ray and Yolanda, left at 12:23 am. So, we're talking a roughly a half hour between first and last - that's not a heck of a lot in a race around the world.

Oh, but of course, that doesn't stop the show from having yet another one of its infamous bunching points where the teams have to wait for a place to open! Sure enough, all the teams gathered before 1:00 am awaiting the opening of Swan Bells Tower at 8:00 am. As the race nears the end, teams are definitely a bit more stressed. Monica and Joe seem to have a few nasty words about everyone, but mostly directed at BJ and Tyler. Meanwhile, BJ tried to instigate Joe's jealousy by hinting that Eric was flirting with Monica. Hey, he flirts with every woman he sees. Of course, he's flirting with her. Ray and Yolanda got a bit away from the others, most likely to preserve their own sanity. Eric/Jeremy and Monica/Joe are now considered the "pretty teams." Um. Okay. Me? I still like BJ and Tyler the most with Ray and Yolanda running second. I find Monica and Joe pretty...pretty annoying, that is!

Why annoying, you ask? Well, here's one example: All of the teams called taxis to meet them after they found the clue in the tower. What did Joe do? He schemed with Eric and Jeremy to impersonate both Ray and Tyler canceling the taxis! What a lowdown dirty sneaky thing to do! When the time came to catch the cabs, BJ and Tyler had entered one believing it to be the one they ordered only to have Joe go into a thorny snit about it being his cab. BJ and Tyler got out and it wasn't long before the dirty deed was exposed. I may have missed it, but it looks like Joe even canceled Jeremy and Eric's cab although they were in on the scheme to cancel the others.

Ah. but once again, it didn't matter as all the teams ended up on the same flight to their next destination - Darwin, Australia. At the airport, Joe and Monica once again tried some sneaky moves by trying to get the ticket clerk to keep their flight a secret. Monica promised to kiss the clerk when he asked what it was worth to them. Obviously, that didn't work.

If the teams didn't bunch up enough on the same flight, once they arrived to their destination in Darwin, Crocodylus Park, they bunched more. It was closed with an opening time of 9:00 am. Okay, let me get this on record. While I understand the bunching points to keep the racers at least a bit close to each other (remember the team some seasons back stuck days behind in Alaska while the other teams finished the race in the finale thousands of miles away?), but I feel that for the past few seasons there are too many places where the teams gather for the night. It's become overdone. I realize that when they plan the show, they have no idea whether the teams will arrive during the day or night. But I suggest fewer time-restrained venues for them. There has to be some sort of happy medium. This season seems to have more than a few in each leg.

Once they entered the park, the warning sign read: "Warning! Crocodiles bite. They also move very quickly." Well, yeah...they're crocodiles, mate! That's what they do! Both team members had to don special wade-through-crocodiles garb and walk across croc-filled pools to retrieve their clues. No one got bit. Argh. I was hoping one would at least nip at Monica to freak her out.

The clue picked up in the Croc Pit led teams to an airstrip in Batchelor and warned that there would be a Yield ahead. (Now, you know what team I want Yielded...!) Once at the airstrip, teams faced a Roadblock - a task only one member of the team can complete. Skydiving, woohoo! BJ and Tyler got there first and completed first. All the teams seemed to get a kick out of that one, even Monica. Yes, she's the one who did it and unlike any fishy escapades, she loved skydiving. But, before she and Joe could get to the airstrip, BJ and Tyler rightfully Yielded them. Like sand through the hourglass, what comes around goes around. Heh.

After the Roadblock, teams had to drive 20 miles to the Magnetic Termite Mounds in Litchfield National Park. Have I mentioned recently how much I love learning new things watching this show? I've never heard of "magnetic termites" before. Their mounds always face to the north, such the name. Cool. But I wouldn't want one in my yard.

That clue led teams to a Detour - a choice of two tasks usually having something to do with the country or culture at hand. Teams had a choice of Wet or Dry this time around. In Wet, they had to swim a mile down a shallow creek amidst poisonous spiders and plants to receive the next clue. In Dry, teams had to drive 6 miles on a dirt road, pick up a painted diggery-do, track down an Aborigine playing a diggery-do with the same markings and each learn to play a note. Here's where both BJ/Tyler and Jeremy/Eric messed up. While it sounds easier to hike/swim a mile, the other task took less time. Ray and Yolanda got through the Dry task with ease and earned themselves first place at the Pit Stop for the first time. The other teams were literally in a footrace to the mat almost to the point of pushing and stumbling to get ahead.

Here's the order of arrival at the Pit Stop:
1. Ray and Yolanda - each won a year's lease on a Mercedes
2. Eric and Jeremy
3. Monica and Joe
4. BJ and Tyler - only saved as it was a non-Philimination leg. Phew!

What's really bugging me about Monica and Joe is that they think BJ and Tyler were so wrong to Yield them, yet it was okay to cancel the cabs of others to get ahead? The Yield is a part of the game and can be used. Canceling the arranged taxicabs of other teams is just a sleazy sneaky thing to do. I can't share in their sense of outrage over it. As Judge Judy would say, "You didn't come in here with clean hands." I felt bad when Dani and Danielle got needlessly Yielded by Lake and Michele earlier in the season. That was just Lake being mean. This time, BJ and Tyler had reason to use it and they did.

I want Joe and Monica to go away next week. Please!