The Amazing Race 17 Episode 6

In yet another ridiculously predictable conclusion, Katie & Rachel were eliminated in The Amazing Race 17 Episode 5.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived, or at least that’s what I’m assuming because they only show the first team to depart.

The first team’s departing at 8:26PM (and it’s still light outside), but with the train station not opening until 6AM, all the teams will be bunched together. Undeterred by the sign telling them it’s closed, Nat & Kat knock and find out that the first train to get them to the airport in Stockholm does not arrive until 10:26AM.

Another day, another argument between Chad & Stephanie. They get the last taxi. It’s her fault, as usual.

For all the drama, all the teams get on the same flight to St. Petersburg, Russia.

The detour is a choice between classical music or classical cinema. In classical music, teams will listen to three different compositions on gramphones, then figure out which three pianos in the ballroom full of pianos are playing the same compositions they heard earlier. In classical cinema, teams go to the first place a movie was screened in Russia, where they will search through piles of film clips to find the one matches the movie playing on the screen.

Classical Music: Chad & Stephanie, Nick & Vicki (switched from classical music to classical cinema to classical music)
Classical Cinema: Brook & Claire, Michael & Kevin, Jill & Thomas, Gary & Mallory (switched from classical music), Nat & Kat (switched from classical music)

Kevin thinks that having made some Youtube videos will help him in this task. He thinks wrong. Nonetheless, they seem to have picked the easier task because I can’t see how an untrained ear (or someone who hasn’t at least heard these songs before) could pick out the music with any amount of ease. Brook & Claire were in the lead, but that’s quickly blown by their cab driver, who puts them in last.

Chad & Stephanie are incorrect on their first guess. And their second guess. Gary & Mallory join the incorrectness. Then Nick & Vicki and Nat & Kat. Chad & Stephanie again, but she doesn’t want to take the hint and switch. Nick & Vicki are wrong again. Gary & Mallory as well. Then Nat & Kat again. One by one they’re bailing and heading to the other task, but Stephanie insists on sticking around. They’re wrong again. Then again. Do they want to go yet? No. Wrong again. Still not leaving. How about after they’re wrong again? She still insists on staying. This pays off, as they finally get it right. I’d call it dumb luck more than anything because sticking around until you basically had no choice but to finish the task hardly seems like a wise move.

Thomas has the easy theory about the movie they’re watching. Just look for Russian words in the clip because those pop out. Somehow, this works. The other teams are not having so much luck, repeatedly getting denied. Brook & Claire eventually get it, to put themselves back into second place. The teams sticking around at the music place are just killing time now. Seeing words at the top like Thomas did, Kevin solves the task. Now it’s time to see just how long it takes for the other task takers to start getting the hint. Gary & Mallory are the first to get a clue and switch. Talking with Nick & Vicki about how the other detour is stupid, Nat & Kat decide to switch detours with them. Nat & Kat are out first, leaving the other two battling for last. Mallory is behind them, leaving the Vegas couple behind.

Nick suggests going back to the piano thing. This will not end well. They are at least able to finish the task, though. Their only hope is a nonelimination.

The next stop is the location found on their film can or record, Palace Square. From there, they head to Alexandraovskaya. This takes them to the sticks, and they’re about to find out why.

The road block is to become babushkas and put in a proper day’s work in the fields. They will put on traditional (female) clothing and then plant a row of 50 potatoes, fertilizing their crop with a very generous helping of cow manure.

Road block (in order of arrival): Brook, Kevin, Jill, Nat, Stephanie, Mallory, Nick

This is dirty work that will take some energy, but it’s pretty straightforward and hard to screw up too much. The hardest thing is finding out where to go, with none of the locals speaking any English. Mallory does find a new friend, though, who would like her to come in for some vodka. Then she gets to climb through the manure after Stephanie sabotages her by tossing the shovel up the mound (why was the course designed to allow for sabotage?).

The pit stop for this leg of the race is St. Isaac’s Cathedral.

First: Jill & Thomas (win a trip to Sao Paolo)
Second: Brook & Claire
Third: Michael & Kevin
Fourth: Nat & Kat
Fifth: Chad & Stephanie
Sixth: Gary & Mallory
Noneliminated: Nick & Vicki

This is really a struggle this season to create a leg that we don’t know what the outcome will be. The only question is elimination or nonelimination. The answer is that Nick & Vicki have not been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 17 Episode 7, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 7

David was an ass as usual in The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 6, but Trump’s not going to fire him because he finds him entertaining. The women opted to try to sell their pedicab rides at Wall Street, a terrible location. Although Stephanie was the reason why they chose that location, Trump blamed Kelly, firing her instead.

Back in the suite, Mahsa’s telling the story of, well, I don’t know. She’s just rambling. One of the blondes, Brandy I suppose, doesn’t think anybody’s arguing with her. She’s arguing with herself.

Stephanie finally admits she was tasked with location. Now that the firing is done. Her plan is to back down some because she doesn’t want to do everything again, especially if she does it as badly as she did last week.

Mahsa would like to prove that her buddy (for now… she’ll turn on her like she turned on Tyana) Stephanie is great, so she wants to tell the guys exactly who sold what. Brandy takes issue with this, and Steuart is quite amused by the cat fight that ensues. Mahsa’s ready for a fight. These people are not her friends. I noticed.

The task will be to produce a backers audition aimed at getting investors to put up money for their musical. They will be judged by some people whose names I’ve never heard. They will be judged on their marketing materials and the overall presentation of their audition.

Liza will be the project manager for the women; Steuart will be the project manager for the men. Liza stepped forward pretty much just to say she did. She has no interest nor experience in Broadway or anything along those lines. Stephanie doesn’t understand why she doesn’t just rent it on TV. Apparently, you can do that.

Once again, Stephanie claims to be the expert, refusing to recognize anybody else’s strengths or input.

When the audition begins, David is tasked with ordering lunch, and he’s promptly dismissed to go outside to do that.

Last week, Stephanie was mad because she was given too much to do. Okay, you can go and do marketing this week then. Not happy with that either. Liza’s attempts to get the abrasive Stephanie and Mahsa separated from the rest of the team just upsets Stephanie.

Steuart wants the team to be up on stage introducing the talent at each step. David disagrees. Of course. Strangely enough, Clint agrees with David. Somehow, he gets the backing from the project manager as well, with the caveat that he will be blamed if they fail.

When Don Jr. arrives, he asks what’s going on. Liza doesn’t know, so Brandy steps up to explain. On the other team, Ivanka encounters the same thing. This seems like David’s task.

Liza doesn’t really like Mahsa’s and Stephanie’s efforts because they didn’t listen to her. Stephanie still can’t believe she’s there doing this, badly.

On the way over to the audition, Liza still has not completed her introduction, all three sentences of it. When they arrive, Liza’s disappointed by the poster Mahsa and Stephanie have created. The men produce a far better chalkboard poster, which they are all happy with.

Clint gives David his props. The production is right on the money to him.

His introduction may have went smoothly, but Steuart is stumbling over his words the next time he gets on stage. I wonder if Trump still thinks it would be a good idea to have him be a presenter, like he did when he fired Wade. The judges are also disappointed that he didn’t seem that excited about his presentation.

For the other team, the judge in the middle felt the music was great, but perhaps the stage direction was not up to par. Liza’s presentation went over better than Steuart’s did. Their information pamphlet is simple and straightforward. However, it lacks any information, so there is no way to follow up and do something like send a check.

Brandy thought Liza was a very good project manager, although she would have liked to see more involvement from Stephanie.

Mahsa thought Liza was fine. That’s almost a compliment.

Steuart gives David credit for his performance. Clint agrees.

Anand thinks Steu did a pretty good job.

Trump likes what the men did with their promotional material. He’s not as happy with what the women did, to which Mahsa responds that it’s Liza’s fault. Stephanie also blames Liza for not babysitting her enough.

Stephanie wanted to be the PM, but Liza hadn’t done it yet, so she let her do it. Fair enough. Then she digs herself a hole. She claims she would have done it had she known it was musical, which Trump calls a lot of crap, calling what she says a lie.

One of the judges loved the men. One of the judges loved the women and felt Liza did a great job. The tiebreaking vote goes to the men. David gets congratulated for his comeback, and Steuart will be meeting with Larry Young, the President & CEO of Snapple.

Poppy thinks the biggest problem was not including their contact information.

Mahsa again blames Liza, then turns the discussion into a conversation about herself. This leads to an angry and shouting Brandy, a change of pace for this typically composed contestant.

Last week, before the boardroom, Mahsa told the men how much they made, and she responds that Clint told her how much the men made. It’s a good thing Clint is back in the suite because he ain’t happy.

Well, that doesn’t last long. Clint comes stampeding back to the boardroom, ready to go for another epic fight. His defense is that he made $370, but he was out riding the whole time and had no idea what the team made as a whole. This is all a lie. Mahsa says that Clint’s the liar, and she hopes that Brandy will come to her defense. Brandy’s got the pitchfork out ready to join in. The men stand united behind Clint, however.

No need for Liza to bother bringing Stephanie and Mahsa back with her to the boardroom. Mahsa is fired for her disloyalty. That was weird and about as random as can be expected from Trump, although she was on her way out anyway since she and Stephanie weren’t taking the hint that Liza wasn’t going home.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 8, which airs Thursday at 10/9c on NBC.

The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 7

Damon trapped and killed Mason in The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 6, so now Katherine has a plan B: getting Matt to go after and be killed by Tyler.

The plan now is to kill Katherine. Sensible plan.

Katherine heads to the masquerade ball with straight hair. We know this. Straight hair = Elena. I’m surprised nobody in the town seems to know that yet. She reinforces her plan with Matt when she arrives.

Bonnie thinks maybe she knows Katherine’s witch friend. Perhaps she is mistaken, but regardless she got a weird vibe.

Stefan is not fooled by the straight hair at least. He agrees to a dance, though. This happy dancing doesn’t last long before Katherine stabs a girl in the back, literally.

Jeremy is sent as the messenger boy for Katherine. Meet Stefan and Damon at the edge of the lake by the woods. Caroline spills the beans. They’re trying to kill her. Shocker. It’s all… a trap. She’s just trying to lure Katherine into a room, one from which she can’t escape.

When Damon shoots Katherine from behind, there’s a little glitch. Elena starts to bleed from the same spot of her chest. Then her arm. These two brothers may want to consider not stabbing and shooting her sooner rather than later. In the nick of time, Jeremy runs in to stop them from killing her. They’re not the only ones with a witch on their side.

As planned, Matt gets into a brawl with Tyler. Good thing Caroline is there to knock Matt out before he gets himself killed. One punch and done. Matt’s not alone. Standing by, a girl named Sarah also attacks Tyler. Now her, her he accidentally knocks down and out. Uh, what’s up with Tyler’s eyes?

Bonnie knows who the other witch is, and she’s going to go find her. When she does that, they don’t get into any sort of brawl just yet, but she does sense the moonstone on Bonnie. Hand it over. You can trust her. And she does. With that, she promptly walks in to the room with Katherine and gives it to her, on the condition that her debt to her for saving her life is satisfied.

Stone in hand, Katherine falls to the ground and starts gasping for breath. Should have warned her that there was another witch involved. They’re related, by rumor. Her mother is the first cousin twice removed from the niece of Bonnie’s grams.

Caroline’s not surprised to find out that Tyler’s wound from the fight has healed already.

Katherine’s not dead, just trapped. Her warning for Damon is that Elena’s in danger and needs to be protected. He’ll protect her. While Katherine rots in hell. Then he seals her in.

A masked man comes up from behind and grabs Elena.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 8 Rose, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.

Survivor: Nicaragua Episode 7

Two people were sent home in Survivor: Nicaragua Episode 6, Kelly B and Yve.

Dan feels like teflon. Nobody’s ever going to target him, even though they should. Not convinced by their losing streak, they plan to get rid of Alina next.

Marty’s theory is that he has big cajones for not playing the immunity idol. No, he’s just stupid. He’s mostly angry at Jane for turning on him, not that he wouldn’t have done the same to her.

At the reward challenge, one member of each tribe will be a defender, standing on the perch in the water and trying to block balls from getting past them. The winning tribe will get a Nicaraguan farm experience, with horseback riding and fresh breakfast. Jane sits out for La Flor. Fabio and Chase are the defenders. NaOnka scores against Fabio to take the lead 1-0. Jill scores against Chase for a 1-1 tie. This is starting to look easy. Benry scores to take the lead 2-1. Marty throws the ball right directly at Chase, so somebody finally misses. Holly also misses. Purple Kelly scores against Chase to tie it 2-2. Dan makes the most pitiful throw yet, unable to perform the challenge correctly because he can’t jump. Remind me again why they haven’t voted him out. Sash doesn’t get blocked, but he doesn’t score either. Alina scores against Fabio to take the 3-2 lead for Espada. Brenda misses. Before we continue with the challenge, Fabio has to use the restroom in the pool. NaOnka scores to pull ahead 4-2. Jill scores to make it 4-3. Benry scores, and Espada wins reward.

Jane couldn’t care less if everybody else on her tribe is lazy, so long as they feel she’s important. They’re more than happy to take advantage of her.

After catching her fish, Jane has weirdly decided to hide in the woods and cook one of them for herself.

During their meal, Alina and Holly get all emotional and start crying. NaOnka views this as an opportunity talk about Alina behind her back, as if she needs an excuse.

Two members of each tribe will stand at the top of a tower and roll cannon balls down a chute, while four other tribe members use ropes to aim the chute at the other tribe’s tiles. First tribe to break all five of the other tribe’s tiles wins immunity. Sash sits out for La Flor. Benry and Alina are up top for Espada; Brenda and purple Kelly are up top for La Flor. Benry’s first toss misses. Kelly S takes the early lead for La Flor 1-0. Alina connects on Espada’s second attempt, while Brenda misses to tie it 1-1. Benry scores to take the 2-1 lead, as Kelly misses after listening to the people on the ground who think they know what they’re talking about but don’t, although she and Brenda are equally clueless. Alina connectes again to take the 3-1 lead for Espada. Brenda misses. Benry connects again for a 4-1 lead. Brenda then misses again. Alina just misses. Kelly scores to make it 4-2. Finally getting a challenge where their deliberate attempts to make themselves weaker don’t matter, Espada wins immunity.

Since it worked so well last time, La Flor again plans to split the votes to try to flush out the idol. Then Brenda and Sash come up with an alternate plan of having Marty give them the idol. Really?

Sash’s oh so brilliant pitch: you give me the idol, and I’ll look you in the eye and tell you you’re not going home tonight. So he’ll just go home next time then? This idiocy is not lost on Marty. Seeing that he’s an idiot, Sash makes another promise. If they lose immunity again next week, he’ll give him back the idol. Okay, what if they don’t lose then?

In spite of Sash’s efforts to botch this, Marty agrees to hand over the idol. What has he got to lose?

Pot stirrer Probst poses a question. If the idol is really a group idol, does Sash want to give it to Brenda to hold on to? No. Perhaps if there comes a time when he loses trust in them, er, when they lose trust in him.

Votes
Jane
Jane
Jill
Marty
Jill
Marty
Jill

Is there a logical reason why they still split the votes in spite of having the idol? Probably not, but the eighth person voted out of Survivor: Nicaragua is Jill.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Nicaragua Episode 8, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Biggest Loser Season 10 Episode 6

With the contestants newly divided into blue against black in The Biggest Loser Season 10 Episode 5, Rick was voted out.

This week, it wil be up to the opposing team to decide which one person’s weight will count for the other team.

During the workout, Frado agrees to give Jillian one more effort. Sort of. She tells him to just jump off the treadmill three times, but he doesn’t listen. So then he falls. Her thought after this happens: this would never happen with Bob. Frado seems to have decided to be a rebel because he doesn’t get along with his dad, although he loves him anyway. Time to move on, dude, and stop fooling yourself. No need to punish yourself since your relationship with your parents is unhealthy.

Curtis Stone is joined by Lorena Garcia, whom I have never seen on The Biggest Loser or The Celebrity Apprentice. Aaron, Jessica, Lisa, Elizabeth Patrick, and Anna will be cooking with them. The other six will judge the dishes, without knowing which dish belongs to which team. The winning team wins 10 seconds at the challenge. The chefs are not allowed to touch the food. Aaron has not really been cooking since he last saw Curtis. Elizabeth is uncomfortable with cooking, having found it easier to just buy fast food.

Anna is assigned to make a shrimp ceviche martini, while Aaron will be making grilled shrimp, papaya, and peanut salad. Patrick cooks tuna tacos, and Jessica is cooking some tuna as well, grilled ratatouille. Elizabeth will make yogurt and grilled peaches, while Lisa also cooks yogurt and peaches. They’ll have to make sure they are done before the time limit expires.

Frado thinks there are people on his team who can’t cook, so his strategy is to pick the appetizer he likes the least. After tasting the martini, he says it was disgusting. He and Adam are in charge of judging the appetizers. Frado chooses Anna’s dish, while Adam chooses Aaron’s dish. In each case, they have backed their teammates, bringing us to a 1-1 tie. Frado’s lack of confidence in his team paid off because he thought the ceviche was worse than the salad. Ada picks the ratatouille, and so does Mark. No points for Patrick, allowing the blue team to take the 3-1 lead. Jesse chooses Elizabeth’s ice creamy peach cup, and so does Brendan. That brings us to a 3-3 tie.

With that, the tiebreaker is for the judges to accurately guess how many calories are in the dessert for their team. The black team’s strategy is to argue, which leads to Frado pouting and stepping to the side. He doesn’t care. Ada’s frustrated having to deal with children. Their guess is 185. The blue team guesses 109 for theirs. The winner is the blue team, as they are 9 calories over, whereas the black team is over by 45 calories. They will win 10 seconds, whatever that means. Even though it means he lost, too, Frado is happy to see Brendan lose.

Adam suggests that the obvious choice to weigh in is Elizabeth, who has been at the bottom of the pack pretty consistently. Patrick assumes that will be their choice as well.

Over on the other side, they want to choose Jessica, feeling that will be a pretty fair match against Elizabeth.

The team that wins the challenge has the option to block the other team’s first pick at the weigh in. With the black team having Ada and a bunch of big guys, the blue team really does not have a choice two, so they would probably have to default to Anna if they lose. The challenge will be dragonboat racing, 500 meters out and 500 meters back. Blue team will have a 10 second advantage from the cooking challenge. Jessica and Anna will do the steering, while the rest of the teams paddle. With their 10 second advantage… the blue team gets nowhere pretty quickly. By the time they start going straight, the black team is just about to catch them. Blue team has a slight lead heading into the turn. In the turn, the blue team takes a while to get it right, but the black team does it right, taking the lead. In a race down the final stretch, the blue team regains control to win the challenge by 6 seconds, so the advantage paid off after all. Brendan’s upset by how they celebrate their win.

Although everything will boil down to her this week, Elizabeth doesn’t seem to be giving it her best effort. Perhaps if Jillian can force her to have a breakthrough, she can get more out of her.

As much talk as there is from the trainers about how much they’re all in danger, nobody’s remotely thinking of nominating somebody like Mark, who strategically could throw the weigh in and just put up bigger numbers next week.

Adam has opted to not use his advantage, so it will be 4 pounds next week.

The blue team has chosen Elizabeth as expected. Jessica is chosen for her team, with the black team using the words “first pick” because they think it will be vetoed. The choice is to not block her nomination, however. I’m not sure there’s so much difference between her and Lisa (or even Aaron for that matter) that it really matters either way.

Anna: 283 pounds (-3, 1.05%)
Ada: 211 pounds (-4, 1.86%)
Brendan: 302 pounds (-11, 3.51%)
Patrick: 337 pounds (-9, 2.60%)
Frado: 294 pounds (-14, 4.54%)

Elizabeth: 213 pounds (-5, 2.29%)

Scoring better than the other two girls on her team, Elizabeth has lost a respectable, albeit not overwhelming, amount of weight.

The black team says their second pick was going to be Jesse. What?

Jesse: 296 pounds (-9, 2.95%)
Mark: 336 pounds (-16, 4.54%)
Adam: 322 pounds (-13, 3.88%)
Lisa: 244 pounds (-8, 3.17%)
Aaron: 398 pounds (-9, 2.21%)

Jessica: 244 pounds (-4, 1.61%)

Two people on the blue team lost less than Elizabeth, and Jessica is one of them, leading to the blue team losing the weigh in. If they chose to use the block and the black team voted for Jesse instead (seriously?), they would have won. Not only that, but had this been a team weigh in rather than a one person chosen by the other team weigh in, the blue team would have won by a comfortable margin of 7 pounds. They may have won the weigh in, but they lost the game.

As the biggest loser on his team, Mark is safe from the vote. Jessica doesn’t think she should be going home just because she had a(nother) bad week. Adam might want to consider getting rid of that target on his back, his “advantage” that keeps growing each week.

Votes
Mark: Adam
Adam: Jessica
Lisa: Jessica
Jessica: Adam
Jesse: Adam
Aaron: Jessica

With half of the blue team playing an individual game already, wanting to vote out one of their strongest players, we have a tie. Therefore, the black team will choose who to eliminate, and they can pick anybody other than Mark. Obviously, this comes down to a choice between the two strongest: Jesse and Adam. Jessica says that, if they’re leaning toward sending Adam home instead of her, they should just send her. This pitch should have been made to her own team before they played their hand so badly.

By the black team’s vote, Adam is not The Biggest Loser, a decision which three people on his team will be happy with, although it no doubt weakens their chances. From his starting weight of 402 pounds, Adam is now down to 264 pounds. He hopes to be an inspiration to the community and is working along with to YMCA to achieve that.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 10 Episode 7, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Amazing Race 17 Episode 5

Stumbling their way through the detour, Connor & Jonathan were eliminated in The Amazing Race 17 Episode 4.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Nat & Kat – 6:00AM
Second: Gary & Mallory – 6:04AM
Third: Brook & Claire – 6:05AM
Fourth: Michael & Kevin – 6:30AM
Fifth: Jill & Thomas – 6:48AM
Sixth: Nick & Vicki – 7:11AM
Seventh: Chad & Stephanie – 8:12AM
Eighth: Katie & Rachel – 8:34AM

Thomas always envisioned himself with somebody who didn’t go to cosmetology school like his current girlfriend Jill. She continues to try to hope to be able to prove herself to him as part of this team.

Teams will now drive across the border into Narvik, Norway. No airport again then. Bad news for the trailing teams. They will search for a gondola station, and then ride to the top of the mountain.

Up a mountain. This is bad for anybody afraid of heights. Nat is already crying on the way up, without being aware of what’s actually in store, but she has given Kat permission to push her off the ledge of necessary. When they get to the top, there’s a fast forward. With three teams within 5 minutes of each other, this could be a rough one, but seeing as how they’re 2.5 hours ahead of the last place team, it should not be game ending to just go for it and see what it’s all about.

The fast forward is a gross eating challenge. This is a challenge that could theoretically take hours. Their task is to eat an entire sheep’s head, a traditional Norwegian Christmas ritual. Nat & Kat will be doing the fast forward. Kat’s a vegetarian, who hasn’t eaten meat in 22 years. Tastes like money. Money that makes you gag. It’s got to be hard to eat something that’s staring back at you, whether you eat its eyeballs or not. Neither of them end up having to vomit, a disappointing result for an eating challenge. Having departed over an hour later, Nick & Vicki decide it would be smart to go for the fast forward. Really? When they arrive, they’re confused whether the fast forward is gone or not. The phrase “fast forward taken” is lost on them.

Drive yourselves to some place that nobody can be bothered to try pronouncing, even the supposedly educated college guy Thomas, and search for your next clue. The road block is one that will actually scare somebody who’s afraid of heights, stepping off the bridge and rapel to the water below. When they’re at the end of their rope, they will have to signal for one of two boats for their clue, then use a mechanical ascender to pull themselves 130 feet back to the bridge.

Road block (in order of arrival): Kevin, Gary, Claire, Thomas, Vicki, Chad, Katie

Brook happily volunteers Claire for this task. It doesn’t seem to be that difficult a task, just one of overcoming your fear. That is, until they start the climb back to the top. The hardest part is going to be finding the upper body strength to make it back up. The first three guys make it up after a little bit of a struggle, but Claire offers us the first glimpse of drama over the bridge. This is bad for the other female team, Katie & Rachel, who are currently in last place and nowhere in sight regardless, although they are pro athletes who should be able to hang a little better than most people.

From there, teams must locate a remote field in Harvika. The detour is a choice between bike or boat. In bike, teams choose a pair of mountain bikes, taking note of the color of their bicycle lock, and ride a course to a sign, where they have to memorize the combination color coded to match their bicycle lock. Then they go back to the start and use the combination to open their lock and retrieve their next clue. In boat, teams make their way to a fishing boat, direct a captain to a spot on shore, and disembark. Then they must deliver two large cod and a chainsaw on foot.

Bike: Jill & Thomas, Gary & Mallory, Nick & Vicki
Boat: Michael & Kevin, Brook & Claire, Chad & Stephanie, Katie & Rachel

Jill doesn’t know if it matters which color they choose. I knew somebody was going to ask that question. Thomas bails her out by having read the clue. Nick tells us he’s competitively raced BMX bikes all his life, but then when he starts riding, Vicki has to wait around for him to catch up. Chad has no patience for Stephanie, not that he usually does.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Ankenes Marina. Seems to be tricky to find because more than one team drives right by, circling back to the bridge they came from. And Thomas was so sure he wasn’t driving in circles. Kevin just tails him, hoping Thomas knows what he’s doing. They stop and ask for directions, sorta. In this race full of obstacles, it’s the car door that gets in Brook’s way, as she cuts her face open on it, but she just goes up to chat with Phil as if nothing happened.

First: Nat & Kat (win a trip to Costa Rica)
Second: Gary & Mallory
Third: Jill & Thomas
Fourth: Michael & Kevin
Fifth: Brook & Claire
Sixth: Nick & Vicki
Seventh: Chad & Stephanie
Eliminated: Katie & Rachel

Can we get a flight next week please? This was far too pitifully obvious. As the last team to arrive (because they departed in last), Katie & Rachel have been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 17 Episode 6 Run, Babushka, Run, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 6

Hoping to boost his ratings (it didn’t work), Trump fired two people because he could in The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 5. First, having screwed up the presentation, Gene was fired. Then, Wade was fired because he didn’t test Gene’s speaking abilities or some such nonsense.

Although they won, that is not stopping the women from arguing, with a battle between Kelly and Liza going on.

Switching over to the other team and their dysfunction, Anand says that David is nothing but a virus to the team (he’s not wrong). Can’t say I blame him considering that comment about harassment, a term which he clearly does not know the definition of.

When she goes to meet with the CEO of Rockport for her reward, Stephanie receives an offer to participate in an advanced management training program.

The teams will be creating their own pedicab tour, which will involve passing a test to get their license, design a tour, sell it, and do some pedaling.

Don Jr. is not available this week, but the family parade continues, with Eric Trump filling in.

Kelly will be the project manager for the women; Anand will be the project manager for the men.

The first step is to get a pedicab license. Really? Kelly and Mahsa fail.

The men toss around the idea of a gimmick pedicab ride, where they turn the rides into Roman chariots. They decide to focus on creating pre-sales and work on selling the day before. Their obstacle is, as usual, David, who’s only on the show so people will talk about him, but should have been fired last week or the week before that or the week before that…

The women are looking for men with money, hoping that sex will sell on Wall Street, as they try to pitch their babes on bikes tour. Kelly is worried that the men there will mostly be working, but Stephanie assures her they’ll be on lunch.

On the other hand, the men just walk right outside and start yelling in front of Trump Tower.

Dave is depressing people. During his tour, he talks about how he doesn’t have money, and how his wife left him because of it. Oh, and his great great grandfather was killed by a mule. Where’s a mule when you need one? David’s more interested in telling his life story than actually giving people a tour.

The women have put on their skimpy outfits, but nobody cares. Everybody is too busy to bother stopping. Kelly should have put her foot down rather than letting Stephanie get her way. Right now, they’re all pretty much just hanging out on the corner.

Liza tells people that they’re giving away free tours. It’s not free, though.

Around lunch time, having wasted half the task standing around, the women finally start to get some business.

When Eric asks Kelly who her best salesperson is, she says Poppy, who has no sales experience but seems to be doing a lot of selling. Mahsa does not like that answer. She runs to tell Stephanie, who is equally upset. What do Mahsa and Stephanie hope to gain by throwing a fit during the task?

Trump asks Clint how the team did. He believes they may have pulled one out today.

But wait. Can he talk about David? Since it’s becoming the season of David, why not? “Dave is the most classless, schizophrenic human I’ve ever met in my life. Dave cannot find his rear end in the bathtub when it comes to business. He is a disruption. He is a problem. And frankly, win lose, or draw tonight, sir, I beg you, I implore you to rid us of this plague before we go any further, or we won’t be able to function.”

Wow. Steuart agrees, and they’ve nicknamed David the virus. Anand echoes that, saying it was three against six, not four against six. Then Clint threatens to remove David’s hand if he puts it up again. As much of an ass as David is, the overreaction we’re seeing here isn’t any better.

If they win, Trump can’t fire David. That’s not how the game is played. Yeah, he’s not supposed to fire two or four people at once either or rig the show so a pre-picked friend wins with the reason given being that she’s old. Stuff happens. There are no rules on this show, just Trump’s ill-fated whim.

David apologizes. Clint does not accept his apology because David couldn’t get a job as an Oompa Loompa making Gobstoppers.

Eric thought some people on the women’s team were doing a lot, such as Brandy and Poppy. Kelly, however, was not as aggressive in sales, in addition to having failed the pedicab driver’s test.

Who was the least effective in terms of the team’s ability to win? Kelly says that Liza has the greatest opportunity for growth.

Mahsa hopes they won. She’s not sure. That’s as much enthusiasm as she can muster. She agrees Liza was the weakest link.

The women made $320. The men made $950. Not even close. Whoever was the best salesperson for the women, I’m not sure it really matters. For his reward, Anand will be meeting with Chuck Davis, CEO of Fandango and DailyCandy.

Kelly blames the location, which falls on Stephanie, though she wants nothing to do with her poor location choice. Trump tells them this decision meant they had no chance. Undeterred, Stephanie continues to lie, but she does stumble on to something. Why was she given so much responsibility? Shouldn’t the project manager have done more?

Mahsa would fire Liza for not selling anything. Trump’s response is that he couldn’t sell on Wall Street either. Ivanka thinks the men would be fired if their bosses looked out the window and saw them with babes on bikes.

Poppy would fire Liza as well.

How did New Yorker Mahsa allow the team to choose Wall Street? The men with the money are there. At least she’s willing to admit it, even if Stephanie is not.

Liza and Stephanie will be coming back to the boardroom.

Stephanie blames “the group” for location, and says that Mahsa was the one who actually took the lead. Mahsa, Stephanie, I’m not really seeing much difference between the two.

Liza would fire Kelly as project manager, who didn’t know more about the location the others (but not Stephanie, let’s get that clear because Stephanie had nothing to do with the location, even though she did) picked.

Trump asks Kelly if she should have spoken to Mahsa or somebody who knows more about New York. She would have gotten the same answer. Stephanie and Mahsa thought Wall Street was brilliant. Which of them convinced the other is not entirely clear, but they insisted it was a great idea. Even after they flopped for the first couple of hours, Stephanie insisted they made the right choice. Not only that, but Stephanie knew all she felt she needed to know: rich men are on Wall Street. You could be from Canada or Chicago wherever Stephanie says she’s from, or Russia for that matter, and know that.

Kelly is fired. I grow bored with Trump’s decisions and logic.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 7, which airs Thursday at 10/9c on NBC.

The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 6

Stefan came up with this theory in The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 5. If he drinks a little human/Elena blood every day, he’ll get strong enough to beat Katherine.

Jeremy goes to see the less than welcoming Damon. He warns him why Mason is in town, his search for the moonstone. According to legend, the werewolf part of the curse was sealed with the moonstone. Whatever sealed the curse… can be used to unseal the curse.

Liz’s plan is to pretend like her daughter doesn’t exist. For Caroline, she views this as no real change. Either way, her mom doesn’t care.

Mason runs into Stefan. He wasn’t expecting to see him there. Or anywhere. From now on, Mason will have to do his own dirty work, with the sheriff compelled into forgetting what she saw.

When Bonnie touches Mason, she sees Elena, kissing him. That’s not Elena she sees. It’s Katherine. The more bad news is that he got the moonstone from his nephew Tyler. Stefan decides to leave Damon alone with Bonnie, leading to a discussion about how she’s going to get over herself and help them defeat the bad guys. Returning to overhear this lack of playing nice, Stefan jumps in to offer input that he meant that as a question with a please on the end. She agrees to do her witchy thing of making Mason’s brain hurt, which she can do to anyone with a supernatural healing ability.

The moonstone is in a well, whatever that means. Although Bonnie’s vision doesn’t make much sense, that’s all she’s got. She’s not allowed to ask questions. After leaving Damon, suddenly things become clear to her. Does Caroline remember the old well from when they were kids?

Stefan jumps down into the well. That was a stupid idea. It’s full of vervain. This causes Elena to scream, which in turn Caroline hears, and then Bonnie goes to help as well. They lower Elena down to pull Stefan up out of the well, a bloody mess. While she’s down there, Elena finds the stone, after much drama about a run in with a snake.

Mason’s helping Katherine so that she can break the moon curse. This will make it so that he doesn’t have to turn any more, which Katherine wants because she loves him. Damon is all amused by this moron who’s just being used. Katherine will only rip his heart out. Damon can save him the time and do it for her. Kill or be killed.

Caroline and her mom have started to talk. They’re getting along a little bit now. Her request is to not take her memories away. She won’t tell, and won’t hurt her. Caroline would have to be stupid to listen to this, and she does not. While her mom may possibly leave her alone, she’s not going to trust the brothers.

After killing her boyfriend, Damon calls Katherine to provoke her. Following their call, Katherine calls Elena to chat. She suggested that the world would be a much better place if Jenna were dead, which has now culminated in Jenna stabbing herself, but they get her to the hospital in time.

Following this incident, Elena tells Stefan that they have to stop being selfish. It’s over. Again.

With the werewolf she needed now dead, Katherine has a plan B. She compels Matt to go after Tyler, and not stop until he’s been killed by him.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 7 Masquerade, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.