The Amazing Race POWER RANKINGS (episode 7, aired 3/28/10)

1) Louis & Michael: I'll be honest, I initially thought these two were just goofballs and weren't going to be very good. Boy was I wrong about that one. They started the race very slow, and have even said that they have adjusted and changed how they operate and wow has it made a difference. I believe they've won 2 legs, and they were in first here until the order got reshuffled when everyone got on the same flight to The Seychelles. They drew one of the bottom 3 numbers and that set them back. But they didn't make mistakes like everyone else in hauling the coconuts, and they pay great attention to detail (because they're detectives right? Haha.). This is the strongest team left in the race, and should be there at the end.

2) Steve & Allie: Steve & Allie finally broke through and won a leg this week. They have been consistently finishing in the top half of each leg all race though. This is another team that doesn't make many mistakes (minus leaving their bags behind this week) and they're pretty good at the challenges too. They have been one of the most consistent teams over the course of the race and have pretty much flown under the radar until now. TV time for them has been limited too, but if they keep up performances like this week, they'll be getting much more, and on the finale in particular. A factor that might affect these two is whether or not they are going to have their bags to begin the next leg or not, it might hurt them if they don't.

3) Dan & Jordan: Here's another team that I thought was weak early on in the race. I don't know whether they have moved themselves up in my eyes or if everyone else just moved themselves down. Either way, this appears to be one of the better teams when they're in an English speaking country, it's when another language is spoken that these two have real problems. They were smart enough this week to double check that they had all their coconuts in their cart before they moved on, and that gets them a ton of bonus points as more teams screwed that one up than did it successfully. My friend thinks they are going to one of the final 3, but I'm not ready to make that kind of prediction for them yet. They are fast and athletic, as well as good at the challenges, but will their youth and inexperience catch up to them in the end?

4) Brent & Caite: Now I may be mistaken here because I don't exactly remember, but weren't these two consistently in the front of the pack early on in the race, and even win a leg? Their problem is that keep making silly mistakes on the race and their bickering seems to get in the way sometimes too. This week their problems continued when they were leading the group and not only got a slow ox, but also forgot a coconut and had to go back for it. They've been hanging at the back of the pack for awhile now and their buddies Jeff & Jordan were eliminated last week. The real question for these two is if they can clean it up for a leg or two and just get to the finale, because if they do, I absolutely think they can win the whole thing.

5) Jet & Cord: I was pretty sure Jet & Cord were the lucky team on the race before, but they confirmed that for me this week. I know they won a couple legs, but that was a direct result of them catching that bus that gave them a lead that not even they could screw up for a couple legs. They cost themselves big time this time around though when they left the bottle on the boat. Absolute stupidity. They are now going to have to compete with a speed bump next week, and I'm not sure they can recover from that. Neither of them are very experienced with traveling and I don't think they've been out of rodeo land very much. They are going to have a lot of trouble next week just staying in the race.

6) Carol & Brandy: These two should have finished last this week, but they have Jet & Cord to thank for that not happening. I still can't believe they didn't even make an effort to try and get seats at the front of the plane, and they knew it might end up costing them when they made that decision too. They drew one of the last 3 numbers and that put them behind right off. I'm also quite tired of hearing them argue, which they seem to do a lot of. They aren't very good at the challenges, and they aren't very fast either. It's a battle between them and Jet & Cord for elimination next week.

The Amazing Race HITLIST (episode 7, aired 3/28/10)

Okay so I didn't think buy or sell was really going to work for this show (or Survivor really for that matter) and I wasn't really too keen on a hit or miss column because it seems too blah. But that's what I'm going to go with for now until my creative juices help me come up with something better. Okay, on to my thoughts about this show!

HITS

The Seychelles: Wow what an amazing place. I felt like I was watching Survivor from time to time because this was that kind of environment. The camera shots they took of the water were incredibly gorgeous. I didn't even know this place existed until I saw this episode. Very cool location and I'm glad TAR went there.

Allie: Up until this episode, we really haven't seen much from Allie and her dad Steve, but we got a lot of them here as they went on to win their first leg of the race. I'm very glad they did win though because it meant we'd be treated to more Allie and her personality really shone through in this episode. I'll be honest, I've got a major crush on this girl now, she was just cute before, but now it's full blown crush territory. I mean what's not to like about the sweet, cute, religious girl right? Her interaction with the turtle was adorable too. Okay I'll stop gushing now.

Detour - Turtle Toddle or Ox Trot: First things first, given these and what they said about them, I would have gone with the Turtle Toddle. I feel like they were trying to trick the teams because I mean, who would pick something that was contingent on the movement of a turtle right? That's the point. But onto the Detour, I thought it was a good one. Steve & Allie were done with this very quickly (and they did Turtle Toddle!). The tasks were relatively simple, minus guiding the ox along, teams problems were that they weren't careful enough with the coconuts. I give this detour a hit because it messed a lot of teams up and I loved the turtles (more on that in a minute).

The Turtles: The turtles were all kinds of awesome. They were adorable as they just scooted along and I couldn't help but laugh every time one of them had banana all over their face. The whole thing was just funny even though I felt bad about the poor things being lured around with a banana. I didn't even know turtles ate bananas! It seemed like you were either going to get one that wanted to cooperate or you weren't. Carol & Brandy just happened to pick the most defiant turtle around apparently. Or he was just full.

The Coconut Guy: This guy was a riot. He didn't say too much, but every time someone came to him and had forgotten one, he delivered his "It's not enough coconuts" line, which was just hilarious since they had so many in the cart already and to say it wasn't enough when they were missing one was funny to me for some reason. Plus, he was laughing his ass off whenever he told someone that, it was like he took pleasure in sending them all the way back. It was great.

Underwater Phil: What the hell was this? This was so random to just have Phil attempt to explain the roadblock while he was underwater. Blubb blubbbb blub blubbb. Thank you CBS for the subtitles there though, my underwater speak had been lacking. I put this as a hit because it was just too funny and totally random. Anytime they take Phil out of his element I like it. Anyone else really want to see Phil and Jeff Probst do the Amazing Race together or is that just me? Probably just me.

"From what I've heard, it's pretty anonymous, amongst the teams.": Good one Brent. And I thought your girl Caite was the one that was supposed to deliver all of the stupid lines this season. This gets a hit simply because it blows my mind that these two can be such complete airheads.

MISSES

Carol & Brandy Not Getting Seats At The Front Of The Plane: I assume when you apply to be on TAR, that you have seen the damn thing before right? I always thought it was just a given that teams would try to get seats as close to the front as they can. Every team every year does this, at least the good ones do. Carol & Brandy are not a good team, and this is just further proof. They would have come in last too if Jet & Cord weren't such morons.

Teams Forgetting Coconuts: The detour obviously said somewhere that it was important to make sure you had ALL the coconuts, because Dan & Jordan were smart enough to go back and double check. So my question is, what the hell are people doing not double checking!? Seems pretty simple to me that you just do a quick search around before you leave, or look back as you're leaving! For crying out loud, Carol & Brandy actually ran over their coconut as they left! It's little things like this that end up costing teams the most on the race.

Road Block - 7 Bottles Up: This was the road block? How hard was this really? It took like 2 minutes tops. Weak.

Jet & Cord Forget Their Bottle: Seriously guys? They even said they knew there was some pouch inside there. You knew, but didn't bother to look at all? Just wow. These guys were so lucky to win the couple of legs that they did.

7Up Reward: I'm sorry, is this Survivor? We're giving out rewards now? I think this is going to become a theme on TAR. Survivor has no problems pimping their sponsors, and there's no easier way to do that then through rewards. TAR has always been more low key when it comes to sponsors (minus Travelocity), but I think we're going to start seeing more rewards given to teams at the end of legs because it opens it up more for other sponsors. Rewards in TAR, it's going to become the norm soon, you heard it here first.

On Tap For Tomorrow!!

Okay, it's late and I have to catch the newest Amazing Race and the premiere of Celebrity Apprentice on the DVR! The previews for the East and South regionals will come tomorrow as well as recaps/analysis for TAR and CA! I'll also post my bracket up on here. Thanks for reading, now time to see if the Big Brother pair can lose again just so Phil can use another one of his allotted "this is a non-elimination round because we want ratings and you can't leave yet" cards.