TAR 10 - The Homeless Cow Edition (SPOILERS)

I will admit to having watched parts of this on fast forward last night, so I might have missed some of the finer points, but I definitely got the gist. See Jen's recap for more insights (and spoilers) and links to other recaps (and spoilers).

On the first train trip, some alliances are formed to share information. This, I think, is a pretty good strategy. Kentucky, Win Bros, and Alabama Catty have teamed up and seem to share a good deal of comraderie. The Pretty Boys and Rob & Kim have a slightly less binding alliance but at least an agreement. Peter decides (without consulting Sarah it seems) that he wants in on some of this action, but rather than approaching it in a mature manner (like, oh, I don't know, asking to be part of the alliance) he parades up and down the aisle like a rooster crowing about how he knows where the closest travel agent is and he'll tell them if they want. The only ones even marginally interested are the Barbies, who make no promise of reciprocity and then make sure that the world knows that they're "turning up their competitive game" - cause cutting in line all the time clearly isn't quite competitive enough.

The Barbies then go on to use the rest of the episode to prove that, yes folks, it is indeed just skin deep. This week, the Barbies made Alabama Catty look like the kind of people you want your kids to grow up to be like.

Peter continues to regress into misogyny, harranguing Sarah to hurry up when it's clear that she's run/hopping as much as she can on her leg at this point. This culminates in him telling her that the only alternative is for him to just stop caring - that he's either ultra competitive or doesn't give a crud. Sarah suggests that this might be something he should work on. He counters that he likes who he is and besides, this is all for fun, it's just a game. And then Sarah replies, "I'm not really having fun with you Peter." Good for you, girlie-o. Not that I think it'll make a dent. I also find it hillarious that Peter opted to do the challenge - the non-physical challenge. So yeah, Sarah had to essentially scale a cliff face with only her arms and Peter has eaten fish eyes and gone to driving school. Who's the physically challenged one again?

The decision to learn to chill that Rob & Kim made last week seems to actually be taking effect and if they can really hold it together like that and learn and grow from it, there might just be hope for them yet. I'm not holding my breath, mind you, but they did well (and therefore got very little airtime) this week. Though Kim did manage a few really good quotes this episode, including bemoaning the fact that they're in poverty stricken countries and wishing that they could go to Europe "where the rich people are" and seeing an admittedly skinny cow on the side of the road in India commenting on how skinny it is and then wondering, "Is it a homeless cow?"

Kentucky ended up last, but wasn't eliminated, though the penalty imposed may very well push them out next week. Since this is the first season I've watched I can't comment first hand on previous penalties, but I do agree that this seems like a really good penalty and does alleviate the skeeviness of clearly wealthy (certainly in comparison) Americans begging on the street of poverty stricken countries in front of their camera crews.