Culture

Amazing Race Canada recap: Jet + Dave = Reality TV Gold

… plus Sonya Bell explains what really should have happened in La Belle Province


Here’s what should have happened on The Amazing Race Canada’s sixth leg:

After flying from Regina to Quebec City, the remaining teams hailed horse-drawn carriages and careened across Old Quebec to the National Assembly, where they used their grade nine French to locate the office of Premier Pauline Marois. Once inside, Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod successfully translated “Keep fit and have fun!” and presented the premier with a Body Break tracksuit — a touching gesture so Canadian it immediately convinced Marois to drop her campaign for Quebec independence.

With the race’s true mission of uniting Canada complete, the contestants agreed to share the grand prize and wept. So did Marois.

End scene.

Alas, Team Body Break was eliminated in Regina — and this week’s episode was the weaker for it. Also, Premier Marois did not guest star.

Instead, the five remaining teams completed a series of semi-interesting activities in La Belle Province, carving ice sculptures, preparing traditional crepes, and scoring on an empty lacrosse net. The tasks seemed distinctly easier this week compared to last. Sitting on my couch, I didn’t even break a sweat. There were no surprise leaps ahead or falls behind, and the final finishing order was pretty predictable.

Tim Sr. and Tim Jr., the father-son team who forced Hal and Joanne from the race, finished last in Quebec City — but incredibly, this was another non-elimination round, marking the second time they’ve been saved.

“That’s pretty epic,” said Tim Sr., as only a dad can.

Now down to just 10 contestants, the problem with the race is that too many of the compelling characters have been eliminated. In addition to Hal and Joanne, I’d place B.C. hippies Kristen and Darren in that category. Even resident villains Holly and Brett, the Montreal doctors, weren’t captivating last night, which I blame on them losing their foils in Hal and Joanne.

The one redeeming aspect of the Quebec leg of the race was the occasional laugh brought to you by the language barrier. Chief among them was when Dave put on a faux French accent and said “We want to be the champions at the end of the race” which was translated along the bottom of the screen as “We want to be the mushrooms at the end of the race.”

Dave and his best friend Jet are now the team to watch. And not just because Team Body Break officially endorsed them as “nice guys” who “play the race hard.” 

They’re a very physical team, but what makes them reality TV gold (in addition to the fact that one is a police officer named Jet Black and the other is a national champion in cheerleading) is their on-camera antics. They’re funny in their post-game interviews, good-natured during the challenges, and playful with the other teams. This week, that included constructing a fake message in very bad French that tricked brothers Jody and Cory into searching for a non-existent clue at night.

“Jody and Cory are so intense, this could not have worked out better,” they laughed — before letting the brothers in on their prank.

All that fun and games, and Jet and Dave still finished first this week — for the third straight leg. Keeping fit and having fun may still be the key to winning this thing.

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