Recap: Episode 3 of Amazing Race Canada (Warning: Spoilers)

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Consider this the Alberta Bound episode of Amazing Race Canada. If you consider shovelling coal a particularly Albertan thing to do.

Appropriately, the only Edmonton guy, Cory, and his Ottawa-based brother, Jody, managed to survive ? eking their way through some dance moves, then powering through the coal challenge.

Some team alliances bit the dust ? especially after the Hippies decided to offer their second Express Pass to the Struggling Sisters, instead of keeping their pact and giving it to the Married Doctors. This led to a bit of tension during the first few minutes of the episode ? and almost had immediate consequences at this week?s pitstop.

But first, the seven remaining teams flew from Vancouver to Calgary, where they had to find a statue of a bull, then head to a country bar for a bit of line dancing. Yeehaw, a tough road block! FINALLY.

Only one member from each team had to do the task ? but no one perfected their dance moves on the first try. Most needed three attempts, including Joanne (of Team Body Break), who was the first to complete the choreography.

Dave or ?Twinkletoes? (of Team Bros) also finished in three ? he?s a former cheerleading champion, used to ?chucking girls? ? which helped vault the muscle-bound duo from last place to the middle of the pack for the rest of the race. I?m beginning to like these meatheads, even though the size of their necks scares me.

At the bottom of the pack ? Holly, one of the Married Doctors from Montreal, took eight tries. Jody, who has prosthetic legs, needed seven, while Tim Sr. got through it in nine. ?You didn?t give up, Dad,? beamed Tim Jr. ?I?m proud of you.?

(Aww. So far, there doesn?t seem to be much rancour between teammates ? except for the Married Doctors, who started to bark and panic under the first signs of stress. Not what I expected.)

From the country bar, the teams were off to the hoodoos near Drumheller, where they were faced with a detour. Either shovel coal into a train car OR put together a miniature dinosaur skeleton at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

All but one of the teams picked the coal challenge, and only the Struggling Sisters seemed to, er, struggle, with their shovels. Their troubles actually started before they arrived at the task ? they got lost, and in the process, ceded third place to Team Bros. Then, their itsy, bitsy arms couldn?t lift their shovels, so they tried carrying lumps of coals in their hands. ?A terrible strategy,? quipped one of the Team Bros, who had problems of their own. In order to complete the task, they had to put a little silver tag in the right spot on the train car ? which they kept forgetting to do. Again and again.

The Married Doctors, of course, decided to build the dinosaur skeleton ? but it wasn?t quite as easy as they thought. (They could look at a model for guidance ? but only in another room.) The two fumbled with a few pieces, Holly started freaking out, then they had to run back to the model to see what they were doing wrong ? and just when you thought she might destroy the dinosaur, SUCCESS! But did they finish it in time to make it to the pitstop ? in Horsethief Canyon ? before another team? Or would they end up cursing the Hippies for giving the Express Pass to the Sisters?

As luck would have it, they finished sixth out of seven teams. Tim Sr. and Tim Jr. were last ? I?m not sure they even looked at a map before trying to find the canyon ? BUT ? oh no, wait! The third episode is a non-elimination leg of the race ? ALREADY?

Already. Which means the Tims are still in the race and must complete a speedbump somewhere during the fourth leg. In Yellowknife, NT. According to the teaser, things don?t look so good for the two ?

Here are this week?s results:

1. Hal and Joanne (Body Break)
2. Kristen and Darren (Hippies)
3. Jet and Dave (Team Bros)
4. Vanessa and Celina? (Struggling Sisters)
5. Jody and Cory (Half Edmonton)
6. Holly and Brett (Married Doctors)
7. Tim Sr. and Tim Jr. (Tims)

UPDATE: Some viewers are peeved because one of the commercials during the Amazing Race Canada gave away the fact that the episode was a non-elimination leg.

I didn?t catch the offending commercial ? I?ll be honest, I mute any and all ads ? but my editor, Keri Sweetman, and author Wayne Arthurson did. Here?s his blog post about the mistake.

Source: http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/07/29/recap-of-3rd-episode-of-amazing-race-canada/

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