'Amazing Race': Nate & Jen, Never No. 1

Sorry, but I continue to feel as though there is no particular team on this Race that gives me any reason to get all enthusiastic. And this week, it was all pretty much more of the same except -- shocker! -- Ron went an ENTIRE LEG without yelling at Christina.

In case anyone missed that, Christina went out of her way to point that fact out multiple times, including on the mat, when she and her father edged out (ha-ha!) Nate & Jen for first place. "He did not lose his temper once this leg of the race!" Christina said, as if this was some sort of miracle. Which, actually, it kind of was, sad to say.

Meanwhile, poor (not really) Nate & Jen. The bickering kind-of lovers are so desperate to win a leg that Nate acknowledged early in the episode that he had a dream about flinging his pack at the legs of any competitor trying to outrun them to the mat. This week, they actually finished the detour first and were out the door to the pit stop ahead of everyone else -- only they couldn't find a cabbie who knew the way. Which led to another infamous bout of bickering, this one punctuated by Nate shoving Jen into a cab (an act that "Race" producers deemed so significant they chose to replay it for emphasis). Bad, bad Nate.

Grandpa Don and Nick were their usual selves, plugging away, staying in the race, reminding us constantly that Don is old and Nick is so great to carry his pack, etc. etc. I want to like them, I really do, and I certainly don't dislike them as much as I did early on when Nick tried to screw around with everyone else's travel plans. But, eh, still pretty bland.

As for TK & Rachel, it would be really great to be able to get behind them in all their earthy-crunchy, non-combative, likability, but really, could they be any worse at travel basics? By this time in the race, anyone who isn't a pro at making sure that they're on the first flight that, ahem, lands at the desired destination -- as opposed to the first flight that departs from the previous pitstop -- is just utterly clueless. That's right, once again, TK & Rachel didn't do their homework, so while all the other teams were on a one-stop trip from Mumbai into this week's destination, Osaka, Japan, they flew through two airports and were three hours behind everyone else.

In the end, they dutifully completed all their tasks with chipper, but resigned, faces, all ready to bid sayonara to Phil and get on with their budding relationship. Only -- ta-da! -- this was another non-elimination round, so in the next leg they get to start out, way, way, WAY behind and they have to complete a speed bump. (Was it just me, or did TK look a bit dismayed to hear the supposed "good news?")

-- JENNIFER FREY

By Jennifer Frey |  January 7, 2008; 11:03 AM ET Amazing Race
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