At the beginning of this week’s episode of The Amazing Race titled “I Hate Chinese Food,” Nick admits in an interview that before Vicki he didn’t care about other people’s feelings, but that she has shown him the errors of such an attitude.  He continued by tearing up and commenting on what a blessing she has been for him.

Say what?!?!

All we can hope is that interview occurred after this leg.  The way it was shown to us suggests that it was a pre-leg interview, but I really hope not.  I prefer to see the interview as something that Nick reflected on after a stressful leg and realized what a jerk he was to his amazingly patient girlfriend. 

Perhaps I’m giving him too much credit.  However, I really don’t want to watch this guy anymore if he said what he did before this leg of the race and then abused and quit on his teammate less than 48 hours later.  Unless the crying was forced (and if that’s true, this guy really is scum), it shows genuine disappointment in himself for the way he acted before the interview.  We just do not know if it was before or after this leg.

To be clear, even if the interview was after the leg, it doesn’t excuse his abhorrent actions during the leg.  Vicki made that much clear by saying after the leg that she needed to see change in Nick more than hear sorrys after the fact.  How Nick acted during this leg would get most boyfriends dumped.  No one would blame Vicki for doing the same, no matter how many sorrys she got from Nick.

Mere minutes after we’re shown Nick’s teary confession of how he needs to change, we see him berating Vicki for being unable to run because of her asthma.  To be somewhat fair to Nick, my girlfriend (who watches with me) asked why Vicki didn’t just whip out her inhaler and take a few puffs.  I explained to her that the process is not that simple.  You have to stop, control your breathing, take a puff from the inhaler, hold it for 10-15 seconds, wait and repeat.  It wouldn’t have necessarily been any faster than just walking.

The point is, much like Nick, I don’t have asthma.  I don’t know what it feels like either.  However, my brother grew up with moderate asthma as well and I learned what the process is for controlling asthma.  It’s a scary and very serious situation.  If you’ve ever seen someone gasping for air and breathlessly calling for their inhaler as their airways constrict inside them, you know what I’m talking about.

What’s even more confusing is how Nick could question his teammate.  It’s not like Vicki is similar to Claire who runs 20 yards and is impressed with herself for doing so (by her own admission, too!).  Vicki has been far more physically fit than many of the other women on the race so far.  Did Nick really think she was dogging it now with just four teams left?

Nick’s demeanor towards his teammate changed dramatically when they got to the Roadblock and had caught up with Nat and Kat and Brook and Claire.  Despite Vicki’s struggles, he suddenly became compassionate and was not negative in his comments to his girlfriend.  Even when she was vomiting he noted that the race is supposed to be fun and vomiting on the race is not worth it.

I thought we had seen a turn in Nick and with his competitive juices flowing again he would stay supportive the rest of the way.  Nick would not have been the first person to get negative when all looked lost, nor the first to change their tune when things turn around.  Again, I’m not excusing him, but it was at least rationale. 

Nope, dead wrong.  Instead Nick went the other direction with the Detour.  He quickly became discouraged by the difficult task of finding boat ID numbers in the dead of the night and gave up.  Rather than suggest changing to the other option (why was this never an option for them?) he simply quit and then choose to tease Vicki for not quitting herself.  Quite the leg for Nick. 

On the other end of the spectrum are the indefatigable Brook and Claire.  I continue to be impressed with their resilience and positive attitude.  In her post-leg interview, Claire can somehow laugh off the awful experience of vomiting because she over stuffed her stomach.  The pair can seemingly tease each other without it being mean or nasty.

They’re even human, as well.  Brook clearly gets upset with Claire’s comparative deficit in physical ability.  However, to her credit her disappointment with her partner is momentary and upon being scolded by Claire for being negative, Brook quickly changes her tune and does whatever she can to keep her partner motivated. 

Nick could learn a few things from Brook.  It’s ok to occasionally be annoyed and show disappointment with a partner.  However, he can’t let that emotion run over into negative and start berating his partner.

Other thoughts from this week:

• I loved that Jill and Thomas told us at the beginning of the leg that they had no idea what happened to the other teams from last week.  Under the old rules, teams depart twelve hours after the finished the last leg.  That would mean Jill and Thomas arrived at the Pit Stop at 8:25pm and were likely sleeping when Brook and Claire came in at 5:15am. 
• What a great move it was to combine the difficulty of an eating challenge with the luck of a needle-in-a-haystack challenge at this week’s Roadblock.  The contestants couldn’t even blame the producers for having to eat so much food because, technically, it was on them for not identifying the correct piece.
• I wonder how controlled these legs are.  The timing of the only flight out of Bangladesh to Hong Kong being at 11:55pm so that all of the teams get on the same flight despite being nine hours apart seems unusually convenient.  Certainly The Amazing Race can’t dictate when companies choose to run flights.  However, I’d have to guess that, when planning the legs, they knew that flights out of Bangladesh to Hong Kong were infrequent.
• What a performance by Brook at the Roadblock.  First, she enters the restaurant like she’s a contestant on the Price is Right.  Then, she almost immediately jumps on stage and starts performing with the dancers.  Finally, she runs around the room like she’s in WWE Raw trying to pump up the crowd for Claire.  Hilarious.
• Did we really need the footage of Claire and Vicki going into the bathroom to vomit and the audio of them doing so?  I loved that Claire slammed the stall door on the cameraman.
• Did anyone else see the guy who waived at the camera when Brook and Claire were reading their clue by the statue of Bruce Lee?   Also Hilarious.
• Seriously, why didn’t Nick and Vicki try the other Detour option before quitting?  Maybe it was breeze, they had no idea.  This bothers me.