The past few seasons of The Amazing Race occasionally foreshadowed that week’s leg with clips from the team’s pre-leg interviews. 

This was certainly true on this week’s episode "Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen," but an even trickier foreshadowing moment occurred right after the Detour.

At the beginning of this week’s episode Justin commented “Ever since we hit the cold weather we’ve been running first.” Was that a sign that Zev and Justin would win another leg if they stayed in cold weather?  Or perhaps the opposite if they were sent to warm weather?

Similarly, Kent commented “I feel like we become a better team the longer this race goes on”. Had the Dating Goths talked out how they needed to act to be successful? Would Kent and Vyxsin finally have a drama free leg? 

Typically the foreshadowing on The Amazing Race is not as simple as the above questions suggest. More accurately, determining whether the quotes are direct foreshadowing or an ominous sign of how things are going to fall apart is the challenge. 

Very early this week it became obvious that Justin’s comment foreshadowed the opposite of what he felt was true. As the temperature dropped when the teams climbed in to the heights of the Swiss Alps via helicopter, Justin and Zev struggled with the Detour and went from first to last.

Conversely, Kent and Vyxsin chose the better Detour option, vaulting in to second place. Despite the drama and accusations at the Roadblock, Vyxsin propelled her and her partner in to first place. Perhaps Kent’s foreshadowing comment would be one that came true?

As Kent and Vyxsin climbed in to a taxi to head to the Pit Stop, clearly violating the instructions on the route marker, I immediately thought of a comment that Gary made shortly after the Detour: We should have 25 minutes on Zev and Justin. Why does this comment matter?  Because it is exactly five minutes shorter than the 30 minute penalty that Kent and Vyxsin would incur for taking a taxi cab to the Pit Stop. 

I noticed the comment when Gary made it, but not because I knew something of approximately 25 minutes in length would occur later in the episode. Rather, it was unique because of its specificity. 

The show seems to go to great lengths to prevent the viewer from knowing the exact amount of time that separates teams. Last week we were not shown if Jet and Cord got on the second train. Ultimately they did not, but we never found out even how many trains behind they were. 

I wondered if there was something to the show choosing to air Gary’s comment. When Kent and Vyxsin hopped in the cab, the rationale became very apparent. By telling the viewer that Zev and Justin were 25 minutes behind while Kent and Vyxsin had a 30 minute penalty to withstand, drama was created for the final Pit Stop.

For once, at least it actually came true. It’s no secret that Kent and Vyxsin were not my favorite team on The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business. Having Zev and Justin to slide in to the final four minutes ahead of them was wonderful news for me. I would have had a hard time rooting for the pair, despite some of Vyxsin’s impressive moments.

Despite all of the excitement within the leg, the structure of the legs continues to slide downhill. Considering how difficult and unpredictably the opening legs were, the show has reverted to the very simple format of Pit Stop-challenge-challenge-Pit Stop. Not exactly very exciting.

Fortunately next week’s two-hour season finale awaits us and the recent finales have been very challenging, dynamic and great televisions. I’ll be rooting for Zev and Justin or Flight Time and Big Easy, but I suspect that the final will be a race between the two teams with the best directional skills: Zev and Justin and Kisha and Jen.

More from this episode:

• The stress of the race clearly seems to affect couples differently than any other combination.  Yet, time and time again on The Amazing Race, the couples that fight and bicker never seem to separate after the show.  Even Vyxsin who had another tough leg dealing with Kent still seemed thrilled to be with him in their post-leg interview.
• Will we ever know what happened to Flight Time’s chocolate gnome mold?  I believe Vyxsin when she says she didn’t take it, or at least I believe that she didn’t realize she took it if she did.  You have to figure that if there was some malicious moment with the molds, the cameras would have caught it.