Amazing Race Canada Preview and Spoilers for Episode 4 'Grab a Nug'

This looks like its going to be another good episode, with a lot going on. Hold on to your seats - I think we're in for a bumpy ride! There are spoilers here, including who gets eliminated. You have been warned.

The teams will fly from Calgary to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Remember the finish order from the last leg:

Hal and Joanne
Darren and Kristen
Jet and Dave
Vanessa and Celina
Jody and Cory
Holly and Brett
Tim Sr and Tim Jr

Well, apparently Vanessa and Celina must have decided to step up their dirty game, or they think an Express Pass is for priority seating. At the airport, they cut right to the front of the line. Not just ahead of the other teams, mind you, but ahead of regular passengers. Jet and Dave are at the back of the line. Now I don't know about you, but if that was me standing in line, I would have raised holy hell. Canadians take a lot of joking about being so polite, but no Canadian would let that one go. Surely at least one of the dozen or so people in line had to speak up. There are three things that get us Cannucks riled up: getting your car dinged by some A-hole; someone having more than 8 items in the express lane at the grocery store; and someone cutting in front of you in a service line. Perhaps it was the cameras that kept them from yelling "Hey what the hell do you think you're friggin' doing???" - maybe they realized it was Amazing Race and didn't want to look bad on camera or something.... I don't know. See, it's things like this that makes me wonder if there wasn't perhaps just a bit of producer-driven manipulation here. Just saying.

The first Roadblock is a polar bear dip into a hole cut through the ice on Great Slave Lake. Keep in mind this was filmed just before mid-May. The air temperature was 7.5 C. Double it and add 32...it's about 47 F, for all you Americans out there (you're welcome). God only knows what temperature the water was. No dive suits. It's bathing suits and a life jacket - with a safety line thrown in for good measure. Looks like Celina, Dave, Hal and Tim Jr are doing this challenge. I don't know which members of the Mitics, the Docs or the Hippies do the dip.

Looks like there was at least a Route Marker at the Pilots' Monument, which is located at the top of a hill. It was built to honour the bush pilots of the Canadian North. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know - just like in Ice Pilots NWT. The monument is a fitting stop, because the teams must next fly to Carcross, Yukon via charter plane. There are 3 flights, and the teams had to sign in on a first come first serve basis. Here's the order that can be seen in the Inside the Race preview:

Flight 1: Holly and Brett
            Hal and Joanne

Flight 2: Tim and Tim
            Jet and Dave

Flight 3: Jody and Cory
             (Vanessa and Celina & Darren and Kristen had not yet arrived)

Sooo...it looks like Holly and Brett have recovered from the Great Badlands Bone Fiasco and make up a lot of time! Definitely a team to beat. Not to mention the karma for Vanessa and Celina! Looks like they got bumped to the back of the line after all. Apparently Jody and Cory actually got to the hangar before either the Tims or (probably Jet and Dave), but Cory accidentally signed in for the third flight. Poor Cory feels really bad about it, he just signed the first space he saw. The Inside the Race hosts make it seem like this will lead to their undoing. Not at all. They'll be fine. What is interesting, is that there seems to be an almost complete flip in positioning since the start of the leg, so I am wondering if there was a Fast Forward or maybe a Yield.

In the Yukon, they go to Carcross Desert. Although it's called the smallest desert in the world, it's not really a desert - there's too much humidity. Basically, it's a sand dune.

It's here that the Tims must complete their Speed Bump. And it's a doozey. Looks like they must memorize and recite at least a portion of The Shooting of Dan McGrew by Robert W. Service. Well, after all, they are in the Klondike. There are 3 judges, in 1890's period dress who look very formidable. I am thinking one of them is supposed to be Robert Service, and the other two Dangerous Dan McGrew and 'the Stranger'. It's a pretty cool set up. By the way...so far I am loving the judges they are using in the series. Tim Jr. has a hard time with his portion of the poem, and I can't blame him, it's tough. Here is the second stanza he is reciting:

"When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.
There was one could place the stranger's face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;
But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew."

****Pretty Cool Side Note: Here is a recording from 1923, held by the U.S. Library of Congress, complete with old-timey piano to set the mood: Click here for link

But...don't worry all you Tims fans out there, they persevere and do not get eliminated this week.

Part of the Detour, also in the desert, involves an obstacle course. One team member is blind-folded and must push a wheelbarrow. The other team member sits in the wheelbarrow guiding their partner, and they must collect (gold) nuggets. Here's the description from Jet and Dave, and its from this that the episode title is taken:

"The final event of this Detour is a blind-folded, wheelbarrow, nugget grab. To grab nuggets. We don't have a lot of experience driving wheelbarrows blind-folded. But we do have experience grabbing nuggets. We grab a nug all the time. Nug here...nug there."

Do they know what a nug is? Really? Interesting that they say "the final event of this Detour" - it sounds like one part of the Detour is actually a series of tasks, and this blind-folded wheelbarrow thing is just one of those tasks.

***Spoiler Stuff***

So who gets eliminated this week?
This is going to come as a big surprise, but the eliminated team this week is Darren and Kristen. Hold on to your seats! I don't know what tripped up their game, but I am thinking it must have been something big while in Yellowknife - they would be on the third charter flight to the Yukon with Jody & Cory and Vanessa & Celina. I have to wonder why they didn't use the Express Pass.

Just one more thing. I promised I would divulge where I think the finale's finish line is.

Clue # 1: It's in Toronto (that's pretty much a given) and we have actually seen a glimpse of it in Episodes 2 and 3. We will probably see it again in Episode 4. If you think you know, you can leave a comment below, or use the link, (found to the right) to my Facebook page.