Cousin Watch: Well, THAT Was Stressful. Digby to Saint John
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Episode 8 of The Amazing Race Canada!
Well. That was stressful.
Last week, we learned that this would be a double elimination leg of The Amazing Race Canada, which meant six teams would start the race and only four would survive.
I had exactly one requirement. Do not eliminate the cousins. Apparently Sacha and Sébastien got the memo. They finished SECOND.
And Cousin Watch lives to see another week.
From Digby to Saint John
This week's race began in Digby, Nova Scotia, and eventually carried the teams across the Bay of Fundy to Saint John, New Brunswick.
And because this is The Amazing Race, nobody was simply allowed to admire the scenery. There were scallops to shuck. There was music to figure out. There was construction work. There were wheelbarrows full of wet cement.
And hanging over all of it was the knowledge that TWO teams were going home. Nothing like a little impending doom to brighten up a tour of the Maritimes.
Scallops, Sweat and a Whole Lot of Cement
Digby is famous for its scallops, so naturally the racers found themselves shucking them.
I briefly considered making a muscles/mussels joke here. Unfortunately, they were scallops. The universe does not always cooperate with a writer.
From there, things got considerably heavier, with the cousins eventually finding themselves at a cement plant, hauling wheelbarrows full of wet cement.
Because apparently racing across Canada wasn't physically demanding enough already.
SECOND!
The funny stuff aside, this was one of those episodes where you could feel the tension building. With a double elimination, fourth place wasn't just fourth place.
It was survival.
Fifth place was going home. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about the cousins right down to the wire. Sacha and Sébastien raced onto the mat in SECOND PLACE.
SECOND! In a double elimination round!
Boys, this is precisely the kind of consideration I expect from relatives who have absolutely no idea they're related to me. And their record is becoming pretty impressive.
They've won two legs. They've consistently raced near the front of the pack. They've handled physical challenges, puzzles, boats, canoes, beavers, scallops and now industrial quantities of wet cement.
More importantly, when things go sideways, they seem to recover without falling apart. That may be one of their biggest strengths. Because we're getting very close to the end now, and at this point, being fast isn't enough.
You have to stay calm. You have to avoid the little mistakes. And occasionally, apparently, you have to know how to shuck a scallop.
That Race to the Mat
And then came the part of the episode that nearly did me in.
With two teams racing for that final safe spot, it was almost impossible to watch. They were so close.
We knew one team was about to make the Final Four and the other was going home, and there was virtually nothing between them. I was obviously relieved that Sacha and Sébastien were already safely through, because I don't think my Cousin Watch nerves could have handled being part of that race.
But watching Ameen and Surria come up just short was heartbreaking. I actually teared up for Surria.
She has impressed me all season, not just as a racer, but as a mom. She was strong, determined, funny, fiercely competitive and clearly so proud to be running this race with her son. There was something really special about watching the two of them together.
And after winning the previous leg, to have their race end by mere seconds was just brutal.
That's the strange thing about The Amazing Race. You can spend an entire episode cheering desperately for your own team to survive, and then discover that you're genuinely sad when somebody else doesn't.
Ameen and Surria may not have made the Final Four, but wow, did they ever run a race to be proud of.
Cousin Watch: FINAL FOUR!
And just like that, we're down to four teams.
Which means this little Cousin Watch project that began with me spotting two guys named Régnier on television and deciding they must obviously be my relatives has gotten rather serious.
The cousins are in the FINAL FOUR.
Two leg wins. Another second-place finish. And one step closer to the finale. At this point, I'm invested. Very invested. Possibly unreasonably invested.
But they're Régnier boys from Manitoba. What else am I supposed to do?
See you next week, cousins.
No pressure.
Okay, that's a lie.
There is now considerable pressure.
Enjoy our other Cousin Watch blog posts
Cousin Watch: Good-bye to the Sisters