It was a long divisive war in Southeast Asia that tore apart America half a century ago.
But you can now officially declare that either its wounds have completely healed or the war has been forgotten altogether after Sunday’s episode of “The Amazing Race.”
There, on that most American of nights, when the brackets for the NCAA basketball tournament had been announced and ready for betting, a troupe of Hanoi youth with red flags featuring the hammer and sickle, beneath a portrait of Ho Chi Minh on prime time network television, sang “Vietnam Communist party is glorious! Socialism is growing more beautiful in time!”
Players had to memorize a similarly patriotic phrase at the end of the cheesy song to match with a poster in the other room. But what may have been striking was that none of the teams spoke of Vietnam as if it were ever a place of contention. Someone did say “it looks like Beverly Hills” as they drove among the new buildings of Hanoi. “I thought I’d be in the jungle.”
But nobody said a peep even when one of the last stops was near the B-52 Memorial – a park made out of a shot down American plane.
Maybe there is little time to make note of such things: A million dollars was on the line!
As play started, Dave and Connor were still ahead, having won two legs through use of an express pass that kept them ahead. But Dave’s injury was catching up with him – doctors told him he would have to get surgery on his achilles tendon within seven days. So once they got to Vietnam they were going to officially drop out and seek medical care (like Beverly Hills, Hanoi must have fine health services).
It was a teary scene of farewell from father and son cancer survivors, who had done better lame than other teams had done able bodied.
And the remaining racers kept their eye on the prize. Pam and Winnie broke from the pack to run ahead for the first time and finish first. They had a good eye for detail at the Vietnam patriotic phrase and just kept going.
Those who were living by alliances this season were also realizing they could die from them. As everyone figured out it was the overconfident John and Jessica who were eliminated last week — the first team in “Amazing Race” history to go without having used their express pass — the teams allied with them started to feel vulnerable. And the mullet-wearing Chuck and Wynona, with no alliances, seemed to be just twisting in the wind, finishing last for a second time and also being saved from elimination for a second time (it was a non-elimination stop the first time; they counted Dave and Connor’s dropping out as the eliminated team this time).
Anything to save the Southerners. Though they hardly deserved it. Chuck had refused to listen to Wynona insisting that a market place they had to shop was right near the clue box. He insisted on running all over town with his baskets and asking strangers what she knew all along. Earlier, they had the hardest time doing the easiest task: the bamboo dance; because they didn’t hold hands as they were shown, they had to go back multiple times.
Ultimately, they never had a chance to catch-up because they were U-turned by Joey and Meghan. They U-turned them because they felt they had no other choice, but they still felt awfully bad about being U-turned themselves by the leading Pam and Winnie. “No more Mr. and Mrs. Nice Guy,” Meghan assured the camera. She showed a mean face, and Joey showed a petulant one.
Each of the U-turned teams had to complete both tasks on the detour: getting the ingredients for a soup and cooking it (but not eating it), and reproducing a chess board moves using humans – a task country singers Caroline and Jennifer didn’t get at all, showing them to be vulnerable in coming weeks. The brother hockey players, though, Bates and Anthony showed how resilient they were by finishing fourth after last week’s seventh.
Next up is Botswana, where finishing last a third time may not be the charm for Chuck and Wynona.