Another week, another “Amazing Race” team done in by a problematic cab ride in a foreign country.
Last week, it was Amy & Dan doomed by their driver’s failure to find the proper Detour location, dropping them from second place to last on a lengthy misadventures.
On Sunday’s (October 14) episode, it was Caitlin & Brittany whose pedicab wrong-turns led them into last and then briefly into next-to-last and then finally to elimination after going the wrong way at a fork in the road.
In this week’s “Amazing Race” exit interview, the two blonde friends discuss their cab problems, as well as their lack of screentime in early episodes. In addition, Brittany offers her opinion on the way her frustration was portrayed in the episode.
Click through for the full interview…
HitFix: We’ve had two straight weeks where the eliminated team went home as a result of a bad cab ride. Does that seem like a problem with the game to you or just part of the game?
Caitlin King: Well, for us, we knew that there were gonna be a lot of outside factors that would effect the Race. You just never know what’s going to happen in your case. For us, it was a little bit of a shock, just not really expecting it, but then again, we knew that there were going to be things like transportation and language barriers that we were gonna come in contact with and, obviously, it did prove to be a big part of our elimination, so yeah.
Brittany Fletcher: Just watching previous seasons, it’s one of those things where you’ve seen where it’s effected teams before in their getting eliminated. We had no idea how Amy & Daniel had gotten eliminated going into the third Leg, so now looking back on it and having spoken with them after we got eliminated, it was one of those things where it was unbelievable to have had two of the best teams, we felt like, in the Race itself get eliminated.
HitFix: Brittany, you mentioned there that you don’t necessarily know everything that’s happening in the Race around you at all times. Watching this episode on Sunday, how much did you actually learn about what happened with you guys and with Gary & Will at the end of the Leg?
Brittany: Basically, it’s funny how you watch things on TV and obviously the editing. What happened was we finished first the Detour and had went to the Pit Stop. Our driver had taken us on a different route and actually didn’t take us by the U-Turn and that’s why we missed the U-Turn mat. He took us straight to the Pit Stop, because on the clue it said what was at the end of it, so he thought he was doing us a favor by taking us to the Pit Stop to finish and we got there and we were like, “Oh no!” That’s why we went all the way back to the place where we actually did the Detour, but they made it seem on TV like we were one of the last teams to finish, we were with Will & Gary kinda the whole way, which wasn’t kinda obviously how it happened. If we would have just stopped at the U-Turn mat, if our driver would have taken us down the correct route, we would have finished sixth in the third Leg. So that’s really frustrating to watch to see America not really see the whole side of what really happened was hard for us to kinda watch.
HitFix: Tell me about the roller-coaster of catching up to Gary & Will and passing them and going the wrong way at that fork in the road. Was it as dramatic as what we saw?
Caitlin: Yeah. For us, yes it was that dramatic. Everything you saw with us going left at the fork in the road and then Gary & Will going right, we kinda knew… We thought we had it when we had passed them up and then all of a sudden our driver went left and Gary & Will went right and we kinda knew at that point that we didn’t really have a chance of catching up with them, so it was really disappointing, but there’s not much you can do.
Brittany: The frustrating thing for Caitlin and I most is that our driver, who actually went left, was the driver who had just taken us to the Pit Stop the first time. So that was even more frustrating for us, because we’re like, “How the heck do you go left when you knew to go right because you had JUST taken us there 35 or 40 minutes prior to that?” So that’s what was really frustrating.
HitFix: I know we saw you change drivers at least once, but was that the explanation for why you guys hadn’t changed drivers after that confusion? Because you felt confident that this guy at least knew how to get you to the Pit Stop?
Brittany: It’s one of those things where it’s hard because you know that nobody really speaks English, so you’re trying to communicate and you’re relying on these drivers and so we had switched drivers because that driver we had seen previously with our crew, or whatever, who had been with us before, so we figured maybe he kinda knew where the heck to go. So it was one of those things that we knew our driver wasn’t doing anything, so we switched and then he actually got us lost and then we ended up getting back with the driver, when leaving the U-Turn, it was the guy who had taken us to the Pit Stop at the beginning, so we figured, “OK. This guy knows where he’s going. Why not rely on this guy?” It’s better knowing that that’s where we needed to go, we thought the guy knew. But the fact is that I guess he didn’t have a clue.
HitFix: We saw on Sunday a lot of frustration, particularly from you, Brittany. Watching the episode back, did you feel any sort of regret about the way you were expressing any of that?
Brittany: I think it’s one of those things that, of course, I probably came across a little bit mad, hatred, feisty. But I think it’s one of those things where you’re in the heat of the moment and you’ve been racing for six or seven hours straight where nobody really knows… So that side of it, from America’s standpoint, they see all that condensed into an hour an a show. I mean, even the line that I think I said that, um, “The drivers don’t speak English.” What I had really said was, “It’s so hard to communicate with these drivers. I can’t believe these drivers don’t speak any English.” So if that’s edited out the first part, that obviously would have made it seem a little bit better when I did say certain things, but you know… No, I don’t regret any of it, because it all happened and that’s what went on. At the time, I just wish people would be a little bit more understanding of what we were actually experiencing… We weren’t disrespectful in any way. We were blessed to be a part of the journey.
HitFix: The way we saw it, it looked as if Brittany was the one who was frustrated and Caitlin was cooler-headed. Is that sort of the dynamic between the two of you? Is that the way things go in general?
Caitlin: We’re both very competitive and at that time, I kinda knew I was just letting Brittany do the talking and the negotiating, because it was hard enough to have one of us talking and trying to communicating with our driver. So I kinda just let her take the lead there. Our personalities, yeah we’ve always known that Brittany’s more outspoken than I am and that was part of our dynamic that worked for us, so yeah, I kinda in those situations would let her take the reins and deal with that.
HitFix: In the first couple episodes, we saw very little of the two of you, really. Were you guys surprised when you watched and saw how light on the two of you the first two episodes were?
Caitlin: I think we were kinda expecting that. We knew that some of the teams, some of their backgrounds and stories, we knew were going to get a lot of media attention. So, for us, we didn’t care. We were just happy that we got to be a part of it. Having the airtime and all of that is just a plus, but honestly, it was kinda cool just to see other teams getting a lot of airtime. So no, it didn’t bother us at all.
Brittany: Like I said, we were just blessed to be part of the experience. We wish America would have gotten to see, I guess, more of us and the people that we are. I think that they saw a side of us on last night’s episode where we came across just as bad attitudes and as a disrespectful team, which is not like us at all. If they would have really seen us race in the previous two episodes, I think they would have really gotten to know us. So from that standpoint, yeah, I wish we had probably gotten a little bit more airtime in the past two episodes so that America could have seen us as both hard players and we were just in a competitive atmosphere and that’s what caused us to just get a little bit angry.
HitFix: Because we didn’t see that much of you guys as individuals or as a team, tell me a little bit about what you expected your strengths and weaknesses to be coming into the Race… What did you expect to have either help you or hurt you?
Brittany: I think one of the things is we’re just happy that America didn’t see us as being two blondes. We’re very athletic. We come from a sports background, so we wanted them to see that side of us. Obviously, with the amount that we were angry or feisty, what they saw last night, I feel like they showed that we’re both so competitive and that we just hate losing. Like I said, I would love to have to seen or taken something away from it being more not so feisty, I guess, and more two blondes who are actually competitive and we get down to business and we really were ahead of some other team. So I don’t know… It’s one of those things of being in three episodes, is it’s hard to get a definite I guess you could say “image” for people to really see who we are. But we have some great fans who really supported us and had our backs.
Caitlin: It’s kinda hard, because we know each other so well and our close friends know us so well, so it’s hard to really see how other people see us that don’t know us, from the show. But for me, I think we had a really good balance of competitiveness, but we also had a lot of fun with it and we made a lot of great friends on the show. I guess if maybe they showed that a little bit more, I guess that kinda would have helped a little bit. But it is what it is.
HitFix: So then for both of you, give me a favorite moment from the Race experience that we didn’t see on TV…
Caitlin: I would say it’s times when we’re sitting around at the airport. Obviously we’re with other teams, but that’s not gonna get airtime, because it’s just us sitting around, but for us, that’s one of the best times was getting the chance to just talk with other teams and laugh and just have a good time and take the edge off the actual competition of what the Race really is. For me, I think that was one of the best parts.
Brittany: We clicked right off the back with the Chippendales and we actually left at the start of the Race, when we left LA, with them. We were just riding with them and we kinda a dual team, like together, the whole way through the airport and through the rest of that Leg and then we kinda got separated. But it was one of those things where they really didn’t show us bonding with them. And we got along great with the Twins. We wish they would have shown us speaking with the Twins in last night’s episode, because we really had a close friendship with them and they’re great girls.