This episode was great, friendships were tested, bonds were formed, and enemy lines were drawn.
The Double U-Turn: Brendon & Rachel did have a broken logic as they discussed about targeting Dave & Connor or Jet & Cord. However, they made the bold choice of U-Turning the father & son just to get first place. It shows that they are playing to get firsts on every leg, and not just to survive. It's good that the competitiveness shift started, but you never want to be the first team to shift in a season were teams are friendly to each other.
Dave & Connor arrived at the board and U-Turned Leo & Jamal, which is a great move so they could gain time on a team far behind them, which they thought too. But upon seeing the Afghanimals, they immediately what? Felt guilty? Be friends or be cutthroat, but you can't be both
at the same time! Good thing, that things turned out fine since the Globetrotters were far behind.
Speaking of the Afghanimals, they do seem to have a death touch on teams they help. Natalie & Nadiya and Mark & Mallory on the first two legs, then John & Jessica and Flight Time & Big Easy on the latest two legs.
As for Dave & Connor, they have a right to be frustrated and angry at being U-Turned, but Dave could hold a grudge like nobody's business.
I guess they expected to be U-turned if one comes up, but not in the context and situation that happened last leg. And now, with Caroline & Jennifer being close friends of them and the Afghanimals as new friends, they're making this silly alliance that would only doom the three of them. They're trying to make Brendon & Rachel the villain out of all of this, but they're only making themselves look the fools, which is sad because I liked Dave & Connor for the Final 3 (even as the winners), but now...
We'll just see how this unfolds the next episode.
On other notes, I'm glad that Flight Time & Big Easy were finally eliminated. They got one last hurrah at information leeching at the Spanish Steps (which eliminated the far more likeable Jessica & John
), but after getting lost so much, they didn't catch up with teams that could or would help (or cheat off of) them and got stuck at another puzzle.
Honestly, after recently rewatching the original All Stars (the TRUE All Stars season), I prefer the behavior of the teams in S11 than today. I don't know if it's the HD or music or what, but something (something BIG) is just off.