The incredibly silly mind games of Kynt & Vyxsin were no more better on display than on this sweeping and frantic Amazing Race episode through the barrens of India.

By David W. Taylor (Email The Author)
Reality Reel Media
01.03.08

I have no qualms with "goth" youth, per se, having myself listened joyfully and intently to much of the music — The Cure, Siouxsie and The Banshees, etc — that gave this tiny movement its core motivations. I even enjoyed such "dark" and, some say, "gothic" works as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride.

Yet to get sucked into such a subculture to such a level that one dyes their hair pink or wears pasty make-up and heavy eye shadow on a daily basis (on a grueling Race!, no less) to remind oneself of one's psychological commitment to one's niche tribal associations is certainly a pell-mell dive into abject silliness.

Case in point: despite the utterly anti-social nature of their morgue-like adornments and saying blithely that "...usually, of course, the dark is Kynt and my favorite place in which to dwell," with a knowing smirk; and even most recently blabbing that the tinting of their dingy taxi cab spewing through Mumbai reminded them of being, "Very cozy. It's like being in a coffin." Well, of course, it's really just a big lark. A provocative head-trip dipped in pseudo danger to give oneself a feeling of royal goodness.

After all, their personal commitments to "darkness" is nothing more than dress-up and role-playing. I'm sure we'll never find Kynt nor Vyxsin rummaging through real graveyards and digging up rotting corpses so they could spend a fortnight in a foul coffin. No, Vyxsin actually admits to skills in Macrame and she almost leapt into tears when she received a Blackberry missive from her dear mother. Kynt, on the other hand, at one point, reassured Vyxsin that he was "praying to God" during an especially stressful moment.

Kynt, after getting eliminated, said, "As exotic as we may look on the surface...We're just a couple of goth kids from Louisville, Kentuckey..." He said this with such a sunny wave of the hand you would have thought he was talking about two Sunday School brats from a Shaker community. So, then, guys, what's the point? Is it about Darkness or Neediness? Alas, I'll leave that up to you dear readers, and Kynt & Vyxsin, or whatever.

One can agree, however, that Kynt blew it big time in India. Goth or no goth, he blew it.

Kynt thought through things way too much. Gut instincts should have taken over from his illustrious prophetic brain power. The "U-Turn" decision was such an obvious one it is almost eerie that Kynt made the unobvious choice.

With teams all clotted together in Mumbai in front of Mr. Naik's newspaper shack; and with Kynt & Vyxsin having to then complete a "Speed Bump" Yoga stretching regime before enduring the Detours, it would have to be assumed that, at that point, every team had the potential to be out ahead of them. The Speed Bump, after all, was an exercise in keeping Kynt & Vyxsin in last place. It was so bloody obvious.