Brendon and Rachel are an emotionally volatile couple, and they've already scored a reality TV victory when Rachel won the most recent interation of "Big Brother." So it's no big surprise that they're the target of some negativity from the other teams on "The Amazing Race" (Sun., 8 p.m. EST on CBS).

Rachel has proven she can get emotionally rattled, which affects her focus and her gameplay. But when Rachel is focused, she's a true force to be reckoned with.

Vanessa succeeded in rattling Rachel and Brendon so much during the pumpkin stacking competition on "The Race" that they switched to the other task. But in the cool and air-conditioned room where the harp stringing competition was held, Rachel was able to relax and really get into the groove. She and Brendon tore through that challenge on their way to a solid second place finish in the leg.

They got a little help in that regard from Dave dropping all of his bottles in the second challenge, incurring a two-hour penalty. Meanwhile, Vanessa and her partner Ralph struggled so much with the pumpkin stacking challenge that they were there late into the night. Lucky for them, the twins Elliot and Andrew were fumbling with the harp strings.

The two teams came together at the bottle balancing challenge, and it was a race to the finish to avoid elimination. For all her Rachel taunting in the competition, Vanessa barely stayed alive, coming in just ahead of the twins, who found themselves eliminated. As for Rachel and bottle-dropping Dave? They had to watch four teams come in before them, including two who only seconds to spare. So they came in sixth, but mere moments behind the fourth and fifth place team going into the next leg.

As soapy shows go, "GCB" is very much in the vein of "Desperate Housewives" or "Dallas," only perhaps with an even meaner streak. It's a story of tables turning, as former high school mean girl Amanda Vaughn (Leslie Bibb) moves back to Dallas after her marriage comes to a very scandalous and tragic end. Once home, she finds that the girls she ruthlessly taunted back in high school have risen to society leadership positions, much of it centered around the church and Carlene Cockburn (Kristin Chenoweth).

In fact, it's pretty clearly established in the premiere that this will be a series about the battle between Amanda and Carlene, who refuses to accept the possibility that her former tormentor has changed. For now, Carlene clearly has the upper hand and influence. She manages to keep Amanda from landing a real job by calling in favors with her friends, forcing Amanda to take a job at a bar called Boobylicious.

When a photo of Amanda on the job and in uniform begins to make the rounds, she taunts her former rival relentlessly, calling it sinful and un-Christian. But when Amanda finds out that Boobylicious is ultimately owned by Carlene and her husband's corporation, Amanda lets Carlene have it in the sweetest way possible. She thanks her publicly in prayer at church for her job, outing Carlene as the owner of Boobylicious in the process. It's open season!

While HuffPost TV Critic Maureen Ryan thought the show's general premise of a former mean girl trying to rebuild her life surrounded by the very girls she'd tormented was a great breeding ground for comedy and drama, she was disappointed to find little more than "screechy Texas stereotypes" in a "cartoonish, silly soap."