The Amazing Race Recap
By Daron Aldridge
October 10, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
You can argue that a lesser team (cough *grandparents Bill & Cathi* cough) should be gone instead and I would agree because I really wanted Team Survivor to…well…survive. So, my acceptance of the first leg’s non-elimination has waned considerably. But I digress.
In addition to last week’s double elimination, I believe it also set a record for number of teams that had to repeat a task; thus, throwing the balance of the teams’ rankings way off. Unsurprisingly, a left-field additional clue at the orphanage was picked up on by only three of the eleven teams. It was a sneaky move that apparently required Shawn Spencer-like observational skills.
(Programming note: If you are a fan of delicious flavor, you probably know the new season of Psych starts this Wednesday on USA Network at 10 EST/9 CST. If you are not, get up, set your DVR and enjoy the pop culture-rich madness.)
As a result of the contagious illiteracy error, I don’t exactly know where to take my power rankings. It might as well be divided into two groups:
Readers: Team Dude Andy & Tommy, boating father and son Laurence & Zac and showgirls Kaylani & Lisa. They all succeeded where several failed and were rewarded with first, second and third places, respectively.
Non-readers: Engaged Ernie & Cindy, twins (and other half of the Bimbo Brigade) Liz & Marie, Team Test Drive Jeremy & Sandy, Bill & Cathi (aka Ma & Pa) , hateful siblings Justin & Jennifer and married Amani & Marcus. None of them stood out and I fear that despite a strong performance up until the orphanage, Cindy will derail herself and start doubting their decisions. Exhibit A in the case to prove “You are your own worst critic/enemy.”
Maybe this week, the teams will give me something to assess their racing against and not just a massive clumping. That said I feel confident that many of the non-readers will continue their rushed ways to their own detriment. Onward and upward to the third leg.
After a Phil Keoghan geography lesson about Indonesia, from which we learn the nation is made of over 17,000 islands, the teams revisit the scene of the botched check-ins. Olympic snowboarders Andy & Tommy leave the gold medal podium in first place at 7:38 a.m. The task of this leg has the teams participate in a Dutch Colonial bike ride through the streets of Yogyakarta and apparently these re-enactors aren’t known for their speed.
Team Dude continues to be high on life with both guys infusing some tricks into their colonial bike ride. A few wheelies and a masterfully executed "surf the bike" move later, Andy & Tommy remain at the top of my favorite teams this season. About 20 minutes into their ride, Team Regatta Laurence & Zac leave the Pitstop.
The father/son team explains that they believe what I suspected. They both feel that their boating experience together, which required significant teamwork, will be a huge asset for them. Speaking of huge assets, buxom brunette showgirls Kaylani & Lisa are the next on deck at the pitstop only about five minutes after our sailing team.
If they repeat their performance from the second leg this time, I will feel obligated to renounce my initial assumptions about their intellect. They are still members of the Bimbo Brigade but maybe they were the ones to recognize that the alliance from the first leg with twins Liz & Marie was not a good idea. Admittedly, I am a sucker for the single mom “Here’s a picture of my kid. S/he is my whole motivation,” move and I’m not ashamed. So, Kaylani took another step toward me not being so harsh. Don’t make me regret it unless such an error gets you eliminated, and then I’m ok with it.
The most substantial pre-leg interview insight comes to us from Ernie and his soon-to-be boss…er…wife Cindy. They gave us a sugar-coated cutesy glimpse into her control freakiness earlier but here we get curtain pulled back to see the wizard in full view. For the last several months, they studied geography, took intensive language courses, and even started a packing list three months prior to the race. Ernie nervously laughs when he says, “My life has basically been on her schedule for six months.” Oh, buddy, it sounds like you already know that six months is just the beginning with Cindy.
The middle of the pack clearly offers nothing notable because their interviews are edited out and we only see a succession of teams leaving for their bike ride. The final pearls of wisdom and inspiration are the sure-to-be-broken promise that the siblings Justin & Jennifer will focus on the positive from now on and the anecdote of former NFL player Marcus saying he’s been in games where they have overcome a three touchdown deficit in that final minutes of the game. I take this to mean that the brother and sister will continue to embarrass their parents and Amani & Marcus will channel his sports background into smart racing. (Full disclosure: Amani & Marcus are my second favorite team. Go (former) Colt.)
Team Dude cruises to the end of the Colonial bike ride and gets their clue pointing them to a restaurant in the Salakmalang Village via taxi. Laurence & Zac are relatively close behind.
If you have to pick a team with the greatest potential for drama if something were to go wrong on this task, which would it be? Of course, you would pick Team Control Freakiness. What unfortunate fluke befell them? A broken bike pedal for Ernie. After failing with an actual tool, another rider in their group turns to twine as the solution. The succession of teams that left after them blows right by one-by-one and you can see the water boiling to the surface for Cindy as an odd misfortune puts them in second to last place. With a furrowed brow and obvious exasperation, we cut to commercial.
The aforementioned parade of teams all reach their next clue sending them to the village, with the Indonesian MacGyver’s twine fix being enough to keep Ernie & Cindy out of last place for now but Amani & Marcus don’t intend to stay in last. The Amazing Race this leg is shaping up to be exactly that - a good ol’ fashioned race to avoid elimination.
As they should be, Andy & Tommy arrive at village restaurant first for their Detour. Here’s what’s on the Detour menu: Rice Field or Grass Fed. Rice Field has team take lunch to field workers. While the workers eat, the teams have to plant 300 rice plants in a field. A very, very muddy field. Grass Fed requires teams to fill two large bags with grass, take the bags and lead two sheep to a spot and then fill a trough with six buckets of waters from a well. I wonder if Team Dude will be choosing "Grass" Fed. They don’t let me down and book it for the Grass Fed challenge.
In all their haste to maintain the lead, the fellas don’t fill their bags with enough grass (probably a first for them) and have to head back to the field to top them off. About this time Laurence & Zac are heading to the Grass Fed challenge as well.
Since there is no way we can make it through an episode without some incompetent cabbie being a factor, this week Amani & Marcus might as well come to a screeching halt because of their lost driver.
With a course correction behind them, Team Dude is working on their trough-filling ability two buckets at a time as instructed. Laurence & Zac join up with them and encourage them to get going faster because others aren’t far behind them. Laurence dashes off for more buckets, which is in violation to the clue that says to only use two buckets at a time. Tommy points it out to Zac that they need to read their clue but it doesn’t seem to register to him. I guess I should transfer Laurence & Zac to the “non-readers”column because they may be penalized for this oversight.
Team Dude stays in first and follows their next clue to Borobudur Temple. Team Regatta isn’t far behind and judging by the fact that the local at the Detour didn’t balk at their bucket brigade, I foresee a Phil-levied time penalty for them.
Just then, the most chaotic gathering of teams since the starting line occurs with six teams hitting the Detour at once: dating Jeremy & Sandy, siblings Justin & Jennifer, Ma & Pa, and engaged Ernie & Cindy who all go for Grass Fed; and the Bimbo Brigade is reunited for the Rice Field challenge. Amani & Marcus are the lone MIA team.
With as many times as Cathi fell and said “I’m okay,” you’d think she was trying out for a remake of The Dick Van Dyke Show. All that was missing was an ottoman, which would look silly out in an Indonesian field.
Meanwhile at the front of the pack, Andy & Tommy and Laurence & Zac have arrived at the temple, which is the scene of the Roadblock (and it’s a doozy). The person has to walk in a clockwise direction around the temple and count the number of Buddhas. Oh yeah, there are four different types of statues; each with a distinct hand position. The person also has to demonstrate the hand position when relaying their tally. This is not an envious task at all. Laurence and Tommy step up for their teams and immediately decide to work together.
This could be a wise strategy, especially for Team Dude, because if they keep together with them, they will be ahead by virtue of the presumed penalty on dad/son.
Surprisingly, the Rice Field Detour is made short work of by the blondes and brunettes. As they go to the temple, a justifiably frustrated Amani & Marcus arrive at the Detour and choose Grass Fed. The frustration adds to their rushing and they fail to completely fill their bags of grass. They weren’t too far behind the others as Bill & Cathi were still on the water portion of the Detour. But for some reason, they decide to switch to the Rice Field. Foolish move. I believe if they had slowed down a bit, they would’ve recognized that it’s not a major setback to refill the bag. Andy & Tommy did it with little issue. It was more of a hassle and a deal-breaker.
While they switch gears, all the other teams are done and in a taxi.
As expected, Laurence and Tommy have to redo the Roadblock because their counts are correct but they didn’t note which number went with which hand position. From the sideline, Zac gives dad an encouraging “Take your time, dad. You got this.” To which Andy jokingly responds, “’Take your time?’ What are you guys doing here?” I love those guys.
Bimbo Brigade invades the Buddhist Temple and is in awe of it. Showgirl Lisa ponders where they are and astutely concludes, “This temple looks like it’s been here a really long time.” Wow, such insight and well-thought out commentary. I bet we see her hosting her own travel show when this is over. Not sure it’s a good thing that she chooses to do the Roadblock for the showgirls and she’s joined by Marie (I think) from the twin team.
With supposedly only a kilometer to go, Jeremy & Sandy’s taxi breaks down. So, they just hoof it to the temple. As for the other teams that have arrived at the Roadblock, Ernie, Justin and Pa Bill are on the path to enlightenment via counting Buddhas.
Judging by the wrong guess blooper reel where the new batch of Roadblockers say anything from 69 to nearly 400, this Roadblock may be the perfect task to allow Amani & Marcus to catch up.
Laurence and Tommy finally get back to the judge. They have kept their heads on this task and it pays off. They correctly get the hand positions and counts and are now on the hunt for the Pitstop on the temple grounds. Incidentally, Marie from the twins got the correct total with 69 but didn’t break it down. The others are still just counting wildly.
In a brilliant but unsuccessful assist, Andy & Tommy run into Amani & Marcus at the entrance and try to give them the answer. The exhaustion of the Detour and a day of racing make it all for nothing as they can’t remember what he said. Tommy seems to question why Andy did it but agrees that if they can help decide who will remain in the race with them, they will. Amani & Marcus are on their list of those they want hanging around.
Laurence & Zac stroll up to the Pitstop and their celebration is cut short by Phil’s reality check that the bucket issue at the Detour has earned them a 15-minute penalty. Like a good man, Laurence owns up to the mistake. This is all it takes for Team Dude to swoop in and take consecutive first place finishes. Along with first place, the guys win a trip to Dubai (from Travelocity, of course) but they feel a bit wrong about it because Laurence did the heavy lifting on the Roadblock. Phil suggests they can still gift it to them. Also, like a good man, Andy retorts, “But then we have to answer to our wives.”
Of the remaining teams at the Roadblock, Marie gathers up Ernie, Jeremy and Justin to discuss, knowing that Pa, Lisa and Marcus would still be behind them. The lightbulb goes on for Ernie as he reads the clue more carefully. They are on the right path. Marcus, on the other hand, is really kicking himself for not paying closer attention to Tommy earlier.
As the elderly loner, Bill didn’t receive help from others. He has all the elements of the task figured out and puts him and Cathi en route to the Pitstop. Unfortunately, EVERY team has now got the correct answer and like dominoes they begin falling away about the temple. There are two big wrinkles now: settling up with taxis and finding Phil.
The only two teams that don’t have taxis to pay are Amani & Marcus, who happily paid theirs to leave, and Jeremy & Sandy, whose broke down. The others are inadvertently saddled with this additional task. For once, car trouble pays off and Jeremy & Sandy are team number three.
With their cabs paid, siblings Justin & Jennifer are number four and Ernie & Cindy are number five. While the other teams are trying to find their cabs and cabbies, Amani & Marcus, who have been securely in last place all day, officially improve three spots to number six. Number seven goes to Bill & Cathi, who continue to defy the odds and cling to life in the race.
Unless Phil springs another non-elimination on us, which would be ridiculous, the Bimbo Brigade is about to lose half its membership. The twins are frantically searching for their cabbie to pay him and the showgirls appear to be lost. The lucky team number eight spot goes to…twins Liz & Marie. And with that, the showgirls Kaylani & Lisa are gone from the Amazing Race. I feel somewhat vindicated on my initial picks but the showgirls revealed more glimpses of decent racing than I pegged them for.
Next week, it looks like a Thai…as in Thailand. I will leave you with that bad joke. have a good week.