The Amazing Race 24: All-Stars - Episode 6
The Amazing Race 24: All-Stars - Episode 6
By Daron Aldridge
March 31, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
With the next leg appearing to remain in Sri Lanka, this leg should at least, have some actual racing to avoid last place.
First, here are the power rankings for this week:
David & Connor: Father/Son (Team Murphy's Law).
Jet & Cord: Cowboys/The Lone Rangers.
Flight Time & Big Easy: Globetrotters.
Leo & Jamal: Afghanimals.
Brendon & Rachel: Big Brother (Team Fetch).
Jennifer & Caroline: Country singers.
John & Jessica: Newly engaged couple.
The Colombo Rowing Club is the scene of departure in the middle of the night and David & Connor leave first. The teams will be heading to the Dutch Museum and get their clue in the headstone room. Since it’s the middle of the night, I smell a clumping of teams coming.
Proud papa David gushes about how he believes that Connor is the strongest physical competitor in the Race. While he demurely says his dad is biased, I have no familial allegiance to Connor and wouldn't really debate against daddy's assessment. Connor may not be not the strongest, but he’s definitely in the top three.
Behind them and higher than ever before are Jennifer & Caroline. The singers ran a smooth leg last time and it turned out well for them. But like I surmised in my rankings, they just aren't consistent enough to keep logging front of the pack finishes.
Next out are the cowboys and the Afghanimals, who are particularly interested in getting in front of Team Murphy’s Law and the brothers. They rationalize that they are the also one of the stronger teams this season and I don’t really want to admit it, but the cousins seem to be correct. Third best, though, just to be clear. But like last season, Leo & Jamal appear to be more focused on beating those top two teams on the legs and getting first and not playing the long-game.
Before the others even leave the mat, the reality of the clumping sets in as David & Connor see that the museum doesn’t open until 5:30 a.m. Pull up some pavement, fellows, you got a few hours to waste… er… I mean wait.
We are spared any socializing between teams in this down time and fast forward to dawn. The doors open and the teams flood the museum like the CGI waters in a Darren Aronofsky biblical film. Scrambling and falling all the way, every team has their clue and is now heading to the railway station to catch a train to the town of Alawwa. In the span of five minutes, we have our second instance of “rush, rush, rush… and never mind, we’re all together again.”
As the teams soak in the Sri Lankan landscape on their train ride, you get the feeling that this really is the calm before the storm and this leg is teed up to be a close from start to finish. As they pull into the Alawwa station, the teams jump off like bandits in an old west film and sprint to the Ceypetco Fuel Station. At the station, they find the Roadblock.
This week, the Roadblock has teams selecting a specific colored card that corresponds to the same card on the window of the dozens of tuk-tuks (three-wheeled cabs) lining the street near the gas station. The person has to guide four of their tuk-tuks to the station and put three liters of gas in it before they get their clue. Oh yeah, there are only two gas pumps available.
Team Fetch sends Rachel into the Roadblock fire and she happily picks the color green. With reckless abandon (and blatant disregard for clue-reading), she starts herding all green cabs to the pumps for fueling. She ignores the color card on the windshields, so we know she muffed this task already.
The others for the Roadblock are John, Cord, Big Easy, daddy David, Jennifer and Jamal. There are many approaches to completing this task, all of which seem to include yelling at cabbies.
David has decided to employ the method of getting all four of his tuk-tuks at once and then lining them up for the pump. Rachel continues with directing all the green ones to the pump and thinks she is making significant headway on the task. She has the assertiveness needed to control the lines but no clear grasp of the basics of the task.
On the more strategic front, Cord notices that no one is really using the other side of the pumps; so he directs his tuk-tuks to loop around. This, of course, illicits a snarky “the cowboys don’t need to wait in lines” from Leo but Jet stands there not accepting the bait to argue with him. The brothers have mastered the art of not letting the other teams impact their game.
My favorite of all the approaches to this task: Big Easy. At 6’9”, Big Easy literally was pushing tuk-tuks out of the way that were trying to nudge their way in front of his cabs in line.
If CBS had secured the rights to the song, this task would’ve been ideal to be accompanied by Muse’s “Madness.” Now that I think about it, they may have already done that for March Madness. How no one sustained an injury during this task with all pushing and shoving and near collision with vehicles and people, I will never know - especially with injury-prone David in the mix. Maybe they have finally shaken off the curse of Murphy’s Law (but I will continue to label as such.)
Since she wasn’t really doing the task right, Rachel gets four gassed up first but doesn’t get the actual clue or even a clue as to what she did wrong. So, what’s the best solution? Do the same wrong thing all over again?!? She continues down this crazy path again until stopped by John. The blond bonehead didn’t do this out of a desire to help but rather because Rachel was trying to steal one of his tuk-tuks to get filled.
The light bulb moment comes a little late for Rachel as she has zero correctly complete, while the others have at least two or three.
As the teams start to finish the task one-by-one, the relevance of the order is once again thrown out the window as the teams are pointed to take another train, this time to the town of Rambukkana. And here we are with all teams aboard, except for Team Fetch. The upside of being the last one at the Roadblock, in this instance, is that Rachel no longer has to strong arm her cabs into line for the pump. There is no line and also, the producers don’t have to worry about a repeat of last week’s transportation delay, as Brendon & Rachel make it to the station before the train leaves.
They commiserate in a car by themselves as Rachel briefly beats herself up for the error. But this relationship shows signs that it is stronger than we doubters thought as Brendon explains that it was a mistake but it’s time to brush it off, so they refocus on the next task.
In what is essentially a redux of the last train station arrival, the teams pour out of the cars and book it for the waiting tuk-tuks. Complete with near-misses and ever-changing spots in front on the way to the Millennium Elephant Foundation, the teams are putting their lives in the hands of the most aggressive cabbies the Race has seen. Surprisingly in the face of all the teams being within ear shot of each other, the racers enjoy the fun of the racing tuk-tuks.
At the location, they are presented with the next clue, which is the leg’s Detour: Trunk or Sheets. For Trunk, the teams have to properly chain up a marked log, which will then be carried by an elephant to a truck. While the elephant carries a log, the teams have to also carry a log each until the racers have moved six logs total. The catch is that there are only four chains available. That means the teams getting there last will be faced with Sheets. For Sheets, they have to fill a wheelbarrow full of elephant dung and push it over to a spot to make paper. Then, mixing the dung with scraps of used paper and water, they will make a pulp. The pulp is then spread out on a screen, pressed and inspected. Finally, they have to lay out completed sheets in the sun to dry.
The first four teams all choose Trunk and claim the available chains. These teams are the cowboys, Afghanimals, Team Murphy’s Law and John & Jessica. The singers attempt to go to Trunk but have to redirect to the dung heap.
Jet explains that the chaining up for the log is pretty similar to the kind of work he and Cord are used to back home, so they don’t have any issue. Leo & Jamal also don’t experience any hiccups on this front. The same can’t be said for the other two. This may the first time, we’ve seen David & Connor somewhat struggle with a task as they have to redo their chain a couple times before getting it right for the first load. The same issue befalls John & Jessica.
During the Trunk task, the cousins seem unhealthily fixated on beating Jet & Cord. I understand the desire for first but the “beat them THIS leg” mentality is foolish. The brothers and cousins are neck-and-neck as they start following their elephant for the first load.
Over at Sheets, I’m impressed with the gusto with which these teams thrust their hand into elephant dung. There is not hesitancy by anyone, even Rachel, who I would’ve pegged as the one most likely to complain about it. The mixing of paper pulp is under way and it appears that all the teams, regardless of the task, are staying tight.
Well, that is until, the pulp needs to be spread on the screen. It doesn’t matter if you are a big basketball player, a country singer or a professional reality show contestant; this is your stumbling point. None of them can seem to get it right.
This delay is enough to give the Trunk teams a lead. And there is a clear separation between these four teams as well because the chain-challenged David & Connor and John & Jessica encounter the same problem with the prepping the elephant’s log each time. That means that the cowboys and cousins are the first two out of the Detour and heading to the Ambepussa Rest House, where they have to let their ears guide them to the clue.
Now in the somewhat safer regular-sized cab, both teams are racing through the streets of Rambukkana.
Flight Time & Big Easy are the first to figure out they are overlooking the crucial “pressing the pulp” step of the process. Once they do, they begin to get a bit of a lead on the other two but only a bit, since Jennifer & Caroline and Brendon & Rachel see the error of their ways too.
While they press the dung, John & Jessica and David & Connor have left the Detour as third and fourth to go to the next location. Speaking of, the cowboys are now at the “wise man” playing the flute in a tree house where he gives them their clue. As they climb down, the cousins have caught up. It really will be a footrace to the mat for first.
Crazy cab adventures continue with the Leo & Jamal cheering on their speedy cabbie to beat the brothers to the Mount Lavinia Hotel Beach/Pitstop. At the drop off at the same time, the cousins make the better choice to jump down and cross the tracks at the railway station to get to the other side, while the brothers hoof it up over the bridge. This is just enough of a lead to make the sprint to Phil on the beach end with Leo & Jamal finally claiming a first place spot. Jet & Cord are only seconds behind for second.
Back at the Detour, the Globetrotters have finished with Sheets and head to the wise man well before the other two.
In quick succession, John & Jessica, David & Connor and Flight & Easy get their Pitstop directions and create a caravan to the beach hotel. During the back and forth of the ride, Team Murphy’s Law’s driver says that the guy driving the Globetrotters is his brother. Unfortunately for the basketball players, their driver asks his brother for directions. In a brilliant strategic move, daddy David asks his driver to give him the wrong directions, which he does. That’s enough to put the father/son team only running against one team. And run they do.
At the beach, John & Jessica easily outpace David for third but Team Murphy’s Law isn’t downtrodden about getting fourth. I will confess that with every step that David took, I feared he would blow out his knee or something.
Team Fetch and the singers are done with the dung at this point and heading to the wise man’s treehouse in sixth and seventh but the lost boys, otherwise known as Flight Time & Big Easy, are MIA at the mat.
This slip-up is just enough for Brendon & Rachel to squeak by and into fifth place. Thankfully, the Globetrotters rebound and avoid last place by hitting the mat in sixth ahead of the singers. I am relieved that the guys are still around because this leg was a great example of the competitiveness they can show. Unfortunately, it didn’t earn them a higher place. Big Easy explains that they need to only beat one team each leg and then two teams on the last leg. While true, I pray the Globetrotters stoke the fires they ignited this leg and with better results.
That puts the singers in last place and Phil delivers the bad news that…they are NOT eliminated. Well, it’s bad news for me and not the girls. The singers are excited but seem to finally realize that they may be outmatched on the Race since they ran a flawless leg and still came up short. A Speed Bump awaits them on the next leg.
Well, we have to wait two weeks for that next leg, since we will be Amazing Race-less next Sunday. Until then, have a good week.