The Amazing Race 25 - Episode 5 Recap
Morocc' and Roll
By Daron Aldridge
October 28, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Before we hit Morocco, here’s a look at my rankings this week (not factoring in the Save and Express Pass):
1) Kym & Alli (Friends/cyclists). Team Quicksilver
2) Misti & Jim (Married dentists). Team DDS or Chompers.
3) Adam & Bethany (Married surfers). Soul Surfers.
4) Brooke & Robbie (Dating wrestlers). Tag Team.
5) Keith & Whitney (Engaged/Survivor alum).
6) Amy & Maya (Friends/PhD Students). Team Candy Crush
7) Tim & Te Jay (Dating). Team TNT
8) Shelley & Nici (Mother/Daughter). Super Fannies.
Not only in my rankings but in actuality, the leaders of the pack this week are cyclists Kym & Alli who exemplified "great performance" last week. That first place finish resulted in them each getting a new car. The girls express that their goal is to replicate the success of the last leg where they didn’t feel the pressure of other teams in a scenario with the others around.
Team Quicksilver leaves the mat nearly two and a half hours before the second place team but as is the case with the Amazing Race, departure leads mean nothing. The earliest flight to Marrakesh, Morocco, (this leg’s destination) departs at 8:15 a.m., so it will be one big happy reunion in the airport.
Okay… maybe not so happy when the teams realize that Misti & Jim aren’t still in the Race because they used their Save but because it was a non-elimination leg. Of course, Jim proclaims that the teams need to be afraid because “Team Domination is back.” I refuse to accept Jim’s chosen nickname and after the last leg’s pitiful showing, he shouldn’t be proclaiming any form of domination.
Big Dr. Jim then hypothesizes that if a U-Turn comes up, the teams would be foolish to use it on them knowing that they couldn’t be eliminated. As is the case with most things Jim says, I disagree. The U-Turn is the PERFECT opportunity to flush out the Save and get the Chompers back on the same level as the others.
Also before leaving, Super Fannies Shelley & Nici proclaim that they have worked through their mommy/daughter communication issues and the others should be warned. A conversation in private outside the heat of competition is not necessarily proof they will prosper and teams really shouldn’t be afraid of the Super Fannies until they have actually shown us something to be afraid of competition-wise.
Touching down and with everyone bombarding the Marrakesh cab stand, the teams are heading to the Jemaa el-Fnaa market square where they have to find the food cart garage.
Nici brags that she became fluent in Spanish in six months at the Air Force Academy and luckily, she gets a cabbie in Morocco that speaks Spanish. She negotiates a flat rate with the driver and he will let them keep the bags in his trunk while on the tasks.
In the square, it quickly turns into all kinds of madness with the teams scurrying like rats from a cobra. Oh look... actual cobras in the marketplace. If the culture shock hadn't hit them yet, seeing these venomous beasts chilling in the square likely drove the point home.
No one is particularly standing out in the clue finding department this leg, with the sought after garage eluding everyone until almost everyone is there. As they clump together, here's their task: Take a cart, set it up completely before the busy rush hour. The hangup is that there is no clear set of directions but just guidance from the cart owner and locals.
The carts prove to be particularly unwieldy and nearly flatten most teams except the brawny surfer Adam. As the teams start the task, it's time for Chompers to get their Speed Bump. I hope this is actually challenging unlike some of the Speed Bumps in the past.
For their Speed Bump, Misti & Jim must go to a marked location and retrieve eight large rugs and two sticks. Then they have to carry their items to a local hotel to hang them on a line that’s about eight feet off the ground (thus the need for the sticks to reach). It seems pretty straightforward, but there could be some complications depending upon how manageable the hooks and stick are to use.
Immediately, Jim scoops up five of the rugs and the poles and then questions whether his wife can even carry the three remaining rugs. To her credit, she does and just tells him, “I’ve got it.” If he was a little less abrasive in his delivery, then his questioning could be construed as concern but instead it just comes across as doubting. So, any shaken confidence on her part is just amplified by Jim. This conclusion is just as valid when she starts to struggle on the task and he barks, “You get it, you get it… you don’t, I will!”
It’s time for an awkward local interaction and surprisingly not on the part of the teams (aside from all the over-the-top complaints and histrionics about how bad this food smells and looks). The cart that Keith & Whitney are assembling apparently belongs to a Frenchman who has taken a shine to Whitney and has been very generous in his judging of their work. While the others work through their task, Team Survivor is the first ones with clue in hand. They are now heading to Bab Debbagh Tannery on foot but get the heads-up that a U-Turn is ahead. Whitney notes the impending U-Turn and wants to talk shop while they search for the tannery. I can’t believe I am saying this but Keith rightly tells her that they should just focus on getting to the task and not worry about the U-Turn yet.
Let me back up and clarify that Kym & Alli aren’t complaining about the vegetarian cart they chose and just like in last week’s bakery and restaurant, the cyclists are angling for a sampling. The ladies must love hitting up Costco on a Saturday afternoon. They are the next ones done but in quick succession, they are joined by nearly everyone.
One of the lone holdouts is Team DDS. The Speed Bump is now behind them and Phil is on-site to tell us that Misti & Jim are approximately 12 minutes behind the lead teams. Hulking Jim steers his cart to the set-up location and Tim & Te Jay and Adam & Bethany are just now finishing up, the latter of which seems to be moving at a slower pace than they are capable of.
The tannery turns out to be not the Detour (which would directly precede the U-Turn) but rather this week’s Roadblock. One person has to go into the tannery and collect three unfinished goat hides. Then soak them in whatever chemical concoction there is a-brewing in these pits and strip the remaining fur from them. After that, they deliver three completed hides to a cobbler, requiring them to navigate the winding backstreets of Marrakesh, to get a receipt, which has to be returned to the tannery.
Side note: I am liking the tasks they are throwing at teams this season. They’re unique and appear straightforward but seem to always end up more challenging than on the surface.
The minuscule lead out of the food cart task that the Survivors had evaporates and save for the team with the Save, they all arrive and begin opting for (or in some cases conceding to do) the Roadblock. These are Keith, Brooke, Amy, Kym, Bethany, Tim and Nici.
Bethany expresses her excitement to get to do a Roadblock and get past the nervousness of not having done one yet. You would think that the chore of not only stripping the fur from a hide but also tightly maneuvering a bike around streets would have caused some reservation for them since Bethany has only one arm. But that girl just jumps right in and tackles the task.
Speaking of "jumping right in," candy scientist Amy takes a nice one-legged dip in the mystery solution that the hides are soaked in, a smell of which will likely follow them for the remainder of the leg. The other teams take this opportunity to openly complain and near-retch because of the smell and conditions of the tannery. Not that this is as bad of a case of Ugly Americanism that we’ve seen in the past, but it’s a bit insulting to the locals.
Chompers is now on the Roadblock scene and surprisingly, Jim doesn’t stop Misti from volunteering to do the Roadblock. She is determined to recover from the last leg’s Roadblock that significantly contributed to their last place finish.
Apparently, looking on the positive side of things in the heat of competition is not viewed very favorably by Dr. Jim because when candy girl Maya describes the tannery as just being part of the local experience, Jim later tells the camera that “No, it just smells like #$%^!”
With no sense of a leader - because the teams are only separated by a minute or so each - the locating of the cobbler proves to be more difficult. Bethany begins to struggle with tying down her bundles to the bike but a pair of locals helps out and secures her load.
Aside from Nici and Misti, who is getting encouraged by Jim because she is about to pass Nici, all the teams have wandered around and somehow all ended up lost and on the same location. Bethany rolls up and is grilled about who is behind her. To the girl’s credit, she just says that she was focused on herself and not those around her. That is the type of approach that has worked well for many teams in past seasons, so I hope they stick to it.
Misti has officially leaped ahead of Nici but can’t quite get her bike loaded up. This puts the two leaving at the same time and Misti failing to control her bike, which knocks Nici down.
The mild-mannered Moroccan cobbler gets a face full of crazy Americans trying to get a receipt and the scene, minus Tim and Amy, who split off from the others, is complete madness with no one having the upper hand. In no discernible order, most of the teams are heading back to the tannery. And the leader is…
…Keith, sort of. The Survivor alum gets back first but just ahead of Nici. At this point, Shelley is by her side so technically, their team is together but Whitney is not with Keith. This erupts into a yelling match between mom and Keith, both of which have the U-Turn weighing on their actions.
At one point, Keith pulls the tried and true bully phrase of “If you push me one more time…” To which Shelley replies, “You’ll WHAT?!?” The implication is pretty clear that Keith was threatening more than just an argument and Shelly had the backbone to call him out on it. Finally, the tannery guy gives the Survivors their clue and the teams will now be heading to Ben Youssef Madrasa.
The tensions run very high between these two teams, and an interview segment with Whitney shows her acting as if she showed restraint in not lashing out at the Super Fannies. But then she is shown telling Keith, “We gotta beat those bitches.” Keep it classy, Nashville. As a reality show veteran, she should have known that the camera caught her outburst and it would be aired.
With the same sense of chaos that has permeated this leg, the teams hit the next clue as a mob and it’s the Detour: Tea Time or Twirl Time. For Tea, they have to pick a tea set with 10 glasses and spices and deliver it to a restaurant. Then they have to watch and perfect a tea pouring demonstration, which includes having tray-holding person using only one hand, and the tea pourer employing an exaggerated and elevated pouring technique to pour two pots into cups. For Twirl, the teams dress up as part of a group of street musicians. One person keeps the rhythm on a drum and the other has to twirl the tassel on their hat for one minute straight before getting their clue. As is tradition on these recaps, my inclination would have been to go with Twirl Time before seeing the tasks performed because it required finding one location and one minute doesn’t seem that long.
The initial Detour decisions look like this: Tea Time was chosen by Adam & Bethany, Brooke & Robbie, Misti & Jim and Tim & Te Jay (who show up later than the rest); Twirl Time was selected by Keith & Whitney, Kym & Alli, Amy & Maya and Shelley & Nici.
The teams that went with Tea don’t have much issue with locating the tea shop and the restaurant, so my "one location" rationale doesn’t really hold water. As the teams watch the demonstration, only the surfers are notably taking their time to perfect the holding and pouring method before wasting time attempting it. Practice makes perfect, and the lack of practice makes imperfection or even passable work for these teams. First flub comes via the rushed Chompers who fail to notice that only one hand can be used to hold the tray but they get the pouring down. Too bad they are still denied and no reason is given for denial. Next, Tag Team’s Robbie fails to notice the need to pour the tea to a certain height. Another denial.
Over at Twirl Time, cute little Maya just doesn’t have the cranial circumference for the hat given and it keeps flying off. But it’s not too devastating because none of the others are faring much better. Cyclist Kym has induced a twirl headache and neck ache, while there is no rhyme or reason to what method the Survivors are using. They seem to keep trading off twirl duties with no luck.
As those teams flounder, Adam & Bethany have practiced enough and even gotten validation from a restaurant worker that their technique would be good enough. It’s time for the real attempt, which they do and get the clue, much to the dismay of the other two teams who continue to do the same thing wrong with, shockingly, the same result of no clue. TNT has arrived and we are about to find out if they can go two-for-two on restaurant-based tasks.
But first, over at Twirl, Kym has finally relinquished the tasseled hat to Alli who conquers the dizzy challenge and they are out of the Detour, en route to the U-Turn spot. Thanks to the surfers getting twisted around, Team Quicksilver gets there first and opts to not U-Turn anyone. While I would normally agree with this rationale for lead teams, when there is not one but TWO team advantages still on the table, you must do something to flush them out. The ladies are now heading to Phil, who is hidden away in a carpet shop.
The surfers sail up to the U-Turn and go the same route as the cyclists, which puts them neck-and-neck to get to the Pitstop. And they retain that order with Kym & Alli once again claiming first and Adam & Bethany regaining their rightful place in the top two (at least in my mind that is their rightful place).
Before the wrestlers or dentists can finish their Tea Time, TNT has passed them and is making their way to the U-Turn box, which they get to and choose to not use. Phil greets them and anoints them as team number three.
On the other side of town, Shelley & Nici have twirled themselves to the next clue and are openly debating the merits of who to U-Turn: the Dentists because of the Save and Jim’s rabid encouragement of Misti or the Survivor because…well, Keith’s an a-hole. Speaking of the Survivors, Keith & Whitney have burned too much time at Twirl and switch to Tea. We all know that’s a bad idea at this point. If you are going to switch, you do it early into the task. Period.
Before they get to Tea, Tag Team and Chompers both have their epiphanies and realize what they are individually lacking in the challenge. They course correct and get their clue. A three way race to the U-Turn box is in order, now that Amy & Maya finally decided to switch roles and let Amy give the twirling a chance. She nails it.
While they travel to the U-Turn, it is weighing heavily on Team DDS that they will be U-Turned. But the Super Fannies have other plans. Thinking and reacting in the heat of the moment and not thinking long-term Race-wise, Shelley & Nici levy the U-turn on the already flagging Keith & Whitney. The bleak forecast for Team Survivor is now downright catastrophic. The mother and daughter team hit the mat in fourth.
Misti & Jim are elated and justifiably stunned that they were not U-Turned. All three teams bound off to Phil and are given fifth to Brooke & Robbie, sixth to Misti & Jim and seventh to Amy & Maya.
Now for the sad trombone and customary footage of the U-Turned team completing both tasks wearily and accepting of their Race fate. Of course, they are last and Phil breaks the news that they are indeed eliminated. Blah blah blah…"no one is better for me than Keith"…blah blah blah. I am not even a little bit sad to see this team gone.
Until next week, have a good week and a safe Halloween, if you are so inclined to celebrate.