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At the jute mill, Abbie & Ryan didn’t sufficiently untangle the jute, so they have to redo it. Their mistake it seems is with the fact that they were just hitting the jute five times like the demonstration but it wasn’t the number of times that should’ve been their focus but how the jute looked when it was done.

Team Beefcake is at Bamboo now and the twins are still on the scene making slow progress. They both are quickly joined by the Longhorns and monster truckers. And we are treated to more of the same: racers hitting people with bamboo.

Still at the Roadblock, Brent has unassembled and reassembled the scale but continues to put the pin in the wrong position. This may be the unrolling of the haystacks from several seasons ago all over again if he doesn’t collect himself and closely examine how the others finished theirs.

Despite being the only team at the Straw Dogs, Abbie & Ryan seem to rightly be focused on just plowing through the task and not on where the others might be. They get approval on their jute bundles and complete the rest of the Detour. With the picture clue passed off to the cabbie, they are in second place at the moment and heading to Phil to make it official.

Back at the Roadblock (or should I say…STILL at the Roadblock), Brent fails another scale inspection. At this point, the mental and physical fatigue is bearing down heavily on him. Based upon the editing, all Brent needed was a commercial break because we come back and he has recuperated and seen the error of his weighs (see what I did there…puns are fun).

While he finishes that task, Abbie & Ryan finish the leg in second place. Ryan is disappointed because he did the math and knew that they needed to claim first on this leg to stand a chance a beating last season’s Dave & Rachel for the record number of first place finishes. He acknowledges that the pressure to meet that goal was unfair to push onto Abbie and apologizes. He is a much more stable and rational person than I pegged him for at the beginning.

The twins are the next to leave the Detour and get to construction site. Surprisingly, Rob & Kelley pass Team Beefcake, who are having issues with securing all their bamboo. In an unfortunate case of willing something into existence, Beefcake James (brown hair, no ‘y’) tells the camera that they are just making sure that they get it right the first time so they don’t have to return. As they leave, the camera pans down to three poles of theirs laying on the ground. Oopsie.

But Trey & Lexi don’t get the same slo-mo treatment so theirs must be correct. Team Beekman arrives at Bamboo to see the others leave. As they point out, they may be last but they won’t quit. They begin to slowly make their way through the Bamboo Jungle task. Rob & Kelley have successfully delivered their bamboo and received their clue.

As the twins are checked in as number three, I have come to the realization that these teams are short-sighted about how the Race works. Natalie & Nadiaya are disappointed that they weren’t first. Do they not realize that each of these legs is only a battle but hitting the final mat in first place is winning the war? Prizes are nice but if I was on the race, I would be thrilled with a second or third place finish on a middle leg because it meant that I was still on the race and in a nice position to claim first.

As expected, Team Beefcake is denied their final clue because of their bamboo shortage. As Jaymes is collapsed in a fatigued heap on the sand, the Longhorns show up to deliver their complete load of bamboo. They vow not to quit but take a breather to regain some strength.

On the mat with Phil now is team number four: Rob & Kelley. They have rebounded nicely this leg, I suspect in part to the brute strength needed for the Detour and Rob filled that void. As Team Beefcake retrieves their missed bamboo, Trey & Lexi are checked in as team number five.

It’s time for editing tricks to make sure we think that Teams Beefcake and Beekman are neck-and-neck. In actuality, we know that Jayme & James have enough of a lead for them to hear the magic words from Phil that are still on the race as team number six.

The final question is elimination or non-elimination. The answer is, as expected, non-elimination. So Team Beekman now faces overcoming the time deficit between them and the others, as well as the Speed Bump task that only they have to do.

See you in a week. Have a great one.

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