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At Paint, Travis has to first shave off his facial hair but Amy is able to get to work quickly on a clean-shaven Jason. In the fields, Leo & Jamal are on the hunt and the more the camera pulls back for the panoramic shot, the more convinced I am that there is no chance I would attempt Leaf. Slap some make-up on me and call it a day. The boys’ progress is as fruitless as I suspected. They even at one point find a stick with a white flag on it they think might be part of what they are looking for.

While they search, Marie’s inability to undercook food has served them well and she is the only one to have to attempt the Roadblock once. They decide on Paint also and soon are sitting with the others. Speaking of, Travis is a bit of a sweaty fellow so some of the pieces aren’t staying on his face and the make-up is a smudged mess in other places. The New Englanders are doing all right but it is a time-consuming process.

In the meantime, Leo & Jamal have waved the white flag figuratively and literally after they estimate two hours in the field and head to Paint. By now Time & Marie have made up ground and are clearly in better shape than Travis & Nicole, with the hubby looking like quite the hot mess.

As soon as Leo & Jamal arrive the others are relieved they haven’t finished the Detour but their attendance at the Mary Kay party is short-lived when they read they have to shave their beards for the task. Back to the fields they go.

This time, Jamal insists that they look in the bushes and not at the ground but Leo wants no part of that logical thinking. He continues staring at the ground for the shears. While this is not the place to find the shears it does pay off because he is able to avoid a nice-size cobra that is hanging out in the bushes.

Jason & Amy (really we all know it was Amy’s handiwork) get the stamp of approval from the make-up artist and are directed to the Pitstop at the Cimahi Waterfall. Following their success on the first try is…neither the exes or the doctors. Both are denied a couple times before realizing that there is black paint all over Marie and Nicole’s hands that is smearing everything.

While they touch-up their make-up and the cousins still scour the tea fields, Jason & Amy have finally securely the first place spot they have craved so much. The joy of first likely diminishes Jason’s embarrassment of being heavily made-up.

Tim & Marie are the next ones to get the approval on their Paint job and head to Phil. They are oblivious to the fact that Travis & Nicole are only a few minutes behind them. That is until, they see the doctors cab speed by their own on the way to the waterfall. Jockeying for position in traffic the exes and doctors think they are fighting for last place. But we all know that the cousins are still searching for the shears in the rows of tea fie….oh look…Jamal finally found the shears in the bushes of one of the rows that Leo searched the ground of. Jamal is livid and rightfully so because he estimates they spent three hours looking and Leo just messed it up for them.

As the cab races conclude at the waterfall, both teams scramble off to Phil with Travis and Tim hitting the mat that the same time but Nicole is much slower than Marie. But the doctors are relieved to learn that the exes are number two and they are number three.

This puts Leo & Jamal from first to last this leg. As expected, Phil says they have one more life in the Race as this is a non-elimination leg. Oh C’MON!!! I love being right (just ask my wife) and I love that I correctly ranked the teams this week in the order they finished this leg but I hate that I was right about the non-elimination-ness of this leg.

So next week, we will have an elimination in the first hour and then a winner crowned in the second. Thus will conclude season 23 of the Amazing Race in just one week. See y’all then and have a good week.

(As a side note, feel free to cross your fingers and pray to the reality show gods that my application for season 25 of The Amazing Race gets noticed and my friend Randy and I get to be a part of this show that I love so much.)

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