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During the airport waiting session, Jennifer confesses that she is a superfan of Jet & Cord. She gushes over the chance to race alongside them and continues to flirt with them. The guys, who are both married, don’t exactly reciprocate the flirting and actually look somewhat uncomfortable with it.

The moment of truth arrives and the Big Brother alums get on their flight before the others and the opportunity for the mother/son team is officially gone. They have all their Race eggs in one standby basket because if they don’t make this flight, they will be several hours behind the others. Approximately TEN hours to be more clear. This smells of last season’s airline debacle of Chester & Ephraim all over again. More than likely the producers saw this writing on the wall and that’s why they one travel agent was trying to do the hard sell on Team Fetch to NOT take the connection. This is just a guess because at this point, it would take an act of God for Margie & Luke to not be eliminated.

As expected, the full midnight flight is indeed full and the mom and son are left alone in the Malaysian airport.

Sprinting through the Singapore airport is Team Fetch and the editing wrings as much drama out of the situation as possible, with Brendon even dropping a bag, which he has to retrieve. And then… Commercial Break!

Blah… blah… blah… please buy these products and we are back. No sad trombone for Team Fetch this leg as Brendon & Rachel make the connection and will actually be the first team on the ground in Sri Lanka. This is the best case scenario for a team facing a Speed Bump at some point in the near future.

After landing they hop into a cab and head to the Gangaramaya Temple, where they will receive a blessing and their next clue from a Buddhist monk. Granted, it’s near midnight, so it doesn’t take Nostradamus to predict that Ye Olde Operating Hours will be leveling the playing field. The newlyweds arrive and see that the temple doesn’t open for four hours or 5:45 a.m., so cooling their heels on the curb is their plan.

The midnight flight to Sri Lanka lands and all the teams scramble to the temple, just to have to wait with Big Brother. Honestly, the order here doesn’t matter since they will only be minutes apart. Even with the four hour delay at the temple, Margie & Luke will be about six hours behind the others.

Understanding that a similar “blessing” turned out to be a curse for his dad on their last season because it was the leg that his Achilles’ ruptured, Connor seems fully aware of and hopes to shake the dark cloud of Murphy’s Law that hangs over their heads.

The temple opens, which means that this is one of my favorite parts of every season. Without any sarcasm here, I enjoy seeing the teams actually soak in their surroundings and the culture of the places they visit. That is one of the main reasons why I would love to run this Race (call me, CBS… you have my audition application). All of them appear genuinely moved by the blessing.

The teams are now heading to the railway station, which will take them to the city of Galle. After arriving, they will hop into a mini cab, which looks like a motorized rickshaw, to take them to the King Coconut Stand.

All the teams except the MIA Margie & Luke (but you knew that) hit the train station and are once again traveling together. For the second time in the span of five minutes, we get genuine awe from the teams as they ride the rails down the Sri Lankan coast to Galle.

In Galle, each team picks a mini cab and off they speed down the streets, narrowly missing cars, buses and other people. No…really…their drivers are insane and weaving in and out of traffic with precision and reckless abandon. I don’t know if it’s the endorphins from high speed ride or the fact that they all realize that Margie & Luke are clearly getting last place this leg but the teams are more relaxed and having fun with laughter and car-to-car fist bumps between teams.

The coconut stand holds the next clue and it’s the Detour: Fishing Pole or Spin Control. For Fishing Pole, the teams have to swim out to a perch in the water and use traditional fishing equipment and bait to catch one fish. Each person only has to catch one fish. For Spin Control, the teams have to perform a traditional dance routine while spinning wooden discs atop four-foot poles. They don’t even get through explaining this task and I would bet my house on the fact that Flight Time & Big Easy are going with Spin Control. This seems like a gimme for the guys. What’s next - a cycling challenge for David & Connor or a horse riding one for Jet & Cord so they can broaden their lead?

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