The Amazing Race Season 30: Episode 1 Recap

By Kim Hollis and David Mumpower

January 15, 2018

Surprise! Wait, no, this one wasn't surprising at all.

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For the first challenge, the remaining arrival order is Indy 500, NBA and snowboarders. The teams that are lagging behind and most likely to get eliminated are the ring girls, the competitive eaters, the goat yoga ladies, and the firefighters. #TeamGoatYoga is already reduced to calling each other bitches to the camera. Well, “Bs.”

Over at Esjumelur, the first Roadblock is awaiting Henry & Evan. One of the teammates will ride a buggy through a muddy river. During the journey, they’ll see letters that they have to organize to spell Ingólfstorg. There are two tricks to this. The first is that the letters the will see have numbers up in the corner that may be difficult to spot. The number indicates the order of the letters. The second trick is that the first o has an accent mark over it.

The next two teams to arrive are the Indy drivers and the team from Big Brother. Meanwhile, Henry from #TeamYale does an excellent job of breaking down the situation quickly. He would have gotten it on the first try if not for the accent issue on the Os.

In a moderate upset, Cody from Big Brother solves the puzzle first. It could be something as simple as he was lucky with the Os rather than deducing it. But if not, good for him. They may be more formidable than we expected. Meanwhile, Shawn Marion arrives, and he’s about to have a bad time.

While the NBA team has a huge advantage, the firefighters and the yoga teams are just now finishing the high wire challenge and are vying for last place.

Believe it or not, the NBA team is going to wind up in a photo finish to stay in this leg. Well, it’s exactly what we thought. The regular O and the accented O confuse Shawn, who may not even see the difference at his height. After he misses for what seems like the 20th time, you can see from the closed captioning that Cedric is shouting out to pay attention to the Os and the Ps. Shawn doesn’t hear him, but it’s still cheating to help your partner according to The Amazing Race’s rules.




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The frontrunners in the race are arriving at the next area, where they meet up with some World’s Strongest Men types, as well as a strong woman who gives them their next task. They need to find the answers to the following questions:

What do Icelanders call the drink known as The Black Death?
What is Porskalysi?

The Black Death is some horrible alcoholic drink that we can’t spell, but it’s alcohol and not coffee, which is what Cody from Big Brother guesses on their first try. The other is Cod Liver Oil. The contestants have to take a shot of each one before they get their next clue, which leads them to the Pit Stop at Reykjavikurtjorn. Fuck the accents and umlauts in that word. They know what they did.

Although Big Brother is first to get the answers and the shots, this challenge is breathtakingly simple. Everyone tears through it. The second team to chug the nasty stuff is #TeamExtreme. Unfortunately for Big Brother, they get lost along the way, allowing Kristi & Jen to win the first leg. Big Brother is second. The order for the next teams is Yale, the violinists, the Indy Car drivers, Joey Chestnut & Eater X, and the lifeguards.

Around this time, Shawn deduces his mistake and finishes his challenge. They wind up as the eighth team to arrive out of 11. Unfortunately, Phil can’t check them in because of the letters yelled out by Cedric. It’s a 30-minute, potentially fatal mistake. The firefighting twins are checked in while Cedric pleads his case. Alas, it’s not the NBA, and he’s not going to talk this referee out of a foul call.

What happens next is historic for The Amazing Race. There is a legitimate foot race and a photo finish. The remaining two teams are the Ring Girls and Goat Yoga, the two teams that sounded the weakest on first blush. Cedric & Shawn sweats through most of their time before seeing the two teams off in the distance. Phil has them check in with only a few seconds to spare. They are the ninth team by the narrowest of margins.

As for tenth place, you should Google for video of this. It’s amazing. One of the ring girls races past the two yoga women. Her companion is ahead of them as well. At some point, she removes her snow boots to run more comfortable. She does not, however, drop her extremely heavy backpack. That’s a mistake that has probably haunted her for several months. Team Goat Yoga and the Ring Girls hit the mat at almost exactly the same time. The video reveals that the ring girl hits the mat last by just a fraction of a second. Cedric & Shawn were safe by 13 seconds.

Episode 2 and beyond would actually be more upbeat if the ring girls had survived. Instead, we’ll see more angry goat yoga. Well, hopefully not beyond Episode 2.


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