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Our opinion is that it’s likely Jessica did something nice at first but then adapted to turn the situation to her advantage. She could have saved Jessica a lot of time. She’s burned that bridge to increase her odds slightly today. That proves to be a mistake for two reasons. The first is that Cedric is so lost that he literally walks right past the area where his partner is sitting. Shawn Marion watches in disbelief as his teammate blithely walks away from the proper location. He cannot say anything, of course, because his team was previously penalized once for unauthorized assistance.

As Team Slam Dunk struggles, the race for first place concludes. We’ll save you a metric ton of lewd comments and innuendoes about belly dancing. Instead, we’ll skip to the end. The only two teams that picked delivery instead of belly dancing discover the obvious. It’s easy but slow. Everyone else tears through belly dancing like it’s all they watch on YouTube. Draw your own conclusions about whether that’s true or not.

Team Yale ends up as the winner, finishing moments ahead of Team IndyCar. The drivers experienced a reversal of fortune once they met their gnome. Clearly, it was a lucky charm as they went from second to last to second overall. Soon afterward, Team Extreme and Team Well Strung reach the finish line. All four teams are close enough in time that Phil talks to all of them. Then, there’s a gap for fifth place, which is where possibly duplicitous Team Big Brother finishes for the leg. Sixth goes to Team Chomp, and the firefighting twins are seventh.

The race for the final spot comes down to the lifeguards and the NBA All-Stars. In the end, Cedric Ceballos, the first person to retrieve the gnome, is the last to find his partner and reach the finish line. Not coincidentally, Team Slam Dunk was also the other team to pick delivery. It just wasn’t their day.

We really like them, which makes the last place finish infuriating, although Cedric could use the day off. At this point, he reveals that he’s had three heart attacks. And now we’re retroactively that much more scared about what he went through during the Roadblock. For that reason, it almost seems mean when Phil Keoghan informs the former NBA players that this is a non-elimination leg. Eek!

Tune in next week to find out whether Cedric Ceballos dies during the next episode of The Amazing Race. Spoilers: he doesn’t, but we’re still going to worry about it.

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