The Amazing Race 31: Legs 1 to 3

[spiderbraids]

TAR's back early for its 31st (!) go-round, and it's a reality showdown :-)



Ep 1
1. We're on season 31, coming a month earlier than previously reported, and I only found out the week of thanks to a chance check in on Primetimer, the former Previously.tv... So, anyways, it's a CBS reality all-stars edition with teams from TAR, Big Brother, and Survivor :-) Representing TAR are Team Fun Floyd/Becca (TAR29), Colin/Christie (TAR5!), the Afghanimals Leo/Jamal(TAR23), Tyler/Korey (TAR28, AKA the "viral" season) and Art/JJ (TAR20), with teams from BB and Survivor in the mix... We don't get the US BB here, and haven't watched Survivor in a while, so the only ones of the others I'm familar with are Rachel (BB, but previously ran TAR20 and Allstars V.2 with her husband Brendon; here racing with her sister/later season BB contestant Elissa) and Rupert and his beard (Survivor), here racing with his wife Laura (booted early last time they did Survivor) In confessionals, we learn that Jamal has a daughter named Sophia that he's racing for this time around... while Leo has a cat named Pablo LOL.
2. It's the usual LA start, this time at a beach... While they're digging through an octopus sand sculpture for their first clue, Colin/Christie playfully rib at their most infamous moment by saying "The sand is broken" (Bizarrely, our local broadcaster captioned the archival B-roll of that moment as if he was saying "My arms is broken" :-\) and we also learn that in the 15(!) years since, they've since married and had a kid, plus Colin's mellowed out with meditation since then (we'll just see how that works out for him :-)) Tyler/Oakley get a jab at Corrine/Eliza (Survivor) about getting used to sand :-) First clue reveals the first stop is Tokyo, where the first task is to head to Shibuya (of crazy pedestrian crossing fame) and find one of two clue locations (a restaurant and a locksmith) Interesting tactic from the Afghanimals faking an argument after spotting the locksmith to throw off the scent before then approaching them picking up the clue :-) (even following it up with a "My wife is pregnant", which they've apparently used before) Also each location has limited number of clues, so the restaurant runs out and the back of the pack have to look for the locksmith...
3. Next stop is the EdgeOf building in Shibuya, for Roadblock #1: Who wants a sweet new pair of shoes? Find a pair of sandals made from chocolate... and the task also requires sitting in one place and picking the shoes to have stagehands hand over (thus preventing closer inspection)... On one end Victor(/Nicole, BB team) takes a whopping 43 bites before getting chocolate, while Janelle(/Britney, BB) manages to get one on her first pick LOL! Both members then get to chomp down a decently-sized portion of the chocoshoe before getting the next clue, and incidentally, this and the next task are said to be inspired by Japanese game shows, and the first scene of each task get the same "wacky" game show underscoring that the other "Japanese game show" tasks have gotten :-) (even though, obviously, these tasks aren't attended by an audience like the previous ones) The Afghanimals make the expected "needle in a haystack" comment as well :-)
4. Afghanimals are first to get their clue to cab to a train station before heading to a nearby park, where the second clue is a 2nd Roadblock (as usual, for the one who didn't do the first RB): Climb "Mount Fuji" (insert B-roll of the actual mountain here), and by "Mount Fuji", we mean a big slippery slide in the park to grab a clue at the "summit" :-) And they get to do it in "Dr. Seuss costumes" (tm Afghanimals) :-) Back at EdgeOf, Tyler manages to repeat Janelle's feat of finding it first go, and Chris (/Bret, Survivor) quips while chomping on shoes like a beaver that they'd eat the wood right now if they'd let them LOL. After finally getting their chocolate, they quip that it'd go good with Merlot :-) The last remaining teams still looking for EdgeOf in Shibuya are Corinne/Eliza (Survivor), Art/JJ (who have lost quite a bit of weight in the years since their original race, and still seem haunted by Art's sledding disaster in Hawaii and are determined to go one better... but ended up getting their clue to Tokyo last and are also yet to find the locksmith by this point), and Rupert/Laura (who actually found their Shibuya clue first, but are now quipping about wishing they were on an island after walking around in circles)
5. "Fuji"... Jamal cheers for Leo to do it for Pablo, adding "This is why you work out" The Afghanimals take their time climbing up Fuji, to the point where Colin/Christie manage to pickup the Roadblock clue first, but eventually finish before Colin makes his first attempt. Good thing, since Colin plows right up the mountain with his old man strength (Christine's words) Afghanimals arrive at Atago Jinja, a hilltop temple pitstop in first, and considering that they were elimmed in Japan in their original season trying to assemble a robot statue, they call it redemption, before adding "This is for Sofia" 7 day cruise to Tahiti from the Gnomes for them :-) C/C are 2nd, and Phil comments about how they're more fit this time...
6. R/L note that they're not doing the Survivor name any justice, getting to the shoes in 9th place, only ahead of Corinne/Eliza and Art/JJ, finally getting their locksmith clue... Janelle/Britney get lost in the train station near the park but recover quickly, while Floyd jokingly bets 1/2 his million that Becca (rock climber, as mentioned in their original season) will scale Fuji quickly. Of course she does LOL, before checking in 5th and having Phil quip to them about drinking enough water LOL. Bret climbs to the top and then slides down without noticing the clues on the summit... then has problems trying to ascend it the second time LOL, before finishing the task in 7th...
7. Art/JJ are last to find the locksmith, and also last to look for and find a sweet pair of shoes, so you'd think they'd be clearly out, but Rupert and Laura have been blindly walking around the park for two hours looking for the clue box, with Rupert dumbly missing the bright lights coming from the task, eventually even stopping by the well in the middle of the park (LOL) So Art/JJ end up getting to "Fuji" first (!) and it comes down to Art/JJ vs Rupert/Laura, and it seems like the fanbase really would have liked a double elimination (coincidentally, the only "proper" one also took out a Survivor crossover early) After Art gets cramps after several attempts to scale Fuji, they end up taking a 4-hr penalty, and any hope of them avoiding Nancy (RIP)/Emily-ing themselves is soon extinguished by Rupert showing up and scaling the slope on the first go... Art/JJ's first boot is obviously the exact opposite of the outcome they were gunning for, but Art manages to get one last quip out, that he likes to compete with JJ because he likes to let him down LOL

Ep 2
1. A brand new country gets the nod this time around: Luang Prabang in Laos, and as with last season, everything up until takeoff is a pre-opening prologue :-) During the prologue, Rupert talks about walking around the park for 4 hours "looking for a hidden immunity idol" LOL, which "beat the newbie out of me" LOLx2... More importantly, Rachel/Elisse try to alliance with Team Fun, but Team Fun are not amused at R/E calling themselves Team Fun 2.0 HEH! Immediately after the opening, all the teams are shown picking up a clue from a courier in front of the Villa Santi hotel, to head off to a nearby temple for alms offerings... Some take a "tuk-tuk" (really more like a songthaew; we see plenty of this transportation this ep), while others like Janelle/Britney walk (and deliberately walk from side to side to prevent the "tuk-tuks" from overtaking them) and the temple turns out to be in walking distance (HUH) making it feel like a waste of time getting their rides
2. The alms offering sequence makes for a nice respite from the usual frenetic pace of the show... After that brief respite, time for a double U-Turn (and it looks like the pre-Detour placement is here to stay) R/E decide to take out Team Fun, while Afghanimals ponder using their U-Turn on Tyler/Korey when they see Team Fun show up and decide to have them do the deed instead... Anyways, the tasks are ABC and BBQ: Learn how to read the Laotian alphabet at a local school, and prepare ducks and fish for grilling at the local market. Rupert gets a good "stating the obvious" bite about how "our ABCs bear no semblance to their ABCs", while Tyler/Korey point out the tonality (and exaggerate that there are 10 versions of "faw"... at least unlike the very similar Thai, Laos uses only one letter for a given consonant+tone) and Corinne/Eliza notice the "aw" sounds at the end of each letter that reminds them of Chris/Bret's Bostonian accent (check out C/E using emotions after buying a fake bag to get the tones right :-)) Colin/Christie are among the teams BBQing at the market, and while de-scaling the fish, Christie comments that she'll no longer be a pescatarian once she's done with this task LOL and of course Jamal is devoting the fish de-scaling task to Pablo, while Leo plays "puppet" with the cut-off duck heads LOLx2 Everyone doing this task manages to pass muster on one check... except Janelle/Britney LOL
3. A brief wrong turn by C/E's "tuk-tuk" puts the Afghanimals in the lead on their way to their next stop, an elephant village on the river for a Roadblock: "Who's ready to take command?" Learn Laotian commands for controlling elephants (thankfully, romanized on a cloth cheat sheet) to walk a few kilos down the river and pick up a clue from a Hmong musician... There's plenty of "pie" going around, it's the Laotian/Thai word for "go" :-) Obviously this leg's showcase task, especially more so with the soundbite of Jamal saying this is worth $1m, even getting an "I love you TAR" in there for good measure :-) Chris is riding the elephant and decides to call his elephant Bret, for being big and not much of a listener :-) Other elephants who aren't listening are Becca's and Rupert's (the latter of whom seems frustrated since he considers elephants his spirit guide)
4. Head to temple, then speedboat to Phetsarath palace for the pit stop: Nic/Vic manage to overtake the Afghanimals on their way to the temple, but over at the temple, Afghanimals manage to trick Nicole (though not Victor) into thinking they're not at the right place, which ends up decisively gifting themselves the win, and $2500 each (and the Afghanimals even greet the local greeter with a "Sabaidee") After a dogpile of check-ins from 3rd to 7th, Becca finally finishes the RB before Rupert, and this order holds up all the way to the palace, giving Rupert/Laura an early boot (well-deserved if the fan reactions are any indication) with a nice soundbite about how "TAR kicked my @$$" We learn that they've been married for 21 years and friends for 25, and hope they have 25 years of adventure left in them (away from TV cameras, hopefully?)

Ep 3
1. This leg is a shorthaul to Ho Chi Minh City, and there's app-plugging showing everyone planning their trip :-) Before the plane ride, Team Fun offer T/K trail mix as a peace offering... and then, J/B offer Team Fun a scarf as a peace offering, prompting Team Fun to ask "Is this the season of peace offerings?" The Big Brother teams all alliance themselves together and promise not to U-Turn each other... First stop is to pick up a bundle of herbs from the House of Vietnamese Medicine, and as usual, the Afghanimals aim to mislead another team (in this case, Corinne/Eliza) after finding the correct place... (There's a clip of one of the BB teams saying "Good evening, Vietnam" :-))
2. The medicine house stop serves as a Detour clue pickup between catching prawns at a restaurant (sounds familiar... and Phil Keoghan calls it "CYO, catch your own" LOL) and dancing with a local group in, get this, Tron-ish outfits :-) Chris/Bret decide to do the latter because they don't know how many prawns they'll need to get and are unsure how much they'll bite, and expect dancing to be quick... At the dancing, after learning that both members of Team Fun have performance experience and a confessional of Rachel and Elissa saying they're a cheerleader and yoga teacher respectively, we get a good clip of Floyd reacting to the reveal of the Tron-ish outfits... followed by a the adjucator stopping Team Fun's first attempt to tell them to put in more energy (LOL)
3. After an interlude with the Afghanimals and J/B getting lost on their way to the Detours that they end up crashing a wedding by accident LOL, Team Fun get it on the 2nd attempt... The only ones doing the prawns initially are Tyler/Korey and later Corinne/Eliza, and there's plenty of problems unhooking the hooks from the prawns, and plenty of pain for Corinne LOL... Despite starting long after T/K, C/E manage to complete the task long before T/K, much to the latter's amazement... T/K ask about Chris/Bret, and C/E suggests they're lost and probably wouldn't do dancing... hilariously cut to them practicing the dance for a really long time, before having an anemic single attempt and then switching to prawns LOL (T/K are still there as C/B arrive) We get to see Rachel flashback to her Bollywood dancing roadblock from S20 (in proper full motion :-)), and R/E and Afghanimals' attempts pile up into the double digits before they're finished (18 for R/E, 27 for Afghanimals, who have a confessional about getting dizzy and feeling their outfits getting heavier with each attempt, one of them says he felt his hands weigh 50 lbs LOL)
4. Roadblock at a karaoke: "Who's ready to tune it out?" Memorize (phonetized for everyone's benefit) Vietnamese song lyrics (more specifically, this song... thanks to the Primetimer forums for finding it) and sing them karaoke style... The Big Brother teammates doing this help each other out, Team Fun's big lead gives Floyd the luxury of repeated rehearsals, and we get the expected booing on each bad attempt and (phonetized) lyrics put up onscreen karaoke style during their attempts ("proper" lyrics)
5. Pit stop is at the flower market, and there's a bemusing bit with Team Fun crossing the street to the flower market, Frogger style, before finally checking in 1st and getting a Bahamas trip (they point out they were elimmed in Vietnam the previous go-round... huh, just like with the Afghanimals' Japan win) Jamal shows up at the RB, and tries one attempt at the karaoke after just listening to the song once, before getting the expected booing and having to rehearse like everyone else :-) J/B finish in 6th, and call over fellow BB alliance R/E once they notice them within earshot, presumably to prevent a Misa/Maiya situation, and are soon joined by the Afghanimals, while pulling up the rear is the team that switched to prawn fishing from a different task (huh, sounds familiar), but unlike those other guys, C/B are spared by a non-elimination