The Amazing Race 33: Legs 4 to 7

[spiderbraids]

Episode 4
- With just five teams returning (two of which, like myself, have lost their grandmas in the interim: Lala/Lulu and Kim/Penn; while Rachel/Cayla are now no longer flight attendants) to resume the race in St. Gallen in Switzerland, Phil Keoghan announces they're buffing up the cast by bringing in the first two boots, Arun/Natalia and Michael/Moe, and also explains how they're going to race safely (more self-driving, and flying via charter plane) before having them race to chartered buses... and as it happens, both returning teams get on the same bus, and talk about how this is the first time previously-eliminated teams have returned in the same race, and Michael/Moe promise not to be the first boot again (we'll see how that works out)
- Everyone's riding the buses and riding up a gondola to the top of Santis, a mountain peak from where one can see 6 countries (Switzerland and all five of its neighbors) according to Wikipedia Phil Keoghan :-) (Two of those countries are France and Italy... quick check shows that the closest points in those countries to Santis are ~140km (85mi) and ~82km (51mi) respectively) Today is certainly not a good day to see those 6 countries, since it's pretty foggy at times, but anyways, it's a Roadblock: Who wants to take in the view? Doesn't involve bungee jumping (just you wait though), but involves running down a "via ferrata" path across the mountaintops to the cluebox... Dusty brags that Ryan's thighs look like "a couple of bowling balls stuffed in onion sacks" while he's crushing the task to finish in 1st (to which Dusty yodels, LOL!) while Penn also manages to overtake a few contestants on the way as well; Sheri is taking this Roadblock (sounds like Akbar is too big to perform it), and it's pretty slow going for her to the point that they're in a clear last place by the time they're done
- After coming down from the mountain, it's self drive for the rest of the leg, and the cars are "not stick, thank god" (tm Arun) even if the flight attendants were hoping to show off their stick driving skills ;-) Clue pickup at a guesthouse for a Detour between Toss It (performing a flag dance) and Punch It (putting metal ornaments on a belt) And because of social distancing, we have up to four teams practicing, then performing, the flag dance in two different rooms :-) Meanwhile, the only teams doing the belts are the returning teams, and they're given a story that indicates the order of how to put the ornaments on, and Michael/Moe aren't sure which end to start from (this will be important)
- After checking task details and deciding against switching, Ryan/Dusty are first to finish flags and get the pitstop clue... They slightly mangle the name Altstatten, but manage to beat Kim/Penn to the pitstop to win themselves $2500 each, while both all-girl teams are hoping for another all-girl win because it's been a while, which as reported by RealityBlurred, was in 2014 (!)
- At the belts, Arun/Nat are first to get the ornaments in the right order, while Michael/Moe have to redo... Akbar/Sheri are last to to do and complete the Detour (flags), but the show would have you believe that both belt teams are having serious navigational issues after the Detour, such that Akbar/Sheri are surprised to hear that they've arrived at the pitstop in 5th, after initially expecting themselves to be last... And after finishing last their first go round, Michael/Moe are first boot once again, despite claiming they came in with a different plan, but either they're just not good at racing... or they bled too much time on an unaired Speedbump (!) At least it doesn't sting as much as the first time, they say...

Episode 5
- We're staying in Switzerland this week, as teams are now being released in 15-minute-spaced groups of 2 instead of individually, still in order of finish... Right up front they're getting a Roadblock clue: "Who wants to get down with the Travelocity gnome?" Not only is this leg the obligatory gnome-carrying leg, there's your bungee jumping Roadblock, and once again, the acrophobic Sheri is obliged to take it because Akbar is too big :-\ They're bungee jumping from the Verzasca dam, same dam from Goldeneye (R/D: "I'd rather rollerblade up Mt. Everest than do this")... And of course they have to self-drive there :-) The first group, Ryan/Dusty and Kim/Penn agree to jump in that order after helping each other get to the dam, while due to navigational issues, last two to get to the dam are Raquel/Cayla and Arun/Nat (this will be a recurring issue for the latter team)
- According to the tiny-sized clue from the gnome, next stop is Lugano, and a clue pickup at a piazza that Ryan/Dusty call "Carlo Bugati" (actually Carlo Battaglini :-D) Detour is between a "bartender race" task involving carrying 12 bags of chestnuts and 12 bottles of wine to a party (plus an extra of each for the gnome), and "sausage encase", for making sausages (nothing for the gnome here)... Ryan/Dusty take the former, picking up a couple bags of chestnuts from a vendor (with a sign on the side saying "Stop Corona" with safety tips, just to remind us it's still a thing) and expecting to do it in two goes... Dusty's like "Famous last words", and it turns out taking the stuff to the party involves walking up the "stairway to heaven" (tm Ryan/Dusty) :-D (The first I saw of this ep was Phil's description of the latter, so I was just as surprised to see the stairway as they were :-)) They're taking it much in stride though, since in a confessional they say they're better at physical tasks than mental... Meanwhile, after doing the bungee last, Arun/Nat are also struggling with the navigation to Lugano:-\
- LLLL do the sausage task, and feel attracted to the handsome guy directing them to the equipment they need :-D LLLL discover that it's sausage making with a view... and bees LOL! (On the way they notice Rolex and Louis Vitton stores, and promise that they'll come back to shop here if they win :-)) In a bit of a heartwarming moment, they talk about how their late grandma used to make sausages, and they end up the 2nd team to get the final clue behind Ryan/Dusty, which involves getting a pic from the gnome's satchel and asking around where it is, which turns out to be Parco Ciani (Meanwhile, after arriving in Lugano, Akbar/Sheri briefly mistake a red water hydrant as a race marker LOL)
- The stair task is not just physical, but very tedious, since it requires taking at least 4 goes (except for Kim/Penn, who manage the chestnuts in one go [!]) and it's a 400-step stair case (Here's a sobering thought: they apparently only have to go up roughly half the staircase) I used to climb some 17 floors of stairs in my college days on a daily basis, and even I'm not too sure how well I'd do here... In contrast to R/D, Akbar/Sheri are quick to call the stairs the "Stairway to hell", and they're getting pretty hot (and hot-headed) as they're going about the task, even breaking one of their bottles on the way ...and as it happens, that's as far as I got with this ep, leaving on the "Broken bottle. Sadly not upside Akbar's head" (LOL) so quick results: R/D finish first and get a trip to Dominica (we'll see them sizing up the trip in next week's prologue), while Arun/Nat are last (they're so far back, their greeter has gone home for the day LOL) in a non-elim, so they're starting the next leg one group behind the next-to-last teams, but promise not to come in last next week (and they're probably fancying their chances after essentially having what must have been a many-hour deficit wiped out)

Episode 6
- After R/D compare themselves to monkeys after seeing the treehouse being offered as part of their Dominica trip prize, time for more race :-) Another COVID-induced measure for this season has teams being jetted around on charters between legs rather than as part of the leg, and so, at Milan Malpensa Airport (visible on a set of airstairs, not that they actually mention it; they make it look like they're flying out of Lugano, which does actually have an airport, but certainly not one that would see flights from United, as seen in the footage), Phil Keoghan greets the remaining teams as they board a charter plane heading for an unknown destination :-) Turns out to be Corsica, and next thing we see, they're at Pont Altiani, a Roman bridge near Corsica's capital, Corte (which is not actually near an airport) to open their first clue... before being driven by masked-up drivers (so, no Arun/Nat nav issues this week ;-)) to a drop off point in the town and then running up to the Belvedere citadel (like the famous classic TV butler) in order to pick up the clue for the Detour... along with a canister of goat's milk :-)
- After transferring from their big-sized vans to minijeeps, they're driven to the Detour at a cheese-making farm, between "Say Cheese" (cheese-making) and "Mule Please" (saddling up a mule and carrying the milk canister): Dusty has made cheese before, so this should be a cinch for him and Ryan... they say, while Kim/Penn and Raquel/Cayla decide on doing mules (even naming their designated mules Duke and Coltony [after R/C's boyfriends] respectively), and although it takes quite a bit of time for the latter to realize they've installed one of the parts of the milk carrier rack upside down, it's still taking them less time than it is for R/D to get their milk to curdle, and it seems like they've misunderstood the directions: Instead of keeping it at 85 C for a sustained period of time (unusually for an American show, there's no Fahrenheit conversion here) they're repeatedly lowering the heat to keep it from going over, and that's why it isn't curdling... Eventually, LLLL, Akbar/Sheri, and Arun/Nat all manage to arrive, make and deliver their curds first, so R/D find themselves in last and decide to just switch over to the mules, hoping to make up time at the Roadblock (and as it happens, there's not much stubbornness to be had from these mules)
- Speaking of the Roadblock, it's called "Who's ready to make a splash?" It's a canyoning task at, well, some sort of canyon, similar to a task from just two seasons ago, except that teams have to actually look for the clue during the canyoning instead of just having it being dangled in plain sight (though even that's not much of a challenge)... Akbar's doing this Roadblock, presumably to offset the ones Sheri had to do in Switzerland, but he's having a really hard time with the task: According to an Akbar confessional, he's 275 lbs (125 kg), but the wetsuit made him feel like 375 (170 kg), and he also compares having Ryan behind him like a scary movie because Ryan's going to catch up... Sure enough, Ryan (despite being about half the canyoning course behind to start) easily overtakes Akbar, who's also already been overtaken by Arun, putting him in last place (!) Back on the vans, Dusty has a confessional about the death of his father, saying that he prays to his father every day :-)
- Last task is to inflate a kayak and kayak down a stream to the pitstop at a dam, where Kim/Penn get themselves $5000 each... LLLL are fighting to avoid being beaten by Akbar/Sheri, and while inflating their boat, find that they've misread the clue and have to double back to their vans to store their bags and packs first, and then never really get the hang of kayaking, but nevertheless, they manage to finish with three of the other teams (R/D check in topless, which prompts Raquel/Cayla to note they just want to show their muscles, LOL; Arun/Nat are also there)... which means it's lights out for Akbar/Sheri, who acknowledge there's no shame in losing since they left it all out on the court (their words :-))

Episode 7:
- Back to self-driving in the South of Corsica now (in convertibles, even) and the first stop is a watch tower on the coast, to meet up with guy to eat a little cheese on bread... Said cheese is infested with maggots (!) I've seen a mini documentary piece about this maggot cheese being made in Italy, didn't know they also made it in France (turns out it's a Sardinian thing, and South Corsica is just across the strait from there) The real problem isn't the maggots, it's the really dry bread they're eating with it... Ryan quips, in light of his unearned prison time, "Same food, better view", while the Raquel/Cayla note that the dog who's with the guy serving the cheese probably wouldn't eat it LOL. (Seems like Arun/Nat keep having issues with self-drive: but instead of getting lost, they're taking their nice sweet time getting the trunk to open on their car :-\ Also, we learn that Raquel/Cayla have since moved back in with their parents)
- Next stop is a Detour at the seaside, between "Row Row Row Your Boat", using a transparent kayak to grab 10 metal fish up from the ocean (only R/D), and "Gently Down the Stream", riding a submarine and spot 10 metal fish and memorize (without notes) their patterns... Kim/Penn team up with Raquel/Cayla to do the task, and they memorize it with things like "Barney" for a purple fish, and "Duke University" for a blue and white fish, and there's even a fish painted in the French tricolors :-) Both teams nail the task first go, while Arun/Nat and LLLL discover the main cons of this task: Potentially having to wait 15 minutes at a pier for the sub to ride, and then having to go again if you're wrong... but R/D find themselves having to bail their kayak out again and again, even having to flip their kayak over at one point (and the heavy metal fish aren't helping with this) R/D quip: "No use crying over a tipped rowboat" LOL! Meanwhile, Arun/Nat and LLLL end up having to have a second go, with a different strategy (remember two fish each), to complete the task, leaving them behind R/D...
- Roadblock in main town Bonifacio: "Who's feeling knotted up?" Involves fixing a small hole in a finishing net, which the race has helpfully marked with small yellow rope ties :-) Penn uses his "nerd glasses" to a) counter R/D showing off their muscles, not that they're even there yet, and b) get a magnified view of the hole to fix it; and he also offers an extra pro tip for fixing a net: Use your feet to stretch it tight :-) There is of course a demonstration that the contestants end up referring to frequently as reference, and Kim/Penn are first to get their clue, followed by Raquel/Cayla... (and Penn does a happy dance to celebrate with his nerd glasses on :-))
- Next is to look for a Napoleon cosplayer and run up a hill to get to the pitstop overlooking the white limestone cliffs of Bonifacio, with Kim/Penn getting 1st place and a trip to Turkey... and I wasn't around for the rest of the leg afterwards, but the only placement change relative to the start of the leg is LLLL and Arun/Nat switching places... and this is the 2nd non-elim of the race, and like Phil, one has to wonder how much luck Arun/Nat are going to have (maybe the karma from helping the stragglers back in the last pre-Covid leg is kicking in? ;-))