The Amazing Race 23: Legs 10 to 12
Dec. 30th, 2013 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsLet's get this out of the way before the new year...
Leg 10:
1. First stop is at a local park to eat a local delicacy. In the Afghanimals' cab Jamal wonders if it's snake, and Leo says that they don't eat snake here. Turns out that it is snake :-O (plus, they even eat it in front of a well-enclosed cage with actual living snakes in it :-O) Exes Tim/Marie get lost by going to the wrong entrance at first, and to add insult to injury, Marie is a rather picky eater, so you can imagine her reaction to discovering that she's supposed to eat snake :-)
2. Roadblock at a volcano crater: Who's feeling hard-boiled? It involves cooking eggs at a volcanic hot springs (common practice at Asian hot springs it seems, I remember doing it on the same trip that I went to Royal Flora :-)) and the judge will only give the clue if they've hard-boiled theirs long enough. The first three teams all have to go back for seconds, and that's even though Jamal is thoughtful enough to let his eggs simmer a bit longer than the other two :-\ Marie has to do this Roadblock (we're actually shown that the Roadblock teaser specifically says this), and Tim is concerned that she's not very patient, and might probably even be holding the eggs above the hot water rather than in it. Cut to Marie doing just that :-D However, Tim also notes that she always overcooks everything... and after she finally gets the idea to put the eggs in the water, she ends up being the only team to finish this task on the first go :-)
3. Detour between decorating faces to look like traditional dancers (without mirrors, and the judges are VERY strict), and looking for a pair of clippers in a really big tea plantation (shades of season 6's Lena/Kristy much?) The Afghanimals are the only ones doing the tea task, and they compare it to looking for a needle in a haystack, where they don't know what the needle looks like, as illustrated when they pick up what looks to be a flag with a really long stick :-\
4. After what feels like a couple hours at the tea, the Afghanimals briefly check out the other Detour and discover it's also tortuous (and requires shaving!) and go back. They end up spending something like 5 hours looking for their clippers (even coming across a snake at one point! 8-O), and it turns out to be in one of the first rows that they had checked (like I said, shades of Lena/Kristy much?)
5. Pitstop is at a beautiful waterfall. Jason/Amy finally win their first leg, getting a trip to Cancun... and a couple words from Phil about their Detour make-up job :-D We have an epic cab/footrace between Tim/Marie and the ER docs, and T/M edge out the ER docs Travis/Nicole for 2nd and 3rd (Phil on Nicole: "And I thought Jason/Amy looked ridiculous :-D") The Afghanimals finish at the opposite end of the order from where they thought they should have, but, in Phil's words, they've got one life left since this is a non-elim.
Leg 11
1. Next stop is Tokyo, Japan. Afghanimals manage to finagle a 5-minute lead on the other teams by getting an alternate flight connection in Singapore, leaving the others wondering where they are. At the airport, there's a bit of a tiff between those other teams, as Marie has done research into the address of where they need to go for their first clue pickup, and will only share that info with the other two teams (whose cabbies want that info) if they'll get a taxi for her team. They're all "screw it" and leave to find it on their own :-\
2. After a clue pickup at a temple with a ton of ceramic cat statues for good luck (I can confirm that this really is a thing :-)), the first task is a Detour, between diving into a phone booth aquarium and memorizing a simple message ("Welcome to Tokyo, Japan. Wasabi taberu [let's eat wasabi]"), and a game show task, involving riding down a sleigh and knocking over bowling pins (replete with host saying "The Human Bowling Game!" and the usual cheesy graphics and BGM) Both involve wearing really weird outfits :-D Having it be simply a Detour choice (and the more "crazy" choice, at that) relegates the game show task to a smaller studio than the previous occasions; that said though, Afghanimals and Tim/Marie take the bowling :-) The former get plenty of Adam West-era Batman-like SFX graphics accompanying their climb to the top of the hill :-D before folding up their outfits after finishing to avoid alerting other teams to their presence, while the latter have a little chit-chat with the host about their break-up: Host calls it "an American love story" while Marie thinks it's "more like an American Horror Story" :-D
3. The bizarreness doesn't stop with the game show detour, as at a local park, the Afghanimals' Speed Bump has them participating in a safety drill involving a (mock) escaped rhino (Phil reassures us this is an actual drill :-D) And it's played more for laughs than the serious business it probably is :-) And this is when the other teams finally notice their arrival, as the local park also has the Roadblock...
4. Roadblock: Pipe up or go home. It involves building a robot sculpture out of given pipes to match the small model on a table, and it's taken by all the girls and Leo. Marie, who was in last coming out of the Detour, has problems spotting the small model in the first place :-D but incredibly manages to finish the task before everyone else :-O And that's even though Amy's helping Nicole with the task, presumably to get rid of the Afghanimals, who are pretty much doing it to themselves by not noticing that the "buttons" that are supposed to be on the front the sculpture are on the back instead :-\
5. Clue pickup from a wandering vending machine (marked in the usual red and yellow, of course :-)) at Shibuya square sends teams to the Pitstop at a local shrine (with a greeter in robot suit :-) Tim quips that she probably wouldn't trade him for the robot :-D) Tim/Marie get a trip to Aruba, and they comment they're going to put the trips in a bag and draw them to go separately :-D + :-\ After the Afghanimals are finally done with the Roadblock, Leo chides the small robot model for making them fall, and they turn out to be right, as Jason/Amy and the ER docs round out the final.
Leg 12
1. Before we head off to the final destination city, we're told that Tim/Marie have a deal to split any prize money 40/60. The final destination this season: Juneau, Alaska, marking a rare occasion that the finish line isn't on the US mainland (in fact, the first two seasons had Alaska as the penultimate leg!) First stop is a Roadblock to drop flour on a big bullseye target. Needless to say, we get Flight of the Valkyries during the task :-) Amy makes quick work of it, getting it in 2 (Marie takes 12, and Nicole hits the bullseye after 21, prompting Travis to comment on her Roadblock struggles over the past few legs :-\)
2. Next stop is a glacier, for a task involving climbing an ice wall above a glacier chasm with pickaxes, walking through a glacier tunnel, and extracting clues from an ice wall with a pickaxe to find one that actually has the clue. As if Nicole's Roadblock performance wasn't enough, she ends up having to climb the ice wall with just one pickaxe instead of two after one of them drops into the glacier chasm :-\ To her credit though, she does admirably with the one pickaxe (and spiked shoes) :-)
3. Clue sends them kayaking to another clue pick-up, then by helicopter and cab to a trailhead for the obligatory memory task. This time around, it involves building a wall of totem poles spelling out the various countries' currencies, and according to Amy, it's literally the only thing she hadn't made notes for. As it happens, in Jason/Amy's interview with RealityTVWorld, it was revealed that they weren't allowed to use their notes anyway, and they remembered all but two of the currencies they used... the other two, they manage to piece together by matching together totem pieces. As far as we can see, all of them manage to get the totem poles right first go.
4. Not much contest for the final finish line at the end of some highway, as Jason/Amy take home the grand prize. Tim/Marie are 2nd, and it's revealed that Marie only raced with Tim because she only applied for the race on the final day of applications and he was the only person next to her that day. The 40/60 deal is also brought up as well, and Tim is all "Then so be it" about the deal. The ER docs finish 3rd, and though they're somewhat disappointed at the result (though to be fair, Amy's Roadblock assistance is the only reason they were even in the final to begin with), Nicole feels they've done their children proud. We have a few conversations with the other teams, especially the Afghanimals talking about their relationship with NHL (Ally/Ashley), and we close on Amy being all Raven Queen and saying "This is the start of my happily ever after" :-)
Leg 10:
1. First stop is at a local park to eat a local delicacy. In the Afghanimals' cab Jamal wonders if it's snake, and Leo says that they don't eat snake here. Turns out that it is snake :-O (plus, they even eat it in front of a well-enclosed cage with actual living snakes in it :-O) Exes Tim/Marie get lost by going to the wrong entrance at first, and to add insult to injury, Marie is a rather picky eater, so you can imagine her reaction to discovering that she's supposed to eat snake :-)
2. Roadblock at a volcano crater: Who's feeling hard-boiled? It involves cooking eggs at a volcanic hot springs (common practice at Asian hot springs it seems, I remember doing it on the same trip that I went to Royal Flora :-)) and the judge will only give the clue if they've hard-boiled theirs long enough. The first three teams all have to go back for seconds, and that's even though Jamal is thoughtful enough to let his eggs simmer a bit longer than the other two :-\ Marie has to do this Roadblock (we're actually shown that the Roadblock teaser specifically says this), and Tim is concerned that she's not very patient, and might probably even be holding the eggs above the hot water rather than in it. Cut to Marie doing just that :-D However, Tim also notes that she always overcooks everything... and after she finally gets the idea to put the eggs in the water, she ends up being the only team to finish this task on the first go :-)
3. Detour between decorating faces to look like traditional dancers (without mirrors, and the judges are VERY strict), and looking for a pair of clippers in a really big tea plantation (shades of season 6's Lena/Kristy much?) The Afghanimals are the only ones doing the tea task, and they compare it to looking for a needle in a haystack, where they don't know what the needle looks like, as illustrated when they pick up what looks to be a flag with a really long stick :-\
4. After what feels like a couple hours at the tea, the Afghanimals briefly check out the other Detour and discover it's also tortuous (and requires shaving!) and go back. They end up spending something like 5 hours looking for their clippers (even coming across a snake at one point! 8-O), and it turns out to be in one of the first rows that they had checked (like I said, shades of Lena/Kristy much?)
5. Pitstop is at a beautiful waterfall. Jason/Amy finally win their first leg, getting a trip to Cancun... and a couple words from Phil about their Detour make-up job :-D We have an epic cab/footrace between Tim/Marie and the ER docs, and T/M edge out the ER docs Travis/Nicole for 2nd and 3rd (Phil on Nicole: "And I thought Jason/Amy looked ridiculous :-D") The Afghanimals finish at the opposite end of the order from where they thought they should have, but, in Phil's words, they've got one life left since this is a non-elim.
Leg 11
1. Next stop is Tokyo, Japan. Afghanimals manage to finagle a 5-minute lead on the other teams by getting an alternate flight connection in Singapore, leaving the others wondering where they are. At the airport, there's a bit of a tiff between those other teams, as Marie has done research into the address of where they need to go for their first clue pickup, and will only share that info with the other two teams (whose cabbies want that info) if they'll get a taxi for her team. They're all "screw it" and leave to find it on their own :-\
2. After a clue pickup at a temple with a ton of ceramic cat statues for good luck (I can confirm that this really is a thing :-)), the first task is a Detour, between diving into a phone booth aquarium and memorizing a simple message ("Welcome to Tokyo, Japan. Wasabi taberu [let's eat wasabi]"), and a game show task, involving riding down a sleigh and knocking over bowling pins (replete with host saying "The Human Bowling Game!" and the usual cheesy graphics and BGM) Both involve wearing really weird outfits :-D Having it be simply a Detour choice (and the more "crazy" choice, at that) relegates the game show task to a smaller studio than the previous occasions; that said though, Afghanimals and Tim/Marie take the bowling :-) The former get plenty of Adam West-era Batman-like SFX graphics accompanying their climb to the top of the hill :-D before folding up their outfits after finishing to avoid alerting other teams to their presence, while the latter have a little chit-chat with the host about their break-up: Host calls it "an American love story" while Marie thinks it's "more like an American Horror Story" :-D
3. The bizarreness doesn't stop with the game show detour, as at a local park, the Afghanimals' Speed Bump has them participating in a safety drill involving a (mock) escaped rhino (Phil reassures us this is an actual drill :-D) And it's played more for laughs than the serious business it probably is :-) And this is when the other teams finally notice their arrival, as the local park also has the Roadblock...
4. Roadblock: Pipe up or go home. It involves building a robot sculpture out of given pipes to match the small model on a table, and it's taken by all the girls and Leo. Marie, who was in last coming out of the Detour, has problems spotting the small model in the first place :-D but incredibly manages to finish the task before everyone else :-O And that's even though Amy's helping Nicole with the task, presumably to get rid of the Afghanimals, who are pretty much doing it to themselves by not noticing that the "buttons" that are supposed to be on the front the sculpture are on the back instead :-\
5. Clue pickup from a wandering vending machine (marked in the usual red and yellow, of course :-)) at Shibuya square sends teams to the Pitstop at a local shrine (with a greeter in robot suit :-) Tim quips that she probably wouldn't trade him for the robot :-D) Tim/Marie get a trip to Aruba, and they comment they're going to put the trips in a bag and draw them to go separately :-D + :-\ After the Afghanimals are finally done with the Roadblock, Leo chides the small robot model for making them fall, and they turn out to be right, as Jason/Amy and the ER docs round out the final.
Leg 12
1. Before we head off to the final destination city, we're told that Tim/Marie have a deal to split any prize money 40/60. The final destination this season: Juneau, Alaska, marking a rare occasion that the finish line isn't on the US mainland (in fact, the first two seasons had Alaska as the penultimate leg!) First stop is a Roadblock to drop flour on a big bullseye target. Needless to say, we get Flight of the Valkyries during the task :-) Amy makes quick work of it, getting it in 2 (Marie takes 12, and Nicole hits the bullseye after 21, prompting Travis to comment on her Roadblock struggles over the past few legs :-\)
2. Next stop is a glacier, for a task involving climbing an ice wall above a glacier chasm with pickaxes, walking through a glacier tunnel, and extracting clues from an ice wall with a pickaxe to find one that actually has the clue. As if Nicole's Roadblock performance wasn't enough, she ends up having to climb the ice wall with just one pickaxe instead of two after one of them drops into the glacier chasm :-\ To her credit though, she does admirably with the one pickaxe (and spiked shoes) :-)
3. Clue sends them kayaking to another clue pick-up, then by helicopter and cab to a trailhead for the obligatory memory task. This time around, it involves building a wall of totem poles spelling out the various countries' currencies, and according to Amy, it's literally the only thing she hadn't made notes for. As it happens, in Jason/Amy's interview with RealityTVWorld, it was revealed that they weren't allowed to use their notes anyway, and they remembered all but two of the currencies they used... the other two, they manage to piece together by matching together totem pieces. As far as we can see, all of them manage to get the totem poles right first go.
4. Not much contest for the final finish line at the end of some highway, as Jason/Amy take home the grand prize. Tim/Marie are 2nd, and it's revealed that Marie only raced with Tim because she only applied for the race on the final day of applications and he was the only person next to her that day. The 40/60 deal is also brought up as well, and Tim is all "Then so be it" about the deal. The ER docs finish 3rd, and though they're somewhat disappointed at the result (though to be fair, Amy's Roadblock assistance is the only reason they were even in the final to begin with), Nicole feels they've done their children proud. We have a few conversations with the other teams, especially the Afghanimals talking about their relationship with NHL (Ally/Ashley), and we close on Amy being all Raven Queen and saying "This is the start of my happily ever after" :-)
