The Amazing Race, season 26: Legs 5 to 9
May. 1st, 2015 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsLeg 5
1. After a lengthy NCAA-induced hiatus, we return to TAR with Team SoCal Laura/Tyler's Bangkok fireworks date night before everyone gets bunched on the same flight to Munich... which turns out to be another location dear to Steve/Aly (Team Sochi) because they met at a pre-Games dinner there :-)
2. First task: Dress up in liederhosen and dirndl, producing the expected laughs :-D Next task: Find a marked Ford Focus (of course :-)) from the top of a local tower, before driving to an abandoned factory for their next task. This is where things begin to get interesting: SoCal decide to switch cars and accidentally leave a fanny pack behind :-/ which Jeff/Jackie (Team JJ) come across while having themselves a big argument :-/ Still better than Kurt/Bergen (only remaining M/M), who apparently can't drive stick (26 seasons in, and non-stick drivers still apply? :-/ Well, perhaps they get cast rather than apply...) and decide to just take a cab to the factory :-/
3. Factory has been dressed with a winter wonderland for a task designed to show off the Ford's rear view camera: Drive backwards and read mirrored signs to put together their next destination. It's to both Ford's and contestants' credit that the only issue anyone has with the task is pronouncing Schliersee :-) SoCal notice their missing fanny pack and decide to wait outside after doing the task and ransack JJ's car when they show up (plus JJ even deny that they took the pack... interesting...) Somewhat amusingly, Hayley(/Blair, Team RX) is wearing similar attire to the cluegiver lady at the task :-) Kurt/Bergen instantly drop to last when their lack of Ford forces them into a 2 hr penalty :-/
4. Schliersee Lake, and Sochi are first, as Phil snarks on their lame rowing to the clue pickup :-D It's also stated in the clue for Schliersee that they may now use their navigational system to get to the lake, which many viewers have noted seems to suggest they weren't allowed before, thus putting that little scene of Sochi apparently using the nav system to drive to the factory under question :-/ Meanwhile, team Fordless snark on not having their Ford and its nav system before taking the train :-/
5. Detour's between carrying 22 really big steins of beer between the two contestants all at once (!) or stacking 15 empty beer crates into a tower. Sochi nail the stein task first go in impressive fashion :-) Not much to write about with the crates, just guys stacking crates, hanging from ropes when their stacks give way, and knocking over their stacks after getting their 15...
6. Roadblock: Who's ready to woo? Involves singing a romantic serenade in German, and getting splashed every time one screws up :-D It appears that they're allowed to use a lyric sheet after the first attempt, which Previously.tv assumes because TAR doesn't want to give anyone pneumonia in the November timeframe this was being filmed...
7. Pit stop is at a small pier, and Sochi take 1st place, and a pair of Fords with it, while Phil ends up eliminating Fordless in a train station waiting room, and we leave on Bergen calling out his teammate for essentially quitting before going his separate ways from Kurt (after admitting earlier in the leg that they weren't really in it for the romance :-/) So just like that, we've got an all M/F line up going forward...
Leg 6
1. Next stop is Monaco, but first, a stopover in a rather Nice town ;-) in the Riviera for sone dressup :-) Mike/Rochelle (Team Truckstop) start like 3 hours behind everyone else, but manage to get on equal footing by getting on standby for the Nice flight :-)
2. After some fancy dressup that sees Blair being compared to Peewee Herman :-D everyone heads to Monaco, via super awesome helicopter :-) :-) which prompts Matt/Ashley (Hairstylists) to feel like they're James Bond and Pretty Woman :-D Roadblock clue pickup right at the heliport: Who wants to treat their partner? Get some Princess Grace roses from some park vendor (who pronounces the name French-style, which one contestant makes light of :-)) and then some chocolates (mmmm...) Jenny(/Jelani, ex-lawyers) and Laura team up for the task, and this will be important...
3. Next up is a ride to the legendary Monte Carlo Casino (which Phil introduces in a tux! :-)) for a blind Detour pickup, where instead of letting the teams choose, a roulette wheel chooses between Don't Slack Off and Win by a Nose, both of which call for teams to drive themselves in (of course) a Ford Fiesta.
4. Quite a bit of drama is devoted to Jenny realizing she's misplaced her Monaco map (appears that Laura took it during their teamup...) and teams getting lost on the way to the Nose task in Eze... certainly didn't seem Eze to get there ;-) Speaking of Laura, she and Tyler decide to rechristen themselves with more fancy names: Magdalena and Hayes :-D It's also noted that some of the roads they're using form part of the Monte Carlo racetrack, as we're given a camera angle that would look right at home in a different kind of race coverage :-)
5. On to the actual detours themselves, beginning with Slack, which involves ziplining in one direction and tightrope walking back the other. I suppose Jenny may have seen Tangled recently, because she's screaming "This is so fun" a la Rapunzel on the zipline, then calling walking back "the craziest thing I've ever done" :-D And one of the other contestants apparently feels like crapping his pants after the task :-D
6. Nose involves mixing perfume to a list of given ingredients. Curveball: Some of those ingredients are in numbered bottles (!) so less sophisticated noses, like say, Mike/Rochelle might find it a bit of a challenge... :-/
7. Pitstop is at another pier, and much of the rest of the show is devoted to teams making their way there in their Fords, before Hayley/Blair win themselves a trip to South Africa, most of the teams take a mass selfie, and JJ get eliminated (rather bluntly I might add; Phil doesn't even bother with telling them they're last)... but before they leave, Jackie promises to give Jeff her number <3
Leg 7
1. It's a double episode this week :-) After another date night for SoCal in Monaco, everyone's heading to Namibia, which prompts Mike to say that he's never heard of Namibia, calling it Nambia while reading the clue :-D Anyways, everyone signs up to fly out in bush planes to some remote area, and H/B are the last to take off, but there is dome consolation (for Hayley at least ;-)) Their handsome pilot Hagen (who even gets a name caption :-D), which leads to a visual of a selfie between the team and Hagen having Blair squiggled out :-D
2. From the landing strip, everyone gets to drive Ford Ranger trucks (of course ;-)) to a bushman village, picking up saltlicks from a labeled pile on the way... and we find out that SoCal got themselves another date night (3rd in a row!)
3. In a nice local touch, the Roadblock clue is an eggshell with the words "Who's feeling grassy?" on it :-) Task involves erecting a grass hut, and the most notable things to happen are not directly related to the task, with SoCal forgetting their saltlick and having to double back for it and Hayley playing with the bushmen kids :-) Meanwhile, M/R are overtaken by H/B at the landing strip parking lot because Truckstop can't figure out how to start their Ford truck (how ironic... appears they were using the wrong key :-D + :-/) and Tyler is a "rockstar" for finishing the task first :-D
4. Saltlick turns out to be for dropping off at a ranger's office, also doubling as the Detour clue pickup: Track down an elephant using a radio device, or cut up some meat to feed wild dogs. Latter is limited to three at a time, which forces H/B and Sochi to track the elephants (M/R is so far behind, the other teams have already finished the task by the time they show up) Laura's grandpa and uncle were butchers, so that helps SoCal do well at the task, while Ashley is retching :-D + :-/
5. From there, it's a 200+ km drive to the pitstop at Spitzkoppe mountain, during which a caravan of four teams, led by SoCal ends up heading in the wrong direction, leading to quite a bit of chaos :-/ while H/B overtake Sochi and their punctured tire... Steve was apparently driving too close to one side of the road :-/
6. While SoCal take the longer and flatter path to the mat, Matt/Ashley literally climb their way to the win and $5,000 each, while Sochi are spared from elimination, but there's a Speed Bump coming up...
Leg 8
1. Heading straight to the next leg now, everyone's camping outside, and they're surprised to see Sochi still in the running, before checking out the sunset :-) Okay, so this leg has a U-Turn, and it's the last leg for the ex-lawyers to use their Express Pass, and it begins with the teams being driven (as in, by production-hired chauffeurs) back to civilization, more specifically Swakopmund, to pick up a German newspaper (Namibia is a former German colony) that has their next clue in it... In German :-) thus forcing teams to get it translated (one contestant does briefly think they're heading back to Germany :-D)
2. First stop, a skydiving place for a Roadblock... that does not involve having contestants skydive, much to Hayley's disappointment :-) Instead, it's one of those Travelocity gnomes and a yellow box that gets to do it, and contestants go looking for them where they land... Meanwhile, ex-lawyers got a flat and are getting it changed at a gas station...
3. Sochi's Speed Bump involves making a little plane toy out of aluminum can pieces, and I can vouch that over where I live, quite a few people practice the art of soda can craft :-) Detour is between Work, flattening rough roads by dragging heavy tires behind a truck, and Play, sand skiing. Both have their challenges: Either getting the tires off the tire pile, or skiing up to the top of the dune (view's totally worth it though :-))
4. In a rather amusing touch, Phil announces that the Work task will be "judged" by a guest foreman... by which he means a Travelocity gnome in a work vest :-D Blair makes an off-handed comment about how the rough roads are a metaphor for Hayley's personality :-D while with sand skiing, contestants get to ride a big flat board down the dune toboggan-style when they're done :-)
5. Double U-Turn, with M/A deciding to retaliate against the ex-lawyers for ditching them in Bangkok, and SoCal U-Turning Sochi. Ex-lawyers use their Pass on skiing, so they only have to do road flattening, and with Sochi bleeding time on the Roadblock by heading in the wrong direction from the dropoff, it's almost a foregone conclusion at this point (like most legs this season :-/)
6. Pitstop at an oasis, and all the teams get to drag an animal to the finish, leading to the most bizarre pitstop footrace for 1st ever :-D with SoCal bringing in their feisty zebra ahead of M/A's oryx to get their first leg win, and a trip to New Zealand :-) Another amusing moment: Phil checking in H/B with their camel Dave and their gnome :-D while Mike has a brief scare being kicked by a zebra (OUCH!) Sochi get eliminated with a camel in tow, as Phil snarks on their walk to the pitstop being the slowest they've ever moved, and Steve quips about bringing the camel back to Massachusetts :-D
Leg 9
1. We open on the remaining teams having a dinner together, where much is made of M/A's U-turn on the lawyers, before showing SoCal perusing the Travelocity website about that NZ trip they just won, H/B talking about Hayley's little crush on their way to the airport :-D and then everyone heading to Amsterdam on the same flight... Tyler of SoCal expects their first task to involve boating; instead turns out to be a shoe matching Roadblock (Who's got a nice set of klompen?) where Tyler comments on the costumes he's worn throughout the race (liederhosen, ladyboy, Monaco tux) as he's putting yet another one :-D Ex-lawyers once again use their knack to detail to ace the task in first, while it takes 43 (!) tries for Matt to get their shoe :-/
2. And because the Dutch really love their bikes, TAR makes contestants bike to their next clue pickup in downtown Amsterdam :-) In the November cold :-) And in a nice touch, the ride includes a ferry across the stream especially for bikes and pedestrians :-) After getting out of the Roadblock in last, M/A spend a good chunk of their ride bickering, and Matt refuses to turn at the street Ashley suggests... and end up getting lost :-/ and ultimately double back to that street, while more bickering ensues :-/
3. Tyler's expected boating turns out to be one half of a Detour... and it's a hot tub boat even :-) There's also a rebus along the way, but whereas most teams get the "skating rink" part off the bat, some teams expect the fact the first sign is five I's to mean something (and I was thinking the same thing :-/)... instead it just turns out to be "ice" :-/ The other half involves a primitive shuffle-boarding game, involving sliding discs into scoring slots, with the target total for both members at 51... And to finish the whole "M/A just can't do anything right today" storyline, Matt rocks his turn on their first go for 42 leaving Ashley only needing 9... and then she gets only 5 in spite of Blair's coaching, so they have to go again :-/ Meanwhile, after guessing "Roman skating rink" (:-D!) ex-lawyers end up getting some pedestrian to help them with the I's in the rebus...
4. As suggested by the first half of the Detour, the Pitstop is at an ice skating rink in front of the "I amsterdam" sign near the Rijksmuseum, and SoCal win themselves a trip to Korea, while Phil brags about his co-greeter being the next Gretzky :-) M/A come in last, and everybody's got to go home sometime... but not today (paraphrasing Phil here :-))
1. After a lengthy NCAA-induced hiatus, we return to TAR with Team SoCal Laura/Tyler's Bangkok fireworks date night before everyone gets bunched on the same flight to Munich... which turns out to be another location dear to Steve/Aly (Team Sochi) because they met at a pre-Games dinner there :-)
2. First task: Dress up in liederhosen and dirndl, producing the expected laughs :-D Next task: Find a marked Ford Focus (of course :-)) from the top of a local tower, before driving to an abandoned factory for their next task. This is where things begin to get interesting: SoCal decide to switch cars and accidentally leave a fanny pack behind :-/ which Jeff/Jackie (Team JJ) come across while having themselves a big argument :-/ Still better than Kurt/Bergen (only remaining M/M), who apparently can't drive stick (26 seasons in, and non-stick drivers still apply? :-/ Well, perhaps they get cast rather than apply...) and decide to just take a cab to the factory :-/
3. Factory has been dressed with a winter wonderland for a task designed to show off the Ford's rear view camera: Drive backwards and read mirrored signs to put together their next destination. It's to both Ford's and contestants' credit that the only issue anyone has with the task is pronouncing Schliersee :-) SoCal notice their missing fanny pack and decide to wait outside after doing the task and ransack JJ's car when they show up (plus JJ even deny that they took the pack... interesting...) Somewhat amusingly, Hayley(/Blair, Team RX) is wearing similar attire to the cluegiver lady at the task :-) Kurt/Bergen instantly drop to last when their lack of Ford forces them into a 2 hr penalty :-/
4. Schliersee Lake, and Sochi are first, as Phil snarks on their lame rowing to the clue pickup :-D It's also stated in the clue for Schliersee that they may now use their navigational system to get to the lake, which many viewers have noted seems to suggest they weren't allowed before, thus putting that little scene of Sochi apparently using the nav system to drive to the factory under question :-/ Meanwhile, team Fordless snark on not having their Ford and its nav system before taking the train :-/
5. Detour's between carrying 22 really big steins of beer between the two contestants all at once (!) or stacking 15 empty beer crates into a tower. Sochi nail the stein task first go in impressive fashion :-) Not much to write about with the crates, just guys stacking crates, hanging from ropes when their stacks give way, and knocking over their stacks after getting their 15...
6. Roadblock: Who's ready to woo? Involves singing a romantic serenade in German, and getting splashed every time one screws up :-D It appears that they're allowed to use a lyric sheet after the first attempt, which Previously.tv assumes because TAR doesn't want to give anyone pneumonia in the November timeframe this was being filmed...
7. Pit stop is at a small pier, and Sochi take 1st place, and a pair of Fords with it, while Phil ends up eliminating Fordless in a train station waiting room, and we leave on Bergen calling out his teammate for essentially quitting before going his separate ways from Kurt (after admitting earlier in the leg that they weren't really in it for the romance :-/) So just like that, we've got an all M/F line up going forward...
Leg 6
1. Next stop is Monaco, but first, a stopover in a rather Nice town ;-) in the Riviera for sone dressup :-) Mike/Rochelle (Team Truckstop) start like 3 hours behind everyone else, but manage to get on equal footing by getting on standby for the Nice flight :-)
2. After some fancy dressup that sees Blair being compared to Peewee Herman :-D everyone heads to Monaco, via super awesome helicopter :-) :-) which prompts Matt/Ashley (Hairstylists) to feel like they're James Bond and Pretty Woman :-D Roadblock clue pickup right at the heliport: Who wants to treat their partner? Get some Princess Grace roses from some park vendor (who pronounces the name French-style, which one contestant makes light of :-)) and then some chocolates (mmmm...) Jenny(/Jelani, ex-lawyers) and Laura team up for the task, and this will be important...
3. Next up is a ride to the legendary Monte Carlo Casino (which Phil introduces in a tux! :-)) for a blind Detour pickup, where instead of letting the teams choose, a roulette wheel chooses between Don't Slack Off and Win by a Nose, both of which call for teams to drive themselves in (of course) a Ford Fiesta.
4. Quite a bit of drama is devoted to Jenny realizing she's misplaced her Monaco map (appears that Laura took it during their teamup...) and teams getting lost on the way to the Nose task in Eze... certainly didn't seem Eze to get there ;-) Speaking of Laura, she and Tyler decide to rechristen themselves with more fancy names: Magdalena and Hayes :-D It's also noted that some of the roads they're using form part of the Monte Carlo racetrack, as we're given a camera angle that would look right at home in a different kind of race coverage :-)
5. On to the actual detours themselves, beginning with Slack, which involves ziplining in one direction and tightrope walking back the other. I suppose Jenny may have seen Tangled recently, because she's screaming "This is so fun" a la Rapunzel on the zipline, then calling walking back "the craziest thing I've ever done" :-D And one of the other contestants apparently feels like crapping his pants after the task :-D
6. Nose involves mixing perfume to a list of given ingredients. Curveball: Some of those ingredients are in numbered bottles (!) so less sophisticated noses, like say, Mike/Rochelle might find it a bit of a challenge... :-/
7. Pitstop is at another pier, and much of the rest of the show is devoted to teams making their way there in their Fords, before Hayley/Blair win themselves a trip to South Africa, most of the teams take a mass selfie, and JJ get eliminated (rather bluntly I might add; Phil doesn't even bother with telling them they're last)... but before they leave, Jackie promises to give Jeff her number <3
Leg 7
1. It's a double episode this week :-) After another date night for SoCal in Monaco, everyone's heading to Namibia, which prompts Mike to say that he's never heard of Namibia, calling it Nambia while reading the clue :-D Anyways, everyone signs up to fly out in bush planes to some remote area, and H/B are the last to take off, but there is dome consolation (for Hayley at least ;-)) Their handsome pilot Hagen (who even gets a name caption :-D), which leads to a visual of a selfie between the team and Hagen having Blair squiggled out :-D
2. From the landing strip, everyone gets to drive Ford Ranger trucks (of course ;-)) to a bushman village, picking up saltlicks from a labeled pile on the way... and we find out that SoCal got themselves another date night (3rd in a row!)
3. In a nice local touch, the Roadblock clue is an eggshell with the words "Who's feeling grassy?" on it :-) Task involves erecting a grass hut, and the most notable things to happen are not directly related to the task, with SoCal forgetting their saltlick and having to double back for it and Hayley playing with the bushmen kids :-) Meanwhile, M/R are overtaken by H/B at the landing strip parking lot because Truckstop can't figure out how to start their Ford truck (how ironic... appears they were using the wrong key :-D + :-/) and Tyler is a "rockstar" for finishing the task first :-D
4. Saltlick turns out to be for dropping off at a ranger's office, also doubling as the Detour clue pickup: Track down an elephant using a radio device, or cut up some meat to feed wild dogs. Latter is limited to three at a time, which forces H/B and Sochi to track the elephants (M/R is so far behind, the other teams have already finished the task by the time they show up) Laura's grandpa and uncle were butchers, so that helps SoCal do well at the task, while Ashley is retching :-D + :-/
5. From there, it's a 200+ km drive to the pitstop at Spitzkoppe mountain, during which a caravan of four teams, led by SoCal ends up heading in the wrong direction, leading to quite a bit of chaos :-/ while H/B overtake Sochi and their punctured tire... Steve was apparently driving too close to one side of the road :-/
6. While SoCal take the longer and flatter path to the mat, Matt/Ashley literally climb their way to the win and $5,000 each, while Sochi are spared from elimination, but there's a Speed Bump coming up...
Leg 8
1. Heading straight to the next leg now, everyone's camping outside, and they're surprised to see Sochi still in the running, before checking out the sunset :-) Okay, so this leg has a U-Turn, and it's the last leg for the ex-lawyers to use their Express Pass, and it begins with the teams being driven (as in, by production-hired chauffeurs) back to civilization, more specifically Swakopmund, to pick up a German newspaper (Namibia is a former German colony) that has their next clue in it... In German :-) thus forcing teams to get it translated (one contestant does briefly think they're heading back to Germany :-D)
2. First stop, a skydiving place for a Roadblock... that does not involve having contestants skydive, much to Hayley's disappointment :-) Instead, it's one of those Travelocity gnomes and a yellow box that gets to do it, and contestants go looking for them where they land... Meanwhile, ex-lawyers got a flat and are getting it changed at a gas station...
3. Sochi's Speed Bump involves making a little plane toy out of aluminum can pieces, and I can vouch that over where I live, quite a few people practice the art of soda can craft :-) Detour is between Work, flattening rough roads by dragging heavy tires behind a truck, and Play, sand skiing. Both have their challenges: Either getting the tires off the tire pile, or skiing up to the top of the dune (view's totally worth it though :-))
4. In a rather amusing touch, Phil announces that the Work task will be "judged" by a guest foreman... by which he means a Travelocity gnome in a work vest :-D Blair makes an off-handed comment about how the rough roads are a metaphor for Hayley's personality :-D while with sand skiing, contestants get to ride a big flat board down the dune toboggan-style when they're done :-)
5. Double U-Turn, with M/A deciding to retaliate against the ex-lawyers for ditching them in Bangkok, and SoCal U-Turning Sochi. Ex-lawyers use their Pass on skiing, so they only have to do road flattening, and with Sochi bleeding time on the Roadblock by heading in the wrong direction from the dropoff, it's almost a foregone conclusion at this point (like most legs this season :-/)
6. Pitstop at an oasis, and all the teams get to drag an animal to the finish, leading to the most bizarre pitstop footrace for 1st ever :-D with SoCal bringing in their feisty zebra ahead of M/A's oryx to get their first leg win, and a trip to New Zealand :-) Another amusing moment: Phil checking in H/B with their camel Dave and their gnome :-D while Mike has a brief scare being kicked by a zebra (OUCH!) Sochi get eliminated with a camel in tow, as Phil snarks on their walk to the pitstop being the slowest they've ever moved, and Steve quips about bringing the camel back to Massachusetts :-D
Leg 9
1. We open on the remaining teams having a dinner together, where much is made of M/A's U-turn on the lawyers, before showing SoCal perusing the Travelocity website about that NZ trip they just won, H/B talking about Hayley's little crush on their way to the airport :-D and then everyone heading to Amsterdam on the same flight... Tyler of SoCal expects their first task to involve boating; instead turns out to be a shoe matching Roadblock (Who's got a nice set of klompen?) where Tyler comments on the costumes he's worn throughout the race (liederhosen, ladyboy, Monaco tux) as he's putting yet another one :-D Ex-lawyers once again use their knack to detail to ace the task in first, while it takes 43 (!) tries for Matt to get their shoe :-/
2. And because the Dutch really love their bikes, TAR makes contestants bike to their next clue pickup in downtown Amsterdam :-) In the November cold :-) And in a nice touch, the ride includes a ferry across the stream especially for bikes and pedestrians :-) After getting out of the Roadblock in last, M/A spend a good chunk of their ride bickering, and Matt refuses to turn at the street Ashley suggests... and end up getting lost :-/ and ultimately double back to that street, while more bickering ensues :-/
3. Tyler's expected boating turns out to be one half of a Detour... and it's a hot tub boat even :-) There's also a rebus along the way, but whereas most teams get the "skating rink" part off the bat, some teams expect the fact the first sign is five I's to mean something (and I was thinking the same thing :-/)... instead it just turns out to be "ice" :-/ The other half involves a primitive shuffle-boarding game, involving sliding discs into scoring slots, with the target total for both members at 51... And to finish the whole "M/A just can't do anything right today" storyline, Matt rocks his turn on their first go for 42 leaving Ashley only needing 9... and then she gets only 5 in spite of Blair's coaching, so they have to go again :-/ Meanwhile, after guessing "Roman skating rink" (:-D!) ex-lawyers end up getting some pedestrian to help them with the I's in the rebus...
4. As suggested by the first half of the Detour, the Pitstop is at an ice skating rink in front of the "I amsterdam" sign near the Rijksmuseum, and SoCal win themselves a trip to Korea, while Phil brags about his co-greeter being the next Gretzky :-) M/A come in last, and everybody's got to go home sometime... but not today (paraphrasing Phil here :-))
