The Amazing Race: Week 1

—By the brilliant MR--

Leg One:

The teams gathered to start the AR, and host Phil Keoghan announced a twist: The teams had to complete a challenge before even getting to their cars, and the team that did not finish was eliminated—Oh no! Teams had to look at 1000s of license plates mounted on a wall to find one of eleven plates for a certain area of Japan. The correct symbol was printed on the clue, but most teams didn’t look at their clue carefully (a MUST on the AR) and just looked for any plate that looked Japanese. After much stress and many unsuccessful attempts, one team was eliminated before the race really even started, and that was: Eric & Lisa (yoga instructors who were going to bring nakedness to the AR), and SC is out within the first half hour of the season.

The remaining teams start the AR for real and head for the airport and ultimately Japan. First stop in Tokyo, a Japanese game show called Sushi Roulette, where teams ate the dreaded, spicy Wasabi Bomb before receiving the next clue. Teams had to wait for their random turn to eat the Wasabi Bomb based on the spin of a roulette wheel. SCan’s family should definitely try out for this show!

After successfully completing the game show, teams had to locate a Tokyo shrine (the pit stop) and lead twenty Japanese tourists there with them. Some of the tourists were difficult (sore feet, bathroom issues, and wandering away from the group) and slowed the teams down. Some of the teams were able to find knowledgeable, English-speaking people in the street to help them find the shrine quickly. The first team to arrive with all their tourists to win the first leg were Meghan and Cheyne. (KCoo & AM). Pro poker players Maria and Tiffany (AS & BH) lost a couple of their tourists, incurred a two-hour penalty, and finished last. However, Phil announced that it was a non-elimination pit stop and, although they have to complete an extra challenge during the next leg of the race, Maria and Tiffany (AS & BH) are still racing.

Leg Two:

After a twelve-hour break, teams left for a small village 2600+ miles away in Vietnam. After much airline and bus drama, teams spent the night at a fishing dock before their first challenge of the leg. Teams had to ride in a boat to an area where they dug mud from a pit and moved it to an area around a tree’s roots. Once they filled in the tree roots to a farmer’s satisfaction, they received their next clue. It was a muddy mess, and village locals seemed to enjoy making fun of the contestants, but I’m not sure if it was because the teams were so dirty or because of their lack of mud-moving skills. Meghan & Cheyne (KCoo & AM) kept their lead and returned their boat to the dock first.

Maria and Tiffany (AS & BH) had to do their extra challenge first—something about ordering soup ingredients, carrying them on a tray to the docks, and combining the ingredients and serving the soup. They completed the extra challenge easily and caught up with the rest of the teams at the mud pit challenge.

Next, the teams encountered the first road block of the season. One teammate had to herd 150 ducks through a route to a pen within ten minutes. The best herdsmen seemed to be one of the Missouri brothers, the pink-haired son from a Montana farm, the poker player who raised ducks as a young girl, the guy with Asperger’s Syndrome (aka “the duck whisperer”), and the Harlem Globetrotter with unreasonably long arms perfect for corralling wayward ducks. After getting their “ducks in a row” and into a pen, teams collected their clues and raced through town to a riverboat, the next pit stop. Arriving first were Gary and Matt (father & son from Montana aka “Pinky and the Brain”) (DS). Coming in last, still muddy and smelling like duck, were Garrett and Jessica, who were eliminated, along with JE.

As for the rest of the season: Will the pro poker players continue to lie to other teams about their profession? Will Travelocity continue its shameless plugs? Will the country music virgin continue to say he wants to “rip her head off” when he gets mad at his teammate? Will Lance continue to remind everyone he is an attorney? And finally, are they going to play Sweet Georgia Brown every time the two guys from the Globetrotters do anything?

--Thanks MR for the fantastic recap!  I really enjoyed the show, but must confess I have very non-pc names for all the teams….  Much better that you did the recap!

Because there were two eliminations, there were two possible points for teams moving on.  SCoo’s team went home first, and sadly receives no points for the AR.   JE’s team made the first cut, but was eliminated at the end, earning her one point for the AR.  Everyone else gets two points!  Scores updated below.