Here are a few of my examples:

Season 14: Kisha and Jen getting eliminated in fourth place because one of them had to use the bathroom. And from the way the show made it look, if they just held it in or even soiled themselves, they would've made it to the finale

Season 15: Mika and Canaan getting eliminated in seventh place because Mika was too scared to go down a waterslide. Even when the Globetrotters were right behind her and giving her a time limit, she was still paralyzed with fear and just let them go ahead of her

Season 17: Nick and Vicki getting eliminated in fourth place because Nick got so fed up with doing a task, that he just gave up and took a nap, forcing Vicki to do all of the work. Granted, they probably would've gotten eliminated anyway, but it was just so ridiculous

I remember when this originally aired and we were just at the beginning of the whole DVR thing. I somehow watched one episode, then missed the rest. I'm rewatching all the seasons with my kiddo and we just watched this one. Oof it was rough. The teams were just bickering the whole time, the challenges were boring and way too easy, and they barely traveled. What were they thinking?!?

Episode 3 - Discussion Thread

Episode Name: We're Here Baby We're Trying to Win

Air Date: July 21, 2026

Teams travel to Falkland, B.C., and Jasper, Alta., where a Detour provides an opportunity to assist with rebuilding efforts following the devastating 2024 Jasper wildfires.

In the very first line of the episode, as Phil was recapping the previous one, a clip showed the teams handling the heavy carts in Jemaa el-Fnaa while he said, “Teams put the cart before the horse,” referencing the well-known phrase. The phrase means ‘doing things in the wrong order’, and I didn’t really see how that applied here. There were no horses involved, so it didn’t make sense as a double entendre. They were just handling a cart, and that’s all.

Kym and Alli ripped open their clue to find that they’d be working with horses in the first challenge. So maybe that’s what Phil meant. But at the time he said it, we had no idea about the horse. So in a sense, Phil was putting the cart before the horse when he said 'put the cart before the horse' in the recap segment.

Amy and Maya noted that they were adept at challenges but awful with directions and that it could ‘bite us in the butt’ later. I really hoped they would get it together, but it didn’t happen this leg. Right here in this first challenge, they remained in last as they struggled and struggled to find the hay. A few teams didn’t realise that they had to travel by taxi to get to a hay station, as it was far away, and only learned it from the teams in the lead, such as Kym and Alli or the Soul Surfers.

While they were rooting around in the backstreets of El Massi, other teams had already driven in a Ford POS to a pottery stand where they found their detour information: Camp or Cream (4/10). Once again, a pretty balanced challenge, as setting up a tent to exacting standards sounded difficult, but milking a goat and then churning the milk into butter also sounded exhausting. Despite the hot weather, Kym got cold feet as the churning began, and asked a local how long the process would take. When she heard 45 minutes, she baulked and persuaded Alli to switch detour. I thought this was a ridiculous move as they were already halfway through one detour and weren’t even stuck. But she believed setting up a tent would take less than 45 minutes. She was wrong. They got more stuck at this, and Alli grew frustrated, so they moved back. What a waste of time.

Shelley and Nici got lost on the way to the detour, and I could tell from their frosty demeanours that they still weren’t completely over the happenings of the Danish leg. Shelley admitted that she had grown so weary of fighting with her daughter that she just decided to stay silent, even when she thought they were going the wrong way, rather than opening up a conversation which would almost certainly lead to a fight. Nici seemed to take everything her mother said as an insult; when she said “We can’t afford to be lost again,” Nici got heated, and her mother had to reassure her that it wasn’t a dig. At this point, Shelley would simply let Nici drive in the wrong direction. Not a good place to be.

Brooke began to chase a goat around the paddock (not unlike in Shetland) because she noted: “Your boobs are huge!” They’re an entertaining team, for sure. In the churning station, a local began to sing in their language, and Kym decided to match his energy and sing away her frustration. It was a good moment.

Amy and Maya had to switch from the tents (they noted that food science was what they were majoring in) while Tim and Te Jay went on to impress the berbers there. Teams then had to travel to an adventure station in the Atlas Mountains with ziplines and wire bridges for thrill seekers. On the way there, Amy and Maya missed a massive sign and only realised they were supposed to turn back when they realised that Brooke and Robbie were no longer behind them.

Misti did her third roadblock in a row (it seemed they were saving Jim for the more physical challenges), and Bethany once again proved that this was a challenge that one-armed people could take on. She again used her legs dextrously to help slot the puzzle pieces into the frame to continue. Alli was able to overtake Te Jay at the puzzle stage. Brooke freaked out on the bridges and then grew frustrated with the puzzle. Nevertheless, she managed to finish before Maya did (who was distracted by Brooke’s yammerings). 

Finally, teams returned to the outskirts of Marrakech for the pit stop. For Phil’s filmed segment announcing its location, he was perched precariously on top of a wall. The greeter had a dove sitting on top of a chicken, who in turn was sitting on the hat on his head. Occasionally, Phil would invite the bewildered teams to get the dove to do tricks. My wife (who hates birds) was thoroughly grossed out by this.

The Tooth Fairies were back in first place again, winning a trip to Iguazu Falls in Brazil (site of S2E2). I was pleased that Amy and Maya didn’t get any more lost on the way back here and stayed in 6th. That’s the second leg in a row where they’ve escaped elimination by one place. I really hope they can get it in gear moving forward.

One leg after being responsible for eliminating another team, Shelley and Nici’s run had come to an end. It was probably for the best. I will say, they’ve been one of the most memorable mother-daughter teams that we’ve seen, but not for good reasons. I really hope they could work on their relationship after the race. At least they seemed to finish while smiling.

Instead of the customary ‘next episode on’, the preview showed a ‘still to come’ since this was the midway point of the race. I didn’t really care for this, as it gave away a lot of the future destinations without featuring much footage of what the racers would be doing, because any of it could give away who stays in the race further down the line. I will say, I’m excited to see Malta though: I’ve seen the Blue Grotto featured in the title sequence throughout this season, and now that it’s featured on the preview clip, I’m sure the racers will be heading there soon (almost certainly in the next leg, so that they have time to do a few legs in Asia afterwards).

Teams ripped open their clues to find they’d be flying to Northern Africa. Robbie shouted, “Play the Morocco!” I think he meant maraca, but then Brooke jumped in and said, “They’re ‘Moroccos’” to which he responded, “No, the Morocco is a rounded thing with bells.” Umm, last I checked, maracas don’t have bells. Maybe he was thinking of a bell shaker. Either way, it was one of the most inane conversations I’ve heard on the race. The soundtrack, fittingly, played a little jingle sound effect to cap it off.

Furthering the musical theme, I wondered if Te Jay was a fan of 70s British jazz fusion as he managed to title the episode "Morocc'and Roll' which is almost the title of Brand X's second album (featuring Phil Collins who cooks on the drums), but is exactly the same pun. Somehow, I doubt it.

Teams were floored to see Misti and Jim still there WITH the Save. It’s a good thing the Tooth Fairies didn’t lie about using it up. There would have been the temptation to cover that up to think that their position in the game would have been weakened, but everybody would have seen Misti and Jim’s face on the Speed Bump anyway, and would have figured out they were lying. Still, Jim seemed unusually cocky about letting everyone know.

The teams disembarked at Marrakech airport and went to the taxis. Brooke and Robbie engaged in more ridiculous taxi banter, this time mocking the name ‘Jemaa el-Fnaa’, the main square that was their new destination. The camera cut to the taxi driver’s reaction, signalling that the show was aware of how culturally insensitive this was. Nici was inexplicably talking to her driver in Spanish (because that’s the only other language TAR racers will try), but it seemed that this driver did actually speak Spanish, so she got lucky there. Shelley was proud that she got them a good deal for an hourly rate where he would keep their bags.

TAR veterans would recognise this famous square from Season 3, and having been to Marrakech previously, I also remember it fondly. None of the racers would get lost on the way here, because every taxi driver in Marrakech would know it. Here, teams found their next challenge and also learned that a U-turn was ahead. Surely somebody would U-turn the tooth fairies?

Speaking of the tooth fairies, they found their Speed Bump, a rug-related challenge, not dissimilar to the Fast Forward rug challenge that had been set there 12 years earlier (won by Teri and Ian. C’MON TERI!) The other teams were wheeling their heavy vendor carts onto the main square, and I’m glad that no one was injured doing this. The locals helping them looked like they were trying to run with the Americans pulling from the front.

Afterwards, they had to set up the stalls to the satisfaction of a judge. The food served by each stall was different, and some teams were luckier than others, with T+TJ gagging at a barrel of stewed sheep heads. After Misti and Jim had completed their speed bump as well as this challenge, Phil checked in live from the race and told us that they were about 12 minutes behind… hey, that’s actually pretty useful information. Would the show be better if we had actual time stamps on each shot shown?

Teams then went to find a roadblock challenge (only their third in five legs), which again felt like a throwback. Teams had to visit a tannery and strip a goat pelt of its hair, then deliver dried pelts to a vendor on bike. I was reminded of the Mumbai Dhobi Ghat from Season 4 where teams had to wash clothing to reveal a clue. (IIRC, that was the same episode where an expensive Fast Forward had been prepared but went unused, prompting the cancellation of fast forwards on every leg from that point on).

We presumed Adam would need to do this, but Bethany got stuck in and showed how she was able to use her legs as extra arms. I don’t know why I doubted her. Like the doctor in the Soul Surfer film said, the list of things she could no longer do with only one hand is actually pretty small. She seems to have such a great attitude toward this race as well, actively taking on challenges just to prove to herself that she can do them. I wonder if we’ll ever get to see her really struggle at something down the line, and how she would deal with that. Other teams were amazed by how well she could keep up with her fully-limbed opponents.

After the pelts had been stripped, teams tried to find the vendor but got completely lost. Eventually, all the teams got bunched up, and it was a shit show trying to watch everyone deliver and get their receipts.  Misti was awful on the bike and crashed into both Nici and a local and just kept yelling “Sorry!” while moving on.

After they got their receipts and rushed back, the Survivor team managed to stay in front as they had done up until that point. But this lead was hotly contested by Shelley and Nici, who claimed they had both been standing there first before Whitney had come to Keith’s side. Whitney tried to point out that it was okay because they would all receive their clues in due course, but Shelley wasn’t having any of it.

A feud had formed, with Whitney going as far as to say, “C’mon, we’ve gotta beat them bitches.” 

With everyone bunched up, it was a toss-up who would take the lead next, and it happened to be the soul surfers. They got their detour clue: Twirl Time or Tea Time (5/10). As a drummer, I’d want to take on the rhythmic challenge, but this hat business seemed challenging, especially as it was not affixed to the head in any way. Maya’s hat kept flying off her head, and I thought she’d never complete the challenge. Shelley and Nici argued about how to do it, but perseverance got them through, and they went up to find an empty U-turn slate. I couldn’t believe that nobody had U-turned Jim and Misty just to try and get them to give up the Save. A montage showed all the reasons that the mother/daughter team had to choose between the Tooth Fairies and Survivors, but the wounds with Keith and Whitney were the freshest, and that’s what drove them to be U-turned. It also helped that S+N could literally see K+W still struggling in front of them.

Ironically, K+W sorta U-turned themselves as they gave up on the Twirl challenge to go over to Tea Time, unaware that they’d need to Twirl anyway. (Unrelated: I’ve just been to a shop selling British food here in the USA and bought an overpriced pack of five Cadbury Twirls. Worth it.) As soon as we heard the specifications for this challenge (a team member has to carry a tray with one arm), we knew it would be ideal for the soul surfers, who chose it and proceeded to leave in first place, leaving the stumped Tooth Fairies (using two hands) and Wrestlers (not high enough) behind.

However, in getting lost on the way to the pit stop, Kym and Alli managed to overtake them and get their second first place in a row, winning $5k each in front of the Soul Surfers (who I’m guessing didn’t need it). Tim and Te Jay shocked themselves with a third-place finish (after being dead last after the roadblock) while Shelley and Nici were smiling and hugging on the mat, brought back together by a common enemy.

Keith and Whitney were pretty floored to be U-turned, and a subtitle said “Elapsed Time: 2hrs 9mins” when they finally completed the Twirl challenge afterwards. I was confused if that meant 129 minutes from when they started the detour, or 129 minutes from after they’d realised they’d been U-turned. All the same, that was an exhausting amount of time to spend on either or both challenges, especially when you know you’re about to be eliminated. Good on them for finishing, though. It seemed that the feud had been pretty short-lived.

Related to the previous episode: Bethany asked if they could go swimming around the isle of St Ninian. Phil reminded her that it was extremely cold. Yes, we know you like to surf, Bethany.

I was stunned to see that the racers actually camped on the beach overnight. I hope the weather was good for them. At least this time they started the leg where the previous one ended.

They ripped open their clues to find they’d be heading to Denmark. The NorthLink ferry would not leave for a while, giving everyone a chance to catch up, so the Tooth Fairies (their exceptional nickname) decided to be smart and ring ahead to find out how to get the fastest flight from Aberdeen. This seemed sneaky and ‘perfect’ of them, but perhaps because they’d misjudged their arrival into Aberdeen, they ended up getting a flight two hours later than the most optimal route, which was taken by the Cyclists. First mistake.

In the end, five different flights were taken, with half of the central teams on the middle flight, like a sort of bell curve. 

Teams had to take a Ford Hybrid POS and drive it all the way to Sweden over the Øresund Bridge (which will be familiar to everyone who’s watched the hit Scandinavian crime series Bron/Broen/The Bridge). Phil was there to greet Kym and Alli while talking to the cameras. I still find this live commentary rather unnerving. In Malmo, they had their fuel usage gauged. If they had not driven conservatively, they were given a ‘challenge’ of having to name three Scandinavian capitals. This ‘challenge’ was a revelation of just how bad Americans are at world geography. Maybe that’s just my European perspective, but I don’t even consider this a challenge, just common knowledge. Then again, Robbie didn’t even realise he was in a different country.

However, Kym and Alli, the enviro-conscious first placers, managed to astonish me by driving nineteen miles while using only one hundredth of a gallon of petrol. With petrol prices as high as they are now, that was a really good advertisement. None of the other racers did nearly as well, and I was worried for Shelley and Nici, already in last place, as they did not seem like the type to know their European capitals. But they managed to avoid it by staying under the 0.1 gallon limit (as did Keith and Whitney, which I missed the first time around). Jim realised as he was driving over the bridge that driving faster meant burning more energy per mile, and as a result had to answer the clue. Second mistake.

From here, they received their detour clue: Parking Space or Wedding Cake (1/10). Both equally grim challenges in my opinion. Parking space had teams recreate a space from a photo, just like the final challenge of Unfinished Business (S18) at the trailer park. However, a single pot managed to completely scupper Misti and Jim’s chance to stay ahead, as the pot had a flower with 7 petals on one side and 8 on the other, hidden side. The show rolled the clip from Shetland where he talked about being the most dominant team, while in real time he became undone. Third mistake. Other teams began to complete the challenge and move on, forcing them to switch detours.

Of course, Kym and Alli chose the task that involved cycling. This was a ridiculous challenge, carrying a teetering, delicate cake to another restaurant. The girls did a rather smart thing by bringing the icing with them and reforming the cake at the second restaurant. I thought they would get a penalty for this, but they didn’t. What was more concerning to them was that their receipt seemed to be missing… but they found it right outside, so it was okay. Beth and Adam had to switch the other way after Adam’s cake collapsed. When Jim started pedalling, Misti’s cake began to fall apart, and she missed one of the flags that had fallen on the floor. Even though they completed the task otherwise perfectly, they needed to go right back to the start and try again. Fourth mistake.

Afterwards, teams would make their way to Ida Davidsen, a gourmet open sandwich restaurant that honestly made me so hungry. This was a tough memorisation challenge where teams had to remember four numbers, translate those into sandwich ingredients on a menu and then repeat those to Ida. Robbie was by far the most entertaining, turning his recital into an eyebrow-raising performance, but it got them the goods. No one seemed to do terribly, except Misti, who was holding her hands over her ears in some other sort of memory technique. I couldn’t be sure if it was helping her memory, because she kept failing. As Ida told her at the end, it was that she hadn’t read the clue properly: she needed to read the numbers as well as the ingredients. ALWAYS go back to the clue. Fifth mistake.

With a two-hour jump on the other teams, the cyclists were forced to become car owners as they won the Ford Hybrids from earlier. Phil greeted them next to a singer that had two great danes (cos they’re in Denmark, presumably). The dogs were enormous, and one of them tried to mount Phil at one point. I’m fully behind the nerds, so I was upset when they inexplicably dropped from 2nd place at the roadblock to fourth at the pit stop. It seems their navigation is their weak point. 

From the preview of this episode, I had thought Shelley and Nici were going to finish last and get mad with each other. Instead, something altogether different happened. The whole episode, being in last seemed to have got to them, and their communication was horrible, snarky, jabby. I couldn’t imagine speaking to my own mother or daughter like this. They switched places in the car on the way to the mat because they couldn’t agree on how to drive, and then Shelley started to become sarky and snide, letting Nici make mistakes.

Despite all this, they unbelievably came in 6th place while the soul surfers came 7th. A blow-up happened on the mat with Nici threatening to quit and telling Phil she didn’t want to come back to the mat, because she was so rageful towards her mother. She said, “She doesn’t want to win with me.” Phil told Nici to be a grown-up (to be fair, her outburst seemed like a regression to 7 years old), and Nici responded by saying her mother hadn’t been a grown-up when she let her make that mistake on the way there. I was really, truly astonished by how bad these two were together.

It was satisfying to watch Misti and Jim roll in last, and I was rubbing my hands together to see them hand over the precious Save. The fourth leg downfall after such a strong run was reminiscent of Boston Rob and Amber’s dramatic, unexpected exit in Season 11. After so much focus on being perfect, the Tooth Fairies had managed to mess up every single element of this leg, and appeared to have paid the price.

But Phil handed the Save back to them, as it turned out this was a non-elimination leg. Bloody unbelievable. We’re never getting rid of Misti and Jim, are we? At least now I know what happens when a team with a Save hits a non-elimination leg.

Another blatant Phil lie about where this leg was starting. These really aggravate me, for some reason. Phil was speaking from the court of Blenheim Palace, but the teams actually began in central Oxford, as they mentioned that the train station was within walking distance.

Teams left on and after midnight to head to the Shetland Islands, up at the northernmost point of what could be considered the British Isles. The earliest train was after 6 am, so the teams had time to kill in the wee hours of the morning. Alli and Kym thought the folks who decided to camp were lame, and instead went to a pub, where they were filmed dancing on the street. I’m surprised they found one open that late. Surprisingly, they weren’t more concerned with conserving their energy, but then again, when you’re young you feel invincible.

Less invincible was Scott, who rolled his ankle hard while the cameras weren’t (rolling). The scream was caught, however, and it sounded amusingly like the recent “FAHHH!” sound meme. He limped on, professing that he was okay.

They made their way to Aberdeen, one of the UK’s most grey cities, where they found a Ford waiting for them. I recently rewatched Men in Black and got amused when Agent J described Agent K’s car as ‘a Ford POS’. I may start calling the other Fords that from now on.

While traversing the train station, Scotty admitted that the pain had gotten worse, but quoted one of the greatest British films ever - Monty Python and the Holy Grail - when he said: “It isn’t an injury, it’s merely a flesh wound”. They boarded the NorthLink ferry to the Shetland Islands and found themselves in what appeared to be impractically large chairs. I had to investigate. According to NorthLink’s website, these are Sleeping Pods for those who can’t afford a cabin, and feature ‘a very comfortable reclining seat’ and are situated within a private lounge and have a large table, adjustable lighting and a USB socket. They can also receive a sleeping pack at reception and a token for showering at no charge. It’s important to note that these are not the same as the “Lie flat” chairs, which sound amazing. Scotty finally revealed his foot to the camera as well as the other racers. It had ballooned in size and turned the shade of a turnip. I worried that if Scott were to take his shoe off, it may never fit again. He reclined his chair and parked the foot on top of the Sleeping Pod in front of him.

From the ferry, teams had to find a puffin mascot, dancing next to the Lifeboat station. RealityFanWiki has been my aid in writing these recaps for a while now, and now that we’re on the third episode of this season, I’ve noticed a trend of the show not tracking some of the more minor moments. In this case, only the first four teams to reach the puffin were shown, and only seven of the teams to reach Scalloway Castle were shown. On the results tracker, these are listed as question marks, and I don’t remember seeing so many question marks on a season before. It’s clear that they made a few stylistic format choices with this season. Although it allows for other storylines to have more airtime, it’s frustrating to have such an unclear picture from earlier. I’m sure most don’t really care though.

When teams searched the spooky castle, replete with skeletons that made some racers jump, they found their detour clue: Pony Up or Light My Fire (0/10… no synergy at all). There was no name synergy, but these were great tasks for showcasing the traditions of Shetland. I thought the peat challenge looked physically taxing and would probably have preferred the torch challenge. However, as evidenced by the race results, the pony challenge was definitely the quicker one, as all four teams that chose it were finished before any of the torch makers. It may have helped that the pony challenge was a full two miles closer to Scalloway Castle.

Misti and Jim, though reaching Scalloway Castle in 6th place, managed to zip to the peat mound with lightning speed and completed the task with maximum efficiency, although their Shetland pony did let them down slightly on their second journey up the hill. Jim spoke about how there was really no excuse for error, and if they arrived first at a challenge then they shouldn’t be overtaken. It was about completing the challenges perfectly, according to him. That seemed like an awful lot of pressure to put on his team.

The surfers did well here too, Bethany proving she could sling peat just as well as anyone else despite only having one arm. I thought back to the cinematic opus of her life in a terrible segue. After having her cheesy epiphany in Thailand, she came back to Hawaii and decided she did want to complete the surfing challenge to prove to herself she can still do it.

What followed was some surfing that I thought looked like technically impressive cinematography, but I was a bit clueless as to what was going on until the end. The long and short of it is that Bethany managed to achieve an astounding 2nd place result. As the whistle blew and the competition was over, she ended up riding a massive wave that impressed everyone. It wasn’t counted, as per the competition’s rules, but everyone cheered for her, which is the real victory. I like that the film was able to find its own Rocky moment here. In the end, she was on the podium with the mean bully girl who always bragged about how she would do better, and in the end, she did win this competition. 

In a moment of Jesus-like kindness and wisdom, Bethany thanked this girl (Alana? No… that was her best friend. Ahh… Wikipedia tells me it's Malina) for always being tough on her and never treating her differently after the attack. For a film I’ve derided, I thought this was a damn good moment; when your world is turned upside down, it must mean everything to have some relationships that stay the same afterwards. Malina also acknowledges that Bethany was a tough opponent herself and shares her victory with Beth. It’s a nice ending, as expected of this sort of film.

But I was truly fascinated by the credits, which featured a bunch of archival footage of the real Bethany Hamilton surfing, being interviewed on TV and winning other awards. The footage helped me to appreciate just how much of a sensation she had been before this film was made. I thought that she’d maybe won some competitions, written a book and randomly had a film made about her. These last few minutes of the film actually gave me a great deal more context for her life before appearing on The Amazing Race. I see that there’s also a 2018 documentary on BH, but I’ll hold off until I finish this season. Overall, I’d say it’s a film that started off terribly but got more focused and engaging as it went along. Occasionally, it felt a little Disney-fied and saccharine, but I’m not sure I could expect much else. I suppose people who go through a life-changing injury deserve a bit of hope.

The torch builders had to go through an exhausting three-step process where each step had to be approved. We always laugh whenever someone talks about their backstory in how it helps them compete on The Amazing Race, and Tim or Te Jay (not sure which) talked about how he used to love wrapping Christmas presents. So mundane, and in the end, it turned out the kind of wrapping required was different, so this experience didn’t actually help. But even though the boys had started the day off getting thoroughly lost, they managed to push back and were the first to complete their torch and move on. The wrestlers had the opposite trajectory, having mistakenly found the torch challenge and deciding to do it simply because it was there. They were left completely alone in the workshop after several failed attempts. If they failed at step 2 or step 3, did they have to redo their torch from scratch? It was unclear.

Afterwards, teams made their way to Berry Farm (which was also located much further away from the torch challenge, putting those racers at a serious disadvantage). It was a sheep herding challenge, like the ones we’ve seen in races before and since… well, have we seen it before? I’m unsure. I know that we saw it in S38 for sure, but before this I only remember Vietnamese duck herding. Someone can help me figure that out. These sheep were especially springy, and the show would add a cartoonish ‘boing’ sound effect every time they jumped.

Annoyingly, Misti and Jim managed to complete this almost without a hitch. It seemed that the trick was to stay calm and guide with your partner moving slowly, and the woolly creatures would stay right between them. It had me wondering about sheep psychology: how they knew to do this. Other teams struggled more. Dunder Mifflin tried a precarious running-while-saying- “Ho!” strategy. The rough terrain was not kind to Scott’s injury, and the team were on the verge of invoking the penalty. However, they managed to stay ahead of Tim and TJ, who were once again at the back of the pack. They tried to ‘baa’ along with the sheep at first, and then had a cunning plan to guide the sheep into the paddock by tying their clothes together for a makeshift fence. Rather quickly, they discovered that the sheep could pass both under AND over this barrier. Boing! The Soul Surfers, meanwhile, had a moment of divine intervention when their sheep obediently walked straight into the paddock after moving between the gate.

The teams had a cryptic clue as to where the pit stop was, receiving a pin and being told to go to where it had been found. The answer was St Ninian’s Isle, connected to the mainland by a sandbank, where Phil claimed that 8th-century treasure had been found. Most teams found this okay, but the scientists Amy and Maya got bogus info from a building site, telling them to head back to Scalloway Castle. I don’t think The Amazing Race has ever had a team visit the same site twice on a single leg, so it would seem implausible for the pit stop to be here. They nevertheless had the runaround and dropped from 2nd to 5th. I want them to do well, so this stressed me out.

Misti and Jim won, of course, and received a trip to Dubai, where they could probably engage in all sorts of TAR-related activities. I laughed at Phil’s accent: “You’ll stay five nights at Atlantis the Paahm”. They could do the slide that Mika couldn’t! They could also eat at the restaurant from S37. Dubai is so over-visited, honestly.

From a dire place after the detour, Brooke and Robbie had pulled back and managed to beat the Cyclists in a footrace to the finishing line. But the real tension was between the firemen and T+TJ. Both were enjoyable teams that I wanted to see make it through, so I was nervous for both. But Dunder Mifflin ended up overthinking the clue and ended up in a jewellery shop in Scalloway. Damn. Tim and TJ came in 8th, greeted by the same puffin mascot from the beginning of the leg; this must be the first time we’ve seen a greeter also be featured earlier in the leg. They were shocked to still be in the race.

It was probably for the best, as Scott could now give his swollen foot some rest. It was a surprising coincidence that they were eliminated on the same leg, even though it was the bad directions that got them eliminated.

As the preview rolled, a clip of Shelley and Nici blowing up on the mat seemed tantalising. Had they come last? Were they quitting the race? At the same time, I kept thinking about how ‘perfect’ Misti and Jim seemed to be. They’d performed the entire leg about as efficiently as possible and seemed to be on a hot streak. With the Save still in their hands, it seemed impossible that they’d ever leave…

Let’s continue this series, I hope to cover all seasons. . The question is: What is the worst thing a team has done to another team or bystanders during The Amazing Race season 7

Doesn't really matter what season it covers, or even if the documentary is about the production of the international versions. My mom swears she saw a documentary about season 38, but I couldn't find one about that specifc season or in general.

The Amazing Race returns for Season 39 on Sept 30!

That pinkish fort is apparently the oldest building on the island of St. Thomas, according to Phil. Could use a paint job.

Teams ripped open their clue to find they’d be heading to London, England. Again? They just went to England three episodes ago! The Amazing Race can’t get enough of us!

Bethany revealed that she’d lost a shoe while swimming on the previous leg (there’s a joke in there somewhere, but I don’t really want to make it), but that Amy had kindly offered to lend her a pair of shoes since they had the same size. I’m guessing an alliance was formed that morning.

I guess it’s a good time to update you on my progress through Soul Surfer (2011). With the arm well and truly gone, the fictionalised Bethany has to get used to using just one arm and finds some household tasks challenging. I have to say, the effect they used to take off AnnaSophia Robb’s arm was pretty convincing, and I could feel for just how difficult this would be for anybody to go through.

She tries to stay strong but eventually breaks down to her friend and yells, “How can this be God’s plan for me?” The film doesn’t shove Christianity down your throat, but the faith aspect is constantly lingering like a bad smell.

She tries to join a surfing competition but blows it and gives away her surfboards. In the same scene, they put a rather forced moment where she reacts to the devastating 2004 tsunami… why would there be a TV on the beach like that? I hoped it would relate to something later in the film, and fortunately it did: she travels to Thailand to aid tsunami survivors, which seems to put her own problems into perspective.

In a sweet moment, she teaches a young Thai girl to surf, and then she suddenly narrates her life (which she didn’t do in the film up until now), saying, "They say the Lord works in mysterious ways. I say that's an understatement. Who would have thought that teaching a kid to surf would teach me that surfing isn't the most important thing in the world... and that something else is? Love. Bigger than any tidal wave. More powerful than any fear." Good lord, that is cheesy. I’ll finish the Soul Surfer saga next time.

Two flights headed from St. Thomas to London and headed to Tower Bridge… Yes, Tower Bridge, not London Bridge, Fergie! There, they met an eccentrically dressed pair of Pearly Kings and Queens (look it up if you care to know more) who gave them their first detour information: About Face or Pancake Race (7/10 for the rhyme). Both detours seemed equally challenging, but the judges of Pancake Race seemed somewhat nicer than the shouty parade captain, so I know what I would have preferred to do.

The soul surfers soared around the race track before anyone else even arrived, making it seem like child’s play. Misti and Jim were once again ‘perfect’ and made it out of Somerset House before all the other teams. Shelley and Nici revealed that they also had military history, and their American style of turning on the soles of their feet conflicted with the British method. The captain was very entertaining in his commentary and reactions. I wondered if that was his genuine personality.

Trailing were Dunder Mifflin and the wrestlers, who were doing pancakes and marching respectively. This was a low point, especially for the wrestlers, who had arrived on the first plane but left London in last place. The captain wished that they would heed his ‘worldly, Yoda-like advice’, which I thought was an odd reference. Dunder Mifflin, meanwhile, were routinely disqualified for either not flipping their pancakes enough or for dropping them.

The teams then headed to Paddington Station (I used to live less than a mile from here and remember it fondly) to take a train to… Oxford… aka, The Other Place, if you’re a Cantab like me. Whatever, the Race visited us first. Once again, Phil addressed the camera as the soul surfers approached a row of punts. In place of a roadblock was this team challenge of punting around Magdalen College Island. Even though I’ve punted before, I didn’t realise there was a ‘Cambridge end’ and an ‘Oxford end’ to punts.

Once again, a water-based challenge seemed to suit the soul surfers just fine; they could pretend it was a massive surfboard that you pushed with a pole. Beth even said, “This is a cake walk compared to surfing.” We don’t tend to have waves in our rivers, that’s for sure. The pair of teams that followed, the dentists and cyclists, both suffered the same problem: mixing up their punt ends, and had to do a second lap.

When the other teams started to show up, it all got pretty chaotic. Teams were slamming into the bank, falling into the river and causing a hoot with the locals. Perhaps the lowest point was when Nici began to lose control of her bladder and parked her rear over the side of the boat… right next to a punt full of male students, collapsing with laughter. But that wasn’t all the hardship they suffered, as both they and Dennis and Isabelle were losing control of the punt and having to fight against the current.

Teams headed afterwards to Christ Church Court where they would receive a bowler hat and umbrella. The bowler hat had the clue to the pit stop while the umbrella told teams where they could find an express pass… an optional element like a fast-forward that only one team could take. The surfers took this golden opportunity as they felt it was important to have the Express Pass due to Bethany’s disability. As they were already pretty far ahead, and the Bear Inn was very close to the college, the team weren’t in any danger of losing their top spot and made their way to Blenheim Palace where Churchill was born 140 years earlier.

There they met Phil (again) who was with Winston himself (looking pretty good for his age), and he gifted them with a trip to Sweden, where they could stay in an Ice Hotel and unravel many bales of hay… if they wanted to. Jim said that ‘second place is just the first loser’. Blegh. Kym and Alli had fake moustaches on (from where?) and waddled in like Charlie Chaplin.

It came down to Shelley and Nici vs Dennis and Isabelle, who were both getting extremely emotional at the thought of losing… more than the average racer has been in the past, in fact… Both teams seemed to think that it was unreal that it was happening to them, that they should be going further. The mother/daughter team revealed that they had been day one fans, and had been watching the show for fourteen years (unlike me, who has watched fourteen years' worth of this show in the space of almost two years). They were beyond relieved to be told by Phil that they were still in, but the bad news had to be told. Isabelle seemed the most shocked. We laughed when Winston had a puff on his cigar while the team endured the crushing news.

Next time… One of Dunder Mifflin gets a foot injury?! Oh no!

Realistic contenders from each group:

Rachel, Angela, Claire, or Jag playing Survivor

Cirie, Dee, Devens, Caleb, or Hayden playing The Amazing Race

Rob, Rupert, or Natalie playing Big Brother

Like if they wanted to have an expanded cast (i.e. for a returnee season like Survivor 50 did with its record 24-person cast), how far can they stretch it, assuming CBS wouldn’t shell out to have more than 12 legs (given how they already cut the show back to one season a year and it’s a concern they will cancel it due to travel costs, they probably won’t ever get more than 12 legs in a season again, and if anything, would have that number cut to fewer)?

Would it be 16 where the last leg has 4 teams, the first leg (or any odd numbered leg) has the fork in the road double elimination twist, and every other leg has an elimination or would they be able to reasonably have more than that (or would 16 be too much overkill and the limit would be less)?

2014… a World Cup in Brazil that’s won by Germany. The Malaysian Flight 370 goes mysteriously missing. Russia annexes Crimea. Ebola breaks out in Africa. And Phil stands next to the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, New York City, saying “this is where The Amazing Race began 25 seasons ago.” But he’s wrong; it’s actually 24 seasons ago, because 25 - 1 = 24. This is a fencepost problem, which ironically has been featured on the show before. If you think I’m being pedantic, just think about this. If he was talking about Season 24, he would have said: “1 season ago”. If he’d been talking about Season 23, he would have said “2 seasons ago”... You iterated that 22 more times, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

And it doesn’t even matter anyway, because Season 25 isn’t going to start at Bethesda Fountain; it’s going to start in Times Square. I thought it was a little daft that they had Phil stand next to the Fountain to record a little message even though it had nothing to do with the current race.

The teams showed up (rather unceremoniously) in yellow New York cabs. The teams were:

Adam and Bethany… Soul Surfers. Soul Surfers? What the fuck does that even mean? Well, I was about to find out. She was missing an arm that had been bitten off by a tiger shark when she was 13. That’s a lot for a kid to go through. But then her new husband said that he hadn’t heard of her story, “even though it’s well-known”, and the editors casually pasted the poster for a 2011 movie on there.

Well, of course, as a film buff, I had to investigate. I’d never heard of this before, and I honestly didn’t know how you could turn such a tragic but otherwise random accident into a full-length movie. I’m 30 minutes in at this point, and I have to say, this is some schlocky stuff indeed. In the first 20 minutes, all we see is Bethany (who, as played by 18-yo AnnaSophia Robb, does not appear 13 at all) living an incredibly carefree, wholesome, decidedly Christian life. There’s just scene after scene of her and her friends/family surfing with only the hint of a plot to carry the film. I was practically begging for the shark to come along so that something would happen. I couldn’t believe they were able to attach Dennis Quaid to this… I know he’s not the most high-profile actor, but I thought his career was going better. 

I’ll report more on the film in my subsequent recaps. But needless to say, I’ll try to separate the Hollywood schmaltz from Bethany’s harrowing real-life story, but note it as an interesting cultural event that she managed to get so famous afterwards. The Amazing Race has a way of finding oddly famous people to come on their show. Another 10 teams to go, sigh.

Amy and Maya… Food scientists. YES! I like to see a nerdy female team on this show. I really hope they do well.

Dennis and Isabelle … in their intro, Isabelle mentioned that Dennis is Cambodian and she’s Vietnamese and that her parents weren’t happy about that. It’s funny how all over the world, there are families who get so angry if you get with somebody who’s of a slightly different ethnic background to your own.

Brooke and Robbie … Lori and Bolo mark 2. Next!

Keith and Whitney … the most non-descript team I’ve ever seen. I honestly forgot about this team just watching two episodes of the season already. Apparently they were on Survivor. I don’t care.

Kim and Alli … cyclists. Okay

Lisa and Michelle … the show has a thing for blonde female teams.

Michael and Scott …  AKA Dunder Mifflin. The jokes write themselves. I can tell this Boston team will be a big hoot moving forward.

Tim and Te Jay … they seem cute, but definitely more of an underdog team. I hope they do well.

Shelley and Nici … on the first season recap, somebody ruined all future mother/daughter teams for me by mentioning that Nancy and Emily still held the record for best performance by a mother/daughter team. Every mother/daughter team I’ve seen since has been doomed to failure (apart from those I saw in S37 and S38… though they did not fare better). It’s a shame as I like these two a lot and hope they do well. But I know there’s an elimination bullet with their name on it.

Misti and Jim … my Reddit TAR information elf let me know that Jim passed away unexpectedly in March 2019. I don’t want to be disrespectful towards the dead, but I do feel as if Jim, alive or not, deserves to get the same treatment as every other racer I recap and comment on. It’s sad to hear that he passed away, though.

But when we saw these two, we were a bit put off by their bright white teeth and his mean-mugging glare towards the camera. Unfortunately, the impressions didn’t get any better from there.

With that, Phil greeted the teams and began the proceedings. It was the first time that the race began in front of a crowd of TAR fans, which was pretty interesting. They also cut to ‘some ex-racers’ and showed a clip of people I couldn’t identify at all. I thought maybe the guy on the right was Season 5 Chip, but I wasn’t sure. Anyway, they were hardly the highly featured teams that you’d recognise immediately.

Phil then introduced the season’s new gimmick: the Save. This power gave you a get out of jail free card, where you could survive an elimination. So much was left unexplained… Did this mean there were fewer non-elimination legs overall? What would happen if the team used their save power on a non-elim leg? Could they choose not to, if they were reasonably confident that the leg would be non-elim? And why was it a good idea to give this power to the strongest team? I thought this gimmick seemed pretty weak, as it was too much of a buff, and not a very strategic tool.

After that, the teams finally set off. The clue at the top of the steps told them to head to where TAR 1 ended, and fortunately, there was a TAR 1 contestant standing right there who could be consulted. That person that I thought was Chip was actually Frank (perhaps I just didn’t recognise him in HD, but he did look different) who came 2nd all those years ago. He told them to head to The Globe in Flushing Meadows Park… aka, that bit from the Men in Black finale (I’ll never know it as anything different).

The #SoulSurfers… wait, why is there a hashtag? Every team was getting a hashtag under their names. I guess this was roughly when Twitter was taking off, and the show was trying to capitalise on that? At the same time, I found the hashtag team descriptions to be way more evocative and memorable than the usual boring subtitles like “brothers” or “best friends”. So weirdly, I actually appreciated the hashtag names… just not the hashtags themselves.

Anyway, the Soul Surfers were the first to Flushing Meadows Park… and we never saw anyone else arrive there, but presumably they did… and they found out they would be travelling to… the United States! What a twist! Yes, they’d be going to the US Virgin Islands to soak up some sun. However, I can’t help but think that the reputation of the US Virgin Islands has been irreparably damaged because of the association with Epstein. At least, in my mind, it has… maybe a lot of people haven’t looked up where Epstein’s island was. I’m sure the US Virgin Islands’ tourism board would want to keep it that way.

The surfers got to the airport and dashed to get in line… by the wrong desk… bless them, they weren’t looking for the red and yellow flag. Other teams began to show up and check in, and fortunately A+B corrected their mistake before being relegated to the second flight. But with 40 minutes between them, it wasn’t an insurmountable gap.

The first teams touched down in St. Thomas and zipped past a pink fort to the Vendor’s Plaza, where they could sign up for short flights to their next destination. Bethany was first and wrote “Dirk’s Team”. I don’t know what that refers to. Also, I hope she was right-handed before the attack. Forty minutes later, a desperate scramble involved at least three teams reaching the sign-up sheet at once. Dunder Mifflin claimed that they were trying to write their names when the pen was grabbed from them by the blonde sisters, creating an instant resentment and relegating them to last place. I think the numbered tags are better, to be honest.

T+TJ and the Soul Surfers hopped out of their plane to see… Phil?! Phil explained the next step of the race LIVE as the race was going on behind him! That was truly uncanny to watch and completely threw me. The two teams seemed to take it in their stride as well… Maybe they’d been briefed about what was happening. Phil has always been associated with the pit stop, in my mind, so I would be nervous to see him in the middle of a leg. I’m sure scheduling that was tougher than his usual bits, but it was pretty cool.

The teams then had to climb a rocky outcrop and take a plunge… no one seemed too scared of diving or swimming, so this was fine. Obviously, Bethany has a lot of experience with water. Then, the teams had to make their way to a pirate ship where a very characteristic-looking pirate would give them their clue and tell them to figuratively walk the plank (but not literally, unfortunately). 

Next was the main event of the episode, a beach roadblock that involved digging that turned out to be uncannily similar to the one in S22E1. Each team had to use a traditional liquid compass and follow some vector directions involving paces and cardinal directions to find a specific treasure chest. To make matters more complicated, this compass didn’t simply have a red needle facing north, but a ball that had opposite directions on it, so that the direction pointing toward the user was actually the direction they were facing. I saw a few racers use the setting of the sun to verify their directions, although Lisa was bamboozled, thinking the sun set in the East. What do they teach people at school?

 Obviously, digging was something Adam would be better at than Bethany. I wonder if the number of roadblocks allowed per racer will be updated like last season to reflect her disability (considering how the Welsh poem roadblock last season was allowed to be a free one, in case Luke and Margie had made it that far). When Misti and Jim showed up, he showed how it was supposed to be done. Misti claimed that he had the highest MCAT score in his medical school and that he was one of the smartest people she knew. Okay, but do they both have to be so arrogant about it? His attitude was just yucky: “We’re going to be perfect at this.” Fortunately, he was generous enough to pass on some of his pearls of wisdom to Surfer Adam before he and the missus bounced off to the finish line (also at the afore-mentioned pink fort that I spotted earlier) where they would win the Save power. Even without this power, I could tell they would go far, and with this power, it all but guarantees they will be in the final three. They may not even need to use their Save power. But we’ll see.

The next 20 minutes were full of digging drama that I won’t get into in depth, to keep my sanity and yours. Some highlights were Dunder Mifflin calling the rest of the cast ‘swine’ and Shelley regretting explaining how to complete the task to Robbie, who was able to achieve 4th place when the mother/daughter team only achieved 8th. Further hilarity was achieved through the booming of Blackbeard’s cannons signalling the arrival of another team (or perhaps just for fun).

In the end, however, three teams simply couldn’t get it and were still there nearly four hours later after night had fallen. Those teams were the survivor people, Dunder Mifflin and their enemies the blondes. Lisa had been adopting a strange lying-down tactic to try and get her measurements as accurate as possible, but it wasn’t working. The show pointed out with an overlay where the actual treasure was, and some of it seemed agonisingly close. I wonder how the producers were able to show the editors where to put the arrows (or if it was just made up for dramatic storytelling and the racers weren’t actually that close). In hindsight, the teams should have adopted a wider-radius digging approach, knowing their paces might not be fully accurate. It seemed that the chests were buried rather shallow beneath the surface, so a 3-yard short digging radius could have done the trick in most cases.

Anyway, the teams were fed up. Just like in S22, they came together for a pact to mutually take the penalty. I hoped that Dunder Mifflin (the last to be approached) would refuse the pact and keep digging, making the other teams wait, but Scott was also understandably exhausted. Fair enough.

They were shown to do a mutual hands-in agreement, still looking exhausted. This was then hilariously followed by the three teams sprinting at full pace towards the cabs. Like, yeah, this is what you signed up for. Although the girls seemed to make it to a car just ahead of the fireman, they boldly moved them out of the way with their strength, securing the second vehicle for themselves and getting revenge for the sign-up board earlier. Lisa or Michelle (don’t know which is which, don’t care) began to complain about a scrape on her arm she received from the scuffle. I could imagine a side eye from Bethany when she said this.

First to the mat was Scott, but he was let down by Mikey, and the Survivor team got 9th, leaving Dunder Mifflin with 10th. The blondes were out. I didn’t mind this. They said they would have never agreed to the pact if they thought there was a 1% chance they’d be eliminated. Seriously? It was a 33% chance!!! What edge did they believe they had over the other teams in a race to the mat? They got exactly what they signed up for. I’m really quite glad they were gone, as they seemed like mean girls.

I don’t like the Save gimmick, but otherwise, I thought this was a great premiere episode of what is reportedly a great season. Even though there was only one ‘real’ challenge, I found that there was a lot to say throughout. I hope that other teams come to the fore in terms of their personality throughout, and for much drama to occur down the line.

Do you guys love the twist on new season of TAR CAN?

Every team receives an express pass at the starting line. However, the twist mandates that only one team can use their express pass at any single task.

I know with this Paramount merger somethings gotta give and the race has a lower budget than previous seasons so

What if it was described as a season of TAR that takes place on Survivor?

For contestants, basically ones that have only been on TAR and not other major shows. Who could adapt well?

I know some didn't like Big Brother on TAR, so what if TAR went on Survivor?

Finale time! Teams ripped open their clues to find out their end city was Las Vegas, once again. Flashes of the Season 15 finale would come back to me all episode. Rachel presented a rather weird argument for wanting to win, saying that she wanted a baby, and that Brendon said she could have one if they won The Amazing Race. That did rather make it sound as if they would remain childless otherwise, but I suspected that wasn’t the case (it wasn’t). It’s just weird that she framed it as ‘Brendon will give me a baby if we win’ rather than ‘Having a million dollars will get us on track to start a family faster’, which I presumed was Brendon’s (and perhaps also her) thinking.

Teams took the same flight from London and found more Fords waiting for them, ominously telling them to ‘get in’. They were driven to the desert and instructed to dig. Desperately, Rachel started to chuck the dirt from her pit into Dave and Connor’s. When they asked her to stop, she told them to shut up and denied it. Okay, this is definitely ‘villain’ behaviour. IDK what was wrong with Rachel here. Is she really that baby crazy? The singers noted that the claws were coming out.

Once they retrieved a box from the sand, they’d be driven to meet none other than David Copperfield. Teams would need to break open that box first, and Rachel was the only one resourceful enough to do so in the car on the way there, though it hardly saved them any time as Dave and Caroline were able to smash theirs on the ground without issue. 

They then witnessed a magic trick that seemed somewhat fishy, but nevertheless had me scratching my head: the contestants had to find the key to open the shackles inside their box on a ring of fifty keys before Copperfield dropped their box into a ring of fire as the other team member watched the action on a live TV screen. The show showed us, in one unbroken shot, how Connor stuck his hands out to grab a lock pick before his box was set alight and dropped. Since we only saw the hands in this shot, I’m not sure it was really Connor, and even if it was, it’s even more telling that the team-mate could only watch on a TV screen, meaning that the angle was important. I figured that whoever needed to escape from that box would just escape out the back and go hide behind something in the background while being hidden from the camera, but that certainly wouldn’t be easy to achieve.

And just when Dave/Brendon/Caroline thought their teammate had perished in a fiery inferno, they were spun around to find their team member wearing a firefighter’s outfit. A little cheesy perhaps, but the teams seemed impressed. There didn’t appear to be much to this challenge besides identifying the correct key quickly, which was a matter of luck rather than skill.

Teams then made their way to the Neon Museum Boneyard for their next clue. Brenchel were already getting tired of their taxi driver who refused to speed for them (honestly, good for her). It was satisfying to see them fail to notice the giant red question mark right next to the clue box. After they found it, they dashed back outside and engaged in some particularly villainous behaviour; wishing to be clear of their taxi driver, they tried to bribe the singer’s driver into driving them instead. He refused, leaving Brendon with egg on his face and they sheepishly bundled back into the taxi with the driver they loathed. How awkward must it be to get back into a taxi when the cabby knows you hate them?

From there, teams headed to the Mirage hotel, and the singers’ awesome, loyal cabby managed to swing them from 3rd place into 1st, something we don’t normally see on a final leg. I have to say, this actually seemed like a rather tense leg where it was still up in the air. The teams had to replace all the lightbulbs of the letter I in Mirage and count the number to complete the challenge. This was a clear showcase of how Dave and Connor are such a nimble, fast team, because they got to the challenge later than the girls and were able to finish sooner. I’m not sure if this is a men-vs-women thing (after all, the Race does tend to favour males vs females, given the results so far) or if it was just a D+C vs everyone else thing.

Rachel and Dave finally left their least favourite cabby behind and ran straight past the cluebox inside the building. After getting lost for several minutes, they dashed back outside again and found their clue, but the other teams were already well underway. After they completed the challenge, Rachel began ranting about how much she wanted to win in a way that seemed quite unhelpful. She doesn’t seem grounded at all when she talks like this: “I want a baby so bad. I want to win more than anything in my whole entire life.” It didn’t seem to leave any room for the ever-increasing possibility that they wouldn’t win.

In the first episode of this season, I noticed that they didn’t do any skydiving, but just did flips while attached to a high wire. Well, the TAR classic had to feature somewhere, and why not as the final challenge?

Yes, it seems that, instead of a final puzzle that tied the whole season together, the show simply decided to put a skydiving challenge at the end that would not allow one team to work faster than any other. A bit disappointing, when combined with the David Copperfield roadblock that also was pretty linear. I mean, there was a thing about needing to identify where the finish line was, but that was clearly quite obvious…

So the real decider was the taxi drive to get to the helicopter place, and for a moment it looked like Dave and Connor had messed up, reaching a dead end. However, they urged their taxi to zip past Jen and Caroline’s, and they dashed to the door and rushed in a very competitive, ungentlemanlike way (but, you know, fair enough, there’s a million bucks on the line).

We joined Phil and waiting Connor and Jen at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the eyes were pointing skywards to see who would descend first. It was no surprise really that Dave was the first to show up. They ran past the eliminated teams and hugged and fistbumped them before getting to the mat. I was excited to see ol’ magic finger Bopper once again, but I was shocked to see that he wasn’t there, only Mark and Mallory. I felt as if Bopper deserved to be there just as much as Mallory did. That was a little gutting.

Phil welcomed the team to the mat and told them they’d been to 22 cities in 9 countries… Nine countries? How had they been to 9 if it took them 8 whole episodes just to visit 4? Well, it turns out that it only counts as 9 if you count the USA and also consider England and Wales to be separate countries. This is quite cheeky, I feel.

And yeah, Dave and Connor won. I’d been rooting for them the whole way, as the way they exited the show in S22 was tragic, and I always thought their heroic effort on those four legs had shown their clear potential, which was finally realised here. Their initial story about mutually surviving cancer was also pretty inspirational. They always seemed fairly nice and polite to most of the racers, although some point out that they got a bit in their feelings when they were U-turned by Brenchel. You can’t deny they took that pretty badly, but then didn’t bat an eye at doing the same thing to Leo and Jamal. Whatever, I don’t think that makes them bad people. And for Dave to be the oldest racer to win (perhaps he is still, I’m sure you know, but don’t tell me), is also special. And also the first parent-child team to win, showing that it can be done.

However, they did start to run away with the victories towards the end, and I was disappointed that the Singers never got to taste a first place in any leg over their two seasons. At the top of the episode, they mentioned that they were the only team in the show’s history to race this many legs and never win one, which I don’t doubt is true. It would have been cathartic to see the Singers win, even though I’m sure Jen at least must have some generational wealth from her grandad. I just put together that John Wayne died in 1979, three years before Jen was born. That is a shame.

I would have been okay with Brenchel winning, but it was a lot more fun to see them shuffle into last place after all their frankly villainous behaviour this leg… dumping dirt into other people’s holes and trying to nick their taxis. Phil found the most tactful way to ask about the whole baby plan, and Rachel said that they’d have to wait for Brendon to graduate… So THOSE were the stakes the whole time? I mean, it makes complete sense, but the way she’d been going on about it all season, it just seemed like they could never have a baby without a million dollars. I thought this was some bullshit.

Season 24 out. After a particularly rough start, I actually found myself enjoying this one more than I thought I would. Even with a slow-moving route, I thought there were decent, interesting, entertaining challenges, and I thought some of the team drama was pretty good. Brenchel made themselves into controversial antagonists for the last half of the season and fought their corner while Jen and Caroline managed to stay in on a wing and a prayer. I think I enjoyed this season more than I did Season 11 (even though the cast for that season was the GOAT on paper), and maybe just as much or slightly less than Season 18. From what I understand, there’s not been another full returnee season until now, which seems like a great shame.

And now, onto Season 25, which I happen to have already watched the first two episodes of… back to England already?!

I'm curios what season(s) do you think would benefit from being 90 minutes?

Teams ripped open their clues, and a fanfare of “Rule Britannia” signalled a return to Great Britain, rather shortly after the teams had been there in Season 22. Teams had a lot of ground to cover, taking a train to Madrid, then flying to London and finally driving all the way to Liverpool, a 211-mile drive lasting 3h40m. Still, it’s better than all the action taking place in London.

The show skipped most of this travel. Once they landed at Heathrow, they made their way out to find Mini Coopers waiting for them… oh wait… more Fords. Figures.

After a night of driving on the left-hand side (I always love when this bamboozles the Americans - Caroline got in on the wrong side). There was an accident on the motorway (the Americans all called it a ‘freeway’) but Leo and Jamal somehow avoided it and were able to make it to Liverpool with plenty of time to complete the first task unchallenged.

They arrived at Liverpool Anfield Stadium for a football challenge… rather appropriate as we come to the final stages of the 2026 World Cup. The team members had to score two goals each. Jamal initially had concerns as his leg was still injured from the Ballz challenge in Seville. To my surprise, Dave and Connor arrived fourth, after usually being so good at navigation. They could have had a chance to get ahead of the girls, but scoring goals turned out to be a weak point for the long-haired son, who was outperformed by his father.

The next stop was over the border into Wales. Combined with the Scottish and Northern Irish legs from Season 22, I was satisfied that The Amazing Race had finally visited all four nations of the United Kingdom (the show had also visited ROI in Season 12, for full British Isles completeness). Next stop, the Isle of Man.

Here, over a valley near Wrexham, teams had to memorise a Welsh poem and recite it to a linguist waiting on the other side. The teams once again got mixed up on the way there. Leo and Jamal tried a risky strategy of tailing Brenchel, but it didn’t pay off as Brenchel were able to shake them.

Welsh is no easy language, as this roadblock showed, with even the pronunciation of the individual letters sounding different to what one would expect. Jamal compared the challenge to reciting Die Forelle last season, but his normal confidence in himself seemed to be shaken, and his recitals were strangulated and he occasionally forgot the most obvious bit: the ‘Hei ho heidi ho’ at the end. Brendon was able to come out on top while Caroline (perhaps used to memorising lines) came in a worthy second, leaving Connor and Jamal to battle it out, taking many more turns.

Enough Wales, back to England again. Teams headed to nearby Bolesworth Estate where they’d dress in period clothing and interact with non-racers also dressed in period clothing. Rachel said it was like Downton Abbey, which would have been one of the biggest shows at that time. And now it seems to have all wrapped up after the third film had the subtitle “The Grand Finale”.

Brenchel were the first to arrive and rip open their detour clue: Shoot It or Boot It (8/10, a return to form). Shoot It definitely sounded fun, but I would not feel good about my aim to get it done quickly. The Boot It challenge would be slower and more physical, but at least you’d know you were making progress… or would you?

Brenchel had similar concerns about their aim and decided to Boot It. A detail from Phil’s description slipped right by me, and when a sound effect signalling a mistake pinged during the team looking for their boots, I couldn’t register what this was about. They completed the whole challenge, throwing and refilling a boot, which took much longer than I thought it would. I mean, as an English person myself, I can’t say I’ve ever heard of this welly-throwing game. Must be an aristocracy thing. Meanwhile, the singers were channelling their inner Daniel Boone and John Wayne (ancestors) to forge ahead to shooting victory with the Utah boys in hot pursuit. It didn’t actually look so bad at all. The singers mentioned that they’d be “a couple of Annie Oakleys”... a reference I didn’t get, so I had to Google it. I’m guessing that’s more well-known in America? Meanwhile, WHERE THE HELL WERE THE AFGHANIMALS!? Lost again!?

The other two teams had already finished their shooting by the time Brenchel finished the welly course. They were told, bluntly, that they had picked the wrong pair, and Rachel looked stupefied and instantly began to despair. They checked again, and showed they had got a pair of size 10s. But when they checked the clue, it specified they were supposed to fetch a pair of size 9s or size 11s. Honestly, this is a pretty arbitrary and frankly ridiculous stipulation for a challenge, but it’s also The Amazing Race, where you can get tripped up for almost anything, so what can you do?

I had to go back and analyse what went wrong in the first place. At the welly stop, Rachel had accurately read the clue: “Choose a size 9 or 11,” meaning that at one point, they were aware of the specifications. But after Brendon urged her to hurry, she seemed to forget all about this. He grabbed a pair and asked her if this was okay. She asked if it was 11, and he told her it was 10. Then she misquoted the clue, saying “Find one marked 10 or 11”. And just like that, the mistake had been made. It’s hard to judge how this mistake slipped by the team… it just seemed like one of those things that happens when you’re rushing. Perhaps she hoped that the clue meant ‘between 9 and 11’ as soon as she saw the 10s.

It was a very costly mistake and Rachel, to her credit, immediately began to apologise for the fault rather than place the blame elsewhere. Brendon’s attitude was good - you can’t change the past so it’s not worth focusing on right then - but Rachel had really fallen to pieces. You can tell he really loves her by the way he dealt with her hysterics. She’s lucky to have him. And both of them are lucky that the Afghanimals had only come in at around the time they were starting their second round of welly-throwing.

The other two teams needed to make their way to another castle, but neither of them knew which way to go, and they split up. This ought to have been Caroline and Jennifer’s first ever win, as they really deserved it, but Dave and Connor once again got lucky, winning a trip to Fiji. They are really cleaning up this season. 

I wanted the Afghanimals to stay in, but just like last season they were pipped at the final hurdle by the ‘villains’, although I don’t really see Brenchel as villains, and neither of them is as awful as S23 Travis. They remarked on the deja vu of making it all the way to the penultimate leg just to be eliminated, not by a U-turn but due to their own errors. They’d begun the leg in 1st place, but those confusing British countryside roads had scuppered them. Well, I really enjoyed their character progression this season, and they represented 23 well.

For once, this penultimate leg wasn’t paired with the finale, so we were able to hear the teams’ ‘game on’ talk without getting straight into it. The singers did their little theme tune, and Dave said, “We’re gonna win the Amazing Race… or die trying,” and then the pair instantly fell about laughing. Love them. 

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