The Amazing Race
Tough Day on The Race

CBS' The Amazing Race returns tonight as teams enter the final stage of the race. With only 5 teams remaining and typically 3 teams run the final leg the remaining teams are beginning to feel the pressure. At this point seemingly little mistakes can make the difference between remaining to race another day and drinking cocktails beside the pool at the Amazing Race Sequester House. Who will be drinking the next daiquiri?

 As winners of this leg of the race, Sam and Dan are first to receive their clue to travel 700 miles to Stockholm, Sweden. Once there teams will continue by train and ferry to the Tivoli Grona Lund Amusement Park and find the tallest ride which is the Fritt Fall. 

As the Globetrotters leave, we hear that it's Flight Time's birthday. 

All of the teams arrive at the airport to learn that the ticket counters will open in the morning. Sam/ Dan, The Globetrotters, and Meghan / Cheyne get tickets on the first flight and will have a 2 hour advantage over Gary/ Matt and Brian. 

In Stockholm Sam/ Dan and Meghan/ Cheyne quickly get their train tickets and catch the 1st train out. The Globetrotters catch the next train and begin to feel a little pressure as they realize they must make some time up. 

The first 2 teams arrive at the amusement park and find the clue box. Roadblock. One team member must ride the Fritt Fall. At the top of the ride they will have no more than 15 seconds to search the park looking for an arrow that points in the direction of the next clue box. Sam and Cheyne go up and work together to find the arrow. They see it on the 1st try. 

The next clue tells them they will play a game of Roaming Gnome Ring Toss. Players will toss rings until one lands on a cone that has a Travelocity Roaming Gnome under it. Teams will find their next clue on the bottom of their gnome which they must keep with them until the pit stop. 

Detour. Nobel Dynamite or Viking Alphabet. In Nobel Dynamite, teams will travel to a rock quarry and fill sandbags to create a large bunker. After their shelter is approved, they will set off a large explosive charge to unearth a strong box that contains their next clue. In Viking Alphabet, teams will use an ancient Viking alphabet to decode a message. Once decoded they will be able to find the strong Viking who will give them their next clue. They are doing the dynamite. 

The Globetrotters are arriving at the clue box. The height requirement is a maximum of 6' 4" which means that Flight Time has to do the challenge. He sees the arrow on the 1st try. He clenches his eyes shut as the ride descends the 24 stories at speeds of more than 60 mph.  They continue on to the ring toss. The 1st cone doesn't have a gnome under it, but the second one does. The Globetrotters also pick the dynamite. 

The second plane is now landing and Brian/ Ericka catch a break when Matt and Gary take the relatively slow elevator down to the lower level rather than taking the stairs. Brian/ Ericka catch the 1st train while Team Pinkie is still buying their train tickets.  It turns out to be 15 minutes between trains. 

Ericka does the ride and Matt does it when they arrive. I'm not sure if it's significant that Matt did the ride , but Gary did the ring toss. The other teams stuck with who did the ride also did the ring toss. 

Everyone is doing the dynamite challenge. 

Sam and Dan realize that it's quicker to fill the bags with their hand than with the tiny shovels they are given and they are first to get their bunker prepared. They crouch behind the sand bags as they connect the wires and detonate the explosives. There is a huge blast and the smoke and odor linger as they go over and search for the strong box and the next clue. 

Teams will now drive to Bogs Gard Farm and find the clue box to get their next clue. 

The Globetrotters are next to finish - and Meghan/ Cheyne after that. 

Matt and Gary are driving around, lost. They stop for directions and head off again. 

The Globetrotters think that they must have made a wrong turn, so they turn around. Sam and Dan are still driving ahead of them and find the farm. Meghan and Cheyne are a bit behind the brothers, but we can see the same TAR marker so they are on the right track. 

The brothers sprint to the clue box. Roadblock. Phil introduces us to the challenge with a flashback to this exact task from Season 6 that showed Lena searching through over 100 rolls of hay over the course of almost 10 hours. Phil wound up going out to the field in the dark to eliminate them because she refused to give up. Tonight's challenge will involve 186 rolls of hay with only 7 of them actually containing an Amazing Race flag. Phil adds that the farm itself is the pit stop for this leg of the race, although the racers don't know this of course. 

Sam is doing the challenge. The brothers are having a rough day today as their united front is cracking under the pressure of the race. Dan gives Sam some of the details from the challenge in Season 6 - not sure if it's included on the clue or if he watched it on the show though. 

Meghan and Cheyne arrive at the clue box. Meghan asks Cheyne who's going to do the task and Cheyne remains silent. Meghan finally says she'll do it. Cheyne privately tells the camera that they had decided previously that she would take the lead in this portion of the race. Hmmm, I lost a lot of my respect for him because of this exchange. Meghan finds the rolls unbelievably heavy as she tries to throw her weight into the roll to get it to start rolling so she can unroll it. 

The Globetrotters arrive and Big Easy heads out to do the challenge. 

Brian and Ericka are at the  rock quarry. Team Pinkie is still driving around - and they find the quarry. Team Miss America detonates their charge, get their clue, and head off. 

Team Pinkie seem to finish very soon afterwards - not sure how much of that is editing though. 

Dan is very impatient with Sam as he screams for Sam to just unroll the hay and to not actually go through the hay. This is the first leg that we have seen anything other than 2 brothers perfectly in tune with each other. 

By contrast Big Easy and Flight Time are joking around with each other - making it a point to not make a tough situation worse. 

Meghan is totally exhausted - she's not sure how many more she can unroll. 

And suddenly Big Easy finds 1 of the flags and runs with it as Flight Time is celebrating this the best of birthday presents. They run to the mat and Phil greets them as Team # 1. As winners of this leg of the race, they win a trip for 2 to Turk and Caicos Islands. 

Brian and Ericka run up to the clue box - and Matt and Gary are close behind. Brian and Gary are doing the task. 

Matt tells Ericka about how intense the challenge was when it was performed in Season 6. Ericka seems surprised so I don't think it was information that was included in the clue. 

Meghan dissolves in tears after searching for 2 hours. 

Dan is still yelling at Sam. Brian speaks up for Sam telling Dan that the rolls are really heavy. Sam pauses at that point and realizes that he is screaming at his brother over some hay. He begins to chill. 

Meghan knows she has to keep going and Cheyne tells her to do the roll in front of her. As she gets to the center of the roll and finishes shredding it, she finds a flag. She plays a prank on Cheyne by sticking the flag in her pocket and then heads to Cheyne while pretending to have another melt down. He can't believe it when she says that she can't do it anymore .... because she found a flag. Phil checks them in as Team # 2. 

Brian is next to find a flag. Phil checks them in as Team # 3. 

Dan is doing much better at supporting Sam as Sam tells him how tired he is and Dan saying he knows. 

The screen splits now as we see both Sam and Gary unrolling. Matt is supporting his dad as Gary continues to attack the rolls of hay. 

And with that Sam finds a flag. Mat's face fell when he realized that the brothers had a flag. Gary says that that's not a good sign and Mat agrees by saying it hasn't been their day. He tosses a bottle of water to his dad. Several of the racers working on the challenge have been dripping sweat. Sam's shirt is soaked. Gary actually doesn't look that bad considering he's the oldest of the racers. Mat did say previously that his dad had been working in hay for all of his life. 

I have to say this - Mat and Gary have really grown on me as a team. They ran this race to try to find some common ground and to develop a better relationship. Of all of the teams who have run the race over the years saying they wanted to test their relationship or find out if they are right for each other - they still didn't seem to have that answer by the end of the race. I think that Gary and Mat have made huge progress in their relationship - much of that probably from new-found respect for each other. 

Phil checks Sam and Dan in as Team # 4. Dan is in tears so Phil asks him what's up. Dan explains that he feels awful for yelling at Sam over hay. Sam had worked so hard and that he (Dan) was such a jerk yelling at him. Sam adds that Dan might be feeling the way he did because he is such a passionate guy. They tell  the camera that this doesn't mean that they will be angels to each other from here on, but their bonds as brothers is stronger than any yelling on the race. 

Gary continues to look for a flag even though they are the last team. Gary says that his work ethic will not allow him to quit on the race. Mat continues to shout encouragement. After the 2 3/4 hour mark, Gary finds their flag. The 2 jog to the mat - I notice that there is no longer anyone playing music as they run up. 

Phil tells them that they are the last team to arrive and as such he is sorry to tell them...... they will have a hard time on the next leg of the race. They dance a sort of jig as they walk down the road. 

So we see the non-elimination leg that was supposed to take place in the last leg, but didn't because of Tiffany and Maria's inability to complete either detour.

Next week on The Amazing Race teams race on to Estonia where Mat is stumped as he searches for a candle a' bra not knowing what that is. Temperatures are rising as things come to a head between Sam and Dan and the Globetrotters.

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by HoH8, November 13, 2009

Great recap Muffins, you really know how to put words together :-)
It was good to know that the non-elimination leg was suppose to be last week, now I feel worse for my poker girls, I was rooting for the only all-girl team in TAR this season. Im starting to feel bad that it is almost over but every week now should bring alot of excitement. Yes I feel like you that Cheyne should have done that hay challange, how can a man let a woman do that? and I know it was the editing but Dan sure Yelled at Sam way too much for me. But I see C&M, the Trotters and D&S as the Final 3, lets see.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Name

Email

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment