Welcome Back Race Fans!! Time for another recap of this week’s episode of The Amazing Race!! If you recall last week, The Cops, Louie & Michael, hit the mat in first place, and Jeff & Jordan came in last but were saved by a non-elimination leg. This week they will have to perform an extra task, the Speed Bump, and there’s a U-Turn this week that could potentially put them even further behind. Take a deep breath JJ fans, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!!
After completing the last leg in Hamburg, Germany, all teams boarded a bus at the beginning of this leg to an unknown destination. I must say that Jeff has a very positive attitude and both Jeff & Jordon are determined not to be eliminated tonight. Joe from the Married Team has his leg on ice during the bus ride, which, for you Survivor fans, made me wonder, ‘Who would win if Joe and Jeff Probst’s niece were in a race together?’Unfortunately the Married Team is spewing confidence about how they’ve been placing in spite of Joe’s bad leg, and was overheard by the Cops who are now wanting to knock them down a notch or two.
The teams are now in France and open their first clue in the order of how they finished the last leg. They must now drive themselves to St. Menehould, France and buy a fresh baguette, or bag-u-ette if you’re a Cowboy, from a specific french bakery, where they’ll get their next clue. Most teams are able to get there rather easily and realize the next clue has been baked inside the baguette. Everyone except for the Models and Team JJ that is! The models get a little lost, but they find the place eventually, and at least they realize their directional sense is not their strongest skillset. Team JJ get hopelessly lost on the circular roads and by the time they get to the bakery Jeff can’t figure out that the clue is inside the baguette! As much as I love Team JJ, even I have to admit common sense has never been one of their strong suits! Once they finally found the clue, they run out of the bakery chomping on the bread and talking at the same time. The editors can’t figure out what they’re saying and hilariously caption Jordan’s comments with ‘????’.
There is no Roadblock this week so the bakery clue leads them to the Detour, a World War I re-enactment camp where teams must choose between being In The Trenches or Under Fire. The Trenches challenge requires the teams to make their way to a communications station, located in a trench, and decipher a message being transmitted in Morse Code to get their next clue. In Under Fire, teams must crawl 100 yards on their bellies under barbed wire, get a message from a soldier and crawl back again. Then they have to attach the message to a homing pigeon and let it fly to get their next clue.
I’m really not a war buff, but this re-enactment camp was really very cool! Most places like this have people dressed up in period clothes, maybe have some old architecture around and events to learn about the period they’re promoting. THIS place actually felt like you were in a real battle with explosions going on all around you and WWI airplanes flying low to the ground and firing at you too. It was loud and stressful and looked like the real thing! Personally, I would have freaked out! However, this is probably the best challenge I’ve seen on the Race thus far, and let’s face it, most of them have been pretty pitifully easy (drinking beer?) or predictable (bungee jumping).
All of the teams avoided the Morse Code challenge and went Under Fire instead. The Cops, Louie & Michael worked very well together. Louie wasn’t doing so well, the smoke and dirt from the explosions were getting to him, but Michael kept him motivated and hung with him without getting upset. Then again, they’re in first place so what’s there to get upset about?
The Cowboys, Lesbian Princesses, and Brothers have also arrived and the Princesses prove once again why I gave them their nickname. With such lines as ‘Seriously, I’m so pissed off about this right now’and ‘I don’t have to prove myself physically, nor do I want to’you have to wonder why exactly did they apply to be on The Amazing Race in the first place? We would gladly watch just about ANY another team in their place! The brothers on the other hand are taking it all in stride and laughing and joking it up, having fun — nice to see actually.
The Cops kept their lead by finishing the Detour first and found the Blind U-Turn on their way to the next clue. They remember the smack-talk by the Joe & Heidi on the bus and decide to ‘humble’them by giving them the U-Turn. However, the ‘blind’part of the U-Turn didn’t apply here being that Joe & Heidi met up with Steve & Ali at the U-Turn who told them that someone ahead of the Father/Daughter Team had U-Turned them. Joe & Heidi knew the Cops were the only ones who could have done it. So the Married Team heads back to the re-enactment camp to complete the Morse Code task where we realize tht every single team made the right decision by not choosing this task! It was hard! This was no slowed-down Morse Code message, and it wasn’t printed out in dots and dashes. They had to listen to the quick beeps and decipher the message. They tried over and over again but kept getting the message wrong.
The Models, Brent & Caite, make their way to the Detour and when they’re almost there Brent looks up and says ‘Hey baby look, they’re up in some kind of flying things!’referring to the WWI airplanes! No, really, I can’t make this stuff up! After they finish the Detour they need to head South to find the next clue, but rather than look at the directional sign post, they head in the wrong direction and amazingly stumble onto the next task without the clue that was supposed to lead them there.
Jeff & Jordan finally arrive at the Detour but must first complete their Speed Bump where they have to re-enforce one of the trench walls with branches to a soldiers satisfaction. Speed Bumps aren’t usually too difficult and neither was this one. Jordan has a lot of trouble with the costume they have to wear being too big though and Jeff gets so frustrated with her he pretends to eat his rifle.
After giving Joe & Heidi the U-Turn, The Cops discover the next task was inspired by the Tour de France. They must wear early 1900’s gear and ride antique bikes 4 miles to meet the Phil at the mat. Pretty straight forward, boring task that all the teams do well.
At the finish mat we see Phil dancing and having a great time with a marching band that’s there to greet the Teams as they file in. Given their lead from last week, and how well they worked together again this week, the Cops, Michael & Louie, get another First Place finish! They have each won a 55’HDTV which, interestingly enough, they don’t even show. Ok, personally, I’d love this prize, but not everyone is as much of a TV nerd as I am, so we’ll chalk this one up to the ‘maybe ebay’list. When Phil asks them about using the Blind U-Turn they say ‘there are ‘sheeps’and there are wolves — we are wolves’and Louie howls. My respect for them just plummeted! At least win gracefully guys!
Steve and Ali finish as Team #2 again, and we discover the editors are back to ignoring any story they may have. The Cowboys move up a place and finish Third and the Brothers finish in Forth Place. Carol & Brandy finish up as Team #5.
Brent & Caite are the 6th team to arrive at the mat, however, because they missed a clue after the detour they have to go back and get it. Miraculously, they are able to ride the bikes back, get the clue at the Detour, and then ride the bikes back again to the mat without losing their 6th place finish. Now it’s a race for elimination between Team JJ and Joe & Heidi.
The Husband/Wife team come out of the trenches with another possible interpretation of the Morse Code and see Jeff & Jordan. They realize they may still have a shot if they can decipher this message before JJ finishes their task. After JJ finishes the Speed Bump, Jordan wisely decides she doesn’t want to translate, so they do the Under Fire task. Jordan is having a lot of trouble crawling under the barb wire and Jeff is getting more and more frustrated! At one point he yells at her to ‘Put your boobs on the ground and drag them over here!’Classic!!
Joe & Heidi are trying so hard at the clue. They aren’t getting mad at each other and just keep plugging away as long as Jeff & Jordan are still doing their task. At the beginning of the race I had pegged Joe as the ‘Bully Husband’but seeing them since then, I now retract that comment. They see Jeff & Jordan finish the task and break down into each others arms. It’s a touching moment between this husband and wife. They eventually give up and cannot understand why the Cops would U-Turn them. After watching the task, I really think any team that would have chosen it would have given up and gone Under Fire, and any team that was U-Turned would have been the one eliminated.
You can take another breath now JJ fans, Jeff & Jordan hit the mat as Team #7 and are still in the race. Sadly for Joe & Heidi, the Philiminator met them at the task-site and informed them that they have been eliminated from the race.
So what did you think of tonight’s episode? How about that Detour?! Are you breathing a sigh of relief for Jeff & Jordan or are you like our commenter Rich last week, and wish they would just go away already? How did you feel about Joe & Heidi’s elimination? And lastly, why do you think they’re not giving Steve & Ali any airtime? Next week it looks like Brent & Caite implode! As long as they’re eliminated before Team JJ, I can live with whatever Jeff & Jordan’s results may be! How about you? Head on down to our comments below and discuss or vent to your hearts content.
C-ya next week!
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:) another great recap!
Pretty good recap. Except that Jeff was pretending to blow his head off, not "eat his rifle", and how is the sheep and wolves thing reason to lose respect for the cops? What exactly would "winning gracefully" look like? Saying "we give all the credit to God" or "We are just lucky to be here, Phil, all of the other teams are just as good as we are"? The cop was just howling because they had just finished a challenge and he was blowing off some steam and enjoying being done with a leg of the challenge.