The Amazing Race -- A Case Of An Achilles Tendon Could Ends A Team's Racing Days
Original Airing: February 24, 2013
In this week’s episode both The Newlyweds and the Country Singers start out with a four-hour penalty they took last week when they just couldn’t complete the sandcastle challenge, while the other teams pretty much are playing on a pretty even playing field. Meanwhile, the deal John and Jessica struck was if one of the teams in their First Flight Alliance came in second, they’d give them the Express Pass. They, however, don’t want the other teams to know that, because they want the other teams to keep sucking up to them thinking they have a chance at getting the Express Pass from them. So it seems the Express Pass will be Dave and Connor’s unless something goes wrong.
The first destination on the new leg is to take a water taxi to a church to be blessed by the priest there and to get their next clue: Detour.
Pick A Pearl or Take A Trunk:
Pick A Pearl: you have to dive down to bring oysters up and crack them open until you find two pearls.
Take A Trunk: you have dive to find a trunk and set up an underground dining area.
Most of the teams choose the Pick A Pearl task. Jamil doesn’t like the water, and he quickly wants them to take a four-hour penalty so they can bypass this task. Idres, however, convinces him to stick it out. They eventually give up on the pearl task and go for the trunk. It seems Jamil might have made the right call about wanting to take the four-hour penalty, as it would have most likely allowed them to stay in the race for another leg. By doing the pearl and trunk tasks it caused them to end up in last place.
Once you completed either the pearl or trunk task, you then had to navigate to Motu Tapu on a water ski. Once there, you had to balance on stilts as you kicked a coconut across the sand. Afterwards, it was a foot race to the next pit stop.
Teams checked in as follows:
- Bates and Anthony who won a trip to London
- Dave and Connor
- Jessica and John
- Joey and Meghan
- Chuck and Wynona
- Mona and Beth
- Caroline and Jennifer
- Max and Katie
- Pam and Winnie
- Jamil and Idres -- eliminated
In a footrace to the pit stop Dave says he thinks he busted his Achilles Tendon and if that’s the case he and Connor will be out of the race. He requested a doctor examine him. Meanwhile, John and Jessica seemed to be hoping that was true, as that would get them out of having to give Dave and Connor the Express Pass.
It’s probably for the best The Twins got eliminated so soon. They just didn’t seem to have the grit to go very far in the race. I’m not sure if the Country Singers and the Newlyweds have it, either. Generally, the last thing a team wants to do is take a four-hour penalty to skip a task and both the Country Singers and the Newlyweds took one on what was an essentially easy task. As the race goes on there’s going to be even more challenging tasks than the sandcastle task was. They can’t keep taking four-hour penalties to skip through tasks and stay in the race.
