Amazing Race: Losing Their Mind

Amazing Race
Hi. I’m Sorry. I’m in a Race.

I think in the last few episodes, I was wondering why Jill & Thomas never used their express pass. They showed in the recap at the beginning of this episode that they did and I had completely forgot about it. That’s good because I thought they had wasted it.

On another random note, don’t get too excited about who was shown as teams coming back for another season of Amazing Race at the end. The producers have since said the teams haven’t been officially announced yet and not all the teams shown in the preview will be in the race. I find that a bit misleading.

Leaving the Pit Stop

Jill & Thomas were the first team to leave at 3:57 am. The home shopping queens left at 4:23 am. The doctors left at 4:27 am. They were all pretty close to one another when they left. All the teams commented that Thomas was the last guy standing. The odds were for the first all-female team to win the race, finally.

Clue: Teams had to fly to their final destination city of Los Angeles and find Pier J at the Port of Long Beach.

Drop Zone

The doctors were the first to arrive at the port and get the clue.

Clue: Teams had to take a tiny elevator up to the top of one of huge cranes on the port. They would be given a clue, but they couldn’t open it until after they were strapped into a bungee swing and dropped towards the water. After they were done with the bungee swing and back on land, they could open their next clue.

Nat was freaking out since she’s afraid of heights. She was trying really hard to not think about it so she could get through it. The other two teams arrived after the doctors had their gear on were heading up the elevator. When the home shopping queens saw the crane, Claire told Brook she might have to do that free fall thing that she didn’t want to do. Brook said she was just going to have to deal with it. The other two teams were up on the crane. Thomas was hoping that Nat would freak out enough that they would have to bypass the team. She got out on the swing. She was crying and her eyes were closed, but she did it. Once they were back on land, Nat said she had never loved asphalt so much. They opened up the next clue.

Clue: Teams had to take a helicopter to a surprise destination.

The doctors headed back to their taxi around the time that Jill & Thomas finished up their bungee swing and were getting back onto land.  The home shopping queens dropped next. Brook freaked out a bit during the fall, but they survived. Jill & Thomas took off as the home shopping queens were getting back to land.

Parade Float Decorating

All the teams appreciated flying in the helicopter over L.A. instead of having to drive through it. The helicopter landed in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl. When they found the clue box, it was a road block.

Road Block: One team member had to decorate three different sections on one of the parade floats that would be in the New Year’s Day Parade of Roses.

Nat decided to take it. She grabbed some mums and had to glue them to a section of the float. Jill & Thomas were landing when she finished the first section. On the next section, she had to put roses into holders and then put them into a styrofoam portion of the float. She figured she had to put the white roses in the white painted area and the yellow roses in the yellow painted area. Jill & Thomas got the clue and Thomas decided to do it. They had already decided he would do the last road block, but after they realized what it was, Jill wished she had done it. Thomas said he wasn’t too crafty.

Thomas finished up the first section when the home shopping queens arrived. Brook decided to do it. Nat finished the second section. She had to decorate a huge painted rose. She watched the lady who was doing an example and noticed she was not adding glittery paint to every petal so she only did it to the ones the example lady had done. She then had her work evaluated. They told her she did the big rose correctly and the mums. She did not prep her roses correctly. She didn’t notice that they were filled with water when she put them in the holders. That pretty much meant she had to do that entire second section over. While Nat redid her roses, Brook finished up the mums and moved onto the roses. Nat still finished before Thomas finished that section of the float. Her float work was approved and the doctors got the next clue.

Clue: Teams had to figure out the answers to the three clues they were given:

  • I am Sancho Panza’s master
  • I am the place to hear The Symphony in the Glen
  • Monroe’s Year of the Itch

Losing their Brains or Using the Internet

If the teams figured out where to go from those clues, they would find the next clue. The doctors ran off towards some taxis. Thomas finished up the roses and moved onto the huge painted rose. The doctors were looking for someone with an iPhone or knew the answers to the clues. They didn’t have good luck with first taxi driver. Thomas finished up the float and it was all approved. Brook moved onto the big painted rose. The doctors found a taxi driver with a phone they could borrow. They called someone and started asking if they knew who Sancho Panza’s master would be. The person on the phone didn’t know so they asked if they had Internet access to Google information. Jill & Thomas found a cab and asked their cab driver if he knew the answer to the first clue. He didn’t know but they convinced him to call dispatch so they could ask someone with internet access. Brook finished up so the home shopping queens got the clue.

Meanwhile, in the taxi that wasn’t moving, the doctors found that Sancho Panza’s master was Don Quixote. I would have known that without a Google search. Anyway, the doctors asked if there was a Quixote Studio and the person on the phone said yes so they were working on getting that address to give to the taxi driver. Jill & Thomas were driving aimlessly with their taxi driver who didn’t speak much English and didn’t understand what they needed. The person they were talking to on the phone didn’t understand what he wanted either and hung up. Thomas kept asking “Do you know what the Internet is? Do you know what a Google search is?” I was thinking they should just find the nearest public library and do the searches themselves, but they just became more frustrated as they drover around to nowhere.

As soon as the home shopping queens got into the taxi, they asked the driver if he had access to the internet. He said no. They asked if he knew a nearby hotel that had a computer they could use and they went there. Jill & Thomas’ driver was talking on the phone and driving while they kept asking if they could borrow the phone. I have no idea where they were headed or why they didn’t ask to go anywhere. They were just stuck on the idea of using the phone. The doctors asked the person on the phone the second clue, which was near Griffith Park. There were apparently a lot of Quixote  studios, but they found the one near Griffith Park.

The home shopping queens had arrived at a hotel and were shown the business center so they could use the computer. Jill & Thomas’ driver was asking if they wanted to go to Pasadena. Jill said they needed to get to a computer. He said he had GPS. Jill said that wasn’t a computer, it was his GPS. He responded, “I have GPS.” This was the best conversation ever!

Fancy Hats

The doctors had arrived at the Quixote Studios near Griffith Park. They were going to find Stage 7, which was the answer to the last clue. Nat said that was the only clue she knew the answer to when they first read it. The doctors found the clue box. It was the challenge to see if they were paying attention during the race!

Clue: Teams would work in front of their own screen that looked over an even bigger screen showing 48 different people wearing hats. They had to identify the 11 greeters that were standing next to Phil on the mat at each pit stop. The teams had to put them onto their screens in the correct order. Once they did that, they got their next clue from Bob Eubanks.

The doctors started working. They remembered the first leg. Then they remembered the second and third legs were both in Ghana. They couldn’t really remember the guy who greeted them at the market in the second leg, but they threw a picture of a guy that could be him. Meanwhile, the home shopping queens figured out the clues after their computer search and got back into their taxi. Jill & Thomas got fed up with their cab and just got out on a random street. They walked into a sushi restaurant and asked to use their computer.

The doctors had made notes along the race for each race about where they started and where they ended so they started to refer to their note books to help them remember. They figured out the correct Ghana person in leg 2 so they swapped it up for the random guy they had put there. They had filled out about half the legs when Jill & Thomas were out on a random street in L.A. asking someone across the street if they had internet they could use. The person responded with “What? Huh?” It appears in the last leg that Jill & Thomas lost their brains and could no longer figure out how to do anything.

The doctors were trying to find the greeter in Russia. They finally found the guy they were looking for and locked him in. They had filled out the board and turned their guesses in. They were all correct so they got their next clue from Bob Eubanks.

Clue: Teams had to make their way by taxi through the congested streets to the finish line at Greystone Mansion.

The doctors were on their way before any other teams had arrived at the studio. Soon after they left, the home shopping queens arrived. They were super excited about Bob Eubanks. They attacked him and then got to work. They also had notes about each leg too. Brook was hitting herself about not paying more attention to hats. The doctors were stuck in gridlock traffic and getting nervous. The home shopping queens got done and turned their guess in. They were correct too and got their last clue. They were off in the taxi too.

Finish Line

Jill & Thomas were still driving around aimlessly in their same taxi cab where their driver didn’t understand them. Both the doctors and home shopping queens were getting close. The home shopping queens took the freeway while the doctors took surface streets.  The doctors were the first ones to arrive to finish line. They also made Amazing Race history by being the first all-female team to win. Soon after they arrived, the home shopping queens arrived in second place. We never got to see Jill & Thomas do the task about identifying the greeters. We just got to watch them come in third place.

Final order to the pitstop:

  1. Nat & Kat – doctors
  2. Claire & Brook – home shopping queens
  3. Jill & Thomas – dating

Questions

  1. Were you  happy with who won?
  2. What happened with Jill & Thomas? Why couldn’t they have asked for a nearby hotel like Brook & Claire or a public library? Why did they lose the ability to think?
  3. Who would you like to see come back from this season and previous seasons to run the race again?
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