Racing report
Amazing Race Season 32, Episode 6, "I'm not even walking, I'm falling"
Film date: 2018-11-22
The last pit stop was at Ponts des Arts in Paris, France. Teams are released from Place Vendôme after what seems as a 24+ hour pit stop in the following order:
1. | Riley & Maddison | 00:25 | |
2. | Hung & Chee | 00:47 | +0:22 |
3. | Leo & Alana | 00:58 | +0:33 |
4. | Will & James | 01:21 | +0:56 |
5. | DeAngelo & Gary | 02:15 | +1:50 |
6. | Eswar & Aparna | 02:25 | +2:00 |
7. | Kaylynn & Haley | 05:15 | +4:50 |
Route info: Travel by train to Berlin, Germany.
Once in Berlin teams will find their next clue in a suitcase by the East Side Gallery (a preserved section of the wall).
At the start we get to hear a lot of talk about the alliance.
Everybody is on the same train to Berlin, probably something like:
TGV 9561 from Paris to Frankfurt 07:20 - 11:00
ICE 372 from Frankfurt to Berlin 11:14 - 15:28
We get a shot of all teams running together in a big bunch on the platform in Berlin at 15:50. This implies that they exited the train and the gathered on the platform before starting to race.
From the Hauptbanhof (main train station) teams travel by taxi to the East Side Gallery. Kaylynn & Haley are last out of the station so there are no more taxis. They run around a bit and eventually find one, but are very stressed when they tell the driver to go to the Berlin Wall.
"
Can you relax a little bit and tell me it slow?", The taxi driver
"
The East side gallery", Kaylynn tells it a bit slower
"
Now we are on the way", Now the driver understands whet they are saying
This gives us a glimpse of what it must be like for the taxi drivers who get their cars taken over by frantic teams yelling at them to go to places quickly.
"
I run really slow", Kaylynn on why they got to the taxis last
"
Why you don't run faster? You don't look fat.", The driver
And in the taxi we learn that Chee thinks the wall is from WWII but Hung knows it is from the cold war.
At the East Side Gallery teams run along the river looking for the next clue. They all spot it more or less at the same time so they all descend on it en masse.
This clue is a route info which tells teams to drive a Trabant to the Teledisco. A Trabant is an old East German car, known for being small, difficult to drive and unreliable. We see that teams get a couple of pages titled "Quick Guide for Using a Trabant".
"
This thing is tiny", Gary when trying to get into the Trabant
"
I'm just going to stay in first", Chee is afraid to change gears once he gets the car going
Teledisco is a phone boot re-purposed into a small disco. It is located at 99 Revaler Straße (5 minutes 2.1km). Teams arrive in the following order:
1. DeAngelo & Gary
2. Riley & Maddison
3. Hung & Chee, just after #2
4. Will & James
5. Leo & Alana
6. Eswar & Aparna
7. Kaylynn & Haley
Phil tries to sell us that this is the latest greatest craze, I'm not sure I buy it. Anyway teams must enter and dance for 3 minutes.
There is one booth and it holds one team so there is no way teams can pass each other. Hung & Che squeeze in together with Riley & Maddison which saves them some time.
After 3 minutes the music stops and the both prints out four bad photos of the racers. On the bottom it says "Drive to Andels hotel and park out front".
Here we see that some teams have not figured out how to make the Trabant go in reverse so they just push them out of the parking spots.
Riley & Maddison and Hung & Chee start by getting directions so when they get back to their cars Will & James are just done with the disco. They agree to drive together but Will & James promptly loose the other teams while they figure out how to release the parking brake.
Will & James soon figure out the parking brake but have lost the others. And when they are halfway to the hotel the clutch throws in the towel. Apparently production gave them a choice, fix the clutch or make their way to the hotel on foot. They select the latter.
Leo & Alana parked at the side of the hotel to look for the correct place. Then when they want to move their car it will not start. Alana offers to push it if Leo steers and thus they arrive at the front of the hotel.
Teams arrive to the front of hotel (11 minutes 3.1km) in the following order:
1(+0) DeAngelo & Gary
2(+0) Riley & Maddison
3(+0) Hung & Chee
4(+0) Will & James
5(+1) Eswar & Aparna, as Riley & Maddison are leaving
6(-1) Leo & Alana, a minute or so after #5
7(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, as #5 and #6 get it
Here teams find a yield, which nobody uses, and a clue box. The clue is a road block: Who wants to feel the wind in their hair?
In this task contestants must climb 15 flights of stairs to the top of the hotel. Then they must do a face first rappel down the building. At the bottom they have to correctly answer a question to receive their next clue. There is also a max weight for racers on this task and as far as we know Gary was the only one exceeding this.
We are told, but the racers are not, that the question will be to unscramble the blinking letters lying on a roof next below. The correct answer is "Sauerkraut". teams may not use pen & paper during this task.
DeAngelo is the first to reach the bottom, but he is dumbfounded when the girl asks him to unscramble the letters.
"
I didn't see any letters, like all I saw was my life flashing before my eyes", DeAngelo
DeAngelo has to go back up and try again. He is walking back up with Hung and offers to help her if she agrees to wait for him at the bottom. She agrees and he tells her that they have to unscramble letters when they can see during the descent.
"
Did you see the letters?", the judge to Maddison who looks like a big question mark (he did not see them)
"
Andel's?", Maddison look up and see the hotel sign (which is not what she is asking for)
"
Have fun", The rigger to Hung as she starts screaming on the way down
"
I'm not even walking, I'm just falling", Hung gets the title
Hung does not appreciate the rappel but she had the presence of mind to look at the letters while she was being hooked up and she manages to figure out the word once she is back on the ground.
Both Aparna and Leo see the letters on their way down and once on the ground they brainstorm together and eventually Leo cracks the word.
Haley arrives to the downstairs rigging while Leo is getting out of his harness. They speak a bit and Leo gives some hints but does not say what the actual word is. Haley realizes this
"
You didn't help me so I won't help you", Haley interviews about Leo
"
It was hard to not help Haley, but we didn't want to be in a race for last", Leo
"
Haley does not like heights", Kaylynn
Poor Haley is absolutely terrified when she does the rappel the first time. She can not figure out the word though so she goes up again and again and so on. Apparently she did upwards of 9 rap ells and while she still could not figure out the word she did seem to get over her fear of the task. Eventually she stop rappelling and enters the hotel lobby to find some locals who can help. One lady is willing and figures out the word.
Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+2) | Hung* & Chee | (3-3) | |
2(-1) | DeAngelo* & Gary | (4-2) | On his 2nd attempt and after getting the answer from Hung |
3(+0) | Riley & Maddison* | (2-4) | On his 2nd attempt and after getting the answer from DeAngelo |
4(+0) | Will* & James | (4-2) | Got the answer from Maddison |
5(+1) | Leo* & Alana | (4-2) | |
6(-1) | Eswar & Aparna* | (3-3) | Just after #5 |
7(+0) | Kaylynn & Haley* | (3-3) | After ~9 rappels and asking random people in the hotel |
Detour: Belt it out or belch it out
In belt it out teams must perform a classic German song "I wish I was a chicken". They must dress up and learn to sing the song, which is is song in a furious tempo. To make the task easier there are cue cards while performing, so it seems the only things needed is to sing the words quickly enough and more importantly "sell" the performance. This takes place at Ballhaus Berlin (14 minutes, 6km).
In belch it out teams must learn a sequence of beer yoga poses and then teach them to a class. This takes place at Life Artists Creators Hub at 4 Milastrasse (11 minutes, 4.8km).
"
Do you need the car?", A worried James asks Chee who just have read the clue
"
Uh, no. It's taxi", Chee's response makes many teams happy
Hung & Chee hang around and wait for DeAngelo to do his rappel. Then they wait for Maddison as well. All in all they wait for 10 minutes. Riley & Maddison wait for Will while the first two teams look for taxis. Hung & Chee are not happy when DeAngelo take the only taxi they see.
"
DeAngelo & Gary are not helping the alliance, they just bring it up when it is helpful to them", Hung
From racers we learned that the beer used in the beer yoga was non alcoholic. Teams must learn four poses and then demonstrate those for the class. Exactly how you present them turns out to be important as well. The poses they have to learn are:
Beer salutation
Beer chair pose
Beer boat
Beer dancer
Not shown on the show is the fact that Will & James's teacher did not mention that there would be cue cards so they spent 45 minutes memorizing the lyrics. The other teams got told about the cue cards and could go much faster.
"
Learning the song was tricky", James
Editing makes it seem as if Kaylynn & Haley arrive at the singing detour just as the teams in front are leaving. But we all know that this can be deceiving and we later learn that they were 4 hours behind at the pit stop so they were not even close.
Teams complete the detour in the following order:
1(+1) DeAngelo & Gary, yoga on their 2nd attempt
2(-1) Hung & Chee, yoga
3(+0) Riley & Maddison, yoga on their 2nd attempt
4(+0) Will & James, sing on their 2nd attempt
5(+1) Eswar & Aparna, sing on their 2nd attempt
6(-1) Leo & Alana, sing on their 2nd attempt
7(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, sing
Route info: "Race to Neukolln and search for Phil on the mat at your next pit stop"
Teams check in with Phil in the following order:
1(+0) DeAngelo & Gary, win $7,500 each
2(+1) Riley & Maddison
3(-1) Hung & Chee
4(+0) Will & James
5(+0) Eswar & Aparna
6(+0) Leo & Alana, just after #5
7(+0) Kaylynn & Haley, are saved by a non-elimination
At the mat Phil berates Hung & Chee for waiting on the other teams. He points out that this probably cost them $15,000.
Fun fact, it was cold and since Kaylynn & Haley were 4 hours behind the production crew retired to somewhere warmer while waiting for them. As they did this somebody seized the opportunity and stole the pit stop mat.
At the virtual mat Phil plays with the Kaylynn & Haley.
"
Your luck might have run out", Phil
"
Yeah, we thought so", Kaylynn & Haley
"
But it hasn't", Phil lets them know this is a non-elimination
Teams spend this pit stop in Hutten Palast, a hotel consisting of small caravans in an indoor space. It looks magical. As it is Thanksgiving they all have a shared Thanksgiving meal. A welcome chance to spend time with the other teams without the stress of the race.