The Amazing Race > Amazing Race 35

Redskevin88's TAR 35 Recaps *Contains Spoilers*

(1/3) > >>

redskevin88:
Sorry, this was delayed. I will try to post recaps every Monday from now on.

redskevin88:
The Amazing Race has returned to television with the return of flights, the Express Pass, and the Mandatory U-turn. And similar to last season, there will not be any non-elimination legs.

Teams performed a Roadblock in Los Angeles before flying to Bangkok, Thailand using commercial flights via Taipei. In Bangkok, teams faced an extra task, eating insects to earn an Express Pass, which Morgan & Lena won, and a Detour, a choice between undergoing a painful Thai massage or learning to perform a sword dance. Andrea & Malania, the first team that arrived, didn’t realize that the bamboo swords were just for practice and switched, with only Joe & Ian and Alex & Sheridan completing the sword dance. Jocelyn & Victor won the leg, winning an Expedia-sponsored trip to Costa Rica while Alex & Sheridan were eliminated.

Compared to last season, Season 35’s season premiere did well here to give all teams a fair amount of screen time, perhaps because the episodes are 90 minutes long compared to the usual one hour (due to the ongoing writers’ strike). The detour was well-balanced, giving teams the ultimate dilemma of switching and waiting, with the decision paying off for Andrea & Malania and Elizabeth & Iliana. Next week will be interesting with the return of lost passport drama and teams get lost.

https://redshopeweekly2016.wordpress.com/2023/09/30/the-amazing-race-35-leg-1-episode-1-recap/

redskevin88:
Mother & daughter team Elizabeth & Iliana were eliminated as the Amazing Race continued in Nakhon Pathom province as teams travelled across the Thai countryside.

Teams travelled via taxi to Wat Suwannaram, where they had to perform a Roadblock involving harvesting and arranging lotus flower bulbs to make two bundles. The Roadblock judge was strict in judging, and teams had to wrap their bundles properly and arrange them in a proper 3-4-3 formation. Teams were not provided materials but had to harvest them in chest-deep water from a nearby lotus field.

The Detour was a choice between a shopping task or collecting pomelos. Collecting pomelos seemed straightforward, but the pomelos were awkward to carry, and there was a danger of swamping the boat. And in the shopping Detour, teams had to buy some unfamiliar items, such as coconut sugar and durian. Joyceln & Victor once again won the leg, winning US$2,000. At the same time, Elizabeth & Iliana fell behind during the Detour after having problems finding the durian, and ultimately couldn’t make up enough time and were eliminated.

This leg looked linear at first glance, but the final placements do not tell the whole story as there was plenty of position shuffling during the episode. At the same time, cultural shock and language problems added to racers’ difficulty. I was in Bangkok recently, and you couldn’t believe how hard it was to navigate the streets of Bangkok or communicate with locals.

https://redshopeweekly2016.wordpress.com/2023/10/07/the-amazing-race-35-leg-2-episode-2-recap/

redskevin88:
Flight drama returned to The Amazing Race as teams flew from Bangkok, Thailand to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, before taking a bus to Can Tho. However, it proved to be unimportant, as a keen eye for detail and task performance proved to be the main deciding factor of this leg, which ended with teams continuing to race, with Father/Daughter team Steve & Anna Leigh in the first place and Brothers Liam/Yeremi last as teams continued racing.

Steve & Anna Leigh pulled out a surprise early departure time at the bunching point at the docks in Can Tho, where they had an Active Route Info task the next morning, wiping out a four-and-a-half deficit from the flights. With teams down to a fifteen-minute deficit, teams who struggled at the sampan task sank to the bottom while Steve & Anna and Joel & Garnett made up time.

The Detour was a choice between making rice paper and decorating a motorcycle part in vinyl. Morgan & Lena used their Express Pass to get ahead at the sampan task but struggled at the detour, slipping from second to sixth. Joycelyn & Victor suffered the biggest downfall since Brandon & Alphaeus in TARA 5 as they fell from first to tenth, and their fate was sealed as Victor struggled to make rice paper. Steve & Anna Leigh are first while Liam/Yeremi are in last place.

https://redshopeweekly2016.wordpress.com/2023/10/14/the-amazing-race-35-leg-3-episode-3-recap/

redskevin88:
Best Friends Robbin & Chelsea pulled off an upset win as the Amazing Race continued in Can Tho, Vietnam, with their Roadblock performance giving them the edge at the end of the Keep On Racing leg. Father & Daughter team Steve & Anna Leigh left the “Pit Stop” in first place with a token of 5,500 Vietnamese dong (about US$0.23) in leg money and instructions to proceed to the Cafe du Diec.

The Detour was a choice of Stand or Deliver. In Stand, teams assembled seafood into correct vats to get their next clue, similar to a Detour in Season 21. In Deliver, teams delivered four mattresses to a hotel to collect their next clue. The fish detour is smelly but relatively straightforward, while the mattresses are heavy and unwieldy and difficult to move in the hot sun.

After an Active Route Info in which racers made good wishes, they faced a Roadblock involving matching tiles, with each racer getting a unique title to match to prevent collaboration. To prepare for the race, Chelsea practised with her young daughter accuracy and hidden object games, allowing her & Robbin to win first place, winning OneKey Expedia points for a trip to Madrid, Spain. Liam aced the roadblock to allow his team to leap from last to sixth, with Morgan & Lena falling to tenth. Ultimately, it was Jocelyn & Victor who were eliminated as they failed to make up time.

What made this leg interesting was the heat and dynamics of the racers getting cutthroat in a good way. I was sad to see Jocelyn & Victor go, but they were doomed by their lack of ruthlessness and mistakes in the previous leg. I also wished that CBS could keep their story straight about the lack of non-elimination and not mislead viewers.

https://redshopeweekly2016.wordpress.com/2023/10/21/the-amazing-race-35-leg-4-episode-4-recap/

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page