Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | 44 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Like It or Lumpur It
By M. Giant | Season 24 | Episode 4 | Aired on 03.16.2014
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The eight remaining teams are heading to Kuala Lumpur, but before leaving Borneo there's a Roadblock where they have to use a bamboo trampoline to jump up and grab a flag. This proves more difficult for some racers (Cord) than for others (Connor), but a number of attempts leaves Jessica's feet bleeding. The first flight to the Malaysian capital carries Dave & Connor, the cowboys, and the Afghanimals, while the second flight for Margie & Luke and the Globetrotters is delayed until several minutes after what was supposed to be the last flight with the country singers, Jessica & John, and Brendon & Rachel.
After landing, the racers find themselves at a Detour at Sky Bar near Petronas Towers, where they must either learn how to DJ or do a very tricky pour of seven cocktails simultaneously. Everyone on the first flight opts for the latter, and they all find it very tricky indeed. In fact, the Afghanimals switch tasks just before the cowboys accomplish a perfect pour, leaving Dave & Connor to begin to freak out as the other teams start to show up before they're finished. The country singers, the Globetrotters, and Jessica & John get to work on the DJ task while Margie & Luke and Brendon & Rachel (a former cocktail waitress, she keeps reminding us) work on the stunt-bartending. The Afghanimals become the first team to successfully complete the DJ side of the Detour, but Jet & Cord win another leg, followed by Dave & Connor and the Afghanimals, while the other teams try to muddle through. The country singers' musical skills help them make it out of there in fourth place, followed by Jessica & John and the Globetrotters, while Luke's and Brendon's frustration increases. And we all know how well Luke handles frustration. Soon both teams are talking about taking the time penalty, but Rachel of all people isn't having it, and she insists they all stick it out. And then Margie & Luke finish before them and make it to the mat as team number seven, leaving Brendon and Rachel to finally finish in last place, after three hours. But it's a non-elimination leg. Man, I just can not catch a break with those two.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Short credits tonight, which indicates a long leg. Will probably be even longer for some.
Phil welcomes us back to "KK," which is apparently the hip nickname for the city of Kota Kinabalu on the island of Malaysian Borneo. He's also telling us that there's a floating village in the center of the city, though it seems like it would need to be on the edge, if only for purely geographical reasons like for example because the edge is where the water is. After Dave & Connor's win last week, they talk about having won a trip to Budapest, where Connor has always wanted to go. They also get to look up their trip on a smartphone, which is odd because Amazing Racers don't usually get access to smartphones, but on the other hand it's a lot less awkward than how they usually have to use a desktop computer with the gnome standing next to it and a big patio door in the background. "I'm gonna take mom," Dave quips, and they have a good laugh before starting this leg at 9:06 AM. I bet Connor's mom won't be laughing after getting ditched at home for not one but two trips across the International Dateline. Anyway, the first clue tells them to go to Prince Phillip Park and find a longhouse that's there. We get a quick look at this two-story, banner-bedecked, open-air wooden structure before Connor also reads from the clue that they have $98 for this leg. Connor remembers winning the third leg of TAR 22 as well, but that was different because Dave's Achilles tendon had blown out in the second. Dave prefers this mode of racing as well. We've heard a lot more about Dave beating his Achilles tendon this season than we've heard about his beating cancer. Remember the cancer?
Jet & Cord get to leave in second place, at 9:08 AM, and are soon trying to convey to their slack-jawed cabdriver that they're in a race. Then Afghanimals Leo & Jamal take off at 9:14 AM. Dave & Connor's cab soon reaches the park, but their driver doesn't know where the longhouse is. Thus it is that Jet & Cord are the first to get out of their taxi and rush into the park, find the clue box standing outside the longhouse, and read the introductory question for the Roadblock: "Who's got a spring in their step?" Who on the Amazing Race doesn't?
Cut to Phil inside the longhouse, as he narrates, "The Murut people of Borneo are part of the hill tribes who keep their culture alive with competitions like this." Which appears to involve a lot of bouncing and hopping on a square section of the longhouse floor that has been cut out and reattached with springs, creating a sort of bamboo trampoline that Phil calls a lansaran. One member of each team will have to hop on it to grab a flag that will be dangling from the highest point of the peaked ceiling overhead, just as we see locals in tribal dress doing. The flag is the one for the Malaysian state of Sabah, with multicolored stripes and a profile of the island in the upper left corner. But then you already knew that. Phil makes sure to clarify that it'll be adjusted for height, so it's not like Mallory and Big Easy would be trying to jump the same altitude, if Mallory were still on the race. And that's how they'll earn their next clue.