Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Sprint of Our Life
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.02.2011
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The second leg sends everyone to Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Most of the teams learn about the impending double elimination at the starting line, and learn about the previous leg's non-elimination when Bill and Cathi show up at the airport hours after everyone else. They all take the same plane to Jakarta, where siblings Justin and Jennifer have another big argument about nothing (not the first and not the last) before they all take the same overnight train to Yogyakarta.
In the morning, teams have to spelunk in a giant cave to "find" a mask and a dagger that are literally displayed on posts. But grandparents Bill and Cathi, who amazingly arrive in first place, have to get through a rope-untangling Speed Bump before they can move on to the Road Block. Luckily for them, it's ridonkulously easy enough that they're still near the front of the pack when Bill starts heading down, and he even briefly gets the lead back.
From there, everyone heads downtown to either dance for tips or be motorcycle parking attendants. Either way, they have to bring their earnings to an orphanage, and leave all the rest of their money there as well before proceeding to the Pit Stop. Ernie and Cindy finish the parking task, make it to the orphanage, and get the clue to the Pit Stop first, but they failed to notice the sign telling them to leave the rest of their money as well -- as did Bill & Cathi and twins Liz & Marie. However, snowboarders Andy and Tommy become the first to actually follow directions just as Ernie & Cindy get to the Pit Stop, learn they have to go back, and freak the hell out.
Jenna & Ethan do okay on the dancing Detour, but then briefly lose their clue. Father-son team Laurence & Zac and showgirls Kaylani & Lisa are the only other teams to correctly leave all their money at the orphanage. Andy and Tommy win the leg pretty much by default, despite being only the fourth team to actually reach the mat. For the same reason, Laurence and Zac jump from eighth to second at the mat, and Kaylani & Lisa dodge yet another bullet, going from tenth to third and avoiding double elimination. A raft of teams make it back to the mat in time, the last of them being Amani and Marcus, in ninth place. So teams number ten and eleven are Ethan & Jenna and flight attendants Ron & Bill, both of whom exit the race so gracefully you could puke.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!This...may be the first episode I've ever seen that doesn't begin with the word This. Instead, Phil goes right into talking about Taiwan's rich history, and Martyr's Shrine in the heart of the capital city, Taipei. Over shots of unformed guards parading around, he says that it was built to honor the three hundred thousand Taiwanese war dead. And to further honor them, the Amazing Race has also made it "the start of the second leg in a race around the world." Engaged half-Asian couple Ernie and Cindy, having won the previous leg, are leaving at 9:28 PM. They open their clue at night, and it tells them they're going to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, which looks like one of those places they send racers just to make them mispronounce it on camera. As always, the racers will oblige. Phil says after they start by flying to Jakarta, they'll take an overnight train to Yogyakarta. The clue also tells Ernie and Cindy that "for the first time in race history, this leg will be a double elimination. The last two teams to check in at the next Pit Stop will be eliminated." So it looks like Bill and Cathi really were the only team to be informed of that at the end of the previous leg. In their cab to the airport, Cindy worries not because this is a threat to them, because they're so awesome, but because it's a sign of lots of new twists. "You can only imagine what's next," she said. So I'm sure they'll be extra vigilant over the course of this leg, to make sure they don't miss anything.
Jeremy and Sandy are leaving in second place, at 9:36 PM, and are also worried about double elimination. "We have to beat two teams instead of just one." So the whole field of eleven teams will really have to step up their game.
Siblings Justin and Jennifer are leaving in third place, at 9:39. Justin interviews that "sibling rivalry is a real thing," which is true, but from what we've seen, what they have seems to go beyond that. Is sibling toxicity a real thing? "If I get angry, she gets a little angry back," he says, while she makes exaggerated bitchfaces behind his back. Doesn't really seem like a healthy dynamic to me. In the cab, he offers to work the cabbie's phone for her, which she shortly refuses. Justin studiously stares out the window, knowing already that it's going to be another long leg.
Ethan and Jenna are leaving in fourth place, at 10:07 PM. Ethan interviews how they were cool coming in fourth, because it shows that despite having won Survivor, they're not superheroes, but regular humans just like everyone else on the race. "Well, they think so," Jenna corrects. I see they've given up trying to keep a lid on their previous reality TV experience.