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Ken and Tina do their best to capitalize on their commanding lead on the way to Cambodia, but Terence and Sarah manage to get on the same flight despite getting pulled over for speeding (which they'll also get penalized for on the leg). The Divorcees, the Siblings, Toni|Dallas, and the Frat Boys (barely) get on a second flight, leaving Ty and Aja to fly out last while the other six teams end up in a bunch during a plane transfer in Singapore.
After a gas-pumping task and a boat race in which engine trouble leaves Terence and Sarah literally adrift, the Detour imposes lake-based challenges. Kelly and Christy "pull a Kelly and Christy," but don't lose too much ground as the teams head to Angkor Wat for the Road Block. There the teams have to find the tiny Chamber of Echoes on the sprawling grounds, a task that Tina spectacularly biffs. Nick and Starr (whose arm is bandaged but not broken after last week's Blokart mishap) win their second leg, and a romantic vacation together. Team Long-Distance never does catch up to the wind-sucking Frat Boys, but when they get Philiminated at the Bayon Temple Pit Stop, at least things look good for their relationship together as Ty plans to move to L.A. to be with Aja. But what will become of all their Michigan clothes?
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Ty and Aja had an argument that may not have boded well for their relationship. There are seven teams left, and since they're in seventh place, they need as much well-boding as they can scrape up.
At the Pit Stop at New Zealand's Summerhill, Phil reminds us that as their prize for winning the last leg (their third in a row), Ken and Tina won a trip to Rio from Travelocity. Unfortunately, that means they also "won" the obligation to let a camera film them while they sit at a hotel-room desk with a laptop on it and a Travelocity gnome to the laptop, while they gush fakely about their upcoming trip while we enjoy their harbor view through the window behind them. A more tangible reward, at least for now, is that they get to leave the Pit Stop at 6:03 a.m., when it's still dark outside. Which is odd, because my entirely subjective sense was that they'd arrived at the Pit Stop around noon, which would make this an 18-hour rest period. Probably something to do with the International Dateline. Anyway, Tina quickly zeroes in on the clue's lede: "Cambodia!"
Specifically, as Phil says, the city of Siem Reap, where they'll then have to locate a gas-pumping station to find their clue. More later on the difference between a gas station and a gas-pumping station. They've got $97 for the leg. As we see them get into a Mercedes that someone thoughtfully remembered to drive down here for them while they traveled by helicopter, they interview that they're having fun together. Which is good, because most couples would be miserable after winning three legs in a row. From the back seat, Tina reminds Ken to get into the side of the car that has the steering wheel on it. "Wrong country," Ken chuckles at himself. "I feel like a kid," he interviews. "What is an old man and an old woman doing out here..." "Speak for yourself," Tina says good-naturedly. "As they drive into the lightening sky, Ken estimates a three-hour drive back to Auckland. "Remember that we have Terence and Sarah close on our heels," Tina reminds him as the sun comes up.
"Close on our heels" in this case means "two and a quarter hours behind," as Terence and Sarah are leaving at 8:19 a.m. By which time Ken and Tina are likely to be less than an hour out of Auckland. Of course two hours doesn't necessarily mean all that much when the flight-booking portion of the leg is still ahead of them. Terence interviews that he's looking forward to the race getting more physical, because then he and Sarah will be hard to beat. In the meantime, they're forced to make it more physical for themselves by doing things like running miles out of their way when looking for taxis. While he drives Sarah to Auckland, he explains his plan to get in and out of the airport without any other teams even seeing them. Well, it's not so much a plan as a wish.
Ken and Tina arrive at the Auckland airport and go straight to the "Flight Centre," a red-bordered room off the main concourse staffed with ticket agents behind computer terminals. "Who's the fastest booker?" Tina asks them. Doesn't "booking" already mean "fast," in a sense?
Kelly and Christy, Team Divorced, are leaving at 9:32, more than an hour behind Terence and Sarah. Sucks for Terence and Sarah that they had that much of a lead, and they probably would have won the leg had there not been a Fast Forward in it. Which Terence lost for them, of course. In an interview, Team Divorced admits that while they're both really smart, they've been tripped up by their rush to do things quickly. But they're going to "utilize [our] brainpower to be number one time." Here's an example of what they mean: in the car, while Christy drives, Kelly says, "I think we should go straight to the airport, get in line at the first ticket counter we see, and we'll go with the best flight." Intellects like lasers, I'm telling you.
Ken and Tina are learning that their best bet is to fly Singapore Airlines to Singapore and then Jetstar to Siem Reap. The bad news is that since that flight doesn't leave Auckland until after noon, they fear that Terence and Sarah will probably be able to make it as well. Except they don't know that the chances of that happening just went down, because Terence just got pulled over by a cop. Naturally this happened one second after Sarah told him he was doing a great job driving. People really need to stop doing that. As Ken and Tina are getting their boarding passes from a ticket agent, she's praying that Terence and Sarah don't make it and Terence is being told by the cop, "I caught you doing 117 coming along there." Apparently it's a 100 KPH zone. But they appear to get back on the road soon enough, unlike here in the U.S., where getting a speeding ticket is a long, drawn-out process. Like we weren't obviously already in a hurry. Jeez. Oh, and what else have we learned from the respectful way Terence dealt with the officer? As obnoxious as he may be sometimes, he is no Colin. Once they're back on the motorway, Sarah remarks to Terence that she always thought he was a slow driver. "You're such an ass," Terence whines, as the soundtrack makes a sound like someone playing power cables. "That's the way you comfort somebody who just got a speeding ticket?" Well, that raises the issue of whether a person who just got a speeding ticket that affects both players deserves comforting, and I'm speaking as a person who once went through quite a run of them. In fact, I had them bound. But of course Sarah apologizes, because it's easier than explaining to him why he's wrong. If she can't talk him out of that hairdo, she's never going to talk him out of anything.
The fourth-place team, Toni and Dallas, are leaving at 10:15 a.m. New Zealand really scattered these teams out, didn't it? Toni interviews that she hopes to race smarter, not harder. "I am not gonna be able to keep up with 20 and 30-year-olds," she declares. Fortunately, the "smarter" comes into play when she's able to direct Dallas to the Auckland International Airport rather than a strip of macadam in Te Puke or whatever. And it turns out Dallas also doesn't know where Cambodia is, either. If nothing else, this is going to end up as quite a geography lesson for him. Can I tell you something embarrassing? I couldn't find Singapore on my globe, and had to look it up on Google Maps. And I'm still not sure about the reliability of the driving directions it gave me from my house.
Terence and Sarah arrive at the airport and find the same Flight Centre that Ken and Tina were at earlier. They learn that the team is on a flight to Singapore that's leaving at 12:20, but that it might be too late for they themselves to make that one. Well, maybe time they'll try to outrun the cops.
Nick and Starr leave the Pit Stop at 11:34 a.m. In an interview, Starr confirms that she did indeed run over her own arm with the Blokart during the last leg. As she removes her jacket and puts on her seatbelt in the back seat, we can see a couple of bandages, although Starr assures us it's not broken and she won't "let it get in the way of our game." Nick agrees that she's strong. Starr says, "Another day, another Road Block, another Detour." As long as neither of them gets edited out.
Terence and Sarah wait in suspense while their agent works the phone, first learning that the Singapore flight is still open and then that they can get tickets. They're told to hurry, but that doesn't stop Terence from bitching at Sarah for outrunning him as they dash down the terminal. Maybe you could snap it up a little, running coach. At the gate, Ken and Tina are boarding their plane, and Ken's microphone barely catches her saying, "Honey, I don't think Terence and Sarah can make it," as they walk to the jetway. But even with her mic off, it's still a jinx, because Sarah and Terence make it on board. With that, both teams are wheels-up to Singapore.
Andrew and Dan are leaving at 12:44p.m. pretty much confirming for me that this was an 18-hour break, because the sun was still up, if low, when they arrived at the end of the last leg. Anyway, as they drive back to Auckland, Dan is in the back hoping that there aren't many flights. Andrew solo-interviews, "Dan's really intense sometimes." For some reason, they replay the clip of him from last week saying, "It's the turning point of my relationship with Dan." In the car, Andrew wonders aloud where Cambodia is, and Dan tells him, "Asia. You didn't learn that in school?" "No, I didn't go to fancy private school like you," Andrew says, and then interviews that sometimes Dan can be pretty wacky. "Sometimes too wacky, and then we don't focus enough on what we're doing." Is that really the issue with them? Because of all the things I could accuse Dan of, wackiness is pretty far down the list. I'd put it somewhere between his arsonist tendencies and his vampirism.
Team Divorced are arriving at that increasingly popular Flight Centre, and learn that the flight they can take will be leaving at 4:55. Dallas and Toni arrive shortly afterwards and find them still there, meaning they either gained on them on the motorway or it takes Kelly and Christy 45 minutes to buy plane tickets. They sit down across from the agent who isn't helping Kelly and Christy, and Dallas openly asks to get on the same flight as them. Which triggers the coping mechanism that Kelly and Christy have developed. Kelly whispers into Christy's ear, "Doesn't that hair remind you of Teen Wolf?" Ah, no. Teen Wolf's hair was entirely different, in both states. Dallas's hair is more Growing Up Gotti. But Christy looks over, and they share a wink and a chuckle that I'm sure they think is subtle. Dallas doesn't miss it, though, and does an interview in which he says they "irk my nerve... I wonder what they'd look like when they don't paint their faces in the morning." Yes, harping on one another's appearances does indeed make all parties look better. We do see what Team Divorced looks like when they're walking out of the Flight Centre, saying, "It looks like Teen Wolf and Wolf Mother are going to be on the flight." Which indeed they are. But ladies, don't go making fun of Toni for Dallas's hair. That's not cool.
And in seventh and last place, Ty and Aja are leaving the Pit Stop at three-oh-four in the afternoon. Yeeeowch. That is going to be very tough to come back from. I'd even say impossible, but the Frat Boys are still in the race, so we'll see. In an interview, they talk about their relationship. "It's definitely being tested, but this leg we're gong to try to respect each other at all times," Aja "says" in a clip that was obviously cobbled together from several different interviews, in multiple countries, and possibly even a number of women. For his part, Ty tells the camera, "I wouldn't trade her for a Porsche or anything like that." to him, Aja's beatific expression dissolves as she asks him, "Porsche?" and shakes her head, grimacing adorably at his dorkiness. Ty just freezes, which is probably his best option at this point.
Nick and Starr are arriving at the airport, while the Frat Boys are still in their car. Dan outlines his strategy to "not be duking it out for last place with Ty and Aja." As with Terence earlier, Dan doesn't seem to grasp the distinction between a strategy and a desire. A plan is not a wish that your heart makes. Ty, in turn, talks about how much he wants to see Dan's face when they catch up to him. Good luck with that, guys. I mean that.
Nick and Starr are getting their tickets (at the Flight Centre, of course) and learning that they're due to arrive in Siem Reap at 7:05 the following morning. They, Team Divorced, and Toni|Dallas all seem to be boarding the flight, even as Andrew and Dan teleport from the carpark to the Flight Centre. The agents don't seem optimistic that they'll be able to make the 4:55 flight. Dan asks if there have been any other Americans through there. "There are a few on this flight," one of the agents allows, which thrills Dan to no end. "You just made my... life." But his mood crashes like Michael Scott on Pretzel Day when the agent gets on the phone and says it's doubtful they can make it. Through Dan's emotional pyrotechnics, Andrew just leans against the counter, calm and steady. Or maybe just exhausted. Or cautious. Or stoned.
Aja and Ty are still en route to Auckland. "Let's make a comeback! So excited! So motivated!" Aja sings from the back seat. And the agent at the Flight Center flatly tells Dan and Andrew, "No, there's no chance getting on tonight's flight," and turns her attention back to her monitor. I'm sure she's just getting right on the project of finding them other options, but I prefer to imagine that she has dismissed them from her awareness. Somebody should be able to, after all.
As if they know what's happening up ahead, Ty is telling Aja, "There's nothing like the great equalizer of plane flights." But can they equalize a nine-hour lead? Because that's a lot of equalizing. White Star Lines would have trouble with that much equalizing. At the airport, Dan and Andrew, to their considerable credit, aren't giving up, and are walking right over to the Emirates Airlines counter to see if they can get on the flight that way. Remarkably, it works, and they're off to board their flight. A muddy Dan modestly interviews that they took advantage of a small window of opportunity (as opposed to the ones they usually watch sailing past), and Andrew readily admits that it was all Dan; he never would have thought of it. So points to Dan for a legitimately good move. Oddly, the other three teams already on the flight don't jump out of their seats to congratulate them when they board. Four more teams are en route to Singapore. Unfortunately, the Amazing Yellow Line must already be there, kicking back in an opium den or something, because it doesn't appear to have showed up for work this week. I'm sure we'll hear all about it in a True Hollywood Story someday.
It's getting on late evening when Aja and Ty finally arrive at the Auckland Airport's Flight Center, which must have been specified in the clue given the way all seven teams seem to be heading straight there. They get tickets, and they're on their way to Singapore behind everyone else. "With this race, anything could be possible," says Ty, keeping hope alive. He's keeping it alive Terry Schiavo-style, but it's technically alive.
The flight carrying Ken|Tina and Terence|Sarah arrives in Singapore in the middle of the night. And wouldn't you know it, so does the flight carrying the teams in third through sixth places. Walking to their departure gate, for their 6:00 a.m. flight, Tina tells her crew about her disappointment. "We're all back together," she sighs. So she climbed into orbit for nothing, as far as the lasting impact on their lead goes. Those six teams are off to Siem Reap, now on the same plane.
And this is apparently before Aja and Ty's flight even lands in Singapore. As they change planes, Aja is asking Ty for a kiss and complaining about how she always has to beg him for affection. In a solo interview, a luminous Aja talks about how much she's crushing on her boyfriend. Aww. They end up walking through the terminal holding hands. They're so cute. And so screwed.
Siem Reap is apparently the home of temples, waving flags, bicyclists with large cargo baskets, another temple, and a flight that deposits the first six teams directly on the tarmac at the airport. Nick and Starr find a taxi first, after confirming that their driver knows where to go. Dallas cackles about having left the Frat Boys standing flummoxed at the taxi stand, but since his and Toni's driver appears set on taking them to a hotel, he should mind his knitting. Kelly and Christy are out in third, all frantic and tense and making me nervous, an entire planet and TV screen away from them, so I can only imagine what kind of stress their driver must be feeling after five seconds of exposure to them. Terence and Sarah are off in fourth, with Ken and Tina in fifth and Dan and Andrew finally getting out of there in sixth place. "Of course we find a way to be the last ones," Dan laments. Of course they do. On the road, Nick and Starr watch Dallas and Toni's cab peel off, because their driver has indeed taken them to the Claremont Hotel. Kelly and Christy arrive at a gas station, but not the gas station; it looks like a modern chain station, but all they find there is a restroom.
Nick and Starr have better luck as their driver takes them to the right place. Instead of the shining oasis of chrome and neon that Team Divorced ended up at, this is a more workmanlike location with a wide dirt lot. There are large blue trucks parked in two rows, and as for the gas pumps, well, more on them in a minute. The Siblings, spotting the clue box from inside their cabs, grab their luggage and run to it. "Choose a truck," Nick reads. As Phil elaborates on the task, we see that each one of the trucks is standing to a 55-gallon drum with a hand-cranked pump and rubber hose attached to it. They'll need to use the pump to put 25 liters of diesel fuel into their truck's tank to get their clue. As Phil explains, this is the fueling method most commonly used in this part of Cambodia. I do hope the extra work is reflected in the gas prices, because paying four bucks a gallon (or whatever it was at this time in this part of the world) is bad enough without blowing out your rotator cuff on top of it. Nick and Starr quickly read their instructions and get to work. The pump features a five-liter (allegedly -- it looks more like the size of a two-liter soda bottle to me, frankly) glass measuring reservoir on top of it that fills up as you crank the handle, and then you open the valve on the hose to let the fuel flow into the truck by gravity. Nick and Starr quickly get their first of what will be five measures into their truck's tank. Pump and fill, baby. And as Kelly and Christy arrive at another wrong destination, Starr and Nick succeed in filling their tank and get their clue before any other teams have even arrived. They learn that they have to hop into the straw-filled bed of the truck they just gassed up so that the driver can take them to Siem Reap Harbor on Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia. Then they'll board a longboat to Kho Andeth, a floating restaurant in the middle of the lake that holds their clue. And the Siblings are off, just as Nick glances back to see another team arriving. Fortunately, he seems oblivious to the lengths the show has gone to in order to make him take a literal roll in some literal hay with his literal sister.
The newly arriving team is Toni and Dallas, who get right to it. Terence and Sarah arrive third, with Ken|Tina and the Frat Boys right behind them. All the teams get to work, and are quickly rewarded with a satisfying flow of petrol into their reservoirs. Except of course Andrew, who is cranking and getting nothing. "There's gotta be a trick to this," he mutters. Dan looks around and sees that everyone else is doing fine, but Andrew insists, "It's gotta be something else." Dan moans in frustration. Even through the smoked visor of his helmet, the waiting driver of their truck seems unimpressed.
Dallas and Toni finish up, to the alarm of Terence and Sarah. "Kenny, that guy's done," Tina warns, because apparently four legs isn't enough to learn everyone's names. Dallas and Toni are off. Andrew? Still getting nowhere. Dan bitches, "Dude, you can't just pump like a baby. Pump stronger." That, if you'll pardon the expression, is what she said. Andrew is indeed turning that crank pretty slowly for some reason, but he insists that isn't the problem. Team Divorced finally arrives, and gets to work finding a truck. Dan and Andrew finally start wandering around the lot, trying to figure out how the other teams are managing this. "There's no trick," Ken assures them. "It's just like pulling a zipper down and letting her flow, boys." They go back, and continue to get nowhere while Kelly and Christy's gas starts flowing. Andrew galumphs over to them. "Dandrew looked bewildered as usual," Kelly laughs in an after-the-fact interview. Ken and Tina finish up and head out in third, with Terence and Sarah close behind in fourth. "Nobody's behind us," Terence tells Sarah. I'm going to have to start calling them Team Rearview if they don't quit looking behind themselves all the time.
Ty and Aja's flight is landing at Siem Reap airport, and they hit the tarmac running. In the taxi, Ty says, "We just need some time to catch up." Agreed; a week or two should do it. Aja is still confident. I don't know how they're staying this positive.
At the pumping station, Kelly and Christy finish up and take off, leaving the Frat Boys behind. "Yep, we're last," Dan whines. But he's discounting Team Long-Distance, as Aja remarks, "It is hotter than Satan's toenail up in here," while Ty quietly counts their money and hopes other teams are having problems. Right, Andrew and Dan? Andrew is still saying, "This is impossible," and I'm beginning to actually wonder if their pump isn't properly connected or something. It would be just like them to have difficulties with a stopcock. But Dan finally grabs the crank and turns it so furiously that not only does he look like his head is about to explode, but some fuel actually flows into the reservoir. "You gotta do it like a madman!" he yells over the thundering noise of the fuel drum buckling under the pressure he's applying to it. He steps back to let Andrew take over again, bouncing on his feet like a triumphant boxer. One whose rotator cuff is flying through the air and halfway to Thailand, but triumphant nonetheless.
On the road to the harbor, Nick is telling Starr how much he'd like to pull down trees in their wake to slow down the other teams, and Dallas is remarking to his mom about what a rock-star day they're having. They have been finding a pretty good pace for themselves ever since dismounting those wooden bikes way back in La Paz. In third place, Ken and Tina are getting passed by Terence and Sarah, the latter of whom is encouraging her driver, "fast fast fast!" Of course, it's subtitled, and she's saying it in what I assume is one of Cambodia's four main languages, the third we've seen her speak so far. I do hope there's a leg at the Las Vegas Hilton and we'll get to see her ask someone for directions in colloquial Klingon. They pass Kenny and Tina, and then Dallas and Toni, and then Ken and Tina pass Dallas and Toni, making pulling motions and high-fiving as they go by. They're also making me very nervous, perched on the narrow edge of their truck bed instead of down inside it in relative safety. The Frat Boys finally are on their way out of the pumping station, and in the truck bed, Dan postmortems, "Another case of us not getting things that everyone else is getting. And we can't let that continue or we're gonna be in trouble." So I guess we can move "lack of self-awareness" closer to the bottom of Dan's list of poor qualities. At least they got out of there ahead of Ty and Aja, who arrive and get cranking.
Ever wonder if Starr's tendency to worry too much about stuff is ever going to screw something up for her and Nick? Well, it's about to happen, even if it's only temporary. For some reason, she thinks they're going the wrong way, and wants to stop and ask for directions. Which would be one thing if they were in a cab that they'd hired themselves off the street, but keep in mind that their driver, local or not, is somebody hired by The Amazing Race for the sole task of driving them to the harbor. And yet Starr is suspicious, probably because it's taking so long or because they don't seem to be going downhill or because she doesn't yet see the lake rising up over the horizon, as lakes are well known to do. "Senor, stop," she tells the driver, and hops out onto the dirt road to run back to a car that's pulled over on the shoulder. In an interview, she tries to explain that she was just being vigilant. to her, Nick is nodding supportively instead of rolling his eyes as she says, "Everything can change in an instant." And we see exactly how, because as she's going up to some random guy, other teams' trucks are closing in behind them. "Starr, get in here! There's other teams coming!" Nick bellows. Starr abandons the van driver she was quizzing and runs back to their truck, which is barely in gear before Terence and Sarah pass them, Sarah shouting at her driver in Khmer or whatever the whole way. Ken and Tina pass them , and then Dallas and Toni, before Nick and Starr's truck can even get up to speed. Of course they're encouraging the driver to hurry, but if that heap can go 0 to 60 in under a minute, it's only because the 60 is measured in kilometers. "Well, that sucks," Nick says. "Sorry," Starr says. "Now we're fourth." But at least we got to see some nice helicopter shots of the road as everyone blew by them.
The lead teams arrive at Siem Reap Harbor, and quickly find the sampan-style motorboats with the Amazing Flags on them. Terence and Sarah hold on to their lead as the propeller on their boat chews up deep gouges in the opaque brown water. On Ken and Tina's boat, she tells him to go astern and tell their pilot to hurry. He prefers to have a seat and relax, saying they're already going. Somehow Nick and Starr get out of the dock ahead of Toni and Dallas, stealing back their third-place slot. And once they're underway, they pass Ken and Tina as well, Starr tossing out a jaunty, "Hi, Mom and Dad!" "Gosh dang them," says Tina. "Turkeylips. Our kids can't do that, Ken. They're bad children." Ken just adjusts his floppy bush hat and ignores her. Their marriage is far enough into Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf territory as it is without having imaginary children to deal with. Oh, and one other thing: "Turkeylips?" Besides, they've got more immediate concerns; the thing you know, Toni and Dallas's boat is passing them like they're standing still. "Kenny!" Tina snaps, and he just spreads his hands helplessly; he forgot to have Sarah teach him Khmer on the plane. "Who passed us?" she asks. "Everybody," he says. Well, not counting the three teams who haven't reached the harbor yet.
And here's one of those teams. Aja and Ty finish fueling up their truck and are on their way. And Kelly and Christy board their boat. Looking out at the water where people are working on boats neck-deep in the lake, they're moved to philosophize, "It just absolutely broke my heart to see the level of poverty that these people are living in... And at the same time the culture here and the work ethic is amazing. It's really incredible." This while we see shots of people doing things like harvesting fish from traps, moving boats with poles, etc., going about their daily lives, while meanwhile the two businesswomen from the United States are trying to win themselves a million dollars. Oh, was that too much perspective? Sorry.
Dan and Andrew at last board their boat. "Kho Andeth! No excuses!" Dan says, which I'm sure they'd love to appropriate as a slogan. As indeed would any self-respecting Cambodian restaurant.
Terence and Sarah sight Kho Andeth out ahead of them, and are quite aware of the boats carrying Nick|Starr, Toni|Dallas, and Ken|Tina in their literal wake. Suddenly that wake is choked with black smoke pouring from their boat's inboard motor. The driveshaft slows down, and the engine vomits a quantity of lake water onto the deck and quits. The good news is that passing through the engine appears to have made the water considerably clearer. Their pilot opens up the access panel to see what's going on while Terence demands, "Can I have the stick? Give me the stick!" He plans to start poling the boat along. Sometimes in this race, you just need to punt (please don't fire me). "We're so close," Sarah complains. "Oh, my God. Broken boat." Meanwhile, Terence begins poling the boat in the direction of the restaurant. They're lucky the lake is as shallow as it is wide. Nick and Starr sail past them (regaining the lead that Starr's uptightness briefly cost them), then Dallas and Toni, then Ken and Tina. Terence calls out each team to Sarah, who responds each time with a despairing "Oh, no." He calls desperately up to her, "Tell me how much further I've got!" Well, at least he's not just standing there whining about his bad luck; he's taking positive action and doing something about it. While whining about his bad luck.
Back from the ads, Sarah tells Terence, "You're doing a really good job of rowing our boat," and then cracks up. In the truck on the way to the harbor, Ty is hoping -- successfully, one might add -- that some other teams are having problems. Terence again asks Sarah for a progress report, and Sarah just tells him he's doing awesome. "Row the broken-down boat to the challenge." The restaurant looks to be a few hundred yards behind Sarah in the background, but at least there's a guy poling on the bow as well. I don't see what they're complaining about; they were the ones who wanted the race to get more physical. If they wanted it to get more physical for the other teams as well, maybe that's something they should have specified.
Nick and Starr's boat is the first to get to Kho Andeth, which from the outside looks like nothing so much as a large houseboat anchored in the middle of the lake. They climb to the clue box on the roof, and it's a Detour. Phil announces, "Teams will be forced to experience the unfamiliar world of a village built entirely on water." Their options are "Village Life," in which they have to sail around to various destinations on the lake -- not on the shore, mind you, but actually on the lake -- picking up three items: a set of chattering teeth from a dentist, a rag doll from a tailor, and a ball from a basketball court, where they'll also each have to make a basket. Then they'll swap the items for their clue at the dock. "Village Work" requires them to go out to the lake's fishing "grounds." The term "grounds" is used loosely here, because the "grounds" are in fact somewhere in the middle of the lake. Fortunately it's also shallow there, because they'll need jump into water up to their waists and then look through the half-submerged fishing traps until they find two that contain fish. Then they'll haul them back to the dock and swap the fish for the clue. Nick and Starr decide to go with Village Work, as do Toni and Dallas. Ken and Tina decide to do Village Life. And Terence and Sarah are finally docking at Kho Andeth. I initially typed "dicking," which is not entirely inaccurate, as Terence is yelling at their two-man crew, "Fix the boat! Fix it! Fix it! You fix it while we're gone!" He sounds like Oscar Rogers on Weekend Update Thursday. Still, once they get to the clue box, they decide to go with the option that requires them to rely on their boat to take them to three destinations. Oh, and that boat? Still broken. I'm not sure why Terence doesn't suggest they simply wade out to the fishing grounds and tell their boat to meet them there when it's FIXED!
Team Divorced is shocked, shocked to see children out in the middle of the lake, in and out of a canoe. "Little bitty kids!" one of them says. They must indeed be little-bitty, because the water appears to be all the way up to their necks. Behind them, Dan is complaining that the whole day has been in slow motion. "Every time we've caught a break, we just can't sustain it." This is different from their other days in the race, when they don't normally catch breaks at all.
Nick and Starr's pilot takes them to the fishing grounds, with Toni and Dallas not far behind. "The people are in the water, the town's in the water, it's like Waterworld," Dallas says. Except a low-budget version, in which the entire planet is inundated to an average depth of about four feet. Call it Puddleworld. Starr and Nick slip over the side of their boat, she letting out an "Ew!" as her feet touch the muddy bottom. Dallas also complains, and interviews afterward that he was fearing snakes or crocodiles. "Oh, Dal, it's not that bad, it's just mud," his mom tells him in real time. Go, Toni.
Ken and Tina find the floating tailor shop, and secure their doll. On their way out, Tina mutters, "I almost said karate chop, but that's Chi--" fortunately her comment is cut off when she bumps her head on a metal support, but the Amazing Foley Guys drop a reverberating gong sound effect in there anyway. And I think it was a Japanese gong, too, just for good measure.
Terence and Sarah are learning that there's water in their engine, and it's going to take ten minutes to fix. Well, that doesn't sound so bad. Except that Ty and Aja appear to be arriving at the harbor, still staying positive. Terence's finger-crossing appears to work, because their engine squirts out some more water and roars to life. Now they can get back to polluting the lake.
The Siblings and Toni|Dallas are discovering that fishing this way is hard, while Ken and Tina are on their way to the dentist. Ken barely makes the leap from the boat to the narrow sill of the floating building with the big red-and-white teeth painted on the sign. Inside, an actual dentist appears to be actually working on a patient's actual teeth, and it's looking like an all-day project, if you know what I mean. Tina ducks in, grabs a pair of the novelty chatterers, and goes on her way. Nick and Starr are finishing getting their fish traps aboard their boat, just as Toni and Dallas realize that one of the traps they grabbed is empty and they have to go back. Dallas interviews about how proud he is of her: "She will go into any situation and just get things done, while I whine like a bitch about mud and water moccasins or what have you." Except that last part. Soon, they're both safely back on their boat with their payload.
Ken and Tina reach the floating basketball court, which is a remarkable structure. Like all the other buildings in this aquatic neighborhood, it's built on a foundation of pontoons. But this one is more or less open to the air like a proper basketball court, except it has a roof and a floor-to-ceiling chain-link fence going all the way around it. Now that's a good idea. I bet local basketball games were either a lot shorter or a lot wetter before they put that in. As Ken and Tina disembark, they're spotted by Terence and Sarah, who decide to hit that location first, since they already know where it is. Inside, Ken quickly gets a basket, but Tina needs a few attempts to make hers, which Nick and Starr observe as their boat motors past on their way back to the harbor for their clue. Terence and Sarah also board the court, and they're spotted by Team Divorced. "Oh, you have to play basketball," they decide. Don't get ahead of yourselves, gi-- oh, why do I bother? Terence and Sarah both get their baskets (which it seems you can shoot from anywhere on the court) before Tina gets hers, but they overhear that the older couple is already heading back to the harbor, while they still need their teeth and doll.
And Kelly and Christy are confident that they'll be able to "do this challenge quickly" as they get off their boat and walk inside. If anything, not knowing what the challenge actually is only seems to add to their confidence. They start shooting hoops before belatedly realizing that maybe they should be looking for a clue box or something. Dan and Andrew, meanwhile, are at Kho Andeth, doing just that by the time Team Divorced is on their way. "We see Dandrew. They're ahead of us now," one of them says from their boat. Christy, if you wanted me to use that nickname for the Frat Boys, you should have come up with it before the fifth leg. And you should have come up with a better one. In fifth place, the Frat Boys opt for Village Work. "You guys just get here?" Andrew mildly asks them as they meet on the stairs to the roof. Once Kelly and Christy get their clue, they confidently say, "Back to where we were!" It's almost like having a head start, only for idiots.
Terence and Sarah are grabbing their teeth, mildly horrified by the dental work going on in the room. Nick and Starr offload their fish, and get their clue, which Starr reads as "Make your way to Anger Watt."
Phil explains that this would actually be the world-famous Angkor Wat, the international landmark that we are all familiar with from seeing it in the Tomb Raider movie. Phil explains, "Built in the twelfth century for its king as a temple and capitol city, it has since become the symbol of Cambodia." But more importantly, it's the site of the clue. They'll get there by tuk-tuk, which, as longtime watchers of this show well know, is like a motorcycle-drawn rickshaw. We don't see Starr confirming whether their driver knows where Anger Watt is.
Ken and Tina are on their way shortly afterward. "This is a pretty one," Tina says of their tuk-tuk. Dallas and Toni dump their fish and head out in third. Aja and Ty have finally gotten to the Detour box, and have decided to do Village Work. Which Andrew and Dan are still doing, as Team Divorced finishes up their second visit to the basketball court, then get their dolls. Terence and Sarah finish up Village Life and head to Angkor Wat in fourth. Aja and Ty are sailing to the fishing grounds. She's calling out "Lun, lun!" Which sounds similar, if not identical, to what Sarah was saying to her and Terence's truck driver earlier. Maybe they just picked it up on the plane here. After all, I can think of worse ways to spend the multi-hour flights between legs than asking your seatmates how to say useful things in the local language, like "fast" and "taxi" and "airport" and "has the scary-eyebrow lady been through here yet?"
Dan and Andrew are finally getting their fish on their boat. Team Divorced arrives at the dentist and asks an attendant for a set of teeth. Smiling, he points them to the open-air surgery. "Hers?" Christy asks in naked shock. "Holy crap!" Kelly says, weakly. Fortunately they look past the patient to spot the novelty teeth waiting for them on the table. They snag a pair, relieved that they didn't have to actually orally mutilate a local. "Back to the harbor!"
Aja and Ty are in the water, looking through traps. Despite how this is edited, I have my doubts as to whether they're this close behind; all the other teams kept sighting each other when they were zipping across the lake, but Team Long Distance might as well be in another dimension.
And the Siblings are nearly at Angkor Wat, as Nick excitedly gushes, "Starr, this is, like, a world wonder! There's the clue box!" Heh. As Ken and Tina arrive, Starr and Nick learn that they're facing a Road Block, which Phil describes as "an exploration of the largest religious structure in the world." Specifically, they're going to have to comb the "immense grounds" for a "small, elusive room" called Prassat Kok Troung, or the Chamber of Echoes. Really, it's barely a room, roughly five feet square and open on two sides. In fact, it's more like a deep doorway leading from one of the many halls to one of the many courtyards. And according to Google, it doesn't even exist except on The Amazing Race, at least in the way the captioning spells it. But it's got a high ceiling, and apparently you can stand there and thump your chest to cause an echo, which is what the racer must do. Then he or she can pick up one of the dinner-plate-sized relief carvings lined up along the room's floor and read the clue etched on the back of it. Nick takes this one on account of having a better sense of direction, and also because Starr would be liable to come running out empty-handed, insisting they're at the wrong Angkor Wat. Ken thinks Tina should take this one. "Oh, my heck," she says as she heads toward the imposing structure. Dallas is taking it for her and Toni.
Back at the harbor, Kelly and Christy arrive with their goodies while Dan and Andrew are still trying to figure out how to open their fish trap. "How'd they get back so quick?" Andrew wonders. So just like that, Team Divorce is back in fifth. "Christy and Kelly passed us for the eighty-millionth time on this race," Dan complains as they ride towards Angkor Wat in sixth place. "We keep finishing second-to-last, third-to-last. We'll eventually be last if we keep doing what we're doing." Indeed, the only question is why that hasn't happened yet. Oh, right -- Aja and Ty. We see them get rid of their fish and board the last tuk-tuk to Angkor Wat.
At Angkor Wat, Nick is approaching tourists to ask them where to find the room he's looking for. "Don't tell me I've got to go up there," Tina mutters, looking up a steep stone staircase. Dallas is also asking for directions. And Terence is reluctantly agreeing to take this Road Block for him and Sarah. Inside, Nick has drafted a guide, who leads him directly to the right place. Nick thumps his chest, and interviews afterwards that "I though I was doing some kind of war cry or Tarzan thing." At a temple? Really? He picks up one of the relief sculptures on the ground, and discovers the carved message on the back telling him to go to Bayon Temple and find the Pit Stop there. Bayon is another twelfth-century Buddhist temple, but it's on a much smaller scale and it's also where the last team may be eliminated. Nick says that he hid the clue under his shirt. We see him going past Tina on his way out, asking her fake-cluelessly if she found anything. She frustratedly says no. "If you can hold them up for thirty seconds by saying, 'I don't know where it is,' then absolutely I will do that at every moment," Nick interviews. At a temple? Really? Terence doesn't look fooled, looking suspiciously after Nick as he rushes past with obvious purpose. Nick rejoins Starr outside, and Ken and Sarah watch nervously as the Siblings head to the Pit Stop.
Kelly and Christy are talking themselves up as they tuk-tuk to Angkor Wat, saying the people need to recognize their team as a force to be reckoned with. "They need to be skerred," Kelly adds. It's too bad the other teams aren't around to hear these remarks, which as far as I can tell are some kind of bizarre threat on the order of, "If people don't start taking us seriously, we're going to have no choice but to quit tripping ourselves up all the g.d. time."
Catching up with the teams to whom Team Divorced is actually a threat, Dan is confident that he and Andrew are close behind, and in the last tuk-tuk, Aja and Ty are still staying positive.
Tina? Still lost. "Is this the swimming pool?" she asks aloud as she wanders past a large rectangular hole. I am enjoying her clueless running commentary; when I hear the phrase "self-guided tour," the first thing I think of isn't a visitor walking from numbered sign to numbered sign listening attentively to a recording on headphones, but some ignorant rube wandering around going, "Gash, what the heck is that?"
Terence is having no luck asking for directions. But Dallas walks right into the room, and the overhead ceiling-cam someone installed watches as he stops, thumps his chest, and remarks, "That's cool." He picks up a clue carving and heads out. Tina and Terence are both still stuck, but Terence has at least found a guide and gets to the Chamber of Echoes , while Toni and Dallas are en route to the Pit Stop. Ooh! Wait! Tina's found it! "Oh, goodness gracious," she says, stepping into the room, and then right through to the other side. "I must be blind," she complains, just as she passes right back under that ceiling-cam. You know the Amazing Editors had a little celebration when they got that shot. Hell, I bet the Amazing Tape Loggers had a little celebration.
Terence and Sarah are off to the Pit Stop, while Ken admits that he should have taken this one, now that two other teams have been in and out since they've arrived. "How did everybody else get it and not me?" Tina is wondering.
Now arriving at Angkor Wat: Team Divorced, while Ken and Tina experience mounting frustration. After the ads, she finally finds her way back, thumps her chest, and picks up the clue. "Oh, Tina, you're an idiot," she berates herself. But she's only halfway finished: "I don't even know how I came in." Inside the temple, Christy has found a guide to show her the room, and probably would have run right through it as well had her guide not reeled her back in. In fact, she finds her way out before Tina does, and both teams are off in their tuk-tuks with Team Divorced in the lead. Wow, that's got to smart.
The Siblings are arriving at Bayon Temple, an open-air location that's a confusing maze of stone walls, stairways, and flagstoned courtyards. One of these courtyards contains Phil, standing in front of the mat to a wizened little white-robed monk. "Welcome to Cambodia," the monk sings, and Phil tells them they're team number one. And they've won a trip for two to St. John, which will include a "sunset champagne sail by catamaran." During which they can either make out, or not. Nick interviews that it reminded him of how they won the first leg. "It wasn't just a fluke; Starr and I are a team to be reckoned with." And all the wins so far have gone to one of two teams. I might point out that at the end of both of the legs they won, the Siblings were wearing their baseball caps with their last name, "Spangler," embroidered on them in Gothic text. So it might be to another team's advantage to steal them. Or at least push them off a ledge.
The Frat Boys arrive at Angkor Wat, and are appropriately awed: "It's the original Playboy Mansion," Andrew says. Classy. Andrew is decided as having the best sense of direction. At least this time he'll be too far away to hear Dan's endless bitching. Ty and Aja are still going strong, him telling her that it's their destiny to win the race. Meanwhile, Andrew is just starting to get an idea of the scale of this place. "Holy crap, this place is so frickin' huge," he breathes. His level of spiritual inspiration is duly noted. Now where's the Grotto?
We rejoin Phil at the Pit Stop, where he's facing both Toni|Dallas and Terence|Sarah, neither of whom we got to see arrive for some reason. Toni and Dallas are team number two, which makes Terence and Sarah team number three. Not bad for a team that suffered a transportation breakdown. Terence's hair must be more aerodynamic than I've been giving it credit for.
Andrew is wandering around Angkor Wat. Outside, Dan is trying to remain optimistic, while inside, Andrew is doing things like looking for the Chamber of Echoes under small rocks. Ty and Aja have just spotted a sign directing people to Angkor Wat, so at least they're on the right track. It's an ice-cold track, but it's the right one.
Team Divorced arrives at Bayon temple before Ken and Tina, and they dash headlong into the grounds, where they then stand around for a minute wondering where exactly they're supposed to be. So emblematic of them, really. It's like they decided, "Our strategy is going to be to get places really fast, and then stand around going, 'what the eff?'"
Andrew is asking a monk about Prassat Kok Troung, and is quietly pointed in the right direction across the courtyard. As Aja and Ty are arriving, Andrew is accompanied by the monk as he goes in, thumps his chest, and grabs a carving. "So I just take one of these, right?" Andrew asks, carelessly flipping the stone slab up in a way that nearly catches the much shorter monk on the nose. He and Dan are back in their tuk-tuk as Ty and Aja seem to be arriving (although again, we don't see the teams cross paths or anything). Ty heads inside. "We'll find out if we're sixth once we get there," Dan tells Andrew. Ty finds a guide.
But at Bayon Temple, Ken and Tina have found the Pit Stop mat before Kelly and Christy, and are team number four. "I'm sorry, it's my fault, we should be team number one," Tina says as Ken hugs her. Kelly and Christy arrive and are told they're team number five. "Five!?" Christy repeats in amazement. It's not clear if she thinks it should be higher or lower. I suppose it's also possible that she thinks "five" means "You're still racing!" and the editors cut away before she heads off to Prague or something at a dead run.
Ty has found his room and his clue, and rejoins Aja, who has been holding both of their backpacks as she waited for him. But they'd better hurry, because the Frat Boys have already found Bayon Temple and are hurrying inside. "Let's jog it up," they say, even managing to find an annoying way to say they need to hurry. In their tuk-tuk to the Pit Stop, Aja is talking about what can be accomplished when you "get that fire under your booty." Indeed, you can shrink a nine-hour lag down to less than a day. They'd better hope Dan and Andrew stay as lost as they are, to the point that Dan is hollering at nobody, "Anybody see a lot of Americans around?" Team Long-Distance are dismounting their tuk-tuks outside the temple, and finally Dan spots something through a narrow gap between two stone walls. Cut to Phil, bending down to point out an arriving team to his greeter. And it's... Dan and Andrew, picking their way down a steep staircase on their way to the mat. Phil tells them they're team number six, and they celebrate desultorily as Phil looks at them like, you little, little men. Hee, hee, hee.
At last, Aja and Ty arrive, and even if we're due for a non-elimination leg, this isn't it; they're Philiminated. "So what now for you guys?" Phil asks them. "'Cause you came into this dating long-distance. You've just run quite a distance together. Like the idea of being together?" Ty says that he doesn't want to be with anyone else. In their final interview, Ty promises to move to L.A. to be with Aja, and give the relationship the attention it deserves. And Aja says, "Ty is the most beautiful man I've ever, ever loved, inside and out... He has completely redefined love for me. He has a beautiful smile, he has a beautiful spirit, I'm just happy to be with him." Aw, I hope they have a lovely time together in Sequesterville.
And in a final bit of housekeeping, we're transported back in time, to Terence and Sarah standing on the mat before Phil and the greeter, all of them looking grave as Phil VOs, "Because Terence and Sarah were stopped for speeding, they received a thirty-minute penalty that did not affect the outcome of this leg, but will be applied to the start of the ." Is anticlimax the word I'm looking for? Well, I guess we'll soon see if it's enough to keep Andrew and Dan in the race for another leg.
week: The pressure of not winning one leg in a row finally gets to Ken and Tina.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com.
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