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Everyone files en masse to Accra, Ghana, where they face perilous traffic, persistent beggars, and a chaotic marketplace where they have to sell sunglasses. Lots of teams have to deal with some real characters, and then the Detour is a choice between installing TV antennas or transporting novelty coffins across town. The home shopping hosts unsurprisingly ace both the selling and the TV tasks and win the leg. Jonathan and Connor switch tasks, while doctors Nat & Kat, Andie & Jenna, and Gary & Mallory get lost on the way to the Detour, and the whole back of the pack encounters terrifying traffic and even more terrifying remedies for it. Andie and her biological daughter Jenna are Philiminated, so they'll be doing the rest of their bonding at the Elimination Station.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Phil welcomes us back to England's Eastnor Castle, and all we learn about the place tonight is that it's a "massive estate," and the first Pit Stop of this season's race. We did learn from a credit card promo during last week's episode that it was built in the 1800s, which in British terms means it's new enough to still be under warranty. Jill and Thomas, who won the last leg and thus the coveted Express Pass, are leaving at 11:55 AM. Thomas rips the clue and reads that they'll be flying to Accra, Ghana. Phil tells us that's more than 3,100 miles, and also it's pronounced "acCRAH." From the airport, they'll proceed to Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, which features a towering mausoleum that dominates a fountain two city blocks long. There's also a bronze statue of the great man himself (Kwame Nkrumah, that is, not Phil)-- whom Phil describes as "the father of Ghanaian independence," and who am I to argue -- and yes, a clue box.
Jill and Thomas drive away from Eastnor Castle. Thomas says they're happy about having won the leg, and Jill adds in an interview that although Thomas was in charge the last leg, she wants to do more in the second. Sitting to her, Thomas opens his mouth to say something, but the editors have Jill's back on this one. Driving from the castle, Thomas declares that Accra is in Africa, "so, pretty sweet." And there went Jill's first chance to make a contribution this leg.
Nat and Kat are leaving at 12:00 PM, so we have time to learn a little about them. Apparently they're both anesthesiologists (and shouldn't CBS have put them on Big Brother instead if their specialty is putting people to sleep?), but they're very different. Nat explains that if they were both boats, Kat would be an ocean liner, while she would be the dinghy. That's a reflection of their respective dispositions, not their weight. And Nat may have been more accurate than she intended when her description of herself included the word "dinghy."
Connor and Jonathan are leaving in third place, at 12:20, and we learn that they get $137 for this leg. They run off to the path and decide to wait for Brooke and Claire, since they're right there anyway. They say it's to pool their resources, but I suspect them of wanting to use the Cousin Oliver mojo they displayed last week to take out yet another team. Brook and Claire get going at 12:21, in fourth place. During a quick pre-leg interview, Brook is optimistic about winning this leg. "I'm thinking if there's no watermelons in this leg, it's ours." Don't count your watermelons before they splatter into your partner's face, Brook. They join the singers on the path, and they all decide to wait for Katie and Rachel as well, who are opening their clue at 12:22. The volleyball players run up to the waiting pack asking, "Do you know where you're going, guys?" "No," Jonathan says. See? Even their combined resources make for a pretty shallow pool.
Brook flags down a large, incongruous John Deere tractor and climbs right up into the cab with the driver, asking him to write directions down for her in exchange for a "big sloppy kiss." But he gives her the directions anyway. The transaction completed, Brook climbs down and brays, "I just kissed an Englishman, in a tractor. Let's go!" "You've kissed worse," Claire tells the world. Brook interviews that this will be an ongoing strategy for her. "A kiss saves the day. If you can kiss a stranger on the cheek you can really move mountains." "A lot more to come," Claire adds in a fake French accent that still merits subtitles. I just hope Brook isn't carrying something nasty that will end up making her Patient Zero in a worldwide epidemic of logorrhea or something.
Gary and Mallory are leaving in sixth place, at 12:40, and Mallory nearly wets herself upon learning they're going to Africa. Of course, she's so excitable she would have nearly wet herself upon learning they were going to the Middle East, or Cardiff, or that place in Hungary that just got flooded with toxic sludge. "Oh, I hope I get to hold little African babies," she says in the car. I'm sure the little African babies agree, if they can have safety harnesses and earplugs.
Michael and Kevin are leaving at 12:41 in seventh place. They run for the cars as fast as they can, given that Michael has a sore leg. Kevin admits in an interview that he's "not too confident having my dad as a teammate." Michael agrees that he hopes he's not too much of a drag on Kevin, and I think he just means on the race. When they're in the car, Michael apologizes for slowing him down. Kevin says it's cool, but he doesn't go so far as to say Michael wasn't slowing him down.
Chad and Stephanie leave at 12:50, in eighth place, uneventfully. Andie and Jenna are off at 1:35, in ninth place. Andie reminds us, "When I was just Jenna's age, I chose adoption for her, and all these years it's been really difficult hoping that I did the right thing." Jenna solo-interviews that she always knew she was adopted, and was always thinking about Andie in the back of her head. Andie solo-interviews, "I want to go the whole race, because this is the only time we're ever gonna have like this in our whole lives." Why does she keep saying that? Seriously, they can't hang at all after this? Did someone tell them they couldn't, or something? In the car, they're happy about getting to sleep in a castle the night before. "We're such princesses," Andie says. Wait till they see where people are sleeping .
Nick and Vicky take off at 1:45, in last place, less than two hours after the leaders. "On the road again," Vicky remarks inanely as Nick counts their cash. Maybe now he can buy himself a hat that fits.
Jill and Thomas are now at Heathrow Airport. They find the Virgin Atlantic counter and learn that there's only one flight to Accra per day, and that they're all going to be on it. There goes Jill and Thomas's lead, and without spending any more time in the airport at all, which I'm more than fine with, we watch the Amazing Red Line going almost due south on what Phil says is a six-hour flight to Accra. And there we are, in a coastal city with Ghanaian flags and bustling streets where people carry things on their heads and kids show off for the cameras. The flight lands, and the thing we see is a ten-way footrace out of the terminal to get cabs. It's pretty much a mob with Mallory as its sonic epicenter, and soon everyone's in taxis marveling at the scenery out their windows. In Jill and Thomas's case, this includes some pedestrians crossing the road that their stone-faced driver doesn't even bother braking for, so they're lucky they made it to the curb in time. Nat and Kat's driver at least grimaces at a bus pulling out in front of him, and makes the concession of going around behind it, but brakes are for wusses in Ghana, apparently.
Ironically, being a passenger in a taxi in Ghana isn't, because as they get into a more urban area, Jonathan and Connor find themselves trying to avoid a guy's arm reaching in through the back window and scaring the hell out of them. "Sir, I feel unsafe," Jonathan tells their cabbie as calmly as he can manage. Yeah, that would be freaky, but it's probably a good introduction to the idea that if you go to Accra you might want to leave your personal bubble in your backpack. They do escape the encounter, but not without getting spit on. "Please drive faster!" they harmonize to their driver. Lucky for them the cab doesn't seem to be in a place where the driver can just pull over and kick them out on the spot.
Mallory also blows off a beggar, clearly felling shitty about it (or maybe just because she lied to him about not having money when we know they have at least $137), but Andie says to Jenna, "How can you resist that face?" and hands over a coin. At least that guy leaves them alone after that. Jenna interviews about how selfless Andie is, and back in the cab Andie remarks that the beggar is somebody's son and she has children. Ten at home, in fact, according to her bio. "It might give us good karma," Jenna says, which is a lot better than some things she could say, if she were an asshole.
Nick and Vicky somehow are in first place as teams start arriving at the park, with Brook and Claire right behind them, and Michael and Kevin behind them, closely followed by Chad and Stephanie, then Jill and Thomas. Brook and Claire are the first to actually reach the clue box, however. Phil says they'll now have to go to Makola Market to find their clue. The other five lead teams, all of whose rankings we see onscreen to keep the subtitle writers busy, are right behind them. Nat and Kat, Team @, is arriving at about the same time, and Jonathan and Connor spot it from the road and ask their cabdriver George to wait for them as they get out. They get the clue in eighth place. "Oh, shoot, there's only two clues left," Mallory says when she and Gary reach the clue box in ninth place. Andie and Jenna get their clue in tenth place, so we can move on from this location. Thanks for Ghana's independence, Kwame Nkrumah.
To the Makola Market, where there are so many people that it sounds like the crowd at a major sporting event but without a sporting event. Most of the five lead teams are blown away at the sight as they're driving toward the main entrance, but Michael calmly informs Kevin, "I'm not a stranger to this kind of market. When I grew up back in Taiwan, it was like this, when I was a kid." Good, so he'll know where everything is, then. Teams start de-cabbing, and Brook and Claire's driver almost leaves with their bags still in the back, so Nick and Vicky jump ahead to be the first to read the clue: "Who thinks they can handle some shady dealings?" Something shady is already afoot if Nick and Vicky are in first place.
Phil narrates, "The African sun burns bright in the city of Accra. So sunglasses are one of the most popular items...for sale." Kind of a lame end to that sentence there, Phil. For the Road Block, someone is going to have to sell enough sunglasses to earn 15 cedis, at a minimum price of 3 cedis per pair, which happens to be about $2.11 in US dollars. These don't look like cheap-ass shades, either, but then Ghana isn't the richest country in the world. Anyway, after they're done, they'll exchange the 15 cedis with the lead vendor to get their clue. I wonder whether the vendor gets to keep the cash, or how much he negotiated with the producers on price.
Anyway, Nick is taking this. So is Brook, who interviews, "Are you kidding, I have to sell something? Bring it on!" What, her partner can't sell shit? Jill, Chad (who is wearing his own sunglasses on the back of his neck, which isn't going to help him come off as a trustworthy authority on eyewear), Rachel, and Michael are taking this one, and Kevin admits that he's nervous about his dad sucking at this. They all start selling -- or rather, trying to sell -- just as Team @ arrives and Kat (the brunette) is taking it.
Nick's off to a slow start, telling people, "Big race, big race," like they care. Vicky tells Claire she should have done it instead of Nick, which is a nice vote of confidence. Chad is schlepping a whole giant rack of them around, and Brook's working the crowd like Elmo on ecstasy as Claire reminds us, "This is what we do for a living, is sell stuff." Brook tells one prospect that he looks like a gangster or a rapper with a pair of shades on, which doesn't seem to offend him, and she gives him a big hug when he takes them off her hands for 3 cedis. Chad's selling a pair to a younger woman, and interviews that he was "using sex to sell." The threat of it, or what? to him, Stephanie just laughs at him. Michael and Jill try to sell, the latter claiming that they "go to a really good cause" (that cause being Jill and Thomas getting to hold onto their Express Pass for another leg, I guess) while Thomas is being all uptight from the sidelines. Michael sells his first pair. So does Rachel, to a customer who tells her, "I love you." Ah, a volleyball fan!
Connor and Jonathan have arrived. Connor wants to give it to Jonathan, but Jonathan refuses. He seems to have had all the contact with the locals that he can stand for one day.
Gary and Mallory's cab has died on them en route, so Andie and Jenna arrive at the market in ninth place. Andie gives this one to Jenna, saying she's more of a salesman than Andie is. "That's one of the things, I don't know if she's a good salesman or not," Jenna admits. She gets right to work. And behind them somewhere, Mallory is trying to not freak out while their driver tries to start the engine. It's anyone's guess whether she or the car will blow a gasket first.
After the ads, Gary gets out and pushes. There's some chaotic editing, during which we see Gary riding on the back bumper of a moving taxi, but he upshot is that they change cabs. Sounds like a reasonable solution.
Nick, who is still striking out on his attempts to sell anything, admits that he doesn't have a technique. "I don't think there is a technique out here. Either they're buying them or they're not." Putting the lie to that is Brook, who's gushing about how a pair makes one guy looks like a supermodel. Better than a professional basketball player or something. The Amazing Editors give him a little tooth-sparkle to go with them, and she's also kissing her customers on the cheek and adding, "Send your friends, okay?" with an unhinged grin. Meanwhile, Jill commiserates with Kat over not having sold any while Thomas hollers at her from the sidelines in frustration, like he can contribute anything useful from a hundred extremely crowded yards away. Kat hauls out a whole rack while Nat yells at her to be aggressive. Meanwhile, Chad is trying to get three cedis out of a girl who only wants to pay him two. He gets on one knee to beg, and she just gets down with him. Chad interviews that he held onto her money to "sweet-talk her" out of the rest. He offers a big hug if she'll just come off that last cedi, but she just looks like she's starting to regret getting into this interaction in the first place; this big, noisy American has her money and won't let her leave. I am almost as uncomfortable with this as she is.
Rachel tells a potential customer trying out oversized shades, "You look like Paris Hilton." The Ghanaian woman smiles indulgently, blissfully aware that nobody is going to mistake her for any dingbat hotel heiresses. Michael sells a pair, and he's up to 9¢. "I almost want to kiss her, but of course I can't," he interviews. Why not? Nothing seems to be stopping Brook, and in fact the woman Michael didn't kiss looks pretty sad about it. Rachel's up to 12¢, and hopes she's going to win. She certainly does seem to have a lead, but we haven't checked in with Brook for a while.
Jill, meanwhile, is trying to give a positive customer service experience to a prospect, warning her to watch her head while bundles pass by at cranium level, but stupid Thomas is still insisting on bellowing at her from a distance. Shut up, Thomas, she's trying to work. Thomas interviews about how you feel helpless while the other person's doing the Road Block, and there's their Express Pass to think of. "You don't want to end up last and not having used the Express Pass," Thomas says. Yes, that's the age-old dilemma, isn't it? Jill's trying to sell to the lady, who has now started posing and dancing with them on. Finally she says something in another language and her friend translates, "She says you don't get money." "Okay, everybody just likes to pretend," Jill grumps, stomping away. Maybe she'd have better luck if Thomas would yell her name more angrily.
Kat's still not selling anything. Nick's building a rapport with some guy who, it turns out, just wants to look at his tattoos. Chad and Jenna are somehow right to each other competing, and Jenna says you can't be shy in this situation. Well, no, but the market's big enough so that you don't have to be on top of each other.
Gary and Mallory have finally arrived, and she picks up a whole rack of sunglasses that's as big as she is. "I've got some sunglasses for your...shaded pleasure," she says. I wasn't sure where that sentence was going for a second there. Chad's still working on that one girl. Damn, dude, do both of you a favor and move on! Brook finishes her last sale, earning the hell out of it, and as she gets her clue she boasts, "Give me a sales challenge, bring it on." They're in first place as she reads the clue sending them to a part of Accra called the June Fourth Area. I assume this isn't being filmed on June Fourth, because that would make an area with that name very hard to narrow down. Phil says they're looking specifically for a shop called Peace Motor Spare Parts, which is where the clue is. Off they go, Brook probably hoping that that "peace" thing isn't strictly enforced.
Chad's still trying to squeeze another cedi out of that poor girl, and Jill comes up wondering if he's sold any. When he says he's on his last pair, she says, "Shut up!" Yes, Chad, shut up and sell that last pair to someone else. Michael finds a customer who wants a smaller pair than the ones he's carrying, and tells her to wait right there. Connor's doing well, selling two pair for ten cedis, but Michael just made his last sale. But then Connor sells two for six, so he's got 16¢ after only two transactions. Kevin's proud and not a little surprised to see his dad come out of the market in second place. Jonathan and Connor are off in third. Meanwhile, Chad is still leaning on that poor girl who looks like she just wants her two cedis back so she can get on with her life. She finally gives in, so Chad's done in fourth, and let's hear it for Chad for successfully shaking down a Ghanaian teenager. "Oh my God, pretty much everyone's done," Jenna says, even though Rachel just now finished in fifth.
Brook and Claire have reached Peace Motor Spare Parts, which brings us to Phil telling us about the creativity and ingenuity of the local people. "The result is a distinctive lifestyle that presents our teams with a unique Detour." The choice is "Tune In" or "Check Out." For Tune In, they'll go to an electrical supply store for a TV antenna system -- which basically includes a length of cable, some components, a few tools, and a long stick. Then they have to find one of the nearby houses with a home-painted Amazing Sign outside, and install the antenna to the satisfaction of the homeowner. When they get a picture on the TV, they get their clue. Assuming the homeowner isn't too entranced by the televised entertainment to hand it over.
For "Check Out," they'll go to a woodworking shop "where coffins are created to represent the lifestyle of their eventual occupants." In the yard outside the shop are all manner of novelty caskets shaped like cameras, lions, fish, Coke bottles, etc. As crowded as the city is, the cemeteries in the country must be pretty roomy. The teams will have to pick one and then schlep it across town to Hello Coffin, a coffin showroom. Phil didn't say anything about Ghanaian's gruesome sense of humor.
Brook and Claire opt for the antenna task, figuring it'll be the easier of the two. They quickly find a little shop called Adom Electricals and get a kit, along with some tools and two pair of safety glasses (opting for the pink-framed pairs, of course, to match their team color). They grab a ladder and head into the maze of shotgun shacks, quickly finding one with a red-and-yellow shingle hung outside. Brook's the one who mounts the ladder, saying, "You got a watermelon in the face, I'm going to get a hammer in the finger." Yeah, Claire still wins. Brook says it's harder than it looks, but Claire can't climb up to help her, even when she tries to stack a couple of benches up against the back of the house. Apparently Claire doesn't feel like pushing her luck these days for some reason. She gets distracted by the cooking going on, and Brook tells her to focus, although she refrains from threatening to deliver any food to Claire's face at thirty miles per hour. The antenna's finally in place outside, so they have to run the cable inside to the actual TV. Brook has to climb up on a cupboard to run the cable over the rafters, blathering to the owner about customer service. "It's really hot up here," she adds. Maybe it would get cooler if she stopped talking for thirty seconds.
Michael and Kevin find Peace Motor Spare Parts, but not the clue box. This happens at least once every season.
Connor and Jonathan prevail upon their driver to ask for directions to the June Fourth area. Apparently they were going the wrong way, but at least the driver turns around before they find themselves in the January Thirteenth area way on the other side of town.
Chad and Stephanie find the Peace Motor Spare Parts (PMSP from now on) clue box in second place without Michael or Kevin even seeing them, apparently. They also decide on the antenna, since Chad is "good with electronics." Kevin and Michael, meanwhile, are, like, literally wandering around in people's backyards. Lucky for them, they encounter Chad and Stephanie just as they're collecting their ladder, and get directions to the clue from them.
Katie and Rachel open the clue in third place, and agree to do Check Out. At the woodworking shop, they admire all the coffins for a moment before settling on a piano keyboard, which looks like a good choice because it seams the least unwieldy, with the fewest pieces sticking out of it. They tie it on a cart -- using what look like actual knots, I guess because they need to know how to tie a net to a pole, after all -- and get going. Alas, the first thing they have to do is roll it up a steep ramp onto a bridge, but fortunately some locals are happy to help with that. I wonder if they thought so see if it was as light as it could be by checking inside.
Kevin declares that he and his dad are going to do Tune In, now that they've finally found the clue. Chad and Stephanie have already started that task, and Chad appears to be listening to Stephanie's input, which is an encouraging sign. Across the alley, Michael and Kevin are struggling with a tangled cable, which is not.
Vicky asks Nick how he's doing, and all he says he's trying. Translation: I've sold fuck-all. Jenna manages to sell one woman two pairs, and Jill jealously asks her customer, "Are you interested in buying a third pair?" Jenna's done with the task, and Andie talks about how much her customers enjoyed just being with Jenna. Not to put Jenna down, because she seems perfectly nice if a little uptight, but maybe her customers were just happy to have sunglasses? They're off in sixth place, and Jenna says that people kept telling her they'd be back later, and she realized that meant, "No." Which is surprising, considering how much they enjoyed being with her.
Mallory is still dragging her rack of sunglasses around, and some guy asks her how much she wants for them. She says three cedis, but he means how many sunglasses, because he tells her wants to buy out her whole stock. Which is actually just his way of fucking with her by making her waste time counting all two hundred pairs. She interviews afterwards that the message she got from the locals was, "We do this every day and you are not doing it right." I'm impressed that she stopped hollering enough to receive any kind of message at all. He does buy one pair of aviators from her, though, so combined with the ones she apparently already sold off-camera, she's already up to 15¢.
From the viewing area, Nat and Thomas are watching their respective partners out there, and Thomas yells at Jill, "What are you doing?" She's noticed that she almost sold someone a pair with a scratch, so she starts helping that customer find a better pair to buy. "Money's tight, so you just don't want to sell them a pair of bad sunglasses," she interviews. Sitting to her, Thomas asks why she cares. "I hope you're not worried about people's feelings on this race," he says. "We gotta win." Yeah, there's a difference between not worrying about screwing over your fellow contestants, who if nothing else had the resources to make an audition video and outfit themselves to backpack around the world, and selling someone in Africa a crap pair of sunglasses for .3% of their country's per capita GDP. Does he not get that? Whatever the case, she made her last sale, so she's done.
That leaves only Kat, and Nick, who is down to his last pair. One woman asks Nick to let her try a pair on, and when she does, someone turns on a boom box and she starts dancing. Nick doesn't know how to react, until she decides to pretend like she's walking off with them. And then he knows even less how to act. "I think I just got jacked for some sunglasses," Nick tells us. Does that mean he has to sell an extra pair to make up for the ones he got stolen from him? Or sell the pair for 6¢? Luckily, she only seems to be messing with him, taunting him from around a truck like he's trying to get her to chase her down for them. Eventually she comes back and offers him two cedis. When he says he can't, she says, "Let me search you." What? Finally she buys them at the asking price, but she certainly made him work for it. And Kat's stuck trying to get more than one cedi from an inflexible buyer. "I'm not a very good salesperson or no one wants sunglasses," she says. How much would it suck for her if it suddenly got cloudy?
Fortunately for Kat, several minutes of commercials completely broke down that woman's sales resistance, and Kat's finally done, although she says she isn't quitting her day job " to become a Ghanaian professional sunglass seller." Maybe she could find a way to make her anesthesiologist skills translate? If she could just knock people out on the street, she wouldn't even need sunglasses to sell.
Brook comes down from the ceiling, soaked in sweat, but the TV signal is pretty snowy, so she has to go back outside and wiggle the antenna until it works. We see her in the background of the camera that's currently shooting Chad, several tin roofs away. "I don't know what I'm doing!" she hollers over to Chad, who has paused to watch. Has she tried kissing the antenna?
Rachel and Katie have found the Hello Coffin Showroom, because it's the store with a coffin shaped like a fuel tanker truck up on the windowless second floor. Now they just have to stop traffic to get across the busy street. You'd think there'd be a coffin Xing sign at this location.
Brook keeps fiddling with the antenna, and suddenly the picture comes in like someone changed a channel, which is the first of several signs that this task may not be as vérité as the show might like us to think. The owner's satisfied, so she can come down, and now all she and Claire have to do is get to the Pit Stop without losing their lead. Phil tells us that this leg's Pit Stop is Kaneshie Market, "one of the largest markets in all of West Africa." Because Makola was such a rinky-dink little operation. Specifically, they need to get to the footbridge that Phil's standing on while pedestrians flow past behind him in both directions. "The last team to check in here may be eliminated." But what does he mean by "here"? The mat's down on the ground below him! I'm confused.
Brook and Claire are just excited at being in first. But Katie and Rachel are in good shape too, untying their coffin and carrying it up the stairs to the showroom, where they get help setting it on a table and receive the clue sending them to Kaneshie Market.
Jonathan and Connor get to Peace Motor Spare Parts in fifth place and decide on "Tune In." They get the stuff, get to a house, and start assembling. Chad and Stephanie have things hooked up, but it looks like they have a bad connector that Chad has to fix. Good thing he's good with electronics. Michael mounts the ladder to attach his and Kevin's antenna to the house as Kevin interviews, "I'm really starting to value him more as a teammate." "As an equal teammate," Michael adds with a goofy laugh, which I'm starting to realize is actually his default laugh. They get a clear picture on the screen, and Kevin asks the homeowner, "Can we get the clue?" They're off to the Pit Stop in third place. Chad and Stephanie get a good picture, so they're officially in fourth as they get their last clue.
Jenna breaks a ponytail holder in the cab, saying, "I don't think anyone's hair would be doing well right now." "Especially ours," Andie agrees. They interview about things they've discovered that they have in common, like being double-jointed (they hold up matching freaky hyper-extended index fingers) and "naturally frizzy hair" that they have to straighten. Have to? They certainly aren't doing it halfway. "Sorry about that," Andie says. A more immediate problem is that their driver doesn't seem to have a clear idea of where he's going. But neither does Gary and Mallory's, except that it's "far." That's not encouraging.
Thomas decides he and Jill will be moving the coffin, and they grab the big camera-casket, with the big lens sticking out the front and a flash attachment that looks pretty rickety. They get some pretty good knots going too, and as with the team, some locals help it up the ramp to the bridge and down the other side. "Good job, Jill," Thomas compliments his girlfriend, who managed not to get run over in the process.
Nick and Vicky are doing the antenna task in seventh place. Nat and Kat are pretty sure they're in the wrong place, because they seem to be pulling up to the Kofi Annan International Training Center. They ask a guard for directions, and get back on their way. That's some quality international training.
Brook is praying for first place as they get out of their cab at Kaneshie Market and start running around aimlessly. "Oh my God, Claire, he could be anywhere," Brook says. In fact, he's standing on the mat below the footbridge, to a local greeter who has a bucket of fish balanced on her head. Katie and Rachel are also at the market, so we might have a race on our hands here. Both teams, each apparently unaware of the presence of the other, try to push through the crowds, but it's Brook and Claire who get to Phil first. "Welcome to Accra," the greeter says, and Phil tells them they're team number one, and they won a trip to Hawaii. Claire interviews, "We might come off as the ditzy la-la girls," and as we watch them dance on the mat, Brook says they're not going anywhere any time soon. Well, if they don't at least leave Accra, I don't think they'll last much longer in the race.
Katie and Rachel emerge from the crowd behind Phil and the greeter and jump onto the mat as team number two. I'm telling you, look out for those two.
Connor is up in the roof trying to adjust the antenna, but after cycling through some different stages of static, with and without color, they just give up. "Sorry we couldn't install your TV," Jonathan tells the owner. On their way out, he says hi to a kid and asks for a high five. And then for a low one. The kid leaves him hanging both times. He was hoping for some TV, I think.
Michael and Kevin arrive as team number three, so not bad at all. And with Kevin still wearing his safety glasses, even.
Jill, Thomas, and their two local helpers get the coffin-cam up the stairs to the showroom, Jill reminding them, "One step at a time. It's hard when you're in a hurry." They get their clue in fifth place. I think it's safe to say that the Express Pass will not be used during this leg.
Chad and Stephanie loudly excuse themselves through the crowd around the mat and arrive in fourth place. They're pretty happy about it, and I agree that it's a pretty big jump up from eighth. And this was a much harder place to find Phil in than last week's Pit Stop.
Team @ asks their driver about Peace Motor, but he's never heard of it, apparently. Probably because it's so peaceful. Gary and Mallory's driver admits that he thinks they should go back. Both cabbies stop for directions, which is when Andie and Jenna come up behind them and see them. What are the chances of three teams getting lost on the exact same road? Of course, I don't know how many roads Accra has, so maybe those chances are one in one. Andie and Jenna also have their driver stop for directions, which they don't even fully have before they see that Gary and Mallory's river is turning around. Nat and Kat will be following them, as will Andie and Jenna.
After the ads, Jenna asks their driver if he knows where they're going now. He assures them the does. "Okay. Sweet," Jenna says, as sweetly as she can manage.
Jonathan and Connor are running down the street behind a different kid. "And a chilled shall lead us!" Jonathan dorks. They make it to Emmanuel's Woodshop and choose a fish-shaped coffin, which they sort if crash into a lion-shaped coffin on their way out. Fortunately the guys in the yard laugh rather than get offended at this shoddy treatment of their work. Connor remarks on how a human being would fit inside such an oddly-shaped casket and adds, "I guess if you really like fish you're sleeping with the fishes." What, he was going to not say it?
Gary and Mallory have reached PMSP and opt for Tune In. Team @ are doing Check Out. Vicky coaches Nick through getting the antenna aligned, and they're good to go. I'm starting to be concerned about the broadcast entertainment options available to Ghanaian viewers; it seems to be nothing but tribal dances and rituals. Not even a Friends rerun in sight.
Jill and Thomas get out of their cab at Kaneshie market and are surprised to find themselves in sight of the mat as soon as they step onto the sidewalk. They're team number five. And they still have the Express Pass!
Gary's nailing an antenna to a shack, while Team @ is loading a lobster-shaped coffin onto the a wagon with surgical knots. Up ahead, Connor and Jonathan are struggling with the fish-coffin, bashing the nose of it into someone's car window (luckily the window was open, but unluckily the car was occupied) and then causing a traffic snarl trying to get it across the road. Andie and Jenna have finally reached PMSP in last place and are going for the coffin task. Connor and Jonathan are now delivering theirs.
Team @ is running down the road with their coffin, and suddenly Nat jerks right for some reason, running over Kat with the wagon. She's okay, through, so they can keep going rather than having Nat pull the coffin alone with Kat inside it.
Mallory screams and hugs the guy they just got TV for, so they're off to the Pit Stop in eighth place. Team @ gets their lobster-coffin up the stairs to the showroom and are headed for the pit stop in 9th place. Andie and Jenna deliver their coffin , so now there's nothing left but the race to the Pit Stop for five teams.
The first of those, Nick and Vicky, are immobile in a traffic jam. Jonathan and Connor, similarly becalmed, ask their driver if he can pass. He ignores them. Wisely, they don't repeat the request in song. Mallory and Gary are also in a parking lot, as is Team @. But then Nat and Kat's driver puts his car into gear, and the thing you know, they're zooming along between the lane they were stuck in and oncoming traffic, in a space that doesn't look nearly wide enough. Maybe it looks safer on a widescreen TV. They pass the singers, remarking, "We just passed our little brothers." "How did that happen?" Jonathan wonders over their new subtitle, "Currently in 8th place." Traffic does seem to have loosened up. thing you know, Nick and Vicky are in eighth place, having been passed by the doctors and the singers. In the back, Mallory is saying they've got to still be in it. "We can't be eliminated." Andie and Jenna are in last place, and Jenna tells their driver, "All right, Gideon, save us." Gideon is driving with one thumb permanently clamped on the horn button.
Jonathan thinks they can beat the doctors in a footrace, as if there's going to be a footrace at the crowded market, and asks their driver to pass that Team @ cab that's directly ahead of them. But the @s' driver is every bit the daredevil the singers' is. "We're not complaining, as long as we're not dying," Jonathan says, as Connor literally bites his fist in terror to him. Up ahead of them, Nat can't even look any more. Jonathan says, "Our taxi driver, and the taxi driver ahead of us have just invented a third lane--GASP!" They even gasp in harmony. An oncoming car is turning left in front of them, and they nearly crash. "I want my mom," Connor says "I'm just so proud that I haven't soiled myself." The two teams get to the market at about the same time, but Jonathan and Connor hit the mat first. "I love the fish," Connor tells the greeter. Phil has them move aside so Nat and Kat can join them, and they're teams six and seven respectively. Hope they tipped their drivers well.
Nick and Vicky arrive at the mat, and Phil warns them, "You're still in the race but you are team number eight." Way to look at it positively.
Only two teams are still trying to get to the Pit Stop: Gary/Mallory and Andie/Jenna. Jenna says they need to put it all on the line: "If we pass out on that mat, it's okay, but we're gonna do it." Andie, thinking about her physical resemblance to Margie, doesn't say anything to that. Frantic cutting back and forth, until finally Gary and Mallory approach the mat. "Had a bad day, Phil, give me some good news," Gary says, which I think is the first time we've heard him speak tonight. "Or any news, before I have a heart attack and die on this mat," Mallory adds. "Has that happened before?" She puts on quite a show, and Phil isn't about to cut that short, but finally he tells them they're team number nine.
Finally Andie and Jenna reach the mat, in no apparent hurry. Phil tells them they're the last team to arrive, and have been eliminated. Andie tearfully hugs Jenna, who says, "All my life I've wondered who my birth mother was and it's just like a treasure to be able to have it be Andie." Who else would it be? Andie says she's gotten some peace after 21 years, "just knowing this beautiful person that I brought into the world." So is Jenna her favorite now? In the post-leg interview, Andie says she chose a good family for Jenna, and they're both crying as Jenna agrees. "You are who you are because of that family," Andie goes on, "and that is a comfort that I wouldn't have had without this experience of getting to know her." She hugs Jenna proudly on the mat, like this is goodbye. Which I guess they think it is, which is too bad. That's going to make their three weeks at the Elimination Station pretty awkward, if nothing else.
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, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com
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