In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Without leaving Ghana, the teams get to go to boxing school and do everything but box, in a Road Block that Brook knocks out before three of the teams have even left the Pit Stop. But Jonathan and Connor steal the lead on the way to a primary school where they have to schlep construction supplies before humiliating themselves in a one-question geography quiz (find Ghana on a map) and then doing a Detour in which they either have to roll a hoop the length of a soccer field and back, or decode a wall of pictograms. The singers make it to the Pit Stop before the episode is even halfway over, which bodes much drama in the second half.
Sure enough, Nick throws a fit and screams at Vicky for misreading the clue about the building supplies, and continues to be a dick until she calms him down by having an asthma attack. Most other teams are completely flummoxed by the decoding task and switch to the hoop-rolling one, which seems physically impossible for Michael's dad Kevin. The medics need to step in, which nearly gives him an emotional breakdown as well. Fortunately for the Amazing Editors, Nat and Kat, who were already nearly kidnapped by their cabdriver, get lost en route to the Pit Stop, so it almost ends up as a race after all. But Kevin and Michael still come in last. BUT it's a non-elimination leg, so they're still in it. Also, all of the racers will be doing renovation work on the school before they start the leg. I'm a little worried for that school now.
Discuss this episode in our forums, see who we think will win and see what our vlogger thinks the Race used to be like below!
Want to immediately access TWoP content no matter where you are online? Download the free TWoP toolbar for your web browser. Already have a customized toolbar? Then just add our free toolbar app to get updated on our content as soon it's published.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!"This is Accra, capitol city of Ghana," Phil intones. He's back in Kaneshie Market, the second Pit Stop, which he says has more than 2,000 vendors, making it one of the largest markets in West Africa. Which he told us last week. Remember when episodes used to open with new and interesting facts about the Pit Stops, or at least new ones? His research department is letting down the side. Brook and Claire, who won the last leg, are leaving at 7:34 AM. The clue is sending them to the Jamestown neighborhood to find the Akotoku Boxing Academy and their clue. But Brook and Claire don't know it's a boxing school until their driver tells them, at which point they're thrilled. What did they think Akotoku Boxing Academy was, a gift wrapping club?
Katie and Rachel are close behind at 7:35, and quickly get a taxi. Michael and Kevin will be leaving in third place, at 7:45. In a pre-leg interview, Kevin admits that they have a hard time keeping up physically with teams in their twenties and thirties, Michael being fifty-nine and all. Kevin adds that this isn't as much about winning the million dollars as staying in as many legs as they can so they can experience all the different countries. I'm glad to see he has a realistic attitude about their chances of winning the million dollars. I suppose he also wouldn't complain if this gig scored him another million YouTube subscribers, but then if there were a way to monetize the first million he probably wouldn't be here.
Brook and Claire have already arrived at the boxing academy, where guys are doing some early-morning sparring in an outdoor ring. Brook shrieks her excitement as she grabs their clue and gushes about the burly men. "You've got a Rocky road ahead," the clue hint reads, har har. Suddenly here's Phil, to tell us that boxing is the second-most popular sport in Ghana after soccer, so there are boxing gyms like this all over the country. They certainly take up less space than soccer fields. Phil reminds us that Ghana has produced several world-champion boxers, so it's kind of a letdown when he says that for this Road Block, all they'll have to accomplish is tape up their hands like a boxer, and then do sixty seconds each on the speed bag and the jump rope to earn their clue. Seriously, that's it? I was hoping they'd have to knock down a boxer, or at the very least get knocked down by a boxer, but it doesn't look like they're even getting in the ring. Boo. Despite this, Brook wants to do the Road Block, and I'm sure those watermelon-sized speed bags on their vertical elastic bands are giving Claire PTSD flashbacks anyway. Brook interviews that she and Claire train at a boxing facility back home. "Come on, Bammer," Claire calls to Brook from the sidelines. She tells us, "If Brook gets in the ring with those other guys, I'm scared for the other guy." I'm scared for the guy who has to tell Brook she's not getting into the ring. Brook starts taping up her hand, trying to keep up with the trainer who's taping his. Think he'll put the tape over his mouth just to see if he can get her to mimic it?
Katie and Rachel, the volleyball players, have had to stop for directions. "Son of a bitch," one of them says diplomatically as they complain about their driver. I think she's using it as a curse, and not calling their driver that. I think.
Chad and Stephanie are leaving in fourth place, at 7:52, and they seem to be in a pretty good mood as they quickly find a cab. I just noticed this week that their subtitle describes them as "newly dating." How long do you have to be dating to still be "newly," according to the Amazing Subtitles? And what happens if you cross that threshold while on the race? I'm going to be watching their subtitle very closely.
Jill and Thomas give each other a quick kiss before ripping the clue at 7:58, in fifth place. They also get a cab. Nice headband on Thomas, there. Jill may be a licensed cosmetologist, but I don't think anyone could accuse her of bringing her work home with her.
Connor and Jonathan leave at 8:01 in sixth place, and we learn from them that the allowance for this leg is $146. They jump into a cab with a driver named Samson and hurry to make friends with him. I don't know if that's a solid strategy, but it certainly can't hurt, either on the racing or the human level. As long as they don't start singing.
Brook, or "Bam," or "Bammer," as Claire is going to be calling her this whole leg for reasons that escape me, has taped her hands to her trainer's approval. I was going to fix that last sentence, because it makes it sound like her trainer's approval is a physical part of the trainer and Brook has affixed her hands to it with strips of adhesive, but then I decided that's a reason to keep it the way it is. After giving him a kiss, she gets to don a boxing helmet and gloves to go work the speed bag. The trainer gives her encouragement, and she says, "Thank you, coach. I like you." At least until she hits the speed bag so hard it snaps back and bashes her in the face. Okay, no, that doesn't happen.
Stephanie and Chad are to arrive at the boxing school, and before he volunteers to take this one, we get a look at the poster outside that reads, "Motto: I Hate to Loose." Don't enter any spelling bees, then.
Katie and Rachel have to stop their cabdriver when they're the ones to spot the place out the window, so they arrive in third. Katie's taking this one, in case you care which one is which. They're not as hard to tell apart physically as Jaime and Cara, but if one of them doesn't emerge as the high-strung one soon, they're in just as much danger of becoming a monoteam. Brook finishes the speed bag, and she's moving on to the jump rope, and she can't even stop chatting while in the middle of a Road Block. Claire calls out to tell her to "focus," which I'm starting to think is the Brook/Claire term for "shut up." Brook earns her clue and they're still in the lead as they read that they're going to the Dodowa district, where they'll need to find a "supply depot." They jump back in their cab, and Claire congratulates Brook, "You just knocked that one out, no pun intended." Which makes me wonder what she would have said if there had been a pun intended.
Chad's hands are satisfactorily taped, as are Katie's.
Jill and Thomas are waiting for their driver to get directions, and they're pretty nice about it when he comes back, thanking him for asking now instead of later when they're in the middle of Mali or something. Elsewhere on the road, Jonathan and Connor spot Michael and Kevin's cab up ahead and ask their driver to pass, harmonizing, "Please drive faster." The driver does, so he can drop them off that much more quickly. "We love Samson," they sing after he blows by Team YouTube. Samson returns the sentiment, I think to make them stop singing.
Nat and Kat are leaving at 8:02, and if being in seventh place weren't bad enough, imagine leaving the Pit Stop when another team has already completed the Road Block. Not that they know that. But it's only going to get worse for them, and they'll certainly know that. Nat interviews that they knew they'd have times at the back of the pack, but their strategy is to "never ever give up." They know from their job, "when things get bad, that's when you have to work harder." And as anesthesiologists, I assume they're talking about when a patient just won't stay asleep and it's time to break out the mallet. As they ride in their cab, they talk about hoping they don't get lost, and how a good or bad cab driver can make or break your race. You know what's a good way to protect yourself against that? Talk about it out loud a lot.
Nick and Vicki are leaving at 8:04 AM, and they interview that their strategy is all about communication. "Without communication, you got no race." Nick says. Then, as if in a demonstration, they ask their cab driver how far away their destination is, and he answers, "Okay." They both look like they're thinking, did we specifically say communication with just each other? Because...
Gary and Mallory, the last-place team, are leaving at 8:06. That's only 32 minutes behind the leaders, so this is really anyone's leg. Mallory is optimistic that they've burned up all their bad luck, with the flat tire in the first leg and the broken cab in the second, "So we're ready to have a good leg." Their taxi has a big Ghanaian flag waving over the dashboard that reads "good luck," and I think it would be difficult for anyone to take that as an ill omen, let alone for Mallory.
Chad shows off on the jump rope task, so he trips and has to start over. Which means Katie passes him. "But she didn't look as good as I did," Chad points out in an interview. Stephanie laughs at him, which so far is one of my favorite things about Stephanie. Katie finishes, putting her and Rachel in second place, with Chad and Stephanie close behind as they run for fresh cabs. Team Glee and Team YouTube, who are just now arriving, stop their drivers when they see the volleyball team running down the street. Connor sticks his head out and asks what's going on. "Nothing!" one says. "Over there!" the other says. Now that's a partnership. The singers find the clue box right before Michael and Kevin do. Connor will do this, and obviously Kevin, since he figures his dad probably isn't up for something that physical in the 98 degree weather. That would be awful. The second- and third-place teams are in their cabs now. Connor's hands are correctly taped, but Kevin has to start over. Michael probably would have done way better.
Jill and Thomas arrive in sixth place, and he's doing this one. He and Kevin are taping their hands at the same time, while Connor's doing the speed bag and, surprisingly, pitching it a no-hitter from what I can see. Gary and Mallory arrive at the Road Block in seventh place, with Nick and Vicki right behind them. Gary and Vicki will be doing it for their teams. At this point I realize that I've been misspelling Vicki's name since the first recap. I have no excuse. All I can say is that from what we know of Vicki, there may have been times when Vicki has misspelled her name as well. Connor finishes the speed bag, and (as Kevin completes his hand-taping, also shows off a little on the jump rope. Just like Chad, and with similar results. Kevin, doing the speed bag, asks his trainer if he knows who "Muhammad" is. Not Muhammad Ali, just "Muhammad." Not surprisingly, the trainer does. Connor finishes the jump rope, so he and Jonathan are out of there in fourth place.
Nat and Kat, however, are lost and in last. Rachel and Katie spot them on the way to the clue and realize Team @ missed it as they fall in behind on the way to the clue, with Chad and Stephanie behind them. Nat tells their driver to stop (she actually says stop eight times) to ask for directions, which frustrates the teams behind them because they can't get around. "You dumb doctor," Katie mutters in her cab, which isn't the most scathing putdown I've ever heard. But Team @'s driver isn't listening, not only snapping at them to sit down so he can drive, but refusing to turn around no matter how may times they ask him to. His tip is shrinking like a star collapsing into a singularity.
Kevin finishes up at the boxing school, so he and Michael are in fifth now. Gary has his hands taped so well the trainer says, "Great, man, great." Thomas doesn't seem to be happy with his own work, but it's good enough for the trainer, who figures that it's not like those taped hands are actually going to be doing anything dangerous anyway. Vicki's right behind him.
Team @'s driver has finally deigned to stop for directions, so at least now they're going in the right direction. And are technically no longer being kidnapped.
Gary finishes his rope jumping but is apparently enjoying himself so much he doesn't want to stop. So they're in sixth place, up from ninth, as they head out. Vicki finishes before Thomas does, so now they're in seventh, with Jill and Thomas heading out right behind them in eighth. Nat and Kat finally get there as the other two teams get into cabs, and Nat will be doing this one. It's a good thing they have a strategy for when they're at the back, because otherwise they'd have no idea what to do this whole leg.
Brook and Claire's cab is out in the country now, and a herd of cattle (or "very large beasts," as Brook calls them) crosses the road. Jonathan and Connor, who have caught up with them (having passed Katie/Rachel and Chad/Stephanie while all their camera guys were changing their batteries, I guess), encourage Samson to pass them, and Samson blows right by. "That just made my heart drop," Claire tells Brook. "That's music to our ears," Jonathan tells Samson. Shut up, Jonathan. You're about to be music to Samson's foot. Which may not make sense. Let's move on.
Kat finishes the Road Block, and suggests on their way out, "Let's get a good cab this time." Solid plan, that. Will they be conducting interviews?
Jonathan and Connor are the first to find the "supply depot," which is basically rows of wheelbarrows, tools, and building supplies laid out waiting for them to pick them up. It's a "Route Info," which is a category I usually ignore because there's not a verb in there. Phil explains, "Teams must choose a pair of wheelbarrows and load them with construction supplies." That done, they'll take them to the nearby Asebi D/A Primary School and deliver them to the foreman (you can tell he's a foreman because he pretty much stands there the whole time), who will give them their clue if they do it right. Jonathan and Connor load up their wheelbarrows with a bag of concrete mix, two big cinder blocks, two shovels, two brooms, two trowels, and two scrapers, and off they go. After we take a moment to check in with Brook and Claire (who are still in their cab, frustrated with their slow progress), Jonathan and Connor struggle up the baking, potholed road to the school, and get their clue in first place. "Time for a pop quiz," it reads. Does that mean pop music or that one of them is going to get popped on the head? And do we have a vote?
Over shots of mountains, savannahs, deserts, and lions, Phil informs us, "Covering more than eleven million square miles, Africa is the second largest continent on Earth." Wow, Phil's normally a little more specific than that. Suddenly he's standing at the front of an outdoor classroom to a map of the continent, telling us, "In a place this big, our team's greatest challenge could be figuring our exactly where they are." Which wouldn't be news, but let's keep going. He claims this will be an African geography quiz, and if they get it right, the class monitor will give them their clue.
Approaching the school, Jonathan and Connor see a table covered with African country names and the unlabeled outline map ahead as they take seats and realize, "Oh, geography's tough." Now, I'm the first to admit that I didn't know exactly where Ghana was off the top of my head -- or plenty of other countries on other continents, for that matter -- but I flatter myself that if I had a six-hour flight from London in which to investigate it, I might have taken a peek at my in-flight magazine or something. Anyway, with Jonathan and Connor having joined the class for this exercise, a student correctly places the Ethiopia label, and Connor raises his hand when the teacher asks for a volunteer to show them Ghana. Connor goes up to the board and confidently places the tag on...Nigeria. "No, no, no," the kids chorus, and the singers make excuses in an interview about how African geography wasn't their major. Turns out Ghana is also not Cameroon or Côte D'Ivoire, or Cameroon again. And yes, I wrote this paragraph with Google Maps set to Africa in the background. Shut up.
Brook and Claire's cab must have been fairly fair behind because they're just now arriving at the supply depot. Brook reads where the clue says, "Pick a pair of wheelbarrows," and the thing we see is her saying, "I'm going to do the wheelbarrow." See if you can find the disconnect in that sequence of events.
Jonathan takes a turn, and gets it right more out of process of elimination than anything else. "We got an A!" he yells, as though they weren't taking this class pass/fail. Or, more accurately, fail/fail/fail/fail/pass. As they accept their clue, Connor assures them that Princeton is a good school and, starts to tell the kids they should go if they get the opportunity. Just as he's realizing how stupid that sounds, Jonathan doubles down by adding, "There's an African studies major." Well, that was tone-deaf. The clue is for a Detour. Too bad it wasn't in time to prevent Jonathan and Connor from getting to this classroom and embarrassing themselves.
Phil talks about how villagers enjoy "pastimes passed down by their elders," which is a polite way of saying, "No internet." We see the school kids in their brown-and-yellow school uniforms dancing in circles in the yard, but the racers won't be doing that, because that would be too hard. Instead, they'll be doing either "Bicycle Parts," in which they use a stick to roll a bicycle rim the length of an uneven soccer field and back without letting it fall; or "Language Arts," which is a little tough to understand from Phil's explanation. Each team will choose a paper scroll on which is printed a proverb. Each proverb contains eight highlighted phrases. Each of those phrases can be translated into a symbol from a "native visual alphabet known as adinkra. And then they have to go to a cloth that hangs from the side of a hundred-foot-long shed -- that's the entire side of the shed, so this is a very big cloth -- and find where the symbols in their proverb appear together and in order, like in a word search.
Jonathan and Connor are going to try that second one, so I hope for their sake they get smarter after leaving the classroom. They run and find the table of scrolls near the shed, and Connor says, "In Phil we trust" as he closes his eyes and grabs one at random. They open their scroll and then go find the decoder key, which is hanging on one end of that same shed. Looks like about 60 symbols are explained there. With that, they're able to start translating their proverb's phrases into simple descriptions of the adinkra symbols like "kidney beans, ladder, crazy." Kidney beans ladder crazy happens to be one of my favorite expressions. That done, they begin scanning the expanse of cloth for the symbol that looks like a ladder, thinking that'll stand out most.
Brook and Claire wheel their one wheelbarrow up to the foreman, Brook saying, "Man, that was brutal." But maybe the second time will be easier, as the foreman just tells them, "No." Claire, seeing the two wheelbarrows already there, says they need another one. And if that weren't bad enough, they have to take the laden one back to get the other one. "This is really gonna suck," Brook says, always her own narrator.
Kevin and Michael arrive at the supply depot in third place, with Katie and Rachel showing up in fourth. Katie tries to argue that they don't need two wheelbarrows, but Rachel insists that the clue specifies a pair. "They have one," Katie says, indicating the departing Team YouTube. "Well, they're idiots," Rachel says. Wow, harsh much? Brook and Claire keep their mouths shut when they meet Michael and Kevin coming up the road with their one wheelbarrow. "Forgot something?" Kevin asks then, and Claire says, "Yeah," without specifying. Katie and Rachel take off with their two wheelbarrows, seeing en route that the shopping hosts did it wrong and took only one.
Nat and Kat's driver opens their hood to see what's going on with his engine, because all they need right now is cab trouble to go along with the cabbie trouble they've already had. But he says they can go. That must be reassuring.
Gary and Mallory are approaching the supply depot with three teams behind them, and the volleyball team (the "Jersey girls," Gary calls them) walking on the road in front of them. Chad tells their driver to run over Katie and Rachel, but he's only joking because that would cost them a 30-minute penalty. Behind them, Nick encourages Vicki that she's stronger than the other teams, and Jill and Thomas figure that wheelbarrows are in their immediate future as well. Michael and Kevin present their one wheelbarrow to the foreman and learn they need two. "The girls didn't tell us," Kevin gripes matter-of-factly as they head back. If that's as worked up as Kevin ever gets, I don't know how he got on a reality show in the first place.
Gary and Mallory get to the clue box in fifth place, with Jill/Thomas, Nick/Vicki, and Chad/Stephanie in sixth, seventh, and eighth respectively. Everyone starts loading up. Back at the school, the volleyball team has showed up without two trowels. As they head back, Katie yells ahead at Rachel, "You have to be mentally tough right now!" Which I think is a semi-polite way of saying, "Quit'cher bitchin!" Rachel interviews that as teammates, they "know how to talk to each other in a stressful situation," which means they're allowed to yell at each other. I guess yelling in a relationship isn't necessarily a problem if everyone agrees it's okay.
Over at the giant adinkra word find, Jonathan and Connor think they've found their sequence, and Connor circles it with a piece of chalk on a long stick. They have a kid come check, and it turns out to be right. Connor makes the tiny little girl hug him when she gives them the clue, but she's well clear by the time they read it, and I'm not sure I blame her. All that's left for them to do now is get to the Pit Stop, the home of Awusa Ntso. There's nothing in Google about Awusa Ntso that doesn't also have "Amazing Race" in it, so I have to assume that Awusa Ntso is not a well-known historical figure but someone who just lives nearby. Perhaps we'll learn more at the beginning of week's episode. Phil says, "This rural farm is the Pit Stop for this leg of the race. The last team to check in here may be eliminated." So is he saying they may not?
Jonathan and Connor wail happily (blowing out their voices, I hope) and take off running down the marked path, right to where Phil is waiting with a female greeter outside a cattle corral. In fact, for all I know, she's Awusa Ntso. She welcomes them to Ghana, and Phil tells them they're team number one. Connor turns out to have a pretty good vertical on him as he leaps off the mat for joy. But then it turns out that whoever came up with these lackluster challenges this week also did the shopping for the prize, because all they're winning is five thousand in cash. There you go, boys, get yourselves something nice. Jonathan and Connor are good-natured about it, joking about using it to buy maps of Africa. Despite their modesty, it's been a while since I've seen a team finish a leg in the second act without a Fast Forward being involved, so I have to give all due props to their cabdriver, Samson.
Brook and Claire are making their second trip to the school. "Thanks for telling us," Kevin snarks pleasantly when they meet them on their way back. He should have known something was up when he saw Brook not talking. The shopping hosts finally make it back, and the foreman hands them a clue sending them on to the school. These two get to enter an indoor classroom, although it looks pretty breezy. Because, you know, you can see the Equator from there. As they take seats with the kids, Brook interviews about how we in the States take for granted our nice schools, where we have such amenities as "nice paint on the walls...It's a shack that they go to school in." Yes, we're certainly lucky that we don't have any schools like that here in the U.S., or at least the parts of the U.S. Brook grew up in. She's called up to the front of the class to guess where Ghana is. "Somewhere down below," she guesses, and slaps the label on Namibia, which isn't even close. "Somewhere in that area," she insists as she sits down. The teacher does not bother to correct her. I just hope she doesn't make Brook raise her hand when she talks. Girlfriend will have repetitive motion injuries inside of a quarter hour.
Team @ is still on its way to the supply depot, just hoping there'll still be people there when they arrive.
Nick and Vicki arrive at the foreman with their two wheelbarrows, but they've got the wrong amount of cement. In a snit, Nick throws one of his trowels into the wheelbarrow and snaps at Vicki, "Good job reading it. That's awesome. It's fifth-grade reading." Interesting. Did Nick read the clue? Because I'm pretty sure those little cards don't self-destruct after one person reads them. She scrambles to help him load up again while he continues to bitch at her. Just then Gary and Mallory arrive, and get their clue in third place. Holy crap, how did that happen? On the way back to the supply depot, Vicki is trying to apologize to Nick, like she's the asshole. "I don't give a fuck about your sorries, to be totally honest with you," he dicks, and when she tells him to wait up, he's all, "Nope! Let's go...You have no common sense in your whole body." Or self-respect, apparently.
Back from the ads, he's still acting like an prick, and when she tells him to get over it, he says he won't, "until we see Phil and he says we're not last." She again says she's sorry, and he bitches, "Is that going to keep us from losing now? Nope!" Acting like a fuckwad will, though, I'm sure. That's saved any number of teams at the last minute over the years, hasn't it?
Gary and Mallory join a different outdoor classroom and interview about the happy kids, and Mallory says, "You feel so bad for them, and then you think to yourself, this is their way of life and they don't know any different. And it makes you appreciate your way of life and we don't know anything different except for freedom and luxury and justice." Well, that's a little patronizing. Mallory's. pointing a mighty long finger there. But at least Gary knows where Ghana is, and he gets if on the first try. They decide on the bicycle parts task for the Detour, and Mallory sings out to the applauding kids, "Bye, guys, have fun!" When they're not being ground under the heels of tyranny and hardship and injustice, that is.
Michael and Kevin get their building supplies delivered and get their clue in fourth place. Jill and Thomas, who got it right the first time, are in fifth now. Here come Chad and Stephanie in sixth. There's a lot of churn in the rankings this week, which is good because it's pretty much the only interesting thing going on.
Gary and Mallory approach the soccer field where large numbers of boys are rolling their metal bicycle rims, pushing them along with sticks that fit into the trough where the bike tire would go. It looks pretty tricky, although Gary, who is emerging as some kind of stealth polymath this week, makes a good go of it. Mallory, however, needs help, and although she's requesting it from Jesus, I don't see him anywhere on my screen. Gary gets to the end of his first pass and coaches Mallory, "You get enough momentum and try putting it inside." That's what she said. She comes up with her own clumsy method of just whacking the rim as she runs along, but gets it halfway done.
The volleyball team returns to the foreman and gets their clue. Meanwhile, Nat and Kat are finally arriving at the supply depot in last place. Off they go with their two wheelbarrows, Nat saying, "does this look easy? Cause it's really easy." Try doing it twice.
Chad and Stephanie are in the classroom, and he wants to try to flag Ghana. Suddenly I'm having 24 flashbacks as we find ourselves in a four-way splitscreen, also showing the respective classrooms where Brook, Katie, and Thomas are taking a crack at it, seemingly simultaneously. All four of them get it right, and all four of them opt for Language Arts. Either they think that's going to be easier than it is, or it must be so hot there that they can't face the prospect of running.
Nick and Vicki get their clue from the foreman in eighth place, and Nick's still being rude to her. Meanwhile, that group of four teams are all arriving at the adinkra Detour at about the same time. Brook and Claire get off to a stellar start, because Claire has decided that since there are eight highlighted phrases on their scroll and there's a group of eight children dancing in a circle nearby, and they have a stick of chalk to circle things with, they need to draw a circle in the ground around the group of children. Which Brook does. And then the other teams do the same thing. Nobody has any idea what's going on, until Brook suddenly sees the giant puzzle hanging from the shed. "Oh, maybe the small African children don't have anything to do with this," Claire chortles. Yes, let's use humor to overcome our creeping discomfort at the sight of a bunch of white people circling off groups of West African children.
They and the other teams head over to the wall, but there all pretty clueless, starting with how they can't find the decoder key. Thomas, ever the charmer, starts ransacking kids' homework and dropping books on the ground. Dude, that's not cool. I'm starting to see a pattern of him thinking the world is like a game show set that he's running through, not a place where actual people live actual lives. "Just keep your eyes peeled," he says while the Amazing Editors show us a nice shot of the decoder key COVERING AN ENTIRE END OF THE BUILDING. Katie and Rachel are the first to decide to bail on this and head for the soccer field, making them the second-most successful team at this Detour so far.
Michael and Kevin arrive at an indoor classroom, and Michael looks pretty glad of the chance to sit down, which is a worrying sight at this point in the leg. Unfortunately it wont be a long rest, because Kevin identifies Ghana on the first try. They have their clue in seventh place, and Kevin says they're doing Language Arts. Good choice; that seems marginally less likely to kill Michael.
Gary finishes rolling his hoop, while Mallory clanks along behind him. She finishes while Katie and Rachel are still working on learning the proper way to do it. Gary and Mallory's subtitle reads "Currently in 2nd place" as Mallory reads that they need to make their way on foot to the Pit Stop. I still don't understand how they jumped ahead so many places, but off they go.
Nat and Kat are pushing their wheelbarrows, saying they're not giving up, which is the kind of thing people say when they know they're in last place. They get their clue from the foreman, which Kat reads while Nat dumps her water bottle over her face. Did you know that when they're at school, anesthesiology trainees practice putting each other under so they know what it's like? I think Nat's missing a valuable chance to know what it's like to experience passing out from heat exhaustion
Back at the puzzle, Brook thinks they've found the right sequence, but since they have it going from right to left, it's wrong. "I hate puzzles," she says. Michael and Kevin have arrived now, while Chad complains, "This is the dumbest freaking crap ever." Even dumber than the dumbest freaking crap ever from two legs ago? "We have no clue." Stephanie suggests switching, and Chad agrees.
Nick and Vicki are in an outdoor classroom where they have to label Ghana on a map that has just about every country already labeled save Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, and of course Ghana, and Vicki still gets it wrong. "No, please," one kid yells out helpfully. Thus begins another montage of Nick and Vicki failing while interviewing about how stupid they are until Vicki finally gets it, more from process of elimination than anything else. Nick decides they'll be doing bicycle parts, I assume because their cognitive resources have already been tested to the limit today.
Nat and Kat kit an indoor classroom and Nat gets it on the first try (are things finally going well for them?). They decide on Language Arts for the Detour (no, they're not).
Gary and Mallory reach the Pit Stop in second place. Now that's a comeback. Of course, they're so hot and exhausted by now that Mallory only screams twice.
Katie and Rachel are still trying to get their hoops to roll when Nick and Vicki arrive at the soccer field. Nick rudely tells her to get started, and when she wants to pause to read the clue, he dicks, "I don't care what that says." Awesome. That worked out so well earlier. As Chad and Stephanie arrive, Chad marvels at the kids rolling the hoop, and rhapsodizes about the purity and innocence of children worldwide, with all the enthusiasm of someone who's never met a child in his life. He turns out to be a hoop-rolling savant, however, and makes it across it the first try. He calls back to Stephanie to get a bigger stick. Vicki offers the same advice to Nick, who helpfully says, "You can't even do it, why you gonna give me direction? Just do it." Chad's finished. Nick gets frustrated, and throws the hoop away like the goodwill ambassador he is. And then he snaps at Vicki some more.
Stephanie has the hang of it, and Chad cheers her on. Vicki loses her hoop and after groaning in frustration, tells herself, "It's okay." Nick says, "I know it's okay to you, but it's not okay to me, so that makes it not okay." So Ghana is a Nickocracy. Good to know. Katie has finally made her first pass, but Stephanie's already on her way back. Once she finishes, Chad happily picks her up and spins her around, and they're on their way to the Pit Stop in third place.
Nat and Kat are now at the puzzle, hoping to get clues from watching the other teams, but that would require that the other teams have a clue. Brook and Claire decide to switch, the camera zooming in on the decoder key as they walk obliviously away from it.
Chad and Stephanie arrive at the mat as team number three. They're certainly working their way up, aren't they? Katie finishes her second pass with the bicycle rim. Nick finishes his first, and Brook tells Claire as they arrive, "Just watch and learn." And listen to Brook yammer, presumably.
Jill and Thomas are still nowhere with the puzzle, and Nat and Kat have decided to switch already. Michael and Kevin are still at the puzzle. Out on the soccer field, Rachel is still rolling, Claire tosses her hoop straight up for some reason, and Nat says as she and Kat select hoops and sticks, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." In her outdoor voice, ironically. Some kids give them some pointers. "The kids are awesome, they're the best part of the day," Nat says. High praise indeed, given the day they've been having. Rachel finishes up, so she and Katie are headed for the Pit Stop in fourth place.
Vicki's struggling, and Nick bitches to us while sitting on the grass, "This is ridiculous!" He yells at her, "Hurry up!" as she suddenly stoops over wheezing. Turns out she's got asthma, and she takes a puff on her inhaler. Nick suddenly comes over all human on us, calling out to her, "It's all right, sweetie, take a break, you're okay." He reminds her to raise her arms and open her lungs, and interviews that he decided to calm himself down to be there for her. He gives her some water and everything. Nice of him to put aside his own concerns when she becomes so upset she stops breathing.
Thomas walks right past the decoder key while looking for it, he and Jill finally decide to ditch this. "Our eyes are, like, deceiving us." Jill says, with the giant decoder key in the background, all but calling after them, "Hellooooo!". That leaves only Michael and Kevin working on this, and Kevin asks if Michael's sure that they should switch. "I can do that, I just don't know if you can do it." Michael's willing to give it a try, which makes Jonathan and Connor the only team to have actually completed this Detour. Amazing. Meanwhile, Katie and Rachel arrive at the mat as team number four.
Vicki gets ready to take another run at it, with actual encouragement from Nick. He even runs along with her as she completes her first pass. Nick cheers her along, and Brook crosses that end of the field shortly thereafter, asking, "Did I make it?" because she's afraid to look up from the hoop she's barely balancing. Nick laughs that she did. Jill and Thomas are already discussing strategy for this as they run over toward the field. Claire finishes her first pass while Brook is somehow able to just walk her hoop along. Vicki finishes , and Nick interviews, "I felt kinda crappy for treating her the way I did. She didn't deserve it. She's a good teammate." Better he realized that late than never; the only thing worse than watching them argue during the leg would be watching them argue in the interviews taped after the leg. They're on their way to the Pit Stop in only fifth place. Brook finishes , followed by Claire. Thomas, who has begun rolling his hoop, seems to have a knack for this. Or an unusually wide wheel rim. He calls encouragement back to Jill.
Nick and Vicki make it to the mat, with the shopping hosts right behind them. I'm pretty sure they're not last, so even if Nick weren't over it already, he'd have to get over it now. Brook throws both her and Claire's bags down on the mat to them. The four of them stand in a line while Phil checks them in as the fifth and sixth respectively. One team is a lot happier about this than the other. Phil informs them that tomorrow they'll be coming back to the school with the other teams and do some remodeling work to "give back to this community." Claire says they're honored. And Brook will be thrilled to see some decent paint on the walls, I'm sure.
Thomas finishes rolling his hoop. Kevin's made it across once, and Jill finishes up, although judging by her exhausted reaction, it's taken her longer than the editing would seem to indicate. She throws her stick in disgust, and is even more disgusted when Thomas gives her a celebratory hug. That is clearly not hugging weather as it is, but they're both so sweaty from their exertions that Jill all but cringes from him. They're heading to the Pit Stop in seventh place.
Kevin's done rolling his hoop, so now it's just Michael and Kat who have yet to finish (somehow I missed when Nat got done). Michael drops to a crouch in the middle of the field, using his stick to hold his wheel up instead of forward momentum, which I guess there isn't a rule against. "I can't, Kevin," he pants, but Kevin tells him not to give up. Kat finishes, so Team @ is currently in eighth place. Now they just have to find the marked footpath. But there's still one commercial break left to go, so we know it's not going to be that simple.
Michael slowly walks his hoop along, the camera getting a shot of the punishing sun overhead while Kevin walks along with him, saying, "The girls aren't at the Pit Stop yet." It's not over till it's over, or until Michael keels over dead, whichever comes first. Michael finishes his first pass, but confesses, "Kevin, I don't think I can go back." Kevin encourages him to try, even if it takes him thirty minutes. What's striking about this is how calm and supportive Kevin is; it's not losing he fears, but quitting. Michael just hangs on the tattered soccer net and tries to stay conscious. "I can't," he says. "Sorry, Kevin." And then the commercials come, which leaves way too much time for something horrible to happen.
Kevin interviews that it was painful to watch. Yes, we agree. We see a production medic checking Michael out on the field as Kevin reminds us that it was 98 degrees. They walk him into the shade so the medic can check his blood pressure, and Kevin kindly tells Michael to take all the time he needs. "I didn't do it," Michael says, nearly crying. Kevin says it's okay, and it's not his fault, and doing a pretty good job of hiding his disappointment. Which is admittedly not that hard, given that Michael seems to be staring off into two different directions at once.
Jill and Thomas get to the mat, and Phil invites them, "Why don't you guys complete my sentence?" Why don't you start a sentence, Phil? They know they're team number seven, even after winning the first leg. That's a freefall. "Hey, we're happy," Thomas says. Indeed, they still have the Express Pass, which pretty much means they'll automatically stay in the race a leg longer than they deserve to.
Nat & Kat? Somehow, someway, they've done the seemingly impossible and gotten lost on the way to the Pit Stop. At least that'll help Michael and Kevin, right? With water dripping from his head, Michael tells Kevin, "Let's go." As they get up, he interviews, "I want to show my son that we are a team...you should finish what you start. I can walk with my son to go to the finish line, not just give up in the middle." Not that Kevin was going to let him.
Nat and Kat ask a picnicking family for directions, and they point them in what is presumably the right way. Back at the soccer field, most of the kids are gone as Michael starts inching his hoop along in a slow walk. All Nat and Kat have found in the way of a marked path, meanwhile, is a wandering goat. "The marker of the goat," one of them jokes lamely. Michael finishes, and almost collapses again, but they have their clue and are headed for the Pit Stop. "I'm ready to be eliminated," Michael says. Indeed, he looks like that's just about the only thing he's up for at this point.
Nat and Kat may have found a path, but Michael and Kevin have found a marker on a tree. But the so has Team @. There's as much suspenseful editing as can be managed given that one team is walking, but finally Nat and Kat reach the mat first and learn that they're still in the race. Phil tells them about their renovation project on the school tomorrow, and they're happy to hear about it. Probably because while they're working in one place, they won't be able to get lost in taxis or while walking. Probably.
Michael and Kevin finally jog to the mat, and are both smiling as the greeter welcomes them to Dodowa, Ghana. Phil tells them they're the last team to arrive. They're not exactly surprised, but they should probably keep listening. Michael says, "It's my fault. My body gave out. I wanted to travel to as many places as I could with my son." Phil has some good news for them - yeah, notice how he hasn't actually Philiminated them yet? -- and tells them it's a non-elimination leg, so they're still in it. Michael is overcome with emotion, both happy that he didn't let Kevin down and perhaps a little overwhelmed that he's going to have to keep racing after all. Kevin says that's why you don't give up, and Michael hugs him, saying "Kevin, I'm sorry." Poor dude is just physically and emotionally wrecked. But he quickly straightens up, saying, "Okay, fine, that's good news. Thank you, Phil." Who's he trying to convince, exactly? Phil warns them that they'll have a Speed Bump in the leg. "We'll be ready," Kevin vows. He interviews that he's even more motivated. "We shouldn't have lost this leg and there's still a lot of room for us to grow." Does Michael have room to grow a new lung? Because I'm afraid that might be what it takes.
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