The Amazing Race – Recap & Review – Don’t Lay Down on Me Now (Indonesia)

photo: cbs

The Amazing Race
Don’t Lay Down on Me Now (Indonesia)

Original Air Date: Oct 9, 2011

Rachel – Sr. Managing Editor
rachel@thetwocentscorp.com

How many times will racers not read directions? I mean, really. Every episode? All one needs to know is right there in the envelope. C’mon, guys. Read it.

As I step off of my soapbox, the racers head through Indonesia from Yogyakarta to Borobudur. Along the way they count Buddhas, ride bikes, plant rice, wrangle sheep, and share secrets.

The Top 9 Things I Learned from The Amazing Race 19

1. Team Snowboarders (Andy and Tommy): If you give away a free vacation, your wife may kill you. Why do I have such a soft-spot in my heart for snowboarder hippie-types? I don’t know what it is but I really like these guys. Maybe it’s their adventurous, stress-free spirit. Out of the gate, teams had to ride bikes with a local bike club who weren’t so worried about the ‘race’ aspect of the show. The Snowboarders didn’t care. They were hooting and hollering and popping wheelies. And then when they saw the location of the Road Block (the 8th Century Borobudur Temple), they said that that was why you go on the Amazing Race. After working with Team Bananas, they got to the mat in second place but because of a rule infraction on the part of the aforementioned Team Bananas (see #2 below), they grabbed the top spot along with a trip to Dubai. When they told Phil that Team Bananas really should have won the trip, Phil told them they could gift the trip. Not so fast… apparently their wives would kill them. Instead, they offers to hook the father/son team up with snowboarding equipment.

2. Team Bananas (Laurence and Zac): Say it with me kids: Read the directions! At the Detour, teams could choose between Rice Field or Grass Fed. The father/son team chose Grass Fed and had to carry two bag of freshly cut grass and two sheep to a stable where they then had to fill a trough with six buckets of water using only two buckets. You guessed it… they used more than two buckets. Team Snowboarders even advised them to re-read their clue, but they didn’t. When they got to the Pit Stop, Phil gave them a 15-minute penalty, ultimately landing them in the number 2 spot.

3. Team Daters (Jeremy and Sandy): Sometimes a jacked-up taxi is a good thing. In an episode full of Taxi Trauma, Team Daters thought they got the short-end of the stick when their directionally challenged taxi driver killed his own taxi. With nothing else to do, the couple ran the last kilometer to the Temple Road Block where teams had to number four different Buddha hand positions on the statues surrounding the temple. Only a couple of teams figured this out pretty quick. Most were coming up with numbers from 4 to 400 (the answer was 17, 17, 17, and 18, along with the corresponding hand positions themselves). Jeremy began working with 3 other teams and when they all got it right, the other three disappeared to go settle up with their taxi. Team Dates had no taxi to settle up with, so they got to Phil in 3rd.

4. Team Siblings (Justin and Jennifer): If you don’t yell, you won’t get as much screentime. The siblings were at each other’s throats last week. This week, they were a lot more calm and we therefore didn’t see much of them. They were part of that huge gaggle of teams that banded together at the Temple, but they had to settle up with their taxi so they got to the Pit Stop in 4th.

5. Team Engaged (Ernie and Cindy): Being a Control Freak is not always the best option for a healthy life. Cindy stated in this episode that she was ‘a bit’ of a control freak. Understatement of the year. She put her fiance through weeks of intensive language training before the Race, for heaven’s sake! When, during the group biking exercise, Ernie’s bike broke and 5 teams passed them , Cindy’s head just about exploded. At the Road Block, Ernie took control and, again, she looked like she was about to go all Zul. Although initially he was counting every single representation of Buddha (of which there were hundreds), Ernie pulled it out when he was the first of that big group to really read the clue. They got to the mat steps behind the siblings in 5th.

6. Team Colts (Amani and Marcus): Never, ever give up. This team had some major bad luck during the leg. They had a horrible taxi driver; they were couldn’t complete the Grass Fed part of the Detour so had to switch to Rice Field; they were told the exact answer to the Road Block by the Snowboarders but forgot it by the time they got to the top of the temple; I could go on. The one thing they did right was they never gave up. When it looked like they would for sure be eliminated, they kept pushing. That drive got them to the Pit Stop in 6th.

7. Team Ma & Pa (Bill and Cathi): If you’re gonna die soon, you may as well have fun. This team is a hoot. When they figured out they were 40 years older than the youngest team, they embraced it. Cathi said that they may as well have this wonderful adventure because they don’t have many years left (which I disagree with because these two are going to make it past 100!). I was a bit nervous when, at the site of the Detour, Cathi kept falling into the rice fields. They also had trouble settling up with their taxi, but they got to Phil in 7th.

8. Team Twin (Liz and Marie): Second-to-last is fine until the very end. The twins took the Rice Field Detour where they had to deliver lunch to some field workers and plant a bundle of rice seedlings for them. It was muddy and wet but they did a pretty good job. I guess they are just back-of-the-pack types. They were also part of the huge Buddha group but couldn’t find their taxi to settle up. They barely made it to the Pit Stop in 8th. They are really going to have to up their game if they want to stay in this.

9. Team Showgirls (Kaylani and Lisa): About two episode too late, the Showgirls were eliminated. They also had some bad luck this leg, but actually seemed more genuine this time around. Phil had to talk one down from feeling like she failed her daughter by being sent home. I kinda felt for her then. But… still the race is over for the two who probably shouldn’t have been allowed to leave the country after the Passport/Twitter fiasco.

What did YOU think? did the right team go home? Who is next? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

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