The Amazing Race 19, Episode 7 – Move Goat
The Leg
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After arriving at the Pit Stop last leg, teams set up shop in their own personal huts, setting up the beds they had brought with them with provided foam mattresses (or cushions really) and mosquito nets.
And after the mandatory 12 hour rest period (maybe), teams set off. Andy & Tommy are first to rip open the clue telling teams to take a two hour bus ride to Salima and warning them of a Double U-Turn.
Amani & Marcus manage to catch up to all the teams for the crowded 7:00am 7:21am bus for Salima. Once there, teams find the next clue on a woman’s head and it is the Road Block.
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In this Road Block, teams will have to use a local bicycle taxi known as a kibaza to deliver a passenger carrying fish to one of three addresses. Once they deliver the passenger to the correct address, they must return to the kibaza dispatcher and exchange their earnings for their next clue.
While the other teams get on with the Road Block, a man is holding up a sign with Amani & Marcus’ Speed Bump. For their extra task, Amani & Marcus must complete a slide puzzle of the new Malawian flag.
It isn’t as easy as it sounds though and they take a while. Meanwhile, Andy breaks his pedals, allowing Cindy to move ahead and finish the Detour first. As Laurence and Sandy work (or get lost) together, Andy and Cathi are neck and neck.
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Ernie & Cindy in first place open the next clue to reveal the Detour. For both, teams head to the fresh water Lake Malawi.
In Dugout, teams participate in the Lake Malawi dugout canoe race, paddling traditional canoes to a pair of drummers and back to the finish line for their next clue.
In Lugout, teams must unload cargo from a ferryboat, just like the locals. The cargo: two boxes of cabbage, two bundles of sugarcane, two bundles of brooms, one chair, one fan, and eight! passengers.
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Ernie & Cindy, and Andy & Tommy right behind them, choose Dugout. Amani & Marcus finally finish their puzzle, but Laurence and Sandy are still lost doing the Road Block. Jennifer delivers her passenger and fish, but now has no idea what to with the money as she left the clue with Justin back at the Route Marker.
That allows Marcus to finish the Road Block first and putting the siblings in last place. Jennifer has no idea what to do.
At Lake Malawi, Ernie & Cindy and Andy & Tommy get started with the Dugout side of the Detour. But Ernie & Cindy can’t figure out how to move, so they decide to use the Express Pass. They get the next clue telling them to find the Jamaica Shop, but nobody seems to know where it is. When they finally get the right direction, Andy & Tommy have already finished the Detour and are right on their tails.
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Both teams get to the Double U-Turn and neither use it. The next clue tells teams to head to the Pit Stop at Sunbird Livingstonia Beach on foot. And it is indeed a footrace as Andy & Tommy catch up and mercilessly pass Ernie & Cindy who were inches from claiming the win.
Andy & Tommy claim another 1st place and $15,000 from Discover Card while Ernie & Cindy’s Express Pass gets them only a 2nd place.
Close behind and finishing strong is Bill & Cathi in 3rd.
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Laurence & Zac finish the Dugout Detour and head off to find the U-Turn at the Jamaica Shop, intent on using it. Amani & Marcus push through the Lugout Detour and finish and are able to find the U-Turn first, but opt not to use it. They pass Laurence & Zac on their way out of the lakeside village, who believe Amani & Marcus are actually behind them. So they decide on U-Turning them instead of Jeremy & Sandy who are still in the water.
Amani & Marcus finish 4th with Laurence & Zac in 5th.
Jeremy & Sandy finish the Detour, but can’t find the Jamaica Shop just as Justin & Jennifer get going in the canoes. But it’s no matter. Jeremy & Sandy finish 6th and Justin & Jennifer are eliminated.
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Episode Thoughts
This was a pretty packed episode. Probably the best episode of the season overall in terms of drama, fun, tasks, and location.
Funny though that the drama-inducer that is the Double U-Turn turned out to be such a non-factor that Bert & Co. had to put it in again next week, which I doubt was ever in the original plan.
They get a pretty, new teched-up U-Turn sign and the only team that uses it actually wastes their one U-Turn of the Race, made even more hilariously absurd by the fact that Laurence & Zac didn’t even seriously consider Amani & Marcus could actually be ahead of them.
The tasks were great at being locally flavored. But the Detour seemed horribly unbalanced, especially for a U-Turn Detour. How in the world could the female teams or even Bill & Cathi, despite their strength so far, have completed that Lugout side of the Detour at all? Carrying people maybe twice their body weight on their shoulders? That was pretty unfair. Usually, the U-Turn Detours are unfair for being incredibly far apart requiring teams to travel between the Detours and to and from the U-Turn which could be at a completely different location.
And I also don’t really like the placement of the U-Turn right before the Pit Stop since it will more often than not guarantee elimination for the U-Turned (or 2nd U-Turned) team without opportunity to make up ground.
Grrr at the footrace to the Mat. Yay for more vague and physically demanding clues and Route Markers. Malawi has been a great destination for TAR.
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