Amazing Race 39 recap: cliffhanger to chaos

After one week, we finally got to see what happened at the end of The Amazing Race 39 episode three: a normal elimination. Doug and Dylan, and Jody and Jenn, were all looking for Phil Keoghan—and even saw each other while Doug and Dylan were asking for directions—but Doug and Dylan got there first.

Why we had to wait a week for just a normal elimination is beyond me. And the results of last week’s leg barely mattered, as everyone started together, spaced apart by just two minutes. Doug said they were “blessed” to now just be 18 minutes behind the first-place team, and two minutes behind the second-to-last team, instead of whatever it would have been—maybe 18 hours? 47 days?

That was the start of this season’s Scramble. Before we get to that action/chaos/confusion, a few things I learned from the teams:

• Cody and Jaime’s mom told them not to bicker on the race, but Cody told them, “bickering’s a huge part about why we got on the show!” Truer words…
• This leg fell on Daisha and Dalton’s two-year anniversary. They met when Dalton “slid into my DMs,” Daisha explained, and she meant for real: he “literally sent me a video of him sliding.” We got to see that; it was very cute.
• Matt has 400 pairs of shoes, so he’s our generation’s Imelda Marocs. Fun fact: I learned about Imedlda Marcos and her shoes as a kid but had no idea who she was.
• Dylan told us, “I have better memory, better vision, better hearing—no hate to this guy right here. But this guy’s a little more laid back. I think it’s going to be his job to handle our stress levels.” And his grandson’s insults!

Scramble ► Teams got in cabs, but thankfully, spent entire race on foot, in Marrakesh’s medina, the historic walled city. There, teams had to go to three separate locations to complete three challenges. The order was up to them. I love this choose-your-own-adventure style of leg; this one was particularly challenging with navigation, which is even better.

Teams kept asking people for directions, and from locals, it seemed, kept getting directions to just keep going. “For them, everything is straight. It’s kind of awkward for us, because we’re lesbians,” Joanna said, and Ali said they instead go “gaily forward.” Ha!

Navigation was so challenging that, halfway through the episode, Doug and Dylan hadn’t started a single challenge. They were still walking around, dazed and confused. “Can you imagine being eliminated without finding even one of the Scramble locations?” Doug asked. We almost didn’t have to!

We were shown a map of the challenge locations, which was updated with some individual teams’ “current location” at certain points. But I would have loved a map that showed the teams moving around.

Without that, there was no way to tell where they were in relation to each other, especially in this environment. So it was pretty much chaos for the whole episode.

Scramble 1: Rug Run ► Teams had to carry a rolled-up rug through the city and lay it out on a rooftop. This was mostly a physical challenge, but also a navigation one.

As a bonus, they could use their rugs in a roll to knock over people or merchandise—which honestly made me anxious. I don’t want bystanders or shopkeepers to be victim to the race. Having to hear Jaime scream, “we’re in a race” is bad enough.

Scramble 2: Slipper Search ► One team member had to find an exact match for a pair of slippers—without carrying around the pair they were trying to match. And any team could look for any pair. So it was a memory and search task, plus a beat-your-teammates task.

This is where Dafina and Saran used their Roadside Assistance, which gave them a bigger advantage than just a teammate helping out on a Roadblock: not two people looking for one shoe, but two people looking for two different shoes.

Anne-Marie and Riley, and Anuar and Andrea, decided to work together, but that was not a task that required cooperation.

Andrea found her match first, and insisted, “we’re going to wait for them.” Andrea is a competitor: “I’m sorry Anne Marie,” she said, and they left. Good! But also, don’t agree to work together on an individual task!

At the next challenge, she said something about being glad to see them, and then we heard her say “hopefully we can work together”—but we didn’t see her say that. so I think that was editing putting that sentence there to rub in the way she bailed on their alliance. She and her dad did help them at the dye challenge, so all was well.

Scramble 3: Dye ‘N’ Dry ► Teams had to dye yarn in two colors, getting the right mix of dye and time dyeing, and trying to avoid burning, dyeing, and scarring themselves. What fun!

Visit with Phil ► Michelle and Matt placed first and won Expedia product placement.

Incredibly, after all the navigation problems, and three challenges, there was a near three-way tie for second: Anuar and Andrea placed second, with Erin and Javi, and Daisha and Dalton, but they all ran in and Dalton slid into the mat like it was home plate.

Then four more teams arrived at the same time! So it was 1-3-4-1-1, with Cody and Jaime coming in last, and then actually saying lovely, loving things about each other, instead of their usual sarcasm.

Dylan and Doug, whose interview were in the dark, made me think they would be eliminated, since Cody and Jaime’s interview looked like it was filmed at dusk. But Dylan and Doug found the rug location first, and arrived in ninth!

And had they been eliminated, it would have entirely been about their inability to navigate, not physical strength or anything else. That’s a good outcome, even if the actual race was harder to follow for me.

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