The Amazing Race 15 – Episode One & Two
Aired 9-27-09
Phil Keoghan & company returned with a double episode to launch season 15 of TAR. This time he was joined by 12 interesting pairs. The race opened at the cement-walled Los Angeles River. Let’s meet the teams:
Brian & Ericka: They are TAR’s first interracial married couple. It’s a little hard to believe that it took 15 seasons for this to happen. Anyway, I think the more defining aspect of this couple is that Ericka is a former Miss America (2004).
Lance & Keri: They are engaged and Lance is a beefy trial lawyer who seems determined to confirm as many negative stereotypes about lawyers as possible.
Maria & Tiffany: Friends and professional poker players.
Zev & Justin: Best friends. Zev has Asperger’s syndrome. He says that he has some difficulties in social situations and may struggle with being taken out of his normal pattern.
Mika & Canaan: Newly dating couple who are Christian musicians.
Flight Time & Big Easy: Teammates on the Harlem Globetrotters.
Sam & Dan: Brothers who happen to be gay.
Gary & Matt: Farmer dad and his pink-haired and pierced rebel son.
Eric & Lisa: Married yoga instructors. Eric said they intended to be “numero-frickin’-uno” which made me cringe.
Garrett & Jessica: As soon as Phil described them as “dating on and off” I just knew this wasn’t going to end well. Garrett spent quite a bit of time in this episode telling us all about Jessica’s short fuse and quick temper.
Marcy & Ron: This season’s “older” couple. They’ve been dating for a year and met on the internet.
Meghan & Cheyne: The young, tall and athletic dating couple. They’ve known each other since elementary school.
We learned right off the bat that the addition of a 12th couple did not mean the show was going to run one week longer. The first challenge was going to happen right there at the river and it would be the end of the line for one pair. The instructions were to search a wall containing over 1000 license plates to find one from the Shinagawa District of Japan (their first destination). There were only 11 plates and 11 sets of tickets to Japan. The Japanese symbol for Shinagawa was printed at the top of the clue but no one seemed to notice that at first. Eventually they did start to figure it out with Maria & Tiffany being the first team to get their tickets. In the end, the two teams left searching for the final plate were Eric & Lisa and Lance & Keri. I was fine with either of them leaving but, if I had to chose, I would have preferred to keep the yoga couple. Unfortunately, it was Keri who figured out the symbol and found the plate. Eric & Lisa were done. They suffered the shame and pain of going home first in order to set the other teams free. I’m not kidding. That’s what they actually said.
The first 6 teams to find the plates (Maria & Tiffany, Marcy & Ron, Meghan & Cheyne, Gary & Matt, Flight Time & Big Easy and Zev & Justin) left LAX for Tokyo at 12:45PM. The other 5 teams (Sam & Dan, Mika & Canaan, Garrett & Jessica, Brian & Ericka and Lance & Keri) left at 1:15PM. While waiting for their flights, the teams got to know each other. We watched as the poker players told the Globetrotters that they made their living working with homeless kids in LA. They thought it would make them seem more sympathetic to the other teams. Yep. Karma is gonna get them for that.
Once in Tokyo, the teams had to locate a TV studio at the base of the Tokyo Tower. The poker girls hadn’t even left the airport before they started bickering with each other. The second flight ended up landing less than 10 minutes after the first so all the teams got to the studio at about the same time. We had our first race reboot.
Roadblock
The teams found themselves on the set of a Japanese game show (that I believe was fictional) called Sushi Roulette. The show’s host spun a roulette wheel containing 9 sushi rolls and 2 wasabi bombs. The one team member playing had to eat whatever landed in front of them. If they got a wasabi bomb, and ate the whole thing in 2 minutes, they’d get the next clue. Ron and Cheyne got the first bombs and I was really impressed with how the guys devoured it. I would have been in tears.
Their next clue instructed the teams to take a group of 20 Japanese tourists from the audience and lead them through the busy streets of Tokyo to the Konno Hachimanga Shrine. That was the Pit Stop for the first leg.
Garrett and Justin were the next to eat the bomb. It was going pretty well until Maria’s turn. She certainly did better than I could have but she didn’t get the last bit swallowed before time expired. She was going to have to get another one – and that happened with the very next spin of the wheel. I felt really bad for her. She made it the second time with about 1 second to spare.
Meanwhile, the teams who completed the Roadblock were running through the streets looking for help. Meghan & Cheyne found someone who agreed to lead their group to the shrine and they hit the mat in first place. Phil informed them that they had won a trip for two to Aspen and Vail.
Back at the gameshow, it was Lance and Big Easy’s turn to down the wasabi. They were successful and headed off to look for the shrine.
Zev & Justin checked in 2nd.
Canaan and Gary finished their bomb but Brian struggled with his. Brian’s reaction was probably like mine would have been. He was clearly hurting. He didn’t get it done in time. Wife Ericka was less than supportive saying, “I should have done this challenge.” To make matters worse, Dan got the next bomb and finished it off meaning Brian & Ericka were sitting in last place.
Lance & Keri were 3rd.
Brian managed to finish the wasabi and they were finally on their way.
Meanwhile, Sam & Dan and Maria & Tiffany joined forces to locate the shrine. The brothers knew that the girls thought they were cute so they decided to keep quiet about being gay. I can’t remember a group on TAR that got this manipulative this early in the season.
Marcy & Ron checked in 4th.
Flight Time & Big Easy were 5th.
Sam & Dan noticed that another team was headed in the opposite direction. When they told Maria & Tiffany about it, Maria said they could split off from them if they wanted. The brothers did and it was the right call.
Amazingly, Brian & Ericka checked in 6th. They had quickly found a man who was willing to lead them right to the shrine.
Gary & Matt were 7th.
Meanwhile, Maria & Tiffany weren’t just lost; they’d also misplaced two of their tourists. Their bickering started up again.
Garrett & Jessica were 8th.
Sam & Dan were 9th.
Mika & Canaan arrived 10th but they were missing one tourist. As it turned out she wasn’t lost, just slow. She showed up and Canaan carried her to the mat.
Maria & Tiffany eventually gave up looking for their missing people and went to the shrine. Phil told them that they were going to have a two hour penalty for not completing the challenge but they were staying in the race because this was a non-elimination leg. He warned that they would have a Speed Bump in the next leg.
We moved straight to that second leg. The teams had to fly 2600 miles to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Once they landed, they had to take a bus to the rural village of Cai Be where they’d have to find a boat dock and get the next clue. They all got $444 to spend. Some of the teams used computers at a nearby hotel to book a flight and others headed straight to the airport. Those who waited almost didn’t make the first flight out because they ran out of economy seats. Brian & Ericka talked the ticket agents into selling the four remaining teams business class seats for an economy class price. They were all on equal footing again.
While waiting in line at the airport another passenger recognized Tiffany as a famous poker player. They were busted. Of course, they were being played by the gay brothers who were pretending to be interested in them so it was all balancing out.
They arrived in a very flooded Ho Chi Minh. The first bus leaving for Cai Be was at 3:30PM. Maria & Tiffany, Sam & Dan, Flight Time & Big Easy, Mika & Canaan and Marcy & Ron were on that one. The second bus was scheduled to leave at 4:45PM and had Zev & Justin, Brian & Ericka, Gary & Matt, Garrett & Jessica, Lance & Keri and Meghan & Cheyne. Once they realized that they weren’t going to leave for another hour, the six teams pitched in $100 to get the driver to leave early. It was all for naught because the dock they were headed to had closed for the night before either bus got there. You have to wonder if those teams are going to need that $100 down the road. They all camped out at the dock. During that time we learned that Maria & Tiffany and Zev & Justin had taken an immediate dislike to each other. Let’s see. On one side we have the girls who lied about helping the homeless. On the other we have Zev who, literally, had just given the jacket off his back to a cold and wet Vietnamese man on the bus ride over. I’m with the guys on this one.
At 7:00AM they all got their clue. The teams had to take boats to a series of mud pits. Each team had to transport mud to an orchard and use it to fertilize a tree. Once they brought enough mud, the farmer would give them their next clue. First, though, the poker players had to deal with their Speed Bump. They had to find a soup stand, get the ingredients to make a traditional soup called pho, bring it back to the dock and make the soup for the Dockmaster. Maria knew all about pho so they completed the task easily.
The mud pit challenge was disgusting. It was sloppy and wet and yucky. Surprisingly, our beauty queen (Ericka) kind of liked it. She called the mud “sensual”. Meghan & Cheyne were the first to get done and receive the clue. They had to return to the docks and then travel by foot to a field.
Maria & Tiffany arrived at the pits and started to catch up. They were still the last team done but they were only seconds behind Zev & Justin. The friends were delayed because they’d lost their clue and had to return to the mud pits to find it.
Roadblock
This one was cool! At the field the teams found that one member had to herd ducks. In 10 minutes they had to lead 150 ducks back and forth over a bridge and then get them all back into their pen. It was just as funny looking as it sounds and there were some sassy ducks involved. If they failed to get it all done, they had to go to the back of the line and wait for another turn.
Meghan, Jessica and Ericka failed their first time through and Garrett complained that Jessica had a quick fuse when things didn’t go her way. Actually, she just seemed a bit frustrated. She wasn’t having a tantrum or anything. Sam was the first to succeed and he and Dan got the final clue. The teams had to race by foot to the Pit Stop on the Bassac III Riverboat.
Matt finished pretty easily as Ericka suffered her second failure. Zev & Justin and Maria & Tiffany arrived just as Flight Time and Keri were finishing. Mika found herself struggling along with Ericka and Meghan. Zev, on the other hand, turned out to be “the duck whisperer”. He just stayed calm and moved the ducks along.
Meanwhile, Garrett, Brian and Canaan were getting frustrated waiting on the sidelines. Canaan, in particular, was losing his mind.
Gary & Matt were the first to check in. Phil informed them they’d each won a kayak.
Sam & Dan were 2nd.
Flight Time & Big Easy were 3rd.
Lance & Keri finished 4th.
Tiffany proved to be adept at herding ducks and Meghan also finally got her ducks to cooperate. Mika and Marcy quickly followed leaving just Jessica and Ericka on the field. Brian & Ericka started bickering with Ericka saying it wasn’t easy and “Don’t you dare get disappointed in me.”
Zev & Justin checked in 5th.
Meghan & Cheyne were 6th.
Maria & Tiffany were 7th.
Mika & Canaan were 8th.
Marcy & Ron were 9th.
Ericka finally got the task completed and declared that she was eating duck for dinner. Jessica finished a few minutes later.
Brian & Ericka were 10th.
That left Garrett & Jessica in last place. Upon being informed by Phil that they’d been eliminated, Garrett had a burst of anger. That lead to the episode’s moment of irony as Phil asked Jessica if that was normal for him. In the end, Garrett said Jessica had done a pretty good job of keeping her cool but we weren’t left with a very hopeful outlook for their future as a couple.
Next Week: Zev & Justin break a statue of a giraffe and Lance beats on things. I have no idea what any of that means.
Full episodes and bonus clips of TAR are available at CBS’ website here:
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