Tonight the final five teams raced to Indonesia to continue on their adventure to win $1 million. After feeding elephants and constructing wooden instruments, which teams made it to the Final Four? Read here to find out:
After two legs in Abu Dhabi, teams must now travel to Bandung, Indonesia. Once there, they must locate the Ram Arena to find their next clue. Nicole and Travis are the first team to leave for the airport, but not after checking out the new Ford vehicles they won for coming in first place on the last leg. Nicole and Travis once again assert that they do not approve of lying and that their Christian faith is very important to them. That’s great, but this statement will seem a bit ironic later in the episode.
Jason and Amy are the second team to depart for the airport. Amy says she still wants to work with Nicole and Travis and keep that alliance going for as long as possible. That’s nice of Amy, but with only five teams left in the race, I think it’s time for the alliances to end. But Amy wanting to help out another strong team at the Final Five is not as absurd as what comes out of Jason’s mouth. After learning they will be traveling to Indonesia, Jason foolishly asks, “Are they, like, Chinese people or are they, like, Indians?” It’s incredible that after numerous legs of traveling the world, Jason says something as dim-witted as that.
Tim and Marie are the third team to leave for the airport. And as usual, more bickering ensues between the two exes. Tim wants them to be more of a team, but Marie believes she is right most of the time and they should just do whatever she says. She doesn’t think they have to be even most of the time.
Leo and Jamal apparently overslept, and missed the time they were supposed to rip open their clue by a few minutes. Leo and Jamal then read their clues the same time as Ally and Ashley, who had to wait for the two cousins first. Leo and Jamal want to know why Nicole and Travis U-Turned them, which they will find out when they arrive at the airport.
All the teams arrive at the airport, and Nicole and Travis reveal to Leo and Jamal that they did not appreciate the fact that they lied about U-Turning Brandon and Adam. So since they had the audacity to lie, Nicole and Travis thought it was best to U-Turn such a deceitful team. I’m not a fan of Leo and Jamal at all since I find them extremely obnoxious, but this holier-than-thou attitude from Nicole and Travis is a bit off-putting. They are in a competition with a million dollars on the line. So what if teams lie to each other? In a competition like this, I don’t see why that’s so wrong. It’s not as if Leo and Jamal tried to cheat and copy off of another team…
The five teams then travel to Bandung, Indonesia. The teams rush out of the airport and find taxis to travel to the Ram Arena. Nicole and Travis are in first place at this moment, followed by Ally and Ashley, Leo and Jamal, Tim and Marie, and Jason and Amy. Nicole and Travis keep their lead as they reach the clue box first and are then informed that they must take two rams into an arena where they will head-butt each other in a short fight. Then the rams must be loaded back onto a truck to get their next clue, which will inform them to travel to Rancakek Station. All the teams manage to do this task without any problems. Nicole and Travis, Ally and Ashley, and Leo and Jamal make it onto the first train to the next location. Jason and Amy, however, miss the train by about two minutes. This is helpful for Tim and Marie, since a broken down taxi allowed Jason and Amy to pass them, even though Tim and Marie completed the head-butting rams task before them. Plus, Tim and Marie were not able to steal their cab this time. Anyway, Jason and Amy and Tim and Marie must wait in the train station for about an hour for the next train, putting them at a big disadvantage. Their only hope for surviving elimination is if another team screws up enough to lose an hour-long advantage.
Nicole and Travis, Leo and Jamal, and Ally and Ashley arrive at the train station and learn that they have a Detour to complete: For the Elephants or For the Birds? The elephant task requires teams to collect food, such as watermelons, bananas, sweet potatoes, and sugar canes. They must take that food to a zoo to feed an elephant. After the elephant is fed, they will receive their next clue. The bird task requires teams to pick up two birds and take them to a bird song Grand Prix. They must encourage their birds while they sing in the competition to receive their next clue.
Nicole and Travis decide to encourage birds to sing, while Leo and Jamal and Ally and Ashley choose to feed some elephants (although Ashley initially wanted to do the bird task). And perhaps they should’ve went with the birds since Ally and Ashley make a mistake right away. They travel to the zoo before collecting the snacks for the elephant; they needed to get the food first. Leo and Jamal and Nicole and Travis complete their respective Detours without any problems. However, Nicole and Travis are the first to travel to the Roadblock, located at Saung Angklung Udjo.
The odds were not in Jason and Amy or Tim and Marie’s favor, but mistakes from Ally and Ashley allowed them to catch up. Ally and Ashley struggle immensely with the Detour. After realizing they needed to collect the food first, they leave the zoo and go to the market. They then mindlessly dismissed their taxi driver before realizing they needed something to carry all the food, especially the large stalks of sugar canes. They manage to get a taxi, but they could not figure out how to get the sugar canes to fit inside the taxi. So they decide to leave without the sugar canes, and then travel by foot back to the market to pick up the sugar canes. As a result, this allowed Jason and Amy and Tim and Marie to make up for lost time, putting the ice hockey girls Ally and Ashley in last place. Ally and Ashley have their first argument in the race. Ashley insisted that they should’ve done the bird task like she wanted, but always feels pressured to do whatever Ally wants. Since they went from potentially being in first to all the way to last, it’s understandable why they’re so upset.
Anyway, over at the Roadblock, a team member is required to construct a wooden instrument called an angklung. Once constructed properly, teams can head on over to the Pit Stop: Bosscha Observatory.
Nicole decided to do the Roadblock, which turns out to be a big challenge for her; she struggles throughout the entire task as she is confused on how to correctly assemble the angklung. Leo and Jamal arrive at the Roadblock shortly after Nicole and Travis, with Jason and Amy right behind them. Nicole goes to get her angklung inspected, but is incorrect. Leo checks his right after. At first, he is told he is correct before he obnoxiously cheers by jumping up and down. But his stand is incorrect, so he has to go fix that before he can get his clue.
Meanwhile, Tim and Marie arrive at the Roadblock. The two say they have a pattern of each of them alternating between Roadblocks. But since Marie suspects that the Roadblock involves musical instruments, she makes Tim do it instead, even though it was supposed to be her turn.
Nicole gets her angklung checked again, but is wrong once more. Leo, however, is correct. Leo then stupidly cheers in his obnoxious way. But before he and Jamal depart for the Pit Stop, something truly incredulous happens: Nicole tries to cheat off of Leo! Yes, the truthful and moral Nicole tries to cheat and look at Leo’s completed angklung. So based on the comments she and Travis said earlier in the episode, this makes them look like complete hypocrites. So it’s not okay to lie about U-Turning someone, but it is okay to copy another’s team completed Roadblock challenge without even asking. The irony is a bit hilarious. Honestly, I don’t really care that Nicole tried to cheat. But there is something bothersome yet amusing about someone who tries to cheat while acting like a completely honest person and wanting to punish liars. It’s just comes across as very hypocritical.
Anyway, Leo disassembles his angklung before Nicole can get a good look at it. He and Jamal then head over to the Pit Stop. But a minute after they depart, Tim gets his angklung inspected and is correct on his first attempt. Marie then takes credit for this success since it was her idea to make Tim do the Roadblock. The two exes and the cousins race to the Pit Stop, where Leo and Jamal arrive first and win $7,500 each. Tim and Marie arrive just seconds afterwards as Phil declares them Team #2.
Nicole is still struggling on the Roadblock by the time Amy properly assembles her angklung. And since Ally and Ashley have not arrived at the Roadblock yet, Amy decides to give assistance to Nicole. It looks like Amy was sincere when she said she wanted to continue to help Nicole and Travis. This is a sweet thing for Amy to do, but not a very good choice strategically. Nicole and Travis have been a very dominant team all season long with a few first place wins already under their belt. This could’ve been the task to send them home and eliminate a strong team, but I guess Amy is just too nice. Jason, on the other hand, doesn’t have as much compassion. He gets very irritated and repeatedly tells Amy they need to leave, especially once Ally and Ashley arrive at the Roadblock. Amy finally leaves, and Jason expresses his frustration to Amy in the taxi ride to the Pit Stop. And while Jason and Amy are traveling to the Pit Stop, Nicole finally completes the Roadblock (all thanks to Amy). She and Travis leave Ally and Ashley behind them and arrive at the Pit Stop just minutes after Jason and Amy. “I love you forever, forever!” Nicole gushes to Amy, while Travis has a very troubled look on his face. Travis says that it was a very hard day and that there were “hard lessons” to be learned. He even scolds Nicole, telling her that he can’t play the game for her all the time and that she needs to fix things herself and not rely on others. I think that was a bit harsh; the man should just be happy to still be in race.
Anyway, Ally and Ashley are the last team to arrive at the mat, where Phil tells them that they have been eliminated from the race. They’re understandably disappointed, but these two were lucky to have made it as far as they did. They were nice enough girls, but pretty weak racers for the most part. They barely survived most of the legs, so this elimination was inevitable.
Final Results of Episode:
1st place: Leo and Jamal
2nd place: Tim and Marie
3rd place: Jason and Amy
4th place: Nicole and Travis
Eliminated: Ally and Ashley
The preview for next week shows Marie being confronted with a snake, and the men having to wear make-up. That should be an interesting episode, I suppose.
Now we are down to the Final Four! Who do you think has the best shot at winning the race and the million dollars? I still think Nicole and Travis are the team to beat, despite tonight’s Roadblock. But as past seasons have shown, anything can happen. Personally, I’d be fine with any of the teams winning except for Leo and Jamal. I just find them too smug and unlikable.
Thanks for reading and join me next week for another recap of The Amazing Race!
