[Editors Note: This article and all others in this column WILL contain SPOILERS. If you have not seen Episode 1 of The Amazing Race season 28, it’s highly suggested you do so before you read the below. You have been warned and may Phil Keoghan have mercy on your soul. And for a reminder of the super cool and descriptive nicknames we have for the teams, check out the coverage of Episode 1. You can also find all of our The Amazing Race recaps right here.]
Starting From a Place of Chaos…Sort Of
For the third installment of CBS’ 28th social-mediatastic season of The Amazing Race, we start right in everyone’s favorite boiler room of emotion for teams: The airport. But the editors that be use footage from the past week’s episode because this current episode still takes place in Columbia, which means the teams were already there. So, yeah, a little creative television editing off the bat to heighten drama. Television!
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After the intro, The Dancers are once again a giant ball of chaos. It’s mostly because Dana’s ranting at Matt, while Matt attempts to explain the pair would do better if they all just calmed down. All this after ending last episode with a heartfelt confession that they were going to work harder on their communication skills. Maybe that confession was kind of one-sided? Or maybe Team Dancers is just getting a rough edit. Television!
watching #AmazingRace on west coast – wish they showed how lovable @DanaAlexaNY & @MattSteffanina really are, we were obsessed with them 💣
— Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) February 27, 2016
That being tweeted, the season always needs some kind of a villain and it looks like this might be The Dancers is closest we get, even if it’s kinda sorta forced.
So, back to the action of leg 3, the teams get right down to racing for the clues as they head to Castilla San Felipe de Barajas, where they have to search for said clues in the depths of a very dark, very…shall we say…claustrophobic set of tunnels.
If you remember from leg 1, both Erin of Team Clevver and Cole’s Mom from Team Family Time are not good in small enclosures. This issue seems to be most prevalent for Erin, as she hyperventilates her way through the confined spaces. But, like, she doesn’t pass out or anything. Yes, it’s tough but the editing in the previews made it seem like she was going down hard. Television! Cole’s Mom has also apparently conquered her fear because Team Family Time hardly gets any play in the edit for the second leg in a row. That Either means they are soon to go or some major stuff is going to happen with them in the legs to come.
Besides Erin’s abject terror, most of the other teams breeze through the tunnels and we quickly get right to this week’s Detour.
The Detour for Bros, Jocks, and Besos
The choices for the Detour this time around are Tickets or Tejo. In Tickets, teams pick a bus to ride on and try to entice other riders on the the bus for pesos. Once they collect 20,000 pesos, they can return for their next clue. In Tejos, teams play a popular local game where you take small, heavy lead discs and toss them at small holes filled with gunpowder. Needless to say, if you connect it’s quite obvious. Teams have to do this three times to move on.
Frisbee Boys get to choose first and of course they choose Tejo. I mean, throwing things at targets is something they do professionally. It’s pretty obvious they are going to destroy this challenge. And they do so by finishing before any other team even gets there. So yeah, we’ll see you later Frisbee Boys.
You would think that the title of this week’s episode is actually a reference to Frisbee Boys, but in actuality, it’s created by America’s Sweethearts (no seriously, Korey even makes reference to Tyler “stealing the hearts of America” this very episode): Team Tyley.
Side Note: It seems I had it all wrong in terms of how I was going about naming Tyler and Korey’s team.
@tubefilter but our ship name is #Torey
— Korey Kuhl (@koreykuhl) February 22, 2016
Due to their shipping wishes, from this moment forward, I shall now refer to them as #Torey
So, #Torey says something along the lines of, “We’re just dudes being bros, just bros being jocks”. And thus, a hashtag is born! One that The Amazing Race is proud to put out into the world like two shiny new shocked looking dude bro jocks.
Hit it @tyleroakley and @koreykuhl! #BrosBeingJocks #AmazingRace pic.twitter.com/aqw4RMYT73
— The Amazing Race (@AmazingRace_CBS) February 27, 2016
@koreykuhl and @tyleroakley killed the bomb game (problematic pun not intended) #brosbeingjocks #TeamTylerAndKorey
— Bailey Brawner (@baileybrawner) February 27, 2016
The way they jump when they hit the target is hilarious!!!!!!! #AmazingRace #BrosBeingJocks
— Popcorn and Pringles (@CupcakeGirl1444) February 27, 2016
But seriously, watching Tyler jump and squeal and giggle every time they nailed a Tejo was indeed a delight. And, though Frisbee Boys especially excelled at the Detour, many teams had a knack for the task, as several Racers including Korey and Burnie exclaimed it was “just like cornhole!”
Tejo seems like the quickest of the two options because teams that do it blast their way through it (see what I did there?). But not to be left out, Tickets leads to some dramatic and downright hilarious moments.
From the start, it’s clear that Blair of Team JuicyDad07 was put on this earth to not only do this challenge, but to be on the verge of totally freaking out her Dad while doing this challenge. Almost immediately after hearing what the challenge was, Blair blurts out, “I’ll twerk, I don’t care.” Not being a Dad, I don’t think I can ever find the proper words to describe the look that Scott gave his daughter at that very moment. It was fear and amazement and a little bit of sheer terror along with the realization of “oh my gosh, my little girl is not a little girl anymore” all mixed into one single second of eyeballs focusing their attention on his offspring. It was brilliant.
And then Blair drops her Get Pesos Quick! strategy on the world…#Besos4Pesos. Which is pretty simple…
#besos4pesos the best strategy 🙂 put the few spanish words i knew to good use #AmazingRace
— Blair Fowler (@BlairFowler) February 27, 2016
If you don’t know or haven’t already figured out, a beso is a kiss. Now the kiss exchange isn’t a totally original concept on the Race…
#Besos4Pesos @BlairFowler sounds like @Joey_Buttitta giving away kisses to old ladies for zloty in Poland last season #AmazingRace
— Kelsey Gerckens (@KelseyGerckens) February 27, 2016
#besos4pesos is always a great strategy! Haha https://t.co/MuIXq9zmTE
— Kelsey Gerckens (@KelseyGerckens) February 27, 2016
…but it is an effective one as people start streaming onto Team JuicyDad07’s bus. And don’t worry, no besos were harmed in the making of this Detour. The farthest Blair went was to blow people kisses.
Unfortunately for The Kings, their Ticket experience doesn’t go quite as well. It becomes clear Rachel might be having a little trouble with counting pesos…and it becomes clear because the edits keep coming back to her constantly counting said pesos and eagerly exclaiming how she has two 10s and how that made it more than enough. It turns out what she thought were 10,000 peso bills were actually 1,000 peso bills (or some mistake where 10 equaled 1…it wasn’t totally clear except for the fact that they didn’t have enough pesos to finish the challenge and they have to go back to finish it).
Heading into the Road Block, here is where the teams ended up and what Detour they choose:
- 1st: Frisbee Boys (Tejo)
- 2nd: #Torey (Tejo)
- 3rd: Team Rooster Teeth (Tejo) (yes, there was kissing)
- 4th: Team Dancers (Tejo) (yes, there was yelling)
- 5th: Team Models (Tejo)
- 6th: Team Family Time (Tejo) (Cole nailed every Tejo for his team…which is the most we see of them this episode)
- 7th: Vine Bros (Tejo)
- 8th: Team Clevver (Tickets) (they said this challenge was the best thing they’ve done in their lives…which was a pleasant diversion from all the hyperventilating earlier)
- 9th: Team JuicyDad07 (Tickets)
- 10th: The Kings (Tickets)
Road Block: To Help or Not To Help
Teams have been pretty friendly with each other so far. But on this Road Block, we start seeing that helpful attitude crumbling under the brute force of competition.
The challenge is called “It’s in the Bag” (a pretty major clue in itself as we’ll soon see) and it consists of one member from each team being given a mochilla bag, which are super fancy crocheted bags that are super popular in Columbia. They are so popular, in fact, that teams have to take their bag and run around to dozens of vendors trying to find two more bags from the same designer. The key here being the same DESIGNER…not the same DESIGN. Guess where said name of designer can be found? (Hint: “It’s in the Bag”)
And welcome back Frisbee Boys! We hadn’t seen you in a while. Here now is Kurt, going to pick out purses like a boss. It also helps he speaks fluent Spanish and easily communicates with the locals. But to be fair, Tyler takes the challenge for #Torey, and while he doesn’t speak Spanish, he’s able to get through the challenge very quickly, too (maybe because of his innate fashion sense?). It almost looks like they’re setting up the edit for a footrace, but the two teams must not have been super close to each other because Frisbee Boys come onto the mat and are awarded a trip to Greece. #Torey comes in a strong second. And we may just have a rivalry between these two teams brewing.
Next, we’re again shown the dichotomy of styles of Team Dancers and Team Rooster Teeth. Dana of Team Dancers is once again letting her emotions get the best of her, running around blindly, stepping on vendor’s merchandise trying to get to bags. I mean…just look at this…
she is not happy at all HAHAHA, watch out your steps son @DanaAlexaNY @MattSteffanina #AmazingRace #TheAmazingRace pic.twitter.com/7TDQwugsOs
— niezam sandakan (@niezam) February 27, 2016
On the other hand, Ashley of Team Rooster Teeth has misinterpreted her clue to mean she’s looking for bags that look like her bag. But even though she never looks as the name of the designer in her bag, she’s still able to pick them out based on style and finish the challenge quickly, getting Team Rooster Teeth to the mat before Team Dancers.
Cole from Team Family Time and Team Models decide to team up. Team Models find their bags first but because they know there are still lots of teams behind them, they decide to stick around and help Cole. They’re so bent on helping Cole that Cole ends up having to tell them they can leave.
It’s now starting to get dark as the teams who did Ticket begin to arrive. With the exception of Vine Bros, who did do Tejo but are once again having trouble finding a clue that is not contained within a clue box. Once they do find the clue, however, they start working through the challenge at a fast clip. Erin from Team Clevver and Scott from JuicyDad07 decide to team up after Erin struggles to communicate with the locals. The Kings arrive last after finally finishing Ticket (and getting stuck in traffic, to boot!). Zach then tries to race a horse(?), presumably to show he’s still in good spirits.
And this is when the cracks in the “let’s help each other kumbaya” start to show. When Scott is slow in finding bags, Erin looks like she takes off without him, but reconsiders when she remembers Scott has the map. A point Scott flat-out calls her out on. It looks like he’s going to tell her to shove off (Yes! go Dad!), before reconsidering (No! C’mon, Dad!). To be fair, Erin does stay with him even when she gets all her bags and he still needs one. But Scott tells her to go ahead and he finds his last bag on his own.
At this point, Vine Bros already have all their bags before both Erin and Scott, but for some reason they’ve interpreted the clue to mean that once they have their bags, they need to present them to the designer listed inside the bag. Stop overthinking it Vine Bros! And even though they state clearly what they think needs to happen, and the other teams nearby obviously know what they think is not correct, no one says a word. Where are our helpful tendencies now guys??? This confusion of the Vine Bros allows Team Clevver and Team JuicyDad07 to go ahead and gives The Kings a chance to catch up.
Elimination Time
In the end, the mistake costs them and The Kings are able to get to the mat mere seconds away from Vine Bros. And Vine Bros is eliminated. Now, I’ve always been upfront that The Kings are one of my top 3 teams and while I did enjoy the comeback they were able to pull off this week, it brings me no joy to see Vine Bros go home. They seemed like they never quite got a chance to get any momentum and their lack of interaction with the other teams ended was a true detriment. The strategy that seems to work for most of the teams at this leg of the race is to stay friendly, and if you’re in the middle, to stick together. It will be interesting to see that shift once there aren’t so many other teams to turn to for aid.
This episode was a lot of fun and the hashtags were much more creative than they have been. But, more importantly, they were much more supported by The Amazing Race social media. If they keep this up, I think the conversations online will continue to flourish. They haven’t hit anything trendworthy just yet, but the fans are on board.
omg #Besos4Pesos is genius (and I want it on a tee shirt) #AmazingRace
— Mikayla Berlingeri (@mikixann) February 27, 2016
Thoughts on #TheAmazingRace after 3 eps
– Everyone’s being too nice
– #TeamTylerandKorey are the best
– Cole is hot & needs to be shirtless— Ryan Lamont (@RyanLamont) February 27, 2016
My favorite thing about #AmazingRace is that @burnie and @AshleyJ kiss every time they do something good
— Jess Sanchez-Salazar (@DeViAnTaLwAyS) February 27, 2016
That seems to be a lot of people’s favorite thing…
@burnie and @AshleyJ are relationship goals on every episode of #AmazingRace https://t.co/4SXktJwvts
— Lee (@LeeDoesThings) February 27, 2016
What did you think of this week’s episode? Would you give #Besos4Pesos? Let me know in the comments below and also be sure to Tweet during future episodes and you might see your Tweet featured in a future column!
