Go Jump in a Lake

Amazing Race

Episode Report Card

M. Giant: B | Grade It Now!

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Go Jump in a Lake

By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.06.2011

In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

The race continues in Malawi, but takes a two-hour bus ride to a town called Salima first. All the teams arrive together, and most of them get right to work carrying fish-toting passengers on bicycle taxis to different addresses. It doesn't go smoothly for almost anyone; Laurence and Sandy get lost, Andy breaks his bicycle, Cathi has her usual balance issues, Marcus and Amani are still doing their Speed Bump (a large wooden version of a child's sliding-tile puzzle), and Jennifer forgot her clue back at the Roadblock's starting point. As a result, Cindy finishes first, so Team Control leads the way to Lake Malawi. This beautiful place is the site of the Detour, where teams can either paddle cumbersome dugout canoes out into the lake and back, or wade out to a ferry to unload a bunch of different stuff, including humans. Most everyone selects the former, but they have different degrees of success. Ernie and Cindy, who quickly learn that they aren't going to be good at this, decide it's time to use their Express Pass. Because why not save it until you can use it to not lose the whole race when you can throw it away now to try to win one leg? Some running around on the beaches in search of a Route Info (where a fancy new interactive Double U-Turn sign awaits) and the Pit Stop ensues, but even though Ernie and Cindy have a substantial lead, this leg ends in a long footrace that Andy and Tommy win by a whisker. And thus is another Express Pass wasted.

Further back in the field, grandparents Bill and Cathi score a third-place finish simply by not screwing up and working well together. Amani and Marcus don't finish their Speed Bump quickly, but make up for it with how quickly Marcus does the Roadblock, and they become the only team to unload the ferry (with Marcus carrying the people), making enough of a recovery to end in fourth place. Laurence and Zac, who you'd think would do really well at a rowing task (or maybe you would have thought that, once upon a time), decide they'll need to U-Turn somebody, so they ding Amani and Marcus, unaware that Team NFL is actually ahead of them at the time. They straggle in as the fifth place team. Jeremy and Sandy continue to operate like the well-sanded machine they are, struggling with the canoe and coming close to losing the whole thing. But what loses this leg is Jennifer's indecision when she realizes she doesn't have the clue with her. Rather than going back for it, which would have been the right thing to do and would have cost her no time, she stands around indefinitely waiting for another team, a mistake from which the siblings never recover. But at least they're getting along at the end of their race, so maybe the Elimination Station won't see too much bickering from them.

Want more? The full recap starts right below!

"Malawi is known as the warm heart of Africa," Phil says, as the cameras rip it, still beating, out of the continent's chest and show it to us. Not really, but with all the b-roll they're showing it kind of feels that way. "This tiny nation is a major player in the world's tobacco trade," he adds, and welcomes us back to the most recent Pit Stop, Kulambi Village just outside the capital city of Lilongwe. We see teams after the end of the previous leg, still carrying their own beds, believe it or not, and moving them into thatched-roof huts that cluster around the clearing. How are the racers reacting to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Well, Jennifer whines, "Are we really sleeping here tonight?" Sandy thinks she and Jeremy will kill each other in their small space. Or in a large space, you never know. The snowboarders, always looking on the bright side, are happy to get mattresses. Ernie and Cindy, however, aren't exactly jazzed to be settling into what she calls "home sweat home." They do a little low-key complaining about the comforts of home right here in Malawi, like the mosquito netting, the straw roof, and the thin foam-rubber mattresses. Oh, quit your bitching, it's not like this is something you would have done on your own.

But as far as "spending the night," it doesn't look like that's entirely the case. It's still dark outside at 5:28 AM when Andy and Tommy exhale visible breath-clouds into the predawn darkness. I guess Africa's heart is only warm when the sun is up. The first clue of the day is sending them by bus (which looks like it's going to be very crowded) to the town of Salima, two hours away, where they'll get their next clue off a human clue box at the bus station. "Caution, Double U-Turn ahead," the clue also warns, because audiences have been clamoring to bring that back. As the snowboarders run for the fleet of taxis that are apparently ready and waiting overnight every night outside Kulambi Village, Tommy recalls the end of the last leg when they went from second to first place as a result of "the classic 'however.'" Montage of Phil "however"ing them three times (so far), and then they say that although they were flying below the radar early on, they're on the radar now. Hell, they are the radar.

Justin and Jennifer, starting in second place again, open their clue at 5:39 AM, with the sky starting to lighten behind them. Justin tells us about how he came out to Jennifer a few years ago, which I guess is his way of coming out to us. I hope that's not why they fight so much. Fortunately, Justin says she's supportive and she says he's amazing and strong. And they're being that nice to each other this early in the morning, no less. This can only mean they're hours from being tragically killed.

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