The Amazing Race - Season 21 Episode 5 - Recap - Chill Out, Freak
Welcome to my recap of The Amazing Race Season 21, Episode 5. This episode featured by far the most grueling tasks this season, and the teams were pushed to the brink of exhaustion.
The remaining seven teams spend the whole leg in Bangladesh. James and Abba are the first to depart at 7:30am and head to the Jatrabari Boro Bazar to find a vendor selling eggplant. I LOVE eggplant!
Ryan’s competitive spirit is becoming an all-or-nothing lifestyle. “We want to be considered the strongest team that’s ever raced,” he says. He wants to beat the record of most legs won set by Season 20’s Dave and Rachel. Well, they seem to be doing pretty well so far; two #1, one #2, and one #4 finish.
Roadblock
One team member must build an ancient Bangladeshi scale out of wood and rope and then balance four heavy stones on one side with wood on the other.
Abbie and Nadiya go head-to-head in this roadblock. "Have you done this before?" Nadiya asks Abbie. "I've tied my sister together."
This is by far the toughest roadblock this season. We have come a long way from making balloon animals and balloon hats, folks. I personally feel like I would have had trouble with this one.
Ryan mocks the twins right in front of them, and the twins call him out in their confessional. Those are two teams that definitely don’t seem to be getting along.
Abbie keeps on having to redo her scale, but Nadiya is chugging through without problems. Nadiya finishes the roadblock in 2nd even though they arrived after Abbie and Ryan.
Jaymes, Trey, and Kelley complete the roadblock. Brent is absolutely exhausted doing the road block, and Josh is worrying about his health. The Bleekman boys leave in last place.
Detour: Straw Dogs or Bamboo Jungle?
Straw Dogs: Team members must help create an eco-friendly jute bag. First, they must whip unprocessed jute to untangle the fibers and then transport the jute to machines to manufacture the bags.
Bamboo Jungle: Team members must collect 40 different shoots of bamboo of varying sizes and deliver them across town to a construction site using a rickshaw.
A better name for this detour would have been Jutes or Shoots? See, I can make clever challenge titles too.
Everyone chooses the bamboo task except for Abbie and Ryan. “It takes jute force to do this work,” Ryan says. Good one! That’s the best sentence that’s come out of your mouth all season, Ryan.
Both of these tasks are tough as well, especially in the sweltering heat. It takes several tries for Abbie and Ryan to figure out how to whip and untangle the jute fibers correctly, and the gigantic bamboo shoots required strength and perseverance to carry. I like these physically taxing challenges, TAR producers! Bring back some more mentally taxing ones as well, though.
Abbie and Ryan finish the detour in 2nd place, followed by the twins and monster truckers in 3rd and 4th.
The Chippendales have been dropping weight like crazy during the Race because they want to save money, Jaymes says. Doesn’t CBS pay for your food? Anyway, these strong, muscular dudes seem to be more visibly exhausted than the other competitors. As James shifts the bamboo shoots around, he places three of the shoots on the ground next to Trey and Lexi’s pile of shoots. After they leave, Trey asks Lexi if those shoots are their own. Nope, they belong to Jaymes and James, they left them here! Ohhhh shoot…
Meanwhile, people on the street are getting whipped like crazy by the bamboo as it’s being transported on the rickshaws. Be careful out there! When the Chips arrive at the construction site, they are told they need to go back and deliver the three shoots they left earlier. Jaymes collapses on the ground in a pile of sweat, exhaustion, and frustration. And a lot of dirt too. Who knows what else is on the ground.
Anyways, the Chips earned some props from me tonight by not fighting with each other after they realized their mistake. James said he counted the bamboo but later admitted he must have counted incorrectly. Yet, Jaymes didn’t yell at him or anything. Sure, they were tired, but they stuck with it, giving each other a bro hug and trucking along. “Never surrender!” they encouraged each other. Way to keep with it and not tear each other’s throats out.
Pitstop: Lok Shilpa Jadughar
Halfway into the episode, James and Abba arrive at the pit stop in first place, probably an hour or two ahead of the other teams. They win a trip to Malaysia.
Abbie and Ryan come in second, but Ryan grimaces when Phil gives them the results. He tells Phil that he wants to beat the record of winning the most legs, and Abbie gets upset that Ryan is being harsh after a hard-fought, very respectable second-place victory. After realizing that he has been putting too much pressure on Abbie, he apologizes to her.
The twins arrive in third. “We're sisters from another mother!” one of the twins tells the greeter.
After Rob and Kelley, Trey and Lexi, and James and Jaymes go to the finish mat, Josh and Brent finally get there in last. However, Phil gives them good news: it's a non-elimination leg! They're still in the race, but they have to complete a Speed Bump, an extra challenge, in the next leg.
Here's the final order of finish:- James and Abba
- Abbie and Ryan
- Natalie and Nadiya
- Rob and Kelley
- Trey and Lexi
- James and Jaymes
- Josh and Brent