The Amazing Race - Season 22 Episode 8 - "My Cheese is Out of Control" - Recap

By Melissa Wang ·

Welcome back to The Amazing Race! Two words for you: SAY CHEESE! It's been two weeks since the show last aired, and it's now Episode 8 of Season 22. Back then, we were watching the contestants chase baby goats and dangle carrots in front of donkeys in Botswana. Now, the remaining contestants are flying to Zurich, Switzerland!! Bring on the cold weather and the cheese roll. My recap is below.

Switzerland in the winter is a huge change of pace from warm Botswana. At the Bern Train Station in Switzerland, Joey and Meghan and Mona and Beth miss their train connection, so they're behind the pack. They get on another train. Luckily, their destination opens at 8:55 a.m., so everyone's caught up.

It's snowing in Switzerland! Ahh, I've seen too much snow this winter. Still, though, the snow and scenery look gorgeous. The shepherd rides on a sled that looks like a bike, if that's possible.

At Kleine Scheidegg, they have to pick up a dog outside of the Bellevue Hotel. The dogs are so cute!

Wynona and Chuck are in a feud! He gets mad that she's slow at running, and then she calls him a "disappointing person" to the camera while she's standing right in front of him. On the train to Jungfraujoch, Chuck encourages the dog to run faster. It kind of reminds me that classic clip from Whose Line is it Anyway, "things you can say to your dog but not your girlfriend."

Roadblock: Who wants to enjoy the sights?

One team member must traverse the North face of the Eiger mountain while holding the Travelocity gnome. Bates, Katie, Beth, Jennifer, Wynona, and Meghan are the ones to complete it. However, only one team can go at a time, so while Wynona struggles on the climb, Joey and Meghan have to wait until she's done before Meghan can even start.

Then, they travel by train to the Grindelwald Grund Station where their next clue will be. Everyone gets on the train except Chuck and Wynona and Joey and Meghan.

Switchback

Teams must transport four wheels of cheese—200 pounds—from a storage barn uphill to downhill using a sled.

CHEESE!!! This is one of the most infamous challenges in Amazing Race history. As a racer, I'd be scared. As a viewer, I am absolutely DELIGHTED. Bates and Anthony scurry up the hill easily, but Katie keeps falling and holding the whole group up. Bates and Anthony decide to squat over the cheese with their backs facing the hill's bottom and have the cheese sleds push them down the hill. Oh, this seems easier than the previous cheese task because they have snow to slide on here. In the previous challenge, there was just a grassy hill.

However, it's still hilarious. The girls have trouble and are continuously run over by the cheese sleds, and Katie wipes out a ton. Caroline's cheese also refuses to stay on her sled, so she has to put them back on every five seconds or so, she says.

"My cheese is out of control," Caroline complains.

Wynona says she has no upper body strength so she's unable to pull herself up the hill. Chuck has to resort to pushing Wynona's butt up the hill with his head. Meanwhile, I can't stop laughing. It kind of reminds me of a mother animal nudging its baby up, kind of like these hippos here…

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Wynona decides to just roll the cheese down the hill by itself, not with the sled. But that's not what the directions say, right...

Pit stop

The Bodmi Snowboard and Ski School is the pit stop. Bates and Anthony secure their fourth first-place victory overall and third in a row. Are they the team to beat? They win a trip for two to Bora Bora. Mona and Beth finish in second for the second leg in a row. Max and Katie and Caroline and Jennifer follow.

The race for not-last is down to Joey and Meghan and Chuck and Wynona. Even though the former team finishes the cheese ask first, the fifth team to arrive is… Chuck and Wynona. However, they are told that the clue stated they were supposed to transport the cheese using the sled, and they failed to do that! I feel like I say this every recap, but attention to detail, contenders. You always have to read your clues carefully. Therefore, they incur a thirty-minute penalty.

Joey and Meghan didn't take a taxi like all of the other teams, and they walked all the way up and down snowy hills. They arrive at the pit stop within that thirty-minute timeframe, however, so they're team #5 and still in the race. Finally, Chuck and Wynona are eliminated. They definitely got saved several times over the course of the season, and their time was finally up.

Here's the final order of elimination:
  1. Bates and Anthony
  2. Mona and Beth
  3. Max and Katie
  4. Caroline and Jennifer
  5. Joey and Meghan
  6. Chuck and Wynona (ELIMINATED)
Well, what do you all think? How happy were you all to see the cheese task again? What are the chances that Bates and Anthony will take it all, given their winning streak?

Next week, teams bungee jump! Of course, what a classic TAR challenge.

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