With their elimination in The Amazing Race 15 Episode 5, Lance & Keri became another unsurprising team to be sent home. Tonight’s episode will be starting on time. That’s new.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Meghan & Cheyne – 8:17AM
Second: Brian & Ericka – 9:59AM
Third: Herbert & Nathaniel – 10:42AM
Fourth: Gary & Matt – 10:45AM
Fifth: Sam & Dan – 11:34AM
Sixth: Maria & Tiffany – 11:47AM
Seventh: Mika & Canaan – 11:54AM
Meghan has never been this stressed out before. Ericka puts on fresh makeup and does her hair. It’ll all be messed up by the end of the day, but you’ve gotta try. Big Easy just keeps saying the word hot over and over. Gary & Matt are getting along fine, although this is the longest they’ve ever spent together. Matt made sure to bring some hair dye because he wouldn’t want to look normal for any length of time. Maria & Tiffany mostly just want to get the hell out of Dubai. Mika’s never done much of anything, so she depends on Canaan to push her along.
After choosing a briefcase, teams will travel by taxi to Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. When they arrive, Cheyne’s prayers of getting in the water are answered, as the road block is to row an inflatable dingy to a yacht. Then, they must return to the dock with the watch they’re given and open their briefcase, using the time on the watch as the combination. Ericka doesn’t do water, but it doesn’t look like Brian does either. He eventually figures it out but does end up with a rowing injury and bleeding hands. Gary rows lying on his stomach with one oar, while Big Easy just paddles with his arms. Seeing this effective strategy, Dan just uses his arms, too. As everybody figures out the watch clue on the first try, Big Easy is stumped, putting his team in last.
Road block (in order of arrival): Cheyne, Brian, Gary, Big Easy, Dan, Tiffany, Canaan
From there, teams will head to the Abra Station, a water taxi port. The detour is a choice between gold or glass. In gold, teams must weigh out exactly $500,000 worth of gold. To do this, they must divide $500,000 by the constantly changing gold exchange rate shown on the monitor. In glass, they will assemble 12 hookahs. Both of these detours are unappealing. Glass requires a lot of attention to detail, while gold requires the ability to do math without a calculator or Excel. For anyone who can do longhand division, gold is the easiest, but for the other 99% of the population, suffering through the hookahs is probably easier. As luck would have it, Sam & Dan were smart enough to bring a calculator with them, but they’re completely clueless on the calculations, so Maria & Tiffany come by, borrow their calculator, and tell them how to do it. This effectively bails both teams out and puts them in a good position. Realizing quickly that long division is futile, Big Easy goes next door and asks to borrow a calculator.
Glass: Meghan & Cheyne, Brian & Ericka (switched from gold), Gary & Matt, Mika & Canaan
Gold: Sam & Dan, Maria & Tiffany, Herbert & Nathaniel (switched from glass)
The next stop is Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai resort and the leap of faith, a 6 story waterslide at a nearly 90 degree angle through a shark tank. All the teams are somewhat afraid, but they’ve got nothing on Mika, who was crying earlier in the race because she thought she might have to do something involving heights. At least she’s got her floaties with her. Canaan’s trying to be patient with her, but she seems willing to throw away the race over this. This leads to praying to God, saying she hates her life, nonstop crying, and repeated saying of the words “I can’t.” When the Globetrotters show up, she’s got a choice. Get over herself, or come in last. She has two minutes to decide. Once they’re in last, it may well be moot. In the end, Mika decides to quit. It’s very rare that somebody quits something in this race. I didn’t think I would see it on something this simple.
The pit stop for this leg of the race is Dolphin Bay Beach. Meghan & Cheyne’s lead from the fast forward is still holding up (surely whoever planned the race should have seen this unfair advantage coming), but there are four teams at the detour at the same time bringing up the rear.
First: Meghan & Cheyne (win personal watercrafts)
Second: Maria & Tiffany
Third: Sam & Dan
Fourth: Brian & Ericka
Fifth: Gary & Matt
Sixth: Herbert & Nathaniel
Eliminated: Mika & Canaan
Mika & Canaan have been eliminated from the race. This is another team that needed to be eliminated. Mika was so crippled by her fear on more than one occasion that it makes me question why she decided to come on the show in the first place.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 15 Episode 7 This Is Not My Finest Hour (The Netherlands), which airs Sunday at 8/7cish CBS.