Well, The Amazing Race 15 Episode 6 sure didn’t lack for drama. Mika refused to go down a waterslide of all things, throwing away the shot at $1 million in the process. Some people blame her for her inability to even try to overcome her fears, while some say that Canaan should have been more understanding with her. Whatever the case, the end result is the same: Mika & Canaan were eliminated from the race. Good riddance. There’s no room in the race for people who absolutely refuse to participate.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Meghan & Cheyne – 1:13PM
Second: Maria & Tiffany – 3:09PM
Third: Sam & Dan – 3:10PM
Fourth: Brian & Ericka – 3:25PM
Fifth: Gary & Matt – 3:34PM
Sixth: Herbert & Nathaniel – 4:20PM
Ericka realizes she yells a lot.
Having pretended they’re straight the whole time, Sam & Dan have an announcement to make to the rest of the teams: they’re gay. A lot of people don’t know this about them already. There’s about 10 million people watching this episode, though, so they know now. Maria & Tiffany plan to stick with them regardless of not having any dating prospects with them.
The next destination is Amsterdam, The Netherlands, more than 3000 miles away. The earliest flight leaves at midnight, which should result in some bunching. Good. Meghan & Cheyne were given too much of an advantage by that fast forward, and it shouldn’t have held for any longer.
Upon arrival, the first trick for Brian is to figure out how to put the car in drive. They eventually figure it out with the help of someone in the parking lot, but not before both he and Ericka are screaming at each other. Ericka warns him that he knows she has a short fuse.
Road block (in order of arrival): Meghan, Sam, Flight Time, Matt, Tiffany, Ericka
They will drive to Matrinitoren, the highest building in Gronigen. The road block is to climb the structure and count the bells. Counting tasks can try people’s patience. Meghan and Sam agree to work together. Ericka’s realizing she’s out of her comfort zone pretty quickly. To add to the difficulty level of the task, the bells start playing while they’re in there. Matt is right on his first try. Sam and Meghan are also correct. When he’s running down the stairs, Sam gives the number to Tiffany, saving her from actually having to count. Flight Time is also correct. Ericka, however, is way off, coming up with 43 instead of the correct 62. Then she guesses 56. Closer. 57. Well, she’ll get there eventually at this pace. After crying and taking a break for a while, she gets the correct answer.
From there, teams will drive to Vierhuizen de Marne, where they will find their next clue at a windmill. The detour is a choice between farmer’s game or farmer’s dance. In both detours, teams will dress up in traditional Dutch costumes and ride bicycles. In Farmer’s game, teams must find a creek, strip down to their underwear, and swim across. Then, they will play three holes of farmer’s golf. In farmer’s dance, teams will first have to hit the high striker, then they will perform a Dutch folk dance, and eat the salted herring and onions. For the all male teams, this means one of the guys has to be the girl. Maria, meanwhile, has to be the guy.
Farmer’s Game: Meghan & Cheyne, Sam & Dan, Gary & Matt (switched from dance after Matt read they have to eat herring), Maria & Tiffany (switched from dance to game back to dance back to game)
Farmer’s Dance: Flight Time & Big Easy, Brian & Ericka
Sam & Dan have no trouble. Meghan hates golf and will keep repeating it as long as the task progresses. Maria & Tiffany fail to realize that the high striker is probably not intended for women, while Matt doesn’t read the entire clue to realize he doesn’t like fish. Brian & Ericka also have some clue reading trouble: they’re supposed to be riding bikes. The Globetrotters, who have dance routines in their games, have no trouble with their task, and then they down the fish in about two seconds. Eventually, Maria & Tiffany realize they can’t do the golf either, so they switch back. After about 50 tries on the striker, they both start crying. Tiffany’s coming pretty close, but Maria is only bothering because they have to rotate. After walking and killing their feet, Brian & Ericka have finally read their clue. They’re supposed to be riding bikes. Somehow, this is all Brian’s fault. Back to Maria & Tiffany. After about 70 tries, they decide to switch back again. Then we see Brian & Ericka finally have figured out what they’re supposed to be doing, and they get through the dancing pretty easily. Maria & Tiffany are now at their 16th attempt in golf. I give them credit for not giving up. Because Brian & Ericka failed to ride a bicycle to the detour (and then borrowed someone’s bikes to get to the pit stop), they have incurred a 30 minute penalty. Brian wants to just stay calm, while Ericka has another breakdown. It does not end up mattering because the girls are still back at the golf challenge.
As the girls are discussing how hopeless things seem, Phil marches his way out on to the course. That’s bad news.
The pit stop for this leg of the race is Zoutkamp Harbor, which teams will have to ride their bicycles to get to.
First: Sam & Dan (win sand buggies)
Second: Meghan & Cheyne
Third: Herbert & Nathaniel
Fourth: Gary & Matt
Fifth: Brian & Ericka
Eliminated: Maria & Tiffany
Having reached a challenge they are unable to complete, Maria & Tiffany have been eliminated from the race. Unlike Mika last week, where she just quit without even trying, at least they made a strong effort at getting this done, but were just physically incapable of doing so.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 15 Episode 8 I’ve Ever Done in my Life (Sweden), which airs Sunday at 8/7cish CBS.