Nobody was eliminated in The Amazing Race 18 Episode 4, and as such Kent & Vyxsin were unable to be put out of their misery just yet.
Returning to where we left off, Kent & Vyxsin have just realized that their fanny pack containing their passports, without which they cannot proceed, is missing. Somebody turned the pack in, so they are now free to begin racing again, still behind the rest of the pack.
In spite of all the drama, including a 1 week cliffhanger, all teams are now together. The earliest (and only) train departs at 7PM, and everybody will be on that. However, because they “chose” to take an alternate flight (chose meaning had no other choice because they were too incompetent to get to the airport in time), they will incur a 30 minute penalty at the next pit stop. They plan to not tell anybody about this penalty, but it would not be hard to guess. For that matter, Ron & Christina should be getting one, too, since they didn’t take a bus as instructed.
Once in Kunming, teams head for their first clue, which tells them they must travel by taxi to the Golden Horse and Jade Cock Memorial Archways (aka The Golden Arches, not to be confused with McDonald’s). Jet & Cord end up taking somebody’s taxi, which we later find out was the Globetrotters.
Zev & Justin aren’t even trying to keep it a secret that they’re following Ron & Christina.
The detour is a choice between honor the past and embrace the future. In honor the past, they must watch a traditional Tibetan performance, testing their powers of perception and memory, placing a set of 15 dolls in the order in which the characters appeared on stage. In embrace the future, teams must offload a complete solar water heating system, carry it to the roof of a building, and properly install it.
Honor the past: Ron & Christina, Zev & Justin, Kisha & Jen, Gary & Mallory
Embrace the future: Margie & Luke, Flight Time & Big Easy, Jaime & Cara, Kent & Vyxsin, Jet & Cord
Zev & Justin are wrong on their first guess. Ron & Christina are as well. Zev & Justin, however, are correct on their second guess, and it would seem that they have picked a fairly simple task. Kisha & Jen finish behind them. Both teams just wait for Ron & Christina to finish, since they know where they’re going. Although the other task does not seem particularly difficult either, it will be more physically demanding.
The Chinese Minority Heritage Center is their next stop, and they must locate it based on a photo. A double U-turn is ahead. Zev & Justin and Kisha & Jen find out that following somebody who speaks the language does not necessarily guarantee success, seeing as all three teams have now gone to the wrong place.
Margie & Luke decide not to U-turn. Jet & Cord make the same decision. Kent and Jaime arrive at the U-turn mat at the same time. Pretending he’s going to make an alternate decision and ignoring the advice of the three women behind him, Kent decides to U-turn Jaime & Cara, rather than the Globetrotters. This just seems to be U-turning for the sake of U-turning, and should not have much impact other than to bump the girls down a couple spots. Jaime & Cara decide to U-turn the Globetrotters before heading off to do the other detour. The Globetrotters are currently in last place, so this additional task will only add to that.
Zev & Justin have opted to break away from Ron & Christina, so now they are lost, with Gary & Mallory blindly following them.
The next stop is the Stone Forest. The road block is to put together a life size dinosaur based on a diagram. They must make sure it is built safely to avoid being rejected.
Road block (in order of arrival): Kisha, Christina, Margie, Kent, Jet, Big Easy, Jaime, Justin, Gary
Upon arriving at the road block, Vixsyin admits they have a penalty. They just “fudged around the truth” when they told their story about not knowing whether they were going to get a penalty.
Realizing they are in last place, Gary & Mallory use their express pass, which advances them to first place. However, since their cab has left, Jet & Cord are able to overtake them.
Slowly but surely the teams start to finish. Kent & Vyxsin are in the middle of the pack and seem like they will be okay. Then Flight Time & Big Easy try to see how obnoxiously loud they can celebrate not coming in last.
The pit stop for this leg of the race is Green Lake Park in Kunming.
First: Jet & Cord (win $5,000 each)
Second: Gary & Mallory
Third: Margie & Luke
Fourth: Kisha & Jen
Fifth: Kent & Vyxsin
Sixth: Flight Time & Big Easy
Seventh: Ron & Christina
Eighth: Zev & Justin
Eliminated: Jaime & Cara
Whatever happened the rest of the leg or last week for that matter doesn’t matter. It all comes down to Jaime’s struggles on the road block. While I don’t care for Jaime & Cara, Kent & Vyxsin shouldn’t be in this race any more.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 18 Episode 6, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.