Kent & Vyxsin’s atrocious performance for two days in a row proved to be irrelevant in The Amazing Race 18 Episode 5, as Jaime & Cara were eliminated following a road block that they struggled with.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Jet & Cord – 2:14PM
Second: Gary & Mallory – 2:16PM
Third: Margie & Luke – 2:48PM
Fourth: Kisha & Jen – 3:43PM
Fifth: Kent & Vyxsin – 3:52PM
Sixth: Flight Time & Big Easy – 3:59PM
Seventh: Ron & Christina – 4:09PM
Eighth: Zev & Justin – 4:10PM
We’re staying in China. Yeah, it’s like the Family Edition, in China. At Jin Fu Yi Zhan Tea Shop, teams will take place in a traditional tea tasting. What they are not told is that the tea they are drinking will appear during a challenge later in this leg. Zev says that stop was pointless.
After they are teased with some tea, they are told they will be flying 900 miles to Kolkata, India (what’s up with all these Indian cities changing their names?). Is that good news or bad? Everybody’s on the same flight, and they’re going to set up camp and wait until 10AM for the task to begin.
The road block brings us back to that tea tasting that’s not so pointless any more, or at least it seems somewhat less pointless. Kolkata is the place where Chinese tea comes to India and Indian tea goes to China. Their task will be to find the papaya mango tea amongst hundreds of cups.
Road block: Kent, Jet, Mallory, Luke, Flight Time, Kisha, Ron, Zev
Ron is very quickly correct, making it appear that perhaps this is not as difficult as it may have appeared. After 6 or 7 cups, Jet finally gets the trick: you have to smell the tea. Everybody else has an alternate strategy. They just keep drinking and hoping that they don’t get water intoxication. Zev seems to think smashing cups will help. By the time two teams are remaining, Flight Time says this is the hardest thing he’s ever done, but they made a pact they’re not going to lose by taking a penalty again. Once he gets it, Luke breaks down crying, as he still seems to cope with difficulty the same as he did the last time they raced.
Continuing with this trend, teams will now find the Tiward Tea Stall for their next clue, and they are told this on the caps of their bottles of tea. Jen & Kisha wander around trying to find the place where they make Snapple. This strategy gets them somewhat in the right area it seems. After more aimless wandering, they finally decide to open their tea. Lucky for them, they were the third ones out of the road block.
The detour is a choice between Hindu art or Bengali literature. In Hindu art, teams must paint, dress, and adorn a statue of a Hindu god. In Bengali literature, they will have to deliver 8 stacks of books in a rickshaw with the words “school van” by providing directions to their driver. Attention to detail task sounds easier than navigating a city of 15 million. The good news, however, is that India has the second largest English speaking population in the world, making it fairly easy to communicate with the locals.
Hindu art: Kent & Vyxsin, Ron & Christina, Kisha & Jen, Flight Time & Big Easy, Margie & Luke
Bengali literature: Gary & Mallory, Zev & Justin, Jet & Cord
Regardless of what happens here, it seems the road block has already determined the leg, although the delivery task proves to be much easier and will rearrange the order some.
The pit stop for this leg of the race is the Fountain of Joy.
First: Gary & Mallory (win 1 million rupees, or over $20,000)
Second: Jet & Cord
Third: Ron & Christina
Fourth: Zev & Justin
Fifth: Kent & Vyxsin
Sixth: Kisha & Jen
Seventh: Flight Time & Big Easy
Eliminated: Margie & Luke
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 18 Episode 7, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.