The Amazing Race recap: 'Another One Bites the Dust' and 'Have Faith in Me, Broski'

Thanks to an extra hour of The Amazing Race, we get to experience two times the amount of bickering, double the drama, and twice as many examples of how Becca and Floyd have more joy than all the trolls in Norway.

Before our teams travel to the Scandinavian country, they have to find the Mercery House in Zanzibar. It’s the home of Farrokh Bulsara, also known as Freddie Mercury. It’s there they will try to dominate the DETOUR so they can declare, “We are the champions!” instead of, “Another one bites the dust.”

Google it.

It’s LOCK or KNOCK time. Teams can either navigate a confusing maze of alleyways looking for three royal doors, or try to find a key inside a bunch of wooden chests. Sounds easy, right? This is The Amazing Race. Of course it’s not easy.

Most of the teams choose the lock DETOUR. Hundreds of chests stacked on top of each other, with no clue in sight, makes everyone on edge. Joey and Tara can’t take it, so they leave to go knocking. Vanck and Ashton, as well as Sara and Shamir, are already tackling the doors.

Over in Hell (Brooke’s nickname, not mine), Mike quickly figures out that there is a secret section behind the bottom drawer of all the chests. He whispers to Liz, who immediately finds a key, which leads to a locked chest with a clue. Everyone else, including Matt and Redmond, stare in amazement, wondering if these leg leaders dabbled in witchcraft to conjure up a clue.

Mike and Liz are officially in the lead. It’s time to leave Zanzibar and head back to a metal shop on the mainland of Tanzania. While they figure out the ferry system, Brooke realizes that there’s a secret compartment in all of the chests. She finds a key with a scorpion keychain and tries the nearest scorpion lock. It does not work. Then her partner Scott finds another scorpion key. It does work in the lock. For some odd reason, he gives his second key to Becca. Hello, future favor.

While everyone is checking locks and knocking on doors, The Boys secure a key and the second place slot. They are followed by all of the other key people, except Logan and London. Team LoLo quickly gives up and heads for the knocking DETOUR. Luckily, they run into someone who tells them where all three royal doors are located. London bebops down the alleyway from royal door to royal door, collecting clues.

Where are Shamir and Sara, you ask? Well, they are going in circles and arguing. Everyone else is on the ferry boat to Tanzania, and these arch nemeses are trying not to punch each other in the throat. Their fun meter is non-existent. When they finally find all the clues, they have to wait for the next ferry.

Everyone else races to the metal place, where they face a ROAD BLOCK. Contestants have to cut, punch, and pound metal into a cooking utensil and hope it passes as a noodle strainer at the end of the day. Vanck, Becca, Redmond, Mike, Joey, and Brooke scramble in while the others wait outside. Five out of the six have fun and appreciate the skills of their local instructor. Guess which one whines about not being strong enough? Guess who just can’t even? Or, more accurately, guess who just can’t and starts crying because her jack wagon partner nominated her for a very hard task? Spoiler: It’s not Becca.

Brooke makes her way outside to ask Scott to give her a pep talk. When she goes back in, Becca helps her cut the metal. FAVOR REDEEMED! Redmond teaches her how to pound metal with a hammer. Then Mike cheers her on. The hullabaloo stops when everyone else finishes their strainer and passes the noodle test. All bets are off when a PIT STOP is involved. Especially when that PIT STOP is Coco Beach.

RANKINGS:
1. Tara and Joey — Ditching the locks for knocks was a wise decision since they are now $5,000 richer. (P.S. I love how Joey told Phil that he looked sharp.)

2. Becca and Floyd — Did Scott make a mistake by giving them a key?

3. Mike and Liz — They tell Phil they never fight. This is what we call foreshadowing.

4. Matt and Redmond — These guys haven’t been in first in a long time, and they are ticked.

5. Logan and London — I want them to date.

6. Vanck and Ashton — Doors are hard.

7. Brooke and Scott — Brooke melts down when she hears they are the final team. I hope she gets to keep her strainer.

Shamir and Sara are so far behind that Phil has to find them in the metal shop and tell them to hang it up. Shamir is mad. But that’s okay. Sara is proud of what they accomplished. She will remember all of their experiences. Like that time Shamir got his junk caught in a harness and the time they couldn’t find royal doors.

It’s leg 4, and the contestants have to travel to a lighthouse in Norway to get their next clue. Everyone is on the same flight. None are excited at the possibility of meeting Elsa and Anna. Weird.

Once they land and take in all the glory of the beautiful fjords, everyone races to the lighthouse, where they meet a guy who serves them what looks like raw rockfish. Becca and Floyd chug it like college kids on Spring Break. So does Scott. Brooke, on the other hand, has to perform major breathing exercises and some sort of yoga in order to eat the fish. This annoys Scott. He has every right to be irritated.

Becca and Floyd get the FAST FORWARD and jump in a helicopter to an unknown destination. Scott watches, thinking that could have been his helicopter. Bummer. Instead, he and the others try not to puke as they rush back to their cars so they can drive to the village of Slinningsbalet, where the ROAD BLOCK is located.

Slinningsbalet (easy for me to say) has this big huge bonfire that the locals build every year. It’s made with 31,000 wooden pallets stacked 13 stories high. One person must climb up, nail a pallet to the top, and climb back down. Joey and Matt start at the same time. Matt channels his inner Spider-Man and scales the tower with zero effort. Everyone is in awe, including the Norwegian bonfire builders. He climbs back down before Joey makes it all the way up. Ashton is next, along with Scott, who, as you may recall, has a major fear of heights. This makes perfect sense. London and Liz arrive last and begin to scramble their way up.

Matt and Redmond are the first to DETOUR. They can either look for five trolls all around the village and recite a poem to free the trolls in order to collect rockets, or they can kayak through a canal looking for red and yellow lures at the end of fishing poles. Even though I have a soft spot in my heart for Justin Timberlake and all his troll friends, it seems that the fishing expedition requires a lot less work. Matt agrees with me. So do Joey and Tara.

Matt and Redmond have a hard time finding the correct lure. Joey finds it immediately, but Tara isn’t sure that they have the correct clue because she doesn’t understand what “Aksla” means. She makes a big mistake by asking The Boys to confirm. They have the wrong lure and wouldn’t have known any different if Joey hadn’t shown them his correct clue. The one that he is holding in his mouth for safe keeping. That seems odd, but we’ll go with it. Then Joey, who previously found two clues, tells them where to locate the other one.

Are these contestants nice, or what?

Tara quickly realizes that all they have to do is ask someone on the street what “Aksla” means. They paddle to the shore, with The Boys hot on their heels.

In other news, everyone else is following a map that leads them to women dressed as trolls. After reciting a poem, those trolls give them huge firecrackers which they have to take back to another lady. Vanck and Ashton use their car. The other teams don’t. The verdict is back and forth on whether this is a good idea, but it does help them in the end when they have to essentially climb a very large hill to get to the elusive Mount Aksla, where Phil stands at the PIT STOP.

Do you know who isn’t thinking about a PIT STOP? Becca and Floyd. They are currently sky diving, having the time of their lives. The fun meter has officially busted on these two.

RANKINGS:
1. Tara and Joey — First place two weeks in a row!

2. Matt and Redmond — They can almost taste victory.

3. Becca and Floyd — These two crazy kids are floored that they didn’t get first place with their fast forward.

4. Vank and Ashton — Driving worked!

5. London and Logan — I still want them to date.

6. Brooke and Scott — She yelled at him as he conquered his fear. They are best buds.

7. Liz and Mike — Mike doesn’t want to climb all those stairs, so he suggests they take the car. This turned out to be a very bad decision. They ended up having to climb the stairs anyway. All 420 of them. They get into a very big fight once Phil announces that they are the last to arrive. Spirits do not lift when he gives them their next clue. They are not eliminated, but the name calling continues. It makes me and the little Norwegian boy playing the violin very uncomfortable.

Will they give up? Is this partnership over? Are The Boys ever going to be in first place? Do you want Team LoLo to date? Tell me they don’t look cute together.