Oct 27, 2011, Ep 5: “Just Don’t Wanna Be Last”

The Amazing Race 19 Secret Scenes, Episode 5:  “Just Don’t Wanna Be Last”

One team is over the idea of shooting for the stars and is content to just not be last, while another team discovers if you can’t speak the language, play Pictionary!  Marcus (pictured) reveals his way to alleviate back pain, Jeremy & Sandy show that there’s always time for relationship drama, and a mini-alliance is forming between two teams where money and true identities are swapped with abandon!  Read on to find out more!

Extra Race Footage

Featured Teams:  Bill & Cathi

Amani & Marcus Help Out:  In a Bangkok cab, Cathi recalls how back at the bus terminal, she realized that they didn’t have enough money for the cab.  Cathi didn’t hesitate to ask Amani & Marcus for 20 dollars and happily for them, Amani immediately obliged.  Cathi thinks that shows how kind they are but at the same time, shows that Amani probably shouldn’t be so kind.  It turned out that she had misunderstood how much money the cab driver needed and could give that 20 bucks back, which she of course did.  That act just proved that Amani & Marcus are very kind folks.

Featured Team:  Ernie & Cindy

Not Their Finest Hour:  On their bus to Bangkok, Cindy tells us she’s never been more frustrated than when trying to pay their cab driver.  The exchange rate is 35 bhaat to a dollar so they did the math and gave the appropriate amount of dollars to pay their 4,500 bhaat taxi fare.  Ernie then talks about the woman who came out of the woodwork demanding they pay 150 dollars.  Neither of them know who she was.  Then the taxi driver wouldn’t leave and even with the money that Ernie put directly in his hand, it wasn’t enough until the mystery woman said so.  Both admit that wasn’t their finest hour.

Ernie admits that he is feeling just that much better as they both saw Laurence & Zac come into the bus terminal looking mightily disheveled.  He figured they were in the back of the pack and had a correspondingly bad mood, heightened by the frustrating cab fare incident and the mere minutes they had to buy bus tickets.  

Featured Team:  Ernie & Cindy

Ernie, the Artist:  A Bangkok cab driver is telling Ernie & Cindy something while she reiterates that this is a race and they need to go fast.  The cab driver hands them back the clue and nods affirmatively, but he then gestures with a writing motion for them to write it.  Cindy searches for a pen, finds it, then starts drawing something out of view.  Both she & Ernie start to laugh as Cindy is trying to draw that they are in a race and the need for speed.  After realizing that her drawings aren’t going to speak to anyone, she passes the notepad to Ernie.  Cindy gives suggestions as to what to draw and Ernie sets to work.  In a few moments, he’s drawn something and Cindy hands it to the cab driver.  It seems the message gets across as the driver affirms with an “okay.”  Cindy shows us the drawing but with the lighting, it’s impossible to see.

Featured Team:  Justin & Jennifer

Justin’s Instinct:  Waiting at some terminal in Bangkok, Justin tells us that they had hoped to get off the bus at a stop closer to their next route marker, but no one on the bus knew where it was they were supposed to go.  A guy they were talking to on the bus helped them out by looking up the destination on his phone and so they’re here at this location and it looks like it may be closer to where they need to go.  All the same, Justin really has no idea where he & Jennifer are in Bangkok though.  They both admit they’re hoping that the plan they’ve come up with pays off.  Despite all the expected obstacles of language barriers and navigational mistakes, Justin knows they have to just keep going.  The past few legs they’ve been working off of instinct and it’s worked for them, so they’re going to continue trusting in it.  They’ve got little other choice as this isn’t downtown Atlanta, it’s Bangkok.

At the Pit Stop

Featured Team:  Ernie & Cindy (third place)

Ernie & Cindy in Bangkok:  Phil asks Ernie & Cindy what is the lowest they’ve placed and it turns out that they’ve managed to stay always in the middle to top half of the pack.  Cindy explains that it was a tough leg and Ernie chimes in that it was stressful due to the traffic jam.  Apparently they had spent three hours just in traffic, at which point they finally got out of the cab.  Phil lets them know that the two teams ahead of them also had been relieved to find Phil as they had no idea where they were.  Cindy was certain they were last or second-to-last.

Now that they’ve run five legs, Phil asks what they think.  Cindy utters the never-old statement that the race is much harder than it seems.  She’s thrilled to be able to experience so many cultures and peoples, and Ernie is intrigued by being able to see old world areas within “new world” locales.  Phil points out exactly that dichotomy in Bangkok by gesturing to the temple versus the skyscraper we saw in the show.  

Ernie confesses to Phil that he doesn’t want to get eliminated as he wants to keep seeing what’s up next in the race.  He thought they might leave the Indonesia area this leg but since they haven’t, he knows it’s due and can’t wait to see where they go.  Cindy is more excited about doing the race as a team and to see how well they work as a couple.  So far, she’s happy with how they’ve done and thinks they’ve proven that they are compatible.  

Featured Team:  Justin & Jennifer (fourth place)

Justin & Jennifer Keep Improving:  Phil asks how the brother and sister are doing and Justin happily tells Phil that they are doing better each leg.  Communication is much better and the efficiency from that has helped.  Phil is curious how the team is breaking down responsibilities and Jennifer explains that both of them are doing a fair share of everything.  Both decipher maps, both will ask for directions, and both are even taking on the physical tasks.  Jennifer is proud that she took on the rock-climbing task in the last leg when they had originally set Justin to do those things.  It has come down to just each person taking turns and stepping up if one is having problems.

Phil has Jennifer give Justin a compliment and an improvement so she praises his strength so far on the race.  She tells Phil that she notices Justin gets anxious in cabs and she wishes that he would relax more as he may be wasting energy.  But that isn’t that big of an issue and even now no one is yelling at the other.  Phil is humorously saddened to hear that no one is yelling.  Justin’s appraisal of Jennifer is similar and praises their ability to compensate for the other when needed.  For an improvement, he thinks that they just need to be more diligent with their money and not throw cash at cabs just to be rid of them.  Overall, they’ve managed to work out the issues they experienced the first two legs and race smartly these last three legs.

Featured Team:  Andy & Tommy, Laurence & Zac (fifth place & sixth place, respectively)

No Worries for Andy & Tommy:  Phil points out that this was a leg where you ended up not having any clue where the other teams were, let alone where you are.  Tommy tells him that it was a disorienting leg especially once the bus arrived, as the three teams that were on it all scattered.  Andy tells Phil that he saw a very stressed out Jeremy & Sandy during the Bangkok portion and figures you can stress out or you can just keep moving and trust.  Phil asks him how he knows for sure that Jeremy & Sandy were stressing out.  Andy heard their conversations but also just knew, and starts laughing that he was just saying what he saw.

Phil asks how they feel about slipping down to fifth place.  Andy is cool with it and will happily take that ranking.  He recognizes that on a leg like this that is so dependent on travel and luck, this kind of placement shifting will happen.  Tommy is happy to still be in the game but figures that it was their bus ride that knocked their game off this leg.  If they had spent a little more time researching arrival times, they could have planned better.  Obviously he’s a little less “hang loose” than Andy!  

Laurence chimes in that one slip up can change everything.  He’s shooting for consistency and wanted to stay in the front of the pack.  Phil asks him if he thought the race was going to be a bit easier and more like a treasure hunt.  Laurence admits he thought it would be more tame but this race is hard and is pushing them to their limits.  Andy had anticipated the best and worst of experiences and so far the race has fulfilled both of those expectations.  Tommy thinks the race is analogous to non-stop life, where you’re always on and don’t have any chance to recuperate.

Featured Team:  Jeremy & Sandy (seventh place)

Never Say Never:  Phil asks if their still-in-the-race finish is a relief.  A visibly teary-eyed Sandy agrees it is, and exclaims that she doesn’t understand what went wrong this leg.  Phil reminds them that they can never assume that they’re out of the race until they hear it from his lips.  It’s meant to be motivational and he tells them the other teams assumed that they were ahead as they had been doing good the first half of the leg.  Sandy tearfully tells Phil they’ve been in the downtown area probably two and a half hours on foot.  Ouch.   Phil asks if they want to keep going and both happily say yes.  He jokes that he’ll eliminate them if they want.  Phil restates that the other teams have a high regard for them and they have the chance now to regroup.

Featured Team:  Liz & Marie (last place)

Twins End in Thailand:  Getting to the point, Phil asks Liz & Marie if this sucks.  Both quickly agree.  Phil points out that in this leg, they definitely had a chance to stay in as the other teams were in a constant state of flux.  The twins figured that was the case as there just didn’t seem to be any way for the other teams to have stayed in a constant placement especially here in Bangkok.  Liz & Marie admit they just couldn’t get it together this leg, especially since the last team they saw was Bill & Cathi at the elephant Detour.

Phil asks if they were upset by their own performance, and Liz & Marie tell him yes but they had been dwelling on their lot for most of the day already.  It’s not computing for Phil as they are still remarkably upbeat about everything.  Liz & Marie just knew they were in last place and tried everything they could to succeed and not give up.  They wish they could stay in the race and get one more leg.  Regardless, this has been one of the best experiences of their lives and no one can take that away from them.  The personal highlight for them was definitely the elephant, from washing it to shoveling elephant poop.  Phil is a little surprised but you can tell they mean every word.   

After the Race

Featured Team:  Jeremy & Sandy

A New Game Plan:  Jeremy thinks that they got along very well this leg as they managed to not piss the other one off.  Even with as bad a day as it was, they were both very careful in their communication with each other.  If they want to succeed and get ahead, Jeremy knows they just need to break off from the pack and get in front.  Getting a first place finish was his goal today and Sandy immediately laughs as it seems he set his goals a tad too high.  Jeremy disagrees, and the dysfunctional sniping begins again!

Jeremy protests that he’s going to shoot for a first place finish again on the next leg and Sandy insists that she’s definitely not.  Her goal is only to not finish last, and what does Jeremy think of that?  His perma-grin never leaves his face during this interview and it is apparent there is so much he wants to say.  Sandy explains that first place would be great but it just doesn’t seem likely for them.  Way to aim high!  She rationalizes that there’s a huge amount of leeway shooting for just not being last compared to not coming in first.  

Featured Team:  Laurence & Zac

First Class Fiasco:  Laurence tells us that they had just missed the 5:30 bus by seconds after coming back to the bus station when they got off their first-class bus.  The next bus didn’t leave until 8:00 and during that time they didn’t see another team.  Zac elaborates how stressful two hours of not seeing another team is and the fact that such a time difference can seal your elimination.  Laurence was preparing for their elimination this leg and had even started working on his farewell speech.

On the bus ride in, Zac had tried to talk to the other travelers on the bus but no one spoke English.  When they arrived in town, they still had no idea where to go.  It worked out though as they arrived sixth and just a minute behind Andy & Tommy.  Laurence explains that when they got to the bus station, they found someone who could translate and asked that person to write down their clue in the local language so it could be shown to a taxi driver.  After the fish feeding, they found another translator to get directions for their driver.  This time though, it felt like the driver was going forever on a joy ride, but he got them right to the Pit Stop.  That’s when they saw Andy & Tommy’s taxi pull up too.  

Featured Team:  Andy & Tommy

Getting to Know Jeremy & Sandy:  Tommy considers Jeremy & Sandy a very solid team but it seems those two are still getting to know each other and work some stuff out.  He thinks they’re a cool couple and it was fun to talk to them and get to know them better on the bus to Bangkok.  Andy agrees and that this experience is surely a fast-track way to accelerate a relationship.  He knows that Jeremy & Sandy have both been through divorces and learned plenty from those experiences.  It’s similar to how both teams also are trying to learn from their mistakes on the race.

Andy knows that there are a lot of things that can test a relationship, the race being one of them.  If a relationship can make it through something this intense, it can probably be a strong relationship.  Tommy definitely agrees that if as a couple you can withstand the race, you’re doing pretty good.  He knows that it would be very difficult to do some of the previous legs with his own wife.  

Featured Team:  Bill & Cathi

Bill Reacts:  Referring to a scene we saw in last week’s secret scenes, Bill tells us about Marcus’ revelation that he is a former NFL player.  It’s both scary and cool to Bill that Marcus is taking on the race with his wife.  He & Cathi have discussed that and realized that they are definitely amongst a tough group of competitors.  They’re especially happy that they’re hanging with them. Bill isn’t sure if Marcus disclosed it to anyone else but knows what Marcus told him, which is that he discussed it with Amani first and she was fine with Marcus revealing his true background.  Cathi tells us that she had admitted to Amani previously that when she & Bill were guessing everyone’s occupation, they had guessed Marcus to be an NFL quarterback. Amani had just responded with a “that’s interesting” and smiled, which Cathi finds funny now.

Featured Team:  Liz & Marie

Twins Learned a Lot:  Liz is happy with their run and thinks they did the best they could.  Both learned a lot about the other, including strengths and weaknesses.  Marie adds that they had never traveled anywhere either, so they also got the chance to learn about the world and how others live their lives.  Marie realizes that the experience brought out a ton of emotions, from the highs to the lows.  The competition requires you put everything into it and each morning you wake up with the mindset that this is the day.

They think about their dad and admit it’s still a hard thing to do.  We flash forward a bit and now both twins have tears in their eyes.  They are sure that their dad was with them and is probably saying that he can’t believe they actually did it.  Liz explains that their dad would remind them after accomplishing something that others can’t take that away from them.  Never forget that and remember it when encountering other experiences later in life.  You’ve done a lot and no one can take that away from you.   

Featured Team:  Marcus & Amani

Marcus’ Long Bus Ride: Marcus tells us that his back is sore because of the long ride in the taxi wagon to the bus terminal.  While at the terminal, he was in agony already and only had a small bench to sit on until the bus left.  Once on the bus, it wasn’t any better and eventually realized that he had to lie on the floor.  For most of the bus ride he was on the floor in the hopes of his back straightening out.

Amani wants us to know exactly how he was laying on the floor, and the video cuts to footage from their bus ride.  They were in the front row of the second deck of the bus, so Marcus was able to have his head at Amani’s feet and then lay across the aisle and have his feet spread-eagle on the front and side walls of the cabin.  

I have no idea how he slept like that, but he looks passed out in the video!  Marcus tells us that the closest bus-mates were two friendly ladies who didn’t mind that he was sprawled out and his smelly socks were hanging for everyone to enjoy.  He explains that when he elevates his feet like he did, that helps calm his back down.  As a current sufferer of sciatic nerve issues, I know a solidly straight back works wonders to alleviate the pain!

Hobie Barnes lives in Santa Monica, California after enjoying the hectic Manhattan life for 3 or so years.  He just got back from traveling in Turkey, Italy & Greece and can’t wait to see if the places he visited end up on this season of the race.  When not busy fighting the 405 and 101 freeways on the commute to Burbank, he is patiently waiting for an Amazing Race or Survivor scout to cast him!  He can be reached at <a href=”mailto:hobiewan76@gmail.com”>hobiewan76@gmail.com</a>.

 

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