Mar 10, 2011, Ep 3: Lost in Translation

The Amazing Race 18 Secret Scenes, Episode 3:  Lost in Translation

Whether it’s Phil doing his best to communicate with his Japanese Pit Stop girls, the Southern teams trying to explain “frog-gigging” or Cara’s ability to deal with Jaime (pictured), these clips show that the teams truly did have a rough leg this week.  We also bid a final adieu to the amazing Mel & Mike and find out if they ever ended up finding that frog.  Read on for all the kiru details!

At the Pit Stop

Featured Team: Mel & Mike (last place)

A Strong Finish:  Under the pouring rain, Phil commends Mike for his efforts at the mud Detour.  He realizes that it sounds ludicrous that they’re talking about jumping in mud pits and looking for frogs, although it turns out Mel & Mike never found a frog.  You can see the disappointment in Mike’s face because it’s quite obvious he’s still bummed.  Mike tells Phil that he loves everything about The Amazing Race but this wasn’t the way he wanted to go out.  It had started as an adventure but after running it twice, it was clear that the important thing was spending time with his dad.  He can’t believe how good Mel did considering he is 70 and other teams are much younger.  Mel admits he’s very lucky to have a son like Mike.

Featured Team: Jaime & Cara (ninth place)

Redheads Still Racing:  Phil asks Jaime & Cara if they can believe that even though they messed up, someone else messed up too.  Cara asks who it was but both Phil and Jaime conclude it doesn’t matter.  Jaime looks massively relieved and she admits that there was a huge sense of relief to finally being done with the day, even if it had resulted in their elimination.  Phil asks if they’re able to still go on as he’s definitely seen them look more glamorous than they appear now.  Jaime laughs and realizes they have a chance to redeem themselves.  Cara is speechless so Phil thinks now is a good time for them to hug each other.  Oh Phil, always the team builder.  Cara senses that Phil is lonely and offers to give him a muddy hug too but Phil politely declines.  He is happy to tell them despite a horrendous day and the disastrous state of their hair, they’re still in the race.

Featured Team: Kent & Vyxsin (seventh place)

Memories for Kent:  Phil commisserates with Kent & Vyxsin on the rough day they had today.  Kent is reminded of the first day that they met Phil as it was also a muddy day then but in Amsterdam.  Back then they had to pole vault over an irrigation ditch, which doesn’t even compare to what they had to do today.  Vyxsin found the entire leg extremely grueling as there was a huge amount of driving (on the “wrong” side of the road) and difficulties navigating.  She actually was glad to see the challenges as that meant it was time to finally get out of the car.

Kent tells Phil that the leg started stress-fully during the ticket conundrum.  They had been very happy to get that 15-minute advantage but when the connecting flight to Tokyo got delayed by two hours, that stress weighed down on them immensely.  You can’t be two hours behind some of the teams they’re racing against.  Nevertheless Vyxsin is still happy with two seventh-place finishes, at least until there’s only eight teams left.  Both Kent & Vyxsin just want to stay consistent and think that will lead to their success.  Vyxsin is stoked that despite multiple hour-long setbacks, they’re still doing relatively well.  She’s excited to one day have a flight that lands on time.

Featured Team: Jet & Cord (sixth place)

Cowboys in Japan:  Phil asks the female Japanese greeters what they think of these rugged American cowboys.  Phil, who has decided to play matchmaker, suggests that Jet & Cord take these two women out for sushi, although I’m pretty sure that Cord is married.  Cord thinks sushi sounds great as they are famished and saw so many great restaurants during the leg.  Phil gestures to the cowboy hats and asks the women if they think Jet & Cord are handsome. He then points to their belt buckles and Jet & Cord instinctively reach for them to show them off but the women cry out as I think they believe that they are about to be treated to a little bit more than a view of belt buckles.  Then they see that they’re looking at the buckles only and murmur appreciatively.

Phil keeps trying to talk to the women and it’s quite clear that they really aren’t fluent in English.  But they nod knowingly to whatever Phil says.  Concerning their sixth place finish, Jet & Cord admit that they got lost quite a lot today.  Phil asks if they’ve hunted frogs before and Cord tells him that of course they’ve gone “frog-gigging.”  Phil is suddenly interested in this new phenomenon of frog-gigging and asks what that means.  Cord explains that it’s about hunting frogs by attracting them to the light and then catching them on a spike.  After that, you fry and eat them.  Phil asks the women if they have eaten frog legs.  After receving her blank stare of incomprehension, Phil, Jet & Cord all try to mimic a frog’s bounce.  Phil gets help from a crew member for the right word, which is kiru, I think.  When they realize that Jet & Cord like to eat kiru, they are highly amused. 

Cord tells Phil that they are still motivated to be on the race as there’s always the mystery of what is going to happen on the next leg.  That mystery drives him to want to get to the next leg so they can keep having new experiences.  Jet plainly thinks that sixth place is much better than tenth.  Phil and Cord agree.

Featured Team: Gary & Mallory ()

Phil Gets a Lesson:  Gary & Mallory reveal to Phil that they used to hunt frogs at home too (just like Jet & Cord).  Mallory tells Phil you blind the frogs with a light first and that some people gig them, motioning with her hand in a Psycho knife gesture.  I admit I’ve never heard of gigging before today.  Phil is also confused by gigging and Mallory tells him it’s a brutal way to kill a frog with a three-pronged spear.  Diving through the mud definitely felt a little like being at home, frog-gigging.  Phil is impressed how clean they are but Mallory tells him that just like when frog-gigging, you had to hose off before coming into the house.  Phil realizes that Mallory is not your typical Miss America contestant.

Featured Team: Zev & Justin (first place)

On Top Again:  Phil asks Zev & Justin what their experience has been like interacting with the other teams on the race so far.  Zev can’t recall seeing much of the other teams this leg, but they did race with Gary & Mallory a little bit today.  Zev & Justin are both fans of them.  They had a nice dinner on the train with Jet & Cord a few nights ago.  Phil asks if Zev has scoped out any hot babes (his words, not mine!) but Zev tells Phil he’s focused on the race.  Justin reminds Zev that in the rock Detour from the last leg he did suggest Jaime take her shirt off.  Zev insists he was merely giving her advice on how to carry more rocks.  He also figures if she had taken her shirt off, some of the other less-focused boys would have been distracted.

Phil wonders if Zev & Justin think they have a lot to prove this time on the race.  Justin thinks they do but Zev thinks they already have proven a lot.  Justin agrees that with their strong performance thus far they’re sending a strong message to the other teams that they’re not messing around.  There will be no forgotten passports this time. 

Extra Race Footage

Featured Team: Mel & Mike

Ulterior Motives:  Mike is well aware that Margie & Luke want to keep them in the race because they believe they can beat them.  Mike doesn’t care if that’s the case as he’ll happily take that help.  Mel is certain that all the teams there would love to race against them when it’s down to the final three.  Mike is amused how Margie & Luke can be super-supportive one moment but all “shark eyes” on the road when they’re trying to get ahead of you.  It depends on what time of the day you run into them.

Featured Team: Margie & Luke

Margie Gives Up:  Margie admits that she’s not used to being in the backseat as a passenger of the car.  She knows that Luke wants to drive and as teammates, she’s going to give him that chance.  Margie isn’t sure that Luke understands that it’s kind of rude to beep the horn every time you pass someone.  When Luke was driving in Broken Hill, Australia, Margie admits she was not nice to Luke at all so she’s going to be on her best behavior now.  She wasn’t freaking out about his driving skills but she just didn’t like giving up the control of driving.  Even now she has to sit on her hands to keep herself from taking over.

Featured Team: Zev & Justin

Small Target on Their Backs:  Zev thinks the other teams consider them a threat as they were the first team off the plane in Sydney and finishing that leg in first place.  Yet because Zev does some strange art projects (like making a rice ball out of the food they were eating), Justin thinks that the teams are still willing to write them off as a fluke.  Zev wisely notes that they’re not a hardcore serious team out to win.  They’re a fun team and the other teams are excited and glad to see them.  Justin bets that if they finish this leg in first, the target will be firmly on their backs.  Zev even thinks it could be a U-Turn sized target.  Everyone might start to wise up to the force that is Zev & Justin.

Featured Team: Ron & Christina

Ron & Christina’s Day Out:   On the embankment in front of the Sydney Opera House, Ron & Christina gaze out at the harbor under a beautiful blue sky.  Ron thanks Christina for coming out on the race as they can spend this time together before she gets married.  She reassures him that they’ll still spend time together.  Ron asks her to have plenty of kids, which she responds to with an “oh, daddy!”   A little later, they’re at a park and Christina is laying in the grass and telling Ron that they can’t be complacent.  It’s a little ironic that they say this while lounging around Sydney’s beautiful outdoor areas.

Ron agrees that they have to be on their A-Plus game.  He doesn’t want to lose the progress they’ve made in their communication skills and Christina assures him that they won’t.  As long as he continues to do what he’s been doing lately, they’ll be fine.  Ron is concerned that they’ll be on a high with their assumed advantage in going to Asia and possibly being able to communicate easier than the others.  She thinks they can be cautiously optimistic, yet refrain from being cocky.  As he gazes out over the water, Ron tells Christina that he wants to bring her mom back her and suggests that she bring her fiancee back as well.  This train of thought makes Ron sleepy and he decides it’s a good time to take a nap.  Yay for no complacency!

Featured Team: Ron & Christina, Flight Time & Big Easy

Downloading Their Day:  Ron & Christina tell the Globetrotters about spending the afternoon at the Sydney Opera House and the Botanical Gardens.  Christina was confident that the direct flight they were on was obviously the better one as it didn’t have any connections.  The Globetrotters respect that Ron & Christina took some time to actually enjoy the area.  Ron is disappointed that he didn’t get to have a Fosters beer though, as Christina has put them on a budget.  Big Easy is astonished that even though Ron took his daughter out to sightsee, she wouldn’t let him have a beer.

Featured Team: Jaime & Cara

Biting Her Tongue:  I thought maybe this was about Jaime and of course that was a wrong assumption!  We’re actually back at the scene of the “crime” as in the background, Jaime is talking to the Japanese cops while Cara is talking to us.  Cara has learned that dealing with a stressed-out Jaime is between jumping in front of the Jaime-train or not.  You can wait it out and when it’s over, then approach her and see if she’s ready to continue moving forward.  Cara tells us that she’s not like this at all in her daily life, but for the sake of team harmony, appeasing Jaime is the smarter option.  Jaime is well aware that Cara does this and that’s why she races with Cara as most any other people racing with Jaime would end up in a Jaime-train wreck.

Featured Team: Jaime & Cara

Dividing Tasks:  As Jaime & Cara head to the Roadblock, they try to figure out who will do it.  Jaime figures that since Cara doesn’t have a gag reflex, which causes Cara to look blushingly at the camera, that she’ll do it if it’s an eating challenge.  Jaime remembers well from their previous outing that in China, Cara handily ate the fried starfish, larvae, and scorpion platter with no problems.  Jaime was both repulsed and impressed by Cara’s performance then.  Back to the conversation at hand, Jaime doesn’t want Cara to have to do two Roadblocks in a row as they’re trying to keep it even.  But if it’s an eating challenge, there’s really no question that Cara should do it.  Yet, Jaime admits that she’d eat a small child at this point if need be. What?

Featured Team: Jet & Cord

Diving in Head First:  As Jet & Cord drive away from the muddy Detour, Jet tells us that he excitedly jumped head first into the mud but the goggles flew right off unfortunately.  That meant that Jet had to do the whole challenge without goggles so now he has mud in his eyes still.  Jet is just relieved that Cord ended up finding the frog.  Cord tells us that while they followed Margie & Luke to the Detour, they finished quicker than them but Margie & Luke had the map.  Now Jet & Cord have to quickly figure out how to get to the Pit Stop first.  Jet thinks Margie wasn’t happy about having to play in the mud in their mud outfits.  Cord didn’t even notice but if Margie only got to wear what he was wearing, he’d understand her feelings.  Jet won’t let Cord get down on himself as he thinks Cord really pulled the outfit off.  Ha!

Featured Team: Jet & Cord

A Better Way to Navigate:  Cord feels a lot of pressure being the current navigator for their team.  He thinks he knows where they are generally, but the turns are tricky.  General landscape features given him clues as to where they are though.  Cord thinks it would be a lot easier if they could just get on a horse and ride south.  But there are these loops that will take you in the opposite direction at least initially.  Riding on horseback would be much easier and simpler as he can tell that they just need to follow the shoreline to a certain point, turn west and then ride on towards the sun.  Sounds very Larry McMurtry.  Perhaps there will be The Amazing Little House on the Prairie Race one day.

Featured Team: Gary & Mallory

Gary, Archery Master:  Gary is encouraged by what the tollbooth attendant in Japan gestured when referring to the dojo: a bow & arrow.  Gary’s happy because he is quite adept at using a bow & arrow.  If he wasn’t on the race at the moment, he actually would be out bow-hunting this weekend.  Gary figures he won’t be shooting a compound bow with sights, but rather an instinct bow.  I’ve learned so much just typing that sentence.  Either way Gary is set as he has shot from lions to caribou with a bow & arrow.  Even bears!  Archery hunting is just something he enjoys.  That seems more “fair” or natural than using a rifle or gun when hunting, at least to me.

Featured Team: Gary & Mallory, Ron & Christina

Not Getting It:  Ron can’t figure out how people would choose to take a flight with connections when the benefit is only 15 minutes.  If it was three hours, he could see the temptation, but not for just 15 minutes.  Mallory & Christina agree and wonder if there’s somehow a better flight from Hong Kong that they just don’t know about.  Gary reassures them that isn’t the case as flights are prevented from leaving earlier than a certain time.  That just leaves them all confused as to why anyone would choose a connecting flight.

Christina tells Mallory that she had no doubts about their flight choice and even went touring around Sydney.  Mallory asks if Ron & Christina are familiar with Tokyo.  Christina has lived in Hong Kong and Ron used to visit Tokyo for work once or twice a year but that was eight years ago.  He tries to explain to them (and us) how the Tokyo numbering system works but frankly I don’t get it.  Something about how it’s based on the Byzantine system.  I’m still lost.

After the Race

Featured Team: Kisha & Jen

Funeral Crashers:  Kisha explains that they had been given directions to go to a T-intersection and then make a right.  Unfortunately, the Japanese interpretation is different and instead of one street dead-ending into another, the street they were on continued on, which led them right into a memorial service.  Neither of them realized what was going on until after asking for help and being asked to step aside.  Kisha & Jen then saw the picture of the deceased and realized what they had stumbled upon.  It’s obvious by Jen’s face during this that she is still ashamed and embarrassed by what happened.  They both realize a little bit more self-awareness is in order.

Phil’s Video Diary

Episode 3 – Narita, Japan:  After flying all night from Sydney, Phil is in a fairly spacious vehicle that has a table.  From his seat at that table, Phil tells us how much he loves Japan, including the people, the culture, and the design.  Some time later, Phil has arrived at the waterfall Detour.  He loves these times because it’s when you get the chance to see such tranquil and beautiful things.  He pauses just to take a moment and let the beauty sink in.  Afterward he explains that teams will have the choice to partake in the cleansing ritual under the waterfall which is currently filled with 45-degree water.  Ouch.  We then see the clip from the show that was filmed here with him explaining that Detour option.  I admit, I miss the Phil videos from a few seasons back when he’d show a lot more of the crew and preparation for the challenges.  These are a tad light on substance.

Hobie Barnes now lives in Santa Monica, California after enjoying the hectic Manhattan life for 3.5 years.  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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