Recap: The Amazing Race (24) All-Stars 2, Episode 9 – "You have to figure it out!"


Recap: The Amazing Race (24) All-Stars 2, Episode 9 – “Accidental Alliance”

It’s 6:13am and Brendon & Rachel open the first clue telling them to take a train to Chiasso, Switzerland. More than an hour later, the Cowboys depart the Pit Stop and say they want no part of the drama that seems to brewing.

Leo & Jamal say they’d prefer to be in the Final 3 with Dave & Connor and Caroline & Jen because they’d have a better chance against them than Brenchel or the Cowboys.

Dave & Connor and Caroline & Jen are attached at the hip as they leave the Pit Stop. Neither are sure why in the world Brendon & Rachel would U-Turn them. Especially with Connor’s great hair.

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Brendon & Rachel get to the station and get tickets on a train that leaves in 15 minutes. They hope they are the only ones, but Leo & Jamal, Dave & Connor and Caroline & Jen manage to catch it. Jet & Cord, who get lost on the way to the station, are left behind.

On the train ride, Dave & Connor and Caroline & Jen decide to make fun of Rachel and Leo proposes a final three alliance between them. Serves Brenchel right for U-Turning their “dad.”

Once in Chiasso, teams will hop into a brand new Ford Focus and drive to the Tell Monument in Altdorf. Caroline & Jennifer are happy there are boys to follow as they are always good with directions.

There’s some sort of festival happening as teams arrive at the monument where they see they have to wait until sunrise to receive their clue from Wilhelm Tell. The anti-Brenchel alliance laughs at Brendon & Rachel not finding the monument immediately and they decide to call themselves the Accidental Alliance.

Next morning, Jet & Cord have joined them and the five teams wait for Wilhelm Tell and his son who hand them the next clue telling them to drive to Lucerne for their next clue at the oldest bridge in Europe, the Chapel Bridge.

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Brendon & Rachel stop at the wrong bridge, allowing the Accidental Alliance to get to the clue first. They are happy Brendon & Rachel aren’t there.

Teams must now go to Hotel Schweizerhof. Brendon is frustrated when he and Rachel realize they are in last place.

The other teams arrive at the hotel and must change into uniforms before they each clean-up a room trashed by rock stars. Once they’ve cleaned it up to Swiss standards, Helga will give them their next clue.

Connor says the Brenchels aren’t here, so they should work together knock this out before they arrive.

The teams head into their rooms and will use an example room to set it up after they’ve cleaned up, being sure to observe the details.

Brendon & Rachel arrive and get started as the other teams ask Helga to check on their rooms. All of them have things wrong and missing. Dave wants the answer handed to him. Helga does not oblige.

“Can you tell us what we’re missing?”
“You have to figure it out!”

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Jet & Cord manage to get the thumbs up first and Helga gives the next clue telling them to head to Verhkehrshaus der Schweiz, the Swiss Museum of Transport and find the marked artifact outside of it. Leo & Jamal, Dave & Connor and Caroline & Jen finish next.

At the Museum, Jet & Cord see the artifact, a giant drill bit used to dig the world’s longest tunnel. A man will ask the teams what the thing is before he hands them the clue.

Jet immediately knows what it is and they get the clue pointing them to the Ford Mustang exhibit inside the museum. The next clue is on the windshied and now teams must use the enclosed formula and the road signs on the outside of the building to find the model year of the Mustang they’ve chosen.

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Leo & Jamal arrive at the artifact and don’t know what it is. Dave & Connor arrive next and Dave knows, which he then tells Leo & Jamal and Caroline & Jen who just arrive. When they get to the Mustangs, the Country Gals have no idea what to do.

Brendon & Rachel get the approval from Helga and hurry over to the museum. They ask some locals what the artifact is.

Jet & Cord and Dave & Connor leave first while Brendon & Rachel catch up to Leo & Jamal and Caroline & Jennifer. Leo & Jamal get the right answer and decide to go back and help the Country Singers. Brendon & Rachel are close behind.

Teams must now find a milk tanker in Oberrickenbach. There, teams find the Road Block.


For this Road Block, teams will choose a friendly hard-working farm dog who will help them transport two empty milk containers on a cart to one of two gondolas that will take them to dairy farms. They’ll exchange the empty containers for two filled ones which they’ll then bring back down on the gondola and to the dog-pulled cart. Once they and their friendly dogs take the milk back to the tanker, they’ll get the next clue.

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Cord and Connor head up to their respective gondolas first. The last three teams arrive together and Leo, Brendon and Caroline decide to do the Road Block.

Connor gets back to the gondola after lugging the two containers. Brendon hops out to go to the dairy farm and Connor finds in the gondola a message: “TAR24 WINNERS BRENCHEL.” How dare he, Connor says.

On the way to the gondola, Caroline slips and falls on her back and falls right to last place.

Jet & Cord and Dave & Connor finish the Road Block and head to the Pit Stop at the top of Mount Titlis in Engelberg. Leo & Jamal are close behind.

Brendon & Rachel finish next, leaving Caroline & Jen. Caroline struggles.

Dave & Connor arrive first at the gondola to head up Mt. Titlis. Dave, who is sixty years old, decides to hop over the railing, but ends up falling on his ass. He’s sixty years old, after all.

Because Dave & Connor start running around at the end of the first gondola, Jet & Cord and Leo & Jamal catch up when they have to get on the 2nd gondola up to the summit.

They race out of the gondola and Dave & Connor break off from the pack and get to the Mat first. Phil officially checks them in as Team #1 and tells them they’ve won two 2015 Ford Mustangs. Jet & Cord and Leo & Jamal come in 2nd and 3rd.

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Phil asks about the division between them and Brenchel. Connor says he doesn’t like ’em. Neither does Caroline who rolls her eyes about Brenchel as she rides the gondola down.

Brendon & Rachel happily check in as Team #4 and they tell Phil it’s okay if they don’t have any friends here, this is The Amazing Race.

That leaves Caroline & Jennifer in last. They step on the Mat and Phil gives them the good news. This is a non-elimination Leg and they are still Racing.

Episode Thoughts
This was a very strange Leg. I’ve long been calling for more extra tasks on the Race, but this Leg was ALL extra tasks. And all of them were absolutely mundane and/or a Ford commercial.

The overnight trip from Italy to Switzerland then having to wait until sunrise then having to drive again then having to clean a hotel room then having to figure out what a giant drill bit is then having to add two numbers then an odd Road Block that had teams sitting around in a gondola for most of it.

What?! It’s a far cry from such Switzerland Legs as the epic Swiss I Leg of TAR3.

So the non-elimination was well-placed after such a horrible Leg even if it saved a horrible team.

You couldn’t even appreciate the awesome Mustangs or the awesome dogs because the Leg was so bad. You couldn’t even enjoy the beautiful and stunning Pit Stop because of the atrocious first three teams that arrived and provided a horrifying idea of what an all-male final 3 would look like. Eeek.

Definitely the weakest episode of TAR24 so far and a huge waste of such a beautiful location.

My Subjective Team Rankings
GAP GAP GAP

Brendon & Rachel had what could’ve been a fatal mistake on their way to the bridge, but they didn’t give up and pushed through. They may have gotten a little frustrated, but no meltdowns or hysterics. They were calm and just Raced. RACED! What a novel idea. Just Race and not spend your entire time mocking another team.

Can Helga replace half this cast please? When she told Dave “You have to figure it out!” I applauded. Why can’t the teams have the same attitude? Figure things out yourself without having to rely on other teams. Helga was no-nonsense and you just know she would not tolerate any of that hand holding crap the other teams are doing.

I cringe as I give Jet & Cord props for Racing on their own and concentrating on their own Race. No need to join accidental alliances, they can do just fine on their own. They’re still horrible people, but that says a lot about you when even against Jet & Cord, you’re less tolerable.

Which brings us to Leo & Jamal. When they’re insufferable, they’re REALLY insufferable. And they were this Leg. Their camwhoring and forced shtick has got to be the worst ever on TAR. None of it is funny or amusing. It’s all annoying. Them wanting to eliminate their strongest competitors is fine, but when it’s by handing everything over to helpless teams to do it, then it’s horrible.

Caroline & Jen seriously have got to be one of the most useless and helpless teams to ever run the Race. They are absolute damsels in distress, not being able to or not wanting to do most of the tasks. And now you throw in them being saved by two non-eliminations. Like Meghan said earlier in the season, they put women back a long time.

And finally the hypocritical, sanctimonious Dave & Connor. Is that you TAR20 Vanessa? Because it sure felt that way. A SIXTY YEAR OLD MAN! A sixty year old man acting worse than a six year old kid. And Connor’s douchebaggery doesn’t help either. They are such a disgrace to all older and all parent/child teams to have ever run any Amazing Race.


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2 thoughts on “Recap: The Amazing Race (24) All-Stars 2, Episode 9 – "You have to figure it out!"

  1. After watching Leg 8, I knew the next legs will be unwatchable. I can’t stand Dave & Connor especially Dave who can’t stop whining about his age. The Afghanimals are even more annoying this season. I would prefer the Shrill Lankan Twinnies over them. I’m starting to dislike the country singers because they’re proving that their detractors are right about them being helpless and useless. I hope that the Brenchels or the Cowboys will win it all.

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