Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 2, Episode 2 – "There's a Fish in My Pants!"


Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 2, Episode 2 – “There’s a Fish in My Pants!”

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Teams are separated onto three different flights each departing Victoria one hour apart heading to the destination of the 2nd Leg of the Race: Tofino, British Columbia.

On the first flight are Natalie & Meaghan, Alain & Audrey, Rex & Bob and Cormac & Nicole. On the second flight are Laura & Jackie, Sukhi & Jinder and Mickey & Pete. On the last flight are Pierre & Michel, Ryan & Rob and Jen & Shawn.

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Once teams arrive in Tofino, they’ll unplug and hop into brand new Chevy Volts to drive to Wickaninnish Beach for their next clue. Rex & Bob get to the cluebox first where they find the Detour.


For this Detour, teams will make their way to Ucluelet Harbour Seafoods and choose between two tasks related to one of British Columbia’s biggest exports: fish.
In Sharp Knives, teams will suit up in fish factory gear and correctly fillet at least 30 lbs of fish to receive their next clue.
In Sharp Eyes, teams need to sort through 1000 lbs of fish and separate five different species into five different bins.

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All four teams choose Sharp Eyes and begin to sort the fish. But they find most of the fish look the same. Alain thinks the fish are differentiated by their open mouths.

Rex & Bob think they’re done, but the inspector gives them the thumbs down. All the other teams are struggling as well, but Alain & Audrey are really confused, so they decide to switch Detours.

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They think they’ve filleted enough fish, but they only have 19 lbs. And even then, the inspector rejects some of the fish meat and badly sliced pieces. The bigger problem is if they run out of fish to fillet, they will not receive any more.

The second flight arrives in Tofino and the three teams manage to catch up at the Detour. Sukhi & Jinder think their biology background will help them speed through, but it doesn’t.

Laura & Jackie choose the Sharp Knives side of the Detour, but are absolutely disgusted by the fish and can’t believe people eat the stuff…..

Meanwhile, the last flight arrives Tofino and they threaten to catch up to the first flight that arrived two hours earlier.

The inspector sighs as she repeatedly gives the teams the thumbs down on their sorting. Rex suggests they switch to the filleting, but Bob wants to stick with the sorting. That’s just as Alain & Audrey get the 30 lbs they need to get the next clue.

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Cormac & Nicole and Natalie & Meaghan decide it’s time to switch. But Rex & Bob give their bins one more try. And after this 10th Attempt, the inspector finally approves them.

Teams must now drive themselves to North Chesterman Beach to find their next clue at the Surf Shack. Rex & Bob manage to pass Alain & Audrey who have stopped for directions.

Back at the Detour, Laura & Jackie decide to switch to the sorting when their first batch of fish only weighs 17 lbs. Mickey & Pete decide to switch to the filleting.

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At North Chesterman Beach, teams will find their clue on top surfboards laid out in a row. Alain & Audrey walk right by them and start running around the beach while Rex & Bob open the clue.

Teams will load a surfboard on a beach bike and peddle their way to the water. One team member must catch a wave and stand for at least three seconds while their partner records proof to exchange for the next clue.

The final group arrives at the Detour and there are now eight teams sorting and slicing fish.

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Sukhi finds a fish in her pants. She puts it in the bin and on this 5th attempt, they get the thumbs up from the inspector. Natalie & Meaghan finish the slicing and are close behind them.

Alain & Audrey are still running around the area when Rex starts out in the water. He finds his ballet experience does not help.

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Back on the road, Sukhi & Jinder, who say they’ve never driven an electric car before, think they need to go plug in before they get stuck on the road. Being out in front right now, they stop at a service station to recharge, but after awhile, the mechanic points to the dashboard telling them they’ve got plenty of juice left.

Nicole & Cormac, Mickey & Pete and Pierre & Michel finish the Detour and are off, leaving Laura & Jackie, Jen & Shawn and Ryan & Rob to struggle in last place. Rex & Bob decide to switch Detours

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At the surfing, Alain & Audrey finally get to the water and Audrey stands upright almost immediately, easily passing Rex & Bob. They open the next clue which reveals the Road Block.


In this Road Block, teams will make a traditional Tofino beach chair using fishing nets and driftwood. When the fisherman can sit back and relax in their chair, teams will get the next clue.

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Alain gets started while Natalie & Meaghan, Nicole & Cormac and surfers Mickey & Pete arrive at the surfing task.

At the Detour, Jen & Shawn get the thumbs up on their 4th sorting attempt and they decide to give Laura & Jackie the info they need to correctly sort theirs. When they also leave, it is Ryan & Rob now solely in last place.

After the fisherman removes the bad pieces, Ryan & Rob only have 20 lbs of meat, but no more fish to slice. So now they have to switch back to the sorting.

Back at the surfing, Mickey easily completes the task and they head out. Natalie & Meaghan are close behind when Meaghan manages to get through it.

Pierre & Michel, Sukhi & Jinder and Jen & Shawn arrive at the surfing next as Pete and Natalie start assembling the chair.

Natalie’s the first one to get her chair approved and she and Meaghan can now make their way on foot to the Pit Stop on the crab dock at the end of Olson Road in Tofino.

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Natalie & Meaghan officially step on the Mat as Team #1 for a second Leg in a row and they win a roundtrip flight to Hong Kong with $2000 spending money. Alain & Audrey have to settle for 2nd.

Rex & Bob decide to quit the surfing task and take the 2 hour penalty. They move on to the chair which Bob decides to do.

Jen & Shawn arrive at the surfing and just as Shawn starts paddling, he pops his shoulder right out of its socket. Jen, Nicole and Cormac yell for a medic while Sukhi watches in horror.

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Shawn walks back to the beach and tries to pop it back, but the medic says they need to go to the hospital. They load Shawn into an ambulance.

Pete finishes the chair and he and Mickey run to Jon who officially checks them in as Team #3.

Meanwhile, Bob seems to have his chair all set. He even tries it out and it appears to be sturdy enough to hold him. But seeing that his net doesn’t reach over the top, he decides to take it all apart before even trying to get it approved.

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Nicole & Cormac and Pierre & Michel finish the surfing and head to the chair as Laura & Jackie and Ryan & Rob arrive.

Cormac gets the thumbs up for his chair and they head to the Pit Stop to finish 4th. Pierre & Michel are right behind them and claim 5th.

Bob is struggling with his chair. Rex asks if they should just give up and take a penalty. Bob cringes, but says maybe they might. Fine, Rex says they might as well just take it now and they head to the Pit Stop.

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Jon says they must sit out a six-hour penalty, two hours for the surfing, four hours for the Road Block.

Laura & Jackie finish the surfing followed by Sukhi & Jinder and Ryan & Rob. But Jinder finishes the Road Block first and he and Sukhi get to the Pit Stop in 6th. Ryan & Rob are 7th and Laura & Jackie are 8th.

Jon asks Rex & Bob to come to the Mat. He tells them that because of Shawn’s injury, he and Jen have to withdraw from the Race. That means Rex & Bob are officially Team #9 and still in the Race.

Rex & Bob don’t feel very happy about that, but they are now resolved never to quit again.

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Jon meets Jen & Shawn at the hospital and officially eliminates them from the Race.

Episode Thoughts
Wow, that was another full Leg, but definitely much better than the premiere.

Now first of all, I absolutely hate those provided flights that automatically separate the teams at the start of the Leg. It really stifles competition and automatically puts a certain number of teams in danger for the Leg. Worse, it keeps placements almost exactly the same from the previous Leg unless a team royally screws up (as what happened here).

The tasks were good, once again. The Detour was very interesting. The slicing side of the Detour had a limit, so if you couldn’t complete it, you were forced to do the other side of the Detour. I don’t remember that ever happening before. And the exasperated inspector was hilarious and fun.

The extra surfing task played like another Road Block and it is amazing that a simple task like that would force a team to take a penalty. Man, imagine that. An extra non-Detour/non-Road Block task that is so difficult, it forces a team to take a penalty. You definitely don’t see that on TARUS.

The Road Block itself was easier, even if a little tricky. But it was still fun considering how simple it was.

Anyway, it is very exciting to see TARC (I mean, #RaceCDA) traveling out of the country next week! I can’t wait to have the same feeling when TARPh goes out of the Philippines for the first time in season 2. (I HOPE!)

My Subjective Team Rankings

The teams are slowly starting to make an impression. I still wish some bigger personalities emerged already, but part of that is definitely the full episodes we’ve gotten these last two weeks so far. But the teams, while likeable, apparently are so interchangeable because while writing this recap, I regularly mixed and switched up people’s names. I might still have a Rob instead of a Bob or a Nicole instead of Natalie somewhere up there. Yikes.

Still, Sukhi & Jinder are my top faves right now. They had some hilarious moments this episode. That random clumsiness with the bikes, the fish in the pants and the dumb, yet still hilarious mistake of going to plug in their car. Wow, if they had gotten eliminated because they wasted time charging their electric car! That would have been the worst!

Natalie & Meghan are definitely no Mona & Beth. They are fun, excellent competitors and it is exciting to see a female team do very, very well. Mickey & Pete surprisingly jump up my list. They are fun, laid-back guys, but they aren’t hippie-ish/BJ & Tyler/TK & Rachel-style annoying. They have that surfer attitude, but are still solid Racers with fun personalities.

Cormac & Nicole are doing pretty well, but after TARUS posted a parent-child flashback on their Facebook this week, they are starting to make me think they are a combination of TAR7’s Susan & Patrick and Luke & Margie. I definitely hope they stay on track and remain a rootable team and not become some strange hybrid of past over-competitive, sleazy parent-child teams. Or worse, become the next Dave & Connor. Ewe.

Pierre & Michel are doing okay. I missed their sort of snarky jokes from the first Leg when they were more fun. Alain & Audrey are okay too. But I am definitely hoping for bigger French-language meltdowns.

Ryan & Rob have been really bland. Which is sad because I guess I had high expectations that they could be Jet & Dave 2.0. Rex & Bob were still funny this Leg, but I just can’t forgive any team that just quits. And they did it TWICE! WTF!? I should really put them at the bottom, but since I can’t bring myself to. When they’re not giving up, they’re still fun and funny. But damn, they are lucky because quitting twice is not gonna cut it. Hope that never happens ever again on TAR.

Laura & Jackie are meh as well. And Jen & Shawn weren’t even interesting with a dislocated shoulder.

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