Recap: The Amazing Race Australia, Episode 2.11 – “You’re such a poo face!”

The Amazing Race Australia 2, Episode 11

The Leg



All four teams hop on a charter bus to Calgary Airport where they buy tickets for the same flight to Beijing, China.  Once there, they jump into taxis.  Paul & Steve get out of their first taxi when the driver tells them it’ll be 700 yuan for the trip and take another, much cheaper taxi.  Joseph & Grace aren’t so lucky.  The driver tells them 600 yuan, which is basically all the money they have left.  They end up having to pay 500 yuan!

Teams arrive at the Ghost Street Food District where they find the Detour.


For both Detours, teams walk into the Liang An Yi Jia Restaurant.
In Waiter, teams must listen to the orders of a table of eight, in Mandarin, and correctly pronounce them to the chef who’ll then give them the prepared dish to serve.  Once all the customers have their orders, they’d receive their next clue.
In Wheel, teams sit in front of a wheel labeled with Chinese delicacies.  Taking turns, each team member spins the wheel to determine which dish the other team member would have to eat.  After each team member has eaten two dishes, they’d receive their next clue.



Joseph & Grace first choose Wheel, but when Grace finds out she has to eat a fried starfish, she is adamant about switching to Waiter, joining Michelle & Jo.  Meanwhile, Paul & Steve and Shane & Andrew feast on scorpions, cochroaches and testicle soup. 

Michelle & Jo and Paul & Steve finish the Detour first and they head off to the next Route Marker at Wuzhisheng Foot Reflection Health Center where they must receive a traditional Chinese foot massage for a continuous 10 minutes each.  The twins arrive there first and are shocked when they find out exactly how a Chinese foot massage feels.  Paul & Steve get lost.

Despite having no money and realizing from Shane & Andrew just how ripped off they were, Joseph & Grace hop in a taxi with almost no money.



Shane & Andrew arrive at the Health Center 2nd and get the massage right next to the twins.  Joseph & Grace arrive 2nd and Grace cannot believe what is happening, so much, that she pulls her foot away and has to start over.

Michelle & Jo finish first and get the next clue telling teams to head to Marco Polo Bridge where they must accurately count all the lions on the statues along the bridge to receive their next clue.

The cops leave 2nd and Paul & Steve arrive just as Joseph & Grace finish.  The siblings only have 75 yuen left.  And they have almost enough when the taxi driver lets them off at Marco Polo… Hotel.  The concierge tells them the Bridge is almost an hour away by taxi.  They decide to just walk since they can’t ask for money when no one speaks English.



HOURS OF OPERATION!  The twins, the cops and Paul & Steve wait until the bridge opens at 7:30am before they can start counting.  Michelle & Jo see Shane & Andrew have only counted the lions on one side of the bridge, so they do the same.  They submit their answers and of course, they are wrong.  They both go a second time and are still wrong.  Paul & Steve, on their first try and after carefully counting, are given the next clue.

Teams must now head to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China to complete the Road Block.


In this Road Block, teams have to figure out how to pass through 9 rows of warriors to reach a clue at the top of the steps.  Only one warrior in each row would let them pass.  If they choose the wrong warrior, they’d get a strike and every three strikes, they must start over.



Paul starts first, but gets it wrong twice before Jo arrives.  Jo manages to get to the last row with one strike left, but doesn’t get it and has to head back down.  Meanwhile, Shane & Andrew’s cab driver is lost and Joseph & Grace just finish counting, have hopped into a taxi to the Great Wall, but worry about how to pay their driver once they get there.

Paul finally arrives at the clue at the top of the steps, but Jo is close behind.  It’s a taxi race to the Pit Stop at the Forbidden City, but it’s Michelle & Jo who manage to pull ahead thanks to their driver.  They officially step on the Mat first and win $10,000.  Paul & Steve take 2nd and are both in the final leg.

Joseph & Grace arrive at the Great Wall, but it’s the wrong section of it and there are no people there, like they had expected, which means no tourists to beg money from.  But even if they had gone to the right place, Shane & Andrew were too far ahead and they officially see Grant as Team #3.

Already dark, Grant goes out to Joseph & Grace who are still in their taxi.  He tells them they are so far out of the way, they’ve crossed into Inner Mongolia.  And it doesn’t matter, since they are last and are eliminated.



Episode Thoughts
Some very familiar tasks this leg.  The Waiter side of the Detour was a watered down version of a TAR14 Detour.  On TAR14, teams had to memorize all the orders, then recite them to the chef in one go.  They would then have to remember who ordered what after the dishes had been cooked.  So for the Aussies, the Detour was much easier and probably took a lot less time. 

The infamous Chinese foot massage from the same TAR14 leg shows up as well and it was just as funny here as it was back then.  The counting task at the bridge, definitely familiar too.

The Road Block at the Great Wall (which was great to see on TAR!) was derived from a TARA task with basically the same mechanics and I liked it back then too.  It was basically a memory task and after a pretty long, it could’ve been tough.

Joseph & Grace’s leg was very interesting.  Had there not been an Hours of Operation at the bridge, they would’ve probably been eliminated before sunrise.  Come to think of it, this was a pretty long leg.  Definitely not a leg you’d see on TARUS.  (Unfortunately.)




PIT STOP
Banff Springs Hotel
Banff, Canada

CASH
$40

CONNECTING CITIES
Calgary, Canada
Vancouver, Canada

DESTINATION CITY
Beijing, China

DETOUR
Liang An Yi Jia Restaurant
Ghost Street, Beijing

ROUTE MARKER
Wuzhisheng Foot Reflection Health Center
Beijing

Marco Polo Bridge
Beijing

ROAD BLOCK
Mutianyu Section, Great Wall of China
PIT STOP
The Forbidden City
Beijing, China



DEPARTURE
Banff Springs Hotel
Banff, Canada

Shane & Andrew 2:02am
Joseph & Grace 2:57am
Michelle & Jo 3:14am
Paul & Steve 3:29am









WAITER
 Michelle & Jo
Joseph & Grace <
 

WHEEL
  Paul & Steve
Shane & Andrew


> or < indicates team switched Detours.




Who did the Road Block?
Who can crack the warrior code?
In order of completion; Italics indicate who did the Road Block

5 Paul Paul & Steve Steve 3 
4 Michelle Michelle & Jo Jo 5 
5 Shane Shane & Andrew Andrew 4 
5 Joseph Joseph & Grace Grace 4 




3 Lucy Lucy & Emilia Emilia 5 
4 Sarah Sarah & James James 3 
3 Sticky Sticky & Sam Sam 3
1 Tarryn Tarryn & Ross Ross 3 
1 Donna Kym & Donna Kym 1 
2 Sue Sue & Teresa Teresa 0 
0 Adam Adam & Dane Dane 0 



PIT STOP
The Forbidden City
Beijing, China

1st Michelle & Jo +2
2nd Paul & Steve +2
3rd Shane & Andrew -2
Eliminated Joseph & Grace -2







Paul & Steve Paul & Steve – A much better leg for them than the last one.  Love or hate Paul, he’s definitely a character and he isn’t even one of the most outrageous, over the top characters to show up on TAR either.  His stonefaced reaction to the massage was oddly hilarious.  Plus, they managed to show that they do have brains as well, again doing well with a mental task (at the bridge).  Their spot in the final leg was never really in doubt, barring a huge mistake.  But they’ve shown that they’re vulnerable, so a win isn’t as certain.
Michelle & Jo Michelle & Jo – They’ve definitely been consistent Racers.  Not exactly dominant, though they had flashes of dominant performances throughout the Race, but strong and consistent.  They definitely have a shot at the win, though their focus on Paul is a little worrisome and a little creepy even. lol 
Shane & Andrew Shane & Andrew – Honestly, I didn’t expect to see them in the final leg, and while they haven’t really shed the “bumbling cops” title just yet, they did enough with a little bit of luck as well to make it into the top 3.  I think with this top 3, anything can happen.  So the “bumbling cops” are definitely not out of the running. 
GAP
Joseph & Grace Joseph & Grace – I have to give them kudos for not giving up.  If they did indeed walk all that way, all night, then that’s huge.  Compare that to Kym & Donna who decided to just fall asleep when they ran out of money.  Still, Grace’s attitude about everything else was exactly what she was railing about against Paul and James & Sarah.  It was pretty unbelievable.  And while she didn’t give up here, she wasn’t necessarily focused or gung ho about everything either.  


Quotes from Episode 2.11

Michelle: “Get away from me woman!”

Steve: “You’re such a poo face!”

Jo: “You’re mean.  You have a smiley face on front.”







Over 460  episode caps at photobucket.com/TARAu211


 

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