Recap: The Amazing Race 22, Episode 1 – Business in the Front, Party in the Back
The Leg
  
The 22nd Amazing Race begins at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Phil tells the teams that there’ll be TWO Express Passes given to the winner of this first leg; one for the winning team and another to a team of their choice.
Phil says they’ll be heading to a brand new destination where they’ll have a task that’ll take their breath away. And just like that, he tells them the world is waiting, wishes them luck and sees them off.
Teams hop into shiny new Ford Fusions where they learn they will be heading to Bora Bora.
At LAX, teams get buddy-buddy, hoping to make friends that’ll be close enough to want to give them that 2nd Express Pass.
There are two flights, the first one arriving an hour earlier than the 2nd in Bora Bora. Only five teams can take that earlier flight.
  
Chuck & Wynona excitedly get the first tickets with Pam & Winnie, Idries & Jamil, Dave & Connor, and Jessica & John snatching up the remaining four spots. The rest of the teams have to take other flight.
Before catching their connecting flight in Papeete, Tahiti, the first flight group decide to make a secret alliance, suggested by twins Idries & Jamil, that whoever wins the Express Pass would give the 2nd one to the 2nd place team to avoid any hurt feelings and awkwardness.
  
The teams move on to Bora Bora and right out of the airport, they find the Road Block.
For this Road Block, teams must first sign up for one of six helicopter flights, each carrying two teams, and then do a tandem skydive. Their partners will take a water taxi and meet them at the landing site.
  
John and Jamil are on the first flight, Connor and Winnie are on the second and Chuck is alone on the third.
After the skydive, teams must take a water taxi to Eden Beach where they must search for their next clue.
There, they find a second Road Block.
For this Road Block, teams must search for one of 11 clues hidden under 400 sandcastles. If they don’t find a clue under a sandcastle they’ve knocked over, they must rebuild it before moving on.
  
The teams are struggling (since they’re merely knocking castles over instead of digging under). But before the 2nd flight teams can catch up, Jessica & John manage to move on.
After the sandcastles, teams must assemble a canoe known as a Va’a before paddling and balancing themselves to the next Pit Stop, the Motu Café.
Jessica & John maintain their big lead and step on the Mat first. Phil hands them their Express Passes. Phil says they have until the end of the 4th Leg to gift the 2nd Express Pass.
  
Back at the other beach, 2nd flighters have caught up. And Bates & Anthony quickly find the clue, frustrating the other teams. The hockey brothers officially check-in 2nd.
All the teams are now at the Road Block and Dave realizes he must not have dug deep enough to find a clue. And he finds a clue. Father and son Dave & Connor head to the Pit Stop and finish 3rd. They expect, that since they’re 2nd out of the secret alliance to finish, they’ll be getting that Express Pass.
Mona & Beth, who arrived last at the Road Block, find the clue next, but Pam & Winnie are right behind them and manage to pass them in the water allowing Pam & Winnie to officially check-in 4th and Mona & Beth to officially finish 5th.
Joey & Meghan step on the Mat in 6th and Chuck & Wynona take 7th. Idries & Jamil finish 8th.
  
The final three teams feel helpless so they all agree to take the four hour penalty and quit the Road Block, hoping to just head to the next task on equal footing and continue Racing from there.
But it is firefighters Matt & Daniel who get left behind when they struggle with their canoe. Max & Katie and Caroline & Jennifer step on the Mat 9th and 10th with Phil informing them of their four hour penalty being assessed on the next Leg.
That leaves Matt & Daniel in last and eliminated.
Episode Thoughts
And here we are with season 22 of The Amazing Race. It was an alright premiere. A pretty simple Leg with not much drama.
There was no Starting Line task, which I thought would be okay when Phil teased a task that would take their breath away, literally. I didn’t expect he was referring to a skydive.
It was a spectacular and gorgeous skydive, but a skydive all the same. The second Road Block was good and something TAR would usually save for a later Leg. But for it to be the highlight of the entire episode?
The quitting that was teased in the commercials and promos for the episode wasn’t all that dramatic. And for me who absolutely hates quitting on The Amazing Race, it didn’t even annoy me. It was definitely not the TAR7, Rob-induced debacle. And the editing didn’t really make the task seem all that difficult or painful. No one collapsed or had a heat stroke or anything. Pretty much the most drama-less quitting TAR’s ever seen.
The double Express Pass is a simple twist. We’ll have to wait and see what kind of fun that brings.
I did kinda enjoy the return of the airport shuttle introductions between teams. It’s been a while since we’ve had those scenes.
A little bummed we didn’t get any of the sprucing up of graphics that I’ve been hoping for since TARAu debuted a snazzy and fresh TAR graphics package. But they did decide to use a panning motion for the team shots in the credits instead of the quick cuts and fades they’ve used in the last couple of years. It’s a start I guess.
And again, Bora Bora looked absolutely amazing, especially in HD. Damn, just crystal clear blue waters and breathtaking views. Definitely one of the most beautiful places TAR has visited.
One interesting thing, the Canadian version of the episode had Caroline & Jennifer singing “Oh My Darling Clementine” in their intro package instead of that song I guess their band sings that was used in the CBS episode. Very interesting, I guess music rights and all that.
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At least the your so-called “Rob-induced debacle” in TAR7 was entertaining and brilliant strategy. Here, it was neither which was very unfortunate considering the breathtaking location and poorly devised tasks. My family and I are really thinking the gas has run out on TAR as most of us were only half-watching as we messed around on our tablets/phablets. While I definitely agree with your last three in your team rankings, I find your 4th to be rather perplexing as they seemed level-headed, decent, and wholesome (people the world could use a lot more of) At least they weren’t cussing like Winnie when she was in the sandcastle field. Some of my family members were quite shocked to hear her “SOB” usage during the family hour on Network television. I just hope my nephews and niece don’t bring it up with their classmates tomorrow in school.Anyway, this is barely the first episode, and not much time for any of them to really make lasting impressions. Especially, as most viewers aren’t going on-line to check out their bios/get-to-know-them videos. By the way, it looks like the daters aren’t sticking with that stupid agreement concerning the express pass as seen in the previews for next week’s episode. However, the doctors, YouTube buffoons, and quitting firemen spoke volumes via their over-the-top actions or inactions as in the case of the doctors and firefighters. Keep up the good work! I look forward to reading your next installment. Well, at least as long as the show continues to hold my interest. It definitely needs some new creative blood or maybe a “heroes versus villians” season to re-ignite the program. Right now it is luke warm and rapidily cooling off.