Recap: The Amazing Race 23, Episode 5 – "We need boobs, apparently that's what does it."


Recap: The Amazing Race 23, Episode 5 – Get Our Groove On

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Picking up where we left off, Tim overrides Marie and agrees to give Nicole & Travis the Express Pass in exchange for the Pit Stop location.

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After Brandon & Adam, the rest of the teams arrive at the non-non-elimination Pit Stop of the Race. Jason & Amy take 2nd with Nicole & Travis take 3rd. Leo & Jamal, Tim & Marie and Tim & Danny at the Mat at the same time as Teams 4-6. Ally & Ashley finish 7th.

That leaves Nicky & Kim who get the good news that they are the last team to arrive, but they are still Racing, though this isn’t a non-elimination Leg.

It is 4am in Slovaer and teams must now take a 34-hour boat ride to Trondheim, leaving at 8:30pm, to catch a flight to their next destination, Gdansk, Poland.

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On the boat, Tim & Marie secretly give Nicole & Travis the Express Pass.

Now in Gdansk, teams hop into taxis to go to Solidarity Square for their next clue. Leo & Jamal and Ally & Ashley are out of the airport first, but direct their taxi drivers to the general vicinity of the shipyard instead of the actual historic Square.

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Tim & Danny are the first ones to get to the clue pointing them to the Golden Gate, entrance to old town Gdansk where they’ll find the next clue. While the rest of the teams get to Solidarity Square fine, Tim & Marie join Leo & Jamal and Ally & Ashley getting lost until they finally find a local who points them in the right direction.

Brandon & Adam’s taxi driver asks Jason & Amy’s driver for directions to the Golden Gate, but he happily refuses to tell them.


Meanwhile at the Golden Gate, teams find the Detour.
In Pose, teams put on costumes and must copy the stance of the historic bronze statue of Neptune to earn 75 zloty from passersby.
In Polka, teams must put on costumes to learn and perform a choreographed routine to the satisfaction of their instructor.

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Tim & Danny choose Polka and discover one of them has to dress up as a woman. Danny is horribly against wearing a dress. Jason & Amy and Nicole & Travis join them while Nicky & Kim choose Pose.

The Baseball Wives get into position and the generous crowd allows them to finish quickly. Brandon & Adam choose Polka, but arrive at the statue of Neptune, see the girls and decide to try it. After a little while, thinking business is slow, they decide to switch to Polka.

At the Polka Detour, Tim & Danny and Nicole & Travis struggle which allows Jason & Amy to finish first. Danny’s frustration grows when they can’t get the dance down.

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Tim & Marie go to the Pose Detour, see no one is there, and decide to use the Express Pass.

After the Detour, teams must head to the Medieval Harbor Crane, which is a building, where they will find the Double U-Turn. But the clue also states that teams must wear their costumes until the end of the Leg. For those who chose Pose, they must wear their beards, but leave their wigs.

Jason & Amy arrive first and decide not to U-Turn anyone. Tim & Marie find the board next and consider U-Turning Nicole & Travis, but are unsure if they’ve already passed, so they don’t use it. Neither do Nicky & Kim.

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Tim & Danny arrive at the U-Turn board and don’t hesitate to use it on Leo & Jamal. Nicole & Travis applaud their decision.

Ally & Ashley finish the Detour with Leo & Jamal close behind, leaving Brandon & Adam the only team left at the Polka. Seeing they’ve been U-Turned, Leo & Jamal decide to U-Turn Brandon & Adam.

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Teams must now head to the Falowiec Building, the longest apartment building in Poland, for their next clue, the Road Block.


In this Road Block, teams must search through 12 apartments on a provided list to find a traditional rose paczki. When they bite into the right flavored pastry, they will be handed their next clue.

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Jason & Amy catch up to Tim & Marie at the Road Block and Marie and Amy decide to work together. Kim, Travis and Danny are close behind.

Travis catches up to Marie and Amy and instead of just letting him follow, they decide to team up by each going to one of the apartments. Travis manages to find the correct apartment first and he lets the girls know. The nice lady hands them their clue pointing them to the Pit Stop at Sopot Pier.

It ends up being a footrace at the pier with Tim & Marie officially taking 1st and a trip to Hawaii. Jason & Amy and Travis & Nicole end up 2nd and 3rd.

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Nicky & Kim and Tim & Danny finish the Road Block and step on the Mat as Teams #4 and #5 respectively.

Leo & Jamal finish the Pose Detour and catch up to Ally & Ashley at the Road Block. Both teams stay ahead of Brandon & Adam and head to the Pit Stop to officially check-in as Team #6 and Team #7 respectively.

That leaves best friends Brandon & Adam in last and eliminated.

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Episode Thoughts
A solid Leg. But what was that 34 hour boat ride AFTER waiting 14 hours during the day before they could hop aboard. Plus their flight to Gdansk. They might as well have had a regular Pit Stop without all that “zero hour” stuff that confuddles the whole non-elimination, no Speed Bump, double/superLeg situation. Really, it was just an excuse not to spend money setting up a Speed Bump.

Anyway, the Leg itself had some good tasks. The Detour was good and equally challenging so it was a fair U-Turn. I always love tasks that have teams interacting with the locals, so I liked the Road Block, though I wish we saw more of the teams in the homes.

I also liked the placement of the Detour at the beginning of the Leg because they’ve liked to put the U-Turn at the end of the Leg recently which pretty much ends any hope for the U-Turned team to catch up. Though it didn’t matter here since Brandon & Adam were already last, there was always a chance another team would struggle at a Road Block or get lost to two locations before the Pit Stop.

This episode also had some incredible shots, some of the best TAR has had in a long time. Very nice.

Now for some other details from the Leg. The clue telling teams they had to wear their costumes to the end of the Leg pointed out that teams who did Pose needed to wear their beards and leave their wigs. But it seems the teams did the opposite. Very odd.

The Road Block was good, but that additional info about needing good manners made me think teams needed to eat the entire donut before leaving each apartment. I think that might have been the intention with the task, but of course, not enforced.

Anyway, an overall solid Leg. I do wish we get a truly AMAZING episode soon.

The Teams
in subjective order

Nicole & Travis are Racing pretty well and I am liking their consistency. They’ve bounced back from their first Leg blunder and are really getting competitive which is great to see. They’re also not afraid to speak their mind or go hard. Jason & Amy on the other hand have been solid Racers, but still just the “nice” team and really haven’t made a big impression as competitors just yet. They don’t need to go U-Turning people or make threats or anything like that, but they’re still unexciting. Their sassy cab driver was more fun than they were.

Nicky & Kim seem to want to step up their game, but their little mistakes are probably going to cost them sooner rather than later. They can’t keep making little mistakes like that. Ally & Ashley, meanwhile, are still Leo & Jamal’s shadows and are riding the coattails of a team that isn’t really burning up the Racecourse either.

Tim & Danny had been on a good run, but Danny’s whining this Leg was pretty annoying. It was good Tim was having a better time and not ready to give up so easily. Brandon & Adam lost some time at the first Clue Box, but then wasted even more time switching Detours. If they hadn’t, they’d probably still be in the Race right now. Bad decision. Tim & Marie were alright this Leg. They’re going to have start depending on themselves though instead of expecting another team to be there to help them, Express Pass or not.

And Leo & Jamal were almost nonexistent this episode, even with the U-Turn. That’s not a bad thing. But they wouldn’t have had time to mug the camera this week either since they again put themselves at the back of the pack. They say surviving the U-Turn should tell teams to watch out, but they only survived because they U-Turned another team. Otherwise, they’d be gone.


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One thought on “Recap: The Amazing Race 23, Episode 5 – "We need boobs, apparently that's what does it."

  1. This is really the best episode of the season so far. The Detour was balanced enough for a U-Turn Detour. The Roadblock was great because it had teams require interact with locals. There is so many placement shifts towards the leg. Teams are surging ahead and falling behind. The fact that teams have to continue wearing their costumes at either Detour was an excellent detail. We never saw it in a while. Overall, it is a very good, solid leg probably one of the best legs we’ve had in a couple of seasons.

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