Recap: The Amazing Race (24) All-Stars 2, Episode 3 – "Actually, I don't even wanna quit, I just wanna not die."

Recap: The Amazing Race (24) All-Stars 2, Episode 3 – Welcome to the Jungle

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It’s time for teams to fly out of China and head to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Teams can only fly on one of two flights with the first flight only able to take six teams. The last three will take a flight leaving three hours later.

Brendon & Rachel are the first to leave the Pit Stop, but they get stuck in traffic. And with the teams arriving within minutes of each other, they end up falling behind and allowing six teams to check-in for the first flight before them.

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Brendon & Rachel are now on the second flight with Joey & Meghan and Jessica & John who joke about them being the final 3.

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It’s morning in Kota Kinabalu and the first flight arrives. Teams must now make their way to Kiansom Waterfall. Dave & Connor get there first and they open the first clue to reveal the Road Block.


In this Road Block, teams must rappel down the waterfall with the Travelocity Roaming Gnome while grabbing their next clue along the way.

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Dave does the Road Block with Jamal right behind him. They stay in the lead and open the next clue pointing them to the Kiulu River at Kampung Topinahaton.

Cord is next down the waterfall, but he misses the clue completely and has to go again. Luke completes the Road Block and he and Margie are off. Big Easy chooses to do the Road Block, but he’s too big for it, so Flight Time has to do it. Jennifer is last of the first group.

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Dave & Connor maintain their lead when they get to the next clue and find the Detour.


To get to either Detour, teams must build a bamboo raft which they will use to travel down the river.
In River Delivery, teams must deliver food and goods to the village chief at Kampung Tombung.
In Jungle Run, teams will join a hunting safari at Kampung Linsuk and each use a blowpipe to hit a fake bird target.
After completing the Detour, teams will continue down the river and receive their next clue from the river guide.

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Margie & Luke, Leo & Jamal and Jet & Cord arrive just as Dave & Connor set off. They all choose River Delivery. Caroline & Jen and Flight Time & Big Easy choose Jungle Run.

While Margie & Luke struggle to communicate and with their flimsy raft, Dave & Connor pass the Route Marker for their chosen Detour and instead keep going down the river.

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Leo & Jamal stop at the correct Route Marker and deliver their goods. Getting back to their raft, they see Jet & Cord who ask if this is the correct location for the delivery Detour. The Afghanimals decide to tell them the truth instead of lying because they don’t want to get U-Turned in the future.

Dave & Connor pass Kampung Linsuk and decide to just keep going to the final Route Marker where they get off and decide to walk back to Kampung Tombung.

As the second flight finally arrives in Malaysia, Leo & Jamal are back on the river where they encounter rough white water rapids. They end up crashing into the rocks and their raft starts to come apart. They fall into the water as Jet & Cord calmly float on by.

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Margie & Luke deliver their goods to the chief as Caroline & Jen’s raft gets caught on a large rock. Jen gets her finger caught in between two bamboo and screams that it was about to get cut off. The Globetrotters get slammed into rocks as well.

Meanwhile, the last three teams are arriving at the Road Block. Jessica & John and Brendon & Rachel both tell their taxis to wait, but Meghan & Joey release theirs.

Caroline & Jen and Flight Time & Big Easy arrive at the hunting Detour as Dave & Connor manage to arrive back at the finishing point before any other team arrives. They get the final clue of the Leg directing them to Tanjun Aru Water Village, the Pit Stop.

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It’s Rachel’s turn at the Road Block and she’s taken off her sequin shorts (so they won’t get wet) and is making her way down the waterfall in just her underwear. Joey & Meghan are now in last and they head back out to the parking lot to find there are no taxis anywhere. They have to start walking down the main road until they can catch one.

Elsewhere, Dave & Connor get to the Mat and are shocked when Phil tells them they are Team #1 and have won a trip to Hungary. Jet & Cord finish 2nd and Leo & Jamal take 3rd.

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Joey & Meghan flashback to their struggle in finding a taxi back in Season 18… SEASON 18!?!?! They eventually stop at someone’s home and asks if they can call a taxi for them.

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Margie & Luke, Flight Time & Big Easy and Caroline & Jen finish the Detour and check-in at the Pit Stop as Teams #4, 5 and 6 respectively.

Brendon & Rachel catch-up to Jessica & John who are just about to set off on a raft that’s falling apart before they even get in the water. But using their canoeing experience, Jessica & John have no problem making their way down river.

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Brendon & Rachel on the other hand…

Their raft hits a rock and starts to fall apart. They get it back together only to run into rough water. Brendon starts floating away, leaving Rachel to slam into a rock and fall off the raft. They have to go back to drag their raft to the shore. While Brendon jumps back into the water to look for their missing raft pieces, Rachel tries tying it back together with vines.

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After they secure their raft, they continue down to the hunting Detour and decide not to give up as they enjoy their own Survivor-esque cinematic slow motion montage.

Jessica & John hop on the Mat as Team #7 and Brendon & Rachel are relieved to check-in as Team #8.

That leaves Joey & Meghan wet, in last and eliminated.

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Episode Thoughts
First of all, WTF at the short opening title sequence!?!?!?! That is horrible. This might be the worst thing TAR has done ever. Like seriously, chopping off one of the most iconic theme songs on TV today for one more 30 second commercial? Really? Ugh. If TAR wasn’t hitting all-time lows before, this certainly signals that now.

Anyway… Well, I was definitely hoping for more river insanity, but what can ya do.

It was an alright episode. Say hello again to the horribly linear Leg which was made worse by the dumb forced non-equalizer aka TAR-sanctioned flights.

TARUS has been providing flights more and more in recent seasons. That’s reasonable if it’s a purely logistics reason, but it’s horrible in forcing the teams to be separated into “Safe” and “In Danger to be Eliminated” groups right at the start of the Leg.

Why intentionally spread teams out like that? Why not book them all on one flight then and let them compete. Again, LET THEM COMPETE! Look at how fun and exciting it was the last two weeks with teams Racing neck and neck the whole way through. Especially when you have horribly linear Legs, having teams fighting it out, ALL of them is much more exciting. So there is really no reason to book two separate flights when you know the show’s reserved those seats far in advance to not only limit it to SIX teams. It’s absolutely stupid.

The Road Block was okay, but a little too short and simple even if the location was beautiful. The Detour’s main attraction was the bamboo raft and having to navigate the River. The tasks themselves were also too simple and they didn’t even focus on the locals that much which is a shame.

One awesome thing though was that cinematic montage of Brendon & Rachel at the Detour. I’ve been wishing TAR would change up its filming style, frame rates or do whatever it is they have to do to make the show look more cinematic like TAR Australia and Canada look. That Brenchel montage was the kind of thing I wish they would use for whole episodes. Not that slow motion thing, but just the different visual look. I have no idea what you call that or how it gets done. But whatever it is, I want TAR to do it.

Overall, an okay episode. Maybe the weakest of the three so far especially because of the waste of an excellent location.

My Subjective Team Rankings
GAP

Some bad taxi luck for Brendon & Rachel put them in danger of getting eliminated this Leg. But they got through the Leg in hilarious fashion at least. Rachel’s underwear, their river disaster and their overdramatic slow motion montage were all hilarious to watch. But like Phil said, they Race hard no matter what.

Margie & Luke were okay this Leg, but it looks like Luke’s meltdowns return next week. It’ll be hilariously tough to watch him possibly put his team in danger of losing, again. Leo & Jamal again are much more tolerable when they aren’t mugging the camera. And in this Leg, they concentrated on Racing most of the time which is good.

In TAR22, Dave & Conner wouldn’t stop talking about cancer. And now they won’t stop talking about Dave’s heel. It’s this kind of forced underdog story that really annoys me on TAR. They aren’t underdogs because they won Legs back then and are doing fine now. If they continue to get edited this way, I’m really going to start turning on them.

This cast must really be horrible if Joey & Meghan actually end up being one of the more tolerable teams. Indeed, Joey was a lot more subdued this Leg which made them more tolerable and even likeable. But it was too little too late. I actually would’ve preferred they stay over some other teams. *shudder* But even then, they are not an All-Star worthy team.

Speaking of non-All-Star worthy, Jessica & John continue to just glide along. And Flight Time & Big Easy are back to their grating antics.

Funny how Caroline & Jen can be ready to give up putting together a car with instructions and examples and complain about how hard it is for a woman, yet in this Leg build a bamboo raft just fine. And almost get their finger cut off. It makes their actions in Leg 2 all the more pathetic.

And Jet & Cord. Annoying theme music and all. Please be eliminated next.


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One thought on “Recap: The Amazing Race (24) All-Stars 2, Episode 3 – "Actually, I don't even wanna quit, I just wanna not die."

  1. I think Caroline & Jen and Dave & Connor should switch positions at your subjective team rankings.

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