Recap: The Amazing Race 26, Episode 8 – “Moment of Truth”
After camping out by Spitzkoppe, teams begin the 8th Leg the next morning. They will be driven to The Village Swakopmund where a U-Turn awaits.
Matt & Ashley want to work with Laura & Tyler to U-Turn Jelani & Jenny whom they do not like at all after the Bangkok Leg.
In Swakopmund, teams must drive themselves to Buchhandlung Book Shop where they will look through a newspaper in German for their clue. Translated, teams must drive to a skydiving location for their next clue.
And that clue reveals the Road Block.
For this Road Block, the Travelocity Roaming Gnome will coordinate an airdrop for a yellow supply case which teams must find in the desert. While looking for it, the Roaming Gnome will tandem skydive and wait for them on a hilltop.
Laura and Ashley start the Road Block. Hayley & Blair are excited as they get closer to the location and see planes taking off. But they are disappointed to see that the things falling out of the planes are not people.
As Hayley starts the Road Block, Jelani & Jenny stop at a Shell station when they hear flopping under their car. They find there’s a nail stuck in their front tire.
(Shell V-Power Nitro+ is a proud sponsor of The Amazing Race Philippines Season 2)
They get it patched up quickly and go.
Ashley and Laura finish the Road Block and they must drive to Snake Bend Pan. Hayley is close behind.
Jelani & Jenny arrive right after Mike & Rochelle and Rochelle and Jelani set off on the Road Block. Aly & Steve arrive and find their Speed Bump.
For this Speed Bump, Aly & Steve must join a group of kids and make them some toy airplanes using old Coke bottles.
Over at the Pan, teams find the Detour.
In Work, teams will hook five tires to the back of their 4x4s and smooth out 5 miles of unpaved dirt roads.
In Play, teams will sandski through a course.
Matt & Ashley choose Play while Tyler & Laura and Hayley & Blair choose Work.
Tyler thinks Hayley & Blair Bickerson “suck.”
Aly & Steve finish their Speed Bump for the children and Steve starts the Road Block. But much to Aly’s frustration, Steve heads in the complete wrong direction from where the case dropped.
Back at Detour, Matt & Ashley finish first with Tyler & Laura close behind. They head to the U-Turn just as Jelani & Jenny arrive. They choose the Play Detour and use their Express Pass.
Matt & Ashley happily U-Turn Jelani & Jenny while Tyler & Laura U-Turn Aly & Steve.
Teams can now make their way to the Pit Stop at Goanikontes Oasis where they will, for fun, take one animal (donkey, oryx, camel or zebra) with them to the Mat.
Jelani & Jenny start the Work side of the Detour alongside Mike & Rochelle who comment that Jenny is too mean and high strung and just yanking Jelani around.
Over at the Pit Stop, Tyler, Laura & Zebra take first and a trip to New Zealand. Matt, Ashley & Oryx take 2nd while Hayley, Blair and Dave the Camel finish 3rd.
Jelani & Jenny catch up to Mike & Rochelle at the Pit Stop. Mike gets thrown around by their zebra, then gets kicked right in the upper crotch, so they switch to the donkey. Jenny happily chooses Dave the Camel who shares a name with her dad.
Jelani & Jenny finish 4th and Mike & Rochelle take 5th.
That leaves Aly & Steve still in last as they find out they’ve been U-Turned. They head to the Pit Stop and Phil officially tells them they are eliminated.
Episode Thoughts
Welp, I guess this was a good week to double up the episodes since both were pretty slow and it would’ve been too much to have two weeks of them instead of getting them in one shot like this.
Again, the visuals were stunningly beautiful. Such great locations. (Hello non-Portmeirion Village from The Prisoner reimagination!) And the tasks themselves, both the Detour and Road Block, highlighted the interesting landscapes of the area. But competition-wise, it was not good. This Leg was more linear than the last one and probably more worthy of a Non-Elimination. There was no chance for Aly & Steve to recover.
And a U-Turn on a Speed Bump Leg? I know TAR put the U-Turn here so it would give the Express Pass team a good reason to use it. But the Leg design sucks when there’s a Speed Bump AND U-Turn on a very linear Leg that included a first come, first served task.
Two Emmy-worthy cinematography episodes, but otherwise very flat and dull. =( Sad.
My Subjective Team Rankings
I hate when teams gang up on another team for no apparent reason. So Jelani & Jenny are back as my #1. They really haven’t done anything, at least in the episodes, that would warrant all the other teams to comment on how horrible they (or Jenny, namely) are. So it just makes those teams come off as a bunch of Dave & Conners than people who have legit reasons for disliking a certain team. (And you definitely do not want to be a Dave or a Conner. Ewe.)
Blair & Hayley were okay this Leg. Their relationship really is fascinating. They hate each other, yet can work together, yet still fight, but are also friendly when they want to be. It’s hilarious.
Aly & Steve were pretty bland in the first six episodes, but were really good to watch this week. It’s too bad TAR didn’t show more of their personalities in the earlier Legs. (And yes, it’s partly, if not all TAR’s fault if teams suddenly become interesting when in the first episodes, they were boring and invisible.) Just look at Aly’s “The other teams know we should’ve won.” comment at the end. That’s awesome! I wish we had more of that before this week. Too bad.
It’s also too bad Rochelle & Mike had to comment on Jelani & Jenny when they haven’t been Racing all too well themselves. But at the same time, they were the subject of unfair comments last week too. Again, I do hope they can step it up though, despite Rochelle really proving herself in the Road Blocks.
Matt & Ashley U-Turning Jelani & Jenny was fine and definitely expected after the hilarious moment of “betrayal” in Bangkok. But I think TAR is definitely setting up Laura & Tyler for a big fall in the final Legs, especially the end if they make it that far. Their comments toward other teams are not going to win them a million bucks. TAR would never do that. (Though they did show Dave & Conner in their true, not very nice colors, so who knows?)
Episode Quotes
Jenny: “I’m leading my dad to the Pit Stop.”
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