Recap: The Amazing Race 31, Episode 5 – “Suck the juice out of every experience.”


Recap: The Amazing Race 31, Episode 5 – “I’m a Bird, I’m a Plane, I’m on The Amazing Race”

The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5

Teams fly to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Once there, teams must hop into taxis to meet some rich young men with expensive cars in the desert. After enjoying some tea and dates, teams can retrieve the next clue inside the cars.

They must now make their way to the Dubai Frame. Rachel & Elissa are in first place, but their taxi driver has no idea where to go.

The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5 The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5

The other teams open the clue revealing the Detour: Fall or Find. In Fall, teams are told they would be jumping out of the Burj Kalifa. But it’s actually only in virtual reality. What they also don’t know is that they will have a quiz of what they see in the virtual Burj Kalifa spy mission. In Find, teams must head to the Dinosaur Park in Dubai Garden Glow where they will put on huge dinosaur costumes and search the park for five different colored eggs.

Leo & Jamal, Colin & Christie and Tyler & Korey choose Fall. Seeing everyone else at Find, Rachel convinces Elissa that they should switch since bungee jumping should be easy and fast despite only two teams able to make the “jump” at the same time.

None of the Fall teams pass the quiz on their first attempt. Meanwhile, Chris & Bret finish the eggs first and they must now make their way to Soho Garden.

All the teams get through their respective Detours except for Leo & Jamal and Rachel & Elissa who have trouble with one question each.

Over at Soho Garden, teams find the Road Block: Who can feel the beat?

The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5 The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5

For this Road Block, teams enter a silent rave where they must identify which of the partygoers are moving to the beat of the track being played by the DJ. (Apparently, an Amazing Race theme remix.)

The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5 The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5

Floyd finishes the Road Block first and he and Becca hurry over to take a zipline to the Pit Stop on the Dubai Marina. They win $5000 and Phil freestyles with them.

They are followed by Chris & Bret, Colin & Christie, Tyler & Korey, Nicole & Victor, Janelle & Britney and Leo & Jamal.

Rachel & Elissa accept they are in last place, but Phil tells them this is a Non-Elimination Leg.

The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5

Episode Thoughts

Interesting Leg. The tasks certainly fit for a night Leg in Dubai. But it certainly wasn’t the most inspiring Leg Design. Random rich Emiratis in the desert? Dinosaur costumes? Fake freefalls? Another night out with friends after karaoke in the last Leg?

It definitely felt more like a bridge kind of Leg to serve as the connecting point between Vietnam and wherever they’re going in the next Leg. UAE is definitely a friendly country for TAR to visit as Dubai especially likes to promote tourism to their city. So it makes sense.

The copout with the VR freefall was so sketch. And the dinosaur egg task was really more of an Active Route Info task, honestly, rather than one side of a Detour. It was basically the Milwaukee Brewers Sausage Race. (Coincidentally both on the same day, today.)

The Road Block was okay on its own. But the best part of the Leg really was just hearing the TAR theme remix.

Ziplining to the Pit Stop definitely should only be on Non-Elimination Legs. Having a line to go to the Pit Stop is not good.

In this week’s nitpicking, why was Becca & Floyd’s ID always far-left aligned instead of the normal spot?
The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5 vs The Amazing Race 30 Episode 5

Anyway, a pretty meh Leg overall. But since it was paired with another Leg, it wasn’t as noticeably bland as it would have been on its own.

My Subjective Team Rankings

The Amazing Race 31 Rachel & Elissa The Amazing Race 31 Janelle & Britney The Amazing Race 31 Colin & Christie The Amazing Race 31 Chris & Bret The Amazing Race 31 Nicole & Victor The Amazing Race 31 Leo & Jamal The Amazing Race 31 Becca & Floyd The Amazing Race 31 Tyler & Korey

Rachel & Elissa had some bad taxi luck on this Leg. But unlike other teams who have disappointed in the entertainment aspect, the Reillys delivered this Leg, especially in the end in the taxi. Rachel already resigned to the fact that she was about to be eliminated for the first time ever and then Elissa telling her to quit it. That was hilarious. I just wish they’d get some luck on their side while also kind of avoiding their little mistakes that add up.

Janelle & Britney are really just under-edited. They only pop up when they’re frantic at something and then disappear for the rest of the Leg. I think that’s a little bit of a disservice to them, especially as both are much more witty and interesting than the other teams. The deleted scenes TAR uploads on YouTube even show that.

Colin & Christie have been running what is probably the strongest Race so far. I don’t really think their change in attitude has really been a huge factor since they’ve been doing very well so far with really no opportunities for them to even get frustrated.

Chris & Bret had another bit of a darkhorse kind of Leg. They’re definitely making a case for themselves, though quietly. Nicole & Victor, again, are doing very well too. But not in the most exciting way. Leo & Jamal are definitely not the same Racers they were on even TAR24. That is, Racing-wise. They’re still very annoying obviously. Which can also be said for Becca & Floyd and Tyler & Korey.

I would’ve much preferred the Leg placements to have been flipped. Would’ve been a great outcome.

Episode Quotes

Elissa: “It was harder than a DMV test, for sure.”

Colin: “Suck the juice out of every experience.”

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