Recap: The Amazing Race 31, Episode 11 – “This One is For One Million Dollars”

Recap: The Amazing Race 31, Episode 11 – “This One is For One Million Dollars”

All teams are on the same flight to London Gatwick Airport. Upon arrival, teams must find their next clue at Gatwick Aviation Museum. They will hop into a helicopter and fly from Gatwick to Seven Sisters to Dover Castle.

Leo & Jamal maintain their lead and arrive at the Castle to find the Road Block: Who can’t keep a secret?

For this Road Block, teams must decipher a secret message while in Winston Churchill’s secret bunkers and type it out to receive their next clue.

Leo, Christie and Victor get started. When Tyler & Korey arrive, Jamal and Colin immediately tell them it requires deciphering a code. So Korey decides he is best for the task. Nicole is annoooyyyed.

Leo finishes the Road Block first and Christie and Korey work together while trying to keep Victor out of the loop. Christie and Korey have some trouble figuring it out and that allows Victor to move ahead of them with the correct answer. Christie desperately asks Korey to help once he finally figures it out on his own.

But Christie begins to get frustrated and takes some time to finally figure it out.

Meanwhile, the other teams land by the River Thames where they must travel by speedboat to Piccadilly Circus to find the Golden Queen. Her clue reveals the Detour: Know or Row. In Know, teams must memorize a taxi route. In Row, teams must row a two-person SKIFF in under one-minute.

Back at Dover Castle, Christie finally finishes and she shares an emotional reunion with Colin as they fly back to London.

Leo & Jamal choose the rowing first, but immediately switch when they are scared of the water. Nicole forces Victor to choose rowing and let him do all the physical work. Tyler & Korey also choose to row.

Colin & Christie are able to catch up at the rowing and get started as the other two teams struggle. Leo & Jamal, meanwhile, need several attempts to memorize the taxi route. Tyler & Korey and Nicole & Victor decide to switch Detours.

Leo & Jamal finally finish the Detour and can now make their way to the Pit Stop at Camden Market. But Phil surprises them with another clue. They must search the market for eight items to recreate a display before Phil can check them in.

Colin & Christie finish the Detour before Nicole & Victor. All teams are now at Camden Market searching for the items.

Leo & Jamal are able to check in first and finally make it to the Final leg for the first time. Tyler & Korey take 2nd and they help Colin & Christie to secure the last spot. That means Nicole & Victor are thankfully eliminated and they are not happy about it.

The Final Leg begins as teams fly to Detroit, Michigan. Upon arrival, teams must find the Spirit of Detroit for their next clue.

Leo & Jamal arrive at the clue first and it reveals the Road Block: Who’s good with numbers?

For this Road Block, teams must rappel face-forward and keep an eye out for four numbers needed to unlock a bank vault. Leo, Tyler and Colin do the Road Block.

Leo gets down and tries to unlock the vault, but is unable to correctly follow the intricate directions. Colin and Tyler arrive and Colin is able to open the vault first.

Colin & Christie can now make their way to the Fowling Warehouse where they must play two rounds of fowling, bowling with a football.

Tyler is able to open the vault next, leaving Leo in last place.

Colin & Christie can’t find their taxi. That allows Tyler & Korey to jump into their cab first. Christie berates their driver and Colin tries to calm her down.

Colin & Christie are able to catch up to Tyler & Korey, but Tyler & Korey maintain their lead as they must make their way to Third Man Records where they must press five Race-colored records to receive their next clue.

Colin & Christie are able to get their five records approved first and they can now make their way to Hart Plaza. Here, teams must assemble a five-piece drum kit according to an example while enjoying “Seven Nation Army” playing over and over and over. And over.

Tyler & Korey arrive at the Plaza as well. It’s all about attention to detail, but Colin & Christie are able to get the thumbs up on their drum kit first.

Colin & Christie can now make their way to the Finish Line: Fort Wayne.

Despite some faux editing, Colin & Christie are able to cross the Finish Line first. Phil officially declares them winners of The Amazing Race: CBS Reality Show Alum Showdown.

Tyler & Korey are 2nd and Tyler threatens to come back.

Leo & Jamal finish 3rd and declare themselves Amazing Race kings. Eliza is everyone:

Episode Thoughts

The only way this season could be redeemed was if Colin & Christie ended up winning and they did. Of course, I’ve personally known this result since last year (along with all the TAR spoiler followers) so I knew it was a good result regardless of how horrible the rest of the season might be.

First off, the London Leg might have been the best Leg of the season. A great, full and competitive Leg with great challenges that required both mental and physical strength as well as a little bit of luck. Everything you need for a successful Race.

First, I usually don’t care for alliances and ganging up on one team, but it really couldn’t have happened against a better team than Nicole & Victor. Lol Anyway, it really didn’t matter since the rest of the Leg determined the final placement rather than whether or not a team got help. Plus Victor beat Korey and Christie anyway.

It was fun to see TARUS recycle the Knowledge Detour from TARPHDME. Lol I think TARPHDME did it better though lol

Having that one final needle in a haystack clue at the Mat was an interesting decision and unexpected twist. But it fit for this Penultimate Leg.

The Final Leg, however, was a letdown. Especially after last season’s epic Final Leg in San Francisco. No Final Memory Task is also a disappointment.

I think the vault Road Block was interesting enough and obviously caused problems for Leo. The fowling was meh and the record pressing was a simple process task. The attention to detail assembly task was okay, but the highlight of it was really only having “Seven Nation Army” as the finale soundtrack. Definitely a different, refreshing element to the finale. But not the most exciting task.

It was funny, though understandable how the show edited it to be a close finish when in reality, Colin & Christie had really run away with the win in the last half of the Leg.

And as awesome as it was to have OGs Colin & Christie win the Race, Eliza’s eyeroll at Leo & Jamal (or whomever) stole the finale lol

Overall, the two hours worked well together. But as a finale, not really too memorable outside of having Colin & Christie winning after all these years.

My Subjective Team Rankings

HUGE GAP

More detailed comments on the teams in my season wrap-up. But I loved seeing vintage Christie make an appearance in the Final Leg. This is the Colin & Christie I wanted to see all season long! lol

After the spoilers (and news articles!) showed Leo & Jamal fall FAAAAR behind in Detroit, I almost felt sorry for them last year. But after actually watching this season, it was really foreshadowed all season long. They were horrible Racers (aside from being simply annoying) and benefited from other teams’ mistakes. It was only fitting they would fail in the Final Leg.

Tyler said “Fine, we’ll come back.” I certainly hope not! But if they do return, they will be in “good” company (Jet & Cord, Flight Time & Big Easy). That is, teams who are so unlikeable they shouldn’t have been asked back twice, let alone three times.

And Nicole & Victor, a leak of their confessional recording showed them even more pissed off than was shown in the episode. All I can do is laugh.

Episode Quotes

Nicole: “This is going to be very ugly, people!”