Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 7, Episode 5 – “How can you live with yourself?”


Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 7, Episode 5 – Clamageddon Continues

The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5

Teams are flying back to British Columbia and the city of Nanaimo. While waiting at the airport, the other teams are surprised to hear about Irina not doing the ice dip and her and Dave quitting the mapping task.

After flying to Vancouver via Edmonton, teams must head to the Harbour Air Terminal to pick up some CLIF bars and sign up for one of four sea planes that will take them to Nanaimo, 15 minutes apart.

Aarthy & Thinesh get the only spot on the first flight. Anthony & James and Trish & Amy are on Flight 2, Lauren & Joanne and Sarah & Sam are on Flight 3 and Dave & Irina and Meaghan & Marie are on the last plane.

The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5 The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5

Upon arrival in Nanaimo, teams will hop into a brand new 2019 Chevy Camaro SS and drive themselves to Petroglyph Provincial Park. Here, they will receive a special clue from the star of the film Dora and the Lost City of Gold, actress Isabela Moner, and a Dora backpack full of items they will need on this Leg.

Teams will head to WildPlay Element Parks where they will gear up and get strapped in. They will get 60 seconds to memorize the recipe to a Nanaimo Bar before one team member bungee jumps and the other does a tandem primal swing. When they reach the bottom, they must list all the ingredients before receiving their next clue.

Aarthy & Thinesh are not able to recite the ingredients after their first jumps. That allows Trish & Amy to come in and get the thumbs up on their first attempt. The next clue tells them to drive to Deep Bay Marine Field Station.

Anthony & James also get it on their first attempt and move into 2nd. Sarah & Sam arrive and jump, but fail their first attempt. Aarthy & Thinesh go again and finally get the thumbs up as well.

Trish & Amy arrive at the Field Station and open their Speed Bump. They must assemble a 37-piece whale skeleton.

Anthony & James arrive and must now use a reference board and samples to dig for, identify and collect the correct number of four different species of shellfish: Butter Clam, Manila Clam, Pacific Oyster and Mahogany Clam.

The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5 The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5

Trish & Amy finish their Speed Bump and they head over to the clams with Aarthy & Thinesh. Sarah & Sam, Meaghan & Marie and Dave & Irina arrive next.

Lauren & Joanne are last at the jumps and get the thumbs up on their 3rd attempt. But the only road they can take to get to the Field Station is closed due to an accident and they must wait until it is cleared.

Meanwhile, an hour and 27 minutes have passed since Anthony & James began digging. They have everything except butter clams. Knowing how long their fellow married couple have been here, Dave & Irina start to consider quitting the task and taking the penalty.

And they do.

Dave & Irina open the next clue, the Road Block: Who’s the photog on your team?

The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5 The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5

For this Road Block, teams will go spelunking at Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park. First, they will unbox a brand new Huawei P30 Pro from The Source and head into the cave to search for and take photos of 11 letters inside. They will use the whiteboard from their Dora backpack backpack to unscramble the letters, revealing the next Pit Stop: Goats on Roof.

When Dave & Irina leave, the teams make a pact to work together the rest of the Leg so they can close the two-hour gap and get the yellow team eliminated. They all focus on finding butter clams for each other, but Lauren & Joanne have only just gotten through the accident closure.

When Lauren & Joanne arrive at the clams, they are informed of what’s going on and they too decide to take the penalty immediately.

Sarah & Sam go for a check of their clams and they get the thumbs up.

Dave has found ten of the eleven letters in the caves and decides to try and unscramble the letters and guess the answer instead.

Sarah and Lauren decide to work together to finish this Road Block.

Back at the clams, Trish & Amy decide to quit as do Meaghan & Marie, leaving Aarthy & Thinesh and Anthony & James who have been there more than three hours.

The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5 The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5

Anthony & James wonder if they should also take a penalty. But Aarthy points out that be they’d be eliminated since Aarthy & Thinesh will use their Express Pass. So both teams decide to work together.

Back at the Road Block, Sarah and Lauren begin to unscramble their letters. Dave decides to head over and asks if they can work together. They refuse. Trish has a seat next to Dave and she wishes she brought her maps with her. Dave offers his maps, but only if they can work together.

Trish refuses and is able to get the answer by herself anyway. She takes the photo, shows it to the guy and gets the clue. Dave walks over to look at the whiteboard, which Trish left out, and he is able to get the answer too. He then erases the answer off the board. Trish can’t believe it and calls him a cheater.

After the Road Block, quitters or not, teams can make their way to the Pit Stop at Goats on the Roof at Old Country Market in Coombs.

Meanwhile, it’s been 4 hours and 37 minutes at the clams. Aarthy & Thinesh get their clams approved and decide to stay and help Anthony & James so neither of them go home.

Anthony & James go get their clams approved. Both teams hurry over to the Road Block.

The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5 The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5

Over in Coombs, Trish & Amy cheer as they step on the Mat. But they have to serve out their penalty. Sarah & Sam, who are not quitters, are then able to check in as Team #1 and win a trip to Macchu Picchu.

Dave & Irina and Lauren & Joanne arrive next, but are also quitters so they too have to wait.

On the way to the Road Block, James decides to start looking for possible answers to the whiteboard and, having lived in the area and seeing the carrots in their backpack backpack, he believes the answer might be Goats on Roof. He tells Anthony who does the Road Block with Aarthy. They decide to not even go into the caves and just write the answer down, which is of course correct.

That leaves Marie, in last, struggling with the answer. But she eventually figures it out.

Over at the Mat, Anthony & James and Aarthy & Thinesh step on the Mat together to both claim 2nd place.

Meaghan & Marie arrive at the Mat and Jon calls everyone over to wrap up the insanity. Trish & Amy are Team #4, Dave & Irina are Team #5, Lauren & Joanne are Team #6. That means Meaghan & Marie are last and eliminated.

The Amazing Race Canada 7 Episode 5

The other teams hug the twins while Dave & Irina stand to the side.

Episode Thoughts

You start wondering now if the quitting is a result of poor Leg design. Like if it is easier to quit a task than to do it and still survive, is that on the teams or on the Race? Possibly both.

Thankfully, the non-quitters all finished ahead of the quitters so at least we don’t have to have the “Quitting is a good strategy” discussion.

Quitting should not be a successful strategy on The Amazing Race. Not when Rob did it on TAR7. Not when Dave & Irina (or anyone else) decide to do it here on TARC7.

(WAITOMG. Is this a 7th Season Quitting Curse?! Eeek!)

I assume Sarah is nice and all. But if I were her, I wouldn’t have helped any team who quit. Like, my philosophy going into a Race would be, “If you quit, you’re on your own.” You’re on this once in a lifetime adventure (and yes, a competition to win moneys) and you just quit and not do the tasks? Screw that.

Maybe we should allow for quitting in other competitions and sports too. Give me a break.

Like last week, the fact that there are teams who can do all the tasks and still make it to the Pit Stop makes anyone who quits a task look that much more like a clown. Sorry if that’s too harsh. But very simply, if others can do it, so can you.

And it’s interesting to wonder how long the quitters had been at the clams before deciding to give up. Not to mention how long they were at the caves. Two hour penalty plus time at the clams plus time at the caves was more than the four hours Aarthy & Thinesh and Anthony & James took at the clams?

So let’s take a look at what possibly could have gone so wrong on this Leg!

First of all, they were looking for Manila clams. I’d much rather they traveled to Manila instead for a Leg or two. And there’s some speculation that, while Nanaimo and Coombs look beautiful, this was just a replacement Leg for a failed attempt to go international. I’d much rather believe that than believe TARC thought it was a good idea to go back and forth to British Columbia.

Anyway, the bungee and swing was alright and made interesting thanks to the memorization of the recipe. Basically another Double Road Block. #TARPHDME

Now digging for clams is definitely not a task new to TAR. (Or, it might have been TARPHDME, I don’t even know anymore lol)

But this was definitely a little bit of a needle in the haystack task. Still, three teams were able to complete the task fine. And obviously, the show knew it would be difficult if teams were only required to find five butter clams and not 30 like the others. Thank goodness Anthony & James and Aarthy & Thinesh survived even after spending all that time on the clams.

Now, I notice that most of (if not all so far this season) the Road Block clues were given to the teams before getting to the actual Road Block location. I definitely love that and prefer that so teams can choose who will do the task without any hint to what the task might actually be. Even more them actually seeing the task being done or asking other teams what it is before deciding.

But then we have the situation here where James figured out the answer before they even got to the Road Block. Obviously, most Road Blocks will not be like this and would actually require teams to be at the location to complete it. No advanced prep for the task.

While watching the episodes, I usually take some notes. I wrote this while Dave was just looking at the map for things that fit into the blank:
At the Road Block, you only had to show the guy the final guess, not that you found all eleven letters. So what’s stopping you from just writing down anything from the map instead of actually going into the caves to do the task?

Take note, I typed this out before Anthony and Aarthy basically did just that at the end of the episode.

Crazy! The task should have included teams actually doing the footwork. Going into the caves, taking pictures of ALL ELEVEN letters and then unscrambling them. This was a product placement task for Huawei. So what’s the point if they don’t even use the Huawei phone? Absolute cop out.

I am actually more annoyed by the two teams not even going into the caves than by Dave copying Trish’s answer. While sleazy, it’s obviously not against the rules. And that goes to how the task was designed. Teams didn’t need to take their boards with them to get approved. Just had to take a picture and show it to the guy.

The better designed task would have been for teams to take pictures of all 11 letters and confirm them with the guy. THEN unscramble the letters on the whiteboard and show the guy the answer ON the whiteboard, not on a picture. It would ensure teams actually do the work inside the caves and also prevent Dave being able to look at Trish’s answer.

Ugh. What is this Leg even.

So I also jotted this note down while watching the episode:
Being an American watching from the United States, it is fascinating seeing some Huawei product placement on the show! Lol Obviously, Huawei is not sold here. But I’ve certainly been exposed to Huawei (and Oppo) phones (and huge billboards and ads) whenever my family and I travel to the Philippines.

But that’s not even important considering all the other nonsense that happened this episode.

This episode needed Derek Ramsay to lecture the teams about quitting and disrespecting the Race:

Not Jon Montgomery seemingly even cheering the teams and their penalties. WTF?

My Subjective Team Rankings

GAP

Oh boy. Do I have to rank these teams this week?

So automatically, Sarah & Sam are my outright #1. They absolutely owned this Leg. They did every single task. No quitting for these Olympians. And after last week’s awesome Leg by them, they are definitely THE team I am rooting for to win it all. My only criticism is definitely Sarah helping out Lauren. But otherwise, let’s just ignore that and focus on Sarah and Sam being an awesome team who actually does the tasks as intended. And if they don’t know how to, they ask for and look for help.

Now, before the Road Block, Aarthy & Thinesh would still be my #1 (or at least tied with Sarah & Sam). But Aarthy and Anthony both taking a shortcut with the Road Block kinda annoyed me, especially when I’m already sour after all the quitting. Obviously, neither team actually quit. But they certainly didn’t “fully” complete that task like it was described.

Still, much kudos to both Aarthy & Thinesh and Anthony & James for not quitting the clams and pushing through even if they did do it for four hours (like the show says). Though I assume Anthony & James had no choice since, like Aarthy pointed out, they would be for sure be eliminated if they quit.

Aarthy & Thinesh are also the top contenders now considering they’ve finished no lower than 2 without quitting and STILL have their Express Pass.

Anyway, moving on. This would’ve been an absolute breakout, stand out Leg for Trish & Amy had they not quit the clams. They absolutely killed everything else on this Leg, Speed Bump included. Would’ve been amazing to see them go from Non-Eliminated to 1st place. But then they had to quit. They’re quitters now. And that definitely makes me sad. They actually cheered when Jon said they were 1st, knowing they had a penalty. What even.

I actually would’ve preferred Lauren & Joanne were eliminated since they didn’t even attempt the clams. Even Dave (not Irina) did the task for a while before they decided to quit. Meaghan & Marie, also quitters and unlucky for them to have been left behind at the Road Block.

Dave & Irina could be such awesome cartoon villains if they didn’t try to be Rob & Amber. Like, I seriously think they binged TAR7 and decided to embody Rob & Amber for whatever reason. Irina being a princess again and literally calling the other teams “peasants”? That’s hilarious. Dave sneaking up on Sarah and Lauren (I thought to copy the 11th letter he never found), funny cartoon villain behavior. Dave & Irina mocking their fellow quitters’ group hug? Priceless! But quitting, now TWO tasks in TWO consecutive Legs? I am honestly hoping they quit a task in every Leg from now on. They already started to do it, why not just continue that all the way to the end. There’s no going back now.

Episode Quotes

Irina: “I’m ready to give up. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Irina: “When is the fun going to start?”

Irina: “I don’t like hard work.”

James: “Oh my gosh, this just got juicy.”

Trish: “How can you live with yourself, you’re such a cheater.”

Irina: “I’m gonna snap on them!”

Irina: “We’re here with these peasants.”

Aarthy: “Karma is a beautiful thing.”

7 thoughts on “Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 7, Episode 5 – “How can you live with yourself?”

  1. Honestly I blame bad production choices more than the teams this leg – between the clam challenge which reminded me of the Bali RB in TARA1, the penalty being too short that had it not for Anthony/James having a lucky hometown advantage would have basically screwed them over… not to mention the RB answer can be figured out without going into the caves itself.

    Total disaster of a leg design that’s really saved by the teams being as entertaining as they are, I feel

    1. I absolutely agree it’s partly the show’s fault for poor Leg design, especially with the Road Block. And with the clams, the show obviously knew it would be difficult if they only had teams looking for five of the butter clams. But when designing that task, they should have known there was a possibility it could take an unreasonable amount of time. Having teams there for several hours is definitely a logistics nightmare. But that’s on the production. Still if some teams were able to do it, then the others should have been able to also.

      I don’t remember the penalty times for other TARs though.

    1. Thanks for the link to that article. It’s nice to see Jon feels that way. But this was an interesting part:

      “When the teams arrive, you’ll see some disappointment in my delivery to the pairs that chose to take more than one penalty and maybe gave up a lot sooner than they should have. “

      It seems the show decided to edit that out because, and this is only after watching it once, they kept Jon being his usual energetic self and didn’t really seem like he was disappointed. The show probably made the decision not to put the teams in a worse light than they should have been.

      I would’ve loved Jon calling the teams out right there on the Mat like the moment from TARPH I included above.

  2. I recently rewatched eps from TAR 23 & TAR 29. What are your thoughts on these seasons? How would you rank the teams from favorite to least favorite?

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