Recap: The Amazing Race 32, Episode 4 – “Did you help our alliance?”

Recap: The Amazing Race 32, Episode 4 – “Olé, Olé!”

Leo & Alana and Will & James come face to face on the night boat during the Pit Stop and it’s awkward. But the Race goes on as teams will now fly to Asuncion, Paraguay.

At the airport, Will & James and Hung & Chee use the airport laptops to print out maps of Paraguay for their fellow alliance members. They sneak around to keep the other teams from finding out what they’re doing.

All teams are on the same flight so the eight teams are held until they can be unleashed out onto Asuncion and the waiting taxi drivers. Teams must now make their way to Orquesta de Reciclados de Cateura.

Michelle & Victoria and Will & James’ taxi drivers don’t know where they’re going so they have to switch to new ones. The other teams arrive and find the Road Block: Who’s feeling instrumental?

For this Road Block, teams will search through the landfill to find items they can use to assemble a cello for schoolchildren part of the Orquesta de Reciclados de Cateura.

Maddison, Eswar, Leo, DeAngelo, Chee and Will get started. Both Kaylynn & Haley and Michelle & Victoria believe they are lost, especially when they see poorer areas they are being driven through.

Kaylynn & Haley are a little freaked out when their driver gets out to talk to the locals.

Michelle & Victoria are able to arrive at the orquestra and Michelle does the Road Block. The Alliance continues their alliance ways by helping each other make their cello correctly.

Outside, the other teams group hug Hung when she cries in front of the children. Meanwhile, DeAngelo has his cello approved first and he and Gary can go to Mercado 4 to find a terere vendor.

Kaylynn & Hayley finally arrive and Hayley gets started with the Road Block.

DeAngelo & Gary find the vendor and check-in at the Yield before opening the next clue. Teams must now prepare Paraguay’s national drink terere and fill up a thermos that they will carry for the rest of the leg.

The next clue reveals the first ever Double Switchback Detour: Stack Your Melon and Use Your Melon. In Stack Your Melon, teams must stack their watermelons in a pyramid. In Use Your Melon, teams must perform a choreographed routine balancing a bottle on their head without breaking it.

DeAngelo & Gary choose the watermelons. Will & James decide to do the bottle dance since they had just watched TAR20 and practiced at home. Hung & Chee also choose the bottle as do Leo & Alana.

Riley & Maddison are next and they choose the watermelons. Michelle & Victoria choose dancing.

Seeing the sisters arrive, Hung & Chee decide to switch to the watermelons.

Eswar and Kaylynn have been at the Road Block for two hours and are still struggling.

After their third attempt, Will & James get through their dance and receive the next clue directing them to Plaza Italia, the Pit Stop for this Leg of the Race. They check in as Team #1 and win $5000 each.

Michelle & Victoria ace the dancing and head to the Pit Stop as Team #2!

Eswar finally gets his cello approved and he and Aparna head off to the dance Detour. They arrive just as Leo & Alana leave for the Pit Stop as Team #3.

Meanwhile, the watermelon teams are not having an easy time. Riley & Maddison’s pyramid stays put and they can head to the Pit Stop as Team #4. Eswar & Aparna’s dance gets the thumbs up and they check-in as Team #5. Hung & Chee are Team #6.

It’s been almost four hours and Kaylynn finally gets her cello approved. They also choose the dancing. Darkness has fallen in Asuncion. It’s been almost four hours since DeAngelo & Gary have started the watermelons as well.

It’s down to the last two teams. There’s a faux foot race to the Pit Stop. But DeAngelo & Gary finish as Team #7. That means Kaylynn & Haley are last. But this is a Non-Elimination Leg.

Episode Thoughts

Definitely the best, most fun episode of the season. Definitely recycled from TAR20, but still a pretty good Leg, relatively speaking.

Let’s get it out of the way first. All the alliance stuff is just so cringe. I really don’t know what it is about alliances on The Amazing Race. But it really just turns me off a little. It might be the big alliance on TARPH2. But I remember that as much as I love the Six Pack from TAR10, the fact they would wait for each other and all that was just not good. Help each other, sure. But having a cliquey attitude on TAR just feels off considering it is one of the few reality competition programs where you really control your own fate whereas the other big shows require you to secure a spot in big groups to win.

Anyway… this Leg essentially switched around the tasks from TAR20’s Leg. They strung harps on TAR20 for the Detour and here they made recycled instruments for children as the Road Block. The watermelon task remained a Detour while the bottle dancing Road Block took the other side of the Detour instead.

I think you could definitely switch the cello and bottle dance and the Leg would still be good. But of course the Orquestra was located out of downtown while the Detour choices were in the city. So that’s a consideration.

The Road Block was a nice task and definitely a wonderful insight into something about the local culture.

The terere task was a simple Route Marker to help fill out the Leg. (Hello TARPHDME10! lol) The Yield spot was okay. But I think it would’ve been better before the Road Block. You want the Yield at a spot where the Yielded team is in a location where other teams are working (though you don’t necessarily want the Yielded team to see what others are doing). That is very tense. Especially when all teams are there.

The Detour was fine. I honestly thought the watermelons would be the easier task. But I guess not! The dancing ended up much easier, especially when the teams could be as slow as possible when performing. They weren’t doing the line dance, after all.

The Leg was longer than the usual contemporary Leg which is awesome. At least 6-8 hours long. You don’t see that often anymore on TAR. So seeing the time elapsed was nice to see how teams were struggling. Of course, you can’t see those times often as it would interfere with the show’s editing of faux drama. Lol But it helped add some excitement to the rest of the Leg.

Overall, a very good Leg. Exciting and fun. But I will say. Part of my enjoyment was probably due to just wanting to watch something other than election coverage lol

My Subjective Team Rankings

A lot of movement on my list this week. Though I really don’t dislike any teams still. I think all the remaining teams are a piece in the puzzle of the season’s dynamic and each has a part to play to bring everything together.

Michelle & Victoria are still my runaway favorite team. They are fun and hilarious. And this episode, they showed that they are solid, if not great Racers who can overcome some speedbumps along the way. Them finishing second was so awesome to see.

Eswar & Aparna are also similarly resilient. They’ve been behind a few times so far, but they’ve managed to work and get themselves into a safe position. They’re doing very well. And the alliance is security for them, but they haven’t really been the most active members of the group yet.

Hung & Chee, meanwhile, were very gung-ho about the alliance this Leg. Not a fan of that. But I’m definitely a fan of them as a team. Hung spazzing out at the Detour was kinda funny. They’ve been a pretty calm, cool, collected team so far. But after Hung’s little face off with Michelle last Leg that was not included in the episode and now the moment with Chee here, it’s definitely going to be fun seeing Hung & Chee get really competitive soon. Especially against their alliance members.

I might not like Leo & Alana as much as my Top 3, but just the fact that they really don’t like Will & James is great for entertainment purposes. We need a big rival for our big alliance. And seeing Leo & Alana this annoyed, upset, whatever it is against Will & James is great! I hope they do go after Will & James and we see a fun rivalry for a couple of Legs.

Kaylynn & Haley had a lucky Leg. But the moment of the episode for them was their freaking out when their taxi driver got lost. It was a funny moment. Perhaps a little awkward the way they were describing the situation and the surroundings. But it was some amusing moments from them.

DeAngelo & Gary are definitely the most inconsistent team this season. They might be like this for as long as they’re on the Race. It will be interesting to see them responding to times when they’re far ahead or when they’re in danger like they were here.

Will & James are shaping up to be one of the top contenders. And the fact that they have no qualms about U-Turning or Yielding another team may take them all the way to the end. Being the apparent leaders of the alliance takes some points off for me since again, I am not a fan of alliances. But they’re at least Racing well enough on their own and are not getting dragged along by their alliance mates.

Riley & Maddison are last on my list but only because they feel more like the tag-along team in the big alliance. They’re not dominant and they’re not bottomgoddessing either. So being just in the middle with not much opportunity to show their personalities has them just kind of there most of the time. Especially as they are not at the forefront of the alliance shenanigans like maybe Will & James and Hung & Chee were this episode.

Episode Quotes

Hung: “Did you help our alliance?”

Chee: “I need to talk more.”