Recap: The Amazing Race 32, Episode 5 – “You have to put three balls in the mouth.”


Recap: The Amazing Race 32, Episode 5 – You Don’t Strike Me as a Renaissance Man

The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap

Teams will fly to Paris, France and then drive themselves to the Domaine de Chantilly. On the first flight are Leo & Alana, Michelle & Victoria, Riley & Maddison and Will & James. On the second flight are everyone else.

Will says he practiced driving stick-shift before the Race. Yet he ends up slowing Michelle & Victoria and Leo & Alana when he can’t get a handle on the car out of the garage and blocks the exit ramp. Leo runs up to Will and drives the car up to where there’s enough room for others to pass.

Michelle & Victoria ask Will & James if they’re okay as they pass by while Leo hopes the manual struggle will eliminate them.

The entire cold open gets resolved when Will realizes he was in the wrong gear the entire time. Riley & Maddison are far ahead as they find the next clue at Chantilly which reveals the Road Block: Who has an eye for art?

The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap

For this Road Block, teams must search amongst partygoers to find one out of nine that match a character in one of the paintings in the adjacent gallery.

Riley decides to do the Road Block. Meanwhile, Michelle & Victoria take a wrong exit while James is annoyed that Leo was such an ass about their stick situation in the garage.

Riley has found a matching character even before any other team arrives. Teams must make their way on foot to Le Vertugadin where they must whip up enough Chantilly crème for four pies.

The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap

Alana has no problem finding a character and he and Leo leave just as Will & James have arrived and James starts the Road Block. He gets a character just as Hung gets started and finds Jesus. Aparna and Victoria are next to start the Road Block.

Over at the creams, Riley & Maddison deliver their four pies to a tent where chefs pelt them with ready made pies before receiving their next clue. Teams will now have to drive back to Paris and find the Musee des Arts Forains.

Before they leave, Riley & Maddison warn Will & James and Hung & Chee about the pie throwing. They acknowledge DeAngelo & Gary are also part of the alliance, but they feel the NFL brothers drag them down.

The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap

As Leo & Alana, Hung & Chee and Michelle & Victoria deliver their pies, Riley & Maddison arrive at the funfair museum, decide not to Yield and find another Road Block: Who wants to step right up?

For this Road Block, teams must win all three designated carnival games. Maddison gets started.

Back in Chantilly, Gary arrives while Aparna is still there struggling. Art connoisseur Gary is able to find the right person on his first attempt. But Aparna needs 16 attempts before she and Eswar can move on.

Meanwhile, last place Kaylynn & Hayley have been having trouble with their manual transmission as well. But they arrive at the castle and must first complete the Speed Bump by cleaning a horse’s two saddles.

The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap

Riley & Maddison finish the Road Block and can now take a taxi to the Pit Stop on the Pont des Arts. They claim their first win and a trip to Vietnam.

Chee catches up to Leo at the Road Block and manages to pass him. He and Hung head to the Pit Stop as Team #2. Leo & Alana are Team #3 with their good friends Will & James as Team #4.

Michelle & Victoria, meanwhile, have been given horrible directions and are now two kilometers out of the way, according to a map that is shown on screen. The other sisters Hayley & Kaylynn are also a little lost as they try to catch up.

DeAngelo & Gary and Eswar & Aparna finish as Teams 5 and 6.

Hayley & Kaylynn arrive at the museum to regal fanfare and they head to the Pit Stop as Team #7.

We are told Michelle & Victoria have been driving around for six and a half hours. That means they are unfortunately last and eliminated. The Cajun Asians are thankful for the opportunity and say the Race has brought them closer together.

The Amazing Race 32 Episode 5 Recap

Episode Thoughts

An absolutely horrible Leg and episode. I hated that. So bad. Gross.

Though I only feel that way because the episode had us losing Michelle & Victoria. Huhu.

The Leg was alright. Though I would’ve put a Detour at the castle in Chantilly instead. Maybe make both the painting Road Block (a recycle of many TAR tasks from the past) and the Speed Bump more difficult and using that as a Detour. If only to also maximize our time at the beautiful location. And in the cold rain too! That would’ve been great.

On its own, the Road Block was okay. But again, it was like many TAR tasks in the past. I think it could’ve been a little harder. Seeing that Riley found a character even before any other team arrived means one of two things. Either Will & James held up the other teams for a VERY long time. Or the Road Block was just that simple that it only needed a few minutes to complete. Not the most exciting. But it was most of the episode. And that was partly because teams were so far apart from each other.

The crème task was a good extra task to throw in the middle of the Leg.

The carnival Road Block should’ve been the only Road Block in the Leg. And it was fine as well. Would’ve been much better had more teams been there at the same time too to make it even more of a carnival atmosphere.

Nice to see self-driving as well. Though that obviously doomed Michelle & Victoria (huhuuhu).

The Will & James/Leo & Alana rivalry is AWESOME. I love the bitterness and cattiness. It’s fun! Especially since I don’t necessarily favor one over the other. So it’s fun to watch the back and forth. The scene where Will & James pop up behind Leo while he’s talking about them was perfect! Can’t script that.

One interesting bit of editing was Michelle joking about seeing the crème as the face of someone she hates so she’ll just stab it and whip it. They then cut to Hung. That would be hilarious to anyone whose seen the deleted clip of Hung and Michelle’s hilarious testy exchange from Brazil. That non-confrontation didn’t go anywhere of course. But I would love to have seen that rivalry actually grow and play out to the end. lol And it would different from the Will & James/Leo & Alana rivalry because I love both the Asian Cajuns and the married parents. So I would be conflicted, yet amused. lol

One nitpick that I think started last season or two seasons ago is Phil saying “Team X will be the first to leave Country X” when that’s not true at all. The first place team is the first to leave the Pit Stop, but not the first to leave the country since they’re usually all on the same flights. Whoever wrote that line should really change it back to “Team X will be the first to depart the Pit Stop” and “Teams will now fly to Country X” or something like that.

Interesting that Eswar & Aparna are not considered part of the alliance by Riley & Maddison. I thought it was a Big Alliance of 5. James’ “Thank God for alliances” was almost as cringey as TAR Canada teams saying “You don’t need to travel [out of Canada]”.

But Phil teases the alliance collapsing in the next episode so I certainly hope that’s true! I want to see more teams going at each other’s throats! lol

My Subjective Team Rankings

The Amazing Race 32 Michelle Victoria The Amazing Race 32 Aparna Eswar The Amazing Race 32 Hung Chee The Amazing Race 32 Alana Leo The Amazing Race 32 Gary Deangelo The Amazing Race 32 Will James The Amazing Race 32 Kaylynn Haley The Amazing Race 32 Riley Maddison

I am so sad to see Michelle & Victoria out so early. They are one of the most hilarious and dynamic teams on TAR in years. And they’ve shown they can be a great team. But they certainly had some big stumbles as well. And this Leg was certainly one of those stumbles. It’s too bad. I think they really could’ve gone all the way. They were so fun to watch.

Eswar & Aparna are kind of similar to Michelle & Victoria. I love watching them too. But their Racing has also been a little inconsistent as well. I hope they can step it up a little bit moving forward. A much quieter Leg from Hung & Chee this episode. But still a top contender. Like Alana said, they’ve got magic fairy dust and are just doing so well.

Leo & Alana are shaping up to be such a fun team. Like I said, the rivalry is fun to watch. And Leo was particularly amusing all episode. From the garage to the first Road Block commentary. DeAngelo & Gary were alright. But also got less screentime as they were towards the back of the pack. Gary being an art lover was a fun moment though.

The stick shift problems aside, Will & James had a solid Leg. The “Thank God for alliances” quote though was just so horrible to hear. lol Instead, I need more tense, awkward moments with Leo & Alana though! Hayley & Kaylynn were very lucky this Leg and survived thanks to Michelle & Victoria’s huge mistake. They’ve got some ground to make up. Which for sure they can with a flight (?) to Germany. So we’ll see how they do. Riley & Maddison were also a little lucky this Leg thanks to the stick shift problems at the garage. But they did a good job of maintaining that lead all Leg.

Episode Quotes

Leo: “I hope it gets them eliminated.”

Michelle: “I’m thinking about somebody that I hate, their face. Stab it!”

James: “Thank God for alliances.”-

Michelle: “Oh my God, they hit my face!”

Carnival Worker: “You have to put three balls in the mouth.”

Kaylynn: “My saddle is lookin’ pretty sexy.”

Alana: “Hung and Chee are just made of magic and fairy dust.”

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