Recap: The Amazing Race 2, Episode 9 – “I’m going to have a heart attack.”


Recap: The Amazing Race 2, Episode 9 – Ready to Lose Our Lives
Original Airdate: May 1, 2002

The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9 The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9

The 10th Leg begins in the Outback with Chris & Alex departing at 3:35am and opening the clue telling them to fly to Queenstown, New Zealand. To get there, teams must first load their vehicles on a road train that will take them to Glendambo. They will then drive to a local airstrip to sign up for one of two charter flights to Adelaide departing at 10:30am and 11:15am.

Blake & Paige depart at 5:01am, Tara & Wil leave at 5:06am and Oswald & Danny start at 5:09am. The three teams are neck and neck on their way to Glendambo.

The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9 The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9

Upon arrival in Glendambo, Chris & Alex try to call for tickets from Adelaide to Queenstown. But there are no flights leaving today. They tell Tara & Will when they arrive and neither team are in a hurry to sign-up for the charter since they think it doesn’t matter anyway if they’ll be getting into Queenstown tomorrow.

They tell Blake & Paige about it, but the siblings decide to hurry to the airstrip. Tara & Wil see them and hurry after them, but they think the siblings are going the wrong way so they just go back to reunite with Chris & Alex.

Blake & Paige actually did go the right way and are able to sign-up for the first flight.

Tara and Wil begin to argue out of frustration. Wil sits between the gas pumps and says he quits. Tara blames him for not doing any work. They end up going to the airstrip anyway and get on the first flight as well.

But it really doesn’t matter as all teams, after some finagling, are on the same flight from Christchurch to Queenstown. While other teams check their bags in, Blake & Paige manage not to which thus giving them a potential couple of minutes head start upon arrival. The other teams are upset about Blake & Paige “lying” about their bags.

The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9 The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9

So the other teams decide to conspire with the flight attendants to block everyone from leaving the plane until they are sure their bags have already been unloaded. Alex even gets on the intercom to make jokes and then proceeds to pretend to injure his leg right at the door.

The teams actually delay the disembarking of the plane by 15 minutes. And once they see their bags being driven to the terminal, they run.

The other three teams end up hopping in taxis before Blake & Paige.

The next clue awaits teams at Wentworth Station. But Blake & Paige decide to go for the Fast Forward. For this Fast Forward, teams will have to find Shotover Jetboats, hop in a jetboat and spot the Race flag along the shore to claim the award.

The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9 The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9

Since Blake & Paige are the only team to go for the Fast Forward, they easily claim the fast pass to the Pit Stop at Inverary Sheep Station.

The other teams arrive at Wentworth Station and find a vehicle and driver with a clue telling them to make their way to Nevis Highwire Platform. Tara & Wil are first to the platform and open the next clue revealing a Detour: Quick Jump or Long Hike. In Quick Jump, teams will tandem bungee jump to the clue at the bottom of the canyon. In Long Hike, teams must hike down to the clue instead.

All three teams decide on jumping the second highest bungee jump in the world. Wil overcomes his fear of heights and he and Tara jump. As do the other teams.

The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9 The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9

After the Detour, teams must drive themselves to the Inverary Sheep Station in the Canterbury Plains.

Blake & Paige have already arrived there and step on the Mat as Team #1. They win a trip to Puerto Rico and believe this guarantees their spot in the Final Three.

Meanwhile, Tara & Wil again begin to argue as they arrive at the sheep station. They open the next clue revealing the Road Block which requires teams to separate the three black sheep from 22 white sheep by herding them into a small pen. When they have done so, they can run to the Mat to check-in.

While Wil gets started, Chris & Alex and Oswald & Danny have trouble finding the farm. Wil literally kicks the last white sheep from the pen and he and Tara check-in as Team #2.

The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9 The Amazing Race 2 Episode 9

The Boston Bros are next to arrive and Chris starts the Road Block. He finishes and he and Alex check-in as Team #3 even before Team Cha Cha Cha arrive.

Oswald does the Road Block and actually lets white sheep out of the larger pen enclosure into the open field. He and Danny check-in with Phil who says this is a Non-Elimination Leg.

Episode Thoughts

Why did this episode feel like an irrelevant filler by the end? Lol Like, I dunno. I don’t remember Non-Elimination Legs feeling so pointless. Yet this episode kinda did. I think mainly it’s because 2/3 of the episode was basically non-competition. It was just teams trying to figure out plane tickets which in the end did not matter anyway.

But of course, this is very much how TAR was edited in the olden days.

The actual tasks didn’t really warrant much longer than they got anyway. So, I think together, it made this episode pretty boring and non-essential.

First off though, those road trains are very interesting. (Hello future TARPHDME task! lol) They could’ve done a whole task involving them which would’ve been better.

But the episode kind of went downhill from there. I kinda wish the flights did matter so Chris & Alex’s nonchalant attitude ended up costing them. The way they were like “It doesn’t matter…” was such a turn off. And again, it’s moments like these where I’m happy TAR has all but eliminated airport drama. Especially when they amount to nothing anyway.

But I don’t know about those airplane shenanigans. No not Blake & Paige. I mean, I don’t know what the bag policy was back then. Especially after 9/11. But teams have been able to carry their huge bags on since forever. So if Blake & Paige were able to do it, then good on them. They obviously would’ve been stopped at the gate had they not been able to take their bags on.

So the stuff the others did to block everyone from deplaning was really annoying to me. And this is coming from me who doesn’t necessarily like the Mycoskies all that much, to be honest. I dunno. Seems too petty and bitter. And I don’t believe them saying the rest of plane was laughing along. We didn’t see any clips of such things. So it’s their word against the aired footage. And I trust the nonexistent footage.

The Detour was kind of lame. If only because teams will obviously jump. Especially when they’re already at the platform. I think that’s one reason this episode felt so predictable as a Non-Elimination Leg. Then again, seeing people bungee jump on TV in 2002 was really a truly amazing sight. So I guess the task served its purpose.

The Road Block is fine. But coming at the end of a sluggish episode and knowing nothing of this even mattered anyway was a big letdown.

My Subjective Team Rankings

The Amazing Race 2 The Amazing Race 2 The Amazing Race 2 The Amazing Race 2

At this point of my rewatch, I am very surprised that I kind of don’t like any of these teams. Lol. Like, I don’t necessarily care to root for any of them. And that’s really odd to me because my vague memory told me that they were pretty likable. I guess not! lol

I have Blake & Paige at the top if only because their bag move was pretty good. Anything to get yourself ahead as long as it is allowed. And it wasn’t in a mean-spirited way either. So too bad it didn’t matter. (Like most everything in this episode lol)

Oswald & Danny are 2nd if only because they weren’t as annoying as the other two. They kept to themselves, though still wanted to benefit from tagging along with the other two teams.

I never felt Chris & Alex were cocky bros until this episode. Their airplane antics were just annoying and a big turn off. Their comments felt very bitter in a way like they were embarrassed that they had not thought of Blake & Paige’s move themselves.

Meanwhile, Tara & Wil argued some more. But after my disappointment with last episode’s less-than-epic moment, I’m kind of over them now. Like, I remembered big fireworks from them. Not these small back and forths that pale in comparison to other bickering couples across 33 seasons of TAR.

Episode Quotes

Tara: “Can I please have a new partner?!”

Taxi Driver: “That’s the wrong side buster.”

Alex: “I am going to have a heart attack.”

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