Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 8, Episode 7 – “Get your clue, read it and go away.”

Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 8, Episode 7 – What the Duck is Going On?

The next Leg begins immediately and teams learn it will largely take place in Prince Edward County, Ontario. This Leg will also have a Double Elimination. Franca & Nella and Brendon & Connor are sure they will use their Express Pass to avoid it. (But really, it’s because the Express Pass expires this Leg.)

Teams must head to the GURU-sponsored sign-up board to secure seats on one of two buses to Toronto. On Bus #1 are Franella, Brendon & Connor, Cedric & Tychon and Beverley & Veronica. On Bus #2 are Catherine & Craig, Jesse & Marika, Cassie & Jahmeek and Court & Ali.

Catherine & Craig buy a map for their alliance mates Court & Ali. They want to ensure their alliance (which includes Franca & Nella) stays safe this Double Elimination.

The buses arrive 15 minutes apart in Toronto where they then must immediately look for a red hat-wearing person who will have train tickets for them. There’s only room for three teams on the first train departing at 6:17am with the other tickets for the 6:32am train.

Teams from the first bus find a red hat-waring person and take tickets for a 6:32am bus. But they decide to give the tickets back to look for an earlier time. 2nd busers Catherine & Craig and Court & Ali find the 6:17am ticket person and immediately tell alliancemates Franca & Nella where to get it.

The trains will arrive in Belleville 15 minutes apart again. And outside the station, teams find the Road Block: Who wants to go house hunting?
For this Road Block, teams must memorize the names of birdhouses modeled after buildings in the county in order to complete a map of Birdhouse City at Macaulay Mountain Conservation Area.

Nella starts the Road Block first, but when Catherine and Ali arrive, they decide to work together by splitting up the map. The other teams arrive and Beverley is excited to sprint around Birdhouse City. Veronica tells Beverley to ask permission to work with Catherine, but she and Craig say no. Craig approaches Veronica and calls her Vanessa when he apologizes for not wanting to work together.

After the Road Block, teams must find Prince Eddy’s Brewing Company where they will encounter the first ever Double Pass. A team who is “Passed” must wait at the board until the next team arrives and leaves, at which point they too can leave and continue Racing.

Franca & Nella decide to Pass Beverley & Veronica. But to ensure the friends don’t get to Pass anyone else, the sisters wait for Court & Ali to tell them to put a Franella picture up, thus blocking Beverley & Veronica from Passing someone else.

After the Double Pass, teams must complete the Detour: Press It or Push It. In Press It, teams must replicate a message using a printing press. In Push It, teams must use a formula to push and mix together 15 bath bombs.

Beverley & Veronica are annoyed, but Franca & Nella defend their decision while driving to the Detour by saying the friends would Pass others if they had the chance.

Franella get started with the bath while Brendon & Connor and Jesse & Marika move up when they choose Press It and get started. The alliance as well as Cassie & Jahmeek also choose the bath.

At the brewing company, Cedric & Tychon arrive and once they leave, Beverley & Veronica can continue Racing.

When Beverley & Veronica arrive at the bath bombs, Franca (who is sitting in a bathtub) tells them “Good job.” But Beverley & Veronica want none of it and point out that they are such a strong team worthy of being Passed by being second to last at the moment.

At the printing press, Jesse & Marika get the thumbs up and can now make their way to the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf. Here, one team member will learn how to sign the name of the school’s first deaf professor: Samuel Greene. The other team member must study the American Manual Alphabet and be ready to write down the name as their teammate signs the spelling.

Jesse & Marika quickly relay the message and they get the next clue pointing them to the Pit Stop at Sandbanks Provincial Park. Franca & Nella arrive and immediately hand over their Express Pass and it’s another sibling footrace to the Mat.

Jesse & Marika are able to step on the Mat in first and win a trip to Geneva, Switzerland and a $2500 Marshalls gift card. The Filipino Sisters settle for 2nd.

Back at the bath bombs, Beverley & Veronica get the thumbs up and quickly leave. Cedric & Tychon are in 7th as they get the thumbs up at the printing press. Cassie & Jahmeek are now in last, hoping to catch up.

Catherine & Craig use their Broadway experience to easily finish the sign language task and head to the Pit Stop in 3rd. While Court & Ali are trying to get through the task, Brendon & Connor hand over their Express Pass and head to the Mat in 4th. Beverley & Veronica arrive at the school and have some experience with sign language so they are able to pass Court & Ali to head to the Pit Stop in 5th just seconds behind the other teams.

While Beverley & Veronica celebrate surviving this Leg, Jon basically tells them to stop it and get back on the Mat.

Court & Ali get the thumbs up at the sign language task and check-in as Team #6.

That means Cedric & Tychon and Cassie & Jahmeek are the last two teams and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

Oh here we go. lol Don’t you just love the Big Brotherfication of The Amazing Race? It’s so much fun and really makes for an exciting competitive Race.

Just kidding. I hate it. lol And no, I’m not using a Rachel gif to imply she was the one who brought BB or Survivor to TAR. I’m just rolling my eyes at alliance shenanigans. More on that later when I rant about the teams. Lol

This Leg though was, I dunno. I’ll start with the good first. The sign language task was very nice. I think more people should at least know the sign language basics. I actually don’t and I suck at memorization, so this task would’ve gotten me eliminated probably. lol I’ve always wanted to learn though. And back in the day, I considered taking ASL for my language requirement in high school. But my high school didn’t offer it. Anyway, very nice task. What sucks is the teams who bypassed it with the Express Pass.

And that’s all for good things about the episode. lol

Speaking of the Express Pass, I only learned after watching the episode that it expired this Leg. So Franella and the brothers being so adamant about using the Express Pass this Leg wasn’t because they wanted to avoid Double Elimination. It was because they had to use it or lose it. Interesting that the show edited it in a way to bypass that fact. Probably to try and drum up some drama for the Double Elimination.

I would’ve loved to have seen them wait to use the Express Pass and then get the Pit Stop clue knowing they can’t use it anymore because there’s no more tasks. lol

That does make me question the show specifically putting the expiration date on this Leg which also had the Double Pass AND the Double Elimination. That’s poor Leg design, to be honest.

But if we want to talk about poor Leg design, what was with the 15-minute intervals for bus and train? That was all complete nonsense and really seemed to just be filler for this episode.

I have two better options.

The first option is to keep that bus ride to Toronto, but WTF was that red hat ticket giver nonsense? First of all, once teams claim a ticket, they cannot give it back. That’s TAR 101 right there. If you want ticket pulling drama, don’t allow teams to give their tickets back once they claim them. That’s how it’s always been on TAR. And since you’re forcing them onto specific trains anyway, why not spread them out more. How about 30 minutes or an hour?

Unless the show didn’t actually want to spread them out too much. So that brings us to the second option. Just drive the charter bus all the way to your destination. No unnecessary stopover in Toronto. It’s as pointless as having a Starting Line in Eastern Canada and flying to British Columbia for the first Leg when you could’ve just had the Starting Line in British Columbia. (One of my regular TARC criticisms.)

But really, just drive them all to the destination and let ’em loose.

For the Road Block, I laugh at putting a cloth to cover up the maps so no one would copy each other’s. (Only thought of that now, eh?) Yet you had three teams telling each other answers anyway.

Anyway, cute birdhouses. Boring task. The only interesting thing from that task was Craig calling Veronica as “Vanessa” instead.

Next up, we have the Pass. What a horrible twist. It’s also a bit of nonsense. The One Way was a much better TARC-original twist. The Pass makes zero sense. Especially in a situation where the last place team gets Passed. Who are they supposed to wait for? Like, what if Cedric & Tychon got Passed. When can they move on in the Race if there’s no one else to wait for?

But how about this scenario. What if another team arrives immediately after a Passed team arrives at the board. Then they would’ve been delayed a whole 10 seconds or something. WTF! lol

If they want to delay teams without the U-Turn, just use the Yield! My goodness. What a dud of a twist.

The Detour was meh. Especially considering the bath bomb side of the Detour only had one team member doing the work. Why not just make that a Road Block then? The printing press side of the Detour was straightforward. But certainly not balanced with the bath bombs which makes me think TARC only put it in because of an opportunity to get teams half-naked since they aren’t traveling anywhere hot and beachy anytime soon.

And finally, the sign language task which I mentioned earlier was the only good part of the episode. I’m surprised teams didn’t just tell each other the answer.

Overall, a meh episode of a poorly designed Leg made even less appealing by alliance shenanigans.

My Subjective Team Rankings

I definitely wasn’t the biggest Beverley & Veronica fan. But the alliance has certainly made me one, I think. I tend to gravitate toward the underdog or the inaapi if they ever emerge on a season. And the friends have certainly become that. I definitely can see how they might rub the others the wrong way. Them always asking others for help can definitely be annoying. And if they were offered an alliance, I’m sure they’d immediately jump at the opportunity. But just judging from how things have ended up, I’m totally rooting for them to make it far, if not all the way to the end. Just as a way to counter the alliance. Them being able to overcome wrong turns and lame twists is a good accomplishment though. I hope they can keep it up.

But what was up Jon’s ass while Beverley & Veronica were celebrating? They can’t celebrate surviving a Leg where they were *gasp* “Passed.” But Jon gets very excited praising and cheering for quitters.

That’s one reason why I actually am setting aside my disappointment at the “cheating” by Cedric & Tychon because they seemed to be another team who could potentially take on the alliance. The more opposition, the better. But I guess it was just their time to go.

Cassie & Jahmeek may have not been the strongest Racers. But they were fun to watch for the short, fleeting moments they were on the screen. It’s nice to have seen them continue Racing. And I definitely would rather see them on the Race more than the COVID teams or the alliance.

Much kudos to Jesse & Marika who were able to win the Leg without any help from another team or an Express Pass either. I’m starting to like them a little more now after them also having partaken in loophole-finding and alliance-ish behavior earlier this season.

And if you want a Pass target, Brendon & Conner are right there. Hello. Probably the strongest and most consistent team left in the Race.

Finally the Franca & Nella, Catherine & Craig and Court & Ali alliance. If you want to know more about how I feel about alliances, just look up any of my Episode Thoughts from TAR32. Basically, it’s no fun. It can come across as cocky. And it takes away from actual competition. Among other things. And while it’s also the show’s fault for having such loosely designed tasks that allow alliances to happen, the teams also need to stop holding each other’s hands like they’re children. These three aren’t on the TAR32/TARAu5-level of suck yet. But they’re definitely doing what they can to catch up though.