Recap: The Amazing Race 36, Episode 3 – “My legs are noodles right now.”

Recap: The Amazing Race 36, Episode 3 – It’s Not Over Til Phil Sings

Teams fly to Guatape, Colombia where they will run an Expedia-inspired Leg. Teams begin the Leg at El Penon de Guatape in three groups departing 15 minutes apart. The first group departing at 7:15am are Rod & Leticia, Ricky & Cesar and Derek & Shelisa. The second group departing at 7:30am are Juan & Shane, Yvonne & Melissa, Angie & Danny and Amber & Vinny. The last group departing at 7:45am include Anthony & Bailey, Sunny & Bizzy, Kishori & Karishma and Michelle & Sean.

Teams must climb up to the top of El Penon to open the first clue which contains the Detour: Bandeja Paisa or Yipao. In Bandeja Paisa, teams must prepare three plates of the traditional Colombian meal according to an example and recipe. When the three abuelas approve of their presentation, the teams will get the next clue. In Yipao, teams must load a Willys Jeep known as a Yipao with various items as is done during a celebratory parade in order to receive the next clue.

To get to either Detour, teams must choose a high speed water taxi to take them to the town of Guatape.

As teams make their way up El Penon, firefighter Sunny reveals that she received an emergency call last night informing her that her grandmother had passed. She and Bizzy dedicate this Leg to her.

Teams have no trouble with the water taxis, except for mother & son Angie & Danny whose taxi has some trouble getting started. Teams are not allowed to switch taxis once they’ve chosen one. And this allows a few teams to pass them.

The three teams of the first group arrive at the Bandeja Paisa Detour where they must find their cooking stations using a provided photo of a zocalo tile. Teams must prepare and cook rice, meats, plantains, avocados and beans and properly arrange them on the plate.

Ricky & Cesar are first to get the thumbs up from the abuelas. Rod & Leticia go for a check, but the abuelas say their plates are completely disorganized. That allows Derek & Shelisa to move into 2nd place after the abuelas approve of theirs.

After the Detour, teams must make their way to El Cordero de Guatape. There, teams will need to hop into a tuk-tuk taxi to take them to Casa Loma.

Disembarking from the water taxis, Danny and the cousins agree to work together to find the Detour location. Though Angie does not think that is a good idea considering Kishori & Karishma could easily beat them in a footrace. Danny insists these relationships are important on the Race.

All the teams except twins Anthony & Bailey and Team Double Dutch Michelle & Sean choose the cooking. But both teams eventually decide to switch away from the Yipaos after not realizing the arrangements would be so intricate.

Anthony & Bailey get to the cooking station and quickly realize that this task is probably worse for them. They decide to go back and give the Yipaos another try. However, they end up switching back to the cooking once again. And in that time of switching back and forth, Rod & Leticia, Juan & Shane, Sunny & Bizzy and Yvonne & Melissa get the thumbs up from the abuelas.

Over at Casa Loma, Ricky & Cesar open the next clue revealing the Road Block: Who’s feeling picky?

For this Expedia Experience Road Block, teams must hand pick and process ripe coffee cherries to produce one kilo or 2.2 pounds of coffee beans for the Recolector to hand over the next clue.

Ricky decides to do the Road Block and gets started.

Back at the Detour, Kishori & Karishma go for a check, but while their meat is well done, their plantains are not cooked. Which they think is quite ironic considering they do not eat meat. Amber & Vinny are able to pass them at the Detour followed by the cousins and then Angie & Danny.

Michelle & Sean are next to get the thumbs up on their plates with Anthony & Bailey now firmly in last place.

Back at the coffee plantation, Ricky & Cesar finish the Road Block before the other teams arrive. And the boyfriends must now find Phil at the Mat somewhere on the plantation. They step on the Mat as Team #1 and win enough Expedia Key Cash for a trip to Cape Town, South Africa.

Leticia, Shelisa and Shane are next to start the Road Block. Sunny initially didn’t think this task was for her, but she begins to feel that her grandmother is with her on this Leg. And she excitedly starts the Road Block even more inspired by her memory.

Vinny, Melissa and Kishori are next to start the Road Block. But Vinny’s strategy of staying low to the ground and using two hands to pick coffee cherries works as he is next to get his one kilo of beans.

Amber & Vinny are able to head to the Pit Stop where Phil officially checks them in as Team #2.

Angie starts the Road Block, but Danny is a bit frustrated as she seems to be moving slower than other teams. She asks him to please stop talking and let her get through the task.

As the other teams finish the Road Block, they all appear to have trouble finding Phil on the sprawling plantation. Derek & Shelisa end up checking in as Team #3. Juan & Shane just edge out Rod & Leticia to claim 4th.

The other teams arrive within minutes of each other as Phil welcomes Yvonne & Melissa and Sunny & Bizzy as Teams 6 and 7. Kishori & Karishma take 8th. Phil excitedly says they are all kicking ass on these three Legs so far. And he gleefully declares how awesome that this is some of the tightest competition they’ve ever had on The Amazing Race.

It’s now down to the last two teams. Michelle & Sean arrive at the plantation. But it’s quite slippery going down to the steep coffee fields. Sean had mentioned his fear of heights earlier at El Penon. And now he refuses to go down the slippery, steep path. Michelle encourages him and he is able to overcome his fear and make it down.

On their way to the Pit Stop, Angie & Danny run into Anthony & Bailey who have just arrived. The mother and son cheer on the twins before heading to the Mat as Team #9.

Anthony starts the Road Block, both he and Bailey continuing to try and stay positive.

It later turns into a supposed footrace to the Mat in the rain. But Michelle & Sean are the ones who arrive to finish as Team #10. That means the twins Anthony & Bailey are eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

So it’s pretty obvious this Leg needed one more task somewhere. Especially when the Pit Stop was at the same location as the Road Block. And even if this were still a regular one-hour episode.

That said, it was another fine episode. Again, I really think this episode was able to stretch out all the content that they had in a way that was better than last season. It wasn’t simply just repetitively showing teams doing the same task for an hour. But it was different teams encountering different problems and being in unique situations. Most of which of their own doing.

I think the show learned from the way they edited last season. And instead of the contrived, forced, out of place insertion of random clips and interviews and confessionals of TAR35, they were able to insert those things in a much better way here. The backstories and the reflections are now better integrated into the show and into places where they actually make sense for the overall flow.

For example, the montage of teams messing up at the cooking was actually quite amusing. And actually seeing more of the teams’ commentary during both the Detour and Road Block felt natural and even conversational without halting the competition dynamic.

But again, this was a very simple, barebones Leg. The tasks on their own are fine. So great to finally have El Penon on TARUS. And walking up those stairs is a no-brainer task.

But both sides of the Detour were good. Another unbalanced choice. But both good tasks on paper. I think the show should’ve made this a Limited Stations Detour just so we had teams doing both tasks. It’s great that the twins and Michelle & Sean gave it a try at least. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have even seen it.

Or better yet, I thought about how with the over simplification and streamlining of Legs, this one would make a perfect Scramble Leg. Or perhaps, borrowing a feature from TARPHDME (lolol), insert a New Rules Roundabout which gives teams two tasks they can perform in any order they would like. TARPHDME23 actually had a Roundabout in its own visit to Guatape and Medellin. Hehehe.

But basically, it’s a mini-Scramble where you have tasks in the same general area. Not needing to drive long distances between tasks.

The Road Block was fine. Harvesting tasks are TAR staples. And it was a beautiful location as well.

Back to the start of the Leg, I don’t get why they had to film teams all together running toward El Penon when they had to depart in groups anyway. It was completely unnecessary and it kind of furthers the idea of how everything is so planned and orchestrated and highly directed rather than maintaining the aura of “reality” at least.

Speaking of Pit Start, I initially thought that departing in groups 15 minutes apart was too long a time between them. But then I realized TARPHDME could have the first and last teams to depart on a Leg about an hour between each other. So I just had to shut up about my initial concern lolol Which then proved to be the wise choice as teams were able to catch up in the end anyway.

I do think for short Legs though, keeping teams close together as much as possible is the best move. Because if Legs last all day, then there’s definitely more opportunity for teams to move ahead or fall behind.

Now let’s be clear once more. This is not going to be a season that rivals the all-time classics. Maybe it doesn’t even find a slot within the middle tier of TARUS. But it is also not the worst thing to ever happen to The Amazing Race franchise as some people continue to whine online. I saw a post this week saying that this was the worst TARUS cast ever. And criticized the fact that it had old people on it. Like, WTF? Is this what the TAR fandom is like now in 2024?

For me, this season is so far a perfectly middling season of TARUS. It’s a season that doesn’t seem particularly offensive nor is it particularly exciting. And that’s fine. Especially for a season to watch live. It’s not going to be a season I’ll go back to and rewatch numerous times. However, it is fine to watch now every week. And that’s all you can hope for. Instead of seasons where it feels like a chore to get through, this season is quite enjoyable. Relatively speaking.

Of course, everyone has their own preferences. If you don’t want to watch, that’s fine. If you want to watch so you know what you’re talking about when criticizing and complaining about it online, then you can do that as well. No one is stopping anyone from doing whatever the hell they want when it comes to The Amazing Race.

But my goodness. It really is just The Amazing Race. There’s no need to get into fights over it online like I’ve been seeing.

Team Thoughts

Unlike the comments from the last week, I still think this is a solid cast. The diversity of relationships is great. And we’ve seen some interesting dynamics between teams too.

Just going down the list, Ricky & Cesar are definitely doing very well. I think maybe you wouldn’t expect that at first. But they’ve done a good job in these first three Legs.

Happy to see Amber & Vinny able to move up to 2nd this week. It was fun hearing Amber talk about Vinny being Filipino meant he did the delicious cooking at home. Filipino food is indeed delicious. Hehe. And it was great to hear Vinny being proud of his Filipino roots too. I’m sure a one-hour episode of TAR would have excluded those moments.

Derek & Shelisa are really emerging as big characters. I enjoyed their back and forth this Leg. You get the feeling that their arguing and all that is just playful. And they have also done a great job in the Race too. Same with Juan & Shane. And also Rod & Leticia who are still contenders even with falling to 5th.

Yvonne & Melissa are a bit in the shadows though. Or perhaps it’s kind of because I confuse them with Sunny & Bizzy. Though Condolences to Sunny and her family.

Talking about big characters, Kishori & Karishma are it. They are absolutely hilarious and crazy and fun. The random things they say and random moments they encounter is really a lot of fun. It would be hilarious to see them make it to the end while acting the same way they are now.

Angie & Danny are an interesting team. Superfan Danny obviously wants to emulate the alliance strategy from TAR32. But I’m happy Mama Angie tried to talk him out of it. Even if unsuccessful. She was right though. Considering she’s not as fast as other teams, working together on things might not be the best.

Michelle & Sean are another big personality team. But kudos to Michelle for her positive attitude throughout this Leg.

It’s too bad for Anthony & Bailey. I think they are a fun, hilarious pair. I guess it’s really their time to go now. But it was fun having them on these three episodes at least.

Episode Quotes

Shelisa: “My age is kicking in.”

Karishma: “Does Colombia have alligators?”

Twins: “My legs are noodles right now.”

Twins: “I don’t want to mess up Jesus either.”

Karishma: “I’m the height of Danny DeVito.”