Recap: The Amazing Race 36, Episode 5 – “Did you all see a nut fly over here?”

Recap: The Amazing Race 36, Episode 5 – Save The Stress For Later

Teams head to Santiago, Chile for the 5th Leg of the Race. Amber & Vinny and Ricky & Cesar depart at 9am. Angie & Danny, Rod & Leticia and Juan & Shane depart at 9:15am. Derek & Shelisa, Yvonne & Melissa, Sunny & Bizzy and Kishori & Karishma depart at 9:30am.

The first clue has teams driving themselves on the way to finding Marilyn Monroe’s 1956 Ford Thunderbird which had disappeared after being purchased and recently popped up at Argomedo Performance Garage in Santiago. After admiring the half million-dollar car, they will get the next clue.

That clue points teams to Skatepark Parque Araucano.

Ricky & Cesar maintain their lead while the second group catches up to Amber & Vinny at the garage. The couple points Angie & Danny to the car. But Danny then can’t help but work with Rod & Leticia and then Juan & Shane to map out their route to the park. The two teams end up following the mother and son. Danny loves working with others, but Mama Angie points out that when it comes to physical challenges, she’ll be at a disadvantage and the others aren’t going to be of much help then.

Meanwhile, Karishma and Kishori have trouble with their manual car. Ricky & Cesar and Amber & Vinny have trouble with directions. That allows the second group Angie & Danny, Rod & Leticia and Juan & Shane to arrive at the parque first where they will encounter the Road Block: Who’s feeling board?

For this Road Block, teams must assemble an Amazing Race skateboard to exactly match one used by a local skater. Danny, Rod, Juan and a just arrived Cesar choose to do the Road Block. Rod and Juan help each other out a bit, but they have not paid attention to the details. Rod loses a nut while Juan has the colored wheels in the wrong order.

Vinny arrives and starts the Road Block next with Danny immediately advising him to take note of the wheel colors.

Danny gets the thumbs up first and opens the next clue revealing the Detour: Perform for Pesos or Climb for Clues. In Perform for Pesos, teams will become chinchineros. One team member must learn and perform a short routine while their partner will play maracas and collect 2500 pesos to receive the next clue.
In Climb for Clues, teams will climb an abandoned cement factory which has been converted into a climbing wall in order to retrieve two Race ribbons at the top which they can exchange for the next clue.

Angie decides she and Danny should perform. Shane realizes overlooking the wheel colors and finally gets the next clue. He tells Rod before leaving while Cesar also gets the next clue. Vinny is not far behind.

Melissa chooses to do the Road Block as she loves skateboarding, but she is not adept at building one. Derek quickly decides on doing the task. And Karishma reluctantly chooses to do it thinking it has to do with riding a skateboard even though Kishori is much better at building things.

Over at the chinchineros, Ricky & Cesar end up arriving first and get started. Juan & Shane arrive at the climbing before Amber & Vinny. Meanwhile, Rod & Leticia somehow find themselves in the mountains.

Ricky & Cesar manage to earn 2500 pesos first while Juan & Shane grab the two Race ribbons first on the other side of the Detour. Vinny encourages Amber at the climbing as she has a bit of trouble getting up.

Angie & Danny arrive at the chinchineros and are able to earn enough money before Rod & Leticia finally arrive at the Detour task. Though Rod initially does the performance, they switch when Leticia is unable to ask people for money.

After the Detour, teams can drive to the Pit Stop at Estacion Mapocho. A little boy skater welcomes Ricky & Cesar as they step on the Mat as Team #1 and win Expedia OneKeyCash for a trip to Singapore. Juan & Shane finish 2nd, Amber & Vinny take 3rd and Angie & Danny end up 4th. Rod & Leticia finish as Team #5.

Back at the Road Block, Sunny & Bizzy finally arrive after getting lost. Bizzy starts the Road Block just before Melissa gets the thumbs up. Yvonne & Melissa choose the climbing Detour. Derek finishes the Road Block next and he and Shelisa also choose the climb, but they get themselves lost.

Karishma is frustrated, but Kishori tries to encourage her. That allows Bizzy to finish before her. Once Karishma finally figures out what she is doing wrong, she gets her board approved.

Sunny & Bizzy get to the climbing Detour. Yvonne & Melissa get to the Mat as Team #6 while Sunny & Bizzy finish as Team #7.

Derek & Shelisa finally arrive at the climbing and are able to leave before Kishori & Karishma arrive and start the Detour.

Derek & Shelisa end up checking-in as Team #8. That means Kishori & Karishma are last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

Nooo! Sad ending. Huhu.

Anyway, I’ll probably repeat this every week, but: “This Leg needed one more task.” Lol.

It really did though. But they were still able to fill the hour-long episode well. Again, the editors seemed to have learned their lesson from TAR35 and found a way to better craft a longer episode with the footage and content they have available to them.

I think what is helping to make up for the barebones Legs is the teams. And again, many fans are criticizing the teams for being less than skilled. But the mistakes and the missteps have made for a more unpredictable-than-usual hour of TAR. The results table on Wikipedia doesn’t tell the whole story at all.

During the Leg, you’ll see teams move up and fall behind all day. And even when the same teams end up in the front of the pack at the end, that says a lot about the teams themselves. Which teams are able to pull themselves back up and which teams are unable to maintain leads. I think that builds good resumes for teams heading to the finale.

Perhaps it’s not hard to guess which teams we could see in the end judging from how well they’ve responded to whatever adversity they face during their own Races. But from an episode standpoint, there’s a bit more guessing than the usual modern TAR episode.

That said, an extra task or two could throw the placements into even more exciting chaos. But hopefully TARUS will think about that before going into production for TAR37.

As for this Leg, it was very much an urban Leg. Actually, this is the first time TARUS has had a full Leg in Santiago. AND a Santiago Leg that does not involve shoeshining lol

Skateboard building is certainly something that could be staged anywhere in the world. But it fit with the more urban-focused Leg today. It was a more detail oriented task rather than simply a building task.

But it would’ve been better to counter this more generic task with an extra task that was more reflective of the culture of the city and country they were win for the Leg.

The Detour had that aspect with the chinchineros. It was a simple task, but a good task to have teams interacting with locals. And especially with this being the only Chile Leg, it would’ve been good to make the task a bit bigger. I wish we could’ve seen more of this task rather than the skateboard though.

The climbing of the converted cement factory tower was actually pretty interesting. It’s the kind of location that offers an interesting look at the city and its history and everyday life.

But again, definitely would’ve helped a huge deal if there was one more culturally-relevant task in this Leg.

That said, it is quite refreshing seeing maps on TAR once again. I feel like in recent years, maps have disappeared and teams would just easily get out of their car and ask a local to pull up Google Maps on their phones. So seeing teams actually looking at their huge paper maps is great. And that definitely contributed to some of the placement changes.

Finally, Estacion Mapocho is a stunning location! Hello future TARPHDME location! Lololol

But overall, this was an okay Leg and fine episode. Probably would’ve been much better as a regular-length episode. But still not horrible in its 90-minute broadcast/one-hour runtime format either.

Team Thoughts

The teams definitely elevate the episodes though.

First, I must applaud Mama Angie because she knows what’s up when it comes to working with other teams. Working with others is fine, but you also have to think about how it will come back to bite you later on. And that’s exactly what happened to her and Danny. Instead of a trip to Singapore, they had to settle for 4th place only. Alliances and working together and being friendly is fine. But when it harms your own Race, then it’s a problem.

I’m actually quite sad Kishori & Karishma are eliminated. They may not have been the best Racers. But they were one of the more enjoyable teams. They had a lot of hilariously absurd moments. They are the kind of team we haven’t had much of in recent years. So it was refreshing to see a fun team who stumbled their way through, but did it in an endearing way. Too bad.

In the last week, there’s been some discussion about Amber & Vinny and how they somehow have the most toxic and abusive relationship ever on TAR. Like, what? They are actually a mild version of the typical bickering TAR couple. So the strange fixation some fans have on them is really crazier than whatever they’re accusing Vinny of. I hope they make it to the end just to spite the whiny fans. But also because I like them too.

Ricky & Cesar are definitely positioning themselves as the team to beat. I certainly hope they don’t just win every Leg until the end though lol But like I mentioned earlier, it says a lot about them when they are able to overcome stumbles to eventually get themselves back on top. And they do it on their own too.

Juan & Shane are on a steady trajectory and have good momentum. Consistency can be key. And they have that.

Rod & Leticia, I feel, have been on the opposite trajectory. But just doing enough to stay ahead of other teams. I do think they can step it up though because they are very much a stronger team than they have been the last few Legs. Derek & Shelisa are kind of in the same situation. I would love to see them also get back in gear too like they were in the first few Legs.

Yvonne & Melissa and Sunny & Bizzy have really stayed in the back of the pack most of this Race so far. So of all the teams, they feel like the most in the shadows. Even when they do have a few moments that stand out. I could see them being big darkhorses though.

Episode Quotes

Leticia: “Welcome to San Diego, Chile.”

Rod: “Did you all see a nut fly over here?”

Rod: “A nut for the nutcase.”

Rod: “I cannot find this nut.”

Danny: “I’ve lost my nuts.”

Karishma: “Righty means tighty.”