Recap: The Amazing Race 36, Episode 6 – “That alliance definitely was painful to watch.”

Recap: The Amazing Race 36, Episode 6 – Our Alliance Strikes Again

Teams fly to Cordoba, Argentina for the 6th Leg. The first pair of Ricky & Cesar and Juan & Shane open their first clue at 8:15am and it reveals this will be a Mega Leg. The second group at 8:30am includes Amber & Vinny, Rod & Leticia and Angie & Danny. The last group at 8:45am has Yvonne & Melissa, Sunny & Bizzy and Derek & Shelisa.

Danny says it is important to have an alliance on this Mega Leg. They don’t want to win this Leg, they want to survive it.

Teams must first drive themselves to Plaza del Bicentenario. The waiting clue reveals a Detour: Bicicleta or Boleadora. In Bicicleta, teams will use a Reciu bike, invented here in Cordoba in which plastic bottles can be grinded up by pedaling. When teams have enough bottles to fill a container, they’ll get the next clue. In Boleadora, teams will become gauchos and get ten attempts each to wrap a bola around a moving target.

Ricky & Cesar and Juan & Shane choose Boleadora and get started. But when the alliance trio arrives, they decide together to quickly switch over to the recycling instead. When they reach the plaza, one team member will pedal while the other feeds the bike some bottles. The first bikers are surprised to find it’s not as easy as it seems.

After the alliance trio leaves, Juan & Shane and then Ricky & Cesar are able to use their bolas to capture their next clue. After the Detour, teams must make their way to Circuito Lobo Race on the outskirts of Cordoba.

At the bikes, Rod’s “thunder thighs” power him and Leticia to finish first. And they take their time to map out their route while the other teams finish. Rod & Leticia end up asking a local to use Google Maps and that allows the other teams to join in once they get the directions.

Yvonne & Melissa and Derek & Shelisa arrive at the Boleadora next. Sunny & Bizzy choose the biking.

Yvonne & Melissa are next to finish the Detour and Derek & Shelisa end up switching to the bikes. Derek thinks they should’ve stayed, but Shelisa says he was horrible and wouldn’t have gotten it.

Meanwhile, Ricky & Cesar again move into first when Juan & Shane get lost. And the waiting clue at the track is a Road Block: Who’s got a good sense of direction?

For this Road Block, teams will memorize the sequence of turns on a rally car course with a partner driver. When they can recreate the track on a board using nine puzzle blocks within 3 minutes, they will get the next clue. If they don’t get it, they must go around the course again.

Ricky decides to do the Road Block, but has to go for another round. Juan & Shane arrive and Juan chooses to do the task. Ricky fails his 2nd attempt and hops back into the car. Juan, however, gets it correct on his first attempt.

Leticia, Amber and Angie arrive and hop into their cars while Ricky continues to struggle. He begins getting frustrated, but starts his 4th map attempt before Angie even gets on the track for her first ride. Ricky finally gets the thumbs up as the others have to go for more rides. Sunny arrives and starts the Road Block next.

Meanwhile, Yvonne & Melissa are having trouble with directions and Derek & Shelisa are firmly in last place as they finish the recycling.

As Melissa arrives and starts the Road Block, Angie starts to feel sick and has to take a seat as the medic is called. Danny comes over to encourage her, but Angie suggests they take the penalty thinking she cannot do this.

Meanwhile, Amber finally gets it on her NUMBER attempt as Angie decides to give it another go. Before leaving, Amber decides to go help Angie. Angie tells Amber to go run her Race. Amber cries and refuses to leave.

After Angie finishes her ride around the course, Amber tells Angie the solution before then showing Leticia the answer as well. Melissa and Sunny are close behind them.

Derek & Shelisa arrive and Derek chooses to do the Road Block.

After the Road Block, teams must drive to Estadio Francisco Cabasés. Juan & Shane arrive and open the next Road Block clue: Who wants to score? For this Road Block, teams must play bubble soccer. They will join a team and must score a goal.

Juan wants to do the Road Block, but Shane thinks he can do it. And he does with 31 seconds left in his time. He and Juan can drive to Mirador del Coniferal for the next clue.

And that clue reveals the Detour: Who Did It? or What’s Your Beef?
In Who Did It?, teams must find a fingerprint and use files to identify the suspect. In What’s Your Beef?, teams must learn 14 cuts of meat and correctly place actual cuts of meat on a board.

Juan & Shane choose the beef.

At the Road Block, Cesar arrives and gets onto the field. He realizes he must knock his opponents over and that clears him a path to a goal. They hurry to the Detour decision point and they also choose meat.

Bizzy and Yvonne arrive to start playing soccer. Meanwhile back at the first Road Block, Derek has trouble with the puzzle.

Sunny & Bizzy move into 3rd place with Yvonne & Melissa close behind.

Back at the butchers, Ricky & Cesar catch up to Juan & Shane. But Juan & Shane get the thumbs up first. They can now head to the Pit Stop at Plaza de San Martin. Ricky & Cesar appear to finish quickly after.

But Juan & Shane score their first Leg win and win $5000 each. Ricky & Cesar take 2nd.

At the soccer, Rod gets started first and scores with 20 seconds left. Angie starts playing next with Amber right next to her on the other half of the field. Amber scores before Angie is able to.

Over at the Detour clue, Yvonne & Melissa and Sunny & Bizzy decide to do the meat together. As do the three allianced teams.

The female teams fail their first attempts. They decide to go back when the other three teams arrive. With three boards available, Rod & Leticia go in to try. Angie & Danny and Amber & Vinny decide to go back to the butchers and study more. But when Yvonne & Melissa and Sunny & Bizzy run back for a refresher, the allianced teams sprint back to the boards so they can all work together and feed each other the answers, while also blocking the female teams from even attempting the task again.

Rod & Leticia get the thumbs up first and then point out the correct answers to their alliance members. Yvonne & Melissa and Sunny & Bizzy actually ask Danny for help and he starts to do so. But Angie puts her foot down.

Danny tells their alliance mates that they will now separate to the Pit Stop. But the other two teams still follow them, much to Angie & Danny’s annoyance.

Rod & Leticia take 3rd followed by Amber & Vinny in 4th and Angie & Danny in 5th. Yvonne & Melissa are 6th. Sunny & Bizzy are 7th.

That means Derek & Shelisa are sadly last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

Okay, I want to start tonight with a bit of disclosure. When I first started recapping The Amazing Race, I usually would just watch the episode live (Pacific time) on CBS, record it on a VHS tape or later DVD-RW or DVR and then write up the recap and my thoughts afterwards. Since I’m not a professional recapper on the entertainment sites or have a podcast or whatever, I don’t have access to the episodes before they air.

Now in recent years as TARUS has fallen off to varying degrees, I have turned to just doing the recap while watching live. So as I am watching the episode, I’ll type everything up as I go. Partly because I had no motivation to actually watch the episodes more than once. Episodes in modern TAR really don’t have much rewatch value, let’s be honest.

Tonight, I did as I usually do. Writing down my thoughts during commercial breaks. But after this episode. OMG. WTF was that?!

So I will leave my stream of consciousness-like comments as they are below. But I had to start off this week’s Episode Thoughts talking about the obvious after this one.

I think I can sum up my initial thought with this hot take tweet I posted:

.@PhilKeoghan @bertramvan @EliseDoganieri @patcariaga So I thought after #AmazingRace 32, you were going to do something to avoid a repeat of the nonsense that transpired on that season. And yet here we are on season 35-turned-36 with a feeling of deja vu. What happened? pic.twitter.com/SXpyKyMvDl

— DryedMangoez (@dryedmangoez) April 18, 2024

Because OMG, here we go again. Déjà vu. I absolutely cringed through most of this episode. At first, as you might see below, I thought the alliance shenanigans would end at the rally car Road Block. And I moved on and the bubble soccer cheered me up and didn’t think much of seeing the alliance answer sharing.

But nope, they had to go and take it to the next level with the meat Detour. And the horrifying flashbacks to TAR32/TARAU5/TARU6/TARPH2 came flooding back through my mind.

There’s so many facets to the alliance this episode. (What can we call them?) Danny acting like some mastermind and extolling the virtues of a TAR alliance. Amber literally crying and refusing to leave the Road Block until she forcibly fed Angie the answers. Rod & Leticia accepting the answers, but never offering anything of value to the alliance. Following each other to every Route Marker. And then Angie & Danny having the audacity to be upset that the other teams followed them to the Pit Stop. Hello? What the actual f…?

I’ve used “spoonfeed” and “force feeing” to describe the alliance shenanigans of TAR32, et al. But actually, none of that answer sharing comes close to actually fitting the definition of “force feeding” like what the crying Amber did to Angie. Angie of course didn’t need to accept it, but she did.

Then the meat Detour and the “let’s do 1/3 of the work and cockblock the other two teams” mentality. Really gross stuff. And I thought we were already past this.

Elise Doganieri and Bertram Van Munster said they would do something to possibly avoid a repeat of TAR32.

Apparently not. And I’m going to repeat the same things I said after TAR32 and TARAU5, et al. And as much as there is blame to be placed on the teams for exploiting loopholes, taking shortcuts or, I’ll say it, flat out cheat out of doing tasks; there is also enough blame to be put on the show itself.

And that is for poorly designed tasks that allow for such exploitation. Sometimes you can’t fault teams for exploiting loopholes since there are no rules against what they’re doing. That’s why maybe tasks need to be better designed and all possibilities looked at so as to avoid things like teams completely sidestepping tasks by just getting the answer or solution from another team. (Or like TARAu5’s case, have another team give you their completed cheese to submit as your own to get a clue.)

What is the point of Racing if you’re going to just have someone else do the tasks for you? Or you do a task for someone else? What is the point of the show coming up with tasks that teams don’t have to do at all anyway?

You know, I’ve been such a defender of this season ever since some fans wanted to toss it away even before it aired. I actually did enjoy it so far. That is until tonight of course. Now, I can absolutely see why those fans wanted to throw this season in the trash. LOL! Kidding not kidding.

I can only hope the alliance gets picked off in the next few weeks and get proven that no, alliances aren’t the sure ticket to a win.

Ugh.

So anyway, here are my thoughts from while the episode aired and then I’ll rejoin you afterwards…

—-

I definitely rolled my eyes at Danny talking about how beneficial an alliance would be on a Mega Leg. When really, a “Mega Leg” is just a normal Leg in other (better) seasons. Lolol

Interesting because obviously, this episode was originally two regular-length episodes that needed to be smashed together. So while it was definitely more fast-paced, it felt like they really did just cram too much into the time.

The Detour was actually well balanced for once! First, I was actually alright with teams all choosing the Boleodora since we of course would prefer the cultural task instead. But the recycling side of the Detour, in addition to showcasing a nice local innovation, proved to be more physically demanding and was a challenge on par with having to master the lasso.

For the biking, I think it would be even more challenging if both team members have to bike an equal amount. Like maybe one team member must fill up to half of the container and the other team member will top it off.

Then on the other side of the Detour, have both team members do TWO targets. Just to make it even more challenging.

The Road Block was actually quite good. I thought it would be difficult because I thought they had to draw the track or something. Lol Didn’t even really have to memorize it. But then realizing it was just a puzzle, I was expecting everyone to get it easily. Nope! Lol It ended up being quite tricky. Which is a good thing!

Some TAR fans will continue calling these teams dumb or unskilled and criticize them for having trouble with tasks. But then when teams just fly through Legs, it’s bad TV? Umm… okay fickle TAR fans lol

Anyway, when I first saw the puzzle board, the alliance flashbacks came flooding back. But then I was comforted at first and thought, “Nah, they wouldn’t just tell other teams the answer.”

BOY WAS I WRONGED! And yes, I was wrong and I feel wronged by having to sit through more of this nonsense on TAR. Lol Honestly though, I laughed my ass off when Amber literally started crying and refusing to leave. Like, WTF is wrong with you. Wow. Not even TAR10 Six Pack/Back Pack acted that way. Lol Yikes.

I honestly liked all three teams before this episode, but now they’re all the way down my list. Sorry not sorry, but I am looking forward to seeing Ricky & Cesar and Juan & Shane dominating the Race starting now. Or seeing either all-female team be the ultimate darkhorse.

Anyway, for the second half of the Mega Leg. The bubble soccer was fine. It’s one of those amusing tasks that has its own challenges while being absurdly funny.

Now lose them to the Pit Stop? Angie & Danny? WTF?

—

Okay, now back to post-show comments! And I’ll go back to the second Detour. Such a shame no one picked the fingerprint Detour. That is actually a really creative task. And hearing about its connection to Argentina is fascinating! TARUS should really do Limited Stations Detours more.

The meat memorization Detour was an okay task. But of course some teams had to go and ruin it with their nonsense. *rolleyes*

Oh well.

I don’t even know what to say about this episode because the alliance just left a bad taste in my mouth. And really just ruined the episode for me. For every actually good thing in this Leg and episode, the alliance just went and really spit all over it.

Team Thoughts My Subjective Team Rankings

I stopped ranking teams a few seasons ago. But I’m bringing it back tonight because…

indeed!

I’ll have Derek & Shelisa right up top because they were such a dynamic and fun team. You know their ribbing of each other was with love. Like lol at Shelisa not believing Derek struggled with the puzzle. That was a fun example of their playful teasing. And they were actually a solid team, Race-wise too. Sad to see them go. Especially after tonight. But they were a really great and fun team to watch.

I am now officially all-in on Ricky & Cesar to win this season. Juan & Shane as well. Yes, partly because they are our only hope to avoid one of the alliance teams winning. But also because they have more than proven themselves as not only capable, but dominant Racers. Definitely the boyfriends moreso. But Juan & Shane definitely have been very consistent as well. And their win tonight was well-deserved.

Now, maybe it’s because they are always out in front that they don’t need to work with other teams. Juan & Shane definitely worked with Rod & Leticia last leg. But! We can only judge from the scenes that we see in the episode. So, Ricky & Cesar are my #1 pick to win now. They just find ways to win on the Race. And if they dominate until the end, I won’t be mad at it at all.

(Unless they partake in some shenanigans later. But for now, I hope they win lol)

Yvonne & Melissa and Sunny & Bizzy had an alliance of necessity in this Leg. And that’s okay. What I didn’t like though was them begging Danny to help them at the meats. Like, that’s really bad and puts them in such a bad and (sorry) pathetic light. Just beat them. Don’t beg for answers. Especially after you criticized and were unhappy about what they were doing at the rally car Road Block.

Rod & Leticia seemed like they just tagged along with the other two alliance teams since they departed together. But they definitely benefited from the alliance and had no problem following and accepting answers. (Without offering anything in return! Lol) We’ll see what it does for them later on.

Now, I can’t decide who to put right at the bottom. Angie & Danny or Amber & Vinny.

So before I choose, let me first remind that I applauded Angie trying to control Danny’s alliance obsession in previous Legs. And I also did not think Vinny was some abusive maniac like some fans try to make him out to be.

But for this episode, it’s really hard to choose between the two. Who was worse? Danny who wants to be steal the alliance mastermind crown from Will & James? Angie & Danny together who were so upset the other teams followed them to the Pit Stop when it was those same teams that dragged them to this point in the first place. (How long would Angie have stayed at the rally car had Amber not done her puzzle for her?)

And speaking of. One of the most hilariously pathetic scenes I’ve seen on TAR is Amber forcing to do Angie’s Road Block for her. I’m sorry. But my goodness, the lady told you to go. Angie wanted to take the penalty. Just go! But no. She cried, basically had a tantrum and forced herself onto Angie and even Leticia it appears. Unbelievable.

Definitely bottom two for me. I really liked both teams before tonight. But now, I hope they get eliminated very quickly.

Episode Quotes

Danny: “I hope she doesn’t pass out in the car.”

Bizzy?: “That alliance definitely was painful to watch.”

Bizzy: “I love scoring in all senses of the word.”

Juan: “I hope he’s not, like, a meat related chef, or else we’re gonna get smoked.”

Yvonne?: “This is torture. Torture.”