Recap: The Amazing Race 36, Episode 7 – “I hope you learn from this experience.”

Recap: The Amazing Race 36, Episode 7 – “Walk and Chew Gum Baby”

Teams get to use the Expedia app to choose what hotel they’ll be staying at in Montevideo, Uruguay. The 7th Leg will begin at Fortaleza del Cerro with Juan & Shane and Ricky & Cesar departing at 7:45am. Amber & Vinny and Rod & Leticia depart at 8:00am and Angie & Danny, Sunny & Bizzy and Yvonne & Melissa depart at 8:15am.

Juan says he got food poisoning back in Cordoba and was sick all night, but they won’t let that stop them this Leg.

Teams must drive to Puerto Logistico Punta de Sayago to find the next clue. Ricky & Cesar arrive first and open the next clue revealing the Road Block: Who wants to make sparks fly?

For this Road Block, teams must weld two pieces of metal together, like that on the ships at this port to be repaired, and then pass a strength test to get the next clue.

Cesar has done some welding at his grandfather’s shop before, so he chooses to do the Road Block. Juan & Shane arrive and Shane decides to weld.

Cesar goes for a strength test, but it completely separates under the hammer. Shane suffers the same fate. That allows Vinny and Rod to catch up and get started with the Road Block. Shane goes for a second attempt and he initially thinks his welding holds up. But the hammer easily snaps the pieces apart on second hit.

Meanwhile, the F/F teams once again suffer navigational troubles on the way to the Puerto.

Angie & Danny, who want to win this Leg instead of working in an alliance, arrive next with Danny choosing to do the welding.

Vinny goes for his first test and his welding passes two hammer hits. Rod does as well. And group 2 teams are now in front.

Amber & Vinny use someone’s cell phone and Google maps to find out how to get to Ciudad Vieja for the next clue. However, they struggle to match Google Maps with their paper map.

Shane fails his 3rd strength test and Cesar fails his 2nd. But Cesar finally gets the thumbs up on his 3rd attempt. Shane gets it right after on his 4th. Ricky & Cesar leave the parking lot just as Yvonne & Melissa arrive. Yvonne decides to do the Road Block. Sunny arrives in last and gets started. She is confident because she welds as a firefighter.

Danny passes on his 2nd attempt as do Sunny and Yvonne.

Amber & Vinny arrive at the plaza and encounter the Detour: Candombe or Murga. In Candombe, teams must beat out a Carnival favorite routine with complex rhythms and synchronized marching. In Murga, teams must learn and perform a Spanish song as is done with the theatrical murga during Carnival.

Amber & Vinny choose Candombe. But they argue as they get directions ready. Ricky & Cesar choose Murga, but Angie & Danny, Juan & Shane and Rod & Leticia choose Candombe. Yvonne & Melissa choose the singing. Sunny & Bizzy, in last, get completely lost finding the plaza. Once they finally do, they choose the drums.

Amber & Vinny and Ricky & Cesar arrive at the Detour location at the same time and get started with their respective tasks.

Ricky & Cesar go for their first performance attempt, but get the thumbs down. The director asks them for more dancing, but fail the next one when Ricky messes up the lyrics. They get the thumbs up on their 3rd attempt and can now drive to the Pit Stop on Playa Malvin.

Amber & Vinny go for their first Candombe performance, but get the thumbs down. Angie & Danny, however, pass their first attempt. And it is a Race to the Pit Stop. But Ricky & Cesar get on the Mat as Team #1 and win enough Expedia OneKey cash for a trip to Paris. Angie & Danny are a close 2nd.

Back at the Detour, Yvonne & Melissa immediately fail their first attempt with the Murga performance. But Amber & Vinny get the thumbs up on their 2nd Candombe performance. Juan & Shane and Rod & Leticia both pass on their first attempt.

Amber & Vinny argue over where they parked their car and start running around the neighborhood. That allows Rod & Leticia and Juan & Shane to leave the area before them.

Yvonne & Melissa pass their Murga performance with their 8th attempt. Sunny & Bizzy pass the Candombe performance on their first attempt.

All remaining teams are on the way to the Pit Stop. Rod & Leticia step on the Mat as Team #3 with Amber & Vinny a close 4th.

It’s down to the last three teams. Juan & Shane somehow come up behind Yvonne & Melissa. The girlfriends jump out of their car and run to the Mat to check-in as Team #5. Juan & Shane are 6th.

That means Sunny & Bizzy are last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

Teams focused on and ran their own Race. They didn’t worry about other teams. They didn’t feed each other answers nor do tasks for each other. And imagine that! This episode was 10x better in every way. More enjoyable. More exciting. Honestly, maybe the best episode overall of the season so far.

The teams delivered with fun and drama. The tasks were wonderfully representative of the location. And there were some legitimate surprises too. And not an alliance in sight! How refreshing!

So first of all, wonderful to visit Uruguay again. I did not realize the last time they visited was during the iconic TAR5! That’s crazy! Almost 30 seasons between the visits. But this was a pretty solid Leg.

I’m sure some people will say the welding task was unfair because Cesar had experience with it. lol But Cesar actually fell behind here, so I guess people won’t be whining that they had an advantage lol

The welding task was pretty good. Again, representative of a part of the city’s daily life. And a bit tricky as well.

Now, if it were TARAu6 or 7, Amber & Vinny would’ve handed their approved welding to Angie & Danny to submit as their own. And the show would’ve given them the next clue. Lol Thankfully, this is TARUS. So despite how lenient the show is with answer sharing, they’d at least never allow what TARAu6 did lol

I really loved the Carnival Detour. It’s so festive and energetic and such a great, lively way to showcase a culture. You always love seeing teams interacting with the local peoples. Especially when the local peoples are sharing their wonderful cultures with the teams and with us the viewer.

I would like to think that some of the extra 15 minutes needed for this re-edited episode came from showcasing the performances of the wonderful locals a bit more. Probably wouldn’t have had as much in a regular-length episode.

Also, like I’ve pointed out in previous weeks, I think you can tell some of the scenes that were added in during the re-edit by seeing which ones use the more center-aligned team ID graphics. Those graphics are not aligned to the left like normal.

Especially not this moment:

lol
So we know this scene was added in during the new edit.

Of course, as is always the case with TARUS, even before 90-minutes, was this Leg needed one more task somewhere. Would’ve made it even better.

But again, as it is, this was quite an enjoyable and fun episode. Definitely more entertaining than the mess that was last week’s episode.

Team Thoughts

With less teams now, we were able to get more from those who have been in the shadows most of the time.

Of course, that would refer more to Yvonne & Melissa and Sunny & Bizzy. Who I finally can tell apart! But it’s too bad it was during the episode Sunny & Bizzy get eliminated. Both teams really are just struggling with directions. They’ve both done well in tasks (well, ones that don’t involve riddles lol), but getting to Route Markers have held them back. That really was the factor in the Firefighter Moms’ elimination. Which is too bad, but the other teams just have enough to overcome any bumps they might encounter.

This episode showed again just how good Ricky & Cesar are. No, it’s not because they can speak Spanish. It really is because they can overcome hurdles and setbacks. And can just get back into the Race. They Race hard and it’s really quite surprising, but fun to watch how well they’ve done this season.

Juan & Shane were a bit sidelined thanks to Juan’s stomach. But definitely cannot count them out at all. They’re still a top contender.

You know what Angie & Danny finishing 2nd shows? That they are more than capable without having other teams holding their hands and vice versa. There is no need to force feed stuff to each other. They ran their own Race and actually did better than on a Leg where they took shortcuts.

Rod & Leticia too were able to do well on their own without relying on anyone else.

Which then brings us to Amber & Vinny who kind of stumbled all day. Mostly because of their bickering. Though maybe because they were on their own, they couldn’t focus in a more positive way. Still, they are your typical dysfunctional TAR couple. And they are much more fun to watch in this role rather than whatever that nonsense they partook in last week.

Episode Quotes

Vinny: “Aye yai yai, this is so stupid.”