Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 10, Episode 2 – “You’re my muffin. You’re my pumpkin.”

Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 10, Episode 2 – Call Me The Olive Man

For the second Leg of the Race, teams will be flying to Vancouver and making their way to the Sunshine Coast. Teams are given a heads up that three Express Passes will be up for grabs.

While teams wait for a bus to Toronto, they mingle and get to know each other. And really, trying to send out feelers in the event one of them eventually gets one of those Express Passes.

All teams are on the same flight. And upon arrival, teams must head to the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre to catch one of five seaplanes arriving ten minutes apart in Sechelt. But teams will get the option to take a literal detour to Second Beach where they can claim one of the three Express Passes before heading to the seaplane sign-up board.

Michael & Tyson manage to hop into a taxi first, partly thanks to giving a $100 tip in order for them to attempt a go for the Express Pass. Lauren & Nicole are 2nd to find a taxi, but decide to go straight to the seaplanes. Kevin & Gurleen and Michael & Amari are the only other two teams to head for the Express Pass.

Michael & Tyson arrive at Second Beach and choose to pull in the Express Pass x2 buoy, officially claiming the two passes. Though Gurleen says not to, Kevin decides to get out of their taxi at the wrong location. That allows Michael & Amari to comfortably pull in and claim the 3rd Express Pass.

Lauren & Nicole and Taylor & Katie get on the first flight, Julia & Olivia and Dorothy & Olus get on the second flight with Connor & John and Brad & Sam on the third. Michael & Tyson and Colin & Matt get seats on the fourth flight.

Michael & Amari and Kevin & Gurleen have to settle for the fifth flight. But they decide to help each other out this Leg. Kevin, however, is still upset that they not only lost the Express Pass, but that they are in last now. Gurleen tries to encourage him and also get him to stop sulking in front of everyone.

The first plane arrives in Sechelt and teams must choose a 2024 Chevy Silverado Bison ZR2 to drive themselves to Halfmoon Sea Kayaks. Here, teams will paddle into the inlet to execute the self-rescue skill. Teams will first capsize their kayak, get themselves back into the boat, pump out all the excess water and then paddle back to shore to get the next clue.

After all planes arrive in Sechelt, Kevin & Gurleen stop for directions to the inlet. But Gurleen is upset that once again, Kevin did not listen to her about stopping being a bad idea.

Lauren & Nicole stay in first place as they receive the next clue directing teams to drive down the coast to Gibsons for the Detour: Palate Test or Mallet Fest. In Palate Test, teams head to the Sunshine Coast Olive Oil Company where they must correctly identify ten different olive oil and balsamic vinegar flavors. In Mallet Test, teams will head to Gibsons Public Market and learn how to and then successfully play the marimba from the Knotty Daughters. This is a Limited Stations Detour.

Lauren & Nicole and Taylor & Katie choose the olive oil while Julia & Olivia choose the marimba and they struggle a bit.

Brad & Sam, Connor & John, Colin & Matt and Michael & Tyson finish the kayak task next. Dorothy & Olus are struggling to get back on their kayak. Michael & Amari and Kevin & Gurleen, who had been lost, now catch up.
Dorothy is frustrated that they cannot finish. She has an anxiety attack and they are helped back to the shore. After getting a refresher tutorial, they head back out and are able to successfully complete the task.

Though Taylor & Katie arrived at the olive oil first, Lauren & Nicole move back into first place and must now head to Mise en Place Equestrian where one team will win The Assist by Desjardins.

On the way to Gibsons, Kevin & Gurleen get directions printed out for them. Kevin suggests they print out incorrect directions to give to Michael & Amari. But Gurleen says they shouldn’t do that lest they attract bad karma. Kevin drops the idea.

Taylor & Katie finally get the thumbs up at the olive oil as the all-guy teams arrive and get started.

Lauren & Nicole arrive at the equestrian center and find the Road Block: Who can hold their horses? For this Road Block, teams will perform a dressage course… on a hobby horse. Teams must memorize the course and perform prancing, pivots and gate jumping in the correct order to receive the next clue.

As Taylor & Katie arrive at the Road Block, Connor & John finish the olive oil. Michael & Tyson ask for advice and John tells them to smell. He hopes this can earn them an Express Pass from the baseball players.

Brad & Sam and Michael & Tyson are able to finish the olive oil next.

On the other side of the Detour, Olivia is having trouble with the marimba. Dorothy & Olus arrive and get started, but Julia & Olivia are able to leave before them. Dorothy & Olus manage to get the thumbs up on their 1st? attempt.

Back at the Road Block, Tyson is able to get the thumbs up on his 2nd attempt and he and Michael get the next clue: a photo of the Roberts Creek Mandala. They must figure out where this is and then find the Pit Stop at the nearby Roberts Creek Pier.

Michael & Tyson find Jon and step on the Mat to officially finish as Team #1. They win an Expedia trip to Dubai and $10,000 from Expedia.

After Nicole passes on her 5th attempt and Katie on her 6th attempt, the two teams head to the Pit Stop. Lauren & Nicole take 2nd and Taylor & Katie finish 3rd.

Matt finds The Assist by Desjardins which gives him an easier routine to complete. So he and Colin officially check-in as Team #4.

Back at the Detour, Michael & Amari decide to give Kevin & Gurleen the answers to the olive oil, saying they want both teams to survive and stay ahead of at least one other team. Though both are currently in last place.

At the Road Block, John gets frustrated and asks about the penalty for quitting it. Connor encourages him as Kevin and Michael end up passing him at the task. Gurleen tells Michael & Amari that they will wait for them and they agree they want to make it to the end together.

Michael & Amari and Kevin & Gurleen step on the Mat together to tie for 5th.

John finally passes on his 11th attempt and Brad, who has color blindness, gets it on his 9th attempt.

Brad & Sam finish as Team #7. Olivia finishes the Road Block on her 5th attempt and Olus gets it on his 4th.

Julia & Olivia manage to step on the Mat as Team #8. Connor & John end up finishing 9th. That means Dorothy & Olus are last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

First off, there was some weird editing in this episode. It seems like there were a couple of scenes missing. Almost like this was a 90-minute episode edited down to an hour lolol

I feel like this episode needed a few more minutes. Not the one-hour total runtime of the 90-minute episodes. But teams started popping up randomly. There was a bit of sense of time missing at some points.

I think one moment was Connor & John falling behind at the end. Or Michael & Amari being so lax about giving Kevin & Gurleen the answer when they are fighting for last at that point.

It might be the teams were much closer than they seemed since there certainly were lots of placement changes. But the episode didn’t make it seem like that though. So it was a bit off.

That said, this was a pretty good episode and Leg overall. The kayak task was a good one to start the day with. Especially on a cold, rainy day. And I haven’t been to BC. (Or Canada at all, really lol) But it’s definitely an activity I would associate with British Columbia. And it was a good one here.

For the Detour, the flavor identifying is really a TARC staple task now. You have to have at least one on every season lol What’s funny (or sad?) is both sides of the Detour would be much better if staged somewhere outside of Canada. Like the olive oil task in Spain or the marimba task in Zimbabwe. Next week, there’s a mahjong task in Richmond, BC which I understand has a large Asian population. How awesome to instead have a mahjong task in Singapore.

Oh well. lol

The Road Block was alright. I think they could’ve upped the amusing aspect of it being on hobby horses. But it’s basically a memorization task.

I do think this is where the editing kind of went wobbly. I feel like we didn’t see teams arriving and getting started. Like, there wasn’t a clear succession of events or whatever. I don’t know how to put it. So having all the teams there at the same time was great. But we didn’t see how teams moved ahead or fell behind.

Elsewhere, I forgot to compliment TARC for continuing to use real shots in the opening and not the greenscreen stuff TARUS and TARAus does.

With the Express Pass, I’m glad they did it differently this time around and not just give a team all three. I would prefer they just had three separate ones so three different teams could claim one of their own without the need to promote the alliance-y sucking up strategy. But splitting it between two and one is an alright compromise. Also, I’m kinda glad Kevin & Gurleen didn’t get an Express Pass. So that made it even better to do it in this way. lol

Overall, while I definitely have nitpicks, it’s actually very solid episode. Especially in comparison to recent TARC seasons. Hope the momentum continues.

Team Thoughts

All the teams did pretty well this week both as Racers and personalities. Sad about Dorothy & Olus. I liked them, but they definitely had some trouble during their short time on the Race.

Nice to see teams like Lauren & Nicole and Taylor & Katie doing so well so far. And Michael & Tyson pretty much dominating the tasks show they could be a dangerous team moving forward. They probably would’ve won Leg 1 if they didn’t lose their money.

I liked Michael & Amari a lot until that moment they gave the answer to Kevin & Gurleen. And it wasn’t because of some alliance trauma. But how they were fighting for last and decided to just give them the answer. I don’t get it.

Brad & Sam are definitely reminding me of Steve & Anna Leigh and I would love to see the Canadian version go far. Lol

Connor & John are a fun team to watch so far. Colin & Matt might be the team with the least amount of focus so far.

And that brings us to Kevin & Gurleen. I dunno man. I’m glad that Gurleen seems to be much more level-headed to counter Kevin’s obviously reality show-ready personality. His idea of wanting to literally print out directions that would lead Michael & Amari in the wrong direction was annoying. But when you pair that with his shenanigans last Leg and the potential of him continuing to do stuff like that in future Legs, then it gets into being too much. But we’ll see.

Episode Quotes

John: “You lost the money, but you got the Express Pass.”

Gurleen: “You’re my muffin. You’re my pumpkin.”

Nicole: “I’m gonna capsize my kayak all day.”

Lauren: “Good job horse!”