Recap: The Amazing Race 37, Episode 8 – “Can you please just trust that I’m breathing?!”

Recap: The Amazing Race 37, Episode 8 – “We’re Letting Race Brain Win”

To start the 8th Leg of the Race, teams must drive to Lake Ariana in Sofia. But they can also decide to go for an Express Pass before doing that. Alyssa & Josiah, starting the Leg in first place around 20 minutes ahead of the next team, of course decide to go for it.

And to win this Express Pass, Alyssa & Josiah must walk barefoot over hot coals. Josiah hates hot things, but they both complete the task and claim the Express Pass which is valid through Leg 10 before continuing on the Race.

Both Brett & Mark and Jonathan & Ana decide to skip the Express Pass knowing Alyssa & Josiah would of course go for it.

Brett & Mark arrive at the next clue which tells teams to participate in a Jordan’s Day tradition for Eastern Orthodox Christians. A priest will throw a cross in the lake and teams must head into the middle of the cheering men to retrieve it. They can then exchange the cross for a clue.

Brett & Mark have no problem retrieving the cross and can now make their way to Russian Monument Square by any means except taxi. Nearby, teams will need to find a Klek Shop owned by Mira, one of many bunkers converted into businesses after the fall of communism.

Alyssa & Josiah arrive at the lake before Jonathan & Ana.

Meanwhile, Brett & Mark find the klek shop and get the clue directing them to the library at Sofia University. They decide to take a bus.

Alyssa & Josiah find the shop when they see an AR37 graffiti on it and decide to just run to the university. Jonathan & Ana run around the area before seeing a small flag at the top of the klek door.

Brett & Mark arrive at the library and open the clue. Teams must use a cypher to translate the Cyrillic phrase on an ancient book into English. Though they have no idea what to do at first, they soon find the English on the back of the cypher and are able to immediately get the phrase.

They go for a check and are then given the next clue directing them to the sculpture garden at the Museum of Socialist Art. They leave just as Alyssa & Josiah arrive.

Alyssa & Josiah have no idea what to do. And when Jonathan & Ana arrive, they tell them to take their time, but if they ever want to work together, they can. After a while, Jonathan is able to spot the English on the back of the cypher too and he and Ana carefully translate the phrase without Alyssa & Josiah seeing what they’re doing.

Jonathan decides to point out the back of the cypher to Alyssa & Josiah before they leave.

Meanwhile, after getting in the water, Melinda & Erika misread the clue and think they must travel only by taxi for the rest of the Leg. Elsewhere, Carson & Jack run into the woodchopper from last Leg on the bus. He helps them by telling them about the klek shop.

Han & Holden arrive at the library and get started and have no idea what to do. Melinda & Erika arrive soon and they decide to work together.

Carson & Jack arrive at the klek shop, but completely forget what the woodchopper told them about squatting down before they see the flag on the door.

Farther ahead, Brett & Mark arrive at the museum sculpture garden. The waiting clue tells them to head to the Central Military Club. Alyssa & Josiah arrive at the museum before Jonathan & Ana who were told wrong directions by a local.

Brett & Mark find the Road Block: Who wants to step back in time? For this Road Block, teams will learn how to and then correctly perform a traditional Bulgarian Horo line dance routine. Mark decides to do the Road Block.

Back at the library, Carson & Jack arrive, putting the pressure on the siblings and mother & daughter. The best friends end up seeing the English on the back first. And Holden is able see them flip their cypher. He motions to Han without letting Melinda & Erika know.

Melinda & Erika go for a check on what they have and Han & Holden take the chance to confirm they are on the right track with Carson & Jack. They agree not to let Melinda & Erika know at all.

Han & Holden are able to get their translation approved. They wait for Carson & Jack to come outside and the siblings tell them they will let the friends go first and then they will tell Melinda & Erika the critical information. Carson & Jack don’t think it’s a good idea to be helping other teams at this point in the Race.

Melinda & Erika ask Han & Holden for the answer. Holden starts to tell them, but Han stops him. The siblings and Carson & Jack decide to hurry and work together to keep each other ahead of the mother and daughter.

Over at the Road Block, Mark goes for his first attempt. And naturally, the Vegas performer gets the thumbs up. He and Brett can now make their way to the Pit Stop at St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral where they officially check in as Team #1. They win $7500 each.

Josiah does the Road Block while Ana arrives and gets started as well. Josiah gets the thumbs up on his 3rd attempt as does Ana. Alyssa & Josiah step on the Mat as Team #2 with Jonathan & Ana arriving in 3rd just seconds behind.

Carson & Jack and Han & Holden split up on the way to the museum. And Carson & Jack get the needed directions to find the clue first and get ahead.

Jack and Holden decide to do the Road Block. Melinda & Erika, again hopping in a taxi, arrive soon and Melinda does the Road Block.

Jack gets the thumbs up on his second attempt as does Holden. Melinda gets it on her first attempt. And it is now a foot race to the Pit Stop.

Carson & Jack check-in as Team #4. Han & Holden get to the Mat in 5th.

That means Melinda & Erika are last. Phil tells them to re-read their clue and they realize they had taken taxis all day. But it doesn’t matter. They are still last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

Last week’s episode was great. This week’s might have been even better. Let’s go through it first.

The Express Pass should be somewhere in the middle of the Leg. Not the first clue. That’s basically just rewarding the first place team of the last Leg. Might as well made it the prize for the last Leg instead. But fine to get it out of the way I guess.

The Jordan’s Day (or Epiphany) tradition is a great task. I was waiting for TAR to do it last week. But good to have it this week. Though I kinda prefer the way TARPHDME7 included the cultural tradition that season. lolol It was more fun lolololol

The Klek Shop Route Marker was great! What a unique aspect of Bulgaria. And a nice way to feature it here on this Leg.

The Cyrillic was a great tricky task and perfect as an Active Route Info task. And even better, the teams didn’t just give each other the answer! See! You can be nice and help each other without force feeding the answers to another team! TARPHDME7had a Cyrillic task too as one side of the Detour, and it was fine. But I like this one on TAR37 better lolololol

The Road Block was good. Performing tasks are TAR staples. So for this first (and likely only ever) visit to Bulgaria, featuring a traditional dance is a good choice.

The hope for any Leg that involves walking or public transit is that a team makes a mistake somewhere along the way. Whether bad directions, exhaustion or, like what happened here, taking a taxi instead. It’s crazy to think that 37 seasons in, teams can still make that mistake. But it happened.

Now, it certainly took some of the excitement and tension away from this episode knowing that Melinda & Erika were most likely eliminated because of the impending penalty. But the little drama with the cypher actually delivered some fun moments. Both for the last three teams and also with Jonathan & Ana and Alyssa & Josiah too.

Now it would’ve obviously been more nerve-wracking and edge of your seat without Melinda & Erika’s sure-elimination hanging over the proceedings. But as is the case for the season so far, everything else makes up for these little hurdles and bumps that might have otherwise derailed a season with weaker pieces.

Which is very much the case for most, if not all, of the recent seasons. At least during the 30s, with or without COVID.

So now after eight Legs and eight episodes, the only real criticism of the season is that each Leg could’ve used one or two more tasks. This Leg needed at least one more task too, even keeping the many Route Markers.

But that said, everything else has been good or even strong. And it has only gotten better every week in terms of how enjoyable the show has been.

Keeping that momentum until the finale will secure TAR37 as one of the better modern, HD Era seasons of TAR. I’m comfortable saying that already at this point.

Now I must say, I don’t know about Phil saying Carson & Jack made one of the biggest comebacks ever. Even with an hour behind, I think Phil’s statement can be true only if we’re acknowledging that the linear modern TAR Legs would make such placement shuffling impossible. lol

Team Thoughts

Like I’ve mentioned, the teams are a big part of what has made this season above-average. They’ve helped to elevate the season. And when you can root for teams and be invested and interested in teams and be rooting against a team, but not because you necessarily hate them or something like that, that’s good stuff!

It’s too bad Melinda & Erika didn’t read their clue properly. But the way they were just neck and neck with the other teams even with the taxi probably showed they would’ve been even further behind had they followed the clue. Still, they’ve run a good Race and they definitely deserved to make it this far.

Brett & Mark also got a well-deserved win too. Just a smooth Leg for them and a perfect Road Block to cap off that strong performance this week. It’s been fun seeing them really step it up week after week. They’re definitely on the right track.

Alyssa & Josiah is also another team that has stepped it up, both with their Racing and being able to show off their fun personalities as well. Of course, that latter part is more on what the show decides to include in the episodes. But nonetheless, they’ve really emerged as a team you can really root for as well.

Carson & Jack did well to make up the time. The Leg design definitely worked in their favor. But it’s also not really much of a surprise that they did very well. You can never count them out. And that’s even with being one hour behind. They’re still a very strong team that can overcome any setback.

Jonathan & Ana had a good Leg as well. Jonathan talked about the bad luck from the ditch, but they were fine this Leg. I liked very much them not giving Alyssa & Josiah the answer and just giving them the heads up before leaving. That’s how it should be done if you even really need to.

Which brings us to Han & Holden. I loved that they didn’t immediately tell Melinda & Erika they had figured out the cypher. I was okay with them letting them know about it before they left like Jonathan & Ana did. I definitely did not like Holden starting to tell them the first line of the answer. So kudos to Han for stopping him. lol

Episode Quotes

Melinda: “This is very orthodox”

Josiah: “I’m so focused on chobo”

Holden: “Can you just take a deep breath for me.”
Han: “I’m breathing, I’m good. I’m good.”
Holden: “No, you’re not breathing. I didn’t hear you breathe. Can you please breathe for me?”
Han: “Can you, can you please just trust that I’m breathing?!”