Beware! This Amazing Race episode 6 recap contains spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the latest episode and don’t want any of the juicy details before you watch, stop reading! For the rest of you, let’s go…
Last week we left the racers in Mozambique, and picked up this week with each team learning they will now fly to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Africa. It turns out this isn’t as easy as it sounds, as the flights out of Mozambique are entirely full, and after a long night of waiting in the airport (minus Charla & Mirna and Dustin & Kandice who head back to a hotel) they find that the direct flight to Dar Es Salaam is entirely full and there is no stand-by available.Charla & Mirna take a big risk by leaving on an earlier flight to Johannesburg in hopes of catching a connecting flight on to Dar Es Salaam. Luckily for them, they secure a stand-by slot on a connecting flight and this puts them in Dar Es Salaam way ahead of the pack early on.
The rest of the teams are still in Mozambique, waiting for the L.A.M. ticket counter to open up to see what their options are to leaving the country. Eric & Daniel, Uchenna & Joyce, Oswald & Danny, and Dustin & Kandice find an open office and secure tickets to Johannesburg and stand-by slots onto Dar Es Salaam, leaving Teri & Ian and Joe & Bill still stranded in Mozambique.
After arriving in Johannesburg, the crew who found the open ticket office in Mozambique learned that their extra effort paid off — they’d be allowed on the stand-by-only flight, leaving Joe & Bill and Teri & Ian once again stuck, only this time in Johannesburg. The teams boarded the flight, and at the last minute Eric & Daniel learn they’ve been given someone else’s tickets, and will have to leave the plane and join Teri & Ian and Joe & Bill still in search of a way to get to Dar Es Salaam.
Meanwhile Charla & Mirna are prancing right along, landing in Dar Es Salaam and (after a bad weather delay) catching a dhow to the double island of Zanzibar with Oswald & Danny. I was eating dinner while watching this episode, and after seeing Charla yack off the side of the boat, I was done. For some reason it really, really bothered me. Those sounds she was making!
Anyway, when the first two teams arrive in Zanzibar, they have a detour: Solve It or Schlep It. In Solve It, the teams had to put together a 62-piece fish puzzle, which actually looks a bit difficult regardless of how it sounds. In Schlep it, teams have to carry two large logs on a wheel barrow. Both teams in the front choose Solve It.
Once thing I’d like to mention, and hopefully get some insight on, is the geographically-ambiguous accent Charla & Mirna speak to locals with. This really bothers me — it seems as if they believe they’re speaking to children, when in actuality they’re speaking to adults who, for the most part, speak more proper and clear than they do. I’m not sure what it is that causes them to dip down into this weird accent — perhaps the need to feel understood and the fact they’re in a race, and thus rushed. It makes them look quite ignorant, however.
Anyway, back to the race. Both teams are way, way in the lead — probably the biggest lead in any Amazing Race I’ve seen — and they finish the puzzle without much difficulty. Oswald & Danny actually finish first, but they stop along the way to the next challenge to buy some fruit. I don’t really blame them; If I were on the Amazing Race, my partner would be pretty pissed off as I’d probably be doing this exact thing constantly. I hate feeling rushed, and if there’s some fruit I want to buy, by golly I’m going to buy it! This allows Charla & Mirna to make it to the next roadblock first, however. One team member must toss a Rangu at a clay mask to reveal their next clue. Mirna steps up to the plate, failing at first but finally striking the mask and heading to the pit-stop, where they secure their second 1st place win in a row — followed by Oswald & Danny, who probably would have been first if it weren’t for the fruit incident.
This recap is getting quite long, and the other teams are so far behind I don’t even feel like going back and giving you any details. The only thing that sticks out of my mind is Uchenna’s conversation with the Blondes on the boat about slavery. Something about “you girls are next,” followed by the requisite Amazing Race sound effect and slow motion lead-out. I’m not quite sure about that one. Oh, and when Eric & Daniel are at the Rangu roadblock, Eric — like always — is a complete jackass to Daniel. Poor girl.
The other teams make their way through the detours and roadblocks and onto the pit-stop without much issue, but Joe & Bill and Teri & Ian are waaaaaaaaaay behind — I’m talking 12+ hours. By the time Teri & Ian arrive at the pit stop to learn they have been eliminated, it’s the next day. And you can tell because Phil looks ultra tired, yet he still hams it up for the camera.
What will this mean for Joe & Bill, who haven’t been eliminated but will have to start the next leg of the race a half a day later than everyone else? We shall see next week!