The Amazing Race Review: Don’t Lay Down On Me Indonesia

Let’s start off this week’s look back at The Amazing Race with a little perspective. After all, when traveling around the world at a break neck pace, it’s good to have a little bit of that. So, we’re going to start off with life lessons across the generations with our soon-to-be wedded Ernie/Cindy and the for-lifers Bill/Cathi, who teach us how they get by while playing the Race.

First up are Cindy and Ernie who demonstrated the packing order of their universe while telling us all about their tireless preparation for the race. Cindy tells us that she is a control freak. And while describing the months of packing, studying, and exercising leading up to it, if you look in the background you can kind of see Ernie’s spirit break a little. Ernie jokes that the last six months of his life have been dictated by his wife-to-be. This makes me laugh. It’s just beginning for you. {Cue diabolical laugh.}

But, I don’t know, maybe they’ll turn up like the Ma and Pa of the group. Bill and Cathi have been together more years than many of these teams have been alive. After talking with the other groups, the two inform us that they’re a full 40 years older than the youngest competitors, but that’s not going to keep them down. Because as Bill and Cathi tell us: “we’re going to die soon anyway.” That’s the spirit!

For the first task this week, Phil tells the teams that they’ll have to take part in on a local pastime and join with a local bike patrol and travel to a fort where they’ll get their next clue. This task is pretty straightforward and some of the teams get a kick out of the leisurely pace of the patrol. Andy/Tommy are at the head for the beginning of this leg, and take the time to demonstrate their handle of the two-wheeled man powered automobile by showing off for the locals their set of gravity defying bike tricks; also known as popping a wheelie. For the better part of this task it looks like this will be a cake walk for the teams, and a waste of time for ours, but that was until Ernie and Cindy.

In all fairness it really isn’t their fault what happened to them. They’re traveling along through the streets when, oh look Ernie’s bike pedal falls off. They can’t call for another bike; they can’t continue on foot; all they can do is stand by helplessly watching four other teams pass them as the patrol tries to reattach the pedal. Cindy gets really frustrated and starts whining to Ernie saying that they need to hurry up, everyone’s passing them by, and blah, blah, blah, other such bits of obvious advice. And for a moment I thank the powers that be of The Amazing Race editing, for the favor that they have shown me. For what better way to dazzle up such a boring task than to throw a wrench and let Cindy squawk away bringing a smile of such childish delight to my face. Oh, joy. But like I said before, it’s not their fault they went from fourth to next to last by some tricky whimsy of fate. I’m just glad that it happened (schadenfreude).

For the next part, the teams have to choose between two tasks: rice field or grass fed. For rice field the teams have to deliver a meal to the workers of a field and then plant 200 rice seedlings. This task is muddy and potentially time draining. For grass fed, the teams have to fill up a sack full of grass and deliver the grass as well as two sheep to a stable where they must then put 6 buckets of water in the watering trough. This task is pretty fast moving but does not come without its little hinges. The majority of the teams decide to do this task and find out that corralling a couple of headstrong sheep isn’t as easy as it seems.

Andy/Tommy’s sheep start to attack and pretty much run all over them. And then when the two get to the stables they find out that they didn’t have enough grass and must go back and do this all over again. This gives Laurence and Zac some much needed time to catch up and by the time Andy/Tommy head back to the stables, Laurence/Zac are right on their trail. In order to catch up, Zac/Laurence decide to use a third bucket to help their progress. Now this is specifically against the rules given in the clue and Andy/Tommy hint at this to the other team: “read your clue guys,” but it goes unnoticed by the other team.

Amani/Marcus had a pretty tough time this week. After getting the absolute worse taxi driver who kept getting lost and then proceeded to laugh when they told him it was very important to get there (one other driver did this as well), Amani and Marcus were well behind everyone else for the majority of this episode. Amani/Marcus decide to do the grass task, but switched midway through the task after being told they had to go back. They decided to do the rice task instead and get through a little muddy, but none the worse for wear.

By the time Amani/Marcus get to the next task they are firmly in the back of the pact. But luckily for them as they arrived at the road block, Andy/Tommy, who had just finished the task, gives them the answer. So in theory all they have to do is go to the judge and give him the answer and they’ll be on their way. Unfortunately though exhaustion has taken its toll on this team and even though they were given the answer, Amani/Marcus can’t remember what it is by the time it’s time to complete the challenge.

For the challenge, the teams had to walk around a Buddhist temple, counting the different Buddha statues and the positions of each. The trick to this challenge is that there are four different statues, and not only do the teams have to know how many there are of each, they have to demonstrate each one with the proper number of statues before they get their next clue. Laurence/Zac and Andy/Tommy team up for this one and before too long they’re on their way; the latter running into Amani/Marcus on their way out.

Not that it did them any good. By the time Marcus starts the task for his team, he’s forgotten the answer. And he spends most of his time trying to remember what the guys told them as well as watching the other teams, four of which have teamed up to get this done. Jeremy, Justin, Liz/Marie (can’t tell them apart yet), and Ernie decide to put their heads together on this one after being told time and again separately that they’re wrong. They eventually figure it out and so does Marcus who’s now working with Kaylani/Lisa (them either).

At the pit stop, Laurence and Zac are the first to arrive for check in, but then Phil informs them that they have earned a penalty for using an extra bucket during the task. And that 15 minute opening leaves just enough time for Andy/Tommy to move into first place, winning a trip to Dubai. For a moment, Andy and Tommy pretend to be coy and say ‘Oh gosh well they deserved this win for helping us. We wish they could get this prize.’ But when Phil tells them that there’s no rule to say that they can’t give the prize away they quickly backtrack and say ‘Well, never mind.’

Kaylani/Lisa probably would have had a good shot at not being last at the pit stop. Had they not had issues locating their cab at the end of the challenge, they might well have been able to sneak past Liz/Marie to remain in the race. As it was, these two are the last to arrive and were eliminated. That sucks, I was really rooting for those two, (mostly because I couldn’t figure out which one I was rooting for).

Here’s where they stand:
1. Andy/Tommy
2. Laurence/Zac
3. Jeremy/Sandy
4. Justin/Jennifer
5. Ernie/Cindy
6. Amani/Marcus
7. Bill/Cathi
8. Liz/Marie
Kaylani/Lisa were eliminated.

Rooting For: Let’s switch it up, Bill and Cathi. (No, I’m not proud of this.)

Rooting Against: No one at the moment.

85% sure Andy/Tommy will make it into the top four, if not win this whole thing. (And yes I did just pull that number out of a hat. Thank you very much.)

For another opinion on this episode, check out Way Too Many Buddhas by Gabe Callahan.

Season 19, Episode 3: “Don’t Lay Down On Me Now” (original air date October 9,2011)

The Amazing Race airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

Image courtesy of Robert Voets/CBS.