We’re back for the 5th leg. Watching the recap from last week, I still can’t believe that John and Jessica managed to get eliminated with that Express Pass still in their pockets. I mean, once Chuck and Winona were heading to the pit stop with one of those last surfboards, you need to make the call to footrace them to the mat ready to use the Express Pass. After that constant obsession John seemed to have over the Express Pass, you’d have thought he would’ve contemplated using the thing when it mattered most. Guess they figured they may need it later or something for a U-turn scenario, and maybe they hoped this was a non-elimination leg, but in hindsight, it just was not a smart move.
Anyway, we’re back where they left us: in Bali. Dave and Connor are first and read the clue that the teams are headed for Hanoi, Vietnam and that there’s a U-turn on this leg. Dave and Connor are in trouble because Dave’s doctor at home says he needs surgery within seven days. They say that they plan to fly to Vietnam and be eliminated.
Teams begin arriving in Vietnam. They show a shot of an Aldo shoe store in the background in Hanoi. Very odd. Strange to see a more expensive shoe store with locals walking around with no shoes on right in front of it. Anyone else catch that? Very strange to me.
In Vietnam, Dave and Connor immediately disqualify themselves. They are both in tears. Phil eliminates them but tells them to hold their heads up. Connor says he would rather run four legs with his dad than win a million. Yeah, sure. But I did feel bad for them because that must be very hard to have to just bow out of the Race. Especially since these two have been coming in first place quite a bit. Who knows, maybe the show will bring them back for a future season.
The teams arrived on different flights to Vietnam but it doesn’t matter because the gallery with the first clue does not open until the next morning. The teams are all basically lying around waiting for the gallery to open. I’m so bored with the show, I feel like I’m lying around with them. Pam and Winnie say, “We’re so excited to be in Vietnam!” Wow, there’s a sentence no American has said in quite a long time. Meanwhile, Max decides it’s a good time to unload about how stupid he thinks Jessica and John were not to use their Express Pass. He is going on and on about how moronic they were and how he can’t believe someone could be so dumb as to get eliminated trying to save an Express Pass for later. Meghan and Joey look completely pissed off because he’s trashing their friends. Meghan says she wanted to punch Max but kept quiet because she didn’t want them to use a U-turn on her and Joey. She thinks their alliance with the Roller Derby Moms is still a secret, but she’s so obviously pissed off at the conversation that I don’t know how the message didn’t get across anyway. A couple minutes later Anthony and Bates and pretty much all the other teams are discussing their alliance with Jessica and John and Mona and Beth, so it does not seem to have been much of a secret.
The gallery finally opens and the clue is a Road Block. The teams have to watch a Vietnamese patriotic performance and remember the words that are shown in Vietnamese at the end. The song is talking about how “Socialism is growing more beautiful over time” and calling Vietnam a communist state and Mona decides to declare that the song sounded like “One Direction.” Duh. She must be one of those dummies that just talks to hear her own voice. Unfortunately, it was not even close. I’m not an expert on “One Direction,” but I think they put out songs similar to “Mmm Bop” by Hanson, right? I don’t really get the reference of the Vietnamese national song to their music, but whatever. And did Meghan seriously think the word “Jetson” was actually in the song or even a Vietnamese word at all? Hmm. I kind of doubt it. Anyway, if Meghan wanted to keep her and Joey’s alliance with Beth and Mona secret, Beth totally blew that one. Beth tells her loudly to remember the first four words of the Vietnamese phrase and that Beth would remember the last four. No better way to hide an alliance than to work together loudly in a room full of the other teams. Way to go, dummies.
The teams weren’t tripped up for long on the Vietnamese song, and head for the Detour. It is a choice of “Make your move” or “Make your meal.” “Move” was a life-sized Chinese chess board using human chess pieces. “Meal” was picking up two live chickens and purchasing a bunch of grocery ingredients for making two bowls of some Vietnamese meal that even closed captioning didn’t bother to try to spell out. No clue.
Doesn’t Winona realize she is going to have to do at least some of the individual tasks? I mean really, you couldn’t watch the singing/dancing group and find a poster with those words on it? If you don’t do something, eventually we are going to have to watch you try to pole vault across a river. Winona and Chuck have had waaaay too many lucky breaks – the brainless wonder team went out without using the express pass (which would have easily placed them before W & C), but they are happy they didn’t use it?? Then Dave and Connor DQ and so they are allowed to stay . . . those two are hanging by a thread.
And did anyone else find that song they sang a little creepy? First of all, they are in Hanoi – which just brings up all sorts of bad memories for those that were in Vietnam. But then to be singing happily about socialism and communism . . . . somehow, I thought they could have found a more appropriate task.
Also the teas needed to visit the B-52 site. So celebrating the death of US airmen . I really hated this episode.