Amazing Race 39 Ep 3 Recap

Mike Bloom (0:08)

Hi, everybody, and welcome back to RHAP's coverage of The Amazing Race 39 My name is Mike Bloom, ready to talk about how some teams went absolutely bananas by getting rocked in Morocco. The heat has certainly been turned up on the competition in more ways than one. We have another Needle in a Haystack cast that turned into what might be an incredible comeback. Only we knew the outcome. But regardless, we have a lot to get into here. I need some roadside assistance to break it all down. I can think of no better person to do so alongside me. It's Jessica Liese.

Jessica Liese (0:46)

Mike, I'm not helping you with your podcast. You are helping me with mine.

Mike Bloom (0:53)

We're just tip for tat here, you know?

Jessica Liese (0:55)

I wish I could say that this was the first time I've ever seen Mike Bloom in a banana suit. But we were just talking before the podcast. I'm pretty sure it's not. But maybe that's just it's such a bloom coated thing to turn on your stream yard to.

Mike Bloom (1:14)

Yeah, we'll say a bunch of times I've appeared cumulatively across RHAP.

Jessica Liese (1:18)

Yes, and it never gets any less appealing.

Mike Bloom (1:22)

There we go. Well, let's talk about, speaking of another fruit, I wish I was able to grab some tomatoes while we were in Madrid, Jess, and throw them at some choices made in this episode. Because listen, there's still going to be a lot to talk about over the course of this first leg in Morocco. But we got to start with where things finish, or should I say, where things do not finish. We are seemingly perhaps in the scope of Jenn and Jody falling massively far behind to start off the leg here in Marrakech. Somehow, being able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're catching up to Doug and Dylan. They actually are in each other's camera shots, Jess, which I know is a pet peeve of yours. They're racing to the pit stop and then we get three of the worst words you could see during an end card slate on The Amazing Race to be continued. Now, listen, this is not entirely unprecedented. Unlike Anne-Marie and Riley's first place finish, this is not historic. This is actually something that has been utilized a couple times recently, especially on The Amazing Race, specifically in the penultimate episode where they don't want to do an elimination at the final four because the final leg is tough to fill out, 90 minutes with that. So they say, okay, we'll just create a bit of a cliffhanger, extend it into next week. We'll top it off with the elimination and then move forward from there.

This, in my opinion, just a little bit more egregious to put this in the third episode of the season.

Jessica Liese (2:51)

It was certainly a choice. Yes.

I mean, I think I'm slightly higher on this episode than you are, but I think the content of the episode itself and the leg design, as we will get into, I think, was brilliant. I thought it was a really well designed leg with an extra task. We got three whole tasks. That's amazing. It's a great location, a lot of really wonderful content. But then, you know, to have it, you know, the sad trombone of the to be continued leg at the end was a little bit disappointing. Yes.

Mike Bloom (3:24)

Yeah. I mean, again, like you said, it's not to obfuscate some stuff to get into over the course of this episode between the tasks. I think a lot of really interesting strategy, yet again, a couple of express pass usage, as you were alluding to before, perhaps some assistances turning into possible alliances. But yeah, I mean, it's tough to ignore the fact that, you know, people usually, I mean, hell, you know, Rob Cesternino has been a huge proponent of being anti non-elimination legs pretty much since covering the show from the jump with you, feeling like this show needs a beginning, middle and end every episode in the end comes in the form of an elimination. So when we don't even get that and we don't even know, for all intents and purposes, if this is going to be a non-elimination, like my assumption is no, considering that that would make it even worse if they cliffhanger to non-elimination leg on top of it.

Jessica Liese (4:12)

That would be, it would be something if they did that. I mean, I got to zoom out and give you a broader view because I think I feel a little bit differently about the non-elimination legs and when they took them out entirely, I think we've discussed this many times before, but I think the non-elimination legs serve a very specific purpose, and that purpose is, it's something we saw writ large this episode. That purpose is if you know you're in last place, what is your incentive to not just sandbag it? Everybody wants to finish strong, as it were. Everybody wants to make sure they run their best possible race, but if you know you're getting eliminated, what is the point of any of it? They want people to have that sense of urgency because how do you even edit that? How do you edit it like somebody's like, oh, well, we lost.