This episode of The Amazing Race began with teams learning that they will be traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark! They need to take a 13 hour ferry back to Aberdeen, Scotland and then catch a flight to Copenhagen. Obviously, the dentists’ one hour lead will be moot because all the teams will be caught up due to this long ferry ride. Misti & Jim arrive at the ferry terminal only to discover that it won’t leave until 5:30 pm (big shocker), so they go to the library to try and book plane tickets to Copenhagen. The dentists book a flight scheduled to arrive in Denmark at 4:00 pm the next day. The surfers and team country decide that they will go to a travel agency in the morning to book a flight, since there isn’t one nearby. On the ferry, teams discuss their plan to go to the travel agency as soon as the boat docks. The wrestlers say that the agency doesn’t open until 9:00 am, but they will arrive in Aberdeen at 7:00 am, so they are planning to go straight to the airport in an attempt to get tickets before the other teams. The cyclists make it to the airport first, and they get tickets for a plane that arrives at 2:00 pm. Double T gets tickets for a flight arriving at 5:15pm, while the wrestlers are on a flight scheduled to land at 5:10 pm. The mother/daughter team will arrive at 5:20 pm, and the remaining 3 teams will land in Copenhagen at 5:10pm. Double T’s flight is delayed by half an hour, and the mother/daughter team’s flight is delayed an hour.
The cyclists land in Copenhagen, where Phil announces that they must drive to Sweden. I found it a bit odd that Phil told Alli & Kym that they were in the lead, seeing as teams typically have to make an educated guess as to what place they are in. Phil tells us that teams must use a Ford car (blah blah blah, sponsorship) to drive to Sweden, and if they drive economically and only use 1/10th of the tank of gas, they will receive their next clue. However, if they use more gas than that, they will be forced to answer a local geography student’s question in order to get their next clue. The cyclists receive their next clue before any other teams even land in Copenhagen; if they don’t get first place, it’s going to be pretty embarrassing. The first side of the detour, Parking Space, requires teams to repurpose a parking space known as a parquet- a place to relax and socialize. They will choose between two themes, a living room or a garden, and set up their street-scape exactly the same as the provided pictures within 30 minutes. The other side of the detour, Wedding Cake, requires teams to
decorate a traditional Danish wedding cake, balance it on a bike called a bullitt, and deliver it to a restaurant. If the cake is acceptable, a waitress will sign a receipt for them, which they must return to the bakery in order to receive their next clue. Clearly, Kym & Alli decide to choose Wedding Cake, being that they are cyclists. It turns out that they don’t actually have to do much to the cake, just stack a few more layers and frost them, then add flags. Meanwhile, the dentists have landed in Copenhagen and driven to Sweden, but they drove too fast and weren’t economically efficient enough. The surfers, scientists, wrestlers, and Team Country arrive and make their way to Sweden via car. Misti & Jim must identify the capitals of Norway, Sweden and Denmark in order to receive their next clue. They find a young woman with a smart phone who googles the answers for them, and then they choose Parking Space.
Kym & Alli have finished frosting their cake, but as they go to bring it to the bike, they grab a frosting bag “just in case.” I’m guessing this will be a penalty once they arrive at the matt, because there were only a few frosting bags provided. Robbie is getting a somewhat bad edit this episode, first with him thinking that they had to go over 1/10th of the tank, then with him asking Brooke if Sweden is a different country than Denmark. The wrestlers, the surfers, and the scientists didn’t drive efficiently enough, so they need to answer the question, while Whitney & Keith are off to the Wedding Cake detour. The scientists choose Parking Space and the other two teams choose Wedding Cake. Tim & Te Jay finally land in Copenhagen and drive to Sweden. Meanwhile, Shelley & Nici are fighting (yet again) because they can’t find the correct cars. I wish these two would be eliminated this leg, but I’m pretty sure it will be a non elimination leg. Kym & Alli use the frosting to repair their cake before bringing it into the restaurant, where they discover that they’ve lost the receipt. They find the receipt outside by their bike, get it signed, and go back to the bakery. They get their next clue (and some pastries), which instructs teams to drive themselves to the Ida Davidsen restaurant. The dentists choose to recreate the garden parquet, which they claim to be good at because it’s the same as their job, where they have to pay attention to detail. Apparently, decorating a parking space is exactly the same thing as filling a cavity. The scientists arrive, while Double T and team mother/daughter are on their way to the Parking Space detour.
The cyclists arrive at the roadblock, where one team member must become a waiter/waitress and fill the sandwich orders of two customers. The customers will each order two sandwiches by number, and the team member must memorize the four ingredients of each sandwich and then relay them to the chef. Kym decides to do this roadblock, then says that she is a bad waitress. At the detour, both the surfers and Team Country decide to switch detours because biking with the cake is too difficult. Misti & Jim don’t complete the detour in the allotted 30 minutes, because one of the flower pots they picked didn’t have the correct number of petals. They now have to reassemble everything in another parking space. Kym finally completes the roadblock, and the cyclists are off to the pit stop at the VM houses. The wrestlers deliver their cake successfully. Amy & Maya finish the detour and are now in second place, Brooke & Robbie are in 3rd place, and Keith & Whitney are in 4th place. The dentists and the surfers are having the same problem with the wrong flowerpot, and the dentists decide to give up and try the other side of the detour. Kym & Alli reach the pit stop and Phil tells them that they are team #1, and that they have each won a new Ford 2014 C Max energy plug in hybrid. This week’s greeter is joined by two large adorable dogs. The wrestlers, scientists and Team Country are now at the roadblock, while the surfers, Double T, and team mother/daughter are at the Parking Space detour, and the dentists are at the Wedding Cake detour. The scientists finish the roadblock, followed by the wrestlers and Team Country. Adam finally realizes that the flowerpot is facing in the wrong direction, because one side has a flower with 7 petals and one side has a flower with 8 petals. The surfers are now in 5th place, followed by Double T in 6th place.
Misti & Jim deliver their cake, but it is missing a flag, so the waitress doesn’t accept it. Somehow, the wrestlers make it to the pit stop in 2nd place, followed by Team Country in 3rd place, even though the scientists finished the roadblock before both teams. The dentists manage to return to the bakery, get their missing flag, and finish the detour before team mother/daughter. The scientists come in 4th place, Tim & Te Jay are 5th – after Phil tells them this, one of the dogs jumps up and tries to lick his face. Adam & Bethany finish the roadblock before the other 2 teams, but they get lost on the way to the pit stop. Team mother/daughter finishes before the denitsts, and Misti finally realizes that she has to say the order number as well as the ingredients. Shelley & Nici are yet again having communication issues, as well as navigation issues. They switch drivers, but then Shelley fails to mention that she saw Phil while they were driving. This understandably upsets Nici, but Shelley says that she isn’t driving so she wasn’t going to say anything. Shelley thinks its incredibly unreasonable that Nici gets upset about this, and she says Nici needs to reign in her temper. Phil asks team mother/daughter why they are upset, and Shelley says that Nici wanted to be in charge, so she let her. Phil asks if it’s that important to prove a point (excellent question, Phil), and Shelley says yes. Nici walks off the mat, while Phil tries to convince her to come back and Shelley smiles an annoyingly arrogant smile. Shelley says that as soon as Nici loses her attitude, they’ll be fine. I feel really bad for Nici, but I want them to be eliminated so I don’t have to listen to Shelley and her ridiculous logic anymore. Regardless of if your teammate has an attitude or not, your main priority should be getting to the mat as soon as possible, not losing time to prove a point. This makes it seem like Shelley doesn’t even have the drive to win the race. Anyways, the surfers come in 7th place, meaning Misti & Jim are last. They get to the mat and hand Phil the save, but he returns it to them, because – I’m totally shocked – it’s a non elimination leg!
What did you think about this episode? I know I made my feelings about Shelley pretty clear, but how did you feel about her behavior? I found it funny that she said her daughter needs to grow up, because refusing to point out where the pit stop is because she was mad that she wasn’t driving anymore seems pretty childish to me. If you were Nici, how would you have handled it? I think it’s totally understandable that Nici doesn’t feel her mom is actually in it to win it, because of that petty behavior. Who do you think will be eliminated next episode? Let me know in the comments below!