The Amazing Race 35: Episode 9 Review

0:00 Welcome back to the nullified Tech Channel on YouTube where I've got the TNT takes you on The Amazing Race episode 9 for season 35 here like I said I'm doing both of these Recaps solo because it didn't really work out timing wise for myself and Michelle to do the recap at the normal time that we do it so I do hope that you enjoy these two solo Recaps as we catch up with both of the episodes so if you haven't seen episode 8's review and recap it's about 30 minutes long go and check it out and we're going to do a similar format here for this episode I mentioned here on the podcast that the previous episode 8 was probably my favorite episode because I really felt like a lot of things happen and there wasn't a lot of sort of downtime or repetitive scenes or anything like that which sometimes it has felt like the longer episodes on The Amazing Race have been repetitive for me at times but this episode it was always going to be hard for it to follow on the previous episode there was a lot L of drama consistently happening and then obviously the team that ultimately ended up going home here in the spot they do end up being pretty calm throughout all of this and not losing their cool so which is a great thing for them to be able to go out in the way that they did but it made it I guess a little bit less entertaining

1:20 For me watching because it's always good seeing a bit of meltdowns not that they wasn't meltdowns in this episode because obviously Todd and Ashley had a very difficult time in this league but we start off here with Greg and John having three first places they're feeling the pressure they're leaving in first place as they go back to the town center and they find out all of the teams find out that they will have zero Euros going into this league because they're not really going to travel very far you know the Amazing Race made an effort of going to this location for the very first time so that they can actually obviously get the most out of it and what a beautiful location we spoke about the scenery in the previous recap and review here on the podcast that scenery was again on full display this time we got to see a little bit of the ocean we got to see that beautiful Cave that they went into so quite a lot of great scenery early on here we hear from Robin and Chelsea again never a good sign if you start reading the edit a little bit on these shows talking about the fact that they've done better than what they expected they're the only female team left in the game which is a massive achievement and the second oldest team out there I kind of had a sneaking suspicion that at some point their luck was going to run out because I even mentioned

2:41 It in the previous recap and review here on the podcast that if they lose Greg and John who they've been tailing for a few legs now how will they do navigating on their own and I think that kind of came to full fruition here in this specific episode but you know we start this off they all have to go to this town square and when they get there they get to do the first real big task of this episode they have to do a roadblock where they have to use some sort of a traditional wooden backpack I don't really know how else to explain it and they've got to put a bunch of wood wear together on their back for all these utensils that you would normally get in a kitchen and they have to do it within a certain order which is a big part of that attention to detail that we've grown to love and about the Amazing Race that if you get one thing wrong you potentially will miss out from being able to successfully do it so the way that they get there no real sort of lead changes or anything like that happen so you obviously see Greg and John being the first team there and then very closely on their heels you've got the likes of Todd and Ashley and also Cory and Rob that get there is a very interesting scene with Greg I believe and Ashley as they're waiting for their Partners to complete this first roadblock where they talk about the

4:01 Fact that they would rather see Rob and Cory fall out at this stage because they're a threat in this game and you know that could maybe be a positive thing in the future that Rob and Cory will continue to do well but as they say this Robin Cory gets there and they sort of talk about the fact that it's very hard to shake them in this game because they're always finding a way to catch up and we have in those first three teams we've got John doing it for the brothers because apparently he's better at navigating and he is faster than Greg so he's the one that goes out there Todd ends up doing it for Todd and Ashley obviously with Ashley having done the roadblock in the previous one he's probably trying to catch up a little bit and contribute as well in the game and then for Robin Corey takes on this one and it was quite entertaining to see all of them put this you know backpack together with all of these wooden utensils and then having to walk to the place where they had to get it checked and delivered because a lot of them felt like running with this backpack like Todd said they've gotten used to in the race having these backpacks on their back and running around so it feels like they can do it but this was very flimsy and they obviously didn't want to run the risk of losing something and then not having that

5:21 Viewing station very close to them where they can compare if they've still got everything in the right order I don't know if it was as important as thought it was because it wasn't really made clear if they were checking it throughout all of this but definitely better safe than sorry in regards to their approach really funny scene happens as well as they are all sort of going to get it checked out where Corey notices I believe it was Joel who was doing the roadblock for the beard Bros he notices him out there and then sort of sneaks past them because he doesn't want to necessarily help them there's only six teams left in the game at this stage they're all threats and this is well beyond the point where you can help other teams and still think that you could you know avoid an elimination and it was really funny seeing him kind of sneak past jel not even noticing it even telling the camera afterwards that they have not seen a single team in this game or up at the road block as of yet so that was quite funny to see a lot of things happening with the Emu somebody having a pet emu I actually thought it was an ostrich at first similar to I believe it was Chelsea who said that it was she thought it was an ostrich but again you know very interesting to see all of the teams and as they compete and Steven annaly

6:41 Had the worst leg on the previous one we spoke about it in depth we spoke about how anal was acting and I said if she can come back this episode with a more positive attitude bring that fighting spirit and channel it correctly she can definitely redeem herself and I thought she had a much better episode this time around she's clearly still very competitive but I think getting so close and looking elimination right in the eyes that you know things cannot get worse than what it did for them in the previous episode and you know hate them or love them they are clearly competitors because of how quickly they could jump out on the rankings as they got to this roadblock you know annal is the one who ends up doing it and she shoots past Chelsea on the way and completes it very effectively and this is not going to be the only team that they overtake on the day Chelsea has a horrible time at this rope block for getting a wooden roller having to go back and go and collect that and then going back to where she needs to get a check so obviously losing a ton of time and due to that she falls behind and they're unable to tail the other teams which means that they their worst night for me really happen here in this league where they had to rely on their own navigation skills to get themselves to the end and I think that is

8:01 Where things go horribly wrong for them here in this moment but again like I mentioned here not too much happens in regards to the lead being changed for the top teams with todten Ashley and Cory and Rob getting out of there pretty effectively and they have to drive to the checkpoint which is going to be by the PFA Jama cave I hope I'm pronouncing that right and during this time a fatal flaw and Todd's navigation skills come up he misses one of the turns where they have to get off the highway and it's sounded like they went 30 km in the wrong direction which is quite a distance I'm not sure how many miles exactly it would be maybe like between 15 and 18 miles in the wrong direction so they had to then get directions go back and Ashley was fuming at him for the rest of this episode she was very annoyed and that was going to be that power struggle between the two of them for the rest of this league and I think once again seeing Todd and Ashley who have been this bubbly team and a fun team to watch and we know you know these kind of things will happen seeing them struggle here shows how quickly you go from having all of the momentum and doing extremely well in a leg to losing all of the momentum and

9:21 Finding it hard to get things to work for you out there I think that momentum is a cruel thing when it's in your sort of favor and everything's going your way you can do no wrong like Greg and John right now they're killing it they could do a no look shoot at the hoop you know for Todd if he's listening to this you know and score the three-pointer that's about as much as I know about basketball but any case they would have all the luck at this moment to do whatever and it would pull off and they would do well with Todd and Ashley things are going horribly wrong for them and like they quite rightfully said by the end of this league every team in this top five positions have had their day at the back which is a very interesting Dynamic going into the final leagues because it shows that anyone can still win this anyone's game still and anyone is capable on their day but Greg and John definitely has all of the momentum at this stage talking about Greg and John they're the first people to arrive at the pffa JAMA cave and they get this little head lamp and they have to go down in the cave and I'd be curious to know what people thought about that cave thought it was amazing we in South Africa have something called the oats wooden which is like in South Africa and Africans it's like caves where you go down in

10:41 Caves similar to that where you've got these great rock formation that looks like drops from the top forgot what they called it but similar kind of formation look beautiful to go down there and what a massive cave for them to navigate through as they get their way to the next station where they have to assemble a puzzle a Dragon Puzzle it's a vertical puzzle that you slot into each other this is one of those I think puzzles where when it comes to putting things together I've grown up doing that like my dad's into like he's got his own building and construction company I was on building sites from a very young age I typically if I buy something don't look at the instructions on how to put it together and I just go for it so I feel like instinctively this would have been right up my wheelhouse similar to how jillen Garrett absolutely killed it and made up so much time I would have felt very comfortable doing a puzzle like this but we've got Greg and John right at the front they miss a little piece there in the beginning but on the second check when it comes to the tail they get it and they're out of there I thought that the person who was like adjudicating or watching their work he kind of made me look or think of someone that is like in the Musketeers the way he was dressed

12:01 You know very french-like almost which was interesting but Greg and John they can do no wrong like I said they get out of there in first place Robin Cory who was close on their heels going down there they do end up doing extremely well and getting out in second place and then Sten an the team that won't quit they keep climbing and they also get ahead of both Todd and Ashley who made this mistake with the navigation and julan Garrett as well and they get there on third place and out of there at third place with julan Garrett in fourth place as they left and then leaving Todd and Ashley there alone and a bit of you know issues Happening Here with Todd and Ashley both trying to be The Driver of putting this puzzle together Todd not necessarily wanting to go and check the example and getting Ashley to do it and then for Ashley to come back and relay the information to him and him to continue to put it together and Ashley being very frustrated by that because she's saying you're the one that's doing it you should be checking and yeah just this back and forth happening because of the fact that they've lost so much time and the pressure being on I'm sure they're going to come back in this next leg a lot stronger similar to how Steven anley had their moment of struggling and then when they came back they got it together to be competitive here in this

13:21 League so ultimately they're out of there in fifth place without seeing Robin and Chelsea because Robin and Chelsea as they go to this specific spot they make the big mistake of driving past the camping ground scene and they go all or scene sign I should say and they drive all the way into the actual town and can't find it and I'm sure there's a lot of people who watch this and they're like oh you know how could they have missed it's so easy and I guess a lot of other teams did get it but I can also see like you know they don't have much Direction out there wasn't like a little Amazing Race flag or like that there for them so you could probably easy make easily make this mistake and then on top of that I think like I said last recap with both Robin and Chelsea always copying or following the other teams or Greg and John for instance they didn't really practice that navigation skills themselves so when they had to use it and it became important for them to stay in the game they didn't have the experience of going their own way and finding their own way so that kind of came back to bite them here in this moment they do end up getting in there but obviously they're so far behind the other teams they can't see any of them so they must have wasted a lot of time going into the town and

14:41 Looking for it and obviously asking for directions but very interesting as they go to this next one because they go to Fonda fish farm which claims to be the B fish farm in the world where they're going to have detours to do with Greg and John getting there first as they get close to the ocean and seeing a bit of different scenery they get the option of two potential detours that they can do one is called scrape off which they have to clean floating rings with a chain it's the outer rings of The Fish Farms or the netting the enclosed spaces that they have for the fish farms and they've got to clean off bar neckles at the bottom of this ring looked very hard on the back and on the forearms doing that I think it would have been one hell of a workout my first thought when I saw it was like okay you want to do the physical thing because the second one which is swap out where you have to kayak out find buoys pull up a buoy to get a net full of muscles and it's quite impressive that those Nets can grow up to 15,000 muscles which is a lot per year that looked like a difficult one it looked like it would be a needle in the H stack like Greg and John said because there was so many buoys

16:01 Out there but as Greg and John actually get into it they realize that there are flags on the correct buoy so in my mind it would have been more interesting if it was a needle and a h stack challenge but they made it kind of easier on them here with the flags being at the top and Greg and John they smash it out but even though they make it easier Robin Cory they have make an absolute meal of this basically they really struggle because they end up finding one they don't take a new buoy out they didn't read their clue they lose the rope with the muscles on it as they leave and then there is a very strict rule which I was confused by as they go back out they have to go back to the place where they had the original buoy from and they had to replace the new buoy with it and get the muscles but they can't find it I mean Rob being a great swimmer he has to get into the ocean and actually go look for it at that time I think it was time to call it because it was truly looking for a needle in a Hast stack and I was a bit confused I didn't realize that they were required to go back to the exact spot that they got the buoy from I thought they would be able to move on and just get another one but clearly that wasn't the rules so due to that they kind of put themselves in a bad spot but they've got a Midway

17:22 Through this detour change detours to also go do scrape off which puts them really far back there was second getting there after Greg and John and they going to lose a ton of time and also some placement here but as Cory says it's a calculated risk going to the other one they still haven't seen Robin and Chelsea or Todd and Ashley at that point so they knew they were most likely ahead of at least two teams and they wanted to keep that Express Pass which thanks to I believe AR Nunes who told me that it was until the 10th League that they can use that and that was confirmed here in this episode so they're trying to hold on to that for the next League which is going to be such a big Advantage for them going into that League to remain in the game with only five teams left so I can understand why they kept it and made this calculated risk as obviously Greg and John gets out of there Steve and Anna Lee who gets there in third place doing extremely well chooses to do scrape off and at first after I knew how fast the buoys could be because the biggest challenge was kayaking out there and it seemed like there was some good form out there maybe Steven eny didn't feel as confident that they could kayak well together I thought they may have made a mistake at this point and that scrape off would be a lot more difficult to do but they do get the job done in second place and

18:42 They get out of there and they've got enough time to even give a little bit of advice to Corey in regards to the technique that he needs to use anal tells him to lean back and just put his back into it as he is cleaning the binless of the Rings so very interesting there and you know I guess at that point you would say well how's that going to play out next episode May Robin Cory overtake them and that be the reason why they're out but I feel like Rob and Cory would have stayed in this regardless so why not build a little bit of good faith here with them so very interesting sort of set of events here with also the Beard Brothers getting through the challenge very quickly for swap out and they kind of leave in third place here just behind the likes of Steven Anna Le which means that they're in a race which they ultimately will beat Steven anally going to the pit stop which was interesting to see never fully explain how that worked and how they got ahead of them but Greg and John smashes through this episode gets their fourth first place in a row there's I believe three legs left of the season so they won't catch the record which I believe is eight wins but they could get to seven potentially if they keep winning their way to the end and

20:02 Winning if they could win this game and you'd have to be a brave man at this point to B against them because the form is completely on their side for sure at this stage nothing is going wrong for them second place like I said Jolan Garrett sneaks in third place Steven analy Robin Cory no big change or surprise there they do get that fourth place finish after doing the other side of the detour and then Totten Ashley gets there really late also ends up choosing to go for scrape off because they have a bit of a conversation with Rob and Cory as they get there with Robin Cory or Cory at least saying that they made a mistake on the booys I think scaring Todd and Ashley a little bit away from doing that one but they still have a really tough time here kaying out without getting the chain from the main station and then seeing a floating platform going there with random locals looking at them like what are you doing trying to steal our rope or trying to take things from our station here it was quite funny to see but ultimately they do backtrack I think Ashley has been the true Superstar here of this episode she's been calling it right a few times with the puzzle and also specifically here saying maybe we should go back to where we got The Kayaks Todd

21:22 Does celebrate with his two chains and annoys Ashley a little bit because they're so far behind but I feel like Todd's going to Todd and she should know that by now he's going to have fun he's going to do his thing and still enjoy the race even if they're far behind and they do end up getting out of there without seeing Robin and Chelsea and Robin and Chelsea you know they got get there they do the challenge finishes it and then takes a bit of a dip in the ocean and appreciates the moment and yeah I do think that they had a great approach to it they were far behind they knew they were far behind and they wanted to make the most of their final moments on The Amazing Race they said that they did this for their grandchildren one day to see how much of a bad ass as their grandm the grandmothers were doing this and I think that's a great outlook on it they've got a beautiful friendship they were competitors they would they fought until the end and like you know Robin says as they get to the end here and they get last place that this happens to everyone at some stage in life you can't always win in life but it is how you deal with a setback or with a loss and I thought that they took it really well obviously Robin has gone through a lot in her life and have had some big things happen to her so I feel like it has more than well prepared her for this moment where they came in last place and

22:42 They gain a stronger friendship from doing this race so a very straightforward episode I guess you know if you ask me after seeing how things played out which one off scrap off or swap out would I have done I think scrape off was the easier one to do here I would have been very confident in my abil to kayak out there the fact that they had mark buies would have made it a little bit easier there were a lot of them out there but I feel like you could probably slam through it most people did that scrape off if it was a needle in a h stack I would have considered doing that just get the physical labor stuff done which if you put a lot of effort into it you can you can bust through that pretty quickly but a really straightforward episode here we've got five teams left in the game at this stage with Greg and John julan Garrett Steven anley Robin Cory and todten Ashley who is starting in last place with a lot of pressure on them going into this and if I was a betting man who do I think would go next I do feel like julan G julan Garrett had a really good placement and they've consistently improved their placement but they're prone to missing things and losing things so if Robin Cory gets the Express Pass they're probably surviving even though the second last right now Totten asley I can see

24:02 It happening if they can't get themselves back they their average have been fifth place fifth place fourth third fifth Third second and then fifth it's probably close to fourth or fifth so they're endanger definitely Steven analy could be in danger if annaly loses her call again and I think that could be a big one so at this stage I would have most of my money on Greg and John staying and Robin Cory staying those are the only two teams I feel very confident about going into the next round and quite rightfully that's why Robin and Chelsea said if their children see Stephen sorry if they see Robin Cory and if they see Greg and John they'll understand why they went home at the spot because both those teams have been doing extremely well but that is it here for my recap and review of this episode please leave a comment below let me know what your thoughts are what did you agree with what did you disagree with did you like this episode have you been liking the 90minut episodes in general what's the feeling from everybody I'd love to know a little bit about that and if you like this content consider liking consider putting a notification Bell on so you can be informed the next time we go live myself and Michelle should be live again this week on our normal format so look out for that it should be a lot of fun it's been a while since I've had the opportunity to talk to her about

25:22 The season and about the Amazing Race but for now that is it catch you guys l