'The Amazing Race' - Season 17 Episode 11 Recap

Nick & Vicki were at a horrible advantage during the beginning of the second to last leg of The Amazing Race. Not only did they have a six-hour penalty, but they also had to contend with a roadblock. As all the other teams left, they realized they would be stuck on the same 12:25am flight to get to Seoul, South Korea:

Nat & Kat - 4:37pm
Jill & Thomas - 4:47pm
Brook & Claire - 5:26pm
Nick & Vicki - Not told, but probably 11:50pm (based off of a 35-minute taxi ride from Statue Square to the airport and them missing the flight)

Nat & Kat and Jill & Thomas headed directly to the airport, while Brook & Claire decided to ask a nearby hotel agent for help. While Brook & Claire sat and sipped coffee, their agent grabbed 12:25am Korean Air tickets; the same as Nat & Kat and Jill & Thomas. Brook & Claire joked around about their bad clothing choices juxtaposing their regular Home Shopping clothes. Nat & Kat used their womanly ways to convince a man to buy them a South Korean guidebook. He agreed, signed it, and happily left. Interestingly, this leg was filled with very friendly, helpful people, and the travel book man was only the first in a line of them.

Nighttime hit as Nick & Vicki departed. We get a montage of Nick's meltdowns, which consisted of only Africa and the last leg. They didn't make it to the 12:25am flight, so they had to grab a 9:30am Cathay Pacific flight instead. The two decided to stay positive and hoped that "anything can happen." All the other teams eventually arrived and hopped into their marked cars. Thomas freaked out a bit, though they did have a Google Map printout to get to the bridge near the North Korean border. Nat & Kat pointed out that none of the signs had any English.

Jill & Thomas were the first to arrive at the bridge with Brook & Claire right behind them. They were given a task to raft down a river to Camp Casey, a U.S. military base. As all three teams from the first plane got changed and headed down the river, there were a lot of screams and squeals from Brook & Claire; one of the two screamed "Kelly Clarkson" as they went down the river. All three teams arrived the same way they came, so Jill & Thomas were the first to the clue that led them to their Roadblock. They had to match a headband with a sea of Taekwondo practicing officers.-- it was the classic needle in the haystack roadblock. It probably wouldn't be too hard if the contestants only focused on one Korean symbol -- either the extreme left or extreme right symbol -- and only looked at that side of the bandannas. Though Brook & Claire arrived second, Brook attempted one headband but got it wrong. Thomas succeeded first, and as they left, Brook became a five-year-old exclaiming that the soldiers were ninjas. Brook eventually got the next clue and headed off to the World Cup Stadium.

Nat & Kat were behind because there were no teams left as Kat searched. After finding the clue, they arrived at the Subway and realized that Brook & Claire missed the first train that Jill & Thomas got. At the stadium, Jill & Thomas found the detour between Full Throttle [Speed Skating] and Full Bottle [Deliver six canisters and drink a bottle of juice]. They picked Full Throttle but emphasized that the instructions said to take either the subway or go by foot. Brook & Claire and Nat & Kat eventually arrived and both picked Full Throttle as well. Brook & Claire didn't read the instructions and instead focused on arguing about Claire's capabilities. Their bickering led them to hailing a taxi to the ice rink. They arrived first, shocking Jill & Thomas. In one of the best moments of backtalk this season, Brook tried to push Claire to go faster and Claire muttered, "Behind you...as usual." It didn't matter because Thomas was fast enough at one point to overtake Brook & Claire by one lap and compensate the fact that Jill fell twice.

Somewhere along the line, Nick & Vicki finally arrived. They convinced a Korean Air employee to take them to the border; he's all smiles even when the group had a pee break and he gave Vicki food.

Jill & Thomas had a bit of trouble in the next few moments, as Brook & Claire found a comedian/taxi driver. The taxi driver joked around and eventually gets a kiss from Claire, increasing their kiss count to nine. Brook & Claire got to the clue first as Jill & Thomas argued about asking old people for directions. It ironically comes to bite them in the behind, as they couldn't find anyone who knew what an airplane statue was. Brook & Claire arrived at the pit stop first but were told to wait and sit out their 30-minute penalty. With around 18 minutes to go, Jill & Thomas arrived and were told they placed first and received a trip to Argentina. Brook & Claire checked in second and Nat & Kat in third. It looked like if Brook & Claire followed the instructions, they would have finished second anyway seeing Nat & Kat's lack of skating speed, and Brook & Claire's ability to find the airplane statue.

We finally follow Nick & Vicki and it's already dark. They weren't allowed to go down the river because of the darkness, and instead were driven to their Speed Bump, which was to hose down and clean a tank. Clearly they were given a clue telling them to go automatically to the pit stop, especially because the Stadium, Skating Rink, and Market all would have been closed and I'd hope that the people practicing Taekwondo have already stopped. They were obviously last and were eliminated.

Cash Received in the Leg: $117

Roadblock: Thomas, Brook, Kat.

Detour:

Full Throttle
Brook & Claire
Jill & Thomas
Nat & Kat

Full Bottle
(No Teams)

Leg Placement
1) Jill & Thomas
2) Brook & Claire (30-minute penalty applied)
3) Nat & Kat
4) Nick & Vicki (eliminated)

It looks like there's a 66.6% chance of a season of The Amazing Race finally having an all-female team win the show, and based off of the combination of physical and mental, I would put my support on Nat & Kat even though they were third this leg. It seems as though all three teams took some notes about the race so the final leg's puzzle won't be too much of a challenge. If the “Seven Roadblock Max” rule is still in effect, then none of the teams are in jeopardy.

If the rule was adjusted to six/six then Jill & Claire would have to do the final roadblock. Either way, because Nat & Kat had the Fast Forward earlier this season, they both only did five roadblocks. I wouldn’t be shocked if Thomas, Brook, and Kat took the last Roadblock.