Amazing Race Season 33, Episode 5
By Jim Memmott
Lugano, Switzerland – Six teams teams started. Six teams finished. Six teams remain. Episode 5 is done. And Season 33 continues as is.
Yes, even though the daughter-father team of Natalia and Arun Kumar did what they could to lose, host Phil Keoghan wouldn’t let them leave, declaring the episode a non-elimination experience.
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| Natalia about to bungee (CBS) |
In other words, the duo, who may have the worst sense of direction of any team ever on the Amazing Race, lived to get lost again.
They had displayed their non-navigation skills in Episode 4, and they picked up where they left off in Episode 5, driving an hour or so in the wrong direction after Natalie had met the challenge of a 722-foot bungee-jump drop off the Verzasca Dam.
That challenge was the highlight of the episode, one member of each team having to put common sense and innate fear on hold and step out into the clear Swiss air (Or so I understand; I couldn’t watch that closely.)
The leap was especially hard for Sheri Cook, whose fear of heights was well-established in the last episode when she clung to her life creeping on the side of a mountain.
She had to do the dam jump because her partner, husband Akbar, was deemed to be too heavy to take the plunge. Thus, he looked, safe to carp and critique, unlike Penn Holderness,
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| Kim learns about the jump (CBS) |
who actually shed tears of relief after his wife, Kim, survived. (“Are you OK?” she asked him.)
After the leap, all of the racers had to drive themselves to Lugano, Natalie and Arun failing map-reading 101 along the way. (Why are the racers still reading maps? I guess they can’t use GPS or ask Siri. Life isn’t fair.)
Ryan Fergusson and Dusty Harris were first to the bar-tender challenge, one that involved carrying bottles of wine and bags of chestnuts up a never-ending stairway. They did the task, also toting the ever-present Travelocity gnome, and went on to win the episode, despite Dusty getting a leg cramp near the end.
Not all that far behind were twins Lulu and Lala Gonzalez, who chose to do the sausage-making challenge. That process is stereotypically not pretty, but Lulu and Lala were up to the task, channeling their recently departed grandmother and her cooking skills.
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| Lulu and Lala, or Lala and Lulu (CBS) |
For the record, Kim and Penn, as well as Akbar and Sheri, climbed the stairs. Flight attendants Raquel Moore and Cayla Platt, as well as Arun and Natalia made sausage.
Overheard:
Penn (to Kim): So, Babe, how do you feel about this jump?
Raquel: You win by taking things slow.
Dusty: I’ve got the Travelocity gnome eyeballing me before I plunge to my death.
Dusty (post jump): The only thing that got me through was the Travelocity gnome.
Kim (pre-jump): I should be driving the kids to school right now.
Sheri (pre-jump): Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
Dusty (at the finish line): Thank you for allowing us to come and run like lunatics in your country.
Akbar: We’re athletes, so there’s going to be some bickering.
Natalia: You will not see us last in the next race.
Order of Finish
Ryan and Dusty
Lulu and Lala
Kim and Penn
Raquel and Cayla
Akbar and Sheri
Arun and Natalia
