In Episode 4 of the Amazing Race, a perplexing choice

 Amazing Race 37 Episode 4

 

By Jim Memmott

 

Bali, Indonesia – The Amazing Race is about travel, managing flights, hailing taxis, getting around language barriers.

 

But the Race is about strategy, the choices couples make to hinder or help the other teams.

In this episode, the focus was on strategy.

Ana and Jonathan Towns (right) finished first. However, they may have lost more than they gained because of a strange decision.

 

Far too early, they used their “Express Pass.”

 

The pass, which they won in the last episode, is the equivalent of trip insurance. It allows a team to skip a challenge when they’re in trouble.

 

Racers can only use the pass once, but it’s valid for several episodes.

 

Team Towns was in the lead when they employed the pass. However, the rice-threshing challenge they skipped wasn’t that hard. They should have done it and saved the pass.

 

Perhaps they had too much going on, as they also found themselves in something called “The Driver’s Seat.” It allowed them to dole out different degrees of difficulty for the rice-threshing. Some racers only had to thresh 15 pounds, others 20, still more, 25.

 

Ana and Jonathan hit Lori and Scott Thompson, the married parents of eight, with the 25-pound challenge, but Lori was so good at it that you have to believe that they grow rice back in Utah.

Scott, ever chatty, decided he would ghost the Townses for making their lives difficult.

 

“I’m going to treat Jonathan and Ana a lot like my kids when they do something wrong,” he said. “I’m just going to ignore them.” Parenting 101. Or not.

 

Strangely, Ana and Jonathan gave one of the 25-pound challenges to Bernie Gutierrez and Carrigian Scadden, the worst of the teams. It guaranteed that they would be eliminated, taking Dennis Doell and Julio Ferreria out of the pool. (As the first out, they get their entry fee back, and they pick first for the next Race.)

 

Memory aid: Holden, of the siblings’ duo of Han and Holden Nguyen, invented a story to help memorize the various parts of a fruit-stacking challenge. It involved eight oranges, four apples, two snakes and five muffins, not necessarily in that order, all on a journey.

 

It worked for the Nguyens and for the other half of their alliance, the brothers Nick and Mike Fiorito, also known as Nick and Mike Fio.

For more on them and the good work they do back in NYC, check out this video:

Bathroom break: At one point in the race, Jonathan just had to respond to nature’s call. Has this ever happened on The Amazing Race? Not that I recall. For all we had known, previous competitors have had amazing bladder. Until now.

Overheard

 

Josiah Borden: There’s no addresses in the jungle.

 

Jonathan Towns: I’m kind of a nerd. I stay indoors.

 

Bernie Gutierriz: You got this, Carriagan. Yeah, girl, get all that anger out.

 

Melinda Papadeas: It’s kind of funny. Scott and Lori keep coming to us and saying, “Oh, we’re the slowest team. Just be careful.” And I’m sit there, and looking, and saying, “Really? You’re slower than me? I can’t run.”

 

Alyssa Borden: We all love Scott and Lori but we kind of see through the game a little bit.

 

Order of Finish

 

Ana and Jonathan

Carson and Jack

Lori and Scott

Melinda and Erika

Alyssa and Josiah

Han and Holden

Brett and Mark

Nick and Mike

Pops and Jeff

Eliminated

 

Bernie and Carrigan