Recap - Episode 9 - 5/01/02 - Non-Elimination Leg (Thank God!)
Episode Score (1-5 snaps): 5 "fabulous" snaps plus a whole lot of laughing so hard that I cried. LOL... In this episode....Wil has a tantrum and quits for the millionth time while wearing that horrible orange hat of his, Tara screams for another partner and informs Wil that he is not the best driver, Blake & Paige attempt some more underhandedness but fail, Alex becomes a flight attendant, Chris becomes a sheep whisperer and thinks he's starring in the movie Babe, and Oswald almost murders a sheep and tells Danny he hates him....just another episode of Amazing Race 2. May 1, 2002 - We last left Os & Danny in Coober Pedy. At 5:09am, Oswald and Danny are the last team to leave the pit stop. However, they are only minutes behind Tara & Wil and Blake & Paige. So it is anyone's game. The clue envelope informed them that their next destination is Queenstown, New Zealand which is 2000 miles away. To get there, they would first have to drive 4x4s to waiting tandem tractor-trailers, which are known locally as Road Trains. Their drivers would have to load their 4x4s onto the Road Trains, which would then transport them to the town of Glendamboe, where they would then need to find the local airstrip and reserve seats on a charter flight to Adelaide. From Adelaide, they would then have to book themselves a flight to Queenstown. Although they felt they didn't have the competitiveness of some of the other Teams, Oswald & Danny still believed they could make it to the end of the race. "We're not here to crush anyone or hurt anyone" - Oswald (upon leaving the pit stop) The journey to Glendamboe was an overnight one and a great opportunity to rest and catch up on sleep. Wil & Tara arrive behind Chris & Alex and of course, Wil and Tara fight. He throws yet another tantrum and says he is quitting the game. He is such a baby! Tara then screams "Can I get another partner?" LOL! They leave for the airstrip behind Blake & Paige, who arrive during Wil's tantrum. Upon arriving, Os & Danny run into Chris & Alex and learn that there are no flights that day to New Zealand so there is no reason to rush to the airport. So Oswald and Danny get on the phones at the gas station and book their flights to Queenstown. They then head to the airstrip, where they joined the rest of the Teams. They leave on the second charter to Adelaide with Chris & Alex. Summing up the competition, Oswald noted that it would be "a difficult thing to try and predict which Teams are going to be the top three. Because all four of us have totally different ways of competing." In Adelaide, at 2:05 pm, the Adelaide-to-Melbourne flight carrying Chris & Alex, Tara & Wil and Oswald & Danny took off, leaving Blake & Paige behind. YEAH! I'm so dying for them to be eliminated...but I digress. Anyway...in Melbourne, at the airport, everyone is equalized while waiting for the connection to Christchurch, New Zealand. At 1:00 am, their plane landed in Christchurch. Since their final connection to Queenstown didn't leave until the morning, all the Teams camped out at the airport to rest for the night. Now I don't really care for the Boston Boys but what they did next had me laughing so hard, my stomach hurt. See, the Smileys lied to the ticket agent and said they had no bags. It is the airline policy to check in bags when flying small planes. So the other teams were pissed because they had to check in their bags so now the Blake & Paige have the lead since they can just exit the airport without waiting for their bags. So what do the Boston Boys do? Well, they decide to stall the plane until the baggage is taken away and put in the carousel! Alex gets permission from the air crew to get on the PA system to stall passengers and Chris pretends he hurt his leg and is writhing all the floor. Tara, meanwhile, is watching outside to see when the bags are removed from the plane and taken to the airport. Talk about teamwork! Wil, Os & Danny are hysterical while the Smileys are in the rear of the plane, pissed! LOL....payback's a bitch! Well, the Boston Boys managed to stall the plane a good 10-15 minutes. After deplaning and getting their bags, everyone raced out to get a taxi and head to the next route marker, located at Wentworth Station, a farm several miles away. "Wrong side, Buster" - the taxi driver to the Smileys when they tried to get in his taxi on the right side at the airport. LOL! Since their lead was crushed, the Smileys decide to go for the Fast Forward. They leave the other 3 teams to duke it out since of course, they make it to the Pit Stop first, which was at the Inverary Sheep Station on the Canterbury Plains. And I might add, they won a Puerto Rico vacation since they were the 1st team to arrive, to which I am sickened at the thought of those 2 visiting my native land. Make sure you check all your bags! Here I go digressing again...sorry...anyway... Oswald & Danny arrive at the Wentworth Station Route Marker. This Route Marker instructed them to get to the Nevis High-Wire Platform. This is the home of "the mother of all bungee jumps." YIKES! BTW, did you know that bungee jumping was invented in New Zealand? See, Amazing Race is not only great to watch but also educational...LOL... The Nevis Platform is suspended hundreds of feet in the air over an imposing gorge. To get to the platform, they would have to ride in a gondola that would take them from the cliff's edge to the platform, hanging in the middle of the gorge. Os & Danny arrive last so they have to wait for Chris/Alex and Tara/Wil to ride the gondola first. Once at the platform, teams are greeted with a DETOUR: Quick Jump or Long Hike. In this Detour, they are faced with two ways of getting to the next route marker, which is located at the bottom of the canyon. "Quick Jump" requires the team to do a tandem jump off the second highest bungee jump in the world...a 450 foot leap! But it is the quickest way down. "Long Hike" requires the team to walk a tedious trek to the bottom of the canyon. Although this option is easy to perform, it would cause Teams to lose significant time. So what do Os & Danny choose? They choose to jump, of course!!! "You don't see this in Miami" - Danny (upon seeing the depth of the bungee jump) Oswald wasn't so sure about performing the bungee jump Detour, but eventually decided he would go for it. Danny looked over the ledge and said, "Oh my God. What am I doing?" After getting themselves ready, they made the jump! Laughing at their accomplishment, Oswald commented, "That was the best experience I've ever had in my life." "Wonderful...we're going to lose our lives" - Oswald (before bungee jumping) "Right now, I hate you" - Oswald to Danny after the bungee jump after Danny asks if Os hates him for making him jump. Next clue instructed them to grab a waiting 4x4, then figure out how to drive themselves more than three hundred miles to the Inverary Sheep Station. Sheep station? The first thing I thought was...."This I have to see!" Waiting at the Sheep Station was a ROADBLOCK. In this Roadblock, basically that person would have to herd sheep. In each of the sheep pens were twenty-two sheep, three of which were black. The chosen Team member would have to select one of the pens and then separate the three black sheep from the white flock into a small, adjoining pen. As I have said before, not as easy as it looks! Oswald & Danny got lost en route to the Sheep Station but pulled up to some lady's house (which was HUGE) and asked her for directions. She told him it was like 90 kilometers ahead. They get to the Sheep Station after Chris & Alex and Oswald volunteered to do it. This was the most hilarious part of the episode. OH MY GOD! Chris was talking to the sheep like they understood what he was saying. And he actually tapped the sheep on it's shoulder and was telling him to leave. I think he thought he was in the movie "Babe". I am sorry but BARRAMU is not going to work here. No passwords allowed. He called himself the "Sheep Whisperer". LOL! It was funny when he looked at the Roadblock card and said "Can't tackle them!" LOL....But Oswald was hilarious. He was talking to the sheep in Spanish and AR2 actually put up English subtitles translating what he was saying. He screamed at one sheep, "Little Girl, come here or I'll kill you!" LOL! Finally, Oswald completed the roadblock and they ran to the mat. I was on the edge of my seat because they were in last place and I was hoping this was a non-elimination leg. Last season, this episode was a non-elimination leg with Team Guido being last. Os & Danny reached the mat and Phil said the usual "Oswald & Danny, you are the last team to arrive" and then he added that the good news is that this is a non-elimination leg. YES! They are still in the game. "This is such icing on the cake already. I mean, we did not expect to still be here. We really have no clue how we've gotten this far. I hope that we can show our true colors one more time." - Danny, after having been saved from elimination. Next week: Wil makes a decision about his relationship with Tara...like we care. Everyone tries to scramble to get on a ferry and teams rappel down the world's highest rappel in the "Lost World" caves of New Zealand. This episode is pivotal as it decides the final 3. Let's keep our fingers crossed for Oswald & Danny. It's anyone's game.