Amazing Race 31 episode 2 recap: How did Survivor teams finish?

Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

After a sloppy premiere, the Survivor teams competing in The Amazing Race 31 episode 2 hope to have a much easier time in Laos; the second leg of the game.

Man, it did not look good for the Survivor players in The Amazing Race 31 premiere. Not only were teams like Eliza and Corinne unlucky on the chocolate shoe competition, but Rupert Boneham would not listen to his wife, Laura, who pointed out the second roadblock’s location and, instead, searched in a park for four hours.

With Bret and Chris leading the Survivor pack in 7th place from Tokyo, they started off Leg 2 by heading off 2,500+ miles away to Laos to continue their adventure. However, before they even started, the Amazing Race and Big Brother teams, especially Team Fun and the Reillys, scuffled the opportunity to work together, while the Survivor teams seemed to be open to working together.

Everyone boarded a plane for Laos at the same time, which arguably removes the benefit of finishing early in an Amazing Race leg. Sure, you can wish cash and a trip with Travelocity™ if you win a leg, but if you’re Colin and Christie who finished hours before Rupert and Laura only to sit beside them on your flight to the next leg, that has to be demoralizing.

All the teams arrived at their first route info spot with a courier giving their first clue. Teams would offer up a donation to monks in the city at sunrise, which seemed to be just down the road. Rupert and Laura split a tuk-tuk with the Afghanimals, but Eliza and Corinne were content to run down the street and beat out both teams for free.

After a spiritual moment of rest and offerings, all the teams were running off running to the Mekong River to get their next clue. However, despite it being just the second leg, the Reillys, Colin and Christie, and Nicole and Victor arrived at a Double U-Turn, allowing two individual teams to force a delay on a Detour, making them do both tasks.

The Reillys U-Turned Team Fun as revenge (basically) for earlier shenanigans and Team Fun used it against Tyler and Korey because they were huge threats. The Detour saw players either enunciate the Lao alphabet to children or make a bunch of Laos BBQ by gathering ingredients, cutting them up properly and preparing them in traditional style.

Eliza and Corinne and Rupert and Laura opted to test their hand at pronouncing words in Lao, while Bret and Chris chose the BBQ Alley route. Eliza and Corinne used a very particular strategy in remembering specific words, similar to creating their own memorization strategy to complete the task and lead the teams searching for their next clue! Survivor teams are starting to look up!

Well, not all the teams, as Rupert and Laura were struggling mightily to learn the Lao language. However, they were not as quick to hate on each other like the Reillys bickering at each other. Rupert and Laura did eventually get the language down pat, advancing to the next stage in 7th place.

Bret and Chris eventually finished their BBQ challenge in 9th place, with Team Fun surpassing them en route to finding a tuk-tuk capable of taking them to where they needed to go. Where was Keith Nale when you needed him? The Survivor legend knows a thing or two about driving tuk-tuks!

The Amazing Race 31’s episode 2 Roadblock saw one person per team command an elephant to travel down a river while speaking in Lao to navigate, ending with a musician in the woods giving their next clue. Eliza and Corinne have effectively found themselves in a rivalry with the Afghanimals, as they gave the team wrong directions to the clue box on purpose.

Corinne was the first of the Survivor teams to compete in the Roadblock, finding herself amid four other teams trying to cross the river. Chris and Bret were somewhere along the back of the pack, but Rupert could not navigate his elephant for the life of him. Colin of Colin and Christie might have complained about his ox, but Rupert was hesitant to yell, “My elephant is broken!

As Corinne and Chris each retrieved their final clue on this leg, they had to wait until they got back to their teammate in order to read it. The clue led them to the race’s second pit stop, with teams racing to reach Prince Phetsarath’s Palace to complete the second leg of The Amazing Race 31.

Despite Corinne and Eliza in third place on the road to the pit stop, they got passed by two other teams. Sometimes, you can only be so lucky as your drivers, as they finished the leg in 6th place. Chris and Bret slipped a spot back into 8th place. Even though they were U-Turned, Rupert’s struggle with the elephant saw him and Laura slip into 10th.

Hoping for the best, Rupert and Laura held their heads high heading into the pit stop in last place, but Phil Keoghan had nothing good to offer but sympathetic words. The first Survivor team has been eliminated from The Amazing Race, as Rupert wasn’t going to be gifted a million dollars due to his popularity this time around.

Here’s where the Survivor teams fare after the second leg of The Amazing Race 31:

  • Eliza Orlins and Corinne Kaplan: 6th place
  • Bret LaBelle and Chris Hammons: 8th place
  • Rupert and Laura Boneham: Eliminated in 10th place

Let’s hope the Survivor teams place higher than 6th for the first time this season next week!