Now that Rupert and Laura Boneham have been eliminated, The Amazing Race 31 episode 3’s Survivor teams are going to need to step things up pronto!
You might as well have heard Rupert say “my elephant is broken” at the end of last week’s episode, as it seemed as though Rupert and Laura Boneham were playing from behind the 8-ball from the start. The Amazing Race 31 has proven to be a tough challenge for the Survivor teams,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam was the location for leg 3 of this race, with Chris and Bret officially the oldest team left in the game. However, while they were sitting on the outside watching other teams communicate, they were watching and seeing what relationships were forming and who to push buttons with between other teams for later in the game. They know there’s a real social aspect to the race, even though they’re the least comfortable to this game’s format.
The house of Vietnamese medicine was the first point of focus for the entire field, hosting the first Detour. Reel It In saw teams reel in eight prawns from a restaurant’s pool to get their next clue, while Light It Up saw teams participate in a choreographed dance sequence.
The Survivor teams came in last place heading into the detour, with Bret and Chris opting to learn a dance pattern over the randomness of catching prawns (something Eliza and Corinne opted not to do). However, the hectic traffic of Vietnam proved a challenge for other teams, as well, with a great number of densely-packed roads and tons of cars proved to be a nightmare for Team Villain, the Afghanimals and some Big Brother teams.
Team Fun completed the dance challenge on their second attempt and took a huge, early lead above everyone else. Before a Survivor team arrived at a Detour, they advanced to a Roadblock, where one player on each team needed to learn how to sing a few lines of a Vietnamese song for a karaoke challenge.
As Korey and Tyler caught their second prawn, Eliza and Corinne arrived to sit and wait patiently alongside them. Once the horror of de-hooking them the first time was conquered, they seemed to outpace Tyler and Korey at a great speed, catching their seventh of eight while they were roughly halfway there.
While the Reillys were flailing about for their 16th time attempting their dance moves, Bret and Chris were biding their time, learning the moves slowly but surely. Bret was nervous as all hell approaching his first attempt, repeating “oh gawd!” time and time again as if he was learning the Lao alphabet like last week’s Detour challenge that he missed.
All it took was one attempt to learn that challenge was not for them, with Bret and Chris heading straight to the prawn-fishing challenge instead. As they transitioned, Eliza and Corinne found their eighth prawn and entered the Roadblock in 4th place. Finally, things are looking good for a Survivor team!
Ho Thi Ky was the location of the third leg’s pit stop, with the teams needing to find host Phil Keoghan in the middle of a flower marketplace. Team Fun was the first team to arrive at the mat, winning a trip to the Bahamas and redeeming themselves after being eliminated during the Vietnam leg their first time out.
Eliza took on the Roadblock for her team, trying to distract Victor’s attempt by yelling incoherently as he tried to practice his lyrics. However, Eliza should have paid attention a bit more, as she failed her first attempt. As more teams started to pile into the Roadblock, Eliza nailed the challenge on her second attempt and Team Villain raced off to the pit stop.
This put Bret and Chris in an odd position, as they were near the end of the pack with Bret having to perform a singing challenge to keep themselves afloat. Considering Bret “nope’d” right out of the dancing challenge, things were not looking good for the Survivor teams heading into their second-straight possible elimination.
Corinne and Eliza arrived at the pit stop in 5th place, which is currently the highest-ranked position for a Survivor team so far in The Amazing Race 31. It’s clear that the show’s all-star teams have a huge leg up, but even Big Brother teams have finished near the top of the pack numerous times.
It came down to the Afghanimals and Team Gen X racing to the pit stop to determine who finished in last place, with the mischievous Afghanimals using up their traffic luck to finish in eighth place. Unfortunately, that meant only one thing; Bret and Chris were poised to be the second Survivor team in a row to finish in last place on a leg.
Thankfully for them, this would be the first non-elimination leg of The Amazing Race 31! This means that Bret and Chris will have to finish a Speed Bump sometime during the next leg of the race, but it’s way better than being eliminated!
Here’s where the Survivor teams fare after the third leg of The Amazing Race 31:
- Eliza Orlins and Corinne Kaplan: 5th place
- Bret LaBelle and Chris Hammons: 9th place (non-elimination)
- Rupert and Laura Boneham: Eliminated in 10th place
Next week, teams will continue their Vietnam adventures and Eliza and Corinne might try to steal the Reillys’ cab. Hopefully, no Survivor teams come close to elimination next week.