Amazing Race 31 episode 5 recap: How did Survivor teams finish?

The old school legends and the snarky mid-school villains are out. How will the new school Survivor team fare on The Amazing Race 31 episode 5?

Survivor: Edge of Extinction is over, and Big Brother is set to begin late in June. This means this is the sweet spot for The Amazing Race 31, as it serves as a melting pot for all of CBS’ reality show competitions. However, only Bret and Chris of the three Survivor teams remain in the game, and with two legs tonight the odds are not in their favor.

The fifth leg started with teams heading to Dubai, with the first clue placed in the middle of a supercar party out in the desert of the United Arab Emirates. Chris and Bret sped off to the airport in third place, but because booking the perfect flight is no longer a factor in the strategy, all eight remaining teams took the same flight together.

As such, all the players raced out to taxis at the airport to be taken to the same spot, with multi-millionaires (and probably billionaires) treating teams to dates and tea. However, it was in those cars that held instructions to the next clue, with teams racing to the top of the Dubai Frame to get their next clue. Thankfully, many remarked among

The Detour was not for the faint of heart, as teams needed to choose one of two challenges for a Detour. The first challenge, “Fall,” saw players skydive off the Burj Khalifa, the world’s largest free-standing building to arrive at their next clue. “Find” required teams to find five dinosaur eggs in a local dinosaur glow park in order to get their next clue.

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With The Afghanimals and Colin & Christie opting to do Fall first, Chris and Bret arrived at the Detour in 3rd place, opting to search for dinosaur eggs. Little did they know they would need to dress up in gigantic inflatable dinosaur costumes, mitigating their perceptive skills and playing counter to their no-nonsense approach to Amazing Race 31 challenges so far.

With so many teams trying the “Find” task, many teams rethought their approach. However, only the Reilly sisters swapped, which benefitted teams like Chris and Bret who only needed to find five eggs. “Fall” ended up being a virtual reality challenge instead, with both players on teams needing to correctly recall five answers based on what they experienced.

Chris and Bret collected their eggs first and, for the first time in The Amazing Race 31, the team was in first place in a leg currently in process! Their next clue was in the Soho Garden, with further instructions there. Things are finally looking up for a Survivor team!

Arriving first, Chris and Bret encountered their greatest nightmare; a dancing-oriented Road Block. “Who Can Feel The Beat” saw one player per team move through a silent rave headphones dance club where everyone is listening to their own tracks. Players need to find the people in the club that has music matching the beat in their headphones.

Even with a modest lead, Bret’s strategy per Chris seemed to be “bring the hot dudes up to the DJ booth.” He didn’t pay attention to people grooving to the beat, unlike Team Fun, as Floyd excelled and finished in first. Bret managed to escape the silent rave in fourth, which is nothing short of a miracle based on his ability to feel the beat.

Amazing Race 31’s fifth leg finished with a Pit Stop at the end of the world’s largest zip line, which traveled at speeds of 80 kilometers an hour going 28 soccer fields in length over the skies of Dubai. It was a tight taxi and foot race between Team Fun and the last Survivor team, but Becca and Floyd arrived at the zip line just seconds before Bret and Chris, earning $5,000 each.

This means that Chris and Bret finished the fifth leg in 2nd place, with a Big Brother team in the Reilly Sisters coming in last. However, despite Rachel finding herself in an emotional state and eulogizing her third time out competing in The Amazing Race, the fifth leg was of the non-elimination variety.

The sixth leg of the race saw the lead the Survivor team accumulated vanish, as all teams traveled as a group to Kampala in Uganda for the Uganda National Mosque for their next clue. As they came together, Korey and Tyler felt discouraged heading into the leg knowing how aggressive anti-LGBT sentiment is in Uganda, which was weird not to include Bret LaBelle into that moment.

As all airplane travel legs create this late in the game, it was a mad dash for taxis to arrive at the Mosque, with the first challenge being to count the steps in the Minaret tower at the mosque from the starting line marked by The Amazing Race. As such, Bret and Chris just rushed to the top without doing the challenge or reaching the clue box.

Eventually, they did find the clue box and counted all 272 steps on their first real attempt at the “climb and count many stairs” challenge, heading into the Owino Market for their next clue in 4th place. At least they knew how to climb and count properly on their first attempt, as the Reilly sisters had to run up the Minaret multiple times before getting their step count correct.

Arriving at the Owino Market, teams arrived at the sixth leg Road Block, asking teams “Who Wants a Rolex?” This challenge saw players travel through the market to collect ingredients needed to make a Rolex dish, including a bunch of shredded vegetables, an egg-based base in the middle of a pan-fried bread shell to make a kind of wrap.

Bret and Chris arrived at the leg in fourth, and despite making progress on the roads, Chris finished the Road Block in fourth. Honestly, it seemed like nobody struggled to follow instructions in making the Rolex, but the Big Brother moms in Janelle and Britney struggled as Janelle was looking for instructions at a watch vendor. It pays to read the rules and pays when you don’t read them!

Teams headed to a nearby logging yard for their next Detour. “Salty Roll” saw players salting tons of fish per Ugandan tradition to complete their task and get the next clue. “Move the Pole” required players to get 40 pieces of wood, carry it to a stacking yard on the back of a bike and stacking it in the traditional style in order to get their next clue.

Every team with the exception of the Reilly sisters (their dad taught them how to gut and clean fish) and the Big Brother moms took the “Move the Pole” challenge, which proved to be a test of patience and dexterity thanks to the downpours of the rain that day. The earthy ground became grimy, thick mud, slowing bikes carrying the wood down and causing teams to drop their pieces.

Keeping in tradition with the leg, Chris and Bret found few issues with the challenge itself but could not gain ground on their competition, finishing that Detour in 4th as they all headed to Jahazi Pier. Instead of rushing to a finish line, Tyler faced off against Colin ahead of Team Survivor in the first Head to Head Challenge of The Amazing Race 31. 

Teams needed to figure out a simple stacking challenge, with teams needing to move drums to stack on the same color pile. Only four drums can be on a single stack in trying to set up the same color for three drums on four different colors.

It seemed like whoever went lost the challenge once would learn from their mistakes and win it on the second attempt. Victor and Chris faced off for the 3rd-place finish, but Victor learned from his previous matchups to take the challenge easily. That’s when Bret stepped things up in facing off against Floyd.

Bret excelled on the sixth leg of the race, taking down 4th place to land solidly in the middle of the pack. They did take a step back, but who could expect the second Survivor team eliminated (Eliza and Corinne) to be sandwiched between two non-elimination legs? Seems like they wanted to keep a three-time player in Rachel Reilly in the game more than anything else, but that’s not any of my business…

Here’s how the Survivor teams fare after the sixth leg of The Amazing Race 31:

• Bret LaBelle and Chris Hammons: 4th place
• Eliza Orlins and Corinne Kaplan: Eliminated in 9th place
• Rupert and Laura Boneham: Eliminated in 10th place

Next week, The Amazing Race heads to Switzerland and Big Brother teams argue with one another. Let’s hope Survivor’s last team makes it through once more!