The only Survivor team left in The Amazing Race 31 for a few weeks now, Chris Hammons and Bret LaBelle head into leg seven in the middle of the pack.
The Amazing Race 31 has heavily favored the all-star teams so far in this game. It makes sense; this is the show they’re most comfortable with, even though Rachel Reilly is a three-time racer (tied for the most legs played in the show’s history) in addition to playing Big Brother and every other reality show imaginable. Survivor’s Bret and Chris, as such, are the true underdogs.
Teams playing in the seventh leg of this race were equalized once again by everyone being on the same flight several hours away, which led to strategizing and socializing among the Big Brother and Amazing Race alum. The mentality seemed to be focused on taking out Colin & Christie or Victor & Nicole with a U-Turn; the latter of which was a big no-no for the Reilly sisters.
They even threw out Bret and Chris’ names as a possible alternative for the U-Turn, but it was pretty evident nobody else deemed them as enough of a threat. While the Reilly sisters planned to embolden their BB connections, it showed the audience how much on the outs Bret and Chris were, as they weren’t a part of these conversations.
The next leg of the race saw teams race to Switzerland, taking a train to their first clue of the leg. As the Big Brother drama continued to unfold (and Bret and Chris held hands with everyone else in a zen moment), the Survivor team lumbered towards their Road Block 3 km away from the train stop, coming to it in last place. Bret, the police officer, even had to give Chris his bags!
“Who Wants to Take a Scene Route?” was the name of the Road Block, with Chris opting to jump on a swing line over a gorge and searching within for their next clue. The Canyon Swing was very, very high up, and that fear factor led to Nicole (4th place) contemplating not taking her turn. If she did, that meant going to the back of the line, pushing Chris up to 6th place.
Of course, it was just a pre-commercial cliffhanger, as she jumped down without a problem and Chris, in last place, did the same thing. They were the last to arrive at the next clue box, choosing between two challenges in this leg’s Detour.
“Water Power” saw teams go down a cart ride that includes eight bodies of Swiss water, then matching the bodies of water with their size in a quiz at the end. To twist teams up, they added extra names to match the areas. “Water Down” takes teams 150 feet down the side of a mountain cliffside and grabbing a clue above the water and traveling down the river.
Most teams opted to take “Water Down,” with The Afghanimals and the Big Brother couple choosing to take the lake quiz. However, because of the rough leg design with so many linear progression points, them getting to the Road Block in last place at the very beginning has meant being stuck in last for the entire leg.
Bret and Chris arrived at the Detour behind other teams, taking the Water Down challenge and descend down a river gorge and cliffside. The river gorge was a no-brainer for them, but Bret had a panic moment descending 150 feet in the air. Being unable to run with a backpack, being afraid of heights; it was just not Bret’s leg.
The real drama came at the end of the Detour, as it was between Survivor’s Bret and Chris and the Reilly sisters racing to St. Michaelskirche; a Swiss church and the pit stop for the seventh leg of The Amazing Race 31. Both teams were on the precipice of defeat, with Chris and Bret driving out without knowing where they were going and the Reilly sisters following behind.
The two teams were neck and neck, both stopping on the side of the road to get directions to the pit stop. Because it was the other direction, however, the Reillys turned around and had the lead heading down the mountainside as the two teams raced each other to the church.
However, Victor and Nicole also got lost along the way, which made the two-team race a three-pronged attack down to the bottom of the Swiss Alps. With the first four teams arriving at roughly the same time, it was the fifth and sixth place teams racing to the end almost in tandem, with Bret and Chris scraping by in 6th place.
Despite letting it all out on the mat between the Reillys and the Big Brother couple (the Reillys got into yet another mat fight), Nicole and Victor were not eliminated. In fact, The Amazing Race 31 saw its third non-elimination leg utilized in the season, stretching the limits of my patience in what was ultimately an unfair leg of the race.
For starters, over the past five legs, this season has seen two teams eliminated, and three non-eliminations pulled out. Sure, it would have meant removing Chris and Bret much earlier, but non-elimination legs have been placed at that leg many times. Instead, Chris and Bret have seen an early lead evaporate once and could have been given another Speed Bump because the show wanted to keep more Big Brother teams in the race. Two eliminations in five legs is unprecedented in this game.
Speaking of game design, this leg was fairly awful. The main determining factors of this leg were, A) Running three kilometers faster than others, and B) Not getting lost going down the mountain. There was barely any movement in places this race because progression was blocked off by waiting for others to complete Road Blocks or Detours in a linear fashion.
Here’s how the Survivor teams fare after the seventh leg of The Amazing Race 31:
- Bret LaBelle and Chris Hammons: 6th place (non-elimination leg)
- Eliza Orlins and Corinne Kaplan: Eliminated in 9th place
- Rupert and Laura Boneham: Eliminated in 10th place
Next week, the U-Turn Vote will make its US introduction. Hopefully, this will benefit the last Survivor team as they struggle to gain ground in a race built to keep them on their toes.