START
Margie & Luke 9:36 a.m.
Jamie & Cara 10:30 a.m. (0:54)
Tammy & Victor 10:40 a.m. (1:04)
Kisha & Jen 12:41 p.m. (3:05)
Mark & Michael 4:08 p.m. (6:32)
CHINA
The ninth episode of "The Amazing Race 14" began with race leaders Margie & Luke directed to fly from Bangkok, Thailand to Guilin, China then taxi to the Qing Xiu Lu hair salon. Margie & Luke booked a flight through Guangzhou to Guilin, making the first planet out. The Jaime/Cara and Tammy/Victor teams made the next flight out that would reconnect with the mother & son for the connector to Guilin.
Unfortunately for the top three teams, their shared connecting China Southern flight was out of Guangzhou. Booked on what was supposed to be a later arriving flight, sisters Kisha & Jen instead became the first racers to arrive in Guilin. As the only Chinese speakers of the remaining TAR14 field, Tammy & Victor led the next tier of racers out with others determined to follow.
While the Kisha/Jen and Tammy/Victor teams searched for the salon, ex-cheerleaders Jaime & Cara would reach the destination first to trigger the next clue. They would have to travel to the #24 bridge. Jaime & Cara had to chase down their taxi driver though, leaving an opening for Tammy & Victor to retake the lead. Meanwhile, the delayed by penalties Mark & Michael were just arriving in Guilin... still hours behind the other teams.
The Margie & Luke and Kisha & Jen duos both got lost at the salon looking for the cluebox, walking by it on multiple occasions. Both teams spotted the cluebox near simultaneously with Luke reaching it first. Jen pushed into Luke (perhaps inadvertently) then Luke responded with a back elbow to clear Jen out. Jen considered the 'body check' a bitch move and called it as such.
Being deaf, Luke didn't hear the insult Jen had directed against him until his mother relayed it during the departing taxi ride out. Luke responded by signing that it was 'time to get dirty,' a sentiment Margie attempted to dissuade.
ROADBLOCK
Siblings Tammy & Victor rose above the drama behind them to reach the #24 bridge in first place, trigger the leg's Roadblock. One member of each team would have to help train a comorant bird to retrieve fish from the river. Ten fish would have to be retrieved for a team to complete the Roadblock.
Tammy chose to do the Roadblock but found her birds largely uncooperative. Victor suggested she speak Chinese to the birds, either a joke or a tactic that just made no sense. Jaime & Cara arrived second to the bridge with Jaime electing to do the task.
Meanwhile, the Margie/Luke & Kisha/Jen teams again spotted a cluebox near simultaneously this time with Jen reaching the cluebox a microsecond ahead. Unfortunately, Luke's momentum running to the cluebox pushed him into Jen which pushed Jen into and beyond the cluebox itself. After collision #2, Luke & Jen both took on the Roadblock.
To Kisha & Jen's amusement, one of Luke's birds bit his finger during the Roadblock which the sisters took as karmic justice for their earlier encounters. Jen and Jaime finished the Roadblock in the first and second positions with Kisha & Jen's raft making it back to shore first to trigger the next clue.
Luke completed the next Roadblock next in turn as Tammy's birds momentarily flew away from the task. Eventually though, they came back with the final fish to clear the siblings through. Tammy and Victor's raft moved past the slower one carrying Margie & Luke to reach the shoreline in third place.
Still far below the other teams, Mark & Michael arrived at the hair salon only to hit the extra Speed Bump task based on the previous leg's nonelimination finish. The brothers would have to wash & dry the hair of a pair of Chinese women. Once that task was done, Michael still had to do the fish retrieval task for his team.
DETOUR
Kisha & Jen maintained their lead in reaching the Ancient South Gate, triggering the Detour. Teams would have a choice of 'choreography' (learn a local Chinese dance routine) or 'calligraphy' (copy sets of Chinese language characters that would provide the names of four different destinations).
The sisters chose calligraphy, soon joined by the Margie/Luke & Tammy/Victor teams. Arriving at the South Gate in second place, Jaime & Cara made the obvious alternative choice to go with choreography... having already been trained to follow dance instructions with the Miami Dolphins cheer squad.
Jaime & Cara were repeatedly flummoxed in their attempts to gain approval for their dances from the Chinese judges though, more flummoxed since they couldn't get answers in English as to what they were doing wrong. They walked away from the task but eventually figured out that they had to do the dance without stopping in a single motion. They would be passed through the Detour but now dropped to fourth place.
Tammy & Victor took on the calligraphy task, being the only team able to verbalize their questions to locals for each respective destination site. The Margie/Luke and Kisha/Jen teams figured out the obvious and simply followed Tammy & Victor along. The siblings would be checked out of the Detour in first place but with the other two teams just seconds behind.
PIT STOP
The top teams would all be directed to travel by foot to Banyan Lake for the ninth Pit Stop of the race. The final mode of travel played to the athletic Kisha & Jen who simply outran their counterparts to make the Pit Stop in first place. The Tammy/Victor and Margie/Luke teams followed in the second and third spots respectively.
After Kisha & Jen were announced as having won a trip to Barbados, host Phil Keoghan starting questioning teams on the increasing tension of the race. At that point, verbal hostilities erupted with Kisha & Jen with Jen accusing Luke of pushing her away at their fist clue box while Luke signed that Jen had pushed him twice. Luke later walked away and communicated that Jen was a 'bitch' before coming back to more fully tell his account.
When Kisha & Jen smiled & laughed while Luke was signing his accusations, Margie erupted and claimed that Luke wasn't being treated seriously by the sisters because of his deafness. Margie compared her son's situation as a deaf person to that of Kisha & Jen as African-Americans. Luke expressed his frustration in turn. Kisha & Jen apologized "if" they had offended Margie & Luke. Siblings Tammy & Victor just watched the circus in silence, no doubt wishing they were anywhere else.
With the drama of the day ended, Jaime & Cara reached the Pit Stop in fourth place to qualify for the tenth leg. The extended ninth leg penalties allowed Mark & Michael no opportunity for advancement on leg ten as they would be quietly eliminated from "The Amazing Race 14."
_________________________Labels: recaps, tar 14.9, the amazing race, the amazing race 14
