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The Amazing Race, Ep. 23.5: “Get Our Groove On”

The Amazing Race, Ep. 23.5: “Get Our Groove On”

The Amazing Race S23E05 promo pic 2

The Amazing Race, Season 23, Episode 5: “Get Our Groove On”
Aired Sundays at 8pm (ET) on CBS

We begin with the reveal of an amazing Amazing Race Fake-Out! Last week it looked like Nicole and Travis were laughing maniacally while leaving the Exes in a literally clue-less lurch—but alas, no such luck. With the urging of Tim, the Express Pass the Exes have been clutching on to since the very first episode is finally—FINALLY—passed on to the Married Physicians in exchange for Pit Stop information. Little do they know, though, their place in the race is secure anyway: no one is being eliminated in this leg, and they are to keep racing to Poland all together. The Baseball Wives, who are last, are relieved; The ZZ Tops, who are first, are insanely, pointlessly delighted; and they’re all off to where Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe, and where a fitting Double U-Turn awaits.

Team Oklahoma interviews that it is “horse crap” that people say they aren’t going to use the U-turn, and Eastern European stereotypes reign as they go ahead and anticipate a bloodbath. Once in Gdansk, some teams get lost, including the Exes, the Afghanimals, and the Ice Girls (always together!). Jamal calls the Exes Pinky and No-Brain, finding a place in my heart forever. The Dating couple’s taxi driver sneakily throws off the ZZ’s through his radio, but no matter as they both make it to the Detour fairly quickly along with Oklahoma and the Doctors. It’s Pose or Polka!

In Pose, they have to dress up like living statues and collect tips from the crowd, while in Polka they must learn a complicated dance. Surprisingly, most teams, even same-sex ones, choose Polka. Tall Tim interviews that he is a “plus sized model,” so he lets Danny dress up as the girl. But he also soon finds out he’s a “white guy with two flat feet” and regrets the challenge altogether. Meanwhile, the Baseball Wives make the right choice for once and Pose, getting hermaphroditic-with-it in their beards and boobs, earning tips in no time. “We actually did something fast!” they scream. Meanwhile, the ZZ’s “double beard” does them no favors in the crowd, and they switch to Polka.

Danny gets frustrated in the dress. Jason and Amy complete the dance in no time. They head to the riverfront where the U-Turn awaits, but choose not to use it, and neither do the Baseball Wives. Tim and Marie use their Express Pass to get there as well and would probably use the U-Turn, but can’t be bothered to figure out on whom.  Tim and Danny also make it there once Tim’s positivity gets them through the hardest thing they’ve ever done, and they are the first to U-Turn, and it’s on the Afghanimals. They say they have to get the money home to their families, but are still nice people. Nicole and Travis say good job! Their dirty work is done for them, and they don’t have to U-Turn anyone themselves.

Roadblock: Who has a sweet tooth? The teams come to the longest residential apartment building in Poland, over half a mile long. Marie and Amy work together, apartment-hopping, searching for a rose-filled donut. The back three still battle it out at polka. Ice girls finish first, Afghanimals soon after, and the ZZ’s are in trouble, with still another U-Turn in play, and being in last place.

Kim and Travis run into each other in the building. Travis takes the stairs, and pushes all the buttons on the elevator so Kim has to exert herself as well. But she is “in heaven” being in people’s houses and says she wish she could stay in each one an hour, in contrast to Marie who can’t wait to get out of there. Danny runs in a dress for the first time. Travis devises a plan to follow Marie and Amy, who have already checked off a lot of places. When they realize they can’t shake him, they all work together, and once they complete it, the three teams end up in a footrace on the longest wooden pier in Europe. “I’m gonna have a panic attack. I’m gonna have a heart attack and a panic attack and I’m gonna throw up and pass out at the same time,” Marie says. Instead, she wins, with her and her partner being the only ones not having to run in a polka costume.

And it becomes a race for last between the two U-Turned teams, the Afghanimals and the ZZ’s. The Mormon faith ironically pulls through for the Afghanimals, however, as a guy in a BYU sweatshirt gives them the bulk of the tips they need, once he finds out they went to the same school (probably a clever lie).  The ZZ’s have no such divine intervention, and in a surprising move from first to last in a short amount of time, end up having to go back to the woods they live in. Hopefully they get good satellite, to at least keep the memory.

[wpchatai]