The Amazing Race recap for Season 31, episode 2 presents the first U-turn of the season. There were 10 teams left after the season premiere, where Arturo “Art” Velez and John James “J. J.” Carrell got eliminated.
This is a season of teams consisting of former Big Brother houseguests, former Survivor castaways, and people who have done The Amazing Race before. Typically it is an advantage to do the race a second time, but Art and J.J. finished second on Season 20 and have already been eliminated.
The first leg involved getting to Japan and completing two challenges.
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— The Amazing Race (@AmazingRaceCBS) April 25, 2019
The Amazing Race recap: Season 31, episode 2
Leo Temory and Jamal Zadran started out first on the new leg of the race. The first goal was to get to the airport and purchase tickets to travel from Japan to Laos. It served as an opportunity for all of the other teams to catch up. When the flight took off, it had all 10 remaining teams on board.
All of the teams got to a checkpoint where they had to wait hours while lined up to participate in a ceremony with monks. It was then a lot of running to get to the next challenge. It was important, as a double U-turn awaited.
Rachel Reilly and Elissa Slater got to the double U-turn first. They decided to make Rebecca “Becca” Droz and Floyd Pierce complete both challenges. At the other U-turn, Becca and Floyd used it on Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl.
The rest of the teams had to decide if they wanted to shop for ingredients and prepare a BBQ or learn the ABCs in Lao. Learning the language appeared to be a very difficult endeavor.
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— The Amazing Race (@AmazingRaceCBS) April 25, 2019
Road Block
Team Fun (Becca and Floyd) quickly finished their u-turn challenges and began passing other teams as they also found a tuk-tuk (a taxi) in short order. Leo and Jamal got to the Road Block first by passing another team on the road. The challenge involved steering an elephant across a river and retrieving a clue.
The racers could only use voice commands to control the elephants that they were riding. Nicole Franzel seemed to have the most fun with the elephants. Jamal got to the clue first, followed closely by Nicole. The rest of the teams were bunched up a bit behind the two leaders.
Who went home on The Amazing Race tonight?
After the elephant challenge at the Road Block, it was then a race to the mat to check in with host Phil Keoghan. The leg included taking speed boats up the river. Leo Temory and Jamal Zadran won the leg of the race and got $2,500 each for it. The team of Nicole Franzel and Victor Arroyo finished in second place.
The next six teams finished very closely, leaving two teams far back from the pack. Team Fun, after doing two U-turns, finished ninth place. The team that went home on The Amazing Race tonight was Rupert and Laura Boneham.
The Amazing Race airs Wednesday nights at 9/8c on CBS.