The Amazing Race 2010 Episode 11 Recap

Sunday, December 5, 2010 - The Amazing Race featured four teams vying for a place in the final three and a chance at the one million dollars. Last week, Nick and Vicki did not finish one of their tasks, and were also the last team to arrive. They had a six hour penalty as well as a Speed Bump, which is a task only they would have to perform. The other teams were therefore well ahead of them leaving Statue Square in Hong Kong, China, which was the pit stop for the last leg of the Amazing Race.

Nat and Kat, who arrived first last week, were the first team to leave. They discovered they would have to fly to Seoul, South Korea and then drive themselves toward the North Korean border, all the way to the demilitarized zone at the Seungil Bridge. Jill and Thomas left next, followed by Brooke and Claire, who stopped at a hotel to try to book a flight. The other two teams went to Hong Kong International Airport, but all three teams ended up on the same airplane, leaving at 12:25 a.m.

While they are all waiting, Nick and Vicki are finally able to leave the pit stop, to a montage of Nick being awful to Vicki over the course of the race. He swears he's done with that behavior. Nick and Vicki miss the flight by a gnat's whisker and must wait for a flight leaving at 9:30 the next morning.

The other teams land and begin driving nervously toward the North Korean border in a pouring rain. All are aware of the political tensions and no one really wants to get shot because they made a wrong turn. Brooke and Claire decide that since they are in the area, perhaps they can resolve the conflict while they are there.

Jill and Thomas, the first to find the bridge with the clue box, go and choose a rafting guide and begin white water rafting down the DMZ. The other two teams are close behind them. At the end of the rafting segment down the river, the teams climb in to Humvees and are driven to the U. S. Army Garrison Casey. The Roadblock requires one of the teammates to choose a headband, then wander amongst two hundred troops practicing a twae kwon do exercise and find the soldier with the headband that matches theirs, without getting punched or kicked. Once they find it, their soldier will kick a board, breaking it to reveal their clue.

Thomas and Kat do fairly well, but Brooke seems a little dazzled by so many men, and gives hers to the wrong soldier, who calmly puts it in his pocket. She has to go back and choose another one. Watching the soldiers kicking the boards is pretty impressive.

Jill and Thomas finish first and head, by subway, to Seoul World Cup Stadium. Brooke and Claire and Nat and Kat follow on a slightly later subway car. Here teams must choose Full Throttle or Full Bottle. In Full Throttle the teams must go to the ice skating rink, put on a state-of-the-art, skin tight skating uniform and tag-team through 24 laps. Teams can also choose Full Bottle, which involves going to the market and getting large bottles of ginseng roots, delivering them (without breaking them) to a pharmacist, then drinking ginseng tonic for their clue. Both tasks require traveling on foot or by subway.

None of the Amazing Race teams choose the bottle option, but none of them can ice skate all that well either, so it is ice racing in slow-mo. Brooke and Claire take a taxi, leaving Jill and Thomas to puzzle obsessively over how they beat them to the ice skating rink. Nat and Kat inform their coach that they are available for the next Olympics if he is interested, after Kat "channels her inner Apollo Ohno."

About this time Nick and Vicki arrive in Seoul, and are shown getting to know a local man who leads them about, thinks Vicki is quite beautiful, and seems to be quite a character. Vicki and Nick must wash a filthy tank for their Speed Bump. But they are so far behind that they really don't have a chance, so the focus is on the other three teams.

After skating, teams go to Han Riverside Park and search for an airplane statue. Jill and Thomas get close first, but Thomas doesn't want Jill to ask "old guys" for directions, so he spends way too long trying to act out an airplane for a puzzled motorcycle cop, who hazards a guess as to "sky jumping???" Meanwhile, Brooke and Claire beat them to the spot with their taxi driver who is sweet on Claire. He asks for a kiss and Claire is happy to oblige. Their clue says to go to the Temple of Heaven, which is the pit stop for this leg of the race.

Brooke and Claire arrive at the mat first, but Phil informs them that they have a thirty minute penalty for taking a taxi. Jill and Thomas, after a lot of trouble with taxi drivers who don't know where to go, arrive second, but since the other team are waiting out a penalty, they are officially first place. They win a trip to Argentina. Perhaps more important, they win a spot in the final three. Soon Brooke and Claire join them on the mat for a second place finish, and before long Nat and Kat secure their third place spot. Nick and Vicki come in way, way later, last, and are eliminated.

Nick says when he came in to the race he was rude and didn't care who he hurt, but that Vicki has taught him that getting angry and being rude doesn't solve anything. Vicki admits she's just proud that she got through the race without killing Nick.

Tune in next week to The Amazing Race when the final three teams of Jill and Thomas, Brooke and Claire and Nat and Kat compete for the win and a million dollars. Also, there is a great possibility of an Amazing Race first - a win by an all-girl team.

Source: watching The Amazing Race on CBS