Amazing Race 15 Insider, Episode 3: Case of the Missing Passport – Solved!

Were you concerned Zev & Justin may not return from Cambodia?  Fear not, there is resolution to be found in this week’s video recaps!  Other mysteries abound though:  Who are the Inglorious Uno Bastards?  Why does Brian give three dollars to a stranger?  Found out within!

After The Race

Brotherly Love: Sam & Dan had a better leg and were nice to each other mainly because things were actually going well for them.  Dan hopes that they don’t end up only being nice just because they’re in the front as he’d like to believe that even in tough legs, they can keep it together and be positive.   Sam is counting on today’s high spirits carrying them on the next leg.  He is hopeful that the “girls” (Maria & Tiffany) can keep up with them, although I’m thinking this alliance may be soon ending.  How many lives do those girls have?  Surprisingly, they’re also hoping for Canaan & Mika to stay in the race as they like them… but, Sam sees them struggling as a team and mainly wants to keep them around as they seem to be a weak team they can beat.  Interesting.

Tough Way to Leave:  More from Zev & Justin on their devastating but preventable mistake!  Justin finds it’s not about missing out on winning the money, it is really that they ended up messing themselves up.  They’re understandably super bummed about it.  Through even these few legs, Justin is certain that he & Zev are closer friends.  Even when they had their bumps in the race, they surmounted them.  Except of course for the big one that got them eliminated.  The time they’ve spent together on the race is invaluable and Justin wouldn’t trade it for anything.  What I want to know is, are they stuck in Cambodia until a new passport is generated?  I guess Elimination Station may answer the question.

The Appeal of Pinky & The Brain:  Did I miss something in the show that revealed Brian & Ericka liked P&TB?   Brian explains that The Brain went to UCF in Orlando just like they do.  OH!!!!  They’re talking about Gary & Matt!  Another good thing about Matt/Pinky is that his pink hair is an attention-getter, which seems to help in crowd situations.  People seem to know ‘something’ is up when they see the pink hair and are willing to go along with it.  Ericka just loves Matt as he’s a big, cool teddy bear.  She’s sure he’s misunderstood because of his appearance and she can relate as people typically think that since she was Miss America, she’ll act a certain way.  They also like seeing a father/son team out there competing and having fun.  Brian thinks it would have been fun to do the Race with his dad and P&TB is a surrogate Race Dad for him.

Brian’s Moment of Karma:    Flashing back into the race, Brian & Ericka are rushing through the crowded Cambodian streets when Brian suddenly stops while Ericka runs ahead.  He calls out to her for some cash as he apparently broke one of the little taxis’ side mirrors.  Brian gives the driver three dollars which seems to placate him.  Now we are back after the race and Brian explains how in his haste he ran into the Tuk-Tuk.  Giving the money to the driver to help out is how they both like to live their lives – do unto others as you’d have done to you.  He also hopes that by making reparations he can avoid the seven years of bad luck breaking a mirror may have earned him!

Extra Race Footage

Brian & Ericka Splurge:  In their cab, Brian explains that sleeping all night on a hard airport floor just is not good for getting rest.  They have managed to save money over the last few legs so they’re going to get a hotel room.  It could help them to get an advantage.  Now sitting in their hotel room, they’re happy to be there and not on some floor.  What’s funny to Ericka is that they even tried haggling the hotel room even though it was only 45 dollars.  They would never think of haggling in the U.S. on such an already low price!  Brian is figuring that the hotel room plus the free breakfasts they’ll get will turn out to be more economical sense than spending money at the airport.  Quality rest is certainly worth it too.

Mika’s Toe-riffic Turnoff:  While setting up camp in the airport, Mika is securing their belongings while Canaan is already laying down all comfy.  As she lays down on her row of seats, Canaan thinks any potential shoe-thief would think twice after smelling them.  As she gets settled on the mostly-uncomfortable ‘bed’, she mentions all the things that this bed is better than.  The camera pans to Canaan’s nasty big toenail which is nearly all black.  It grosses Mika out as it rightfully should.  Apparently Canaan’s roommate is to blame as he had Canaan wear some way-small shoe.  I can relate as I once wore too-small of ski boots.  Ugh.  He jokes that he’d rather have his gross toenail, which he’s had longer than they’ve been dating, than Mika.  He looks over and mischievously grins.  They are very cute, I must say.  When he’s not freaking out when she’s not herding ducks fast enough.

Globetrotters Shout Out to PA:  In a Tuk-Tuk, Big Easy tells how lucky they are to have run into the Pennsylvanian tourist girls in the Russian Market.  The Penn girls noticed the Globetrotters in the market (kinda hard not to) and the guys chatted them up.  The Penn girls actually live in Cambodia now so they were doubly helpful having local knowledge and speaking English.  The Globetrotters love those great Penn girls!

Girl Power:  Maria & Tiffany were surprised to find out they were the only girl-girl team on the Race this season.  It wasn’t intimidating though and actually more of a motivator.  Tiffany thinks they’re rocking, although to be fair, this is before their second last place finish.  Maria knows there’s a part of them that would like to show everybody up and prove how great they are.  But on the other hand, they also don’t mind laying low and not coming across as a threat.

Keri Monkeys Around:  While in their Tuk-Tuk after the Monkey Business Roadblock, Keri is exhausted from all the acrobatics.  Lance is proud of her and himself, as he’s proud he knows when he needs to shut up.  Really?  I haven’t picked up on that just yet these last couple of episodes.  His silence was his way of supporting Keri though.  Keri is still trying to recover from all the balancing she had to do and she’s very dehydrated.  You’d think she’d just run a 5K race or something.

No Cheap Wins:  At the airport, Lance is fuming about the other teams getting handed cheap wins.  It irks him that they can just play card games and giggle.  There’s even playing of Uno!  Sounds like someone is a little bitter, Lance.  Justin is humoring Lance’s rant, which is far more gracious than I’d be.  Now Lance is mocking the girls and their excitement for being on the flight.  Can you imagine how obnoxious Lance would be if he was in the other position?  He’d be mocking the hell out of those poor saps potentially stuck on the second flight out.  Oy.  Ha!  Keri calls Lance out on his statement.  Awesome.  Now Lance is rationalizing what he said before and correctly states that those on the first flight are no longer having to worry about coming in last, but about racing for first.  This is true and much more accurate, but it doesn’t make it a cheap win by any means.

Pit Stop

Brian & Ericka Look Ahead:  Phil wonders who Brian & Ericka are getting along with the best. Matt & Gary (Pinky & The Brain – as we knew from the earlier video), Cheyne & Meghan (Malibu Ken & Barbie), and Sam & Dan (cute brothers).  They have found that this group of three finds a way to scratch each others backs.  Until the Final Three, of course.  Thinking about the Final Three, Phil asks who they’d like to see there.  Brian would love Zev & Justin (d’oh!) and Matt & Gary to be there.  They love Zev a lot and don’t see that he’s handicapped by his disorder and find him to be just great.  If Brian & Ericka don’t win, she would love if Zev & Justin did just to help highlight Asperger’s syndrome and put it out there for the world to see.

Phil thinks the Amazing Race does a good job of putting people with differences out there, and he lists others from before, such as amputees (Sarah, right?), small people (CHARLA!!!), and even interracial couples.  Phil asks if they think that with them, as an interracial couple, out here on TV that perhaps it could encourage others who may have unsupportive families to be happy and be in love.  Ericka finds that finding a common ground is where their relationship was based out of.  Brian wanted to do the race precisely because they’re in love just like anybody else and if anyone else is uncomfortable about it, they shouldn’t be.  Hear hear!

A Somber Farewell:  Zev & Justin are on the mat with Phil and have just been eliminated for having lost Zev’s passport.  Zev is very sad and frustrated as this really shouldn’t happen to anyone.  They ran an ‘amazing’ race, as Phil puts it.  Justin’s head is hanging down, but he still is able to put a positive face on it and says the last few days can’t be traded for anything else in the world.  They came a long way and he’s very proud of his best friend, Zev.  Phil lets them know that most of the other teams loved them and their great spirit.

Zev can’t find the words to tell Phil how frustrated he is.  No one deserves this.  Justin finds that he isn’t surprised how well Zev did and that the race provided a great time for them.  Justin hopes that Zev can understand that it wasn’t his fault and he isn’t to blame.  Phil commiserates with them and lets them know that this has unfortunately happened before on the Race.  Phil asks Zev if he is going to take this hard and/or personally.  Zev isn’t and understands that it is the rules of the game.  It’s tough and you move on and appreciate the experience you’ve had.  Lots of love between the two but you can tell they’re still in the midst of heavy devastation.  I would be too.  They won… and then they didn’t.

Globetrotters Keep Rolling:  Phil asks if they’re working well together still.  Big Easy explains they split the work up, as he found the scarp and Flight Time did the Monkey Business.  It was more out of necessity as Big Easy is 6′ 9″ and there was no way he was gonna get down that low for Monkey Business.  Phil wonders if they get along with Sam & Dan and the others, and the Globetrotters like everyone fun and will help each other as long as their position in the race isn’t lost.  Flight Time mentions this is the second time Sam & Dan have beat them in a foot race though.

Elimination Station

Another week, another eliminated team?  That can only mean it’s time for another Elimination Station! At Via Cambodia, this year’s Elimination Station, Marcy & Ron and Garrett & Jessica are getting along well.  The guys have a chance to guy-bond while the girls talk about Garrett’s proposal to Jessica upon arrival at the Elimination Station.  Okay, an admission on my part now.  I didn’t watch the first two Elimination Stations so obviously I’m a bit behind, but wow, they got engaged!  I’m surprised especially after the way it seemed to be hanging in the air at their Pit Stop interview with Phil.

Ron & Marcy are both interested in the emotions that Garrett & Jessica must have been feeling having just been eliminated from the Race (disappointed), truly realizing they lost (sad), then proposing marriage (happy!). Garrett explains he brought the ring with him on the Race and the original plan was to propose on the mat… at the Finish Line.  Marcy jokes that at the wedding, they can use the theme to The Amazing Race.  It would definitely be a distinctive march down the aisle to that beat!

The natives are growing a bit restless as they expect to have seen another team arrive by now.  Where are they? Ron speculates that the delay could be either due to a hospital issue or a passport issue, but he’s leaning towards it being the hospital.  Maybe someone broke their leg.  Jessica hopes it’s a passport thing as that’s a lot easier to fix.  Marcy then speculates it could be a snowball-effect disaster chain-reaction of epic proportions!  Okay, I exaggerated that last part.

So hey – we flash over to another part of Cambodia, conveniently enough, where Zev & Justin are shown trying to now get to the U.S. Embassy.  They find the Embassy and walk in, announcing to the front desk they’ve lost a passport for Zev Glassenburg.  We hear Justin audibly gasp and exclaim, “You don’t have it here!”  Sure enough, there’s Zev’s passport.  It apparently was found at the Monkey Business Detour location.  Upon thinking about it, Justin finds it harder to deal with now that he can figure out how it all went down.  They had gone into a temple that they weren’t supposed to as they didn’t read their clue right.  When they went in there, it was dark, so Justin pulled out his head light, which was in the same pocket as the passports.  It must have come out with the light.  Wow.  Totally sucks. Justin proceeds to beat himself up over it.  I’d just be happy that Zev has his passport and can leave when he needs to.

Back at the Via Cambodia, the group is gathered around a Blackberry to talk to the next evicted team.  Zev & Justin say hello but they can’t figure out who it is by voice alone.  When it’s revealed, the teams are shocked and bummed out.  Justin explains what happened to them and how he’s feeling pretty bad about it.  Jessica does her best to cheer them up and lets them know they’ll be happily welcomed.  Everyone is sad for Zev & Justin’s very damaging mistake.

Hobie Barnes works in NYC at 30 Rock (the building, not the show). While not conquering Midtown, he might be found watching DVR’d reality TV or getting lost on the subway. He can be reached at hobswriting@hobiebarnes.com.