The Amazing Race Episode 23.10 Cobra in My Teeth

JASON & AMY FINALLY WIN

After five 2nd place finishes, dating couple Jason & Amy finally triumphed in Indonesia while cousins Leo & Jamal struggled in a tea field and came in last place.

HEARTY SNACK

Departing the Pit Stop in first place at 7:25am, cousins Leo & Jamal ripped open their clue, instructing them to make their way to Ciwangun Indah Camp (CIC) and find a street stall to eat "a hearty snack." What the clue didn't reveal was the content of that snack, a portion of grilled cobra, an exotic dish that locals savor for its healing benefits. Leaving one minute later in second place, Marie immediately worried about the vaguely worded clue because, while tough and fearless, she was a very picky eater. In the taxi, Marie stated that some kind of animal meat would be her worst fear, while Tim's worst fear would be Marie not going through with whatever creature appeared on her plate, costing them the Race. However, the exes had a bigger worry to focus on before their breakfast snack. Their taxi driver entered the massive CIC through the South entrance, but when the exes started walking around looking for a street stall or other teams, they saw nothing.

KING COBRA

Entering CIC through the North entrance, a confident Jamal assured Leo that Indonesians don't eat snakes. Immediately beyond the gates of the camp, Leo & Jamal walked to the street stall called King Cobra House and knew instantly what they had to eat. Taking a seat at the counter, the cousins sat facing a window where live cobras slithered, hissed, and darted towards them with only a thin screen between them for protection. A waitress used tongs to set a piece of grilled cobra (its coil still intact) on each of the cousins' plates as they dreaded taking the first bite. Jamal gagged as he studied the iridescent skin of the snake before putting it in his mouth to discover a chewy, rubbery texture. While Tim & Marie continued to search at the South entrance of CIC, dating couple Jason & Amy arrived at King Cobra House and took two seats at the counter next to the Afghanimals. While Jason groaned in disbelief over his impending meal, Amy wondered more about the unusual absence of Tim & Marie, especially considering Marie's issues with food. When Amy asked the Afghanimals if Marie & Tim already left, they lied to her, saying that Marie simply devoured the snake. Later, Leo commented, "It's fun lying to teams. It's not even lying. It's joking." As Jason & Amy began taking the bones out of their portion of snake, married ER doctors Nicole & Travis took their seats at the King Cobra House. Considerably less freaked out by the grilled reptile because of their medical background, the married ER doctors made no fuss as they started chewing the delicacy they thought tasted like chicken. Even after wincing, gagging, and suffering through every bite, cousins Leo & Jamal finished their portions of cobra in first place and jumped into a taxi bound for Kawah Domas Crater. As miserable as the Afghanimals were during their dining experience, Jason enjoyed his cobra even less. Calling the skin "snakish" and the meal "nasty," Jason choked on a bone as he swallowed his last bite in second place with Amy. In contrast, Nicole exclaimed that the cobra tasted much better than she expected as she cleaned her plate in third place with Travis. Meanwhile, Tim & Marie continued their search for the street stall by walking up and down steps on a lush, green hillside still on the southern side of CIC. While Tim thought this was the best approach, Marie questioned it, saying, "If this is actually where we were supposed to be, we would've seen the boys." Tim countered that since they were in the correct camp they had to be close, so he insisted on exploring further. After more fruitless walking, Marie asked again why they didn't see other teams looking around, and this time Tim agreed to retrace their steps from outside the entrance.

EGG-CELLENT ROADBLOCK

Arriving at the entrance to Kawah Domas Crater, cousins Leo & Jamal ripped open their clue to find a Roadblock. In it, one team member had to hard-boil eggs in a steaming volcanic spring just as the locals do. First, they had to pick up sixty eggs from the food stand and then take an eight minute ride on the back of a local taxi to the crater. Once teams cooked a dozen eggs, the egg man would crack them open. If the eggs were hard-boiled they would receive their clue. With Travis and Jason hot on his heels, Jamal ran over to the food stand to pick up sixty eggs divided amongst two large trays. All three carried their trays to one of the local taxis (mopeds), put on helmets, and jumped on the back of the mopeds, being careful to maintain a tight grasp on their carton of fragile eggs. Winding along a path that cut through a dense, lush forest, Travis had the lead, while Jason leapt into second place when his driver made a move to pass Jamal. After the mopeds dropped the three men off near the crater, they ran the remaining distance down an uneven and treacherous path, giving even more opportunities for someone to spill their eggs. Although Jamal came close to stumbling, all three delivered their trays to a marked stand at the edge of the crater, where they immediately smelled the pungent sulfur odor. After placing six brown eggs and six white eggs from each of their trays into a sieve attached to a long wooden pole, Travis, Jason, and Jamal walked on rocks and boulders that had the volcanic springs boiling around them. The three men placed their basket of eggs into the steaming, bubbling water and then simply waited. Travis and Jason figured boiling an egg would take 10-12 minutes so they planned on waiting for 15 minutes and joked to Jamal that he should leave after 5 minutes. With nothing else to do, the three turned to idle conversation to pass the time. When the subject of snake eating arose, Travis still couldn't believe that Marie ate the snake so quickly. When Jamal confessed that he and Leo didn't see Tim & Marie at King Cobra House, Jason chided, "Why are you always lying?"

NO VEGETABLES HERE

Circling around CIC to the north entrance, exes Tim & Marie finally arrived at King Cobra House, where a nervous Marie hoped, "Please be a vegetable." When Marie saw cobras slithering around, she shouted, "I'm not eating a snake!" Sitting at the counter, Marie looked at her portion of grilled cobra served on a large green leaf. After telling Tim she would throw up, Marie tried to focus because she refused to be "the girl that didn't eat the snake." Ripping the snake into small pieces and taking big gulps of water to swallow them down, Marie slowly made progress, while Tim appeared to be suffering even worse than her with every bite. Marie's competitiveness won out over her fear of gross foods, surprising even her when she cleaned her plate. Tim called the snake skin "rough" and even picked snake remnants from between his teeth as he and Marie headed in their taxi to the crater.

EGG ANGST

With only time and patience needed to boil an egg, Travis, Jamal, and Jason began to question just long they needed to wait. Seeing one of his eggs crack from the heat, Travis felt his dozen were entirely cooked after only eight minutes, so he removed his basket from the water and ran back to his taxi moped, saying, "I'm gambling." Jason questioned Travis' decision, thinking they shouldn't risk leaving so soon, but he ultimately took Travis' advice and hopped on his moped too. Sensing that Travis and Jason underestimated the time needed to fully cook eggs, Jamal held his basket in the water for an additional two minutes, hoping that would be the difference between a soft and hard-boiled egg. Returning to the food stand on their mopeds, Jason, Travis, and Jamal, in that order, presented their eggs to the egg man who cut each one open with a knife. Waiting for the verdict, Jason convinced himself (but definitely not Jamal) each of his eggs was hard-boiled, while the evidence of dark yellow yolks and mushy whites proved otherwise. All told, Jason only had six of twelve eggs hard-boiled, so he would have to return to the volcanic springs to cook six more. Travis fared even worse when the egg man threw his entire tray into the trash, making him cook another dozen. The extra two minutes Jamal waited at the crater turned out to be useless because nine of his eggs got rejected.

TAKE TWO

Congregating at the volcanic springs for a second time, Jason, Travis, and Jamal kept a more watchful eye on their watches, planning to wait a full twenty minutes before removing their baskets from the water. Jason and Travis suggested that Jamal tell Marie that this only required eight minutes of cooking time to mislead her if he saw her. Jamal was taken aback by their brazen attempts at dishonesty, but Leo later clarified, "They're being liars too. They just do it not as obviously. Hypocrites." After the twenty minutes, Jason, along with Travis, got on his moped and crossed paths with Marie, who began her ride to the crater. Not wanting to outright lie, hoping Jamal would do the dirty work for him, Jason told her, "It's quick." But when Jamal saw Marie six minutes later when he left the crater, he simply pointed the path for her to follow with no added subterfuge. On Jason's second appearance at the food stand, he knew he hit it out of the park, seeing light yellow yolks when the egg man sliced them open. Right behind Jason, Travis also delivered perfectly boiled eggs, as did Jamal several minutes behind them. Ripping open the next clue, the three teams had a choice at the Detour, Paint Your Partner or Turn Over a New Leaf. Paint Your Partner required teams to make each other up as traditional Javanese brides without the use of a mirror. Once the beautician felt they were ready to be given away, he would hand over the next clue. Turn Over a New Leaf required teams to dress up as local tea workers and search the steeped-terraced tea fields for a pair of clipping shears.

PAINT YOUR PARTNER

With Jason & Amy and Nicole & Travis choosing Paint Your Partner and Leo & Jamal ready to Turn Over a New Leaf, Marie sat alone at the crater entirely unsure of how to cook an egg because she (at 29 years old) had never boiled one in her life...ever. Seeing the egg man judge Jason's eggs, Tim guaranteed that Marie would return the first time with soft-boiled eggs because she lacked patience. He even predicted that she might be holding the basket over the water instead of in the water. She was. However, Tim held one faint hope: everything Marie cooks is well-done, "hockey puck style." Once Marie figured out to place the eggs in the boiling water, she let them cook until she guessed they were done. She even shook one close to her ear maybe expecting to hear a sound. When she returned to the food stand, she delivered on Tim's one hope and when she got her clue, she said, "I overcook things. That's what I do." Running into Gracia Spa on a sprawling resort, Jason & Amy and Nicole & Travis quickly studied the beautiful Javanese bride who was wearing elaborate eye makeup and an intricate jewel pattern on her forehead and hairline. Sitting down at a makeup station, Jason, with exactly zero experience in this subject, worried what he just volunteered for, telling former beauty pageant winner Amy, "I'm so out of my element right now." Knowing she would take command of this task, Amy got to work applying foundation to Jason's face as he simply laughed at how ridiculous he felt. With no use of mirrors, the teammates had to be mirror images of each other. While Jason brushed rouge onto Amy's cheeks, she painted gold eye shadow onto his lids. Meanwhile, before Travis could sit down and begin with Nicole, he had to shave off his goatee. After Nicole painted Travis' lips bright red and penciled in his arched, dramatic eyebrows, she joked, "My husband is the sexiest drag queen ever."

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

In third place, cousins Leo & Jamal put on traditional Indonesian tea-cutting outfits consisting of a long skirt, blouse, and conical hat before walking into the massive, lush tea fields just inside the Gracia Resort. With rows and rows of green tea plants as far as the eye could see, the cousins entered the field and attempted to construct a logical game plan before beginning their search for clipping shears. Jamal suggested starting in the middle but Leo countered that they would lose track of which rows they checked if they didn't begin at the far end instead. Wandering up and down the rows, some that curved, some that sloped on a hill, and paths of different widths, the cousins soon realized this wouldn't be as easy as they thought, especially because they didn't know what shears looked like. In the early stages of their slow search, Jamal thought he found the shears, but when he picked up the object he had discovered a long bamboo pole with a white flag affixed to the end.

MAKEUP MADNESS

At Gracia Spa, Jason & Amy made progress on painting their faces, even with Jason's complaints and protests over wearing makeup, but Nicole & Travis were another story entirely. Nicole had never glued or worn eyelashes before so she could offer no insightful tips like Amy could with Jason. Making matters worse, when the married ER doctors needed to apply gold V-shaped ribbons spanning each other's hairline from ear to ear, Nicole couldn't get Travis' ribbons to stick because of the sweat and oil on his face. Nicole resorted to using safety pins in his hair to keep each of his ribbons in place as Travis wondered if they made a mistake choosing this Detour. As cousins Leo & Jamal continued to wander the tea field with no success, last place Tim & Marie arrived at Gracia Spa thrilled to still see two teams there putting on makeup. After Tim took a straight razor to his face (something he hadn't done in seven years), Marie took a perverse glee in clipping flower earrings on Tim's ears before she started powdering his face and applying eye makeup. Marie doesn't regularly wear makeup, so she didn't consider herself an expert, but she hoped she knew enough to train Tim and get the task done quickly.

CHANGE IT UP

In the tea fields, the increasingly frustrated Leo & Jamal still had no success searching through the waist-high rows of plants. Leo's approach of scanning but not actually touching the tealeaves didn't appear to be the best approach as he shouted, "Where is it?" Beginning to tire, losing energy and focus, Leo later said every row started looking the same to him. Jamal finally suggested that they switch tasks and Leo agreed, even though he worried this would doom them to last place. Walking out of the tea fields, Jamal muttered, "Stupidest Detour I've ever chosen." Making a surprise entrance into Garcia Spa, stunning the three teams there still hard at work, Leo & Jamal felt relieved they still had a chance, especially after assessing how awful Travis' makeup looked on him. However, as soon as the cousins took a seat at their makeup station, Leo had second thoughts, telling Jamal, "I don't know where to start." The final deal breaker for both cousins was when they spotted the razors. Neither one wanted to shave their beards so they got up, ran out, and returned to the tea fields more determined than ever to find the clipping shears knowing they had a shot at first place.

SECOND NO MORE

Although seeing the Afghanimals enter and leave the spa made Jay feel that he and Amy chose the right task, he still said, "This is the worst thing I've ever done in my life." But with Amy's lead, the dating couple put the finishing touches on their faces, including painting lip liner and putting ebony black wigs (complete with sparkling tiaras) on their heads. After getting approval from the beautician, Jason & Amy ripped open their clue instructing them to make their way to the Pit Stop at the bottom of the Cimahi Waterfall. After five 2nd place finishes, dating couple Jason & Amy ran down the 500 steps that led from the top of the Cimahi Waterfall to the bottom, where Phil stood waiting to tell them they were finally team number one. For their victory, the dating couple won a trip for two from Travelocity to Cancun, Mexico. Amy said, "Coming in first just proved we are the strongest team here." FROM WRECK TO READY With the Afghanimals back in the tea fields, Tim & Marie caught up to Nicole & Travis, but both teams needed to figure out and correct some big mistakes before getting their clue. After several rejections by the beautician, Tim noticed that Marie was missing several of the colored jewels that should have been glued between the gold ribbon on her forehead. Dropping to her hands and knees, Marie found each jewel that fell off and had Tim reapply them. The exes also knew exactly the mistake Nicole & Travis made that the married ER doctors couldn't figure out. In applying the black eye makeup, the paint remained on Nicole's hands. Then when she fixed something else on Travis' face she would leave a black smudge, prompting Tim to call his appearance "a wreck." Once Tim & Marie left with their clue, Travis noticed Nicole's dirty hands and she noticed his smudged face. An incredulous Travis asked her, "You didn't see black on there?" Nicole didn't want to listen to Travis' lecture and quickly rectified the mistake to receive the clue.

TEA FIELD TURMOIL

In last place, cousins Leo & Jamal, whose search for the clipping shears now spanned hours and hours, began to lose hope they would ever find them. After nearing the end of a full second pass through the entire field, Jamal questioned Leo's process of scanning the rows. He felt that because Leo didn't actually touch the plants and reach in as he passed by, he might have missed the shears. Sure enough, moments later Jamal grabbed a handle and pulled out a pair of shears with a yellow and red flag attached. An annoyed Jamal sniped at Leo, "See? Getting your hands dirty actually does work." Leo admitted he didn't check the tops of the plants, prompting Jamal to mutter, "What a fool." After a thrilling taxi race and footrace resulted in a second place finish for Tim & Marie who narrowly edged out Nicole & Travis, Leo & Jamal stepped on the mat in last place. The disappointed cousins knew they could've won the leg if they hadn't wasted five hours at the Detour. Their unhappiness turned to big smiles when Phil told them this was a non-elimination leg. Now facing a Speed Bump, Jamal said, "Hopefully worst to first." Leo promised, "We're gonna finish strong. First place. Guaranteed."

2310 ROUTE MARKERS

Roadblock: A Roadblock is a task that only one person can perform. In this Roadblock, that person had to hard-boil eggs in a steaming volcanic spring just as the locals do. First, they had to pick up sixty eggs from the food stand and then take an eight minute ride on the back of a local taxi to the crater. Once teams cooked a dozen eggs, the egg man would crack them open. If the eggs were hard-boiled they would receive their clue.

Performed Roadblock: Jamal, Jason, Travis, Marie

Detour: A Detour is a choice between two tasks. In this Detour, teams had to choose between Paint Your Partner and Turn Over a New Leaf. Paint Your Partner required teams to make each other up as traditional Javanese brides without the use of a mirror. Once the beautician felt they were ready to be given away, he would hand over the next clue. Turn Over a New Leaf required teams to dress up as local tea workers and search the steeped-terraced tea fields for a pair of clipping shears.

Paint Your Partner: Jason/Amy, Tim/Marie, Nicole/Travis Turn Over a New Leaf: Leo/Jamal

Order of Finish: 1. Jason & Amy 2. Tim & Marie 3. Nicole & Travis 4. Leo & Jamal ...