- Twelve teams of two people set off from Seattle, Washington to Juyongguan, China. One of the teams is eliminated at an overnight hold in Beijing, while the other teams have to scale the Great Wall Of China to reach the Pit Stop.
- Seaplanes flew through the misty saltwater of the Pacific Ocean as they transported twelve teams of two people to the Pacific Northwest's largest city, Seattle, Washington, for the start of a race around the world. On board the planes were models Tyler & James, best friends Bilal & Sa'eed, recently dating couple Peter & Sarah, coal miner and wife David & Mary, beauty queens Dustin & Kandice, cheerleaders Kellie & Jamie, father & daughter Duke & Lauren, single mothers Lyn & Karlyn, boyfriends Tom & Terry, dating couple Rob & Kimberly, brothers Erwin & Godwin and married couple Vipul & Arti.
As the teams lined up for the start of the race, host Phil Keoghan added to his usual introduction a warning that this race would include a few new and unexpected surprises for them. After wishing them good luck and safe travel, Phil lowered his hand and shouted "Go!", and the race was under way. The teams sprinted to the backpacks they had left, as their first clue was sitting on top of them. On the way, Jamie caused Tyler to take a tumble. Soon, they all found out that they would be flying to Beijing, China, and would have to choose one of two flights, United flight 875 leaving at 1:22 pm or Korean Air flight 26 departing at 2:00 pm.
Seats on the flights were offered on a first come, first served basis, making efficient navigation to the Sea-Tac International Airport crucial in getting the best seats. Out of the parking lot, Tyler & James took an early lead, but relinquished it to Bilal & Sa'eed by stopping for directions. When all of the teams reached Interstate 5, they found that an accident had caused a gridlock in the traffic. Peter & Sarah took a gamble by exiting the freeway and using side roads to get to the airport, and it paid off when they were the first to arrive. Although David & Mary started slowly out of the parking lot, they also moved ahead by taking an alternative route, while Dustin & Kandice also saved some time by weaving through the crowded Interstate traffic.
Peter & Sarah, Dustin & Kandice and David & Mary secured the first three of six available spots for the United flight, which was scheduled to land in Beijing at 8:05 pm, almost one hour before the Korean Air flight. Bilal & Sa'eed and Kellie & Jamie would have claimed two of the remaining spots if they didn't make the critical error of not locating the proper area for car rental returns. As a result of their mistake, Tyler & James, Duke & Lauren and Lyn & Karlyn claimed the last places on the United flight. The six teams who took the Korean Air flight were Vipul & Arti, who had just missed out on the last spot on United, Kellie & Jamie, Erwin & Godwin, Tom & Terry, Rob & Kimberly and Bilal & Sa'eed.
A 17 minute delay on the United flight meant that the actual difference in arrival times between the two flights was closer than what was scheduled. At 8:22 pm, the six teams on the United flight landed in Beijing Airport and travelled by taxis to the Gold House Restaurant. As she marvelled over the big city's bright lights, Mary was overwhelmed about being in China, as she had never previously left her home state of Kentucky. She compared it to dropping a 30-year old baby into the world and telling them "Just go!".
While the six teams on the Korean Air flight raced out of the airport looking for taxis, Duke & Lauren were the first team to arrive at the Gold House, where they found a Road Block, a task that only one person from each team could perform. The people who chose to do this task had to indulge in one of China's delicacies by eating fish eyes out of a bowl of heads. Once the person had eaten all of the eyes, the team would receive their next clue.
Duke decided, like any protective father, to shield his daughter from what was a potentially queasy task and sat at the table ready for the fish eyes to be served to him. Lauren smiled when Duke choked one eyeball down and said, "I love you. Welcome to China." It wasn't long before Lyn and Peter arrived to join Duke in picking at their fish head dinners. Although she gagged and grimaced, Lyn managed to beat both of the men, allowing her and Karlyn to receive their next clue, which directed them to travel to the Forbidden City, the former seat of China's Imperial government. At the City, they had to find the Meridian Gate entrance and locate a kiosk from where they would pull one of three departure times for the following morning, either 7:00 am, 7:15 am or 7:30 am. Also here, one of the teams would receive the race's first big surprise.
When the driver of Dustin & Kandice's taxi made the mistake of taking them to the wrong restaurant, they slipped to eighth when they arrived at the Gold House with Rob & Kimberly, the fastest of the teams from the Korean Air flight. Kandice suddenly had to show her competitive skills just to keep her team in the middle of the pack. Ahead of her, Peter & Sarah, Duke & Lauren and Tyler & James joined Lyn and Karlyn in claiming spots for the 7:00 am departure, while David & Mary, Tom & Terry and Kellie & Jamie claimed the first three spots for the 7:15 am departure. Kandice came through with flying colours in her showdown with Rob, allowing her and Dustin to claim the last spot on the 7:15 am departure.
When Erwin & Godwin became lost on the way to the restaurant, it allowed Rob & Kimberly, Vipul & Arti and Bilal & Sa'eed to complete the Road Block before they arrived. Erwin ate as fast as he could, but they recovered from that setback when the drivers of the taxis for Vipul & Arti and Bilal & Sa'eed couldn't find the Meridian Gate, allowing Rob & Kimberly to claim the first spot on the 7:30 am departure. Erwin & Godwin caught up to Vipul & Arti, and both teams claimed the last two spots on this departure, leaving just one placard for Bilal & Sa'eed to pull from the kiosk, which was marked "Last Team".
The other teams had been puzzled by this final placard, and their confusion turned to shock when Phil suddenly appeared from a nearby mat to inform Bilal and Sa'eed that they had just been eliminated from the race! Flabbergasted, Bilal told Phil that it proved that the teams didn't have control over anything - the Creator did instead.
At 7 am the next morning, the four leading teams, Peter & Sarah, Tyler & James, Lyn & Karlyn and Duke & Lauren opened their clues and found out that they had to travel in the sidecar of a World War II motorbike to the junction of 14 Hou Hai and North Bank Road, where a pedicab manager would hand them their next clue.
Having basked in the satisfaction at being the first to arrive at the kiosk in the Forbidden City the night before, things were not so good for Peter & Sarah when they departed as Sarah's prosthetic leg's knee was leaking hydraulic fluid, a problem that Peter couldn't fix. Although it wasn't damaging to their prospects, it would make Sarah's day harder.
When the first four teams found the pedicab manager, they encountered their first Detour, a choice between two tasks with different pros and cons, where they had to choose between Labor or Leisure. Teams that chose Labor had to choose a pedicab and use it to travel one mile to the Run De Li Market, where they had to use traditional Chinese bricks and methods to pave a 45 square foot section of sidewalk in a specific pattern to receive their next clue. Teams that chose Leisure had to choose a pedicab and use it to travel two miles to Beihai Park, where they had to take part in a Chinese relaxation exercise called Taiji Bailong, which involved the two people balancing a ball on a paddle in unison. Once the team had successfully performed the routine, they would receive their next clue.
All four of the leading teams chose to do Labor. When they initially began laying bricks at the Run De Li Market, they didn't realise that they had to place larger grey bricks around the border of their paved sections before they laid the smaller red bricks. Tyler & James were the first team to figure this out, which meant that even though they had been the last of the leading teams to arrive at the market, they were the first to complete the task and receive their next clue, which directed them to make their way to the Pit Stop at Juyongguan, one of the Great Wall Of China's gateways, where the teams would have to use a rope to scale up and over the wall in order to access the Pit Stop. Tyler & James' excitement at finishing the Detour first proved to be short-lived when they couldn't find a taxi, allowing Peter & Sarah and Duke & Lauren to pass them.
When the second group of four teams found the pedicab manager, David & Mary and Dustin & Kandice chose to do Labor, while Kellie & Jamie and Tom & Terry chose to do Leisure, which proved to be a somewhat laborious task for them as they both had problems with balancing the balls on their paddles while they moved from side to side and on their legs. During several failed attempts by them, they were passed by David & Mary and Rob & Kimberly, who laid their bricks faster, but eventually, they both got their moves right and received their next clue. Vipul & Arti became lost in their sidecar on the way to the junction with the pedicab manager, and their concern at being the last to arrive at the market when they chose Labor increased further when Erwin & Godwin completed the task, received their next clue and left them alone.
At the Great Wall Of China, there was a hot three-way battle for the lead between Tyler and James, Duke & Lauren and Peter & Sarah. Tyler had the agility of a cat when he scaled the wall, but Duke struggled to gain a footing and Sarah, dealing with her damaged prosthetic leg, panicked when she couldn't pull herself higher than a few feet above the ground, but with some coaching and encouragement from Peter, she slowly and methodically started to ascend the wall.
When James completed his ascent to join his partner Tyler at the top of the wall, they soon stepped on to the mat as the first team to arrive, and were informed by Phil that they would receive US$20,000 for winning the first leg. Duke and Lauren were the second team, with a tearful Lauren saying that she never thought that she and her father Duke would do anything like this together.
Still on the wall, a determined Sarah told herself that she needed to stay strong and stay focused, and that she would find her power. When she finally reached the top of the wall, Peter cheered. Soon after, he joined her at the top and they were the third team to arrive at the Pit Stop.
Dustin & Kandice showed their athleticism when they easily scaled the wall and arrived fourth. Lyn & Karlyn had had a strong showing to this point, but as the physical demands of the climb took their toll, they began to slow. Karlyn had trouble just beginning the climb, not taking long before she became entangled in her ropes. Her struggles were momentarily compounded further when David & Mary and Tom & Terry arrived, but David and Tom had problems of their own on their ascents. The pressure on Karlyn mounted further when Erwin & Godwin, Rob & Kimberly and Kellie & Jamie arrived and Godwin, Kimberly and Kellie tackled the wall climb with the athleticism and enthusiasm needed to complete the task quickly.
After overcoming their problems and reaching the top, David and Karlyn cheered on their respective partners Mary and Lyn, who needed all the encouragement they could get as they toiled on their ropes. Meanwhile, Rob and Jamie quickly joined their respective partners at the top of the wall, allowing Rob & Kimberly to arrive in fifth, and Kellie & Jamie in sixth.
Tom & Terry and David & Mary soon finished in seventh and eighth, leaving Lyn and Mary as the only people still on the wall, and Vipul & Arti travelling by taxi towards it. David tried giving Mary some words of advice, but a frustrated Mary told him to shut up. By contrast, Lyn took Karlyn's advice to do it for her kids and inched her way to the top, allowing them to arrive in ninth. Mary didn't think she could finish the climb, and apologised to David for not being able to perform better. David responded by telling her that he loved her, and that she would have the proudest kids in the world if she did it. This motivation was of some help to Mary, who eventually climbed the wall, and received a pleasant surprise when she and David finished in tenth. She screamed at David, who had told her they were last, and with tears flowing, she hugged Phil and the greeter, to their surprise.
When Vipul and Arti arrived at the wall, they gave each other tremendous support as they scaled it, before being the last team to arrive at the mat, where they were informed by Phil that they had been eliminated from the race. They remarked that they love, support and complete each other, and having that confidence in each other is important in a relationship, and that the race showed them that having that confidence was definitely possible.
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