Episode 2 of The Amazing Race season 35 kicked off in Thailand, and the 12 teams making up the season 35 cast fought for their spots at the checkpoint. Although booking their own flights was back on the table, contestants didn't have to jump on any planes this episode. But don't let that fool you, this week's Roadblock was more challenging than any airport headache.
Each episode features a Roadblock, a task one person on each team must complete, and a Detour, a choice between two tasks that teammates complete together. This week's Roadblock had contestants picking Thailand's most famous flower, the sacred lotus, a symbol of enlightenment and faithfulness. Each person was tasked with entering a pond of murky water, catfish and thick mud up to their waist, and collecting 20 lotus bulbs — specifically not in bloom — and enough leaves to wrap the outside. Now you know it's never that easy.
The difficult part came in the details. There were four main points that each bouquet had to hit: the bulbs couldn't be in bloom, they had to be arranged in a 3:4:3 configuration, the leaves had to be properly wrapped outside the bulbs and the bamboo ties had to hold it together. Plus, they had to create two of these perfect bouquets.
The real frustration started to sink in as each contestant's creation was rejected, and they had no choice but to ditch their bouquets and start over. But that's not all. If the bouquets weren't accepted, they had to go back in the muddy water and pick 20 more lotus flowers! That alone would have had me close to tears (and begging for a shower).
This Roadblock took so much time that two teams had already checked in with The Amazing Race host, Phil Keoghan, while many of the other teams were still gathering and tying bouquets. Some team members did better than others. Rob McArthur, for example, got the next clue in five tries, but Jocelyn Chao had to present her bouquets 12 (!!!) times before she got the seal of approval. Now I don't know about you, but I would have probably been tired and ready for lunch around attempt number three.
But Jocelyn persevered and made it to the checkpoint — in first place for the second week in a row, might we add — for the next leg of the race.
New episodes of The Amazing Race season 35 air live on Wednesdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream the next day on Paramount Plus.
