'The Amazing Race 10' "marks" Dave and Mary Conley... again

For the second time in the Race's last three legs, The Amazing Race 10 racers David and Mary Conley finished last during a The Amazing Race leg. However, thanks to the fact the leg was another of the Race's predetermined non-elimination legs, the couple -- now once again "marked for elimination" and facing a 30 minute time penalty if they don't finish the next leg in first place -- will once survive to race another day.


Last night's broadcast of The Amazing Race 10's seventh episode began with the seven remaining teams departing the Al-Sadiq Water Towers, a Kuwaiti landmark that served as the Race's sixth Pit Stop. As they left the Pit Stop, the teams received a clue instructing them to fly to Mauritius, a tiny island nation located off the coast of southeastern Africa.

Although their decision to go for the previous leg's Fast Forward meant that David and Mary were able to leave the Pit Stop more than three hours ahead of the second place team (beauty queens Dustin Konzelman and Kandice Pelletier) and more than four hours ahead of the last place team (former drug addicts and models Tyler Denk and James Branaman), the couple's lead was short lived. Not only did the infrequent nature of international flights mean that all six teams were quickly bunched back together at the airport, but although several teams where initially skeptical to believe it, rather than boarding a Kuwait-departing flight that would take them to Mauritius via a connecting flight located somewhere on the African mainland, the quickest way to Mauritius involved flying nearly 3,000 miles northwest to London and then flying back 6,000 miles southeast from London to Mauritius. All told, although Mauritius was only about 3,500 miles south of Kuwait City, it would take the teams -- all of whom eventually ended up booking tickets on the same two flights -- nearly 24 hours of air travel to make the journey to Mauritius.

Once the teams arrived in Mauritius the following day, they each found a model boat waiting in their rental cars. After examining the model, the teams had to figure out that it was a model of Isla Mauritia, an old-Spanish-schooner-turned-local-charter-yacht. While most of the teams were quickly able to find airport bystanders who explained that the ship was anchored in the island's Grand Baie bay, Tyler and Denk -- the first team to leave the airport -- lost time and fell into last place while instead searching for a hotel that might be able to explain the significance of the boat model.

After driving to Grand Baie and spotting the schooner, the teams had to don life vests and complete a tiring swim out to the schooner. Once they reached the schooner they were given their next (waterproofed) clue and told to swim back to shore. After returning back to shore, the teams opened their clue and -- in addition to receiving Roadblock instructions that The Amazing Race's producers appeared to edit out for unexplained reasons -- received instructions telling them to drive 49 miles to the town of Case Noyale and locate its Post Office.


As they made the drive to Case Noyale, first place Dustin and Kandice -- who earlier in the trip had intentionally decided to take an alternative route in order to shake the second place team of Rob Diaz and Kimberly Chabollao, the dating couple that were blindly following them, -- got into a minor car accident in which Dustin rear-ended a bus. Meanwhile, Rob and Kimberly suffered their own automotive mishap -- a dead transmission that (following another tantrum from Rob) forced the couple to lose time while waiting for a replacement vehicle to arrive.

Due to Rob and Kimberly's breakdown, the three "Six Pack" alliances teams comprised of brothers Erwin and Godwin Cho, single moms Lyn Turk and Karlyn Harris, and David and Mary were able to arrive at the post office in second, third, and fourth places while Tyler and James managed to move up into fifth place. After opening a clue that the post office was holding for them, the teams learned that it was time for their Detour options, "Salt" or "Sea."

"Salt" required the teams to drive two miles to a salt pen. Once there, they would have to search through three enormous piles of salt and find a salt shaker that contained their next clue. "Sea" required the teams to walk to a nearby dock and choose a boat captain that would, using a small boat with only a tiny outboard motor, transport them two thirds of a mile to a small island. Once there, the teams had to use a "treasure map" to find the boat's mast and sail, carry them back to the boat, and attach them to the boat.

Somewhat surprisingly, all of the teams except Dustin and Kandice initially selected the more "needle in a haystack"-like "Salt" task. However, after seeing the size of the salt piles and fruitlessly discovering that the piles also contained additional decoy shakers, all of the teams (led by Rob and Kimberly, the last team to arrive at the "Salt" Detour option, and Tyler and James, who left shortly thereafter) eventually decided to give up and switch to the "Sea" challenge.

As the last team to decide to switch to the "Sea" task, David and Mary immediately fell into last place. Meanwhile, having already completed the "Sea" task themselves, Dustin and Kandice took special delight in watching the rest of the teams motor out to the island as the beauty queens were already sailing back to shore on their newly completed sailboat. After finding their mast and sail and returning to shore, the teams were instructed to drive 12 miles to Chateau Bel Ombre, a colonial mansion that would serve as the Race's seventh Pit Stop.


As the first team to reach the Pit Stop, Dustin and Kandice won a pair of motor scooters, prompting Dustin -- in an apparent channeling of The Amazing Race 5 and reported The Amazing Race: All-Stars competitor Mirna Hindoyan -- to ask married (and clearly flustered) Race host Phil Keoghan if she could take him out on her new two passenger bike. Although they were the second team to complete the Detour option, Rob and Kimberly got lost on the way to the mansion, allowing Tyler and James to sneak past them into second place.

Incredibly, although arriving last at the Pit Stop last could very well have meant that they would be the team going home, the three "Six Pack" teams (who had all also arrived back on shore from the "Sea" Detour task at virtually the exact same time) continued working together throughout most of their ride to the mansion. The teams finally broke apart after reaching the mansion's resort area, resulting in Erwin and Godwin and Lyn and Karlyn finishing in fourth and fifth place and David and Mary (who took a late wrong turn) being the last team to reach the check-in mat.

After checking in, Phil informed a relieved David and Mary that, for the second time in three Race legs, they'd been (similar to last season's eventual The Amazing Race 9 winners BJ Averell and Tyler Macniven) lucky enough to have their last place finish occur during a non-elimination leg. "David and Mary, you're the last team to arrive... [but] I'm pleased to tell you however that this is a non-elimination leg and you are still in the Race," Phil told the couple. "Once again, you are marked for elimination. In the next leg of the Race, you need to arrive at the Pit Stop first because of you don't you will incur a 30 minute penalty."

Can David and Mary "pull a B.J. and Tyler" and become the second two-time last place team to remain in The Amazing Race? Can the "Six Pack" alliance possibly continue to keep working together? And what's an "Intersection?" We'll find out on next week's episode of The Amazing Race 10.