Scott and Lori Thompson hit an unexpected delay on The Amazing Race after a bird crashed into their taxi.
“We hit [a] bird and we pulled over for six minutes, so we talked to production after. We’re like, ‘How long was that detour of us pulled over because of the bird?’ It hit the side mirror,” Lori, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, April 3, following their elimination. “So the taxi driver had to go out and get it.”
The incident, which was not shown in the episode, occurred after the couple left the live Double U Turn vote at the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Bali. While a six-minute delay doesn’t seem like much, it had a significant impact on Scott, 47, and Lori’s race. The parents of eight sons were U Turned alongside Jonathan and Ana Towns. Both pairs were tasked to complete both Coconuts or Coral Detours. The two teams were at the bottom of the pack and directly competing against each other to stay in the race.
Lori added that the small fraction of time in such a close race “hurt a little bit more,” but she knew that the situation was out of her hands.
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“I could be mad and blame that taxi driver that [lost] the race,” she reflected. “We gotta take accountability that like everyone has that opportunity of taking a wrong turn or wrong taxi or whatever. That’s just part of the race and we gotta just take that in stride.”
Lori also explained that she and Scott almost got the first cab out of the sanctuary but arrived at the same time as Han and Holden Nguyen. Lori explained after getting voted by the siblings and three other teams they didn’t want to stir up any more potential conflict.
“We kind of got there at the same time and because of the drama that just happened, I don’t like that. And so I’m like, just have it. Like I didn’t even wanna have a confrontation,” she said. “So we got into the second taxi. Well that first taxi made it there first and our second taxi made it there last.”
Despite being in second place, the six minutes ended up putting them in last place by the time they got to the next location.
“By the time we get to The Detour we’re in last place,” Scott told Us. “And that’s ’cause we got sidelined.”
While Scott and Lori faced their fair share of challenges in the leg, they did make up time and ended up being close with Ana and Jonathan. However, Scott and Lori struggled at the Coral challenge after completing the strenuous Coconut task. While some viewers theorized Scott and Lori burnt themselves out retrieving coconuts, Lori explained their issue was strictly with the coral itself.
“People are saying, ‘Well, maybe you did it wrong and, like, you couldn’t focus on the coral.’ The problem with the coral is when coral dries, it changes color. And so we had one piece of coral that changed colors and we just didn’t re-wet it,” she told Us. “So we just kept getting a missed check just because of that one piece. Finally I’m like, maybe we need to get this wet.”
After dampening the coral, the true color returned and Scott and Lori were able to catch up to Ana and Jonathan at the surfing-themed Roadblock. While Jonathan worked on accomplishing his task, he was seemingly exhausted as he took multiple rests while in the ocean, which gave Scott some hope.
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“I got out there, about two-thirds of the way out, and I could see him still out there struggling. And I was like, ‘We’re still in the mix here. Like, I can’t count myself out of this yet. Lori’s relying on me. I gotta make the best effort I can,’” Scott recalled. “There [were] so many surfboards out there to compare against. It was like a needle in the haystack with the ocean moving everyone around at the same time. It was exhausting. We had already put a lot of effort into the day already. It was taking a toll on both Jonathan and I both. You could see it.”
Jonathan and Ana ended up completing the challenge moments before Scott and Lori, and it came down to a footrace. Jonathan and Ana arrived at the mat minutes before which ultimately sent Scott and Lori home.
“I feel like we ran the race we wanted to run. We came in knowing what our strengths were, knowing where our weaknesses were,” Scott reflected. “Being able to be decisive in the moments where we knew we could get a leg up and maybe get a buffer where we knew we would lose a foot race against other people on the actual physicality of things.”
The Amazing Race airs on CBS on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET and is available to stream on Paramount+ the next day.
