The Amazing Race 39: Why Katie and Charlotte Couldn’t Use Their Express Pass

The Amazing Race Season 39 put an Express Pass in every team’s hands at the starting line, making its opening legs a test of when to spend that advantage. For sisters Katie and Charlotte Schultz, the second leg in Madrid ended with a frustrating question: why was their pass unable to help when they needed it? Episode 2, Are Tomatoes Good for Skin Care?, aired on CBS on October 1.

Why couldn’t Katie and Charlotte use their Express Pass?

Their intended escape route was already unavailable. In their TV Insider exit interview, the sisters explained that they chose the history Detour hoping to skip it, but Jody Rebhun and Jenn Naso had already used their pass at that challenge. Only one pass could be played at each task.

The limit applied to a task, rather than to the whole leg: teams could use passes at different challenges during the same stage. An unused pass did not guarantee access to the particular shortcut a team might need. Arriving later could close an option without changing the pass’s overall expiry date.

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Puerta del Sol and Puerta del Sur are different stations

In a separate interview with Us Weekly, Charlotte described feeling panicked after falling behind at the tomato Roadblock. She said other teams checked their navigation and corrected themselves, while the sisters stayed on the Metro without doing that. Katie recalled being so overwhelmed that she did not remember their conversation about the stop names. Their account explains how recognizing a possible discrepancy failed to become a check of the clue.

The names were not interchangeable. RHAP’s exit-interview summary identifies the confusion as Puerta del Sol versus Puerta del Sur. Official transport information places Sol beside central Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, with Metro connections to lines 1, 2 and 3. Puerta del Sur is in Alcorcon, where lines 10 and 12 meet. They are separate destinations in the network, rather than two versions of the same stop.

That geography clarifies the mistake without requiring a reconstruction of every train they took. A familiar-looking name can seem reassuring when a team wants to keep moving, yet comparing the complete station name with the clue matters more than recognizing its first words.

Saving the pass came with a competing risk

Before the season began, Phil Keoghan described the central choice in his TVLine interview: teams could spend the advantage early to get through the opening legs, or hold it for later trouble. Giving everyone the same tool made timing part of the competition immediately. The choice was not simply whether a difficult challenge deserved a shortcut; racers also had to weigh a present opportunity against an uncertain future need.

Charlotte told TV Insider they had planned to save their pass until Leg 6 in case they fell to last place. She acknowledged overlooking other teams’ earlier use.

Their final chance was narrower than it looked

Seeing Dafina and Saran Dunmore still at the history challenge briefly encouraged the sisters, Charlotte told Us Weekly. That hope faded when the other pair completed their check and left. Katie later estimated to TV Insider that they reached the mat more than 20 minutes behind. Her recollection gives useful perspective on the finish, but it is not an independently measured gap.

The Metro mistake cost them ground, and the occupied task pass removed the shortcut they had hoped to use to recover. Their elimination illustrates how navigation and strategy can compound one another: an advantage has to remain usable after a setback, as well as remain unspent.