Explainer
Inside Michelle and Matt’s double Driver’s Seat win on The Amazing Race 39
Two chances to assign the work helped Michelle and Matt win in Albania. The eliminated sisters' own account shows why navigation still mattered.
Michelle and Matt Patterson turned two Driver’s Seat advantages into their second consecutive leg win on The Amazing Race 39. But Albania also exposed the limit of that power: Dafina and Saran Dunmore survived the assigned work, then lost their place through navigation. The episode separates controlling a task from controlling the final result.
Spoilers follow for Season 39, Episode 5, “That’s Honestly on Them,” which aired October 21.
CBS’s official episode announcement confirmed the show’s first visit to Albania and the return of the Driver’s Seat twice. The strategic question is how much a team can do with that repeated opportunity, especially when everyone still has to find the next destination.
What Michelle and Matt could actually control
The first arrivals could allocate work at each Roadblock. Michelle and Matt got there first twice, assigning themselves the minimum both times, according to TV Insider’s episode report.
| Task | Available assignments | Michelle and Matt |
|---|---|---|
| Grape task | 50, 75 or 100 pounds | 50 pounds |
| Byrek pastries | 8, 12 or 16 pastries | 8 pastries |
Their quantity was half the maximum at each stop. That does not guarantee half the finishing time: skill and mistakes still matter. The advantage reduced the work they had to complete.
Ali Krieger and Joanna Lohman received the maximum grape assignment and used their Express Pass after arriving behind the others. TV Insider reports that Michelle and Matt wanted to draw that pass out. Their decision targeted a rival’s remaining options as well as the immediate task.
Why the second opportunity mattered
A single favorable assignment can be lost on the road to the next clue. A second chance to allocate work lets a team protect its position again. Our reading of the episode is that the repeated opportunity made the early lead especially valuable: reaching the next task first carried a reward beyond simply starting sooner.
The result supported that approach. Parade’s recap records Michelle and Matt’s consecutive victory, with Daisha and Dalton second and Conner and Garrett third. It also identifies navigation as a major problem across the leg. Finishing first still required the Pattersons to move through Albania successfully after making their allocations.
The eliminated sisters did not blame their assignments
Dafina and Saran offered a useful counterpoint in their October 22 interview with Parade. They were comfortable with receiving 75 pounds and 12 pastries rather than the largest workloads. Saran described the number of pastries as something to complete, rather than a decision that had upset her.
The sisters instead traced the decisive trouble to their journey from the final task. Saran said she disagreed with Dafina’s directions; their attempt to get oriented again became tangled in traffic and roundabouts. That is their explanation of the exit, not evidence that the earlier tasks had no effect on their day.
The distinction matters when judging the advantage. A workload can increase the chance of delay without identifying the team that will finish last. The sisters’ account also complicates any assumption that every assignment creates an enemy. Receiving a middle amount can feel manageable to the team completing it, even when someone else has chosen the minimum.
What the next Albania leg will test
The next episode gives that competitive approach a different setting. In its October 22 announcement, CBS says teams will pair up at an Intersection while the race continues in Albania. “A Fine Line Between Confidence and Stupidity” is scheduled for October 28.
That makes cooperation the next question to watch. Allocating work lets a team make its own choice about everyone else’s task. Pairing teams creates a different relationship between their progress. It is too early to say which partnerships will form or whether anyone will retaliate for the Driver’s Seat decisions.
For now, the Pattersons have a successful leg to show for their choices. Whether their approach travels well into a task involving another team remains an open question. The next episode airs Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS, with live streaming on Paramount+ Premium and next-day availability on Paramount+.