'The Amazing Race 35's Morgan and Lena Franklin Talk Their Footrace Finish
Morgan Franklin (L) and Lena Franklin (R)
Pack your bags, because The Amazing Race is back! Every week, Parade's Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the team most recently eliminated from the race.
For Morgan and Lena Franklin, their time on The Amazing Race was all about navigation. The duo came onto the show for aid in navigating their relationship, as they were looking to learn about each other as friends rather than sisters. They got off to a hot start in the Thai heat, as they earned the first Express Pass of the season. Two legs later, they escaped the traffic of the Mekong Delta by using it and thinking it got them out to another early lead, only to find out that they had finished in the middle. That, in a nutshell, was the Morgan and Lena experience. While they had flashes of dominance, it would almost immediately be followed by falling behind. This trend got to the point where the sisters not once, but twice, survived elimination by the skin of their teeth.
As the race went from Asia to Europe, the navigating issues for the sisters kicked up in multiple ways. The introduction of self-driving proved to be their kryptonite, as they struggled massively getting from place to place. And that stress brought their usual bickering to a whole new level, only aggravating the situation. Racing through Slovenia, Morgan and Lena had a comfortable lead over a few other teams going into the final stretch in the city. But, despite Steve Cargile and Anna Leigh Wilson having an absolute disaster of a day, somehow, Morgan and Lena's ended worse. Their navigation issues proved to be the end of them, as they got lost enough for Steve and Anna Leigh to not only catch up to them, but pass them. For once, it was Morgan and Lena who were edged out of elimination, sending them home.
Now out of the race, and with Malaina tending to a personal matter, Morgan and Lena with Parade.com about how close they were to surviving elimination, what contributed to their navigation issues, and how their relationship contended with such an up-and-down experience.
Related: Everything to Know About The Amazing Race 35
I'll be honest. Up until about 10:50 last night, I thought I wouldn't be talking with you today. Phil says at the mat that it was a footrace to avoid elimination. How far behind were you of Steve and Anna Leigh, and did you at any point think you could pass them in that last stretch to the Pit Stop?
Morgan Franklin: We saw Rob and Corey. We saw Chelsea and Robbin. We saw Steve and Anna Leigh. Our demise was getting wrong directions when we came out of the building. And it was a true foot race; it was about a minute. But they beat us to the mat. So it was sad. We're very close with Steve and Anna Leigh, [but] it hurt. I think it hurt both of us to be in that position. But we just kept getting pointed the wrong direction. And we were hustling, we were sprinting. And we weren't fast enough in getting to the right place in the right way.
Lena Franklin: And we were sprinting for like seven minutes. But by the time we were about two minutes from the mat, I had like turned to Morgan and we looked at each other. And I was like, "We could throw our backpacks down and keep running." But I was like, "We have four more episodes. What are we going to do if we don't have our backpacks?"
Morgan: I'm not running with you without your deodorant. So, we're not dropping the bags.
[Laughs.] Well let's go from the end of your race to the beginning. You talk about wanting to go on the show to be able to see each other as partners and peers rather than sisters. Was it always your intention to go on the race together?
Lena: I had other ideas. And then, ultimately, Morgan and I have the most chemistry. And I think the show is centered around your relationship with people and growth with people. And I think that's why people watch the race; they want to see people try and work through their differences, problems, and issues. So when we thought about that, I think we mentioned in this episode, we had a cousin who had a double aneurysm that was really devastating for both of us. Specifically for me, because she was my roommate. She was my very, very best friend. And she was also a mediator between me and Morgan.
The race is something that I think she has really enjoyed seeing because she's been there for every single winter break when we're just fighting with each other. And the race was this opportunity where it's cool whoever you get to race with. But to get to race with your sister, to have a reason to look at each other and be like, "Oh my God, you're so wonderful. You just did this for me." The most we get is she makes a turkey at Thanksgiving. And then we slice it, and I'm like, "This is a good turkey." It was incredible to get to race with Morgan. And it wasn't my first thought. But it became the only thought that mattered once I realized how the show was cast and what it would take to get on it.
Morgan: At the end of the day, Lena and I love each other. We talk every day. We always have talked every day. We've lived on opposite sides of the country for the past 15 years. But Lena's whole point of view is like, "You don't treat me like a friend.You don't treat me like your girlfriends." And I think we hadn't had these shared experiences that are outside of our normal family ecosystems or even our jobs crossing over. So, for us, it was this moment to really be working towards something together and to see each other in a new light. So it's like, "You're being annoying, but you're actually amazing." Not just because your job is great, or you're good sis or whatever, but because, as a human, you're dope and you kick ass. It was just awesome for us.
Lena: I think one of our like pitches when we were in casting is, "We probably should have gone to therapy. But, before we try therapy, why don't you let us try The Amazing Race?"
Jocelyn and Victor told me the same thing about couples! So it could easily apply to siblings here. Well let's go from navigating your relationship to literal navigation. Because it seems like what really did you in this leg was your difficulties self-driving. And we've really seen this be an issue the past two legs, to the point that Lena had trouble distinguishing left from right. What was happening there?
Lena: We did a lot of navving right. Morgan was pretty damn accurate at these long stretches. When we went from Frankfurt to Cologne, we're like, "Okay, all we have to do now that we're in the city is find this parking garage." But we struggled in city center. City centers were hard for us. And I think one of the things that is very hard to see on the show is that a lot of our competitors had lived in Europe, and had also had time to navigate European city centers as regular people, not as tourists. I think if we had different seasons, different people in our season, we would have had different types of cushions.
Getting from point A to point B was not a cushiony thing that was happening between teams. Teams were very accurately going from this place to this place very fast. So it was hard for us as a team. It was very hard for us because we're city people. We use GPS. We're on Waze; we're on Google Maps. We're not making these decisions in real time for the last 30-something years of our life. So navving was hard for us. And it was also hard for us to come up with strategies when we did end up in these predicaments where we couldn't find things.
Morgan: And just to put in perspective, in a normal world, I don't let Lena drive me around anywhere. What people don't understand is Lena is--not even arguably--by far the worst driver in our family. And I had to kind of eat it and say, "Okay, I will do my best to navigate so that you can drive." But this was very scary for me.
Lena: You had to sit in the car while I was driving stick shift! It wasn't just me driving. It was me driving a car that I had to learn how to drive for the show.
Morgan: I don't really let Lena drive me in the real world. It was very stressful. So what they don't show is my biggest ask was for Lena to drive safely. That was all that I cared about. I could care less about how long it took us to get somewhere. I needed us to drive safely. And so, for me, we were pretty damn successful.
Lena: We made it there in one piece.
Morgan: But, to Lena's point, the city centers were very, very tough for us. And especially with stick, we are not proficient. What was wild was almost everyone else grew up driving stick shift. We did not. So they weren't even like, "Oh, we learned for the show. I've done it a couple of times." A lot of them drove stick regularly. So we were at a major disadvantage. But our stick wasn't the biggest problem. It was navving to two parking garages that killed us.
Let's talk about the Express Pass. You decide to use it to bypass the market task in Vietnam, confident this will put you in the lead. And you're stunned to find out that your performance in the vinyl Detour had to falling all the way to sixth. Talk me through your decision, and how you looked back on using it even in the moment.
Lena: I think that the only time that I really wished we had had the Express Pass in our pocket was the tiles, obviously. But the likelihood that the Express Pass even made it to the tiles is rather minimal, because there are a lot of activities [before] that activity. We had no idea that that was going to be a "Megaleg" or a non-elimination leg because production was very, very clear with us that there would be no non-elimination legs. And we know from priors, there are ways to rename a non-elimination leg. But we don't have any quarrels with how we use the Express Pass.
There's a saying on the race that you live and die by your taxi driver. And our taxi driver was a boat driver that day. And he was honestly the most incompetent driver we had during the entire time. The boat was not moving. We had issues even after we used the Express Pass, because the guy was just calling his friends trying to get them all together so that they could leave. I mean, this was how dire our situation was. And you couldn't see it timewise, but we were estimating that it would take us about an hour and 45 minutes to complete that task. It doesn't look like it, but we made the decision within five minutes of starting the task. You still had to go to the task no matter what.
It would have taken us longer to finish the fruit than it would have taken us to do the vinyl laying. We knew at least with the Detour, we would have a choice of the activity so we could switch. But we felt like the fruit was going to put us at a point where we had no idea where we were in relation to the other teams. And we were not just going to be last; we were going to be dead last when extra time to spare. So it didn't look like it on the episode. But we felt confident that we made the right decision. And only when you're the last two teams at the tiles, you're like, "I really wish I had that Express Pass."
Morgan: Mike, to put that into perspective, we never delivered a fruit. That's how bad it was.
Well hopefully you grabbed some golden melons for the road at least! I mean, I feel like that leg perfectly encompasses your race. There would be times where you would surge out in front, but then these other times where you would barely just survive elimination. In fact, you were nearly eliminated in both Vietnam and India before this week. What was it like having to balance on that razor's edge, while also still trying to figure out your relationship?
Morgan: We race very hard. Whether you can tell or not as a viewer, we were fast. There were two challenges where we struggled: The vinyl an the tiles. And then we did every other task at breakneck speed. If you were to time how quickly we did things, we were in the top couple, if not the top, at every single challenge. And that's why our cast knew how strong we were. And I think, for us, it was just upsetting. Because there are moments almost in every episode, where we're first. And we somehow lose our lead in things that are not even challenges, like the parking garage. So for us, it was upsetting because there were there would be so many moments where we would prove how strong we were. And then we would make one mistake that would screw us. And so it was a constant up and down. We were the roller coaster team, by far. The chaos sisters. But we raced very well!
Lena: I just want to say this. Everyone's always complaining about our decisions. But boy, did we give some good TV on this show! One of my favorite episodes, something that like I never wanted to experience--but that just kind of became the theme of us--is where they're in Africa, and both teams park their car, and then they're physically running to Phil. I'm like, "Oh, man, when I race, I really hope this doesn't happen to me. That seems really traumatizing." It became a joke that if you were going to be last to the mat, it was not going to be a casual experience. You were going to be fighting for your life. You're gonna be fighting me and Morgan to stay in the race. And Anna Leigh and Steve knew that when they were running. And that's why Anna Leigh was like, "It's over. There's no way we're outrunning Morgan and Lena right now."
Morgan: That's when it became not emotional. We know what to do to get there. So there weren't tears until we were on that mat. And it was just like, "Damn, our time is done. How unfortunate that we don't get to go to you know, compete another day." But it became unemotional after the tiles. It's like, "Alright, we know how to compete and we compete hard. So what do we need to do to not go home?"
Interestingly, Lena, in the moment you're mentioning from season 7, that happened because one team rolled their car in the middle of the African savannah. So, again, driving safe is key!
Lena: I mean, there was a point in which we pulled out from the castle after Morgan finished the coin thing. And I go to reverse. And the car just stops, because another car flies past the back of us. And I was like, "Oh, good thing for safety measures." And everyone in the car was just like... [Side-eyes the camera.] Yeah, that's pretty much my driving summed up.