- The eight remaining teams travel from Brasov, Romania to Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Another leading team quickly learns how it feels to be last, while a new twist leaves another team scrambling for their survival.
- Last week: Brad and Victoria were out and Mel and Mike claimed their first victory while Victor led Tammy up a hill and almost out of the race.
Romania at Villa Panoramica, the third pit stop. Mel and Mike leave first at 10:39 p.m. -- To Siberia. They're going to a hydroelectric dam. Mike, who is, let's remember, a writer, describes his dad as "part Woody Allen, part Billy Graham with a splash of Judy Garland."
Amanda and Kris are next, followed by Kisha and Jen then Margie and Luke, Michael and Mark and the blondes (who decide to stop at an Internet cafe to do research). Mark and Michael use the cabbie's phone to call ahead to the airport - but instead get the cheerleaders' cabbie who hands the phone to them (they don't clear up the misconception).
The flight attendants surf on-line, going with a flight that arrives at 5:40 a.m. after a three hour connection. Mel & Mike, the cheerleaders and Kris & Amanda all arrive at the airline. They all end up on four different flights to Moscow, leaving at 8:55 and arriving at 5:40 a.m.
Five teams end up stuck at the airport while Mark & Mike, Kisha & Jen and Christie & Jodi arrive at the dam before it's even open. They wait and then run for it. Now they have to go to the Church of Saint Innokenty for their next clue.
The stuntmen get there first. Detour time. They have to choose between stack or construct. In stack they have to stack a load of firewood. In construct they have to build a set of wood shutters and install them at a local house.
The first three teams all go with stack.
Russian peasants serenade them with accordions and cups of, eh, something. They get to stacking. "It's like Jenga," someone notes.
Mark and Mike get lost on the way to the shutters. The stackers take note of the pattern in the stack of wood.
The second flight arrives with the other five teams. Clear plastic cups are passed around among the peasants who are cracking up at the American wood stackers.
Mark and Mike doubt their stack's structural integrity. And for good reason - they knock down the existing stack. They give up and decide to do "construct" instead.
Amanda & Kris make it away from the dam first among the second group.
Mark & Mike go looking for the house that needs repairs, leaving their shutter pieces along the road.
Kisha & Jen finish stacking first. They're directed to the new "blind" U-Turn, in which the other teams don't know who slowed them down.
Kisha & Jen are there first, but decide not to use the U-Turn. They're directed to Bogrovy Log amusement park for the road block. Christie & Jodi also pass up the U-Turn. The other five teams arrive and all go for stack, with Mel & Mike in the lead.
For the roadblock they have to complete a bobsled course in under 4 minutes, remembering the letters they see which, when unscrambled, spell "Chekov." Kisha finishes but only remembers six letters. She goes again.
Mel & Mike are ahead in the wood stacking while Amanda directs Kris. Meanwhile, Mike and Mark wander around looking for the house that needs the shutters.
Christie hops on the bobsled and finishes at exactly 4 minutes. But she has no idea who the letters spell.
Then everyone starts having bad wood moments. Mel & Mike's wood falls over, then a small part of the cheerleaders', then half of Kris & Amanda's.
Mel & Mike go to construct. Mark & Mike still haven't found the house, but decide to build anyway.
Kisha finishes her bobsled but is also stumped by spelling.
Margie and Luke finish stacking while Kris and Amanda give up. Margie and Luke pick Amanda & Kris for the U-Turn, giving the cheerleaders more time to finish.
Tammy and Victor exult in their wood staying up. "That's Asian engineering," Victor says.
Kris finally spells Chekov. They head to a theater, followed by Christie & Jodi.
Mark & Mike have the shutters put together when Mel & Mike arrive.
Victor hops on the bobsled, as does Luke.
At the theater, Kisha & Jen and the blondes race to find the main entrance. Christie & Jodi are first. They each win a motorcycle. Kisha & Jen arrive moments later.
Victor "instantly" knew the name was Chekov, "Because who doesn't know who Chekov is?"
Luke finishes in 3:58 and goes to spell, but he doesn't know who Chekov is. Margie can see her son start to get frustrated.
Mel & Mike, Mike & Mark and Amanda & Kris carry their shutters on ladders to the house. "It was like a caravan of idiots," Mike White says.
Luke keeps trying to spell, but gets nowhere. The cheerleaders finish stacking wood.
The shutter-builders stand like idiots in the middle of the street as the camera pans a few hundred yards away to the "repairs needed" sign that they're looking for.
Meanwhile, Luke comes up with "Chekov."
Kris & Amanda, who got U-Turned, are already in last place. "What conniving people, we have been nothing but so nice to everyone," Amanda pouts.
Jamie, despite claiming she knows no Russian playwrights, nails "Chekov" on her first try.
Margie & Luke finish in fourth, followed by Jamie & Kara. Amanda & Kris finish their wood stacking, telling each other that they're both awesome.
They think Jen & Kisha did it.Or the blondes, who are "not trustworthy" either.
Mel & Mike finish in 6th.
Kris gets tripped up on spelling but eventually gets it, right behind the stuntmen -- who don't have enough money to pay the cabbie. They offer him a watch but the cabbie already has a Rolex.
They race to make 7th. Amanda & Kris are shortly behind, but are last. "The best part of the race for me was traveling with Kris," Amanda says. "We've bonded more than ever." "I'm so deeply in love with her, it's ridiculous," Kris says.
Next week: Luke gets a reputation for using the U-Turn and teams have to race in their underwear in the Siberian winter.
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