Amazing Race update – Cold strategy in Siberia

So this past week I was in my dentist office and there was an article in Entertainment Weekly about The Amazing Race. For one of the "surprises" this season, host Phil Keoghan revealed that, after one leg, two teams "scream at each other for 45 minutes." In tonight's intro, there's a foreshadowing of a "Blind U-Turn" where one team can force another to do a task but – unlike Races in the past – the punishing team doesn't have to identify itself. Conflict dead ahead.

The eight remaining teams need to fly from Romania to Siberia, Russia. This is a super-long flight connecting through Moscow and heading straight east. Everybody's bunched up at a hydroelectric dam which opens the following morning. Once there, teams just go to the next clue at a church. There it's the Detour: Stack or Construct. Teams may either stack a pile of firewood (quite high) or build a set of wood shutters and then install them onto some Siberian homes. The "construct" seems the better choice (to me) but teams start stacking firewood and we learn that "haste makes waste" as stacks start collapsing. Team Mighty Mites immediately gives up on their stack and head to the other Detour; Team Sistahs finish first and head to the next stop.

Kisha & Jen head to the Blind U-Turn but choose not to U-turn any other team. They then go to the next stop which is an amusement park and the Roadblock. One team member must travel down a bobsled and complete a course in less than four minutes while remembering seven letters on the course. At the bottom, the bobsledding Racer must rearrange the letters to spell the name of a famous Russian playwright: CHEKHOV. Lots of teams have trouble with this.

At the blind U-Turn, Margie and Luke marked the team of Amanda & Kris. They are not amused and now they have to go back and stack the wood they abandoned at the Detour. Team America was already running in last place so this extra task puts them irredeemably behind and they are eliminated at the Pit Stop. No yelling this week.

Final standings:

#1 – Team Drinkcart – Christie & Jodi
#2 – Team Sistahs – Kisha & Jen
#3 – Team Esquire – Tammy & Victor
#4 – Team Say What? – Margie & Luke
#5 – Team Ginger – Jaime & Cara
#6 – Team White Guys – Mel & Mike
#7 – Team Mighty Mites – Mark & Michael
#8 – Team America – Amanda & Kris - PHILIMINATED

Next week – Lots of skin.