Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Bin Ein Berliner
By M. Giant | Season 22 | Episode 9 | Aired on 04.21.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The five remaining teams all take a train to Dresden, Germany. There, they hop inside some product-placed vehicles that give them an easy, three-question history quiz about Berlin before taking them to the city's Brandenburg Gate. Max & Katie take an early lead and stay in first place throughout, as tasks include "base flying" off a 37-story hotel, a Detour option that involves carrying giant blinking signage letters across town and a Roadblock in which Katie crawls through a nightmarish labyrinth behind an underground bar to liberate their last clue. And that's how Max & Katie win their first leg. Joey & Meghan come in second, after doing a Detour involving model trains and Joey loving the maze so much he vows to drag Meghan back to go through it with him after the race.
Things don't go quite as smoothly for all the other teams, however. Caroline & Jennifer are wondering how much longer their alliance with Bates & Anthony can continue with only five teams left, especially when they get separated as the brothers are supposed to be leading them to the Brandenburg Gate. When the wind breaks Anthony's letter during the Detour, the country singers cut them loose and finish the leg on their own, eventually coming in third. Bates & Anthony switch to the train Detour, feeling doomed. But lucky for them, Mona & Beth get pretty thoroughly lost in Berlin trying to go from the letter Detour to the labyrinth, and thus Anthony and Beth end up in the maze together for one of the shortest alliances in the show's history. From there, both teams know it's going to be a tight race to the Pit Stop for survival, as the brothers follow the derby moms in their cars, but pass them on the final sprint to the mat. Mona & Beth lose the leg by seconds, but all it's going to cost them is a Speed Bump in the next leg, because this? Was another non-elimination leg. Which I'm actually fine with when it's not Max & Katie in last place.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Trains, mountains and a big ol' Ricola-commercial horn welcome us back to Switzerland, which Phil's VO tells us is known as "Europe's playground." Come now, Phil, how many playgrounds can Europe have? "It's iconic mountain, the Eiger, towers over the ski resort town of Grindelwald," Phil adds. "And on these gentle slopes, a popular snowboard and ski school, which is now the start of the ninth leg in a race around the world." Bates & Anthony won the previous leg, which comes with the once-per-season trip from Travelocity that means that before they start the leg, they get to check out their prize online. Except now they use a smartphone instead of a laptop, because times have changed and technology has advanced, even if racers aren't normally allowed to use it. I just wonder how long it's going to be before someone tries to sneak some Google Glass onto the race.
On the mat at 2:50 AM, Bates reads from their first clue that they're going to Dresden, Germany. Phil says that when they arrive -- apparently by train -- they'll go to a parking lot outside the Ministry of Finance. There they'll pick out one of a fleet of product-placed vehicles that have yellow clue envelopes tucked under the windshield wipers like parking tickets. As the hockey brothers take off from the mat, they talk about how they're hoping to hold onto their lead and also, in case you missed it, their alliance with country singers Caroline and Jennifer. They've even dubbed themselves the "fab four." Isn't that phrase copyrighted yet? And if not, couldn't someone copyright it soon so I don't have to hear it every time there's four of someone?
Derby moms Beth and Mona leave the mat in second place at 2:57 AM. Being only minutes behind the hockey brothers, they catch up to them at a hotel where the brothers are waiting for a cab to show up to take them to the train station. The odd thing about this is that the person telling them this? Is a cab driver, sitting in her taxi outside the hotel. She must be committed to driving hotel guests only, even at three in the morning. Speaking of slightly mystifying situations, the derby moms interview about their puzzlement over Caroline & Jennifer's wanting to keep Bates & Anthony in the game, describing them as their strongest opponent. Actually, those two teams have been so tight for so long I'd almost forgotten they were racing against each other and not just the other teams.
Max & Katie are off in third place at 3:01 AM. Max interviews that they expected to win a lot of legs in this race and even though the opposite has happened, they're still confident they can come back and win. Keep telling yourself that. They arrive at the hotel just as the two lead teams are learning that it's faster to just walk to the train station than to wait for a taxi at this hour, so that's what they all decide to do. Meghan's going to take that news pretty hard.