Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 44 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Fast Forward, Fall Back
By M. Giant | Season 23 | Episode 6 | Aired on 11.03.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The racers take a train to Vienna, Austria, and though they don't all leave Gdansk at the same time, a long layover in Warsaw allows the trailing Afghanimals and blondes to catch up so that everyone arrives in Vienna at the same time. Their first stop is the Opera House, where a guy in a Rigoletto costume gives them their Detour clue. They can either put together a crystal chandelier (which nobody does) or search through a ballroom full of dancers to find exact matches for the masks they're currently wearing. Or, they can bag that entirely and go for a bungee-jumping Fast Forward. Jason & Amy race Nicole & Travis to that one until the ER docs give up the chase. Just as well for them, because Jason & Amy end up waiting in vain at the top of the tower for dangerous winds to die down. The Detour proves deceptively tricky for some teams, but they're all out of there by the time Jason & Amy give up on the Fast Forward and return, now in last place. Which I'm sure they think blows.
The other teams head to a Roadblock to sing Schubert's "Die Forelle" in German with the Vienna Boys Choir, which is not only outside almost everyone' s comfort zone, it takes almost everyone more than one attempt, allowing Jason & Amy to catch up. Each Roadblocker works individually with a singing instructor, most of them getting out of there after a couple of tries. On their way out, Nicky & Kim are briefly tempted to poach Jason & Amy's taxi but reconsider, and then Marie purposely steals Jason & Amy's cab and plans to pin it on the Afghanimals, screwing two teams in one stroke. Obviously Jason & Amy are pretty upset to find their cab gone when they come out of the Roadblock.
Then it's on to a palace where the teams have to negotiate a hedgerow maze to find the clue sending them to the Pit Stop. Nicky & Kim find that clue first, just ahead of the ER docs, but a long uphill footrace goes to Nicole & Travis. And Nicky & Kim come in second, just ahead of the Afghanimals, which for the baseball wives is like first. Marie & Tim are the fourth team at the mat, and Jason & Amy -- who by now know exactly what went down -- are right behind them, which leads to an ugly scene at the mat. Jason & Amy are mad, Marie is unrepentant and Tim looks like he'd rather be under the mat than on it.
Meanwhile, it's a lengthy toss-up as to whether Okie Tim or Ally is the worse singer, until the both get out of there after five tries. The blondes are in the lead all the way to the last clue, with the Okies closing in fast -- but it's not enough, and Tim & Danny end up Philiminated. I'm not sure if there's ever been a season that would have gone well for those two, but this one wasn't it.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!"Gdansk is Poland's principal seaport and the birthplace of Solidarity, the worker's movement that helped bring down the communist government," Phil tells us over some dizzying shots of the city's towering harbor cranes and buildings. We also get another look at Solidarity Square, which was a much less eventful place last week than it was a couple of decades ago. "Situated on the Baltic Sea, it is also home to Europe's longest wooden pier." And Phil's now standing on it again, saying that Sopot Pier is also the start of the sixth leg in a race around the world.
We flash back to last week's close three-way finish, which Tim & Marie won by a hair, thus earning the right to start this leg in first place at 8:33 AM. That's a suspiciously civilized hour, if you ask me. The clue tells them to take a train to Vienna, Austria. Phil says it's a 640-mile trip to Austria's capital, where they'll have to find the famous Vienna State Opera House. We can already see that it's spectacular both inside and out. They'll have to find "Rigoletto," who is actually some slouching guy in a jester outfit who will lead them to the costume department to find their next clue. Oh, man, Danny's going to have PTSD flashbacks when he finds out about that last part.
In their pre-leg interview, the exes claim to be happy to not only be in the lead but also about how they used the Express Pass last week. I have to admit that they certainly wouldn't have won the leg without it, which rarely happens. But now they decide to piss away their one-minute lead by waiting for Jason & Amy, or "Jamy," as Marie calls them. Marie interviews that they've kind of been helping each other. Remember that for later.
So "Jamy" opens their second place clue at 8:34 AM, and Amy jumps up and down upon learning they're going to Austria. "That's where the Sound of Music is!" she geeks. And look how that ended. She says that they have to be getting close to winning a leg, after coming in second thrice in a row. Which is one more time than I thought it was. Must be getting old.
In third place, Nicole & Travis depart at 8:35 AM, interviewing about how happy they are to have the Express Pass they got from Tim & Marie last week. As we see the six of them running for cabs in a big, mixed-up group, Travis says this gives them a little security to avoid being Philiminated before the final leg. He knows they've only got three legs left to use it, right?