Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Something for Everyone
By M. Giant | Season 21 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.18.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.After last week's "To Be Continued," James & Abba go off to see what they can do about Abba's missing passport (spoiler: jack-squat). While they're doing that, Josh & Brent are literally failing the Detour, unable to complete the swimming task before the pool closes. They're handed their clue and a four-hour penalty. But they still go with Ryan and Abbie to the Roadblock, where Josh quickly figures out the trick and helps an exhausted Abbie through it. After the day they've had, both teams are shocked to reach the mat and find out they're still in the race. And so are James & Abba, when they go to say goodbye to Phil and are instead told that not only is this a non-elimination leg, they're still in it if they can produce a passport in time. So good luck with that.
Trey & Lexi kick off the leg early the next morning (not that we get any departure times), but cab troubles lead to them getting to the Roadblock after Jaymes & James do. But thanks to an 8:00 opening time, they end up doing the task together. It's a quiz in which they have to calculate the times of different cities in Russia based on a time zone map and a provided time in Moscow. It takes them a number of tries to get past both it and the ham of a geography professor running the test, but they get out of there together and Jaymes even helps Team Austin get a cab in the rain. They proceed to a Detour in which they have to do a Russian soldier dance, which James struggles with on an injured ankle. But he powers through, and the Chippendales win their first leg of the race, with Trey & Lexi coming in second.
After starting in third place, the twins finally use their Express Pass to skip the Roadblock, and then Natalie splits her pants at the dance Detour, but they come in third. Starting hours behind them, Ryan goes into vapor-lock at the Roadblock, nearly getting frustrated enough that you expect him to scream out, "My professor is broken!" But eventually he figures out what he's doing wrong, and then dance instructor Abbie makes sure they ace the dancing Detour, and they make it to the mat in fourth place.
Brent & Josh wait out their four-hour penalty and start their leg just ahead of James & Abba. Brent completes the test on the first try, and then they proceed to a cocktail party where they identify lookalikes of various Russian historical figures. Team Metal, meanwhile, is burning valuable time trying to track down a passport and going through every possible official channel before starting with the tasks, presumably because they weren't allowed to leave the hotel before their leg starts. I guess it wouldn't do to have them becoming unfairly familiar with Moscow. As a result, Josh & Brent have already become team number five before Team Metal even gets to the Roadblock, plus there's that pesky Speed Bump. Which I guess would have involved a priest and a limousine, but more than that I can't tell you because this may be the first time a team ever went from a Speed Bump directly to summary Philimination on the mat. And they still don't have poor Abba's passport. Have a good week in Moscow, guys.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!You'll recall that we ended last week with Abba's passport missing, presumably in the possession of a cab driver who absconded with it and all the rest of the stuff he and James weren't actually wearing or carrying, while a missed airline connection had left Ryan & Abbie and Josh & Brent hours behind, leading them to form the Amazing Race's first-ever suicide pact. In fact, the situation was dire enough that the episode ended with the onscreen text, "To Be Continued." And here we are. Continuing.
We return to Moscow, which is re-introduced to us by a simple subtitle on the screen rather than Phil sharing an interesting fact like he usually does. And under the grim circumstances, this seems appropriate; James and Abba are where we left them last week, standing before Phil on the mat without their passports and thus unable to check in. "You're not the last team to arrive," he tells them, which is the one piece of good news he can offer them right now, and with that he sends them off in search of their passports. After all, Abbie & Ryan and Brent & Josh still have yet to check in and are, in fact, still at the swimming pool -- the latter team still wearing ridiculous floral swim caps as they attempt to complete the synchronized swimming Detour. It sucks that Team Metal's driver left with all their stuff, but Phil used to mug last-place teams all the time and they did fine until their inevitable Philimination for causes having less to do with their lack of possessions than the reason they came in last in the first place. So I think the lesson here is to always keep your passport on your person, especially in Moscow, Toni & Dallas. Team Metal goes to a nearby building to see if they can make some phone calls. I feel particularly bad for Abba, who's about to be in Moscow at night in a t-shirt, June notwithstanding. At least when the sun sets in time-lapse mode, the Bolshoi Theater is even more magnificent at night. So Team Metal won't be Philiminated in front of some rinky-dink little dump.
At the pool, Brent and Josh get another fail-buzzer on their latest attempt at performing with the synchronized swimmers. The coach comes over to them and, with one of the swimmers translating, explains that the pool's about to close but they can have one more chance. Huh, I wonder how this will go? Actually, if it's anything like Mark's "last try" at the Bollywood dance Roadblock during the previous season, we already know. They hit the music and Abbie and Ryan watch from a bench -- all dressed and ready to go, with their coats and backpacks on and everything -- as the goat farmers jump into the pool with their team one more time. Ryan reminds us that these two teams "made arrangements" to stick together, so here they are. Brent fails to do a backflip so blatantly that it's not even good enough to let it slide for the last chance. Or maybe it would have been without another team there to witness it, in which case "racing together" screwed them over anyway, but I guess we'll never know. The coach goes over and tells them, again through the swimming translator, "I'm sorry, no. It is your clue and you got a penalty." So they're Currently in Last Place as they climb out in defeat. Shouldn't Josh at least try to tell her about how they never quit? Brent interviews afterwards, "Each time we did get slightly better... just not good enough." Ryan goes over and asks them what happened and Josh explains that they have a four-hour penalty. "We knew we were out," Josh VOs, but they still stick together and they hop into tandem cabs. Brent says there's no reason for Abbie and Ryan to bail on them now, since only one of these two teams has a four-hour penalty. "They're safe no matter what." Well, unless Team Grabbie skips the Roadblock and gets an identical penalty to even things out. That really would be sticking together, wouldn't it?