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
On the other hand, for the "Masquerade" half of the Detour, they'll have to put on multicolored masks and join a dance in a ballroom where dancers are wearing similar -- but mostly not quite identical -- ornate masks. Each team will have to match their masks exactly to that of a dancing couple in order to get their next clue from the "hostess." Both the Afghanimals and the blondes decide to do that one, while Marie seems more interested in the Fast Forward at first. "The Fast Forward is weather-dependent," she reads. Interesting, except for how the weather seemed perfect when they were coming over here from the train station.
Nicole & Travis decide to go for it, and all Phil tells us about it for now is that the teams will have to go to the Donauturm, a space-needle-looking thing that Phil says is the highest structure in Vienna. Not that Phil needs to say much; the only thing that kind of building is used for is climbing or jumping off of. Jason & Amy are going to try for it as well, while Tim & Marie decide to stick around and try the Masquerade Detour, as do the Okies and the baseball wives. On their way out, Amy & Jason and the ER docs realize that they're both going for it, so it's looking like it's going to end up as a taxi race. Amy tells Jason the weather-dependent part. "So it's outside?" Jason asks. Yes, at the very least, one would think. Looking at a tree blowing in a brisk wind, Travis says it's breezy but nice. You know, technically any activity is weather-dependent, because one F5 tornado up the ass will clear an hour or two off of anyone's calendar.
Meanwhile, other teams -- Leo & Jamal, Tim & Marie, Nicky & Kim, and Tim & Danny -- are getting directions to the Masquerade Detour and finding out it's within running distance. But Danny somehow steps wrong on a water hose stretched along the sidewalk and turns his ankle. Fortunately his partner has a solution: "Walk it off." Thanks, Dr. Tim.
En route to the Fast Forward, Nicole & Travis realize that Jason & Amy are ahead of them. So they decide to cut their losses, abandon the chase, and go to the Masquerade task instead. Not to give anything away, but this will prove to be the right call for more than one reason.
Leo & Jamal are the first to reach the Österreichisches Theatermuseum, a name so long that it requires the smaller subtitle letters just to fit across the screen. Inside, they find a couple of tables of masks (some pointy on top and some not), but all of them elaborate and multicolored. The Afghanimals tie them on as Jamal explains the task to Leo, and then the door opens to the ballroom, where dancers in formalwear and similar masks are waltzing to the "Blue Danube." The cousins wind through the room until Leo finds what he thinks is a match for Jamal's mask. But a freeze-frame of the mask in question, shown next to the one Jamal is wearing, shows that Jamal's is blue just over the eyes, whereas the one that Leo found is black in that area. It's a pretty subtle difference, so much so that the Amazing Editors have to highlight and zoom in on the area, then throw in a big Family Feud "X" and a buzzer noise just to make sure we get the point. The mask on the woman is also only a near-match for Leo's, but they don't know this until they bring the couple out to the hostess for inspection. "I’m sorry, that's not the perfect match," she tells them. Good eyes on that girl, I'm thinking. Soon Nicky & Kim and Tim & Marie arrive at the Detour and join in the search. But you know, for themselves.