THE RACE
Racers fly to Seoul, South Korea, where they must drive near the North Korean border to the Seungil Bridge for their next clue. At Hong Kong International Airport, the broke docs use their feminine wiles to coax some random guy to buy them a guidebook to get a leg up on the competition. The home shopping hosts strategize that they'd be better off going to a hotel concierge to help them secure tickets. The home shopping hosts, docs and hairy and the hairdresser snatch seats on a 12:25 a.m. flight. The tatted couple just miss the first flight and end up departing at 9:30 a.m. "There's not too much more that we can do," tatted girl says. "Hopefully somebody gets lost or something." Her boyfriend adds, "It really comes down to a miracle."
Teams are a bit freaked about driving to the demilitarized zone near the border—it probably doesn't help that the clue also adamantly tells them not to cross it—but the North Koreans don't bust out with guns or anything. From the bridge, they have to ride a raft down the rapids-filled river to U.S. military base Camp Casey. It seems like a scary task, but the home shopping hosts wallop and the docs scream with joy. At the base, they hit a roadblock.
ROADBLOCK
One team member much choose a headband with Korean lettering and search among 250 military men and women practicing tae kwon do to find the soldier wearing the matching headband—without getting hit. Then, the matching-headband-wearing soldier has to jump-kick a block of wood to reveal the next clue. Hairy finishes first, and Brook has trouble focusing. "I'm surrounded by ninjas!" Brook yells. She finally gets it and doc Kat follows suit. They high-tail it to Seoul World Cup Stadium for their next clue and hit a detour.
DETOUR
In this detour, racers get to choose full throttle or full bottle. For full throttle, teams go to Mokdong Ice Rink, put on speed-skating suits and skate a two-person relay for 24 laps. In the latter, teams have to head to Namdaemun Market, don delivery uniforms and lug six huge glass bottles of ginseng to a pharmacist and down a bottle of ginseng tonic.
Everyone goes for the speed skating. The home shopping ladies hop in a cab, not realizing the clue specifies that teams have to travel to either detour via subway or on foot. The ladies make it there first and aren't happy with the skin-tight outfits. "The attire, that was disgusting," Brooks says. "Not the Brook and Claire flair." (Like the knee-high pink-and-white-striped socks?) None of the racers glides on the ice—there's gonna be lots of bruised teams. Hairy and the hairdresser seem to do the best, while the docs seem to be slower than turtles.
Meanwhile, the tatted couple makes it to Seoul, and a nice gent in the airport volunteers to lead them to the bridge. But he doesn't seem to know where the bridge is.
From the detour, teams must head to Han Riverside Park and search for an airplane statue for the next clue. The cab driver hits on Claire, trying to impress her, boasting that he's a comedian. He even asks her for a kiss at the destination and yells a version of "Wowee!," and the ladies up their smooch tally to nine. Hairy and the hairdresser have problems communicating with a cabbie who can't speak English. So they ditch him and have to find another one.
PIT STOP
The pit stop for this leg is the Temple of Heaven, a shrine for the first and only emperor of Korea. The home shopping hosts arrive first, but Phil slaps them with a 30-minute penalty for taking that cab. That leaves the first-place finish to hairy and the hairdresser, who win a trip for two Argentina. The home shopping hosts get second.
OUSTED
The tatted couple were just too far behind from the get-go with the six-hour penalty, even before they hit their speedbump—washing a tank. They get the boot. What did they learn? "The hardest part is acknowledging the flaws we do have in our relationship and now that we knowledge that, it's just time to fix it," tatted guy says. "I have that tough-guy image and it taught me that it doesn't get you anywhere." His girlfriend adds, "I went through the race without killing him, so I think it's a good thing...I think this race made us better people."
NEXT WEEK
It's finale time, and it'll have bungee jumping and helicopter rides. There's a big chance that we could see TAR's first all-ladies team win the mil.
[Photos: CBS]
