Jaunted

THE RACE

The racers find out they have to go to Prague. Upon hearing the destination, one hot guys says to the other, "Do they speak Spanish there?" The other tells him no, and adds, "Prague? It's a country." C'mon, people. This is Amazing Race, you should at the very least brush up on your geography before going on TV.

The racers take the same flight to the city (yep, Prague is a city) via Riga, Latvia. Once they get there, they have to go to the old city center and find a vintage Praga, an old-school Czech convertible. The beautiful blonds happen to come across a photo of a Praga at an airport kiosk, so they have a leg up. Meanwhile, Mr. America says they have to be on the lookout for a "vintage Prada," that is, until the Mrs. corrects him.

All of the teams cab it from the airport, but the Americas opt to take a bus to the subway to get to the old city center. They hit traffic in a tunnel and to make up for the lost time, they jump in a taxi instead. When the conversation turns to last week's trickery, Mr. America says, "We're just gonna continue to be nice people and let them all fight it out and we'll sneak on in there."

The beautiful blonds make it to the old city center first, but the hot guys are at their heels. The hot guys have no idea what a Praga is, but they follow the beautiful blonds as they run over to the vintage car. There they get the next clue, which directs them to Kayaky Troja for a detour.

DETOUR
In this detour, teams have to choose between fast and furious or slow and steady. In fast and furious, racers have to brave a man-made whitewater rafting course used to train pro kayakers. While battling the strong rapids, teams must grab a ribbon with the clue on it. If they tip over before getting the ribbon, they have to start all over. In slow and steady, they have to use their upper body strength to pull themselves through an aerial ropes course.

The beautiful blonds and Globetrotters decide to go slow and steady to win the race. The aerial course proves to be super hard. Even the ripped Trotters struggle. Flight Time gets the hang of it, but Big Easy has a hard time. The hot guys choose the kayaking and heckle the blonds as they dangle above the kayaking course. "Hey guys, we're gonna beat ya," the hot guys taunt. But then the trash-talkers tip over. Once. Twice. Three times.

After the blonds and Flight Time finish the aerial course, Cheyne yells at basketball player and accuses him of taking his sweet time getting down from the platform, which annoys the baller, who then takes his sweet time. Meanwhile, after a number of unsuccessful kayak tries, the hot guys switch it up and do the slow and steady. The Americas then show up and give the ropes course a go. "We'll be fine, we always come back," Mr. America says.

After collecting ribbons at the end of the aerial course, teams then must figure out that the words on the ribbons, "Stavovske" and "Divadlo," refer to the Estates Theater, where they'll search for their next clue.

Meghan asks the Trotters if they want to work together to figure out where to go, and the ballers happily oblige, since they were going to follow the blonds anyway. The foursome gets help from a local, but the alliance is short-lived. Cheyne spots a cab and ditches the Trotters. Meghan chastises her boyfriend for the rude move. "I'm trying to win this race, babe," he replies. "This isn't a friggin' hold-your-hand game, babe." She maintains it wasn't cool to say they'd work with the Trotters and then just leave them. "Where's your competitive spirit, babe?" he says.

The hot guys finish the course and resort to dirty tactics. The brothers approach the cabbie whom the Americas had in waiting and bribe him with some extra cash. The driver takes takes the extra cash and brings the bros to the theater. "Aw, hell no," Mrs. America screams from the ropes. "The fire is definitely lit," the beauty queen says. "It's go time and I'm going for the jugular."

ROADBLOCK
At the theater, the opera house where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni, a team member must search the 600-seat auditorium to find a tiny mandolin, the instrument played by the opera's title character. The beautiful blonds are the first on the scene, but the Trotters soon join them. While everyone searches for the mandolin, Flight Time gets so inspired by the opera singer belting it out that he starts doing some ballet and then serenades Big Easy with an impromptu ditty.

Cheyne and Big Easy scour the huge auditorium, which has other instruments hidden away to throw the racers off. Cheyne is the first to find the mandolin and he busts out a few notes when he hands the instrument to the opera singer. The hot guys get to the theater and Dan finds the second instrument and Big Easy finds the third. Poor Mrs. America is at a big disadvantage—her team lagged behind when its cab was stolen and now there's likely only one more mandolin left in the theater, which makes it harder for her to find the tiny replica. "This is ridonkulous," she says.

PIT STOP
Teams must cab it to Prague Castle, the largest ancient castle in the world. It's no surprise that the beautiful blonds get there first and score a trip to Lanai (that's a Hawaiian island, hot guys). The hot guys run in to take second.

OUSTED
Big Easy takes a long time trying to find that damn mandolin, but the wrong decision to take public transportation early on and then the cab snatching put Mrs. America behind—so much so that the opera singer had to take a break and eat lunch—and the Americas hit the pit stop last. The couple get teary-eyed upon finding out they are last. "We've had an angel at almost every single leg," Mr. America says. Phil then tells them that they have an angel with them at this leg of the race because it's a non-elimination round!

"I still think you can win by playing fair," Mr. America says after getting the save. "And we're gonna prove that to people."

NEXT WEEK
The last four teams spend a night in Prague. We see the teams scrambling to do tasks in the dark in hopes of landing in the top three. Will the tricks get even dirtier? Will Mr. America finally have to drop being Mr. Nice Guy and stoop to the other team's levels? Tune in next week.

RECENT RACER'S RECAP by Kelly Crabb

Kelly Crabb competed in Season 13 of The Amazing Race, taking 6th place with her best friend, Christy. Coined as "America's Divorcee," this freelance writer and travel enthusiast lives life to its fullest in Houston, Texas and remains "bitchy with a heart of gold." This is her take on the show:

This episode kicked off in Prague, Czech Republic, where teams tackled the detour and took it Slow and Steady down lines on a ropes course. That is, all except for brothers Sam and Dan, who went Fast and Furious for a boat ride in the rapids. After four failed attempts, a few capsizings, and more screaming “Shut up!” at each other, they called it quits and switched detours.

Even though the Globetrotters tried to hold up my favorite blonde love birds, Meghan and Cheyne maintained their lead. I was quite disappointed however, with how Meghan worried about being rude to other teams during this episode, especially since the Globetrotters wanted to slow them down, but Meghan wanted to wait around on them instead of ditch them! Thank Goodness Cheyne was only concerned about winning; he has the right idea.

Flight Time continued to demonstrate his slew of dancing skills (and singing) on stage in the theater while Big Easy, and other Racers frantically looked for a miniature musical instrument during the Road Block. Erika’s now famous, “Oh hell no!” is still ringing in my mind after this episode. She and Brian were spared riddance, arriving in 4th place with a non-elimination. Let’s see if they recover next week with another ridiculous joke of a speedbump.

Meghan and Cheyne scored their fifth 1st place mat finish. I wonder what they’ll do with their winnings, and if I’ll be invited on their Travelocity-sponsored Hawaii getaway. Looks like my "spoilers" from last week were completely wrong, so sorry to all of you who thought the show was ruined. As fans and viewers prepare their final three forecasts, I am preparing to attend the finale parties in New York City with the Season 15 cast on Dec. 5th and 6th. Hooray!

Related Stories:
· The Amazing Race [Official Site]
· Amazing Race Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photos: CBS]