Jaunted

THE RACE

The racers stay in Prague and head to the Spanish Synagogue, the city's oldest Jewish house of worship. The beautiful blonds get there first and the clue tells them to proceed to the Ekotechnicke Museum, where they hit a roadblock. At the synagogue, the Americas hit a speed bump, a consequence of avoiding elimination last week. The couple head to the M1 Lounge, where they have to learn how to prepare a traditional absinthe shot—which includes setting a sugar cube on fire and dropping it into the glass of alcohol—and drink it. "This is a speed bump?" an incredulous Mr. America asks as he bellies up to the bar, which has scantily clad ladies dancing on it. Mr. America says this is a challenge because he doesn't drink, but he chugged it down like a pro. "It was like rubbing alcohol going down my throat," he says. "It was the worst drink I'd ever had," the Mrs. adds.

ROADBLOCK
In this roadblock, called Kafka-esque, one person must enter a, well, Kafka-esque convoluted bureaucratic world: a dark, empty room filled with dozens of old-school phones on top of desks. The racer has to find the five phones with a voice on the other end of the line. The voices will each reveal a letter and the racers have to unscramble them to reveal the name "Franz." Meghan arrives into the ringing headache of a room and uses animal names as mnemonic devices to remember each letter, since she can't write 'em down. After she collects all the letters, she goes into a room and fills out a long form—meant to throw her off—in which the last item is writing out the unscrambled word. The smart cookie figures it out on her second try.

The hot guys arrive at the roadblock second, but Dan has a hard time unscrambling the word, and Big Easy catches up. The pair set aside their past aggression toward each other and put their heads together to figure out the puzzle. After some time, Dan comes up with the winning word. But he won't divulge the answer to Big Easy, only revealing that it starts with an "F." This upsets Big Easy, who was telling Dan all of his answers beforehand and offering up strategy ideas. "Big Easy hates me right now," Dan tells his bro when they leave the museum.

After trying to figure out the word for for two and a half hours, Mr. America gets to the museum. It doesn't take Mr. America too long to solve the anagram. "And I did it drunk, too!" Mr. America proudly proclaims. A defeated Big Easy decides to quit the roadblock and take the four-hour penalty for not completing it.

After successfully finishing Kafka-esque, the supervisor gives the next clue, which leads the teams to Kryocentrum. There, the racers receive cryotherapy, a holistic treatment used by Czech athletes that employs the power of cold for natural healing. Teams have to hang out in a room kept at 180 degrees below zero Celsius for two minutes to get the next clue. The beautiful blonds get there first and have to strip down to their skivvies to enter the room. "Oh my God!" Meghan screams during the two-minute freeze. "I feel bad for polar bears," Cheyne says afterward. The hot guys got there second, and one complained that his ass was too big for the short shorts, but they made it out fine.

While the Globetrotters wait for their four-hour penalty time to end, the Americas arrive at Kryocentrum. Mrs. America, a Florida girl who only first saw snow when she was 21, complains about being cold before they even go inside the icy chamber. But they also endure the possible frostbite.

After hanging in the Arctic, teams have to go to Charles Bridge, which links the old and new parts of the city together. There they come across a detour.

DETOUR
Teams get to choose legend or lager. In legend, racers dabble in Prague lore and Jewish mythology by building a golem. They have to cover a wooden figure with clay and then transport the hulking figure across town to a synagogue, where rabbis will okay it. In lager, teams must carry 30 mugs of beer from a brewery through the town square to a pub called Kozlcka, where thirsty, rowdy soccer fans await.

The beautiful blondes choose legend. The strategic thinkers lay the massive golem on his back and they slather on the clay. But the couple have a hard time lugging it through town—especially Cheyne. "He's a fat ass," Cheyne grunts. The dirty and out-of-breath couple finally make it to the rabbis, who admire their handiwork.

The hot guys also choose legend and as if the ringing phone room weren't enough, we're subject to their annoying bickering all throughout the challenge. The quarreling gets even worse when the sibs have to bring the gargantuan golem, with one of its arms falling off, to the rabbis. Dan has to take breaks and won't stop complaining. "You're being a baby," Sam says. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Dan yells.

The Americas decide to try out lager, mainly because the Mr. has experience as a server. It seems like an easy challenge, but it's like an obstacle course where they have to duck from the dizzy drunks on the sidewalk and prevent passers-by from stealing a drink. We find out that the Czech people drink more beer per capita than any country in the world. We're guessing Prague's gonna be sorry it participated in TAR after this. As the Americas bring their loaded trays outside, some drunken revelers surround them, angering the Mrs. and making the Mr. exclaim, "Don't you guys have jobs?" Mr. America drops one of his glasses and then somehow his wife spills her tray of beer. It frustrates her so much she tries to convince her hubby to switch to the other detour, but he refuses.

On that first round, they only manage to serve seven mugs. When a random girl reaches for a drink on another round, Mrs. America won't have any of it. "Move out the damn way!" the tough Mrs. yells. "She is about to get her ass beat." Then someone shouts, "Damn, that's some American attitude right there." "Yeah, I do have some American attitude," she says. "Touch me and you'll get punched." It takes the couple a long time to transport the drinks.

Meanwhile, time's up on the Trotter's penalty and race go to the ice box.

PIT STOP
After transporting the golems and serving the beer, teams advance to the pit stop, Strelecky Ostrov. No shock here: The beautiful blonds come in first, each winning 52-inch TVs. Sneaky Sam and Dan steal second place.

OUSTED
Although the Trotters started out with a fairly big lead, the four-hour penalty does them in and they arrive at the pit stop last. We're sad to lose the Trotters, who provided comic relief, gave the best lines of the season and would have been the perfect TAR winners, what with a name like "Globetrotters." But the guys took it well. "We ran across the finish line with our heads held high," Flight Time says. "We're the Harlem Globetrotters. We go as a team and we leave as a team. We didn’t win the million dollars but the experience that we had was priceless."

On the other hand, last week's losers became the competition's dark horses. "We can't believe we made it to the finally three," Mrs. America says. "We have definitely made our fair share of screw-ups, but we're contenders." Let's hope the Americas liven up what looks to be a predictable win for the beautiful blonds.

NEXT WEEK

It's on for next week's season finale. The final three head to Vegas, where they'll do crazy stuff like rappel down a building. Mrs. America will also break down. Find out who will walk away with the million dollars.

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:

Still in Prague, teams essentially remained in their respective places with Meghan and Cheyne in the lead of course…moderately boring if you ask me! This episode made me thirsty. From Absinthe to brewskis, and I’m assuming all the teams needed a drink after undergoing 2 minutes of cryotherapy, aka the ice cold torture chamber.

I laughed out loud when the brothers called one of the Supervisors a “douche bag” during the Road Block with the ringing telephones. I remember feeling the same way when the Man at The Sewing Machine relentlessly rejected our answer submissions in India the day I got eliminated in Season 13.

Big Easy “killed 4 trees” in attempts to guess the scrambled word during the Road Block. In my opinion, “Franz” wasn’t that tough; I was shocked he couldn’t get it. Amazing Race's production and editors did a great job with the black and white slow-mo tribute to Flight Time and Big Easy with the Sweet Georgia Brown (whistling theme song) over their silly dancing and comedic approach to most challenges as they were eliminated from the Race. They were one of my favorite teams. Who cares that they didn’t win the million? They have probably made a couple of million in their careers as professional basketball players.

Although I’m pretty disappointed that the Globetrotters aren’t in the final three, I am super proud of Brian and Erika. They were sooooo excited and I’m happy for them. This season starred a handful of G-list celebs and I’m happy to see everyday people who really want the money as finalists.

Next week, we’ll watch Meghan and Cheyne, Sam and Dan and Brian and Erika battle it out for 1st place and a million bucks. I’m excited to provide a recap from the season finale party in New York City.

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

[Photos: CBS]