Jaunted

THE RACE

From Norway, teams have to travel by car, train and plane to St. Petersburg, Russia. Everyone's on the same train and plane, so it's a relaxing start of the race.

The docs look to take their third consecutive win. "Working in the operating room, we find ourselves in a very male-dominated environment," Nat says. "We're used to playing with boys and we're used to beating them. So we are hoping that our mojo is what's going to lead us to be the first female-female team to win this race." We'd love to see an all-girl team take the title.

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell aren't so positive, as they start fighting in the middle of the street when they get off of the train; he blames her tardiness for getting a taxi last. Not a good sign.

Once they get to St. Petersburg, all of the racers are in awe of the architecture. "I like how they keep all their buildings instead of blowin' 'em up," says tatted guy, who's from Vegas and regularly sees buildings getting demolished. Racers go to the Rostral Columns, where they hit a detour.

DETOUR
In this difficult detour, racers choose between classical music or classic cinema. For the former, teams enter a historic palace to find a maestro with three gramophones. They have to listen to three different compositions being played on the machines, then go into several piano-filled ballrooms and figure out which three pianists are playing the same music as the gramophones. With all of the pianos playing at the same time, it's headache-inducing. For classic cinema, teams go to a sound stage at Lenfilm Studio and search through piles and piles of film clips to find one that matches the movie being screened, Sergei Eisenstein's October. It looks like a tornado hit the room.

The home shopping hosts pick cinema, but their cabbie doesn't know where the movie studio is. YouTubers and Hairy and the hairdresser go for film. Hairy smartly realizes that the words on the screen are the easiest identifiers in the film, and he's the first one outta there. And although the home shopping hosts were late, they are the second ones to finish.

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, the tatted couple, Ms. Kentucky and dad, and the docs choose music. But the task is so hard and maddening, that all of the teams, save for Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, decide to switch to cinema.

After what seems like countless attempts trying to match the piano music to that on the gramophones, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell regroup and try to rethink their next move. Tinkerbell asks him what his gut is telling him. "I feel like we're done," the Debbie Downer says. But she gets him to stay and work, and they finally get it.

Next, teams must to to Palace Square for their clue. From there, they are directed to the town of Alexandrovskaya, where they follow the arrows to a local store to find the next clue. There, they hit a roadblock.

ROADBLOCK
A team member has to turn into a babushka, complete with traditional frumpy garb, and plant 50 potatoes. Plus, he or she has to fertilize the crop with a bunch of cow poop. The home shopping hosts arrive first, YouTubers second. And yes, YouTube Jr. has to don a dress and kerchief. The adorable babushka lady cheers on younger YouTuber and tells him she loves him—in Russian, of course—which pumped him up. "I think I fell in love a little bit," he says.

As younger YouTuber is getting motivational cheers, home shopping girl Brook is getting mocked by the babushkas when she screams, "I think I stepped in poo!" Hairdresser comes and rocks the potato planting. "These skinny girls can do everything," one of the babushkas says.

Tinkerbell plays dirty, literally, by throwing the shovel in the manure to make it hard for poor Ms. Kentucky. The beauty queen has difficulty finding the manure pile and asks locals for help. Instead they invite her into their home. "Come join us for a little vodka," one of 'em says. Makes us want to go to Russia. After running all over the place, Ms. Kentucky finally finds the crap and has to get into it to retrieve the shovel, and her shoe comes off in the manure. Nast.

Meanwhile, the tatted couple hit a dead end with the cinema challenge and decide to go back to the music detour. They concentrate on one classical piece at a time and finally get it. They finally make it to the babushka task. The clue calls it a drag race, so tatted guy thinks he'll be in a car racing. So imagine his surprise when he's handed a floor-length dress instead. "Damn, dude really, this is how I'm going out?" he says in his babushka gear. "It was a little bit of race and a whole lot of drag, but just more queen than cars." To add insult to his drag outfit, when he asks locals for help, they take photos with him.

PIT STOP
St. Isaac's Cathedral is the pit stop. But man, how tricky is it that Phil is waiting in the park across the street instead of the cathedral itself. The hairdresser and hairy win first and get a trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The home shopping ladies come in second, the YouTubers third.

OUSTED
The tatted couple know that they are last, what with all the detour flip-flopping. And they are right. But Phil turns around with a Halloween trick and tells them they will be around for one more week because it's a nonelimination leg.

NEXT WEEK
After going drag, racers have to dress up like clowns and do some big-top challenges.

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

[Photos: CBS]