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In which we head to Sweden and eastern Europe, revisiting an infamous Roadblock, getting down and dirty in the mud, taking in the opera... and doing a shot.

Leg 8:
1. Next stop is Sweden, but unlike every plane ride after leg 1, we have two flights taking the teams, splitting them 3-2. And at the airport, one team from each flight (Globetrotters, Gary/Matt) ends up falling 15 minutes behind other teams after struggling too long with the ticket machine for the train downtown. Amusing moment: Brian/Ericka turning their heads after hearing the doors close on their train and leaving Gary/Matt behind :-) Incidentally, it happens to be Flight Time's birthday, and the last time someone had a birthday while racing on TAR, it didn't work out so well for them.
2. First task in Sweden: Have one contestant spot an arrow pointing to their next cluebox from one of those "big drop" rides. Sounds like a Roadblock, but it's only like this because (get this) Big Easy is too Big for the ride (!) The next cluebox is a ringtoss, and a Travelocity-placed ringtoss at that. Brian quips about the role reversal about winning prizes at the fair as Ericka's busy tossing rings on gnome hats. Of course, the next clue's written on the base of a Travelocity gnome.
3. And that next clue is a Detour: do something involving the Viking alphabet, or blow things up in honor of Alfred Nobel. Gee, I wonder which one everyone will pick ;-) The dynamite entails driving out to some rock quarry, and we see have Gary/Matt driving in circles while butchering Swedish road names. That won't help their cause any. We also have the Globetrotters trying to name their gnome. Ain't that cute? No, not really...
4. Rock quarry, and we see Meghan/Cheyne having trouble filling up bags of sand (hey, can't blow stuff up without the proper protection you know!) and later we have Ericka sarcastically worrying about her manicure while filling up theirs :-) After lots of footage of stuff getting blowing up real good, the next clue calls for them to head out to a certain farm with a field of haybales.
5. Field of haybales, and not surprisingly, it's a replay of the infamous haybale unrolling Roadblock that the show did here several seasons ago, replete with flashback to the original. The only differences from then and now are that they're now looking for a small flag instead of a clue envelope, and the pitstop is right next to the field. Sam/Dan are first to the box, and although the brothers do know the history behind the task (or maybe because?), their experience at the task consists mostly of them yelling at each other ad nauseum. Not that Meghan/Cheyne are faring any better, since Meghan takes the task herself after Cheyne won't make a decision.
6. The Globetrotters are in 3rd place, but they're hoping for a good birthday gift for Flight Time. And they get a pretty sweet one, as they're the first to find a flag and check in, winning a trip to the Turks and Caicos. Meghan eventually finds her flag, but decides to play a little mind gaming with her partner by pretending to have a meltdown before showing him the flag. Ain't that cute? Well, yeah.
7. B/E also get a flag, leaving Sam/Dan fighting for 4th place against Gary/Matt, and we get a good look at Pinky's big ear piercing while dad's rolling the hay. Sam/Dan avoid a total Lena/Kristy-like collapse by getting the flag in 4th, and a running clock for Gary/Matt shows that they take more than 3 hours for this task, which is still better than Lena and Kristy's 8 hours... and also, they're not eliminated afterwards like L&K were.

Leg 9:
1. Next stop is Estonia, and instead of plane, they're heading there by daily ferry, leaving at 5:45pm every day... and they've left the pitstop between 2 and 6:30 am, so they all have about 12 hours to kill at least. And once they're on the ferry, it's a 16 hour ride where everyone gets to rest in a nice cabin, before arriving in Talinn and heading to Mustpeade, a secret society house, with a big set of keys in hand. G/M will have to do the Speed Bump first, though. Interestingly, although apparently every team has keys, some teams simply enter along with another team unlocking the door.
2. Mustpeade has a bunch of random people acting all medieval and stuff, along with the Roadblock: Who's ready to solve a medieval mystery? Get a candelabra, head to a room with a number marked on the candleabra, get a "blank" scroll. This being TAR, it has the next clue written in invisible ink. Even if you've never tried it, you've probably heard of the whole "write an invisible message in lemon juice and hold it up to a candle reveal the message" bit. Well, this is the same idea.
3. G/M's Speed Bump consists entirely of them looking for a Saunabuss, and taking a 5 minute sauna, during which they chat up with the couple that's already there. We find out that G/M have Finnish roots, and we watch them sing songs in the sauna. At this point, you're probably wondering if there's anything they're not familiar with. We'll get to that later.
4. Mustpeade, and Flight Time tries out rubbing some crayon over the scroll to find any etchings. In a rather amusing moment, he puts down the scroll when that idea doesn't work, and the camera pans down to show that there is indeed writing on the scroll. Which the others are finding in the correct manner of holding it up to a candle, prompting Big Easy to chide Flight Time for "bigheading" this task after he eventually gets around to using the candle. Another bighead moment: whichever brother's doing this task reading the English writing with a German accent.
5. The writing says Pikk Herman Tower Gardens, and that's where everyone's heading, while back at Mustpeade, Matt is busy trying to figure out what a "candle-a-bra" is. And after he figures that out and gets his scroll, he does a little crayon scribbling first, and when he candles the scroll, he only gets up to the part that reads Pikk Herman Tower. Yeah, that's gonna work out well.
6. Tower Gardens, and it's a Detour: take a cab to some muddy field and either play slingshots (hit a moose target) or mud volleyball (get 5 points). But first, we have taxi drama between B/E and M/C, and the brothers and the Globetrotters, in which both pairs of teams scramble for the same taxi and have a big argument over it. Interestingly, the brothers and the Globetrotters get a van that can carry them all. Meanwhile, G/M, with only (a bit more than) half the clue from the Roadblock, waste quite some time looking for the tower entrance before eventually spotting the clue in the grounds. See what only having half the clue gets you? Even they're admitting they're not on their A game today.
7. Muddy field, where M/C play volleyball, quickly getting their first 3 points. Meanwhile, we see the next three teams running down an unmarked (i.e. wrong) path a la Tammy and Victor, allowing M/C to get their 5 points, and an easy 1st place at a so-called "lookout tower" that is probably 10 feet high. Phil mentions the Saunabuss, because M/C's prize is a cedar sauna.
8. After eventually getting on the right path, the brothers and the Globetrotters (having changed into their basketball uniforms) choose to play volleyball with "hot Estonian guys" (the brothers' words, not mine), thus effectively forcing B/E to do the slingshots. We watch Big Easy get stuck in the mud and the brothers' fully clothed crotches get blurred. Looks like they're a bit turned on by those hot Estonian guys there :-) Because it's so hard to move in the mud, most of their points in the volleyball are scored either by the ball going out, or in the brothers' case, being served into the net.
9. The Globetrotters finish before the brothers... and get dressed and run the wrong way, while the brothers head in the right direction, thus setting up a dramatic footrace to the pitstop between the two teams, which sees Flight Time tripping right into Dan, knocking them both over. The brothers finish second and the Globetrotters 3rd, which prompts a mini Pitstop smackdown a la Kisha/Jen v. Luke/Mom from last season. Yow. All that over a simple trip. (And it turns out to have been more of a manufactured conflict, to boot.)
10. B/E finish the slingshot before Matt and dad even arrive, and the editors telegraph their elimination with a nice long interview about their experiences on the race while they're being shown doing the slingshots. After the elimination, Matt apparently never wants to see another candelabra. Amen to that.

Leg 10:
1. Next stop, Prague, to find a guy in his vintage Praga in some square. A quick net search reveals it to be a car (think old-school Rolls Royce), and M/C briefly ponder telling everyone else it's a kind of cap. Wouldn't have mattered for S/D since they find the Praga by getting to the square at the same time as M/C. Incidentally, the brothers think that Prague is a country (o_O) where they speak Spanish (O_o)
2. B/E quickly get stuck in traffic on a bus while everyone else has gotten cabs. Ouch. Next stop, some manmade kayaking course. M/C are hoping for a Roadblock, however, it's a Detour, between kayaking and ziplines. Kayaking S/D brag at the ziplining Globetrotters "We're gonna beat ya!" This half of the Detour is nicknamed "Fast and Furious", and it ends up getting a whole new meaning, as the brothers end up getting furious fast, as the bickering from the haybale task rears its ugly head again.
3. Meanwhile, M/C chide Big Easy for holding them up after they've finished ziplining. Result: He decides to slow them down some more :-)
After four attempts or so at the kayaking, S/D have decided to go ziplining, about the same time B/E arrive.
4. Meghan decides to have the Globetrotters follow them to a nearby train stop to head to the Estates Theater. This doesn't last long, as Cheyne flags down a cab and goes off with Meghan, leaving the Globetrotters to take the train (and subway... no wonder why M/C ditched). We see M/C have a nice long talk about how the Globetrotters might hold that against them.
5. Estates Theater, and a Roadblock asks, "Who can remain composed under pressure?" Which, despite the pun, has apparently nothing to do with the actual task of finding a miniature mandolin amongst the seats of the legendary theater. At one point, we see Cheyne hand "Don Giovanni" a full sized balalaika, prompting Don to have a nice hearty laugh before turning him down. We see that expression a couple times.
6. Ziplining basically comes down to a race between Sam and Ericka. After Sam's finished, the brothers take B/E's cab to the Estates Theater, prompting Ericka to go "Aw, hell no." Speaking of the theater, apparently, the organizers also threw in a lot of other full-sized instruments, and even a bag of rocks. Eventually, M/C find a mini mandolin (replete with mini case!) and their clue from Don to head to the Prague Castle... prompting the Globetrotters to quip that they don't have to listen to Meghan yelling at Cheyne anymore :-)
7. Between the Trotters/brothers tilt last leg and several conflicts in this leg, it's understandable if there's more than a little tension between teams. We get a nice example of that as B/E enter the theater as the brothers are leaving, both without looking at each other. Prague Castle, and M/C take the leg, and get a trip to Lanai. 2nd place are S/D, and the Globetrotters "crash the party" in 3rd. Phil screws around with B/E a bit before announcing that it's a non-elimination.

Leg 11:
1. We stay in Prague for an all-nighter, as we begin with a literally Kafkaesque Roadblock: Among an array of ringing phones, find five that give letters, and arrange them into Kafka's first name. All the teams find their 5 letters first go (Meghan even has an animal theme going to memorize the letters, as they're not allowed to write them down), but all of them need more than one attempt to get the name right. Franz isn't that rare of a name, guys... And did I mention that instead of simply writing the name down on a paper, they have to fill out a long form with lots of info first, replete with beureaucrats making repeated X stamps for each wrong name? Now that's Kafkaesque :-)
2. But first, B/E have to of course do a Speed Bump. This one consists entirely of getting to a certain bar, making some absinthe, and then drinking it. Really, that's it. Oh yeah, absinthe has very high alcohol content, so... yeah. HIC!
3. Big Easy and one of the brothers decide to make an alliance. The idea is that one of them will tell the other the answer. Come on, like that's going to happen. Sure enough, the brother gets it and only tells the Globetrotter that it starts with an F. The brothers have also got cab issues covered: we see M/C try to use their cab to get to their next destination; the cabbie declines, but calls them a new one.
4. Next stop, Kryocentrum. It's like Gary/Matt's sauna, only with extreme cold (-180C, brr!) instead of extreme heat. Apparently, very popular with athletes. Yes, the racers do have to strip down to their skivvies (a la Siberian half-mile run), but they only have to be in there for two minutes. With all that fog in there, the censors don't have to do anything :-)
5. B/E pass BE at the Roadblock, and of course Brian boasts that he did the task drunk. All that Kafkaesque bureaucracy (plus all those ringing phones) drives Big Easy so crazy, he ends up taking a 4 hour penalty instead. We'll see how well that works out... Hint: Not very. Honestly, even if you're not familiar with people's names, how many ways could you possibly arrange AFNRZ into something readable?
6. Next stop, the Charles Bridge and a Detour: Build and deliver a Golem to a synagogue, or deliver beer to rowdy soccer fans at pubs. B/E do the beer, S/D and M/C do the Golem. Not surprisingly, we get another S/D fight after breaking an arm (the Golem's, not theirs). Meanwhile, we see Ericka fobbing off a pedestrian trying to take a beer, and saying "I do have some American attitude: touch me and you get punched." Ouch :-)
7. M/C win their 3rd leg in a row and get some LCD HDTV's. S/D are 2nd, and B/E finish in 3rd well after sunrise, making them the 2nd team in as many seasons to get to the finale without winning a single leg (after last season's Jamie/Cara). The penalty has put the Globetrotters so far back, they're redirected directly to the pitstop from Kryocentrum before getting eliminated.
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