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With Tammy and Victor dominating, everyone else is competing for second. The good news is that unless they screw up huge, they also are not competing for last since Linda may not even be in Germany by this point. In fact, she is shown hitchhiking as a "kind woman offers" to drive her back to the cable car place. This has quickly devolved into a scene from Hostel. What is odd about this entire episode is that there is almost no surprise either way. We know who will win and barring something unforeseen or producer meddling, we know who will win with 20 minutes still to go in the episode. I guess CBS feels that pie tossing will be enough to keep the audience engaged the rest of the way. They are right that it does make for great television.

Teams that give each other pie face include Amanda and Kris, Luke and Margie, Brad and Victoria and Christie and Jodi. Mike and Mel, Mark and Michael, Lakisha and Jennifer and Jaime and Cara decide to ride a Segway instead. Way to ruin it for the home television audience, jerks.

Night falls as the various contestants arrive at the pit stop. The father/son team of Mel and Mike finishes second (behold the power of paragliding!) with Amanda and Kris third followed by Luke and Margie in fourth, Brad and Victoria in fifth and the cheerleaders that Luke has a crush on in sixth. Some fake suspense is created for the final four teams, and it's not as grossly manipulative as you might think since Linda and Steve are close enough to the others to be allowed to do the pie challenge. Even so, the results are inevitable. Kisha and Jen finish in seventh, Mark and Michael finish in eighth (and learn the value of calling ahead for reservations), and the flight attendants once again avoid elimination by the smallest possible margin. They are the anti-Tammy and Victor thus far in terms of The Amazing Race competence. Of course, at least they didn't get lost on a freaking walking trail.

Steve and Linda appear to find their inner calm in completing the rest of the leg. There is none of the fighting I had predicted. Despite having reason to go to a slow burn while waiting for his wife to walk down a mountain, Steve has learned from his past mistake. Instead, they calmly drive to the pie throwing competition, have a lot of fun searching for the fabled cherries, and express relative contentment when they arrive at the pit stop. They again cry as their love for each other shines through despite their struggles. Clearly, they had hoped for a better showing and no one can question their desire to be on this show and do well. Unfortunately, Linda's age and physical state combined with her sense of direction made her less than the ideal contender. Still, their elimination does not leave their relationship in shambles as was the case with Jennifer and Preston last week.

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