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The taxi cab ride to the location finds cheerleaders Cara and Jaime acting like the ugly Americans that they are. Their driver is smoking a cigarette since this is legal and culturally acceptable to do so where they are. Because they are bitchy people who want to inflict their beliefs on everyone, however, they immediately start bitching to the camera about it. Finishing the cliché, one of them (I really struggle to tell these two apart) blithely states that she will smile to the taxi driver, hiding what's on her mind behind her grin. At this point, the dude says "Thank you" in perfect English, indicating that he has understood every thoughtless word that came out of her mouth.

The detour this week presents a pair of fascinating options. Russian Bride requires a team to drive one of those clunker cars called a Lada to an apartment complex where they pick up a bride, chauffeur her to a particular church, watch the service, and take a wedding photo, at which point the groom will hand them their next clue. The two challenging aspects of this choice are that the cars are all four-speed transmissions in an age where few people can work a gear shift and the navigation of the unfamiliar area of Siberia. The latter could prove particularly challenging if the weather gets too snowy. Symmetrically, the other challenge involves using a snow plow to maneuver around an obstacle course, cleaning up snow all the way. This one seems like the much quicker choice on the surface, but it could prove quite challenging in execution. I'd be surprised if many teams picked the Russian brides, though.

There is a perception that Victor and Tammy are the Rob and Amber of this season. This is highlighted during a sequence wherein they drive away from the cluebox at the same time as Margie and Luke and Cara and Jaime. To Margie, this seems to mean that the three teams are working together at the moment, a piece of logic I simply do not understand. The mother/son tandem are clearly unified with the cheerleaders, and those two grow annoyed when something happens at a gas station. Cara and Jaime ask the attendant for directions to their next location. Margie shouts to the women that she will wait for them, presuming that Victor and Tammy will follow suit. Instead, they get instructions on how to proceed from a taxi driver who is also at the gas station. Seeing that Cara is still engaged in conversation, they decide to head toward the next clue rather than wait on the others. Margie sees this as unforgivable behavior that demonstrates that they are in this race for themselves and will use the kindness of fellow competitors against them. While I like Margie and Luke better, this is simply asking too much of Victor and Tammy. If you aren't working with them, why should you expect them to wait on you, Margie? It just doesn't make any sense.

Out of the first four teams (the three mentioned above plus this tandem), Mike and Mel are the only duo to choose the bride option. The last three teams at the moment are Kisha and Jen, who also want Russian brides (and who can blame them?), followed by the stunt-brothers and the flight attendants (normalcy has returned after last week). First versus last doesn't matter much since there isn't a lot of separation between the seven teams yet. Christie and Jodi become the third team to choose the Russian bride option while everyone else does their Mr. Plow impersonation. They immediately get in trouble when they pick the wrong group of people to ask for instructions. A bunch of men who "reek of vodka" gladly offer them directions that seem almost certain to lead them straight onto the set of Hostel 3. The ladies realize instantly that they are probably being pranked and one of them summarizes the entire conversation thusly: "That guy touched my butt and asked me my name." How this isn't the title of the episode, I have no idea.

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