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Previously on The Amazing Race, we wasted an hour on one of those pointless "no elimination" legs. We were able to re-confirm a couple of discussion topics, though. Victor and Tammy remain vicious competitors whom the rest of the challengers distrust. Christie and Jodi are the worst remaining team with Kisha and Jen also needing to step up their game a lot. And all of the women on the show look good in their underwear. I would like to extend my thanks to CBS for their explicitly demonstrating this with last week's T&A challenge.

We start tonight in the largest city in Siberia, specifically the coliseum there that is the largest theater in Russia. The bad news at the start of the show is that contestants have thrown some clothes back on. We've gone from thongs to parkas, and I'm certain the show's ratings are taking the appropriate hit for it. Mother/son tandem Margie and Luke are the first to depart at 12:18 a.m., and they discover they are being sent to India for the next leg of the race. A few minutes later, Victor and Tammy head to the airport. Out of the seven remaining teams, these are clearly the best thus far. They have won a combined 60% of the legs thus far with father/son duo Mel and Mike and the flight attendants being the other winners. How this happened with Christie and Jodi is one of the season's great mysteries to date.

The order of departures this week is the cheerleaders at 12:30 a.m. followed by Mel and Mike at 1:01 a.m., the stuntmen right on their heels at 1:02 a.m., the college athletes at 1:28 a.m. and the flight attendants bringing up the rear at 3:09 a.m., almost three full hours behind the team in first. The good news for our last place contestants is that there will be bunching as no flight leaves until 7 a.m.. The bad news is that they will have to complete a Speed Bump. This is a challenge in India that none of the other teams will perform; the women are being punished for their performance on the last leg that should have rightfully eliminated them. It is quite difficult to imagine them surviving this week. Someone else is going to have to lose a passport or something for this to happen. I used to say stuff like that as a joke until it actually happened last season.

We skip the airport drama this week and find the participants heading straight to a tree named Peepli Ka Pedh. I can't say I had ever thought to name a tree before. Since I'm currently looking out a window at about 20 of them, I find myself realizing that if I ever tried, it would be like the Seven Dwarves. I'd run out of names almost immediately and be forced to call one of the oak trees Doc. I'm pretty sure that if I did this, a room with rubber walls would be in my near future. Resolved: giving trees names is unwise.

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