New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

First off the boat and into a cab are Meghan and Cheyne but all the teams are close behind. They are headed to Mustpeade to use the provided keys to open a door into the Brotherhood of the Black Hat, a secret, centuries-old society of merchants, like Wal-Mart greeters. The dating couple gets there and with Sam and Dan following behind. They get inside and are faced with a Roadblock, just as Ericka and Brian and Matt and Gary show up. There is no sign of Flight Time and Big Easy.

The Roadblock requires one person to locate a numbered candelabra, the corresponding room and find what appears to be a blank scroll of paper. They have to figure out that heat from the candle makes the clue appear. Once again, this race is making teams use their minds more than previously it seems.

Cheyne and Sam get to the cellar, or what appears to be the rehearsal space for Medieval Times. I wonder if the producers just scour Europe for actors between jigs at Renaissance Fairs to do their bidding every season because the last three episodes alone have featured Holland's Best Dance Crew, casting rejects from the upcoming Thor movie and now these jokers.

Gary and Matt see that the Speed Bump is waiting for them. Earlier, I lamented that the "soup" Speed Bump for the poker girls was a gimme. Well, this one isn't much more challenging. They have to find a sauna bus and take a five minute sauna with locals. Five minutes??? That's all this challenge requires. Aside from really enjoying this season and its teams, the producers are 0-for-2 on the Speed Bumps.

Ericka and Flight Time represent their teams on the Roadblock. Matt and Gary find the bus, disrobe (on the bus, not the street), wrap themselves in towels and start their sauna. Gary proceeds to explain his Finnish roots to the disinterested locals and nervously sings a song about saunas, while Matt looks sheepishly away from the attractive blonde girl sitting next to him. He is undoubtedly thinking about baseball and his grandmother to avoid an embarrassing situation from arising. And judging by Gary's pronunciation of sauna as "so-na," Frances McDormand earned her Oscar.

The Roadblock is proving difficult for all of them. First, Flight Time's instincts lead him to start a rubbing on the scroll, thinking the message will appear and then using the candle to look at it. As he puts down the scroll in frustration because there is nothing there, the camera lingers and we see that the message is slowly appearing. Cheyne, Ericka and Sam find their rooms and are on the right track by using the candle but using it for the light and not the heat. Cheyne and Ericka are the first ones to see the message (Pikk Hermann Tower Garden) and leave the task.

Matt and Gary finish the Speed Bump and return to the Roadblock. Clearly, Gary is no Robert Young because this father doesn't know best because Gary tells Matt that he has this one. The error of his ways is show immediately as Matt ignorantly wanders the cellar looking for a "cande...la...bra." He repeats the incorrect pronunciations over and over again, even going as far as to ask the minstrel sitting there if he is the candelabra and if he can take him to a special room. That sounds an awful lot like an indecent proposal to me. For a team trailing due to the Speed Bump, this type of delay is bad.

Continued:       1       2       3       4