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While Jill & Thomas and Gary & Mallory question the locals for the Peter the Great riddle answer, Brook & Claire have re-arrived at the church and hopped in another cab hopeful they have righted their wrong. Since neither the dating couple nor father/daughter have their bags with them, they run back to the Bank Bridge.

Kat has cleared her second formation as Michael chooses to do the Roadblock and Brook is in for Team HSN. Sadly, Brook and Michael don’t have Gorodki prowess of Kat. She is now done before they have completed one. The Pitstop awaits them on the bastion of the fortress, once again as team number one. Nat & Kat are possibly the strongest team out there this season.

Chad & Stephanie are pleased they found the church so quickly but will undoubtedly be displeased when they get docked time for their cab ride. The question has become which penalty-incurring team will be the last place finisher.

Brook finds her groove both in the game of Gorodki and in celebratory dancing, hamming it up as usual. She clears all three and Kevin is deeply regretting letting his dad do this Roadblock. To add to the situation, not-nearly-as-awesome Nick is now there and starting the Roadblock, along with Stephanie.

With no issue at all, Nick finishes the task and they are on the heels of Brook & Claire. Phil checks the girls in as team number two and the dating couple as number three. I don’t understand the lack of a Speed Bump for Nick & Vicki, the usual added task for non-elimination legs. While I don’t recall Phil mentioning a Speed Bump at the end of the last episode, I just assumed it was edited out. I wonder why this was not part of the leg.

If it weren’t for the time penalties, this Roadblock would be much more dramatic, as Thomas and Gary are the last ones there but having more success than Stephanie and Michael, who has finally cleared their first ones. Even though Thomas finishes before Gary, they have to settle up with their cab and get their bags. This puts Gary & Mallory as team number four.

Jill & Thomas give the cabbie the rest of their Russian money and it isn’t enough. Apparently, backpacks are currency in Russia because their cabbie grabs Jill’s and I have to give Thomas credit for stepping up to him at that point. Just up the way, Michael & Kevin’s cabbie is also trying to claim their backpacks as payment when they don’t have enough money, either.

Meanwhile, Russian taxi drivers aren’t the only ones mad as Stephanie is struggling with the last formation and Chad is quite angry. Jill & Thomas hand over $60 US dollars to the cabbie and finally head to the Pitstop. They are team number five.

For Michael & Kevin $40 US dollars suffices and they are now trying to get to the Pitstop. Chad & Stephanie see them run by right before Stephanie completes the Roadblock. Instead of going through heading back to their cab for their bags, the couple decides to just run for it. Alas, since they failed to pay their cabbie, Phil will not check in them in at the Pitstop.

That leaves Michael & Kevin as the team number…nevermind. Phil points out they broke two rules – paying their cabbie to show them to the tower and then taking a cab from the tower to the church. They are hit with a 30-minute penalty for each. While they wait for an hour to be checked in, Chad & Stephanie have just been saved because they only had one 30-minute penalty. So, they are team number six. That means Michael & Kevin are no longer on the Amazing Race but have plenty of YouTube material.

Next week, Chad & Stephanie are apparently missing, so their reprieve this week may be for nothing, if they can’t get a flight to Oman. Don’t sleep in and miss next week’s episode.

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