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Welcome to Leg 8 of The Amazing Race, which hopefully will involve a bit more action that the last leg. As you will remember, we last left our teams on a sugar plantation on the island of Mauritius, with Team Kentucky once again marked for elimination. Dustin and Kandice are the first to leave at 3 a.m. Their clue directs them to fly to Madagascar. Hmm...I wonder which team is going to name check the movie first? The beauty queens bypass their dented car and take someone else's car. James and Tyler leave next - only five minutes behind. Last week's edit made it seem as if Dustin and Kandice had a much bigger lead. Foreshadow edit of Tyler asking James to check the map and James directs him north. The models wait four minutes for Kimberly and Rob, luckily for them, because the southern route is much faster apparently. The six pack alliance is about one hour behind the first bunch of the teams. And there it is - Mary makes the movie reference. Team Alabama breaks off from the alliance and heads off on their own. All the teams end up on the same flight, as the first flight out is 11 a.m.

Once there, each team takes a taxi to the "Black Angel" which Phil states has been painted white. Ugly American comment alert! Rob states, with authority, that people in Madagascar die younger due to breathing in exhaust fumes and not getting enough protein, which apparently stops brain development. Each of the alliance members passes the Black Angel, due to its color. The models get to the clue box first and encounter another new twist to this season's race - the Intersection. Due to some haggling over the taxi fare, Dustin and Kandice are passed by Rob and Kimberly. This is significant because the Intersection forces two teams to "team up" and perform all tasks together. The models and Rob and Kimberly join forces (hereinafter referred to as Team LA, due to their shared hometown) and the beauty queens are forced to wait for the six pack to find their way to the clue box and team up with one of them. This has the potential not to be pretty!

The clue at the Intersection box contains the second and last Fast Forward, which Team LA decides to take. The Fast Forward requires each of the merged team members to eat a serving of cow lips, a local delicacy. There is a certain amount of irony in Rob ingesting all that protein - I expect him to work smarter from here on in, given his brain being more developed and all. The task turns out to be fairly disgusting - lots of lips, some with hair and teeth still attached. Vomiting and gagging ensue.

Finally, the six pack alliance gets to the clue box. The beauty queens realize that Team Bama will not work with them and essentially mug the Chos into partnering with them (this merged team will heretofore be dubbed Team Buff, because damn - all four of them are in awesome shape). The merged team of David and Mary and Lyn and Karlyn (Team South) are contemplating the Fast Forward. Team Buff takes the detour clue, which contains the following choice; Long Sleep, where the teams must cover eight foam mattresses with mattress covers and then deliver them one mile by foot to a house in the city or Short Letter, where the teams must make and decorate 28 sheets of paper. Racist Alert - one of the beauty queens says to the Chos "you are Asian, we could make paper." I'm guessing whichever one made that statement was not in the running for Miss Congeniality. Awesomely, one of the Chos says "Let's just go" in such a dismissive way.

Lyn talks Mary out of the Fast Forward, rightly pointing out that if they get to the Fast Forward and the other merged team completes it first, they have to double back and will lose time in the process. Team South choose Long Sleep. The covering of the mattresses doesn't take particularly long, as opposed to the Fast Forward task, which is taking Team LA a looooooooooong time. The Chos send Kandice and Dustin off to find a local to help them, as blonde girls will have an easier time, which they do. Team Buff loses their guide, but still manages to find their destination. Team South finds a local too and is off. They have a particularly hard time carrying all eight mattresses together (Team Buff, on the other hand, are carrying four mattresses per two team members). Meanwhile, Team LA is still eating. They decide that they can eat slowly, as each of the remaining teams has to do a detour and a roadblock while they are consuming their protein. Well, Team Buff is done with their detour and gets the clue. First, the teams are released from their forced merger. The clue then directs them four miles to Tohotohobato Ambondrona Analakey, where they will find a clue box in the midst of merchants on steps.

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