Dec 3 2007
Out of Africa
Teams were instructed to fly to Vilnius, Lithuania.
Communication Barrier
Teams ended up vying for seats at an Air France office, and encountered an agent that spoke English, but didn't quite seem to understand some teams' request for the earliest flight possible, which caused a few tense moments, but in the end, all the teams ended up heading to Paris and then taking different connecting flights to Lithuania.
Work in Progress
Ronald, racing with his daughter Christina, continued to struggle with curbing his jerk-like behavior when dealing with her at times. In particular, at the Air France office, he became condescending and rude when she struggled to get their flight booked. He finally seemed happy with the flight she did manage to book, but they actually ended up on the last connecting flight out of Paris, even though they were the first team to start booking their flight to Lithuania.
U-Turn Fallout
Jennifer, racing with her friend Shana, was still uncomfortable about 'Shana's decision' to U-turn Lorena/Jason, and when this 'issue' was raised during bickering among the teams while at the ticket office, the two turn on each other, leading to an argument between them that lasted the entire leg.
Use the Map, Use the Map!
Our niece's favorite show, Dora the Explorer, teaches children how to use a map to 'find their way' which was a lesson that Nathan/Jennifer (adulterous dating couple) apparently did not learn, and as a result, they got seriously lost, losing the slim lead they had arriving in Lithuania. Frankly, many racers in this series could benefit from learning how to read the maps the nice producers of the race give them, and actually using them. Then again, what would this show be without all those navigational errors?
Look Out for that Bus!
In a scary moment, Jennifer decided to reverse in the middle of the street and nearly collided with a bus, causing the tension between her and Shana to escalate even further.
Delivery!
The Roadblock required a racer to find specified people on the streets of Vilnius and deliver packages to them. Each racer was first told to find a Lithuania housewife, who told them to deliver a basket of fruit and bread to a student, who would give them a book to then deliver to either a café, hair salon, hotel or a restaurant. Nicolas, racing with his grandfather Donald, struggled to find the hair salon, and at one point, could only watch helplessly as team after team passed him to complete the task.
Ahhh. . .Love!
Nathan/Jennifer were in rare form this leg, snapping at each other constantly and proving to the world that it's not necessarily love that keeps them together. They couldn't even work well enough to count together, and at one point, Nathan remarked, 'I can't believe what kind of person you turned into. It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen.' And Jennifer countered with the equally endearing, 'Same to you, Nate.'
Product Placement Time
In case we were to forget that Travelocity sponsors this show, it was time to do a major product placement for the company by having the racers find the Travelocity gnome, which they were told they must bring to the pit stop with them.
It's Hard to Step Up!
The Detour required the teams to either count the pickets on a long picket fence during the Lithuania folk festival, where locals would dance and otherwise distract them, or walk a specified distance on stilts. Many teams thought walking on stilts would be the easier and quicker task, but this proved to be an erroneous assumption, especially since if a racer fell off the stilts before reaching the finish line, they'd have to start all over again. It was often painful to watch a racer come crashing down off the stilts, particularly Ronald, who is suffering from a hernia, although he claimed at the start of the leg that it was now 'under control.'
Magic Number
That number would be 717, which was the correct number of pickets on the picket fence for the other Detour task. Simply counting pickets didn't seem to be as easy as it sounded, particularly for teams that couldn't quite work together. Nathan/Jennifer (Jennifer even yelled at a local to 'Shut up!' at one point), and Shana/Jennifer struggled mightily with this task, and Nathan/Jennifer actually had to abandon the task altogether.
Under the Radar
TK/Rachel, who were last at the start of the leg, ended up coming in first and winning a trip to Japan. Even they couldn't believe that they were first, confessing that they had been alone for much of the day, and since they had started last, they had assumed everyone had finished ahead of them. But their steady and error-free racing on this leg proved to be the winning formula.
A Team of One
Teamwork really is essential during the race, and a lack of teamwork can doom you as proven by Shana/Jennifer, who let their argument at the ticket office in Ouagadougou fester and grow until they were actually working at cross purposes with each other. This was especially evident during the Detour task when they couldn't work together enough to figure out a system to accurately count the pickets on the fence, causing them to fall even further behind. In the end, they are the last team to check in and are eliminated.
