The Amazing Race: Not So Fast, Fast Forwarders!

This week: Madagascar! Sadly, there are no wisecracking penguins. The teams are sent to find the Black Angel statue, which, as you'll notice from the picture, is white. This doesn't cause as much confusion as you'd expect, because their cab drivers know what it is, and all the teams have to do is run in a straight line once the cabs drop them off. Sometimes this race just isn't hard enough.

Anyway, when the teams arrive, they are confronted with a new twist in the game: the Intersection. This forces each team to band together with another team to complete a task. Rob and Kimberly hook up with Tyler and James, Lyn and Karlyn work with Mary and David, and, because Dustin and Kandice have made no friends, they are stuck with the Chos. But this works out great for the Chos and the queens – they're all good racers, and they work very well together, so they power through the Detour with no problems. See, Chos, this would be an alliance to make. The queens are smart about the race, and the Chos are smart about everything else, including geography. Everybody wins!

Rob and Kimberly and Tyler and James all decide to go for the Fast Forward, and, in the great tradition of all disgusting food challenges, it involves eating a plate of cow lips. This race really discriminates against vegetarians and vegans. Why can't they have some disgusting vegan options? (Liz will tell you that there's no such thing as a disgusting vegan option, but I say five pounds of soy cubes would give racers pause.) The teams have trouble, of course – Kimberly especially struggles – but they keep themselves going by talking about how far ahead of the other teams they're going to be.

In a nice bit of irony (mmm, tastes like cow lips), the Fast Forwarders actually check in behind Dustin and Kandice. Mary and David check in fifth, but they still have their thirty-minute penalty, so it comes down to them and Lyn and Karlyn for elimination. Lyn and Karlyn make it inside the penalty time, so Mary and David have to go home. And it's sad, but it was inevitable. Now, thankfully, the Six-Pack alliance is over, and the Chos can go back to running their own race. They'll save quite a lot of time by not waiting around for David and Mary, that's for sure.

Best moment of the episode: Phil dancing at the pit stop. He really knows how to bring the party, doesn't he?