***SPOILERS***

Do I really need to warn of spoilers anymore?

1. The Ice Bar thing was cool. I told ECD that Gus/Hera would probably make up time on that task after getting lost in Stockholm.

2. Detour: Ah, Ikea - the best thing to come out of Sweden since ABBA. And the great Race equalizer - bunching because of normal business hours. Then the beauty of seeing teams sleeping in the street. Now that’s the Race I know and love - enough with the cushy hotels!

The task: Count it/Build it. I would have taken one look at the bins with the pots and animals and immediately opted for building the desk. “If you build it, you will win!” kept running through my head when I watched the counting teams struggle to get that magic number and the clue. I’ve built enough furniture that I’m darned sure that would be faster, especially with two people. That said, Gus/Hera had the best teamwork on that - her assessment of lead/assist was spot on and it’s why they were able to move up.

3. Yield! Too early for anyone to want to use that. I still wish it would go away.

4. Roadblock: Poor Lena. Really, you have no real concept of how long it takes teams to perform some of the tasks. When someone (Bolo? Donald?) said it took them 5 hours on the detour, I was amazed that they counted so long before they switched to building. But 8 hours unrolling hay bales had to be just dreadful. And I wonder how long the other teams spent on that one as well.

And then another first for TAR - Phil goes into the field to stop a team. I’m very sad...but we’re getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?

5. Pit Stop: Team #1 is Hayden/Aaron. And they win a cruise - I’m very meh on this prize thing on every leg, but I guess someone needs to pay for the show, right? Yay for corporate sponsors! Philiminated are the sisters, whom I really liked and I thought had the potential to be in the final four.

6. Snark: Oh, Jonathan you are quite the jerk. Why Victoria ever married you is a complete mystery. I wonder how embarrassed you are to see yourself on TV. He is the worst Racer EVER - he surpasses Flo and Colin combined for the title of Most Hated Racer, I think.

Now that the sisters are gone, I don’t know who I’m favoring.

ADDED LATER: I forgot to mention the hilarity of Bolo’s counting skillz. And I was very excited by the appearance of the tandem bikes, but that turned out not to be nearly as amusing as FloZach and the Asshats struggle with the bikes in Vietnam in Season 3.