| The Amazing Race Australia – Episode Seven
The Leg
  
It’s still dark out and Tyler & Nathan open the first clue of the leg telling teams to head to Dancing House in Prague and search the vicinity for marked 1982 Czech sedans known as Škodas. Once they find the cars under the bridge, their next clue will be on the dash.
Matt & Tom, who leave the Pit Stop in fourth, are told by a local woman that the Dancing House is about a 15 minute walk. Oops. The surfers, after taking a taxi, find the cars and open the clue telling teams to head to Zimni Ice Hockey Rink where they must go up against a Czech national goalie and score once to receive their next clue.
Hours of Operation strike and Chris & Anastasia and Jeff & Luke catch up to Tyler & Nathan when the rink opens at 7:30am.
  
While the first three teams make no progress on the ice, neither are Sam & Renae in finding the cars as they wander about for a while before Renae decides to stop being stubborn and takes Sam’s suggestion to look under the bridge.
Matt & Tom have already found the car, but can’t find the rink until they get stopped by the local authorities a 2nd time after their little run-in in South Africa. After checking them out, the officer decides to lead them straight to the rink.
At the rink, Tyler and Chris finally get the puck in the net and they get their next clue. Teams must now climb up the tower at St. Nicholas Cathedral, stick their heads out the windows and take a photo of a “flagged person of interest” by zooming in on somewhere on the streets below. What the teams don’t know is there are two flagged people, but the correct one is the man waving the yellow and red Race flag.
They head off with Jeff & Luke right behind. Dave & Kelly and Matt & Tom arrive and Dave is getting very frustrated, threatening to quit and threatening to smash the goalie’s face in with the hockey stick. They decide to stick it out instead as Sam & Renae manage to find the rink finally.
  
Jeff & Luke, having paid a guy to lead them, arrive at the tower first. They have to take the photo within 30 seconds of arriving atop the tower. Luke takes the photo of the wrong guy and are handed a clue with their penalty; they must head back down and count how many steps there are in the tower (304) before getting their next clue.
Both Chris & Anastasia and Tyler & Nathan also take the wrong picture, but the surfers also miscount the stairs so they do it again.
After counting, the teams get the clue and the Detour. In both Detours, teams head to the Pilsner brewery.
In Stack Up, teams will go to the factor and correctly stack 2 pallets of beer cartons.
In Stack In, teams will go to the Formanka restaurant at the brewery and eat 18 traditional Czech sausages made from pig’s head, tongue, heart, and liver.
Jeff & Luke immediately choose Stack Up, but Chris & Anastasia and Tyler & Nathan decide the sausages are the way to go… until they actually taste the sausage and then decide to switch.
  
Meanwhile, the bottom three teams are neck and neck. Matt & Tom, having photographed the wrong flagged man as well and wanting to be gentlemen to Sam & Renae who’ve just arrived, tell the girls not to take a photo of the man with a big flag. Which technically is half-bad advice and now the girls think everyone’s out to get them.
As Chris & Anastasia and Tyler & Nathan catch up, Jeff & Luke just finish stacking and get the next clue telling them to head to the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and St. John the Baptist in Kutna Hora.
While the bottom three teams get testy with each other at the factory, the father and son get lost, allowing Chris & Anastasia to arrive at the church first where they encounter the Road Block.
In this Road Block, teams will head up to the attic of the church and then abseil through the ceiling at the altar before receiving the next clue.
  
Anastasia decides to do it and like an angel, comes floating down from the ceiling. She and Chris kiss before opening the next clue telling them to make their way to the Bone Church where “Grant Bowler awaits.”
They head to the church and Grant informs them they are Team #1, but… it isn’t over yet.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Episode Thoughts
This was a great leg. And as Grant said, it isn’t over yet. It is a wonder how TARAu can fit in so much in ~45 minute episodes while TARUS struggles to fill episodes themselves with pointless filler better suited as “Secret Scenes” on CBS.com (ahem, basketball game anyone?). And that’s all thanks to TARAu’s use of extra tasks.
It bears repeating, TARUS has pretty much done away with such nonsense in favor of boring streamlined legs that have a Clue > Road Block/Detour > Detour/Road Block > Pit Stop format.
While this leg maybe isn’t the best example of it, having multiple tasks in one leg in addition to the Road Blocks and Detours can help provide the drama (or lulz) and shake up team standings.
It was also hilariously interesting that being used to seeing teams have figuring how to drive on the left side of the road in the past on TARUS, we had to see teams fumble with driving on the right side of the road and having the driver on the left side of the car on TARAu. A reminder that yes, this is The Amazing Race Australia and yes, these are Aussies.
And both yay and boo to having a TBC/double-leg/superleg this week instead of last week. No, not just so we could enjoy more Melana. But because this could end up being a waste and a bad place to put a double-leg.
From the preview, it appears the clue Grant hands the teams will tell them to take a train to Krakow in Poland. Which inevitably means an equalizer.
I know the main purpose of TBC/superlegs/double-legs are to have less non-elims, but I also like TAR exhausting the teams with them, which in turn would provide more stress and drama situations. If it’s a double-leg and they get to sleep on a train anyway, it’s basically a non-elimination leg with no penalty. Hmph.
It would’ve been much better to have the double-leg continue into the night in Prague (like the China double leg in TAR14) and other than the task at the tower, nothing else required daylight to complete.
And other than that, the leg itself was great.
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