Sigmund Freud

The Austria leg features several popular culture references: the Ferris wheel scene in Orson Welles’ The Third Man; the Villa Trapp, home to the von Trapp family singers that inspired The Sound of Music and more obliquely, Dick van Dyke’s chimney sweep in Mary Poppins.

Jet and Cord make another bad flight choice, gambling that the direct flight to Vienna, scheduled to arrive 35 minutes later, might beat the non-direct flight that all the other racers select.

Might have worked, but didn’t. The cowboys are forced again to make up time. Selecting the right Detour option saves them from a last-place finish.

For the Detour, racers can either eat a meal of weiner schnitzel and chocolate cake during a 12-minute Ferris wheel ride or lug a couch from the Freud museum to the University of Vienna. Though the meal option sounds easier, experienced racers should beware of food challenges.

A 12-minute meal doesn’t sound tough when it is not owl-brains or some other slime, but weiner schnitzel is heavy. Violin music playing in your ears and the movement of the Ferris wheel car can’t make it easier.

All teams who opt for the “easy meal” have to go back and lug the analyst’s couch.

The Roadblock is easy this week. One team member dresses as a chimney sweep and lowers a rope three times down a chimney and gets a little soot blown on him. Here is Chim-Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins in Dick van Dyke’s worst British accent in motion picture history.

Kynt and Vyxsin bicker throughout this leg of the race. I was sure their relationship was over. She berates him for his driving and he whines all through the streets of Vienna. Yet they finish third and vow to keep bickering. Spare us!

My cowboys finish fifth with Gary and Mallory behind them, the last team to arrive. However, as I suspected, this leg was a non-elimination round.

Mallory’s enthusiasm is growing on me, so I’m glad to see them race another day.