At the top of the mountain, Kendra gets to the end of the locks and discovers that she apparently missed her lock, so she has to start all over again. And Rebecca actually has the same problem. So this is where it isn't pure luck, because if they missed the lock, then it wasn't a crapshoot; they were probably not as careful as they could have been. When Freddy starts to give advice about going through the locks slowly and carefully, Kendra yells at him, to no one's surprise. ["In her defense (…I know), he had that creepy Dad States The Obvious tone going again. Shut it, Professor Higgins." -- Sars] Finally, Kendra manages to remove her lock from the rope, so they're off. As Freddy and Kendra are leaving, Floden and Aaron are arriving at the Roadblock. "Oh, you got your work cut out for you guys," Freddy says. And I'm sure that really helped the morale situation. Floden takes the Roadblock, as I believe it was calculated that she had to. As she gets going, Aaron points out the obvious, which is that if Floden can undo the lock before Hornio, they'll be right back in the game. Meanwhile, Nuance laments the possibility that everyone might wind up on the same bus to Xi'an, making it a pure footrace.

Elsewhere, however, Kris and Jon find their way onto a bus to Xi'an that leaves without anyone else, even though it looks like Nuance arrives sort of right as they're going. Nuance finds a new bus, though, so they're on their way as well, not far behind my favorite team. And Nuance is in a purple bus to match Kendra's bandanna, which she isn't even wearing. Go, my favorite team, go! On the bus, Kendra whines that she needs a hug, so Freddy pulls her into his lap. Oh, honestly. I'm not against the hugging, but the pouting is more than a little putrid.

Back up on the mountain, Floden and Rebecca are still locked (hee) in combat. But wait -- Floden gets her key stuck. She pulls and she complains and she yanks and she flips out, and eventually, she breaks the key off in the lock. Ah, well. There's some karma for you. It's Flo-licious.

Commercials. Things that don't go together for me in a movie? Passion and James Garner. I'm just saying.

When Floden reports to Aaron that her key broke, she asks him what the clue says about what to do if you need another key. To my surprise, there actually are such instructions, which say to head for the reception desk at a nearby hotel. Aaron and Floden take off walking. El Hornio urges Rebecca to take advantage of the opportunity to improve their lot.