Of course, before that happens, Kisha and Jen have to find the U-Turn sign. But now they're coming out of the Opera House yelling in all directions in terrible Mandarin as they run along the sidewalk. Power-line notes of It's Right Behind You, Idiots accompany the shot of the place they're supposed to be.

Margie has finished up with Luke, and he really doesn't look any better than she does. Shut up, Margie. She snipes at him as he tries to help her into her costume. Shut up some more, Margie. Not for the first time, I wonder if Luke's deafness isn't a lifestyle choice.

Jaime and Cara have arrived at the opera house. But Jaime doesn't see a marked path. Nor do I see the right opera house. Instead of looking at a traditional-style building in an urban setting, we're looking at a low silver dome isolated on a hill, which any idiot knows is the National Opera. They get inside and are quickly set straight, with Jaime predictably snarling, "Stupid taxi driver" as they walk back to the street to find a new cab. Hey, lady, you were the ones who communicated your destination with a high C. Anyway, they have no way of knowing this, and I only know because of Google maps, but it's only about seven minutes away from the right opera house. But why pass up an opportunity to berate a cabbie, as Jaime always says.

The Opera Master seems satisfied with Margie and Luke's makeup jobs, because he gives them their clue in third place. I hope it reads in part, "Shut up, Margie."

Tammy and Victor find the food stalls, and then the clue box once they're out of their cab. It's a Road Block. Phil approaches the stall, explaining that the person doing this Road Block "must stare down the gullet of something common in Beijing, but strange and alien to Westerners." He accepts a plate from the vendor and waves a fried grasshopper-kebab at the camera, calling it, "The ultimate in Chinese delicacies." The chyron simply calls the Road Block "Eat Street Food," while Phil says it's about eating "these crispy creatures: grasshoppers [which are fried fully intact], larvae [fat as your thumb, if you have really fat thumbs], scorpions [black and speared on a long skewer], and starfish." A clean plate will earn them their next clue. You know, one of the things I've enjoyed about this new season is the lack of challenges that force Racers to eat something large and/or gross. I thought it was a conscious decision to get rid of those, along with other improvements this season like the abridgment of the airport sequences and not casting a bunch of total fucksticks. But now here we are, back in the kind of Fear Factor territory I thought we'd left behind. Again, maybe the producers are getting tired as well. "Eat Street Food," indeed.