Abbie & Ryan and Brent & Josh meet the Ivan the Terrible guards. I'm kind of surprised they're the same ones; shouldn't there have been a shift change by now? I guess I'm assuming their function is in any way official, even in a ceremonial sense and that they're not just two bored Muscovites who don't know what century it is. After reading the Detour clue, both teams agree to work together on the library task, but then Ryan notices from the clue that the library closes at 4:00 PM. And if it's not that time already, it will be soon. "Guess we're swimming," Abbie & Ryan both say resignedly. We're reminded of how these two teams are working together for the remainder of the leg, and Abbie explains how you develop a friendship with people under difficult circumstances. And, I would imagine, when you're trapped in an overseas airport together for twelve hours. With, and this is key, no electronic devices.

James & Abba finish another attempt, or possibly the same attempt we left them in the middle of a moment ago. The coach is either on the fence about them or possessed of a good sense of drama (which I suppose you need if you're going to coach synchronized swimming), so she waits a good long time before giving them the thumbs-up and their clue. Upon opening it, James turns to the swimmers hanging from the edge of the pool and announces in his best radio voice (which, as I've noticed, is pretty good), "Girls, we're going to the Tree of Love. Who's going to join us?" The dancers, as the saying goes, laugh.

Natalie finally undoes the last lock with a groan of "Bloody hell, finally." They're all mock-crabby with each other, but now that they have their clue in third place it starts being funny again as Nadiya has Natalie hang a lock back up on the tree to commemorate the visit of an incompetent Sri Lankan. In a post-leg interview, Nadiya assures us, "We get really upset at each other but we just bounce back. We fight like a married couple, we make up like little kids, so it's a perfect relationship." Natalie, with a frozen smile: "...Yeah..."

The two trailing teams get to the pool. Abbie, with her dance background, isn't too concerned about learning the routine. Brent, however, is already in way over his head, if you'll pardon the expression. But Ryan says, "When you jump into a cold pool and a synchronized swim team from Russia is 25 yards away, you tend to perk up. It just clicked for me." With his girlfriend sitting right there, he says this. Meanwhile, Josh & Brent are already getting tired. So much for running the leg together, right?