Looks like Bing has unseated Google Maps as the home of the Amazing Colored Lines, as we see both flights zip across the Pacific at night to Taipei. Phil tells us that when they land, they'll take buses to the Ximending Commercial District, where they'll search not for a clue box, but a certain billboard. The camera zooms in on one animated screen showing a cluster of red and yellow umbrellas, which vanish to reveal four Chinese characters that Phil says spell out their next destination. How hard could that be?
The first flight, China Air, touches down and soon the eight lead teams are on the bus into town. During the ride, Cindy asks Marcus if he's a football player. He demurs, "I used to do a little round ball," and awkwardly adds that he's done some "protection" for famous people. He explains to us that like Ethan and Jenna, he's not going to advertise his past either so as not to become a target, and gives a lengthy justification for how what he said wasn't technically lying, since he's not currently a football player and he used to protect Peyton Manning on the field. As if anyone cares, up to and including Amani, who gives him an eloquent "whatever" look.
When the Eva Air flight lands, the twins and the showgirls make it onto the second bus, leaving the grandparents on what Bill calls "the tail end of the duck." Or, you know, the last bus. I say anyone who uses that expression deserves to be there.
On to the business district, which is dense with buildings, people, and advertisements, particularly a prominent archway painted to advertise Green Lantern. A moment of nostalgia, please, for when that was going to be a good movie. The eight lead teams pile off the bus and scatter, with no idea what they're looking for. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that the busy visual landscape includes an awful lot of red and yellow, including maintenance workers in red-and-yellow conical hats. Ernie and Cindy walk right to the square with the clue billboard overhead, Cindy muttering from their instructions, "Look up for your next clue" and completely failing to notice the red-and-yellow billboard looming over the entire intersection. The eagle-eyed snowboarders, however, spot yellow-and-red undershorts peeking over the pants of a shirtless garbage man and ask him for a clue, but get no help there. As Jenna and Ethan reach the central intersection right below the billboard, Jenna says, "It has to be in some sort of central location." She's correct, but then they walk right on past it. Marcus spots the right billboard and is like, that can't be it, right? but then he and Amani keep going too. Other teams are also lost, and Jennifer and Justin are lost and bickering. "It's just the beginning," Justin sighs. Jennifer says she could care less, and Justin interviews, with his sister right there, that the challenges of the race are exhausting enough without the added challenges of their relationship. More bickering, and it's that most tiresome of all bickering varieties, that being bickering about bickering. These two are going to have a long race, no matter how many legs they run.













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