Back at the fjord, the boats are approaching the deadweights that are Kevin and Gary. "Boat," Kevin says quietly by way of "signaling" one. He's the first to get into a boat and receive his clue. He's pretty confident, until he gets his first taste of actually using the ascender and discovers it's going to be harder than he thought. Clare's going down while Brook tells her to have fun. "I'm having fun now," she says darkly. Jill and Thomas have arrived, and he's doing this one. Again, Mallory's impressed with their speed. I have to admit that even if they didn't need to use their Express Pass when they did, they're certainly capitalizing on the time it saved them. Claire has gotten her clue from the boat, and Thomas is snapping impatiently at Jill while he's getting rigged up to go down. Considering he's about to be dangling from a 130-foot rope, he'd better hope she doesn't have her scissors on her.

Claire is discovering that it's hard to get her ascender going when she can't even stand on the bow of her boat. Down goes Thomas, swinging against the lower truss on his way down, like the wind is telling him, "Be nice, douchebag." He's soon in the boat, only a few feet lower than Claire on her cable. Jill tells us that Thomas grew up in the mountains, rappelling and whatnot, and he seems to get a good start on the ascender. He's still the lowest, however, below an increasingly frustrated Claire, then Gary, then Kevin in the lead. You can tell from a long-range shot that has each racer's name floating next to them, like the place names on Fringe. Thomas is closing the gap, though, and Claire calls up, "Bam, can't you help me and pull me up?" Probably not. If the race were going to suddenly start letting teammates help each other during Road Blocks in the middle of the seventeenth season, it probably would have told someone.

Nick and Vicki are on their was to the Fast Forward, and Vicki says she's pretty sure everyone did it; "I don't see why not." I'm sure that's true. But when they get to the restaurant and Vicki is almost through the door before seeing the "Fast Forward Taken" sign posted on it, they have no idea what that means. Is someone inside using the Fast Forward? Do they have to wait for someone to come back with the Fast Forward? Has the Fast Forward become taken with a dashing cad from the big city? They stand around looking confused, and even in the post-leg interview, Vicki admits she still has no idea what happened. How is their crew not cracking up? I used to think it would be fun (although exhausting and well beyond my abilities) to be a camera operator on this show, but now that I've seen that you clearly have to have your laugh surgically removed like a de-barked dog, it probably isn't worth it. They decide to bail on this and go to the Road Block, Nick acting all irritated like this situation is anyone's fault but their own.