I know that 'Amazing Race' episodes don’t exactly have themes but if this episode did have a theme, it would be stereotypes, both broken and confirmed.

After cruelly eliminating two teams last week, Phil was back to his nice (or at least slightly less merciless) self this week. Unless you count the cars…but more on that later.

At the Great Wall of China (as opposed to the Great Wall of Sweden or any other Great Walls you may be thinking of), the teams learned that their next destination was Ulan Bator, capital of Genghis Khan’s old hangout Mongolia.

As the teams set off, we were helpfully reminded of the teams’ relationships and hooks just in case we had sustained any head injuries over the last week. To sum up, Sarah has a disability (his name is Peter), Rob and Kimberly want to move onto the next step of this relationship (fighting and verbal abuse), Duke just loves the gays except when they happen to be his own daughter (but she’s effectively doubled her wardrobe! Who could hate that?) and David and Mary are a couple of simple country folk who are awe-inspired by the brave new wonders of the world around them (foreign lands, dental care).

Oh yeah, and the Zoolanders talked a lot about their former druggiedom. Is that going to be this season’s "When I was in Iraq…"? Will every experience prompt a touching recollection of the time they were selling their shoes to hobos for meth?

Meeting foreigners

While the teams waited for their buses, David and Mary expressed excitement over meeting such new and exotic people. They had never met Asians. They don’t have those in rural Kentucky? Really? They also claim to have never met any gay people. Right, like none of those strapping coalminers David works with have secret boyfriends. The gays are among you, David and Mary, and they’re not all walking stereotypes like the Cupcake Twins Tom and Terry.

Presented with these wondrous specimens of Asians and gays, David and Mary were all too happy to befriend them. Can you imagine what would happen if David and Mary met a gay Asian? Their minds might explode from the amazement of it all. I like that they’re cool with accepting people who are different than they are. Just because they’re small-towners doesn’t mean they’re small-minded.

The lovefest stopped just short of the teams singing "We are the world" as the teams set off for the train station. When they got there, the Beauty Queens tried to be sneaky sneaky and get a better train out than the rest of the teams but the Zoolanders caught them. Not so good at the 'Alias' thing, are ya, ladies, if Cheech and Chong can foil your plans?

Meanwhile Peter basked in the spotlight as he had Sarah show off her bionic leg to the passersby like she was his dancing monkey. “It’s good to have a disability,” he gloated. Yeah, for you maybe. Not so much fun for poor Sarah who has to actually climb walls with the thing and is currently leaking hydraulic oil. But hey, as long as you can show her off to the locals and get on planes first, it’s all good. Right, Petey? What a creep.

Russian technology

All the teams ended up taking the same train to Ulan Bator. Once there, they had to go to a temple and watch a traditional Mongolian dance as performed by a guy with a giant fake head like an employee of Disney World. From there, they had to drive some ancient Soviet military vehicles held together with duct tape and Pritt to their next destination.

The place turned out to be a bit of a schlep to find, as almost everyone had to either ask for directions or bring along a helpful local just to know which fork to take. "We’re on a road to nowhere," said one of the Cupcake Twins. It’s Mongolia; every road is a road to nowhere.

The Zoolanders were the first to experience the joys of Soviet technology as their Russian crap-bucket got a flat tyre. Even worse, their jack didn’t work. A passing Rob and Kimberly offered their jack but that didn’t seem to work either. No wonder it was always a Cold War. With equipment like this, the Russians never had a chance to make it a Hot War. Tom and Terry were also unable to give a hand. "We don’t know how to fix a car," they confessed. Of course they don’t. That might make the Cupcake Twins only 97 percent stereotypical as opposed to 100 percent.

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