The rivalry between brothers Sam and Dan and Globetrotters Flight Time and Big Easy looks like it's heating up. (CBS)

It’s been building for weeks, and now the rivalry between the duo of Harlem Globetrotters and brothers Sam and Dan is set to boil over.

This season of The Amazing Race, Sam and Dan have made little secret about their disdain for Big Easy and Flight Time. There’s no real telling why or exactly when the team of gay brothers had their fallout with the Globies, only that it’s been going on for a while now.

Until this episode, however, it seems like the rivalry was one-sided. The Globies were competitive, but never seemed to be antagonized. However, the first signs of a full-blown battle were suddenly cropping up as Big Easy talked about his disgust for Dan yelling at Sam during the hay-bale challenge in Sweden.

Still, things were on simmer as the five remaining teams headed to the Baltic republic of Estonia. For the first 40 minutes of the episode, four of the teams were having minor issues at best.

Only Gary and Matt – especially Matt – struggled with the first few challenges. First, after finishing off the last leg in last, but not being eliminated, this team endures a speed bump. The good news was that it was aboard a Saunabuss – which is exactly what it sounds like. The bad news is Dad Gary made everyone on board uncomfortable.

Gary and Matt bid adieu this week -- but not before taking a sauna, which is nice. (CBS)

Then once back on course, we find out that Matt, the big, pink-haired farm kid, apparently doesn’t know what a candelabra (or candle-a-bra, as Matt thought it was pronounced) is. In a medieval clubhouse, Matt was asking fake knights for help, but they were having none. By the time he finally figured out that clue, the other teams were long gone.

Compounding matters, Matt rushed through reading the next clue on a scroll printed with invisible ink. The team went to the next location, but not the right spot there, and again spent too long at a clue site. Basically, their elimination was sealed right then. (But the other teams could learn from Greg and Matt’s attitude throughout – they were there as much to grow as people and to strengthen their relationship. Just tremendous.)

Instead, the focus was clearly on the growing animosity between the two other men-only teams. At the detour challenge – a choice of mud volleyball or shooting radishes at a target (Go Estonia!) – little time was spent on leaders Cheyne and Meghan. (For a team that has won a ton of challenges, I knew almost as little about them as I did at the start of the race. Are they that dull?)

Instead, there was a back-and-forth edit between the next two teams – Sam and Dan and the Globetrotters – as they battled to win five points in the volleyball pit.

(And during Sam and Dan’s time in the mudbog, there was a curious bit of pixilation going on – both guys, stripped to their skivvies, had certain areas blurred out. Why, CBS?)

The Globies got to five first, but got turned around the wrong way. Meanwhile, Dan and Sam found the pit stop and headed in the right direction. However, Big Easy and Flight Time began making up ground on the boys, until finally Big Easy got tangled up with Dan and both men were sprawling on a narrow walkway. Dan was able to keep going forward – Flight Time fell into the bog.

At the mat, Dan and Sam finished in second, the Globetrotters third. However, host Phil Keoghan asked if there was any “dirty play”. Big Easy claimed that Dan threw an elbow to push Flight Time off, but Dan said he just came up from behind.

Whatever happened, Big Easy is definitely angry now, talking about how he’ll run the brothers over if they stand in his way again. And you don’t want anyone 6-foot-10 and 260 pounds that mad at you…

Here’s the Globetrotters’ take on the matter – cooler heads seem to be prevailing:

But not in Sam and Dan’s case:

In this week’s Elimination Station, Garrett helps Marcy get over her fear of the ocean, and the eliminated players hear from Gary and Matt:

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