Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Stumbling Toward Ecstasy
By M. Giant | Season 20 | Episode 11 | Aired on 05.06.2012
The sun rises and a guy pulling a rickshaw loaded with three cylindrical containers the size of tom-toms rolls up, parks his conveyance and gives them clues from inside his robe. Which just leaves me more curious about what's inside those baskets. They read, "Make your way to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park" to find the Atomic Bomb Memorial Dome. The music gets serious and slow as we skip seeing any more pointless travel across town. The racers arrive en masse at a park where the skeleton of a stone building's domed top still looms starkly over the area. Phil tells those of us who don't know, "On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II." Notice the use of the passive voice there. We certainly wouldn't want to accuse anyone of anything, least of all the country these racers are from. We see a few black-and-white photos of the aftermath of the citywide devastation as Phil adds, "Although the city has been rebuilt, remnants of the destructive blast still remain, including buildings like this: the Hiroshima Peace Memorial." What an ironic coincidence that we dropped the bomb there. Phil says the structure hasn't been touched since the explosion, either because it's been preserved as an historical landmark or because it's as hot as the inside of a microwave oven. A ceremonial bell rings and we see an old black-and-white photo of the building before it was half leveled, at which time it was a lot larger. Cut to the racers standing and contemplating it somberly. Dave talks about the "lasting impact" of being here, which is an infelicitous choice of words and Vanessa talks about wanting to "be more responsible to prevent things like this form ever happening again." Yes, Vanessa, please be more careful next time. I'm terribly disappointed in you for nuking Japan. Brendon the physicist talks about his studies of radiation and how hard it is to comprehend the damage radiation can do. Although now I understand why he insisted on getting engaged to an individual who is so prone to meltdowns. Dave remarks, "A lengthy war was thwarted, but many lives were lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and many lives were lost at Peal Harbor." That's right, Dave, we didn't start the fire. Vanessa talks about how seeing the building makes it more real and tangible. Art. "That, that was powerful, man." A-bombs, boy, I don't know. The bell rings again and Rachel talks about the triumph of the human spirit, which is a meaningless, empty, all-purpose cliché if I've ever heard one. After a decent interval for these Americans to Just Stand There Quietly For A Minute And Think About What They Did, a man in a guard uniform shows up to hand out the next clues, which they accept politely. Their new instructions are telling them to travel to Osaka, but they're mumbling so much I can't hear much else of what they're saying. Fortunately Phil narrates that they're all taking a bullet train to the city, where they'll have to get to the TV 8 studio to find their next clue. Think we're about to see a Japanese game show "Switchback?"
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