Episode Report Card Miss Alli: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Shop Till You Drop
By Miss Alli | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 04.23.2002
Here come Danny and Oswald, our last team. They arrive at the flag just before the clue is available, much to the consternation of other teams who have been standing around for an hour. Oswald points out that the other teams were in great admiration of their relaxed attitude about showing up, whereas in fact, they got there as quickly as they could and were essentially just running behind. Ah, there's nothing like happy accidents that add to one's mystique.
At 8:00 AM, everybody tears open the clue. It tells them to go to Murray House, an "example of Western architecture." Boston seems to get out and get going in their cab first, while Cha-Cha-Cha carefully looks at a map to try to find the place themselves before they go. It seems to me that this could be a good idea, given that if you start with at least a vague notion of where you're going, you're better equipped to catch it if your driver (even one who claims to know right where to go) starts to screw up. The Teeth, to provide contrast and prove my point perfectly, jump in a cab with a non-English-speaking driver and take off, despite not having any idea where they're actually going. And that's sort of stupid, y'all. Without anything to go on, they wind up gambling on the idea that the "Western District" of Hong Kong described in their guidebook will be the home of the Murray House and its "Western architecture."
Everybody jumps in cabs, with Wil worrying the entire time about what other teams are doing (shock value: zero).
In the Thunk cab, Dave mentions to Gary "how calm, cool, and collected Cha-Cha-Cha was." "I kinda hated to see that," Gary bitters, but Dave just admiringly says, "They're Zen, they're so Zen." Oswald, in the Cha-Cha-Cha cab, agrees that he and Danny are "more harmonious." Gary goes on to complain: "It just seems like Cha-Cha-Cha spends all their nights in a spa. And we're sitting here, like, sweating like hogs." Would those be Sweathogs? Because if they would, Gary is totally the Horshack.
Teeth cab. Blake and Paige have absolutely no clue where they're going. That is not good.
Boston, Thunk, and Taraweasel arrive at the Murray House at the same time, and after Gary appears to inadvertently bump Tara on his way running by, Wil actually hauls off and shoves Gary. Wil, you are such a dork. And no matter how valiant you try to be in protecting Tara's honor, she's still not going to sleep with you, so GIVE IT UP. Gary pushes back. Wow, here's a real clash of the Titans, in terms of sheer toughness. Unsure what's with the shoving, Tara weakly but correctly points out that the boys are now shoving each other over "ten seconds." They all finally escape this little WWF moment and open the clue, which is a Detour. Now, first, I realize we have to answer all of those of you with your hands up, asking, "What's a Detour?" Well, listen to Phil, as he and his black turtleneck and black leather jacket (because Phil's mine, I walk the line) inform you that a Detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. This week's choice, a classic Tortoise/Hare (as explained in last week's recap), is called Dragon or Lion. In Dragon, you and your partner paddle a relatively short course in a dragon boat that's normally piloted by about twelve guys. In Lion, you tromp a long course through the streets holding up one of those long lion puppet-ish deals that symbolize the Chinese New Year in your stereotypical American representation of such things. So the boat is a short distance traveled the hard way, whereas the lion is a long distance traveled the easy way.