Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Flowers And Robots
By Miss Alli | Season 12 | Episode 9 | Aired on 01.05.2008
Meanwhile, Ron says he's not very good at GameBoy, so maybe they should do the flowers. They ask a guy for directions, and eventually, they talk him into accompanying them.
Finally, Nick arrives back at the station, and they can leave. As they read the clue, Don reports that they're behind the other teams by roughly ten minutes. So...not too bad, considering he also left last. They get a cab for the temple.
Jen and Nate and Ron and Chris are both on foot and headed toward the flower shop. Awesomely, Nate and Jen get to a flower shop and are like, "Let's ask at this flower shop and try to find out where the flower shop is!" And then it turns out that...this is the flower shop. You know, if Jen were played by Goldie Hawn and Nate were played by Chevy Chase, some of their behavior would actually be sort of funny. Inside, Nate says -- and I'm quoting here -- "Holy shnikies." There's something about the word "shnikies" that makes me feel like I shouldn't be saying it, like I'm going to offend someone. Like someone is going to email me this week and be like, "AHEM, the Shnikies are a proud group of former Lutherans now living in the Bronx, where they perform native dances and blah blah blah THAT IS NOT FUNNY." So I apologize in advance to the League Of Holy Shnikies. (It might sound weird to you, but I've been reading Under The Banner Of Heaven, you see.) (NOW I REALLY WILL GET ANGRY EMAILS! Shit! I am TOTALLY KIDDING! I don't even read!) Nate and Jen begin sniffing around.
Nick and Don open the Detour, and Nick has no confidence that he's going to be able to identify a real flower. He thinks maybe the robots would be better, and Don agrees. This immediately strikes me as...not the best decision. Grandpas are more known for gardening than for robot-wrangling, dude. Grandpas watch those segments on 60 Minutes about how there are too many buttons on remote controls these days, and they like them. (Also, they like it when Andy Rooney ruminates on presidents' names, as he did just before this episode. Wouldn't it be hilarious if there were a Huckabee, Nebraska? Ha ha ha! Andy Rooney needs Operation Ice Floe, you guys. Really bad.)
Ron and Chris find the flower shop with an assist from a clerk, to whom Chris says "arigato so much." Heh. Chris has her dad start by blowing his nose. Hey, a clean slate, right? Chris and Ron go upstairs, since Nate and Jen are downstairs.
Nick offers to carry Don's bag to speed up the team, and Don agrees. Don interviews that he's afraid of letting Nick down, and in a segment that, in fairness to Nick, seems hugely edited down from something else, he says he's afraid of letting himself down, and it would be letting himself down if he didn't help his grandfather. They kind of made it seem like Don was like, "I'm afraid of letting Nick down," and Nick immediately said, "Well, I'm just afraid of letting myself down," which I suspect is not quite what happened. I don't think Nick is really the "shut up, old man" type.