Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Two Men, a Bad Plan, A Canal, Panama
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.04.2011
At the market, Ernie and Cindy finish their sandals in third place, with Jeremy and Sandy so close behind them that both teams end up reading their Cathedral Square clues at almost the same time. "Is that where we were?" Jeremy asks, remembering the wrong place they went to before. Sandy thinks so. Back to their taxis, and Cindy urgently begs their driver Juan not to tell the other team's driver where they're going. Even so, it soon becomes a taxi race. Sandy uses her favorite macro, "We're last." Not for long, though, because Andy and Tommy are being driven pretty far out of their way.
At Cathedral Square, Marcus thinks they have to join in with the dance, and he makes an awkward go at it before Amani suggests checking out the dance necklaces. Amani sees the Balboa on the coin necklaces. Marcus is noticing how sweaty they are, and even takes the liberty of blotting one dancer's face with his handkerchief. "Thank you," she says. "You're welcome," Marcus says. "Now tell me where the clue is." In exchange for touching her face with a chunk of cloth whose provenance she knows nothing about?
Well, Andy and Tommy have gone all the damn way to the Panama Canal. I'm sure the Amazing Editors are thrilled about this, because this way they get to show all the massive container ships navigating the narrow canal. Andy and Tommy, however, are uncertain, especially when they get out of the cab and see nothing that looks like a Pit Stop. Some guy who looks semi-official comes over to offer his help, and directs them to a statue of Balboa at Avenida Balboa, although even he isn't sure that's what they're looking for. "We blew it," the snowboarders say as they hurry back to their taxi and tell their cabbie to take them to Balboa Avenue. "We trusted our taxi driver a little too much," Tommy says. Sure, blame the driver.
The third- and fourth-place teams arrive at Cathedral Square and join Amani and Marcus, who remain flummoxed at the dance performance. That makes six of them.
But at least they're no worse off (and arguably better) than Andy and Tommy, who pull up to the Balboa statue next to a main highway. "And there the Pit Stop isn't," Andy says. Nothing for it but to head on back to the square, and hope everyone else missed it too.
Which, so far, they are. Back at the square, Ernie and Cindy are coming to the same conclusion about Balboa. Sandy's closely examining the dancers' outfits as well, saying, "I don't care if I'm getting in these women's way." Considering she's pointing at a medallion hung right in front of one of their crotches, I'm surprised she didn't end that sentence with some other word. Ernie and Cindy run back to Juan at their taxi, almost certainly about to suffer the same fate as Andy and Tommy. Jeremy, however, is copying a sketch of the building shown on the biggest medallion. He leads Sandy back to their taxi as she nay-says, "If that's not it, we're done." Their driver recognizes Jeremy's second-hand representation of Panama Viejo, though, so they're actually in better shape than anyone. Ernie and Cindy tell Juan not to tell the other driver where they're going, as though they're the ones with the good info. Amani and Marcus finally decide to cut bait and get into their taxi, telling their driver to take them to Balboa Avenue and not feeling at all confident about it. But at least they're in the same boat as the other teams. Except that Jeremy and Sandy's driver gets on the cell phone with Juan and tells him in Spanish that they're going to Panama Viejo. Sandy has her suspicions. Amani also seems to have gotten wind of the Panama Viejo call tree that's going on. Juan tells Ernie and Cindy Panama Viejo, and as Cindy puts it, "Someone called and now he knows something and we're going somewhere." And that's how you get to the finals.