Episode Report Card Sara M: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Idol hands
By Sara M | Season 18 | Episode 7 | Aired on 04.02.2009
For the first part, the teams have to build their barricades. Brendan seems to take the lead for Tempura while J.T. does so for Jalapeño. The tribes observe each other's progress and copy each other, and then there's a cheesy barricade-building montage that takes us to the end of the first round. For the second round, we've got Taj throwing to Joe, who throws through a barricade to J.T., who throws through a barricade to Sydney, who throws to Stephen. On Tempura, Debbie is throwing to Brendan, who throws through the barricade to Tyson, who throws through the barricade to Douche, who throws to Sierra. Probst says go, and Joe's first throw hits the frame and shatters in J.T.'s face. This looks ridiculously dangerous. What a terrible idea. Tyson's throw to Douche also breaks, leaving him trying to catch pointy pig shards. On second thought, maybe this is a great idea after all. J.T. manages to get a pig through the second barricade, only for Sydney to drop it. Tempura, meanwhile, gets a pig through for the first point of the game. Sydney drops another pig, and while it's easy to blame her for Jalapeño falling behind, J.T. isn't exactly giving her easy throws and that ceramic pig can't be easy or comfortable to catch. Meanwhile, Tempura gets two more points.
Jalapeño gets its first point, while Tempura gets a fourth point although Douche takes a ceramic pig to the sternum to do so. He makes sure that everyone knows about his noble sacrifice through loud cries of pain and agony. Sydney also takes a pig to the chest, but chooses to suffer in silence. She may be boring and kind of dumb, but at least she's not obnoxious. Soon, both tribes are getting pigs through regularly, but Tempura still has a few points over Jalapeño. Until Tyson breaks two pigs and Brendan breaks one. Jalapeño's pigs stay intact, and the score is now tied. Douche drops a pig (ha ha!) and now Jalapeño is ahead! Hooray! The bean curse is back! Then Tyson breaks another pig and it looks like Jalapeño will win this for sure. But Tyson recovers and gets a few more pigs through while Joe falters and breaks a pig. And then another pig. But he's so strong in challenges, right, Syd? It's enough for Tempura to take the lead back with just a minute left in the challenge. But Jalapeño is right on their heels ... until Joe breaks yet another pig. Clearly, people are starting to panic as time runs out, as both Tyson and J.T. break a pig each. As the time ticks down, J.T. breaks another pig while Tyson gets one through to Douche, who holds it aloft and yells out "we got it. YOU BETCHA!" before tossing it to Sierra as the time runs out. Probst proclaims Tempura the winners, and they celebrate, with the young ladies going to hug Brendan and Debbie jumping on Douche. No one hugs Tyson, most likely because he's weird.