Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Couch Trip
By M. Giant | Season 18 | Episode 8 | Aired on 04.17.2011
The sun rises, and five teams board the Lufthansa flight in the morning, with Cord describing him and Jet as "lone rangers again." They figure it's safer, "but when you're all alone, it's either you're gonna win big or lose big." "Either way, we go big," Jet agrees as their Kingfisher flight takes off. Then there's an Amazing Green Line (the one that jinks down to Mumbai) and an Amazing Red Line (the one that goes straight through Delhi) zooming across Southern Asia and Europe all the way to Vienna. Some quick B-roll of architecture and trolleys assures us that yes, we're back in the West, and that first flight lands at 5:35 AM, right on schedule. Teams run through the terminal and then to a parking ramp, where the only cars parked there are seven Ford Foci. Kent and Vyxsin are the first to find them, with clues under the windshield wipers telling them to "Get in and Phil will tell you what you need to know." But how, when Phil's not there? Can we hope that he'll pop up from behind the seat and scare the crap out of them? When they hop into the white one, with Kent behind the wheel, they find Phil speaking to them from a dashboard video screen. Do all 2012 Ford Foci come with Phil as standard equipment? He talks to them about the super-cool-and-not-at-all-product-placed screen system that will help them get their next clue. To find out where they have to go, they just need to put the car into reverse. That'll activate the "back-up camera," which they will be able to use to read the letters laid out on the floor behind each car. Not for nothing, Phil adds that the winners of this leg will win a pair of Foci for themselves. Kent backs up the car, over the word "Schloss" and then the letters S-C-H-A..." Good thing the dashboard screen doesn't have Google autocomplete or else they'd be tearing off for the Schloss Schauenstein restaurant in Switzerland by now.
Before the Goths finish with this arduous and challenging task, Zev and Justin arrive at the cars in second place. We get to see Phil plug the car yet again, and then Jen and Kisha arrive and join in. Gary and Mallory arrive in fourth, and the Globetrotters in fifth (presumably the Cowboys are still in the air). Vyxsin is up to S-C-H-A-L when she snaps at Kent to slow down, loud enough for the editors to throw in a cartoon camera-shake and brake-screech. Zev and Justin are doing this a bit more smoothly. Gary and Big Easy are each watching the video message from Phil, but only Big Easy is backing up. Zev and Justin seem to get the second word, "SCHALLABURG," first. That triggers Phil telling us -- on our TVs, not on a dashboard screen -- that they have to get to that castle to find their next clue. Zev and Justin head out, leaving the other teams behind, but Kent and Vyxsin are following closely. "I love this Ford Focus," Kent sucks up to the sponsors. Jen and Kisha also have their clue. "Told you we about to win a car," Jen says, as if they've ever won a leg ever. Gary, however, is getting hung up on the car's navigation menu, randomly pressing touch-screen buttons. The Globetrotters take off, leaving Gary and Mallory behind. They're almost as upset as the people at Ford who came up with the idea of making people's progress in the race dependent on their understanding of some new feature.