Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Sprint of Our Life
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.02.2011
Ethan and Jenna get to the airport, catching up with Jeremy & Sandy and Justin & Jennifer at the ticket counter. Sandy's very worried about the competitive threat that Team Survivor poses, and Justin seems to agree. Jeremy interviews about Jenna seeming nice, but having a "Medusa eye" that keeps one from trusting her. I'm just trying to remember which of my son's friends' moms Jenna looks like and it's going to make me crazy all week. At the airport, everyone speculates about whether a team was eliminated the day before, which segues into its corollary question, "Where's Ma and Pa?"
That's the snowboarders' name for grandparents Bill & Cathi, who are leaving dead last, at 3:57 AM. So they really weren't as close behind the twins last week as some might have liked us to believe. "Excellent job of ripping," Cathi tells Bill, so at least they aren't letting the stress get to them. Bill interviews that they'll have to work "hugely hard" to overcome their current disadvantages, including the double elimination, "But we've had a life of experience together, so we know to stick it out." After being married this long, I would certainly hope so, especially if it's hugely hard. Cathi says that when they get to the airport she hopes they see "all the kids, who won't be so excited to see us, because they think that we are toast, and we are not toast yet." Yet. Indeed, when they get to the airport, everyone else does a good job of looking happy to see them, even breaking into applause at their arrival. Bill jokingly fakes a debilitating limp as Cathi runs up and says, "You don't know how we've missed you." Most teams' pleasure at their survival seems sincere, or at least self-serving; as Jenna puts it, "the more people who are here, the more people that can fall behind." Welcome back, cannon fodder. No, not that team, that team.
Next morning, everyone gets on the same plane to Jakarta, wiping out the five-hour difference between the first- and last-place teams, as you do. The Amazing Red Line traces a route almost due south to Jakarta, and then an Amazing Dotted Red Line shows the route due east on to Yogyakarta, which I'm sure is exactly as ruler-straight as the map depicts. We see everyone running through the terminal in Jakarta. "I feel like O.J.," Marcus cracks as he runs. Now there's an outdated reference. It's like a struggling art school student saying, "I feel like Hitler." Apparently the train station, Stasiun Gambir, adjoins the airport, and the teams seem to reach it at what looks like about 3:20 in the afternoon. Everyone's still together in the ticket line, and Ron and Bill learn that the next train leaves at 5:30. Everyone's going to be together again, all on the same train.