Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Stumbling Toward Ecstasy
By M. Giant | Season 20 | Episode 11 | Aired on 05.06.2012
Since everyone will be flying out together, the Amazing Editors apparently decide that there's no point in going over the other three teams' rankings or departure times. So the first time we see Rachel & Brendon (Rachel says that with only four teams left, one mistake could be it for them), Art & JJ (JJ maintains that they're the best team, all evidence to the contrary) and Vanessa and Ralph (Vanessa's ankle looks swollen and purple after crashing and burning in the previous leg) is when they're already on the plane. Now that we know who everyone is, an Amazing Red Line swoops east-northeast across the sea and south Asia to Japan. The teams land at night and some wander through the terminal to a row of bus ticket vending machines with touchscreens that they have to figure out. Art and JJ end up being the first team to get on a bus, but Brendon and Rachel go straight to the bus and ask the driver where to get tickets, while the Border Patrol quietly mocks them. "I don't even think they read the clues," JJ says. "I just think they run." In the seats behind them, Ralph and Vanessa snicker as JJ goes on, "It's staggering that they're still here." I said that for two seasons of Big Brother, dude. Soon both teams with Rachels in them are trying to puzzle out the touchscreen vending machines, with the help of locals. Other Rachel and Dave end up being the next to board the bus and JJ refers to him as "Private Dave." Clearly JJ was so offended by the U-Turn kerfuffle that he's arranged for Dave to be busted down ton an enlisted man. By now the three teams on the bus are encouraging the driver to get going already. And indeed, the door closes before team Big Brother is on board, a development for which Rachel blames Brendon for not listening to her. Even when they get on the next bus, which seems to arrive almost immediately, she bitches, "From now on I'm not making any decisions. You can do them all." Mature as always. She continues yelling at him across the aisle for not listening to her, while simultaneously not letting him talk. I'd say she's demonstrating a cleverly thought-out point by demonstrating the behavior to which she is objecting so he'll know how it feels, but we all know she's just being an asshole as usual. Brendon lectures her about yelling on the bus, so she starts bitching sarcastically at a lower volume about how he thinks he's so smart. Well, she's got a point there.
The first bus unloads at another station. Art and JJ follow Vanessa and Ralph to an information window and Ralph asks about tickets for the next stage of their odyssey across town while Dave points out a ticket window and leads Other Rachel over to another touchscreen machine. Soon all three teams are milling about in various levels of confusion. Meanwhile, on the second bus, Rachel has her sleep mask on while Brendon gets some tips from the local in the seat next to him. She's still snotty to him when they get off the bus and join the others in the station, but Brendon -- rather impressively -- has made good use of the time afforded him by Rachel's power-sulking. He's learned from his seatmate Nakano how to work the machines at the next stop, so they head right in and get seats on the next train, which is leaving in five minutes. They're actually the first team through the turnstile, while other teams fumble through buying tickets for the 10:20. I hope Rachel has learned her lesson from this little episode, which is that when she shuts up, good things happen. This time Art & JJ and Vanessa & Ralph join Team Big Brother on the 10:03. Meanwhile, Dave has trouble with the turnstile's ticket reader and he and Other Rachel end up getting to the platform just in time to watch the 10:03 pull away. While waiting for the next one, Dave mutters about how this proves that every second counts and it's not okay to follow the others. Well, it looked to me like not following them is how they ended up in this situation, but he's the boss. Other Rachel says there's no reason to pout about it. He lies that he isn't and then tells her to leave him alone. Presumably so he can pout. In an interview, Other Rachel shares her view that if nothing can be done, there's no reason to be pessimistic, while Dave says there's always something that can be done. "Bitching about it," Other Rachel agrees. Once they get on the next train, Other Rachel reminds him that she's his wife and he should be nice to her. Dave insists that they need to focus on what's important. Wouldn't that be his relationship with Other Rachel, like he said earlier?
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