Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Down Under Blunders
By M. Giant | Season 18 | Episode 2 | Aired on 02.27.2011
Speaking of walking distance, Mel and Mike White are having trouble dealing with the fact that this Pit Stop wasn't a real Pit Stop. "I'll never make it, Mike," Mel says before they've even left Shelly Beach. He's still seventy, after all. He says he'll try, as though Mike is pushing him, when in fact the opposite is the case. On the walk back to the ferry, Mel's legs keep cramping up on him. You can tell because he says "Jeez!" and goes as stiff as a wooden cheese rack. Kent and Vyxsin are also taking the ferry, in case you care. Once everyone's on board who's going aboard, Mel is just about tipping over in his seat, with Mike sobbing while Luke and Margie stand over them with concern. They've been there. Mike says "I don't want to kill you for some joyride." Hello! It's a million-dollar joyride! Oh well, it's not like they have a chance at winning anyway. Mel tells Mike that says he'll be responsible for his decision. I'm sure that'll make Mike feel better if his dad throws a piston.
Out in Manly Bay, Jet and Cord have shed their cowboy hats for the sailing excursion, which is good, because while they swing out over the water, they keep falling into it. Although the trapezes drag them across the surface, preventing them from getting left behind. Or maybe it's just that if a 1600-pound bull can't shake them loose, a 16-foot sailing skiff isn't about to.
On the ferry, Margie and Luke find a woman with a laptop computer (and, apparently, a Wi-Fi connection), and To Sail To Stop shows up on Google. Word spreads to Team Go Team, who agrees to go to Town Hall with them. It must be interesting to look up all these Amazing Race landmarks on Google before the whole first page of results has been taken over by Amazing Race spoiler and discussion sites.
Team Asperger's and the sisters are already at Town Hall. Kisha and Jen sign up for the first slot on the first charter flight, and all four of them are pretty thrilled to see that they're the first teams to arrive. Multiple high-fives all around.
The return ferry docks in Sydney, next to an obligatory aerial shot of the Opera House, and Margie gives Mike a kiss and hug, telling him, "Take good care of your dad." The gates open, and everyone's off. Everyone who doesn't already know what "To Sail To Stop" is fans out looking for help. The Whites, the Goths, and the Globetrotters all have pretty good luck. "When we come in to play, look us up," Big Easy says on their way out of the travel agency or wherever it was they looked it up. I keep thinking travel agencies are going extinct, and then they keep showing up on The Amazing Race. That must be the only thing keeping them all in business.