Episode Report Card Miss Alli: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT End of the line
By Miss Alli | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 12.12.2001
Plodding in snowshoes.
Everybody arrives at the lodge, and it's closed (of course). As they all wait, LPFrank makes a rather sorry attempt to pay his wife a compliment. "You walked fast," he says. "I appreciate that." He keeps going. "You have long legs for a short --" "I am not short," she protests. He treads water for a little while longer, but eventually sinks, while trying to explain that saying she had long legs for a short person wasn't a blunder. You know, that was such a sorry, puppy-dog display that it would be cute if it weren't, you know, Loud Pushy Frank. I hate it when Loud Pushy Frank confuses me.
They all go into the lodge to wait around until it's time to leave. Through a fogged-up camera lens, we see Margarita putting her stuff down. Then we see Esquire, drinking what looks like juice. Though I guess it could be a soy-banana-orange-pineapple-lemongrass-wheat-germ protein-enriched smoothie in Tetrapak that they brought all the way from home and have been hoarding for an occasion just like this one. But probably it's juice. Brennan voices over that they had some crummy luck in the middle part of the race, and they weren't feeling very confident. Rob adds that they're young, have hardly traveled, and don't speak any foreign languages, so basically, they're unqualified to be on the trip at all and they apologize for kicking the race's butt up to this point. Okay, so he doesn't say that last part. He actually says that they've got wits and strength, and that's what's gotten them through. There's a really weird shot here of Rob scratching his head in a way that makes all of his individual hairs move as one, like his hair has actually become the ultimate Bad Hat. He says he's proud of the way they've played, and he's proud of himself and his bud. Margarita, meanwhile, voices over that she's pushed herself to many limits she wouldn't have thought were possible. She doesn't mention the fact that also, Frank has stopped with the shoving, but I'm sure she appreciates it, because that's probably a variety of limit-pushing she can live without. She feels like she has to win.
Meanwhile, at the bed-and-breakfast from the previous leg, here's Team Guido. Bwa! They emerge from beneath the antlers over the cabin door to take on the boring blanket-toss challenge. (I'm sorry -- the blanket-toss is a perfectly fine activity, but it's been one of the most boring tasks they've had to complete. It needed something. They needed to put the clue farther away, or they needed to do it over a pit of fire or something. I like the blanket-toss people, just not the blanket-toss.) Bill gets on the blanket and happily flies through the air. Unfortunately, he does not fly right off the blanket and land face-down in a snowdrift with just his feet sticking out. Joe voices over that they're in third place, and soon they'll be climbing. Yes, Discount Joe, you'll be ice-climbing. Climbing in the standings? Not so much. They spot and open the clue -- it's the ice-climbing, sure enough.