Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT All About the Melons
By M. Giant | Season 20 | Episode 3 | Aired on 03.04.2012
At the auditorium, Brendon and Rachel are doing so well that they're the first team to finish stringing their harp. Which is surprising, because as we've seen on Big Brother, they normally do their best at challenges when they're surrounded by people who hate them and want them gone. Rachel hops onto Brendon, like she does (that's only Annoying Habit, like #48, and thus barely worth commenting on) and they jump into their cab, now in third place. Bopper, however, just has two strings left. "Ol' Magic-Finger Bopper," he dubs himself, which should make him popular back home. They get approval and have their clue in fourth place. Andrew tells Elliot, "You are killing us right now! Absolutely killing us!" Teamwork!
At the fruit market, it's getting later in the afternoon as the two teams still there work on their upper tiers. Team Jersey's pyramid is neat and square, but Ralph and Vanessa's looks more like a random pile, which does not bode well for its longevity. Indeed, melons are rolling off it as we speak, triggering flashbacks of the tragic melon-slides that have taken so many lives in the Andes. Ralph watches as Joey "Fitness" puts the "star on the Christmas tree," and the team from New York gets their clue in fifth place. Behind them, Ralph and Vanessa suffer another collapse. "We tried, angel," Ralph says, but Vanessa doesn't want to quit. She seems to think that switching Detours and quitting are pretty much the same thing. "If I take one out, the while thing's gonna come down," Ralph argues. Or even if he doesn't, as we see when the whole thing starts to come down without his touching it.
Kerri and Stacy are almost done stringing and so are Nary and Jamie, but Elliot and Andrew are still just harping at each other. The cousins finish the Detour in sixth place and Team Undercover in seventh. That leaves Elliot and Andrew there alone, and when they realize they missed a string -- and not for the first time -- Andrew says they should switch Detours. Meanwhile, at the fruit market, Ralph gingerly balances one melon on the top of their haphazard pyramid, but as soon as he lets go, the whole thing collapses on all four sides. It's actually kind of spectacular, in a totally depressing way. "That's not repairable," he says. Andrew and Elliot are wondering what to do about finding a cab to the fruit market, and Vanessa says they've already lost. "We have to take apart the whole thing," Ralph says. And Elliot hurls his backpack to the ground in frustration. No breakables in there, I hope.