Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Bollywood Travolta
By M. Giant | Season 20 | Episode 9 | Aired on 04.22.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Inter-team tensions are briefly explored in the wake of last week's U-Turn drama, but fortunately most of that is back-burnered when the race moves to India. In Cochin, a Roadlbock requires one racer from each team to learn and perform a Bollywood dance routine. Other Rachel nails it on the first try, but the other teams aren't so lucky. After a few tries, Vanessa comes in second, then Rachel powers through another emotional meltdown to get her and Brendon out of there in third place. The all-male teams struggle, as JJ has to take several turns while Art makes caveman-like observations from the sidelines. But it's Mark who is hurting the most. Always prone to motion sickness, he's already in a bad way after the bus ride to the Roadblock. But with Bopper's knee relegating him to the DL, Mark has to step up. And yet he soon proves nearly unable to take any steps at all in the punishing heat.
The other teams, however, move on to the Detour. Other Rachel and Dave hold onto their lead as they use an auto rickshaw to negotiate a slalom course at a driving school and win their fifth leg. Brendon and Rachel beat Art and JJ at the cricket-based half of the Detour, and those two teams come in second and third respectively. Vanessa and Ralph straggle in as team number four after getting hung up at the driving Detour. And this all happens before Mark can even finish the dancing Roadblock. Fearing for his friend's health, Bopper finally talks Mark into quitting so he can go home alive to his kids. But when Mark reluctantly agrees, the choreographer -- and, suspiciously, Bopper -- talk him into giving it one last try before heading out. Whether Mark's twelfth attempt is correct or not (and it's kind of not), twelve tries is enough to earn him the clue at last. We rush through the rest of their leg and an emotional farewell montage, only to see them arrive at the mat in last place and learn from Phil that it's a non-elimination leg. Fair enough; between all his puking and sweating, it looked like Mark did enough elimination to go around for everyone.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Over shots of the diverse wildlife surrounding Tanzania's Lake Minyara (wildebeests, giraffes, warthogs, baboons, zebras, and Phil), our host obviouses that it's a national park, "home to large herds of elephant, and over 400 species of birds." Only a few of which are shown, so that's kind of a rip-off. Phil also informs us, "This abundant wildlife refuge is now the start of the ninth leg in a race around the world." Home stretch, y'all. Bopper and Mark won the previous leg, so we're starting with them. But instead of seeing them open a clue at the mat as usual, we check in with them in their sunlit hotel room, at what a subtitle tells us is "6 Hours Before Pit Start." I don't care what that subtitle says, "Pit Start" is not a phrase.
Bopper sits on his bed wearing a knee brace on his right leg, waiting for a visit from a doctor. Instead, a local "Medic" (per the subtitle) comes in and shakes Bopper's hand. No, don't get up. Bopper explains that he twisted his ankle getting out of a safari vehicle two legs ago, which in turn twisted his knee -- which we know was operated on six months before the race, so it's not like this was an entirely new injury. He removes the brace so the medic can take a look. Bopper's very worried about being out of the race due to this, but the medic says he should be okay with the brace, so the million dollars is still in reach. Theoretically. And if not, by the time Bopper's knee blows up, he'll be on a completely different continent than the medic.
Team Kentucky gets to actually leave at 9:06 PM, well after dark. As they open their clue, Phil narrates that they'll need to fly nearly 2,900 miles to the "densely populated, chaotic streets of Cochin, India." Yep, looks like India -- densely populated and chaotic. From there, they'll have to get to the Rajiv Gandhi Bus Terminal and take a bus to Sacred Heart College in Thevara to find their next clue. Before beginning the leg, Mark says they're glad to be starting in first for once, but with Bopper's leg acting up he's willing to do what it takes to get it done. Is someone going to hold him to that?
Other Rachel and Dave are starting the leg just a minute later, at 9:07 PM. Dave narrates, "Our relationship with Art and JJ seems to be severed at this point and it's no fault of Rachel and I's." Maybe JJ just can't stand to be around people who use the nonexistent first-person possessive pronoun "I's"? Dave clarifies, "JJ in particular is not too pleased with Rachel and I's decision not to utilize the U-Turn on the green team." There it is again! Other Rachel flatly says, "We're not about to do JJ's dirty work." Dave adds, "If the relationship can be restored, then excellent. If not, Rachel and I will continue to race as we have." With lots of bickering and bitching at each other?