Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | 2 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT The Gods Must Be in the Tub
By M. Giant | Season 22 | Episode 6 | Aired on 03.24.2013
Joey returns to Meghan, who is pretty happy to see him as they help their Bushman passengers into the car. "I am the Scorpion King Hunter," Joey lies to Meghan, while one of the bushmen in the back informs the camera, "He was very afraid." If that's all he has to say about it, I'm thinking this particular language must have a rather limited vocabulary.
Pam is digging a growing trench and Wynona is claiming her scorpion is deeper than all the other teams' scorpions somehow. Her bushmen impatiently warn her not to kill the scorpion, because clearly they're going to want it afterwards.
Bates & Anthony get to the campsite, where there is clapping and music and thatched tents and women and children. It's really quite welcoming, unless they do all this every day. Their guides take a bundle of kindling down from where it's been hanging from a tree trunk and go to work with it, lighting the grass and the zebra-poo fairly quickly. They're using the spindle method, which involves one man holding one stick that has shallow holes drilled into it steady on the ground, while someone else inserts the end of another stick with a spiral groove carved on it into one of the holes and spins it as quickly as possible with his bare hands. Presumably the dried zebra crap adds friction and generates enough heat to light the dry grass. I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed that zebra shit is not striped. After watching the demonstration, the brothers get to work trying it. The country singers show up, and Bates admits to being a little nervous because of how this takes both strength to spin the stick, and finesse to keep it from slipping out of the hole. So I'm not sure if he's nervous on the girls' behalf or his own. The new arrivals get to work and Caroline lets us know that she's tried this in real life and failed. Her ancestor Davy Crockett would be so disappointed. Or is it Daniel Boone? Crap, now I'm disappointed in myself.
The derby moms are enjoying having Bushmen in their car, but Katie -- in the vehicle right behind them -- is whining classily about the smell. Soon both teams are following their hosts to the campsite, the derby moms gamely doing the animal noises and Katie muttering, "My God, they stink. Really, Bushmen?" Like they decided this morning to forgo their daily spritz of Axe Body Spray just to annoy her.
Winnie and Chuck are still waiting for their respective partners. Pam is freaked, but not as freaked as Joey was, to see the scorpion extracted, then subdued, then placed on the inside of her wrist, where it sits motionless for a moment before they put it in the jar. "Holy cow, that was probably one of the scariest things I've ever done," she says. Wynona's team also digs one out. "Am I going to die if this thing bites me?" she asks the camera. It doesn't, and it goes in the jar. By now, Pam is already back and she and Winnie hop into their car with their Bushmen guides. Wynona returns and Chuck proudly tells her, "You just jackpotted us. I love you, babe." Not a word about being in last place, which is nice to see. They're soon back on the road.