Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Back to School
By M. Giant | Season 17 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.10.2010
Team @ is still on its way to the supply depot, just hoping there'll still be people there when they arrive.
Nick and Vicki arrive at the foreman with their two wheelbarrows, but they've got the wrong amount of cement. In a snit, Nick throws one of his trowels into the wheelbarrow and snaps at Vicki, "Good job reading it. That's awesome. It's fifth-grade reading." Interesting. Did Nick read the clue? Because I'm pretty sure those little cards don't self-destruct after one person reads them. She scrambles to help him load up again while he continues to bitch at her. Just then Gary and Mallory arrive, and get their clue in third place. Holy crap, how did that happen? On the way back to the supply depot, Vicki is trying to apologize to Nick, like she's the asshole. "I don't give a fuck about your sorries, to be totally honest with you," he dicks, and when she tells him to wait up, he's all, "Nope! Let's go...You have no common sense in your whole body." Or self-respect, apparently.
Back from the ads, he's still acting like an prick, and when she tells him to get over it, he says he won't, "until we see Phil and he says we're not last." She again says she's sorry, and he bitches, "Is that going to keep us from losing now? Nope!" Acting like a fuckwad will, though, I'm sure. That's saved any number of teams at the last minute over the years, hasn't it?
Gary and Mallory join a different outdoor classroom and interview about the happy kids, and Mallory says, "You feel so bad for them, and then you think to yourself, this is their way of life and they don't know any different. And it makes you appreciate your way of life and we don't know anything different except for freedom and luxury and justice." Well, that's a little patronizing. Mallory's. pointing a mighty long finger there. But at least Gary knows where Ghana is, and he gets if on the first try. They decide on the bicycle parts task for the Detour, and Mallory sings out to the applauding kids, "Bye, guys, have fun!" When they're not being ground under the heels of tyranny and hardship and injustice, that is.
Michael and Kevin get their building supplies delivered and get their clue in fourth place. Jill and Thomas, who got it right the first time, are in fifth now. Here come Chad and Stephanie in sixth. There's a lot of churn in the rankings this week, which is good because it's pretty much the only interesting thing going on.
Gary and Mallory approach the soccer field where large numbers of boys are rolling their metal bicycle rims, pushing them along with sticks that fit into the trough where the bike tire would go. It looks pretty tricky, although Gary, who is emerging as some kind of stealth polymath this week, makes a good go of it. Mallory, however, needs help, and although she's requesting it from Jesus, I don't see him anywhere on my screen. Gary gets to the end of his first pass and coaches Mallory, "You get enough momentum and try putting it inside." That's what she said. She comes up with her own clumsy method of just whacking the rim as she runs along, but gets it halfway done.