Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Two Men, a Bad Plan, A Canal, Panama
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.04.2011
Now begins the long process of getting all geared up while a very nervous Sandy rides the elevator up, explaining that Jeremy has done six Roadblock and she's done five, so this is non-optional for her. Jeremy and Tommy, meanwhile, are waiting on the roof of the other tower across the way. "Don't look down!" Jeremy calls over to her. Andy walks right out on to the cable, grabs the clue, and heads straight back, like he's on a short, awkwardly balanced neighborhood stroll.
Sandy unhappily waits her turn. Yet once Andy's done, she climbs up almost as quickly as he did, saying, "I'm scared to death, but I've gotta do it." Can't ask for more than that. "Focus on the wire ahead," Jeremy yells across to her. A Sandy's-Eye-View camera shot blacks out the screen except for a small circle in the middle, where a short segment of cable stutters at her, "That's all, folks!" Not really. Jeremy continues calling out encouragement, while Andy tells us as he's waiting to get disengaged from all the gear, "I gotta mess with her a little bit. Check out the view, Sandy!" The camera gets all clever again, making the ground far below her go all spinny-blurry as Andy teases that the cable's a little wobbly. She makes it across, not that it's even possible for a person to fall off this thing, and grabs the clue. Jeremy cheers her on, which makes a nice change.
Meanwhile, the snowboarders have already reunited at ground level outside the building to read their clue: "Success in Suez led him to Panama." Phil explains that this somehow means they have to go to a statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose bust stands in a square below a towering stone obelisk with a statue of a rooster perched atop it. Phil doesn't tell us who de Lesseps is, or why he's not considered by Panamanians to be as cool or important as a rooster. [Note: He also don't mention the Real Housewives of New York City star who was formerly a Countess, thanks to him. -- RS.] Andy and Tommy get back in their cab and ask to be taken to the rooster. "Cock a doodle doo," Tommy naturally says.
Sandy finishes the Roadblock, and both she and Jeremy seem proud of her for it. Ernie and Cindy arrive at the clue box down below in third place, and Cindy reads the question, "Who wants to walk in rarified air?" I don't know why the clue asks who wants to do it and then doesn't allow a choice. Again, Cindy's doing this, as required. "We're significantly far off the ground here," Ernie obviouses from the roof of the other tower. Amani is also doing this one, as you know, and she tells Sandy "good job" as the latter emerges from the elevator. We get a look at her entire clue as she and Jeremy read it: "Success in Suez led him to Panama. His failure inspired others to succeed. Find him beneath a rooster and you'll find your next clue." Do they really need all that Suez and failure and success crap when obviously the rooster is the giveaway? It's like a Jeopardy! question that goes, "32 was the inseam of this first U.S. president." They start asking around about roosters, while Ernie watches from 35 stories up. The trouble is that when one of their taxi drivers knows, all of their taxi drivers know.