Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Curse You, Red Baron!
By M. Giant | Season 16 | Episode 5 | Aired on 03.14.2010
The 75% Alliance (Carol|Brandy and Dan|Jordan) reaches the Massiges parking area at about the same time. Both teams are doing "Under Fire," and with Brandy being the lone holdout, they're 75% excited about it.
Jet and Cord arrive in sixth place and opt for Under Fire. Starting to see a pattern here. Michael and Louie emerge from the barbed wire, and hand the message to a stout pigeon-keeper waiting for them. He lets Michael put the rolled-up paper into the carrier tube on the bird's leg and it is sent on its way. Wouldn't it be nice if the front-line soldiers could tell the brass that wars are over rather than the other way around? I bet the wars would be a lot shorter then. Opening the clue, Michael says he'll take care of the reading, given Louie's breathless condition. "Head south down the road to receive your next clue," is all it says. There's a Route Info subtitle that simply says, "Head South," over a shot of a signpost pointing N and S in opposite directions. Is that simple enough for everyone (Brent)? Michael checks his watch compass and they head downhill, sliding a bit on the muddy surface. When they get there, Michael reads, "Blind U-Turn." And here's Phil, to explain that the U-Turn can be used to slow down another team by making them do the other half of a Detour. And since this is a Blind U-Turn, "The team that uses it can remain anonymous." Not if they're in front, they can't. Michael and Louie debate not whether to use it, but on whom; "Joe, or Steve?" What are Heidi and Allie, passengers?
Those two aforementioned teams are just getting their messages as Michael tells Louie to make the call. "Joe and Heidi," Louie says, and the music gets all dramatic. In an interview, Michael recalls Joe's confidence during the "mobile Pit Stop." "He needs to be humbled. Period," Louie declares. So it's not Joe's knee that will end up holding him back this leg, but his mouth. Michael slaps Joe and Heidi's picture up on the sign and interviews that he didn't come to make friends. Well, mission accomplished. "I came here with a friend, I'm gonna leave with a friend." He might have wanted to change out of that "Karma" shirt before making that speech, is the only thing. The next clue tells them to turn around and find the church of Massiges.
Brent and Caite are driving along, looking lost until Caite spots the faux-dogfighting airplanes low over the horizon. "They're up in some sort of flying things," Brent marvels, apparently unable to recognize an airplane if it's more than a few decades old. They're all excited, probably thinking they get to go up in those "flying things" themselves, so it's probably a bit of a letdown when they get their Detour clue in seventh place and find they're just going to be crawling. As they change, Caite says she feels like she's about to model army clothes. "Out of style army clothes," she amends. Make it work!