Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Thai'ed Up
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.23.2011
Laurence and Zac get to the temple and Zac reads the clue, which prompts an "Uh-oh" from him. Jeremy and Sandy are right behind them, and Jeremy figures this will be easy. For him, yes, with his copious notes, but Zac looks a bit nervous. Bill & Cathi open their first Roadblock clue, and Cathi's doing it. She gets to the pool and almost immediately falls in. Of course. Forget age; she may have gotten further on the Amazing Race than any other person has ever gotten with no balance whatsoever.
Zac is taking his best crack at arranging his spirit house the way he vaguely remembers it, while Jeremy refers frequently to his notes. Zac gets a couple of nos, and reminds us that his dad didn't want to take notes. "But he's not the one doing this, so I'm gonna have to go back and take notes," he says. Jeremy, meanwhile, gets it right on the first try, so he and Sandy are off to catch a bus to Bangkok, currently in third place. "Sweet!" Jeremy says. Zac gives it one more try, then decides to go back when he's told it's wrong. As he's getting back in the truck, Laurence comes over and asks him what he's doing. "I told you we needed to take notes," Zac says. Laurence dicks, "Don't blame me. You're responsible." Yeah, that'll teach Zac to heed what his dad says, with the wisdom of age. Zac has to find their driver, who has wandered off, while Laurence complains to us about how quickly he'd be able to knock this out, were it him. Classy. Zac is on his way back alone, as Laurence grumps, "What a pain in the ass." Yes, but not the way he's thinking.
After the break and a replay of Zac's departure, Laurence tells us, "This is not his forte, so it's pretty frustrating." Oh, shut up. Maybe if you hadn't closed him down in the first place you wouldn't be in this position. Zac tells his driver to go fast. I'm thinking this must be a short drive back and forth between the store and the temple. That's just basic marketing, after all.
Cathi retrieves her clue from the pool, so it's time for her and Bill to get back on their elephant. Speaking of which, Liz and Marie are just now arriving at the adventure company, and react to the elephants like girls in Beatles newsreels. Even the Speed Bump sign with their picture on it doesn't seem to bring them down. Standing next to the part of the river that seems to serve as the adventure company's elephant-wash, Phil reminds us that Liz and Marie came in last at the end of the last leg, and for their Speed Bump, they must now wash and "clean up after" the elephants before they can proceed, "clean up after" being a family-hour euphemism for shoveling elephant crap. They both jump up and down excitedly, each saying they want to do it, like this is a Roadblock instead of something they have to do together. Excuse me, "get to do." Even being handed shovels by a guy with a large bucket and being directed to a large pile of elephant poo (as if piles of elephant poo come in other sizes) doesn't dampen their mood. "I love elephants so much," one of them says. So much so that to them, the elephant shit literally doesn't stink.