Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Tilting at Windmills -- Not
By M. Giant | Season 21 | Episode 10 | Aired on 12.02.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Normally everyone flies to the next country together, but this week all four remaining teams take separate flights to Barcelona, Spain. Not that it matters, because they all end up on the same overnight ferry to the island of Mallorca. Yes, even Josh & Brent. And everyone is soooo happy to see each other, and not Ryan & Abbie. But the Chippendales, Team Austin, and the twins are all racing together now, although Natalie & Nadiya get left behind early on due to their inability to drive stick. Yes, the teams are actually driving themselves to places this leg, for the first time this entire race. Which one of them actually refers to as "a whole new ballgame."
After claiming a clue from a mob of fire-slinging demons acting up around a cathedral, the teams head to a sports complex, where they have to take on a serving machine on a clay tennis court. Tennis player Trey aces the Detour, with James not far behind. From there, they have to collect their next clue from two musicians playing guitars in a cave. Their plans to proceed to the fake bullfighting side of the Detour together go awry, though, when Jaymes & James take a "wrong" turn and end up at the other option, where they successfully attach two giant blades to a 400-year-old windmill. Meanwhile, Trey & Lexi's first attempt at the bullfighting Roadblock also goes awry when, after Trey gives Lexi directions through an obstacle course of cape-holding matadors, he crashes her into the final target and she hurts her finger badly enough to make her cry. Jaymes & James complete the windmill task with no such difficulties, but they're not quite fast enough to beat Trey and Lexi to the Pit Stop, where one of the freakiest greeters ever welcomes them to Mallorca.
The Roadblock evens things out a bit for the trailing pair of teams; the ankle Josh hurt during the previous leg prevents him from easily completing the task and Nadiya just plain sucks at tennis, but not badly enough to end up passing Josh before he digs deep and succeeds. And then the twins get lost again, meaning they're the last to reach the windmill Detour. Which Josh & Brent complete smoothly and efficiently while the twins get all Laurel & Hardy again all up in this piece. Nobody is more surprised than Josh that he and Brent end up as team number three, and when the twins reach the mat in last place, Phil tells them it's a non-elimination leg. So they'll be back for at least the first leg of next week's two-hour finale, which could actually be anyone's game. Well, except Josh & Brent's, probably.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Phil informs us, "Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and has been nicknamed the Venice of the North for its extensive canals." Yup... there they are, all right. Unlike Venice's canals, however, they appear to be behaving themselves. Of course, Phil isn't even in Amsterdam right now, but a 16th century farmhouse on the outskirts of the city, "rumored to be the home of Rembrandt's mistress." Clearly Phil wasn't hired for his discretion. "It is now the start of the tenth leg in a race around the world." It's the last quarter, y'all. I'm getting pretty familiar with last quarters, since that's usually what CBS is broadcasting when I turn it on at the time 60 Minutes is supposed to start.
So Natalie & Nadiya, who won the previous leg, are the first to leave at 2:55 AM. Yikes, that'll teach you to get in hours ahead of everyone else. The other three teams are all still sleeping, you chumps. One of the twins struggles with the name of an island off Spain, but Phil steps in to explain that they'll now be flying to Barcelona, "Famous for its extensive Catalan art nouveau architecture." Right, that's what I always think of. Not the Olympics or Mission: Impossible 2. But they won't be staying there long; they'll catch an overnight ferry to the island of Mallorca, the place one of the twins couldn't pronounce. "Once there, they'll encounter a traditional Mallorcan spectacle," Phil understates, over shots of people in demon costumes cavorting noisily around a cathedral and literally playing with fire. "One of these devils has their next clue." Will the racers need to exchange their souls for it? As the twins head for what is presumably Ransdorp's all-night taxi stand, we hear them interview about how they deserve to be in the top three. "Our main goal was not to get kicked out first and now we've come so far." Mainly they want to hold onto their lead and make it to the final leg, which is only two legs away. We see them arriving at the airport and not only book tickets, but actually get on a 6:00 AM flight before the other teams even start the leg, when normally they'd have to wait around the terminal for twelve to eighteen hours until the next flight, giving all the other teams plenty of time to catch up. Okay, I take back what I said about them being chumps.
Jaymes & James start the leg before the twins' official departure time, but just barely; 5:57 AM, by which time the sun has risen. Jaymes talks about how in the previous leg they U-Turned their "friends, "Abbie & Ryan, but they don't yet know if they went home. They seem to know someone did though, because James wonders who the fourth team is going to be. They're worried about an awkward moment that isn't going to happen until the first cast reunion. And it's not like this show's even on Bravo.