Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Do What U Said
By M. Giant | Season 20 | Episode 8 | Aired on 04.15.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The racers are driven down into the Ngorongoro Crater, through what looks like the set of The Lion King, to a town called Safari Junction. There, they either have to fix a punctured bicycle tire or collect dozens of gallons of water at a communal well. Bopper and Mark and Other Rachel and Dave fix the bikes, but Art and JJ get into the long line at the well while Team Big Brother heads to the bike shop, and Vanessa and Ralph get lost looking for the Detour clue in the first place. Bopper (who is racing with a newly re-injured knee) and Mark are the first to finish the Detour and reach the Double U-Turn, which both they and Other Rachel and Dave forgo, despite a previous agreement between the latter team and Art and JJ to ding Brendon and Rachel whenever the opportunity arose. Other Rachel and Dave are the first to reach the next clue, at an art gallery outside the village. Art and JJ U-Turn Brendon and Rachel, thinking the lack of previous U-Turns means they're the first team to get there. Before returning to the second Detour task, Brendon and Rachel U-Turn Vanessa and Ralph, while last-place team Nary and Jamie inexorably narrow what began as a huge lag.
In the front of the pack, Mark and Dave suit up and brave swarming bees to harvest half a kilogram of honey for the Roadblock. Mark finishes first, and even in a footrace to a lakeside mat on Mark's injured leg, Team Kentucky wins its first leg ever. Second-place Dave is a dick to Other Rachel even on the mat. And JJ's a giant crybaby about Other Rachel and Dave failing to use the U-Turn, contrary to their agreement, all the way until they arrive at the mat in third place and well after.
Brendon and Rachel and Vanessa and Ralph finish the second half of the Detour, just before the bike task is complete by Nary and Jamie, who get directions from Team Big Brother. And then Vanessa and Ralph's cab gets a flat on the way to the next stage, allowing Nary and Jamie to catch up. But Team Undercover still has their Speed Bump, in which they have to set up a detailed display stand. Rachel completes the Roadblock with ease, allowing her and Brendon to come in fourth. Nary and Jamie finish their Speed Bump while Ralph does the Roadblock, but it's not enough; the federal agents still come in last again, and are belatedly Philiminated. And without even having to tell anyone what their real job is.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Phil kicks off this week's proceedings with a little geology lesson: "Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater is part of a volcano that erupted more than three million years ago, forming the world's largest unbroken caldera." But since there's no footage from then, the cameras instead show a giraffe, a hippo, wildebeests, some scenery, elephants, gorillas, more wildebeests, and a screaming baboon. No, that last one's not Rachel. "Regarded as a garden of Eden, this flagship tourist attraction is the start of the eighth leg in a race around the world," Phil concludes, his arms spread as he stands on a hilltop (and three crates, according to his Twitter feed) with the entire crater in the background behind him. There's no word about whether the racers had to spend the night in the camps they set up themselves at the end of the previous leg; we just cut straight to 6:03 AM, which is the departure time of the last week's winners, Rachel and Dave.
The sun's not quite up, and they're dressed for cold weather, and the predawn sky behind them is spectacular. "Take a drive through Africa's Garden of Eden," the clue reads when they rip it open. Phil explains that they'll now "go on safari and descend sixteen hundred feet into the Ngorongoro Crater." But in safari vehicles (not Land Rovers) along a dirt road, rather than straight down. We get a look at a zebra, a wildebeest, a baboon, and some young lions as Phil continues, "When they emerge from the crater, they'll travel to Safari Junction, a small town in the district of Karatu." There's a hand-built and hand-painted souvenir kiosk in the town with the name "Hillary Clington Shop," with the G in less visible orange so it looks like HILLARY CLINGTON. It's clearly some kind of pun I don't get. Among the local tchochkes hang a bunch of yellow clue envelopes.
Other Rachel and Dave head to one of the waiting vehicles and Dave tells the driver, "You gotta go really fast today, man." They've read that the clue indicates a Double U-Turn coming up this leg, which Dave says depends on who gets to it first. "I think if we arrive first, before Art and JJ, we may consider the green team." Meaning Brendon and Rachel. Remember when people pretended they were using the U-Turn to get rid of teams who might beat them, instead of teams they just didn't like? I mean, they weren't, but at least they pretended.
Bopper and Mark are leaving in second place, at 6:05 AM. That's a pretty narrow lead, considering how far ahead Other Rachel and Dave were when they arrived at the campground during the previous leg. In fact, if Team Kentucky had remembered to fill their shower pouch right away, they might be leaving in first place this morning. In other news from the previous leg, we learn that Bopper hurt his knee, with the help of a black-and-white flashback of him and Mark walking down the road and Bopper's leg suddenly buckling. "Before I let this knee put me out, I'll let 'em cut it off and I'll keep on truckin'," Bopper inter-vows. On the ride down into the crater, they talk about how they came in as underdogs, but aren't any more. Well, not until Bopper hurt himself. They might be underdogs again now, thanks to that.