Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Sprint of Our Life
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.02.2011
However, while the others are making arrangements, Justin and Jennifer are off to one side, as he's asking her if she wants to find a phone to see what they can do in advance. "Sure," Jennifer drawls at him shaking her head and using a tone that means, "You fucking moron." Jennifer VOs that she and Justin fought a lot as kids, up to and including fistfights. Good that they've moved past that. At this point, they're arguing about whether to make a phone call or go wait for the train, except they're also so not arguing about it that you can't tell which of them actually wants to do what. What they're actually arguing about, and what we've been seeing them argue about all along, is arguing. Jennifer asks what he wants, and he condescends, "I want us to be a better team than we are right now." He yells are her for being hostile, which she is, although she denies it, and he argues that they're supposed to be on the same team. Other teams are starting to look over as their bickering gets more and more circular until they're pretty much just screaming up each other's assholes. Jennifer wants to move on, but Justin would rather resolve their issues right here in the station. Jennifer says she's not going to make any more of an effort to get along than she's already making, I guess because zero is a nice round number, and they yell over each other for a while. "This is the moment to get it out," Justin says, which is a pretty odd thing to say to someone you're about to be stuck on a train with for twelve hours or more, and she storms off saying she wants to go wait for the train. A couple of loud, dramatic shots of them each looking unhappy leads us into the commercials as we're supposed to wonder how long they can go on like this, but instead we wonder why they came on the race in the first place given that they clearly hate each other.
But let's hear more of that argument after the ads, too. Justin interviews that this is an opportunity for a million dollars, "but obviously if we can't get beyond this, all of that comes to an end." Jennifer is sitting next to him like that end is coming soon, and she couldn't give less of a shit.
So they all get on the train, and in case you were thinking that "overnight train" meant sleeper cars? Think again. It's seating like a regular commuter train, and that's just on the inside. As Marcus puts it, "The Chattanooga Choo-Choo ain't got nothing on this bad boy." Indeed, the train is so full that people are hanging out the doors and riding on the roof. Which reminds me of a Caption Machine entry so old I only remember it because it's hilarious. Phil tells us that when the train arrives in Yogyakarta, the racers will all take taxis to the Goa Jomblang cave for their next clue. We get an overhead shot of the cave, which is out in the country and presents as such a gigantic hole punched in the ground that even these racers can't miss it.