Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT The Korean Four
By M. Giant | Season 17 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.05.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Believe it or not, Nick and Vicki actually do miss the first flight out of Hong Kong, so by the time they land in Seoul they're nine hours behind everyone else, who, after driving spookily close to the North Korean border, shoot the rapids in rafts before riding in Humvees to Camp Casey. At this U.S. army base, the racers have to search and find a matching headband among a legion of soldiers practicing tae kwon do. After that Road Block, they have to either speed-skate 24 laps or carry big jars of ginseng around (not that anyone does the latter). Brook and Claire get so caught up in a passive-aggressive dispute about which one to choose that they miss the part of the clue where it says they aren't supposed to take a taxi. While the lead teams are already working on the Detour, Nick and Vicki land and rely on a local who seems to think they're on a leisurely road trip. Brook and Claire reach the mat first, but due to their penalty, Jill and Thomas win another leg. Nat and Kat fill out the final three, showing up after Team QVC's penalty runs out. Nick and Vicki only get to do their Speed Bump before getting to go to the Pit Stop at night. An ignominious exit, but at least they got that tank clean.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!"This is Hong Kong," Phil informs us, as though this, with its exotic modern skyscrapers, could be any place else. Statue Square at the city's center was the first Pit Stop, and Nat and Kat, having arrived first at the end of the last leg, will be leaving at the suspiciously decent hour of 4:37 PM. Kat reads from their clue that they'll fly to Seoul, South Korea. "When you land, drive yourselves towards the North Korean border? Really?" Didn't another team kind of do that accidentally, years ago? Phil says that's a 1,300 mile flight, after which they'll drive themselves to the Demilitarized Zone near the border and find the Seungil Bridge, which spans a turbulent river. They have $117 for this leg. Kat interviews that they wanted to get to go to every country and do every challenge on this race, and I have to agree with her that it's starting to look good for that. Nat agrees that they should be able to stay in the top three barring any big mistakes. As if there could be a mistake bigger than Nick and Vicki making it to the final leg.
Jill and Thomas leave at 4:47 PM. Thomas interviews that he thinks they're the top contenders, but there are also "hungry smart, athletic women that have proven they're a forced to be reckoned with." Notice how when Thomas said "hungry" there was a shot of Nat and Kat eating the sheep's head at the Fast Forward? Of course, they were the opposite of hungry then.
Brook and Claire are leaving at 5:26 PM. Brook reads the name of the bridge and the river it crosses as nonsense syllables, and from Statue Square they go right into a nearby hotel to see about flights. Brook says they really want to be in the final three, and they're feeling good about their chances to be the first all-female team to win the race. Hence their decision to try to line up flights here in the hotel rather than waiting to get to the airport and have the nightmare they had in Oman, where they missed an earlier flight and didn't even get to have a Blizzard™.
Nat/Kat and Jill/Thomas arrive at the Hong Kong airport at about the same time, and Nat wonders if anyone else is freaked out about driving to the North Korean border. That would be an affirmative.
At the hotel, Team QVC are learning about a flight that leaves at 12:25 AM, and with the assistance of a colleague at the airport, the concierge can have them booked on it in the next thirty minutes. "Coffee time," Brook chirps. Wow, why doesn't everyone do this, every leg? Soon they're in the hotel's fancy lounge, looking even more conspicuous there in their matching pink shirts, black shorts, and striped gym socks than they did before.