Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Norway
By M. Giant | Season 17 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.24.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The eight remaining teams head on into Norway, where Nat's fear of heights is immediately challenged by a mountaintop gondola ride. And then Kat's vegetarianism is challenged by a Fast Forward in which they have to share a sheep's head, but they get through it and become the first team this season to win two legs. Meanwhile, the other teams (save Nick and Vicki, who don't seem to understand how a Fast Forward works) have to rappel from a suspension bridge and ascend back up the same cable, a task that threatens to leave Claire hanging. Then the Detour (a choice between mountain biking and navigating a fishing boat) isn't completed first by Gary and Mallory, but they are the next team to the Pit Stop while Michael/Kevin and Jill/Thomas get lost and drive past the Road Block again. Still, Katie and Rachel aren't able to recover from their last-place start, and are headed back to the beach.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!"This is Swedish Lapland," Phil reminds us, "far above the Arctic Circle." He says it never gets dark there in the summer, which can be useful if one team is way behind all the others but we're not supposed to know they're checking in late at night (although he leaves that last part out). We still don't see where they spent the night as Phil wanders through the wilderness that was the fourth Pit Stop. Nat and Kat, who won the last leg, are leaving at 6:00 AM. They open the clue and learn that they're crossing the border to Narvik, Norway. Then they'll have to find a gondola station (that's the aerial cable tram type of gondola, not the Venetian canal boat type of gondola) and take a ride to the top of the mountain to find their next clue. As they head off, gushing about the view, Nat interviews that they're more like sisters than friends, and being on the race together has made that even more true. Funny, they don't seem to me like they're bickering. Nat must be an only child.
Gary and Mallory are not far behind, leaving at 6:04 AM. She's all excited about her dad getting to be on the race instead of watching it at home. Maybe she should stop bogarting all his screen time by being such a spaz, then.
Brook and Claire are in a close third, departing at 6:05. Brook interviews that she's probably "the most hyper, energetic, dedicated, passionate person anybody's probably ever met." Wow, that's a bold claim. I guess she's not saying there aren't people more like that, it's just that nobody's ever met them. So she's perfectly willing to admit that there may be hermits or people raised by wolves who are more high-strung than she is. I would point her in the direction of the blonde who left the mat a minute before she did. She goes on to say that Claire's a little more even-keeled, so they should fuse together or something to make the perfect person. As they get in the car, Brook drives and says she's "finding my Zen today." But she even meditates in a hyper way.
Michael and Kevin open their clue at 6:30, and as they head out, Kevin interviews that he'll be moving out of his parents' house soon (behind Kevin, Michael silently gives a triumphant little fist-pump and then laughs at himself), so this is their last chance to live together. Sucks to be Kevin's mom, I guess. As Kevin drives them away from the Pit Stop, there's some dispute as to what happened to the clue, with Kevin insisting he gave it to Michael and Michael saying he doesn't have it. "You are asking an old guy," Michael points out. The interview goes on with Michael saying they'll be doing everything together, including peeing. Kevin looks a little embarrassed by that, but at least Michael has found the clue now, so they don't have to do their peeing together right there in the car as a result of panic over a lost clue.