Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Lanced
By M. Giant | Season 15 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.18.2009
The second group of four teams don't really even consider the FF, and wisely so. While Canaan reads their clue, Mika looks up at the rest of the building that continues to extend untold heights above them. As they wait for the elevator to bring them back down, she's quite relieved that they didn't have to jump off. Me too, except for the "relieved" part.
Running to the parking ramp, Big Easy tosses his hardhat behind him, over the heads of the other teams. Way to defeat the purpose of the "safety equipment." They all seem to find the cars quickly, except for one team. Can you guess which one? "Everybody went the other way," Keri pants to Lance. And that appears to have been the right way, because the other three quickly find their cars and hop in. "I'm about ready to wet myself," Gary says for some reason. Mika marvels from the back seat, "I can see the world's tallest building out the sunroof." And what do Lance and Keri see? The empty parking ramp that they're lost in.
Mika and Canaan attempt the tricky feat of following the Globetrotters despite being ahead of them. And they end up going different directions anyway. So that doesn't work out so well.
Finally Lance and Keri find their cars, now firmly in last place and with the added advantages of being sweaty, winded, and frustrated. Lance can't even put up with Keri asking someone out the window for directions. To Keri's credit, she employs her best and default method for dealing with Lance, which is to basically say, "Fine, you figure it out, then." That will have to start working on him eventually, won't it?
Meghan and Cheyne get to the race track and change into matching racing suits, although Cheyne's the only one who gets to put on a helmet and actually drive the car. He talks about how he's confident and comfortable with new situations, while Meghan hates not being in control. Maybe she should drive, then. She looks pretty nervous as Cheyne gets strapped into the cockpit.
Three teams are trekking out to the desert in close succession: the brothers, Team Inside Straight, and Team Miss America. After marveling over the desert scenery, which looks just like an old Foreign Legion film save for the paved highway generously equipped with light poles, they come upon a parking lot, where each team jumps out of its car and into a waiting 4X4 that's being driven by a professional. They are thus conveyed rather rambunctiously over the sand dunes to the next clue box. I'd rather see the racers have to do this themselves, despite the increased risk of getting stuck. Although I don't really mean "despite."
Meanwhile, Mika and Canaan are stopping for directions, not even having managed to get themselves out of town. Mika frets that they must be in last place. "Some other team may be having the same kind of troubles that we're having," she says hopefully.
Actually, Lance and Keri are beating that, because he's taking an exit off the freeway that she's just told him three times not to take. "So we're not supposed to be on this exit?" he asks. And Keri makes it four.
The leading three teams get out of their 4X4s a short jog from a clue box that's positioned up in a dune. Brian and Ericka reach it first, and he reads the question, "Who thinks they can beat the desert heat?"
And Phil once again misuses the word "literally," as he says the teams will have to "literally drink in the landscape." Over shots of a Bedouin and his camels waiting patiently in the sand, Phil explains that the person doing the roadblock will have to find water in clay urns hidden in the desert. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that some of the urns are empty. Once they've found enough water to fill their bag, they'll swap it with the Bedouin for their next clue. Brian, Tiffany, and Dan are doing this for their respective teams. In an interview, Ericka says she would have been "crying and frantic" if she'd attempted this. "She melts," Brian adds. "Chocolate melts," she clarifies. As Angel pointed out, they're still trying to get me into trouble, aren't they?
The three roadblock racers approach the Bedouin and his small herd to ask about water urns, and are given bags to sling over their shoulders. Brian starts sifting through the nearby sand. "Camel droppings," he concludes. I think he's just describing what he found and not uttering a family hour-friendly curse (as though the family hour hadn't ended some time ago, CBS). Neither he nor the other two seem really sure how to proceed, but Ericka, from the waiting area, is sure that Brian's venturing too far afield. "He's going like, to, fricking Egypt," she says. Hey, that's not that far from here; only one Saudi Arabia away.
The Globetrotters and Gary|Matt are enjoying their 4X4 rides to the clue. No sign of Lance|Keri or Team Nashville yet.
The three Road Blockers are trekking around randomly, and Tiffany runs to an urn whose neck she sees peeking out of the crest of a dune. She digs it out, but it's empty. Brian has found another empty one, and Tiffany finds yet another dry hole. "This doesn't make sense," she complains, which is often the sign of a misread clue. They're still nowhere when they're joined in the search by Big Easy and Matt. But finally, Brian finds an urn that actually contains water. "We've struck gold here," he murmurs, spooning water out of the urn with the supplied ladle.
Dubai's skyscrapers are in Lance and Keri's windshield. Wait, what? He says he's sure the other teams got out fine, and he's taking 44 East now. "Use your judgment," Keri tells him. "My judgment sucks," Lance responds, and guffaws. At least he's developing some sense of self-awareness. It's all about the journey, after all.