Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Enjoying the glory of Darwin
By Miss Alli | Season 9 | Episode 10 | Aired on 05.02.2006
Eric jumps. He does not say "T-Tow." They get their clue and go. Ray jumps. No power word for him either. As he lies on the ground with the instructor still tied to him, Yolanda coos, "Oh, that's so sweet; he's holding you and everything!" Ray mutters, "It's not funny." Heh. Oh, come on, Ray. It's a little funny. They get going.
BJ and Tyler reach the termite mounds and ultimately find the clue box. As they run through the mounds, BJ calls out, "Don't touch them! Termites will eat all the wood in your body!" And Tyler comes back with a panicky, "My peg leg!" Which: funny. Because: not "lookee meeeee!" nonsense. GET IT? When they pull the clue, they find this week's Detour, where the choices are Dry and Wet. In Wet, you drive six miles and then hike and swim a course down a river full of spiders and "poisonous plants." In Drive, you go six miles of regular road and six miles of off-road, and then you proceed into the jungle and pick out a didgeridoo. Then you follow the sound of other didgeridoos, and you make your way to one of several aborigines. When you find the one whose didgeridoo has the same markings as yours, you let him teach you how to play a note, and when both team members have played one, you can go. In other news: I now know how to spell "didgeridoo," and I am pleased to see that Microsoft Word does, too.
BJ and Tyler choose Wet, on the theory that it can't possibly take all that long to go a mile, and that if they got there and found that they couldn't play the note, they'd be screwed. I think Tyler is reading this as a Tortoise/Hare where the didgeridoo is the Hare, because it might be hard to learn to play the note, and I think the didgeridoo is actually the Tortoise. It's the river that's unpredictable -- the playing of the instrument is just a matter of plodding down there and getting it done. So Tyler means to pick the safe one, and he's not doing it.
Monica crosses herself, then she jumps. She hollers with delight. Joseph notes that he can hear her screaming from the ground. When she lands, they get their clue and go. To their credit, they seem to be over being Yielded now. She just needed the skydive to improve her mood.
Eric and Jeremy choose Wet, on the theory that it's physical and it's faster. Ray and Yolanda choose Dry, because Yolanda can't swim. Meanwhile, in the BJ/Tyler car, BJ announces that he might do the hike in his underwear, presumably because of the water. Tyler, on the other hand, says he doesn't own underwear. Underwear is an instrument of The Man, I always say. When they park and run toward the river, Tyler says, "Feel that rush of adrenaline in your head? That's first place!" Oh, Tyler. They say "G'day" to their guides, then they put on helmets and gear and get into the water. Eric and Jeremy follow. "Let's catch us some hippies," Jeremy says. You know, it's remarkable how these guys are...not growing on me, exactly, but...as the race goes on, people who don't bitch, don't get nasty, and don't take themselves seriously tend to really rise in my estimation. Self-righteous hypocrites just never wear well, and people who can laugh at themselves generally do. Eric and Jeremy's failure to throw fits about the fact that they were whapped in the ass by their karma back in the cab situation really did kind of...endear them to me, in this small way. I don't like them, but I don't dislike them as much as I used to. Not having women around for them to hit on definitely helps.