Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Antebellum? I hardly even know 'em!
By Miss Alli | Season 8 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.03.2005
In the Paolo car, they're theoretically headed for Middleburg, but first, they have to find a gas station. As Mama Paolo points out, they could have stopped back when...you know, she said to. But DJ continues to tell his mother to shut up and so forth.
At the Tidal Basin, Nick is sky-is-blue-ing the strangers some more. David is first to find a spy, so he gets the clue and starts back. "One to a person? Oh, you're kidding," Nick says, so I guess each spy only can hand off to one Roadblocker, at least until they can go back and get another one. David wishes Nick luck as he runs off. When David returns to the clue box with the briefcase, Megan asks if Nick was "near [him] at all." "He was," David offers. The Aiellos leave in fifth place.
Team Rogers pulls over, and Brittney asks directions to "the reflecting pool." She's told that it's near the Washington Monument. Mm-hmm. "You can't miss it," the guy says, and then there's some talk about famous last words and so forth. Dun dun duuuuuun!
Up at Team Gaghan, Billy wants to ask people for help, but his dad wants to know what they'd ask. See, I think Dad is fixated on the idea that because they've seen other teams come and go, they're at the right place and just not seeing the clue box. I don't think it's occurring to him right now that they could be at the wrong place entirely. Billy's spot-on, but I understand why his parents don't get the point. If you were at the Washington Monument and just couldn't find the box, it's hard to say what you'd ask. So Billy's idea is squelched, and they just keep looking.
Commercials. Or, more specifically, flood warnings, at least where I was. Paul Douglas wants you not to drown in your driveway.
When we get back, the Gaghans are still at the wrong reflecting pool, still looking around. One of them claims, at least, that they got to the pool two hours ago, which...yikes. That is way too long. You at least have to go back at that point and consider every possibility, ever, just as Papa Schroeder did when he went up to someone and said, "This is the only reflecting pool?" and so forth.
Team Rogers shows up at the wrong reflecting pool. The Bransens are still there, too, and Wally and the Tonyas look again at the clue. They ask a local whether there's a reflecting pool that's actually by the Capitol building, and -- ding! -- they learn that there is. Oops. They head back to the car. When Team Rogers and Team Gaghan run into each other and Team Gaghan reveals how long they've been there, the teams take the clue out again and read it. Here's an interesting fact -- these teams left at almost the same time, and the Gaghans have kicked around the reflecting pool for two hours. Team Rogers has had some problems today besides going east instead of west when they only had to go about seven miles to get to 83 South in the first place. If they drove east for such a long time that they lost two hours, that tells you a little something about how hesitant people are to contradict Papa, who should have been able to see on the map that 83 shouldn't take long to show up. Anyway, when these two teams look at their clues again, they find that -- guess what? The clue says at the U.S. Capitol. You're telling me the Gaghans didn't do a careful clue-read after the first, say, hour of wandering around? Again, I can only say "zoiks" to that. The two teams go and ask at an information booth, and they learn of the existence of the other reflecting pool. They both run for their cars. "Hopefully, our car is closer," Billy says. He's got the hang of the racing part, that's for sure. The Bransens are on their way as well. In the Rogers car, Dad is now making a comment about how it's "very unfortunate" that the team will pay for his mistakes. Well, yes. But really? Not the point.