Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Build Me Up, Buttercup
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.20.2011
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Still in Copenhagen, the race starts with a Roadblock where racers have to memorize a Hans Christian Andersen poem inscribed on the base of the author's statue, then ride a bicycle with a map on the wheel to a theater where they have to recite the poem from memory for a costumed critic. Cindy and Amani both do brilliantly and proceed to the next task at Legoland Park, where they have to assemble their next clue out of Legos while on an amusement park ride. Cathi gets lost en route to the theater, while Tommy and Sandy both have to go back and try the Roadblock again after phoning it in, but they all eventually get it. The carnival ride is pretty rough on Amani and Sandy; worse, Jeremy and Sandy lose some pieces and have to start over. And Bill and Cathi get lost again, which costs them some time. From Legoland, they drive on to Hamburg and take a train to Brussels via Cologne. Ernie and Cindy hold onto their commanding lead all the way to Hamburg, when the train arrives late enough for everyone to catch it -- and Ernie and Cindy have lost their tickets from Cologne to Brussels, and can't afford new ones. They board the second train anyway and get away with it, so it was a lot of stress about nothing, at least on Cindy's part.
In Brussels, everyone has to strip down and oil up to pose with bodybuilders in front of some pretty tough judges. Amani and Marcus are the first team to get it right the first time, and make it to the Pit Stop in first place, closely followed by Team Control. Jeremy and Sandy are in third place after racking up the highest score, with the snowboarders and the grandparents still stuck behind trying to get it right. As for which one of them gets Philiminated, we never find out -- because Marcus and Amani have barely hit the mat when they're hit by the news that they're still racing. And we're hit by the dreaded "To Be Continued."
Want more? The full recap starts right below!"Copenhagen, Denmark has the cleanest urban waterfront in the world," Phil announces. Really? How have they proven that? I do have to admit that it looks pretty clean, but it also looks about three blocks long, which must make it easier to maintain. Phil's speaking to us from the rail of Havet Ship, the Pit Stop of the previous leg and the start of this one -- which happens right about now. Phil reminds us that Ernie and Cindy won the previous leg, so of course they're leaving first, at 9:01 AM. The clue is telling them to drive themselves to Copenhagen's statue of Hans Christian Andersen, "who many scholars consider the most prolific fairy tale writer in history," according to Phil. The photo of him looks more like your creepiest uncle, unfortunately. Except the statue of that uncle has yellow clue envelopes between its feet instead of candy in its pockets. Apparently the statue is outside City Hall, which I corroborated personally (using Google Street View, of course). ,/P>
As they get back into the same product-placed car they used during the previous leg, Cindy interviews that her parents came to the U.S. from China and were probably hoping she'd marry a Chinese man, but she figures they'll see that Ernie makes her happy. And if not, well, not to go all Lou Dobbs on you, but a good way to increase the odds that your daughter will marry a Chinese guy is to keep her in China. I believe they have some there. Ernie and Cindy drive right to the statue and grab a clue from next to its foot. "Who's ready to take a fairy tale ride?" asks the introductory Roadblock question. Then Phil's walking around the statue, which has a row of odd-looking bicycles parked next to it, as he says the racers will have to memorize a poem by Hans Christian Andersen, get on one of those bikes, and use the map printed on the front wheel to get to a place called Theater Museet, which sounds a lot to my monoglot ears like a theater museum. When they get there, they'll have to perform -- not just recite, but perform -- the poem from memory for a creepy-looking drama critic in period costume sitting in the second row of the tiny theater. If he's satisfied, he gives them their next clue; if not -- if he says something like "I need more performance" and then sends them all the way back to the statue to start all over.
Cindy gets right to work memorizing the poem engraved on the base of the statue: "To move, to breathe, to fly, to float/To gain all while you give/To roam the roads of lands remote/To travel is to live." A little on the nose, but okay. And let's hope it sticks in her head better than the Confucius proverb did back in Taiwan: Which could be tricky, because a whole tour group has shown up and are taking turns having themselves photographed while sitting on the statue's base, making the poem impossible to read. Something tells me Cindy wouldn't be able to get away with saying, "To move, to br--shin, other shin--float." Some slick splitscreen editing tricks later, Cindy walks around the corner of the building, finds the bikes, and soon spots the theater on the wheel-map. She helmets up and she's on her way, reciting the poem as she goes, and agreeing heartily with the sentiment. Like anyone who goes on the Amazing Race is going to say, "Travel, meh." Upon arriving at the theater, she tells the skinny, bespectacled dude in glasses, top hat, and frock coat how dapper he looks and takes the stage, launching into a "performance" that would embarrass a junior high school student. But he's looking for quantity of performance, not quality, so after a suspenseful pause he applauds and cries, "Bravo!" She gets her clue and while biking back, she says it felt like the audition of her life. It probably should be the last one.