Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Arhats Are Off
By M. Giant | Season 16 | Episode 11 | Aired on 05.02.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Things get off to a slow start when none of the locals in Shanghai know what the "Garden Bridge" is, at least by its English name. Dan and Jordan are so stumped they even hang back to glom onto the Detectives, despite the latter team's two-hour lag and the fact that they turn out to be no help at all. Brent and Caite take an early lead, at least until Caite takes a counting Road Block to prove how we've all underestimated her mental abilities (which we didn't), and Jet passes her up. Then it's a motorcycle ride to the Detour, where the two lead teams contend with a needle/haystack task, and Brent whinges about having to pee. Despite a Speed Bump that's barely a wrinkle, Louie and Michael fall behind the brothers. And despite the limitations of Caite's counting abilities and Brent's bladder, they manage to win their first leg ever, although Brent feels dwarfed by the world's tallest man serving as the greeter. Jet and Cord come in a close second, with Dan and Jordan rounding out the final three. Yes, the Detectives are finally off the case.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We're about to learn something about Shanghai, which is what this is: "Centuries ago, it was among the first Chinese cities open to Western trade. And today, with its towering skyscrapers, and contemporary lifestyle, it is the most cosmopolitan city in China." And by what index does one measure cosmopolisionositiness? If you go by how much a city spent on its Science and Technology Museum, Shanghai wins in a walk, having dropped more than half a billion dollars on it. Let's hope being used as the tenth Pit Stop in a race around the world helped defray some of those costs.
Jet and Cord are leaving at 8:02 PM, in first place. "Make your way to the Garden Bridge," the opening clue reads, apparently in its entirety. Phil says this is across town and known to the locals by its Chinese name, Waibaidu Qiao. And yes, I know there are supposed to be diacritical marks over about half of those letters, but I've got my own life to lead. As they take off, we see some solo interview footage of Cord with a horse corral behind him, so maybe this was before he left home. He says Jet is the best partner in the race, as demonstrated by a story from 2004 that Cord tells: "I caught a hoof in the side of my head. Actually crushed my skull." Ouch! I bet he lost his hat, too. I probably shouldn't joke about this because apparently his very survival was uncertain for a time, during which Jet never left his side. In his own solo interview, Jet says that was one of the most difficult times of his life as well. "Cord's the toughest guy I know." With the bona fides of their relationship established more completely than we could have expected, they start wandering the expansive grounds around the museum, looking for someone who a) speaks English and b) knows where the Garden Bridge is. The second person they find in subset a) asks another person in the local language for the Park Bridge, and the other local points just over yonder. This marks one of the first times a subtitle has been accompanied by a fail noise. "That was easy," Cord says obliviously as they head over thataway.
Brent and Caite are leaving in second place, at 8:36 AM. Caite also solo-interviews about how it's been three years since she "messed up my final question on national television." So that's what she calls it. She says she still gets "negative comments" every day, but making it into the final three will prove "I can accomplish everything I put my mind to." Does she really want to bring up the subject of her mind? They find a bunch of people to ask about Garden Bridge, but none of them know what it is. The nerve of these people, having their own non-English name for something in their city.