Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Out in Africa
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.30.2011
Jeremy and Sandy are already arriving at the warehouse, where, after driving in through Gate 7, they spot a red metal bin with yellow tape wrapped around it and a sheaf of clues inside it. Seriously, the old stand-up clue boxes must have fallen out of a plane over the ocean or something. "Roadblock: Who's ready to put up bale?" Jeremy reads from one of the clues. And then we're inside the warehouse from the first and fourth Indiana Jones movies, except all the crates have been replaced by burlap sacks and the running Russians have been replaced by running guys with green coveralls and heavily laden handcarts. Phil says the racers will "take part in production of Malawi's biggest cash crop," because it's not a locally-inspired task if it's not grossly overstated somehow. Each racer who does this will put on an orange coverall that doesn't make them look at all like escaped prisoners, and use a short-handled dolly to cart these huge bales of tobacco through the busy, labyrinthine space. And the green-clad guys who work there will not be going out of their way to make it easy. In fact, they won't be going out of anyone's way. After each racer has moved ten 200-lb bales to the drop-off lanes, he'll be given his next clue. And no, I didn't bother to make that sentence gender-neutral. In fact, this is a good one for the twins to have been eliminated right before, I'm thinking. Sandy gives this one to Jeremy, duh, and he climbs into his orange coverall. It also comes with a wide-brimmed, black cloth hat, so maybe he won't get shot by the police while he's running around all over the place. He reads the instructions to choose a handcart and move bales from the grading area to the holding area at Shed 19-G. Oh, is that all?
Justin and Jennifer are arriving outside, with Team Control right behind them. Justin and Ernie will be doing this, of course. Jeremy's getting underway, and after interviewing post-leg that it was hard work, we hear Sandy in real time supportively saying, "Jeremy doesn't know what he's doing." Jennifer and Cindy run to join her at the waiting area while Justin and Ernie get to work. Justin soon finds himself colliding in the narrow aisle with the real workers. "We're in a madhouse in a warehouse," Sandy says. But at least it's not the entire workforce racing around the place; there's a large group of them singing and dancing on stacks of bales like they're auditioning to perform with Paul Simon. Jeremy's having a great time as he hurries to deliver his first bale. Ernie cuts a corner too close and nearly goes over his load ass over teakettle. Justin spills his bale off his cart entirely, so it's not surprising that Jeremy is the first to deliver a bale to the drop-off area, where one bale is already marking where he's supposed to leave it. Ernie and Justin drop off their first ones as well, in the next lanes over. So far so good, as they've successfully shortened untold numbers of lives already.