Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Sprint of Our Life
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.02.2011
The train pulls up in the predawn darkness, and teams get off and scramble for cabs. Bill & Cathi somehow got themselves into first place. Amani and Marcus keep rocking back and forth in their seats to make their taxi go faster, like it's a Radio Flyer and not a regular car. I guess it works, though, because they pass both Laurence & Zac and Kaylani & Lisa. At some point the sun comes up, and it's 7:30 AM as they're making their way through some suburb. Since Google Maps (eat it, Bing) tells me that it's more than a three-hour drive from Yogyakarta to the village of Jomblang, they could be anywhere in between. Bill and Cathi are a little worried about their upcoming Speed Bump (as though a Speed Bump ever did anyone in who wasn't screwed to begin with), while other teams are more worried about the upcoming double elimination.
But as the lanes narrow and the speed limit rises, some racers' concerns become more immediate, as in whether they'll survive the trip to their next destination. They all seem to be in a long caravan of white taxis, with horns of the oncoming traffic Dopplering past inches from their windows. Cathi & Bill arrive first, Bill with a "Yabba dabba doo!" The clues aren't in a clue box, but a metal flower bucket, and they get the first one. As they learn that it's a Road Block, Phil tells us about Indonesia's caves, including this one, Goa Jomblang. From somewhere in its depths, Phil addresses the camera in a mining helmet and spelunking gear as he says that one racer from each team will come down 160 feet to find a Javanese mask and an indigenous dagger called a kris somewhere down there in the dark. For now, the editing makes that seem difficult. After retrieving them, they'll climb a giant bamboo ladder back out and exchange the items with a Patani for their next clue. But before anyone can get to that, Bill & Cathi have to do their Speed Bump. This must have been quite a dilemma for the Amazing Editors; it's not often that a team with a Speed Bump gets to it first.
Phil reminds us that Bill & Cathi came in last at the previous leg, hence their Speed Bump before they move on. For this they have to... untangle a rope. Remember the Gordian Knot from a few seasons ago? That was cool. This is just a tangled hairball that Phil holds up like he just wrestled it out of the ocean. They need to free up enough rope to link it to a tree a hundred yards away or so before they can get back to the race. They find it and get right to work on what Bill refers to as a string of Christmas lights out of Christmas Vacation. What is with the dated references tonight? It's like a season of Rip van Winkles.