We open with a shot of what look like prayer flags hanging from a clothesline, as the onscreen text tells us the setting is "Nagarkot Ridge, Nepal." So we're still in Nepal, huh? At least it's not like the current season of Road Rules, where they were in South Africa for, like, ten episodes in a row. I think this is the last Nepal episode. The roommates climb up on a ridge to watch the sun come up, as the lyrics to the background song say, "Watch the sun come up." How do they find these songs? Rebecca tells Irene she feels like "straight up turning Buddha right now." She goes on to say that she's not scared of heights or anything, but she is scared of people. Nathan and Irene laugh at her. Hey, I'm scared of people! Well, I wouldn't say scared. Easily intimidated. Suddenly, I'm relating to Rebecca, even though she did say that dumb Buddha thing a minute ago.
Rebecca walks into a building of some sort as we see a confessional where she admits that she's been feeling "tortured" by having to live with six other people who point out her insecurities, thus magnifying them. Oh, so this is the "Rebecca becomes comfortable with herself" episode. A growth episode, if you will. I hope there are a few fights thrown in for balance. The other roommates follow Rebecca into the building, and the guide explains that it is a blessing for "non-married people." I'm sure that means "virgins." Or, it would if it were an American religious blessing.
Nathan rings a bell while Stephen records the sound. In an interview, Stephen tells us that their job in Nepal is to make six ads for REI, using natural sound. They are going to record the sounds now, and organize them when they get back. Or at least, that's the plan. Stephen records some Nepalese children saying "Welcome to Nepal" in English and then laughing really stiffly. So, it's not really "natural sound" so much as "Stephen telling people to make unnatural sounds." Like, do you think those schoolchildren run around saying "Welcome to Nepal" in English all the livelong day? Anyway, Kelsey (the REI promotional director) wants them to talk about what they are doing. In an interview, David explains who Kelsey is, for the illiterate viewers who couldn't just read the on-screen text. Kelsey says David will "set the tone" of the commercials with his intro, which he and Stephen are recording. In an interview, Stephen says he doesn't "want to seem like a jerk" (too late!) but he thinks they should earn the trip by making the commercials top-notch. Well, that's a noble sentiment. But then he ruins it by saying that he has made himself "executive director." Oh, dear. This probably won't turn out well. David kicks back with a microphone, and says he is "literally at the top of the world right now. It's very, very peaceful. It's like nothing [he's] ever known." If he was any more laid-back, he'd be comatose. I'm not saying he has to be all "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!" like a monster-truck rally ad, but he could kick the excitement up a notch.
The roommates ride mountain bikes down...well, a mountain. David says the scenery is "unreal!" See, that's the kind of excitement he needed in the ad. Rebecca tells Rusty (the tour director) that this is her "dream, realized" and Rusty says she's really going to like the rest of the trip. Rebecca tells us that Rusty is the tour director. You know, you'd think I'd get tired of complaining about how the editors treat the viewers like denizens of the short bus, but I really don't. I love how they assume that every episode is the very first episode the viewer has ever seen, so they must explain who everyone is. I'm surprised they don't use the Hip Squiggly Font of Character Introduction (tm djb) each time one of the roommates appears. More biking. They arrive at a school. We know this, because Stephen says, "Here's the school!" and there is a banner hanging outside that says, "Quality English School." I can't even muster up the energy to complain some more. Stephen asks the teacher if they can record the children singing a Nepalese song, and he gives consent. Did anyone ask the kids? Rebecca voice-overs that the children in Nepal are beautiful, and that they would be "on the cover of Vogue in any Western country." Does Vogue really put kids on the cover? My identification with Rebecca is beginning to falter the more she opens her mouth. The kids are really cute, though. Nathan (who didn't bother to remove his biking helmet or, I swear to God, the hayseed from between his teeth) claps and says, "Wonderful! Yay!" The kids ask the teacher, in Nepalese, to "make the scary hick go away." Y'all didn't know I spoke Nepalese, did you?
The sun sets. The roommates arrive at the home of Mingma, their head Sherpa (as Janet helpfully informs us). They partake in what I guess is some traditional Nepalese food. Rusty demonstrates how you eat rice with your hands, and the roommates give it a shot. I could get into Nepal! They do give you the funny flat spoons for the soup, though. It's just rice you have to eat with your hands. We see a shot of Stephen pouring some beer into a mug, as Janet informs us that "Stephen has alcohol in him and [they] get into this conversation about [Janet] wearing a lot of makeup." Stephen drunkenly mumbles something to Janet, asking if she thinks she wears a lot of makeup, and discussing the size of her makeup bag. He says, "Hold on!" about ten times, and is kind of laughing, so it doesn't seem like a big deal at first. Janet wonders why they're talking about this, and then quietly tells him that she doesn't want to argue while they're at someone else's house. Then there's a weird cut, to try to make you think that only a moment passed, when probably it was like three beers later. Stephen says she just can't talk about some things. I'm sorry, but he is holding his beer mug in the most non-heterosexual way possible. He might as well have his pinky sticking out. Janet continues to say that it's "not appropriate" and asks if they can talk about it later.
Cut to Rusty, who just eats his soup and watches them. Huh? What was that non-reaction reaction shot about? The editors must be really missing the Space Needle at times like these. In an interview, Janet says that Stephen was attacking her "more than anyone else" and she didn't want to get into a huge argument. Who else was attacking her? Ugh, I hate these out-of-context statements. Stephen says in an interview that he's "calling out a lot of things that she doesn't want called out." Stephen is so the revealer of mysteries and scandals. He's all A.J. Benza over here. He continues to say that he is speaking "truths" that she's "not ready to reveal." Dude, he's talking about her wearing makeup! He acts like he has uncovered the Watergate scandal or something. And, I don't mean to cast aspersions, but maybe Stephen should look to himself to find some "truths" that he's not ready to reveal, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. Janet whispers to Stephen that she's "trying to be...proper." I guess "proper" doesn't include refraining from smoking in someone else's home. Well, maybe she got permission. I doubt it, though. Stephen gets all frustrated by her unwillingness to talk. In an interview, David tells us that "the kid can't stop himself. He can't control his emotions and his moods. He has to let them flow." What is it with people on Real World named David and the word "flow"? In the house, David tells Stephen to save his comments for when they get back to the hotel, because "Mingma and his family are cooking a kick-ass dinner right now." I know they are in a foreign country and all, but David's hair is a disaster. He has all these scraggly pieces stuck to his forehead, like could he just run his hands through it or something to fluff it up? It's bugging me. Then again, I wouldn't want to run my hands through David's hair, so he probably doesn't want to either. You'd think Janet could pull a mirror out of her allegedly gigantic makeup bag for him. The scene ends with a guitar chord of discord.
Janet tells us that, back at the hotel, she could hear Stephen going off about her through her hotel room wall. We see Janet smoking a cigarette by the window, and then Stephen talking to David, saying, "But why does the bitch lie to me?" David is in bed, and looks like he really just wants to go to sleep. Stephen calls her "Miss Janet, the insecure little wannabe news anchor." Ooh, burn. Except for the burning part. Janet stubs out her cigarette decisively and goes into the boys' room. Stephen says he has nothing to say to her, and she tells him to "shut the fuck up so that [she] can sleep." Stephen gets all defensive, saying that if she wants to talk to him, they can talk in the hall. They exit the room. Janet is wearing cute black pajamas, and Stephen is in a wife-beater and white boxer shorts, so she has the pajama advantage, at least. Janet tells him that he should quiet down because she could hear him through the wall. He keeps telling her that if she has something to say to him, she should say it. I guess they went out in the hall for some privacy, or to avoid keeping their roommates awake, but all the doors to the rooms are open, so it's not like they can't hear anyway. Janet says she has nothing to say to him, and she just wants him to quiet down. He swears at her and storms back into his room, slamming the door. Hey, do you think he has anger-management issues? I wonder if that will come up again later in the season. Janet says to the closed door, "Grow up, Stephen, please!" and walks into her room. The guitar chord of discord hits again.
The roommates are all hiking. The on-screen text informs us that this is the "Gorkha Region, Nepal" as we hear some Nepalese singing in the background. Irene tells us that "'trekking' is a long word for just walking a hell of a lot." Actually, "trekking" isn't that long a word, but I'm not here to pick nits. Oh wait -- actually, I am. More trekking through the countryside. Mingma explains that in the regions they visited, there are generally a lot of Westerners, so no one notices them. In their current area, Westerners are a novelty, so the kids are all following them around. Oh my God! Nathan just did the meanest thing! He turned to a group of little kids and growled at them, and they all ran away. Way to foster international relations and break down cultural stereotypes, Hick-Boy. Trekking, trekking, trekking. Rebecca tells Kelsey that she's "changing." Her clothes? Oh, she means mentally. Rebecca voice-overs that she has been "blessed with the discoveries" as we see her crossing a ravine by walking on a downed tree, and admiring a Nepalese baby.
All the trekking has led them to a rope bridge crossing a giant canyon. Nathan describes it best, when he says, "This is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." They let Stephen go first, which is a bad idea. Given his anger-management problems, I wouldn't be surprised if he got angry because David stepped on the back of his heel, and ran ahead and cut the ropes, leaving them all to plunge to their deaths. But at least it would have been more entertaining than Rebecca's Spiritual Awakening. Stephen starts shaking the bridge and jumping on it, which is not as bad as cutting the ropes, but is still annoying. Apparently, they made it across the bridge alive, because the scene just ends.
Now, they are in some village and Irene tells Stephen that the battery is dead in the tape recorder. In an interview, Stephen complains that everyone is always asking him to teach them stuff, when all they have to do is press record and talk into the microphone. On the one hand, he's right. On the other hand, he's the one who appointed himself "executive director" of the recording process, so maybe it comes with the territory. They manage to record some villagers singing.
They are all on a beach somewhere at dusk, making buffalo kebabs. Nathan does not look happy with his buffalo kebab. In an interview, he says that the people of Nepal should "worship the water buffalo, because it tastes like poo, and eat the cow, because it's good." Hee! He said "poo." Way to impose your belief system on another culture, hick.
It's nighttime, and a group of villagers are singing and dancing. Rebecca voice-overs that the woman are beautiful, and their bodies are different. They're not "emaciated stick figures" and they show off their full bellies. I'm going to buy Rebecca a copy of The Beauty Myth for Christmas. She is seriously surprised that non-Western cultures don't worship anorexic females as ours does? One of the women puts her scarf on Rebecca's head, and all the villager women laugh at silly Rebecca. Dude, they are totally ripping on her. She pretends like they're laughing with her, and not at her. Rebecca and Irene dance with the women. Rebecca says she wants to learn as much about their culture as possible. Yeah, we'll see if she's all studying when she gets back to Seattle. I seem to remember her hooking up with Sir "Baby Got Back" Mix-A-Lot. Although, I guess he celebrates full figures too, doesn't he?
The day, the gang goes white-water rafting. Stephen comments on how beautiful and peaceful the surroundings are, and says he wants some action. Cue shots of the raft taking on some rapids. Maybe Stephen will get vaulted overboard and hit his head on a rock! Oh, he's wearing a helmet. Too bad. Over shots of the roommates in the raft, Nathan voice-overs that they "went white-water rafting all day." Insert snide comment about how dumb the editors think we are here. Nathan says he doesn't know what he did to be so lucky, to get to do the cool things that he is doing. Join the club, Nate-dawg. Cue the footage of the roommates pushing each other into the water, acting zany and wacky. David points out a monkey up on the cliff. Nathan makes some monkey noises, and then says, "That's crazy. A monkey just sitting on a rock." If he got any dumber, he'd have to wear a helmet. Oh wait, he is wearing a helmet. Good.
The roommates are camping on a beach somewhere. Stephen is searching through his backpack, looking for his money. What, is there a 7-11 nearby, and he wants a Slurpee and a Charleston Chew? Why does he need his money? Stephen says, "I'm personally pissed off, if my money's gone." Except his lips say something totally different, like they just dubbed that sentence in over the backpack-searching shot to save time. In an interview, Janet tells us that Stephen left his backpack on a bus and the money from the front pocket was gone. Stephen grouses that he doesn't want anyone to lend him money, and it didn't just jump out of his bag. Rebecca asks how much it was. Stephen says it was three hundred twenty rupees, but it's the principle. In an interview, Janet informs us that the amount converts to about four dollars. Stephen says he thinks someone stole it. In an interview, Janet says that Stephen blamed the bus drivers and the Sherpas and went "out on a limb to blame everyone." Except himself. Stephen talks to some native guy, telling him about the money. The guy says he doesn't think any of their people took it. Stephen says he didn't think they did (liar!) and the guy says he will ask around. Stephen sits back down with the group and says it's annoying. David says philosophically, "What can you do?" Stephen says he's going to bitch about it. Well, that's productive. And not annoying. Or immature. Rebecca tries to empathize, saying she hates losing money. Stephen says he hates losing money, but he doesn't think that's what happened here. In an interview, Irene says that Stephen's behavior is "disappointing" and that he needs to "reevaluate a lot of the things that go out of his mouth before he says them." Word. Stephen says he's not accusing anyone of anything. Except he is. In an interview, Janet says that the day, they got on the bus and his money was sitting right on the seat, and Stephen felt like a "complete idiot, which isn't unusual." Ha! Burn! For real, this time.
They are all on the bus back to the hotel. Stephen records his thoughts, which are about as dumb as you would imagine. Kelsey says that she thinks it's cool that the children were able to practice their English on them, and it was a cool thing to give them. Janet doesn't think they are taking anything. Irene disagrees with those two, because she doesn't think they really gave anything. Rebecca says that they can't understand the poverty, because they haven't lived it. Doesn't this come up every season? I don't know why the producers even bother to let these people go to foreign countries. In an interview, the newly spiritual Rebecca says that Nepalese wealth is not monetary, but through "happiness, knowledge, culture." Back on the bus, they show like two sentences of a longer discussion so that we don't really know what they were talking about. I think Irene was saying that the Nepalese people don't look up to them, and Rebecca was saying that they do. The point is, that Rebecca disagrees, and doesn't apologize for it. We know this is the point, because then we see a confessional where Rebecca says she needs to be "so confident" that she can say whatever she feels and "be willing to back every statement." Yeah, welcome to humanity, Rebecca.
Back in the village, Rebecca buys and dons some native garb. Yeah, they're looking up to you and not laughing at you. Exactly. There are more interviews that basically repeat the theme of Rebecca gaining confidence in herself and learning to love herself. The roommates come upon a temple of some sort where there are tons of prayer flags hanging from multiple ropes. Rusty explains that each time the prayer flag snaps in the wind, the prayer has been said. Stephen says that being in Nepal has humbled him and that it reminds him that he's "just a little dot on this earth, and he should be considerate of all the other little dots." Yeah, that's Stephen's philosophy of life, all right. Being considerate is clearly what Stephen is all about. Except when he's insulting the home of his hosts, or accusing them of stealing his money. Other than that, Stephen is definitely considerate.
Stephen, David and Nathan are talking over beers. Stephen says that after this is over, some of the roommates won't want to be his friend. ["Yeah, except for the 'some' part." -- Wing Chun] Nathan says that the only bad thing he has to say about Stephen now that he knows him is that he doesn't care, and will say what he wants without thinking about how it might affect others. Hey, what ever happened to Stephen's "kill them with kindness" philosophy? That went right out the window, eh? In an interview, Stephen says that people don't have to try very hard to get a reaction out of him, which is "a huge weakness." Nathan must be drunk, because as they get up to leave, he gives Stephen a huge hug.
Hey, I just figured out why Rebecca got so much screen time this week! They aren't in Seattle, so they can't show the Space Needle, and they had to fill that time with something. Why not Rebecca? The roommates pack up to go home. Mingma gives everyone a white cloth that David informs us is "a Buddhist memento of friendship." Finally, their plane takes off. Rebecca says that she is taking an experience away from Nepal that she will never forget. We see everyone on the airplane thinking. Or in Nathan's case, staring into space. He's like Puddy, just staring at the seat back in front of him. ["He's remembering the monkey on the rock and thinking, 'That chimp was all right.'" -- Wing Chun] Rebecca says that she will be happier for the rest of her life, and not many things can change you that way.
Hey, an actually useful shot of the Space Needle (number forty-eight of the season) informs us that they are back in Seattle. Stephen is hanging up prayer flags in their house, which seems kind of disrespectful. Janet laughs at him, but then admits that she thinks it's "kind of a neat idea." In a confessional, Stephen says that he was talking to Janet about changing his life, and he's ready for a change. Hey, I think that crazy kid just might do it! He's going to become a really good person, considerate and kind. Stephen and Janet are sitting outside, and Stephen apologizes (sort of) and says he has never, and will not ever, hurt anyone intentionally. And I believe it! Janet is glad they discussed it, because she really did feel he was out to get her. In an interview, Stephen says he wishes he could turn back time (like Cher!) and take it all back. Janet says that they should have had this conversation earlier. They hug. In an interview, Janet thinks that Stephen was glad to get it off his shoulders, and that this will be a new starting point. I really think it will be! I bet that for the rest of the season, Stephen will be much better. Don't you?