Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Personal Dynamics A-Go-Go
By Miss Alli | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.02.2001
Cut to dinner, where Rob voices-over that "unfortunately, Team Guido is the team to beat." Shut up, Rob. (DRINK!) Brennan explains that he finds it rather strange that Team Guido originally told the other teams that they wanted to prove to America that gay guys are "honorable, stand-up guys," and here they are, making everybody hate them because they play dirty. Okay, PSA: It is not Team Guido's job to play nice in order to make America more comfortable with gay men. Team Guido's job is to run the race in whatever way they see fit. If somebody (including me) objects to their methods, it isn't (or it shouldn't be) because they're gay. There are gay guys who are wonderful, and gay guys who are creeps, and if I think Bill and Joe are acting like creeps, then they are joining a great and long tradition of creeps of all races, genders, religions, and sexual orientations. I'm going to make fun of them for wearing matching outfits, because they wear matching outfits. I'm going to despise them for being smug, because they're smug. But they're not Goodwill Ambassadors for the Gay Community, either successful or unsuccessful. Neither Team Guido nor the gay community (which arguably sort of doesn't exist, in that it doesn't have a pool or a party room or a secret handshake or anything) benefits from such an analysis. End of PSA.
Anyway, everybody is having dinner together except Team Guido, which is taking its matching-black-turtlenecked meal alone. (God, they dress like bad poets I knew in college.) After Brennan gets through complaining about the Guidos, Lenny says, "I want to rip their heads off and show them their hearts." Eek, Lenny -- that's a little bit too Mike Tyson for comfort. Rob, rather matter-of-factly, relates that the Guidos are "your friends to your face," and then they "do whatever it takes to stab you." That's about right, and I don't even think the Guidos would deny it. But then he says the boys "don't play like sportsmen, but they're playing to win." Rob, with his "just a game" and his "playing like sportsmen," is apparently having difficulty figuring out whether he thinks niceness should count or not.
Phil walks around in what we will later see as the El-Jem Coliseum, speculating about whether the teams are really prepared for the "strange and unusual things" they'll find in Northern Africa. (Yes, that's where Tunisia is.) We see random footage from Cameramen's Day Out in this week's Exotic Locale. The "strange things" the teams are likely to encounter apparently include people and buildings. Don't quote me, Phil, but I think they can handle the shock.
Rob voices over that the stress level of the game is increasing, and we are given a random, completely gratuitous shot of him in his stateroom without his shirt on. Mmm, shoulders. Unfortunately, he just keeps talking, and now he's babbling about how the clues and locations are getting more difficult. Worst of all, he's wearing his sunglasses both backwards AND perched on top of his head. That is not good, Rob.
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