Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Bale out
By Miss Alli | Season 6 | Episode 3 | Aired on 11.29.2004
Commercials. Wow, the Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison collection. There's a cultural swimming pool into which I have long hoped to dive headfirst.
Back at the bins, MJ is trying to pull Don back into the game. "So, we're going to count again," she says. He voices over that he was "out of [his] mind with fatigue," and adds, "It's not rocket science to count bears, but I thought I couldn't do it." Yep, this is very, very early Killer Fatigue: Loss Of Concentration Variation. It's a really common thing, it just usually takes longer to show up.
Over at Lori and Bolo's bin, he takes two packs of pans off the floor and throws them into one of the bins. "I've got to recount the other ones," he says. He reaches down and takes two more, and lays them into the bin as he says, "Let me count them again." "What are you doin'?" she asks. He freezes. He puts the two he just had back on the floor. "You didn't!" she says miserably. "How many'd you put in there?" she asks. "Two," he says, not reaching for the other two he just put in that box as well. "I hope it was just two. Was it two?" "Two or three," he says. Well...four, actually, but...three, four, does precision really matter? Oh, it does? Never mind. Lori snorts and goes back to square one, it appears.
Nuance is heading for the train, as he explains to her that a subway is a kind of train. Hee hee. Hornio is snagging a cab, and then Nuance gets one, too.
Now, the first two teams are jumping off at Haggvik station. Kris and Jon get away on the tandem bike first, Hayden still doing a bit of grousing as she climbs aboard. Kris and Jon get going, but Hayden is dismayed by the fact that she can't see from the back seat, and the fact that Aaron's backpack is smacking her in the face. Heh. I can't believe, by the way, that they got through this entire episode without, apparently, anyone singing "Bicycle Built For Two." Because I totally would have. Or at the very least, I'd be humming the Wicked Witch theme.
Hornio and Nuance at the subway station together, but Hornio gets a few steps ahead, and Nuance winds up not making it on the same train they do. "When's the next one come?" Kendra asks Freddy as they stand on the platform having just missed the train. "Ten minutes," he says. She predicts the other teams will catch up with them while they're waiting. Her purple bandanna agrees.
Back at Ikea, Don and MJ have found a new final count. So have Lori and Bolo. Don and MJ's final count is 1876. Only four away from one of Freddy and Kendra's early guesses, you'll note. "I'm sorry, it's wrong," the lady tells them. Don says that he thinks they need to bail out and build the desk, and as much as I'm against Bald-Snarking the Detours in most cases, I would make an exception for this one, because the more frustrated and tired you get, the worse your odds probably are of getting it right. And it's not a Detour where you lose any invested work, really -- you're at square one all over again either way, so you've got a fresh decision staring you in the face every time you start over. To the suggestion that they switch, MJ just nods and says, "Okay." I don't think she wants to count any more damn bears, either. I would have started twisting their heads off at some point. Lori and Bolo offer their lady 2201, but that's not right either. And they, too, decide to make the damn desk before we all get old and gray. Or older and grayer, in some cases. Both these teams set themselves to the task of building the desk. Incidentally, from peeking at Don and MJ's notes, it looks like there were on the order of 1500 or 1600 stuffed animals, and somewhere around 130 packs each of the pans and the pots. That comes up a little short, but that looks like it would be about right to me. Someone, somewhere, will probably figure it out precisely, but fortunately, I am not that person. Yet.