Episode Report Card Miss Alli: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT In my beautiful (and slow) balloon
By Miss Alli | Season 8 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.28.2005
The Godlewskis land and get their clue. Some drama is attempted over the fact that the Weavers think their pilot has no good place to land. Ultimately, they're put down on the side of a hill, and they act like this is the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to anyone. As they get their clue, the basket shifts on the hill, and everyone screams. Lest they...you know, tip over on the hill and fall on the ground. Because a person could...skin her knee, I guess. ["Well, if you're wearing underpant-y shorts…" -- Sars] Or get all dirty from being dumped out on the hill. This is how you know we've entered the high-stakes, heart-pounding section of the race.
Commercials.
When we return, it becomes obvious that what was made out to be scary screaming was actually silly screaming, because now the Weavers are laughing and demanding their clue while chuckling over how they "crashed." And by "crashed," they mean "landed in a hot-air balloon." They pile out of the basket, noisily slide down the hill, and take off for the Heber Valley Railway. I imagine their entire balloon crew flipping them off as soon as they're gone.
Speaking of which, the Linzes arrive at the railroad and find a clue for a Detour. The Detour options this week, which look very much like they are located at the railroad once run by Lowly Worm on the floor of my parents' living room, are Spike It and Steam It. In Spike It, you build a 20-foot stretch of railroad with "old-time tools and materials." Like, you know, sledgehammers and moxie and anti-communism. Phil says this will take "precision work." In Steam It, you carry coal in a wheelbarrow and empty it in buckets into a train car. You have to move almost 400 pounds of coal, which sounds like a lot until you realize that with a wheelbarrow to work with, it's not going to take you that long to move 400 pounds. Anyway, the completion of both tasks will have to be approved by a railroad guy.
The Linzes take the Spike task. The Bransens pull up to the Detour, and they take the Spike as well. The Linzes are in the process of figuring out how you assemble the tracks as the Bransens approach. The Linzes basically put Megan on the sidelines, not giving her anything to do at all. She chooses not to be annoyed, but to be amused instead at the fact that she can dance on the sidelines while they get all sweaty. That's one way to handle it, I suppose. Meanwhile, the Gadzookskis approach, and they take the Spike. Wally uses the sledgehammer to move a rail into place for his team just as the pinks get going with their task.