Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Look Back in Angkor. Wat?
By M. Giant | Season 13 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.26.2008
Nick and Starr's boat is the first to get to Kho Andeth, which from the outside looks like nothing so much as a large houseboat anchored in the middle of the lake. They climb to the clue box on the roof, and it's a Detour. Phil announces, "Teams will be forced to experience the unfamiliar world of a village built entirely on water." Their options are "Village Life," in which they have to sail around to various destinations on the lake -- not on the shore, mind you, but actually on the lake -- picking up three items: a set of chattering teeth from a dentist, a rag doll from a tailor, and a ball from a basketball court, where they'll also each have to make a basket. Then they'll swap the items for their next clue at the dock. "Village Work" requires them to go out to the lake's fishing "grounds." The term "grounds" is used loosely here, because the "grounds" are in fact somewhere in the middle of the lake. Fortunately it's also shallow there, because they'll need jump into water up to their waists and then look through the half-submerged fishing traps until they find two that contain fish. Then they'll haul them back to the dock and swap the fish for the next clue. Nick and Starr decide to go with Village Work, as do Toni and Dallas. Ken and Tina decide to do Village Life. And Terence and Sarah are finally docking at Kho Andeth. I initially typed "dicking," which is not entirely inaccurate, as Terence is yelling at their two-man crew, "Fix the boat! Fix it! Fix it! You fix it while we're gone!" He sounds like Oscar Rogers on Weekend Update Thursday. Still, once they get to the clue box, they decide to go with the option that requires them to rely on their boat to take them to three destinations. Oh, and that boat? Still broken. I'm not sure why Terence doesn't suggest they simply wade out to the fishing grounds and tell their boat to meet them there when it's FIXED!
Team Divorced is shocked, shocked to see children out in the middle of the lake, in and out of a canoe. "Little bitty kids!" one of them says. They must indeed be little-bitty, because the water appears to be all the way up to their necks. Behind them, Dan is complaining that the whole day has been in slow motion. "Every time we've caught a break, we just can't sustain it." This is different from their other days in the race, when they don't normally catch breaks at all.
Nick and Starr's pilot takes them to the fishing grounds, with Toni and Dallas not far behind. "The people are in the water, the town's in the water, it's like Waterworld," Dallas says. Except a low-budget version, in which the entire planet is inundated to an average depth of about four feet. Call it Puddleworld. Starr and Nick slip over the side of their boat, she letting out an "Ew!" as her feet touch the muddy bottom. Dallas also complains, and interviews afterward that he was fearing snakes or crocodiles. "Oh, Dal, it's not that bad, it's just mud," his mom tells him in real time. Go, Toni.