Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Take Two
By M. Giant | Season 18 | Episode 1 | Aired on 02.21.2011
Margie and Luke are the mother and son team, and you may recall Luke losing his pants and his shit during the final task of TAR14 in Hawaii. I'd link to it, but it covers about seven pages. I know there was a lot of antipathy toward them during their season, and although I don't share it, I will try to respect it, you filthy haters. Margie interviews, "Luke felt so bad that he let me down, and I was so far from let down." Luke signs, "Hopefully, we'll win. We'll make up for my big mistake last time." Luke is still deaf, so I will be relying on the Amazing Subtitles generated by the Amazing ASL Translators again this season.
Speaking of Luke and Margie's mistakes, here come Amanda and Kris, also from TAR14. They've since gotten engaged, but Margie and Luke U-Turned them in Siberia, causing them to come in eighth. I always felt like they didn't deserve such an early exit, but speaking purely selfishly as a recapper, they got along so well it was hard to make fun of them. Really, their only "hook" is being pleasant with each other and ridiculously good-looking. Amanda says she's tired of watching the show with Kris and hearing about how they shouldn't have been U-Turned. Well, good thing they got the return invite, yeah? I think this is one of very few teams that's going to have real trouble doing worse than they did the first time.
The whistling strains of "Sweet Georgia Brown" means we're once again meeting Harlem Globetrotters Flight Time and Big Easy from TAR15, who, as Phil delicately puts it, were "stumped by Franz Kafka in Prague." Which makes it sound like the author of Metamorphosis rose from the grave and demanded, "If the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the square of the other two sides, why is a mouse when it spins?" Flight Time reminds us, "Big Easy got us eliminated," but they can laugh about it. Flight Time says that as Harlem Globetrotters they're used to winning, although I would point out that they're not exactly up against twenty Washington Generals this time around.
The Whites, Mel and Mike (loved you in Zombieland, Mike!), are described as having "broke[n] away from the pack and wandered off course in Thailand." I still blame their cabdriver for the sixth-place finish of my favorite TAR14 team. Mel warns that he's seventy now, so look out. "I'm shaking in my boots," Mike says.