Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 1010 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT The Hip Bone's Connected to the What Now?
By M. Giant | Season 18 | Episode 5 | Aired on 2011.03.20
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.After last week's Pit Keep Going, the train back to Kunming for the continuation of the leg is late enough in the evening that there's time for an inter-team basketball game -- and time for Kent and Vyxsin to catch up with everyone else. Arriving in Kunming during the wee hours, with a Double-U Turn coming up, a stop at the Flower Market leads to cab poaching. The Detour is a choice between recreating a theater performance in miniature and carrying and installing a solar water heater on a skyscraper's rooftop. Kent and Vyxsin complete the latter and arrive at the Double U-Turn in third place, seconds ahead of the cheerleaders -- and then U-Turn them right to their faces. Cara and Jaime immediately U-Turn the Globetrotters, who were already in last place. The race then proceeds to the Stone Forest, where a Road Block requires re-racers to assemble a wooden 3-D puzzle representing a life-sized dinosaur. The U-Turned teams make it there ahead of Zev/Justin and Gary/Mallory, the latter of whom use their Express Pass and get to the Pit Stop in second place, right behind Jet and Cord. Kent and Vyxsin make it to the Pit Stop in fourth place, but have to wait out a half-hour penalty that knocks them down to fifth. Justin and Jaime both get stuck and frustrated on the dinosaur, but it's Team Go Team who's out of it in ninth place. So at least now Team Asperger's is guaranteed a better placing than last time around.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!As with the last episode that followed a "To Be Continued" (a mere three weeks ago, mind you), we're dropped right into the middle of the action -- or, rather, the end of last week's action. Kent & Vyxsin, who are already in last place, once again realize on the bus to Old Town Li Jiang that they are without their Amazing Purse, not to mention the money and passports it contains. Flashback of them getting off the gondola and leaving it behind, complete with highlighting. And we also get a reiteration of Vyxsin saying that if it's on the gondola, they're never going to see it again. Where could they have left it where they would be more likely recover it? Under the wheels of the bus before it took off?
You may also remember that we left Zev and Justin while they were still doing the Horn Detour, and not at all sure they were going to be able to manage it. But any attempt to generate suspense on that score has been wisely abandoned, as we now see them arrive at the Pit Keep Going in Li Jiang. They look exhausted upon hearing the news that they're in eighth place, and still in it. "As a matter of fact, you're still racing right now, "Phil says, handing them their next clue. We have no idea from last week what it says, so it's good that Zev now reads from it, "Travel by train to Kunming, China." That's the city they flew into from Tokyo last week on their way here, so now they'll be taking the 400-mile train ride back. Phil tells us that from the Kunming train station, they'll go to the Dounan Flower Market (which we see at night, making it rather less spectacular-looking) to find their next clue. Zev's not done reading, though: "Warning: a Double U-Turn will appear somewhere in this leg of the race." Let's hope that makes up for the fact that Kent and Vyxsin are virtually guaranteed to catch up with everyone else before the next commercial break.
The Goths are back at the gondola, where a conductor at the bottom points them up to the top. Someone must have found the Amazing Purse and turned it in, which immediately renders it even more Amazing. They ride the gondola back to the peak, pretty worried, but as soon as they get there they see an office where their lost fanny pack is sitting on a desk waiting to be collected. They run in and grab it, Kent kissing it relief before they get right back on the gondola. On the ride down, Vyxsin diagnoses, "Seriously, there's like some kind of screws loose up here in our mind." Well, recognizing it is a step in the right direction. Just make sure you have all your stuff before you take any more steps.