Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | 562 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Three Strikes and You're out (And It's About Time Somebody Was)
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 10 | Aired on 2011.11.27
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.We pick up where the previous leg left off with Amani and Marcus's victory, and where the current leg begins seconds later. Ernie and Cindy came in second, with Jeremy and Sandy in third. Andy and Tommy were the next to finish, followed by Bill and Cathi, who still aren't eliminated even after coming in last. However, because Team NFL gets lost in Brussels, Ernie and Cindy are the first team to make it to the Ford Proving Grounds for a Mustang infomercial disguised as a high-speed driving Roadblock. Jeremy catches up to Ernie during the latter's struggle with the slalom part, but fails to pass him. Then it's on to Gent for the two lead teams. Marcus and Tommy compete at the Proving Grounds while Andy battles with the sin of envy and Bill battles with the sin of still being in last place.
For the Detour in Gent, teams have to either build and stock a waffle stand (Ernie/Cindy, Jeremy/Sandy) or build a barrel-raft to search for halves of a clue along the river (Andy/Tommy, Amani/Marcus, and Bill/Cathi after Team Pre-Owned warns them off the waffles). The waffle-making proves time-consuming, so Cindy and Ernie lose a chunk of their lead heading to Muur Van Geraardsbergen, with the snowboarders now closer behind and Marcus and Amani passing up Jeremy and Sandy, who barely finish ahead of the grandparents.
At the Muur, teams witness the release of homing pigeons, which they'll have to meet at a predetermined address so they can retrieve the location of the Pit Stop from a bird's leg. Andy and Tommy are the first to accomplish that, and learn that they're going back to Brussels to "find" the Atomium, that impossible-to-miss iron atom we first saw last week. Jeremy and Sandy steal second place while Ernie and Cindy get totally lost. Andy and Tommy win their sixth leg and a new Mustang each, while other teams struggle with directions. Jeremy and Sandy are team number two, Ernie and Cindy are unhappy to come in third, with Marcus and Amani coming in fourth. Bill and Cathi's tenth leg is their last. Not a bad run at all for a couple of olds, though.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!In the previouslies, Phil comes right out and promises that one of the remaining five teams will be eliminated tonight. Gosh, Phil, why would we ever think otherwise, what with five of the nine episodes thus far ending in Philimination? That's more than half!
After the credits and the ads, we pick up seconds before we left off last week, when Amani and Marcus learned they were team number one and that the next leg of the race was starting right now. Like, right now. Amani reads from the clue Phil just handed her that they need to drive themselves to the Ford Proving Ground in Lommel, Belgium. What a coincidence -- I believe Ford is a sponsor this season! In one of the cars which were apparently waiting for the teams outside the park (or "Parc," in this case), Marcus says they're going to fight to the end. Which is a noble sentiment, but they would probably be better off racing than fighting.
The sax sextet has struck up again as Cindy and Ernie hop up to the gazebo. They hug upon being told they're team number two, until Phil's "however" causes Ernie's expression to fall comically to the ground. Phil breaks the news that the next leg has already begun and Cindy blares, equally comically, "OH MY GOSH!" She has this weird gift for saying things that aren't funny in a way that still makes me laugh. Off they go to find the cars waiting for them. They drive to the nearest hotel (which is very near indeed) to get directions. Also, please note that Phil didn't ding them for losing their train tickets in the last leg, but then what would he have said? "Ernie and Cindy, you are the second team to arrive. However, you did not present your tickets to the conductor on the train from Cologne to Brussels. However, a conductor never checked for tickets. However, as a result you effectively rode the train for free. However, I guess you paid for the tickets, even if they weren't in your possession. HOWEVER, their loss ate up the entire middle of last week's episode and-- You know what, fuck it, just get out of here."
Jeremy and Sandy are team number three, which is like first place in Jeremy-and-Sandy-World. They take the news that the next leg has already begun in stride, but I can't believe they don't find it off-putting that Phil's dialogue on the mat is so obviously dubbed in after the fact.
Andy and Tommy are still doing the previous task, namely the bodybuilding posedown. They're getting a lot more into it this time, as is the tiny audience. The judges give them some positive feedback and then reveal the scores -- fours across the board, so with twelve points, they're done with the task and have their clue in fourth place. Better yet, now they can put some clothes on.