Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! 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 11.27.2011
In Gent, Team Control finds the Burgstraat, and a barrel next to the bridge railing containing the clues. It's a Detour, and suddenly here's Phil, telling us the Detour is about "two things that Belgium is in no short supply of: water, or waffles." For "Water," the racers will use rope, plastic barrels, and some rough-hewn poles to lash together a makeshift raft, which they'll paddle down the canal until they find two halves of a clue that will add up to a complete one. For "Waffles," they have to put together a waffle stand, then make and dress up eighteen "perfectly formed waffles" to earn their next clue from the chef. Ernie and Cindy decide on Waffles. "We don't do well on water tasks," Cindy understates. In fact they skip them entirely whenever possible. They quickly find the neighboring corner where the waffle-stand kits are waiting and get right to work putting one together like it came out of a box from IKEA. Jeremy and Sandy find the clue next, and also decide on Waffles. Speaking of breakfast foods, Bill finishes his doughnuts, and appears to have finally given in to his enjoyment, even though he probably does this with his tractor back home all the time.
Ernie and Cindy are discovering the difficulty faced by two people who want to set a roof on a waffle stand when one of them has a maximum vertical reach of a good foot below where said roof is supposed to go. Ernie somehow centers himself under it and holds it in place while Cindy scampers around rushing to get the support poles deployed under the corners. "Just take your time," he snarks with a hundred pounds of lumber balanced on his head. She has to climb the walls to get everything notched in, and after a Raimi-esque montage of more pieces being slotted into place, Cindy test-fires the provided hand-mixer. Groovy.
As Team Control heads over to the chef's stand to check out the demonstration, Jeremy and Sandy run up the street to join them. The four of them look over the dozen-and-a-half rectangular waffles in the display case, each with a different topping configuration (fruit, cream, chocolate, various permutations thereof) and a little Belgian flag stuck in it. Sandy and Jeremy decide to put this part off until their stand is constructed, while Ernie says of the impending waffle-making, "I should be able to do this quite effectively, but you never really can tell once you get into the booth with Cindy." Whoa, where did that come from? Team Pre-Owned is at work on their stand, with the predictable attendant tension, and Ernie gets to work mixing up waffle dough while Cindy questions every move Ernie makes (Ernie's every answer being a form of "because the chef did it this way"). Cindy also wonders how Jeremy and Sandy are getting their stand up so quickly. "I don't know, because they're tall and we're not," Jeremy says diplomatically, if not outright generously, to his munchkin fiancée.