Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | 189 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Gone with the "1"
By M. Giant | Season 19 | Episode 12 | Aired on 2011.12.11
Ernie and Cindy head on over to the three-sided billboard, which looks even bigger next to humans, and even bigger than that given that one of those humans is Cindy. A guide leads her up the ladder and, on the narrow platform at the base of the map, points her to the red rope sticking out of the edge of the map waaay over on the right edge, at the intersection of the Equator and the International Dateline. As the guide explains (and I already have), Cindy will have to "pass the rope through the country clip of your choice to plot your course." It's worth mentioning that the countries on this map aren't labeled, and they all seem to have clips on them. While waiting and watching fifty yards away or more, Ernie says he just hopes the other teams are struggling, since he hasn't seen them since leaving the flight simulator. Yeah, that's kind of the problem with this finale, isn't it? The map has three sides so all three teams could do it concurrently if they needed to, a good bit of planning that just shows how sad it is that they don't.
Cindy takes up the slack on her belaying line and starts walking along another rope stretched horizontally along the bottom of the map, on her way east. At about Sydney, she pulls down on the other rope, lifting herself straight up so she can grabs a hold of the end of the Amazing Red Line, which feeds out like an elastic dog leash or a retractable power cord. While working her way back west, she verbally runs down the countries they've visited: "Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand..." As she clips the rope through Thailand, a little graphic comes up at the bottom of the screen showing the names and flags of eight of the countries visited this season: Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malawi, Denmark, Belgium, Panama and USA. What, no Germany? They totally changed trains there. Dings sound and check marks appear in the boxes as Cindy clamps the rope through the first three countries one after the other. "You're doing great, Cindy!" Ernie calls. Not so much with the screaming of instructions, but it's not like she needs them. Or would respond so much to screaming, I'm thinking.
Amani and Marcus have finally reached the Dump. Amani seems more interested in giving Marcus a chance to redeem himself than actually catching up at this point, which is probably good because only one of those things is now possible, and tells him he gives a damn. But her expression soon turns even more sympathetic as he slowly reads, "Completely type...out...your next...clue." She says he's got it, but he pouts hilariously before heading inside. Sure enough, he gets all the way to the numbers. How appropriate that all of the final three teams have difficulty getting their finger on number one.