Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 140 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Smithing and Sewing
By M. Giant | Season 21 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2012.10.21
Seeing a guy proudly waving a bundle of dead poultry from the top of a passing truck, Ryan apparently decides it's now safe to declare the place "funky monkey," a sentiment with which Abbie fully agrees. Shortly thereafter they arrive at Rubel Model Auto Mobiles (thanks to the sign for being in both English and "Squiggly"), just ahead of the twins, who fret about "these two idiots" getting there before them. Ryan collects their clue from a bucket placed inside the skeleton of a trashed bus seat sitting outside the gate to the yard, and reads, "Who wants to fill in the gaps?" Now Phil's walking through the busy yard, explaining how this Roadblock calls for teams to "repair one of the more than 15,000 buses that do battle on the congested streets of Dhaka every day." This over shots of said buses playing chicken within inches of each other on hard areas that can only generously be called "streets," a term which implies some level of organization. The repairs will consist of using body putty to fill in a dented area on the side of the bus, which is marked off about three feet on a side, then sand it so it's ready to be painted, and then take three pairs of seats from another bus and carry them all the way across the yard to the area where seats are apparently refurbished. And then they'll get their next clue, even though the buses will still not technically be repaired.
There's a brief mention of a Fast Forward, which both teams decline to attempt, and then Ryan and Natalie decide to take this on. They proceed into the yard, which looks like a flayed-open Star Wars Sandcrawler, but with buses and dudes instead of droids and Jawas. All manner of welding and lifting and replacing is happening, on buses that are so bashed-up they'd probably be cubed here in the States. Probably a different insurance environment in Bangladesh, though.
Jaymes & James show up and also decide not to risk the Fast Forward, apparently by prior agreement. James is taking this one. "This is definitely a boys' challenge," Nadiya says while waiting on the sidelines with Abbie. We'll see. Ryan explains and demonstrates how the putty had to be mixed just so, with yellow stuff from a tube needing to be squeezed onto a metal palette that he's already smeared with gray goo. Natalie is already spreading the yellow stuff smoothly into place, using a putty knife that's essentially a metal rectangle. Nadiya says what I think is, "We're the only brownies, we have to win." I kind of hope not, though. James, meanwhile, is having trouble getting the lid off his putty can. Just pretend it's a shirt, James.