Episode Report Card M. Giant: N/A | 56 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT The Carrot and the Stuck
By M. Giant | Season 22 | Episode 7 | Aired on 2013.03.31
The race stays in Botswana, but that doesn't mean the traveling is over. Teams drive themselves to a riverbank, where Bates & Anthony do a water-skiing Fast Forward and win the leg by hours. The other teams don't have it quite so easy; a Roadblock requires one member of each team to pole a dugout canoe upriver, with their partner and two small goats as passengers. And as Pam, Wynona, Beth, Joey, and Max (but not so much Caroline) discover, it's pretty tricky.
But they have to get there first. En route, Jennifer gets pulled over for speeding, so the country singers have to drive to the police station, try and fail to pay their ticket with American money, rely on a stranger to take their US dollars and return with local currency, and eventually get back on the road. Joey & Meghan just get lost entirely, utterly bereft without the GPS they claim their entire generation relies on. And Max & Katie can't even find their car after starting the leg in last place, and they also get a speeding ticket, and have a fender-bender, and this is before they even get to do their Speed Bump that involves prepping for and performing a ceremonial dance.
Pam & Winnie remain solidly in second place all the way to the Detour, where they choose to lead a team of donkeys hauling a load of firewood on a sleigh. But when the other two all-female teams show up, they panic and switch to the one where they do a fake safari on horseback, in which they're supposed to identify animal cutouts and then put them in the right order by memory. While they're attempting this, Mona & Beth and Caroline & Jennifer come in second and third respectively, while Chuck & Wynona ace the safari Detour and come in fourth. But Pam & Winnie fail to notice one of the ten animals, so suddenly it's not looking good for them at all.
However, Team Newlywed and Team YouTube don't know this. So after a persistently lost Joey gets lucky enough to be able to follow Max to the Roadblock, the two teams are locked in an increasingly frenzied race for what they think is last place. After rushing through the donkey Detour, Joey & Meghan beat Max & Katie to the mat by seconds, and are stunned to learn that there's still a team out there. Yes, after two tries at the safari task, Pam & Winnie switched tasks again. And now they have to switch to not being in the race any more. I did not see that coming at the beginning of the hour, much as Pam & Winnie did not see that ostrich cutout.