Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 53 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Opposites Repel
By M. Giant | Season 24 | Episode 2 | Aired on 03.02.2014
The three lead teams are still hugging when Dave & Connor come jogging up. "Are you kidding me?" Phil says. They're joined almost immediately by the Globetrotters, and Phil tells Dave & Connor that they're team number five. The Amazing Editors have a little fun with Phil, popping a "5th Place" up on the screen and then X-ing it out, because of course Dave & Connor are in 4th place, as all the teams loudly tell him. "I'm getting confused, I'm getting confused," Phil says good-naturedly as the Amazing Editors fix Dave & Connor's ranking on the screen. Counting carefully now, Phil says that Flight Time & Big Easy are team number five. Then Jet & Cord come running up as team number six, and Phil makes a production of counting everyone this time to make sure he gets it right for them. "I'm not sure we've ever had so many teams on the mat at one time," he says. And then Leo & Jamal come in as team number seven. I know teams sometimes stay on the mat for a lot longer than it looks, but these arrivals really must have been quite close together, because it's not until now that Phil announces Brendon & Rachel's prize for winning the leg: $2,500 each. The end.
This of course means that there are still three teams back at the Detour. Mark & Mallory seem to be getting closer than the teams who arrived after them, but they lose it on the tenth try. Team JJ and Team YouTube each fail another time or two, but then Meghan's last kick out of the circle is their tenth one, so she and Joey are done, in eighth place. Jessica & John finish almost immediately afterward. And Mark & Mallory are left standing and staring, looking completely defeated, now officially in last place. So, you know, to be fair, it wasn't only the backpack debacle that dropped them to the back of the pack. In the cab, Joey guesses that it will be hard to find Phil, and soon their cab is dropping them off. But so is Jessica & John's, and they start running for it. Team JJ just barely beats Team YouTube to the mat as team number eight, and Joey & Meghan are team number nine. "You are still racing," Phil says to the latter team, which never unqualified good news. Meghan interviews that this leg was an interesting lesson, and that they'll help each other when it's to their advantage, "but probably not like today again." Indeed, the scene on the mat right now is pretty damn awkward.
Back at the Detour, Mark & Mallory finally finish, and head for their taxi, each carrying their own backpack. They run to the mat, and in a rather odd tableau, all the other teams are standing behind Phil and the greeter, as though they've come for a stoning. Phil glances back and tells Team Kentucky in its very last minute of existence, "As you can see, you are the last team to arrive. I'm very sorry to tell you that you have been eliminated from the race." Mallory breaks down crying while Mark, with dignity, thanks Phil for the opportunity. "Bopper will understand," he says. "I ain't gonna have no hard feelings about nothing, I did all I can do." Rachel's crying again, because camera hog, and Mark interviews, "I guess it wasn't meant for me to travel around the world without Bopper." No, probably not. Phil gives Mallory props for stepping in, though he forgets to add "it" at the end of that sentence. Mallory has pulled herself together enough to thank him for letting her try to fill Bopper's shoes. "I'm sorry that I couldn't." Mark magnanimously says that she did a great job and it was all they could do.