by SpiderBraids
Aaaaand we're back as the teams are gearing up for some cheap Kiwi thrills to kick-off the JWG. Since at the time, not many people (much less the show's target audience) would have known what the heck a zorb is, Tatupu provides some exposition. Okay, it's fairly minimal: "Zorbs are like big plastic bubbles. So moving is simple. Lean forward and roll." Squid sez: "Are there medical professionals at the bottom of the hill?" I don't see any, but at least you don't have to run up a hill to a checkpoint.
A typical "Squid" comment leads straight into some mild foreshadowing, as Phil's Understudy gives Sammy "the club of Chief Kupe, the only Maori bold enough to battle the giant squid." Okay, so it's a necklace. Do you reckon it'll be a big deal later on? Huh?
Ray drags out every cliche in the pre-race peptalk book, except maybe the "win one for the kipper" cliche, for his pre-race peptalk with Otto. As in, not the whole team, and this is fodder for another storyline, but that's somewhere down the line. First though, time to get racing. Sheesh, a conch horn? How corny can you possibly get?
Okay, I can imagine the writers getting together and thinking: "I dunno, the zorbing looks right, but it doesn't really feel right..." "I know! Let's put in some rockin' tunes so we have an excuse to put out a soundtrack album!" And with that idea in mind, they're putting in a song by Bowling for Soup (which you might remember from the soundtrack to [[Jimmy Neutron]]) during the zorbing.
To whoever was responsible for designing the tasks: was it really such a good idea to put a direction-dependent task like mountain biking straight after one that might seriously scramble your sense of direction? Anyhow, they're finishing the zorbing and getting on their bikes, and guess who are the frontrunners right now? Yep, Otto and Theodore. No surprise, huh? Let's head over to the adults, watching the proceedings.
"Theodore's not bad. [...] Must take after his mother." I don't know whether to classify this as trash-talk, but it would make really lame trash-talk. Come to think of it, it would seem very appropriate for Ray. Also, remember the incident on the plane where that old geezer got the last of the vegemite on the plane ahead of Tito? Now Chester's got the last of the vegemite from the buffet table ahead of Tito.
Back to the biking, and as we're getting a really egregrious split screen (it's a 5-way-split... eat your heart out, 24!), time to drag out another song, this time by Area 7. And this one has a message, too: "Individuality, be proud of what you are." Even when, like Otto right now, you're near the most selfish jerk in the world, and you're getting so intense you're biking faster than you really should, especially as you're heading into a sharp hairpin? I give this message a pass... as Chester (whose kid is at least sensible enough to slam on the brakes entering said turn) would say, "That's kids. You can't tell them anything these days." It's a rocking song tho, and... it's time for Nick to plug some junk again? Already? Well, be back in a few.