by SpiderBraids
The parents are climbing down some trees as they recieve the news from the grandparents that their kids have run off. Cordi even reads the note Deb left for them: "'Don't freak.' That's Deborah talking, not I." Britdad gives some coordinates for Radcliffe to triangulate from, and Gramps snarks: "They don't call me Colonel because of my chicken recipe..." Didn't KFC do some tie-in with this movie in the states? Talk about your sneaky product placement...
Back at the Congo-Comm, five elephants pass Spazz, completely unnoticed, as she has whipped her hair over her face to brush it a bit. Meanwhile, she's spazzing about searching for her "ungrateful" sister, missing "Before They Were Teens", and that the smell around here is overpowering her vanilla-ginger body splash. Deb leaves, and we see that the elephants are joining tons of other pachyderms as they're doing their little gathering. Foreshadowing, folks!
Somewhere else, E&D find Wild Thing with a gorilla. Gorilla has two things to share. One: "When a gorilla is sleeping, he doesn't want a dung beetle shoved up his nose." Two: Upon being asked about Eliza's parents, he mentions some "loud whirlybirds" (helicopters) and a fence being built across the valley. As Eliza realize something's up, Donnie stuffs the beetle up the chimp's nose. Gorilla advises the chimp, "It'll come out in its own good time."
The adults are all on a floating Commvee. The parents are worried about their children. Nigel is looking through his binoculars, recaps the whole thing he's going to watch, and theorizes that Eliza must have come all the way from London to see the eclipse. CameraMom strongly doubts this, however, and expresses her concern for her kids. Colonel says they'll be fine, and Marianne asks how he knows ("And don't say because they're Thornberrys"). Colonel sez: "Because they've been raised by you. Quite wondeful I might add..." Yeah. That's the ticket.
Night. Back on the Congo-Comm, Spazz spazzes, "Eliza! Donnie! I have had enough of this! I am not in the mood... Oh great, I'm turning into mom!" She has problems turning on the headlights, and she's forced to swerve to avoid a deer ("deer in headlights" joke anyone?)... and goes straight into a mud pit. She kicks the Congo-Comm, and falls straight into the mud :D
And if that wasn't enough, here come a bunch of Pumbaas. By which I mean warthogs. "Get out of here, porkchops!" Someone has just dropped a torch into the mud, sending the warthogs running. It's some African guy who doesn't speak English. Despite the mutual lack of communicability, they introduce each other: she's Debbie, he's Boko. All I can say is, thank god for subtitles, as Boko introduces Spazz to the rest of the tribe, and it takes a while for her to realize: "Oh, no one speaks English. ... I am so grounded." (Wonder what your typical Amazing Racer would think of this, but one thing's sure: If Johnathan Baker or that Kendra chick was doing this bit, they'd complain like nuts!)
E&D and Donnie see a campfire. They head towards it, and... it's the Blackburns. She tells them about the fence that is being built, and Sloan shows some concern. Eliza realizes that someone is trying to fence in the elephants at their gathering, and wants to radio Jomo, but since there's no radio signal (so they say), the three will have to stay over for the night, and use her parents' radio in the morning. Convenient, eh? And I'm not talking about Darwin dropping onto one of the sleeping bags they've provided. BTW, Wild Thing's told to keep out of their trailer, for, well, plot related reasons.
Another shot of more elephants walking around the jungle. Just so you know that the gathering's going to happen.