After the elimination round from last week's game, Donnell went backstage victorious, but Meaghan was especially unhappy to see him there as she was still angry at him. When the six remaining contestants were back in their house, thinking they were done for the night, they got a surprise. Tony showed up (What does Tony do anyway? Not much, it seems.) and told them that the next challenge required three people, so since the Green Monkeys only had 2 people whereas the Yellow Penguins had four people, they had to decide which Yellow Penguin member would switch over to the Green Monkeys. Donnell immediately wanted buddy Justin - or as he put it, "brother from another mother" - to move over to be with him, which Justin seemed to go for at first. However, teammates Bilenda and Andrew were completely against the idea, and Andrew convinced Justin that the best way to win would be for him to stay with the Yellow Penguins. Separately, Cathy contemplated making the move herself, and the next day, when they were at the studio and the group was asked who was moving over, Cathy volunteered.
The team challenge this time involved the velcro suit again. One team member wore the suit while the other two team members tried to throw balls that would stick to the suit (larger balls were tossed by hand, smaller balls were shot out of a gun), and the team with the most stuck balls at the end of the time period was the winner. There was one catch though - the two non-suit-wearing members of the other team would be able to pull the opposing team's suited member back and forth since that person would be on a harness, to prevent them from getting balls stuck.
The Yellow Penguins were up first, with Bilenda in the velcro suit. Donnell and Meaghan of the Green Monkeys were pulling her back and forth, but they were doing so rhythmically, so Andrew and Justin had no trouble hitting her with balls, and Bilenda did a great job of catching balls and then sticking them to herself, so great teamwork on the part of the Yellow Penguins and poor interference by the Green Monkey pullers meant that the Yellow Penguins got a whopping 24 stuck balls.
The Green Monkeys were next, with Cathy in the suit. As soon as they had picked her, I figured they were in trouble because she was so light, and sure enough, Andrew and Justin from the Yellow Monkeys dragged her around like a ragdoll, pulling her hard and abruptly changing directions, so whereas Donnell was initially connecting a number of his tosses, it became almost impossible to put any more balls onto her. Meaghan, meanwhile, was awful at the ball gun, spending entirely too much time aiming and not shooting nearly enough balls to help. I'm not sure she even connected one. The Green Monkeys' abysmal attempt and the Yellow Monkeys' superior effort meant that the Green Monkeys only scored 7 balls.
The Yellow Penguins, victorious for the fourth time in a row, were going to be taken to a temple where they would meet a Shinto priest. The Green Monkeys, meanwhile, were going to learn to make mochi. Meaghan complained that she didn't want to be around stinky clams again. Did she think she was going to be making clam mochi? Ewwww.
Both Donnell and Cathy were in agreement that Meaghan should be one of the players in the elimination round because of her poor performance, but they couldn't agree on who would go up against her. Neither said they were to blame for the loss - which I think is true, but there still had to be two participants in the elimination game. It was then revealed that if the Green Monkeys couldn't come to a decision on the two players in the elimination round, the Yellow Penguins would be able to choose for them.
The next day, the two teams were awoken for two very different purposes.
Andrew, Justin and Bilenda were taken to the temple and were a part of a blessing ceremony with the Shinto priest. They were also taught archery, a meditation device used by the priests.
Meanwhile, Donnell, Meaghan and Cathy were taken to a mochi manufacturing stall. They were taught to crush rice with a hammer until it became doughy, and they then made the sticky balls from there, though their mochi balls turned out to be less than round. They were also given special mochi balls, which Donnell tried - and it turned out to be a wasabi ball, which he thought tasted nasty. He asked for three of them to take back with him though, and when they met up with the Yellow Penguins again, he offered them to Andrew, Justin and Bilenda, but none of them were willing to try it.
Meanwhile, there was still no decision made on who would be in the elimination round. Donnell and Justin talked, and Donnell was confidant that they had a guys' alliance going, so he felt perfectly safe since if it came down to it, he knew the Yellow Monkeys would pick Meaghan and Cathy for the elimination round. At the same time, Meaghan was trying to work the game, and she was talking to Andrew about who they'd put up if they had the choice, and Andrew said definitely Donnell, to get rid of the competition. Meaghan and Andrew formed a secret alliance to oust Donnell.
When it was time for the Green Monkeys to decide, Meaghan put on an act and essentially forced a non-decision, so the choice went to the Yellow Penguins, who had their own conference, with Andrew pitching his case against Donnell. Even though Justin said he liked Donnell, he was all about the game and didn't hesitate to go along with Andrew's suggestion to put Donnell and Cathy in the elimination round. When the Yellow Penguins were asked for their decision, Donnell was completely blindsided by his inclusion, and he felt betrayed by Andrew and Justin, leaving him angry. Meanwhile, Meaghan did a great job of acting completely surprised, though she privately later celebrated her ability to pull the scheme off.
When the Green Monkeys took the stage, Cathy and Meaghan each had a tray of mochi balls (or as the host put it, more like "mochi lumps") that they'd made that afternoon to pass out to the audience.
The elimination round involved the contestant swinging on a rope into a row of seven doors. Three of the doors were solid, and the contestant's goal was to find all three doors in the shortest amount of time. The other doors were fake doors, so if the contestant picked that, they'd swing right through it, and on the other side, they'd get a floury beating from a panda and a gorilla.
Cathy went first, and she had the bad luck of hitting a bunch of the fake doors first, even having trouble breaking through one of the fake doors. She eventually had to go through all seven to find the three solid ones, and her total time was 2 minutes and 5 seconds.
On a side note, I *really* loved this game. You either slammed into a hard door, or you slammed through a fake door and were beaten by people dressed in a panda (with a giant head, btw) and a gorilla outfit. Win/win! Did I mention the Japanese are whack? I was just laughing so much when Cathy got smacked by the animals.
Next up was Donnell, who quickly found two solid doors, and even when he went through the fake ones, he got up and ran so fast that he only got hit once by an animal. He only had to go through six doors to find the three solid ones, and his time was a fast 1 minute and 7 seconds.
Andrew and Justin were very disappointed that Donnell won because they knew they'd made an enemy out of him and that he'd probably gloat about his victory, something neither of them were willing to put up with.
The "sayonara" men came out to take away the loser - but they picked up Donnell instead and were carrying him out before they were stopped by show personnel and the host and told of their mistake, to which they then properly carried out Cathy, who took her defeat well.
As I was watching this show, I was wondering whether or not I had any drums or noisemakers in the house, because I so want to be making a racket along with the studio audience!
I'm really liking this show.
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