Episode 6: A caldo verde of letters

Episode synopsis

In this episode, the contestants must bring in the nicest thing to be inside of, scale a mountain, complete the alphabet with objects, hide a vegetable completely inside of another vegetable, be the most impressive load-bearer, find and hug their special friend, and strike poses to represent a cool hobby, a fun animal, and a famous person. The guest contestant is Inês Lopes Gonçalves.

Title context

Pedro Alves describes the set-up for the ‘Hug your special friend’ task, with its grid of seemingly random letters laid on the grass, as “a caldo verde of letters”. Caldo verde is a popular soup in Portugal, but is also used as an expression to mean ‘a mess of things’.

Taskmaster Intro

Good afternoon! A very good afternoon to all you extraordinary people who chose to watch RTP at this time. What a tasteful decision. Welcome to the show where five people must read, must understand what they read, and must then, to the best of their abilities, execute what was asked of them in the sheet of paper they read, so they may reach hero status – no, I’ll go further – divinity status! Which might make this come to be: they might take home... my head. The most wanted head in the audiovisual world of this seaside-planted corner of the world.

Note: Referring to Portugal as “seaside-planted” (the real expression is ‘jardim da Europa à beira-mar plantado’, or ‘seaside-planted garden of Europe’) is an expression dating back to a Tomás Ribeiro poem written in 1862.

Assistant Intro

Next to me is a man who was just been playing Sudoku, a bit ago. When I asked how it was going, he replied: ‘It’s going really well. Two more numbers, and I’ll get a bingo.’ A round of applause for Nuno Markl!

Taskmaster's Sign-off

Climbing a mountain? We do that with our troupe!
Everyone lends a hand, and your blood is ketchup.
Sometimes, we’ve got to ask, ‘What’s the damage?’
Turns out, the pepper was inside the cabbage.
Finish the alphabet, every choice is on you.
A body board is a yacht, and a pigeon is an UUUU.
When you need a hug, when you’re aching for a caress...
Look for 330° NW. You’ll end up scared shitless.