Fly Me To The Moon ...

... Spoiler Alert! ... Spoiler Alert! ...


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 3 of The Amazing Race Series 8 - Family Edition (TAR 8), do not read any further!


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The last TAR 8 episode we saw here in Australia ended with the Rogers family being the last team to reach the pit stop and the second team to be eliminated from the Family Edition of the show. The pit stop was located at Welbourne Manor in Middleburg, Virginia.

For the record, this was the order in which the teams reached Phil on the mat last episode, and the order in which they started this leg of the race:

1. The Weaver Family
2. The Linz Family
3. The Godlewski Family
4. The Schroeder Family
5. The Aiello Family
6. The Bransen Family
7. The Gaghan Family
8. The Paolo Family

Note: If you're already ahead of this point in the series, please refrain from giving any spoilers in your comments. Thank you.

As always, I’ll provide my thoughts on each team in this episode, listing them in the order in which they arrived at the pit stop (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').



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There comes a point in every season of TAR where the teams find themselves turning on each other and tempers start to get really frayed. The constant stress and pressure to perform at the top of their game for thirty days in a row takes its roll pretty early on, and this episode was clearly the start of the cracks beginning to show through. And it looks like it only gets worse next week! Hehehe.


1. The Bransen Family


I was frankly surprised that the Bransen family came in first – but what a fantastic prize! In this day and age, free gas (petrol) for the rest of your life is an incredible prize to win! And worth a lot more than $20,000! You could fill up all your mates’ cars for free as well! (Probably not; they probably have rules about specific cars that can be filled for free, etc.) It has to be said that the two bus rides really levelled out the field in this episode; and not in an entirely ‘fair’ way. No one from the second bus had a hope in hell in reaching the pit stop in any of the top four positions, while those in the first bus (no matter how poorly they completed the tasks at the other end) were never going to reach the pit stop in any of the bottom four positions. The fact that the Bransen family happened to go on the simulator first locked them away in first place. Deserving? I’m not so sure about that … but it really doesn’t matter. As long as they reach Phil on the mat first, they’re entitled. Good on ‘em.




2. The Linz Family


It was good to see Megan holding her own while directing the boys to the Shrimp Boat detour task, when a couple of them were giving her grief and she turned out to be right. She’s a little rough around the edges, but it seems to me that’s just the result of being raised with her brothers running the roost. The only other memorable moment with this family was the childish and crude comments made by two of the brothers (I still have trouble telling them apart) when they were driving behind the ‘wide load’ towards the beginning of the leg. “I hate wide loads!” said one. “Wide loads are the worst!” added the other, before they broke up into giggles. Sometimes these guys give ‘immature frat boys’ a bad name.




3. The Schroeder Family


The funniest moments with this family were very early on, when Stepmother ‘Char’ (what’s that short for, btw? Charlie? Charmaine? Charcoal?) was saying that she’s a friend to her stepkids, rather than being a quote-unquote ‘stepmom’, and all the negative connotations that implies. Then we cut to Hunter mouthing the word: “What … ever!” behind her back when she spoke to him, and later (when she sensibly tries to stop him from bonding too much with Rolly Weaver) he tells Rolly that she’s a b!tch. it made for amusing television, but didn't endear them to us as a harmonious family unit.




4. The Godlewski Family


I couldn’t believe the line from Tricia towards the end, “A hanger is an airplane?”. Oh boy. I think you’ll find an airplane is an airplane. A hanger is something you put your clothes on. Derr! We saw the start of the frazzled nerves between the girls in this family that obviously results in next week’s blow-out (the footage of which has been shown in commercials for two weeks already, so I’m getting sick of it).




5. The Weaver Family


I’m not exactly sure what it is that some of the other teams so detests about the Weavers. (This is before their mental breakdown on the bus ride.) At the airport, one of the Aiello guys asked them a question and then claimed that they’d ignored him. I’m not so sure that’s how it actually went down (the exchange itself was off-camera). I know he asked them the question, but at no point were the Weavers trying to change their flight or ‘trick’ other teams into thinking that’s what they were doing. It’s possible that they didn’t hear the Aiello dude’s question, or didn’t think he was talking to them (or maybe they answered him and he didn’t hear them - or they responded with a facial expression or shake of the head which he missed – there are plenty of ways that miscommunication could have taken place). The reason I reckon there was more to the incident than we were shown is that just moments later the Weavers went out of their way to direct the newly-arrived Paolo family to the right counter, and told them all the various flight details to be helpful. I see no evidence to indicate they disliked the Aiello boys or were trying to be in any way underhanded. And yet, this intense loathing of the Weavers was generated during this leg, to the point that there was nothing the family could have done to avoid it growing. I think perhaps they were unfairly judged … and then when the sleep deprivation started getting to the Weaver sisters and their bus ride behaviour escalated beyond belief, the other teams found more reasons to hate them and categorise them as crazy. Were they pushed too far because they sensed no one liked them? Or are they, in fact, a pack of loons? No matter which way you look at it, they’re a surprisingly good team. Their one strategic mistake was to initially pick the mud task over the shrimp task in the detour. If they’d gone the other way, they’d have been in the first bus. But as it was, they ended up in the second bus … and then at the other end, they soared ahead again and led the second group to the pit stop. No matter what you (or the other teams) think of them, they’re a speedy and efficient team most of the time (bad luck and mental breakdowns aside).




6. The Paolo Family


This family gets more addictive to watch and more horrifying to witness with each passing episode. Again there were arguments (although not as many as last week), again the mother copped flack every time she spoke, and again the father said sweet-diddily-bupkiss. DJ’s most childish line so far was: “I don’t appreciate being yelled at like a 2-year-old!” Well, Junior, … stop acting like one! I can’t see this family getting much further in the race (unless they’re saved by a non-elimination leg or two). They’re constantly at the bottom of the pack and only narrowly avoid elimination. It’s been fun watching them each week, but maybe it’s time for them to go.




7. The Gaghan Family


It was another week of poor game-play by the Gaghan family. Except for the mud task at the detour – they raced through the mud field in one easy attempt due to the weight they weren’t carrying (with two small kids), and took off while the Aiello family watched in despair as they drove away. ‘Billy the Kid’ is still a little precocious, but I’m sure he’d just excited about being in the race and believes his own very favourable press (courtesy of his parents). Carissa is a doll, though. (No, really – they should look into it. I don’t think she’s real.) Bill’s funniest moment was when he cheered for everyone on the second bus: “We’re all in last place! Yayyyyy!” I stil like this team and hope they can lift their game so they’re not at the back of the pack again next week.




8. The Aiello Family: ELIMINATED!


To be fair, these guys didn’t do much wrong. They foolishly (as it turned out) chose the mud task (but everyone who did – except for the Gaghan family with the lightest load of children – had problems there). But once they were committed to the task, they kept going until they finally beat it (on their fourteenth attempt, and after finally changing drivers!). They beat the Weavers to the bus sign-up sheet, but at the other end they fell behind again, not rushing to grab a numbered ticket for the simulator as quickly as the Paolo and Gaghan families. So it wasn’t as if this leg was riddled with things they could have done better; not really. But they were the last team there, so home they go. I’m glad Tony wasn’t still giving the three guys grief (joking or not) about not being real men or not having earned his welcome into the Aiello family or his respect. That kind of thing isn’t amusing anyway, but he said all the right things about them in the end. And I thought they were good guys (if a little goofy).


Speaking of the simulator, Phil’s Phunny! Reading the clue details to us while he rode the 3.2 G simulator himself was something very different to his usual straight-faced exposition. I liked it! Phil’s my man, and I’d love to see him visibly having more fun with the things he has to read to camera (and with the teams) during the race.


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Last week's tips:

First Team: The Gaghan family. (Wrong)
Last Team: The Bransen family. (Wrong – Ha! How far from the truth could I get?!)
Yield? No. Correct!
Fast Forward? No. Correct!
Elimination Week? Yes. Correct!
Biggest Argument: The Paolo family. Correct!
Smartest Team: The Schroeder family. (Wrong – I’m not sure who it was, though … the Gaghans got through the mud the quickest, the Weavers beat the other three teams from the second bus to the pit stop, the Bransens came in first … but I just know it wasn’t the Schroeders)


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Next week's tips:

First Team: The Linz family (Why not? They’re pretty strong when they don’t stuff up).
Last Team: The Bransen family (From winners to losers?).
Yield? No.
Fast Forward? Yes.
Elimination Week? Yes.
Biggest Argument: I’m not even going with the Paolo family, here. Clearly the Godlewski family has a bigger meltdown than anyone.
Smartest Team: The Gaghan family (I hope).


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