I Hate Flat Karma Batteries!

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


If you haven't yet seen (and you intend to see) episode 10 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 Weaver family being the last team to reach the pit stop but the third team to be saved from elimination on the Family Edition of the show. The pit stop was located at the Salt Lake City Library in Utah, USA.

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 Linz Family
2. The Bransen Family
3. The Godlewski Family
4. The Weaver 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 at the end of the episode (hence the 'Spoiler Alert!').



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1. The Bransen Family


Wally was almost cute when he said that he felt useful “for once” at the train track detour, while we finally got to hear more from the daughters in this episode. One of them hit the other on the head with a mallet at the train track thing, but thankfully it wasn’t too major. One of the other daughters was really mad (so mad she went on about it more than once) that the Weaver family managed to catch up to them at Old Faithful just moments before it went off. Driving out past the Godlewski sisters, the Bransens knew that they’d gain nothing from remaining tight-lipped about where they had to go. There was a 92-minute wait, after all, so they might as well be as helpful as possible and maintain a friendship between the teams. They had their lead regardless.




2. The Weaver Family


Unfortunately the Weaver family didn’t think as clearly as the Bransens in the above respect. Choosing instead not to say anything as they drove out past the Godlewski girls, this kind of petty behaviour only serves to worsen their lot in the eyes of the other competitors (although, admittedly, they weren’t within earshot – but they’d be watching the footage later!) and, perhaps more importantly, the audience. Helping the girls as they passed them wouldn’t have made a difference to the lead they had, but might have helped change the other teams’ opinions of them. How quickly we forget the values we’re only too quick to boast about to others. The same was true as the two teams drove past the Linz family as the latter approached Old Faithful on the highway; the Bransens waved, and the Weavers made a point of not waving. What kind of behaviour is this woman condoning in her family? It really made them appear quite ugly. I honestly don’t know who to support in this game anymore. No wonder this season bombed so badly in the US – it’s frustrating to watch and I don’t care about any of the remaining teams!




3. The Linz Family


I was delighted to see that (after last week’s dead car battery for the Godlewski family), the Linz family members were the unlucky recipients of a flat battery this week. They started out with a very ill Megan, but things started looking up for her after a rest and some very American ‘Pepto-Bismol’. Despite what I’ve said about the Weaver family, above, the Linz family still manages each week to come out being so unnecessarily mean and rude, that any sympathy or support for them dies inside my gut before it ever has the chance to develop into real affection. Saying that Linda Weaver’s face is “so wrinkled” was not only uncalled for, but completely inappropriate and irrelevant – and highlighted the Linz family’s own immaturity, pettiness and rudeness. And then, immediately after making that comment, they had the hide to call the Weavers rude! Talk about double standards! I’m still tipping the Linz family to win, but not at all because I want them to win; I’m purely thinking with my head on this one. My heart (if anything) says to barrack for the Weavers because of the rough trot they’ve been having, or possibly the Bransens because they’re the least offensive, but they haven’t done enough to impress me, and the Weavers were an early favourite before everyone started ganging up on them (initially unfairly before the Weavers reacted badly to the situation and only made things worse, justifying – for the other teams – the way they were all been treating the Weavers).





4. The Godlewski Family: SAFE!


What an argument these girls had this week! In both episodes! I must say, Michelle and Sharon are atrocious, and treat poor Christine (annoying though both her voice and her incessant chatter are) so disgustingly badly, that I wanted to throttle the pair of them. Young hottie Tricia was pretty much blameless. The way the first two laid into Christine time and time again (particularly when they – wrongly – tried to blame the choice of the train track detour on her after falling into last place) was so unforgivably mean and heartless, I’m surprised Christine stood for it and didn’t give them the third degree. Maybe she was trying to spare everyone the very public embarrassment of doing so on camera. What a shame they couldn’t extend the same courtesy to her. I hope they were ashamed of themselves when they saw the footage back later. I’ve never hit a woman (my sister being the only exception when we were kids), and I’ve never wanted to … but I tell ya what: I’d make an exception for Michelle and Sharon Godlewski. Thankfully, the animal kingdom knows how to exact its on revenge on people it senses as being inherently bad; as evidenced by Michelle’s runaway horse at the round-up roadblock. Haha – feel stupid, Michelle? You sure looked stupid! Arriving at Phil's location dead last and assuming the worst*, Christine in particular was in tears at the thought of elimination. Luckily for them, it was the special double-episode, and they were still running ...

* What's wrong with these people?! Have none of them ever watched the show before? What about the clues they've received on every single leg of this race!? They don't realise that something's not right when they read 'Find Phil' instead of 'Make your way to the pitstop'? Aughh! Some people are dumb!!



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Last week's tips:

First Team: The Linz family. (Wrong)
Last Team: The Weaver family. (Wrong)
Yield? No. Correct!
Fast Forward? No. Correct!
Elimination Week? Yes. (Wrong)
Biggest Argument: The Godlewski family. Correct!
Smartest Team: The Linz family. (Wrong – I’d say it was the Bransens, but it’s a bit of a stretch no matter who you think it was, because no one’s playing a really smart game anymore.)


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Next week's tips:

My tips for the episode that immediately followed this one (as provided last week) were as follows ... (read tomorrow’s post for the relevant episode recap)


First Team: The Godlewski family.
Last Team: The Linz family.
Yield? No.
Fast Forward? No.
Elimination Week? No.
Biggest Argument: The Linz family.
Smartest Team: The Bransen family.


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