The Amazing Race Family Edition Wrapup, Part IV(Brief mention that the show has scenes in Louisiana and Mississippi, and that tonight's episode was filmed before Hurricane Katrina).
Overall this episode was much better than last week's with some real emotion and drama. The teams started out looking for the World's Biggest Office Chair, a rather silly roadside attraction. More bickering between the Paolo family, with Mom smacking her son with a map. For some reason I find this family hilarious to watch.
Once they found that it was off to Talladega to a NASCAR Hall of Fame, followed by a trip to Talladega Speedway for a lap.
Of course, this part seemed rather cruel to the Weaver family, aka the Widow Family. The husband/father was killed at a motor speedway, as we learned earlier. The Shroeder family (which has gotten little attention thus far) seems to take particular delight in the fact that the Weavers are going to have to confront some personal demons.
However, the trip to the speedway turns out to be rather cathartic. Instead of taking a racecar around the track, teams are required to ride a bizarre contraption called a "party bike"
I'm something of a bicycle enthusiast (mountain bike) myself, but I had never seen one of these before; it looked like fun. The Weavers did not seem to mind it, and said that afterwards they felt more comfortable with the death of the father. Big episode for them, as they continue to get a lot of camera time.
Next they travel to Hattiesburg, where they have to locate the Southern Colonel. This turns out to be a mobile home sales place. I guess they couldn't resist reminding us that all Southerners live in double-wides. Surprisingly or not, everybody the families ask about the Southern Colonel immediately think of the mobile home place. Hmmm, maybe all Southerners do live in double-wides. It was along in here that one of the members of the Linz team (IIRC) decided to moon the Bransons.
Teams are required to search the mobile homes for starting times ranging from 7:20 AM to to 7:40 to 8:00 AM. Surprisingly, teams tend to grab the first time they see rather than wait. The daughter on the Louisiana family makes a big deal out of not grabbing the first time they see, and then her dad pulls an 8:00 sticker, causing her to start crying.
Things get worse for them the next morning when Dad navigates in the wrong direction. It turns out that he used to work within a mile of the park where they are headed (after a brief product placement for BP gasoline), but never visited there. The daughter is now wailing that a minute can make the difference.
After this comes the Detour, where teams choose between using a two-man saw or playing blackjack against the dealer. IIRC, two teams chose the saw initially, and that was clearly the better choice for those who had the ability to handle it. The blackjack game was a little tricky as all four family members had to beat the dealer on a single hand three times. Of course, there is a logical way to win this fairly quickly, and it is to simply hold on every hand, so that you never bust, and hope that the dealer busts. And of course with professional dealers, they could just say "hold-hold-hold-hold" and wait for him to handle his own cards. I just did a quick round with a deck of cards, and the dealer busted in that situation (hitting on 16, holding on 17) three times within 12 hands. But it doesn't look like anybody thinks of that, although one of the Godlewskis does say something similar. The Gaghans and the Linzes (IIRC) give up after a few hands of blackjack and decide to go back to the log-cutting contest. Unfortunately the Gaghan kids are useless at this task (although it struck me afterwards that perhaps the parents could have started a cut for the kids then let them take over once the blade was in the groove).
After that it's on to the Pit Stop at Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Kinda eerie to see them driving across that long bridge over Lake Ponchartrain and into NOLA. At this point it looks like the final team will be either the Gaghans, my personal favorites, or the Shroeders. Of course, the latter family reminds us that they are heading home to Louisiana, so they know the route best. Some spontaneous weeping from one of the women in the Blonde Family over whether she's going to take her backpack.
The Bransons finish first for the second week in a row. The Paolos, despite all their bickering manage to come in second. The Gaghans beat the Louisiana family, which gets Phil-liminated. Perhaps their glee at the Weavers' situation facing the racetrack was an omen, a clue that they weren't deserving? Certainly Phil seemed to draw this one out, as if he enjoyed keeping them on the edge. Big emotional scene as they bow out. A dad once again takes the blame; once again a teenager is proven right. I'm sure this show is keeping the younger set interested.
For the full wrap-up instead of my meandering, surf on over to
Viking Pundit. Kris at Dummocrats has
her take here.
