The Amazing Race 8: The Finish Line, Episode 8

Welcome to my guest-recap of The Finish Line, CBS’s Internet talk show about The Amazing Race. The show is hosted by Jon Weiss, of The Amazing Race 4 and New York magazine’s Sarah Bernard. Usually they have the most recently Philiminated team as guests…

While watching the show, I started to get very excited as the dreaded and dreadful Weaver family was falling farther and farther behind. When the Godlewski family got to the Yield before them, I actually giggled aloud – the Weavers much-anticipated elimination was at hand. And then… poof, no Philimination this week!

Even worse than missing out of the Weavers getting theirs was the prospect of recapping a chat show with no guests! However, they seem to have prepared for that possibility by lining up interesting players from other seasons to fill in. This week’s substitute guest is Oswald Mendez, the taller member of “Oswald & Danny” from season two. You may remember that they finished fourth and came across as the calmest players ever to appear on the show.

Oswald says that people were nice to them, giving them rides and upgrades, because the team treated people with the proper respect. Sarah says, “That sounds so easy,” and Oswald replies, “It IS easy!” Well, yes, but he never had to face the unspeakable horror that is Utah, did he?

Jon says the racers tend to rush up to people, they are all tense and sometimes they don’t make sense. But Danny and Oswald were relaxed and seemed to enjoy the cultural differences they encountered. Oswald says he and Danny travel a lot so they tried to look at it as just another trip. But, there’s a camera around, so don’t do anything your family will be ashamed of. Just enjoy the ride. He was actually considering a round-the-world trip himself at the time of the show.

The boys were not planning to apply for the show. They stumbled across a casting office after going to a movie and were talked into applying. They didn’t take it very seriously, and when he got a callback a week later, Oswald wasn’t sure what it was about! But they flew to L.A. and got selected. Jon says that because they were so natural probably was one of the big reasons they were picked. Jeepers, thousands of people literally stand on their heads to get on the show, and these guys fall into it!

Sarah directs conversation to last night’s episode. They run clips of the Linz family predicting their first-place finish, and then actually doing it. Sara notes that many are predicting the Linzes will win, and Jon adds that they are strong, positive, and work well as a team.

Sarah says she doubts she could run the race, but would like to wear a tiara and stand beside Phil and say, “Welcome to Miami!” Ha!

She asks Oswald to comment on the four-person version of the game. He likes the kids on the teams, and the way their parents instill the feeling of adventure in them. Sarah notes that for many east-coasters, seeing Utah and the Grand Canyon would seem as foreign as Hong Kong to them. Jon hopes the show will encourage people to visit some of these places.

Sarah takes this opportunity to disagree with the Weavers – she says that Utah is NOT ugly. Myself, I LOVED that scenery and actually had to force myself to watch the people at times. Jon calls the Weavers “very negative” towards places and the other teams. He adds, “What you put out, you get back.”

Keith from Kentucky is the first caller today. He wonders if they were surprised by the Weavers non-reaction to not being eliminated. Jon says yes. He and Al were fortunate enough to have been saved like that once, and they found focus from it and were determined to get serious and have some success. Oswald also had the experience – they were resigned to “going to Sequesterville” in New Zealand and he wasn’t sure how he felt about being saved, either. He says they had already “checked out, mentally.”

The next caller is Jeremy from Chicago, who noted that last night it was obvious that there were two teams who disliked the Weavers, and the Bransens trying to stay out of it. He asks, what would you have done? Oswald says he and Danny tried to make different choices from the other teams to stay separate from “the people who were actually creating the havoc” as much as possible. He didn’t create any alliances or even expect the others to remain friends after the race. He adds that he still keeps in touch with some of them, but does not name names.

Sarah notes that with only four teams left, the animosity is evident now. Jon and Oswald both agree that people get uglier as the race nears the end.

The next topic is again the Weaver family. Sarah notes that many of the “snippy comments” are made out of earshot of the others and wonders why they have generated so much bad feeling from the other teams. Jon notes they alienate themselves by staying separate when the teams come together. He also talks about the comments they made at the second racetrack, but Sarah points out that the offended team didn’t actually hear those comments. Frustratingly, the discussion goes no farther – too bad, because I think it needs to be explored in much more depth.

Mark from Washington State says “Go Weavers” and wonders if the other teams are irritated because the Weavers seem to be having such a great time. Huh? What show is he watching? He also likes it that Phil encouraged them so strongly in the last episode. Oswald comments that Phil has always been that animated, but it was never shown in the earliest seasons.

Jon thinks it may be possible that for the other teams, stress might be a factor in the Weaver hate. Sarah isn’t sure that some of what they do is an act, like singing when they hit the mat. Sarah adds that if it’s strategy to be irritating the other teams, then, maybe it’s good game play. Yes, all those spiteful garbage truck and boob-job comments made only among themselves, those are real strong strategy moves…