The Amazing Race 9: The Finish Line, Episode 2

Hi, everyone, and welcome to The Finish Line. I’m Teeuwynn and I’ll be recapping this season’s episodes. (My comments will generally appear in parentheses like this.) Now, let’s see what this week’s eliminated team has to say!

The Finish Line is CBS’s weekly online talk show about The Amazing Race. It’s time to see what Jon Weiss (part of the “clowns” team from AR4) and his lovely co-host Peggy Bunker have to say about the second episode of this season’s Amazing Race.

Peggy and Jon start things off by introducing themselves and Lisa and Joni, the team of “Glamazon” sisters that struggled their way through this season’s first episode before succumbing to their own incompetence in the second. Lisa and Joni look like spiffier versions of their racing selves. They are both wearing black velvet jackets and jewelry. The hosts commiserate with the Glamazons about how sad they were when they were Philiminated last night on the show. (Lisa really broke down and cried on the mat, while Joni showed her sisterly solidarity and comforted her.)

When Peggy asks the Glamazons how it felt to watch themselves get Philiminated. They both say that it was horrible and they just “cried and cried” watching it again. (It’s too bad these gals couldn’t convert all of that emotion into better racing skills!) Lisa says that you never know what parts of the race the producers will choose to show. Joni adds that they had pushed their feelings down, but when they saw it all on TV everything came back to them. Jon totally agrees with the Glamazons that seeing the race on TV brings everything back. “It’s just torture. It’s just horrible!”

Peggy, who can’t share in the racing veterans’ bonding, brings up a question about what it was like to race as sisters – and not the most quiet, demure sisters either! Joni says it was really strange because before the race they had spent so many years away from each other that they didn’t really feel like they knew each other well any more... and when they spent time together they, were - gasp - BOTH SCREAMERS! And they never knew! (But the AR9 audience sure found out!) Lisa chimes in with her agreement on the screaming, saying that they feed off of each other.

Peggy says the sisters were very yin and yang, with one of them – here Jon coughs under his breath, “Lisa” - more likely to get emotional, while the other sister had more patience. The sisters agree.

Peggy segues into a question about a moment when one of the sisters really felt like, “This is it, I’m going to lose it! It’s just too hard.” Joni immediately says, “You’re talking about the helicopter!” She goes on to say it’s because they thought they were going to lose the race then (in episode 1). Lisa says it was really in the cab before the helicopter ride, and then when they got out and were searching for a building to go to, they suddenly saw not one but two teams behind them. Joni says she watched herself on TV doing some sort of weird, “Oh my God!” dance on the episode and wonders where the heck that came from. Lisa says you can’t help asking yourselves if you really did that sort of thing even as you’re watching. Jon laughs hard at the sisters’ antics and in agreement with what they’re saying.

Jon, looking dapper in a white turtleneck and dark jacket, says that what happened to the sisters in episode 1 – or Fran and Barry in episode 2 – teaches you that you should never give up because you never know what will happen. The sisters agree wholeheartedly. Joni says it’s like in life. You don’t just lay down and die, you keep going.

Peggy chimes in, saying she thinks that’s what people appreciate about Lisa and Joni – that they never gave up, even when they were driving the VW bug. Lisa responds that it wasn’t a car – it was a demon! Joni says it was possessed. The sisters splutter on in horror over their demon car and the hilly, gravelly roads of Brazil. They say that they’d get to the top of a hill and just roll back down. They wanted to get out and push. Joni wondered if they weighed too much.

Peggy asks which sister was in the worst position: the one driving or the one behind. Lisa remarks that their legs are really long (they’re both around six feet tall), so Lisa says it was bad. Her leg was getting cut up from lifting it off of the gas and scraping against parts of the car. (Ouch!) The back seat was also apparently somehow unattached and continued to smack itself against poor Joni’s head for the entire trip. These sisters reeeaaallly hated that car. Joni does admit Lisa’s inability to keep the car in gear was driving her crazy, but she just kept repeating, “You’re doing a good job! You’re doing a good job! You’re doing a good job!” (Would-be racers should practice driving clunky old cars with standard transmissions before going on the race.)

Peggy then takes us into a clip of the grueling fire escape climb from episode 2. After the clip, she asks Joni what was harder – going up or coming down. Joni says it was definitely going up. She says she died on the seventh floor and just drug her own dead body up the rest of the way. (It did look like a nasty climb. Most of the racers were probably too exhausted to care how high up they were at that point.) Joni says that other people didn’t know it, but she was literally crawling up the stairs. She’d stand by the railing to rest and make people think she was walking, but she was crawling.