The Amazing Race 10: The Finish Line, Episode 10

Peggy Bunker and Jon Weiss greet us as usual. Jon's in a nice leather jacket and Peggy's in a cute purple shirt that shows some skin. If she wears this for the Chos, I wonder what she'll wear when the model boys come calling. After Peggy introduces herself and Jon she notes that there are only four teams left in the race now! Jon says the episode this week was good, but some of the teams got pretty confused along the way. Peggy says she's sure folks will want to know what the Chos were thinking when they continued to wait for the 'Bama girls this week. With that, Peggy introduces Erwin & Godwin who are in the house today.

Erwin & Godwin say hi and immediately mock the CBS website sponsors by saying they're Mr. Nice and Mr. Easy and that if the viewers want hair color like theirs they should buy Nice 'n Easy's wonderful hair color. Both guys are also wearing shirts that say www.alittlekarma.com. It's a good deeds site that the Chos run. Peggy laughs at the brothers' routine and compliments the Chos on both their hair and game play. The Chos say they both enjoyed being on the race. Jon asks them if they planned to align with other teams from the start. Erwin says they did plan it. They wanted to see how long they could make an alliance last in the game and thought it would help them get farther. However, the alliance turned much more personal as they grew to have a real friendship with the other teams.

Peggy takes the opportunity to ask why the Chos liked David & Mary so much. Godwin says that anyone who knows David & Mary for five minutes falls in love with them. They're great people and they had so much fun with them on the race. Jon says that he thinks the Chos popularity skyrocketed when they helped David & Mary get the Fast Forward in Kuwait. Jon says he admired Erwin & Godwin's respect in Hanoi in front of John McCain's flight suit. Jon goes on to say, you don't really get to spend much time with other teams, but you still form an incredible bond with them from the shared experience. Godwin jokes and says that David wears male thongs and that he gave Godwin one in the elevator in Kuwait as a thank you. Peggy says that David just can't win! First the gay bars and now this. Everyone laughs. Peggy doesn’t think coalminers wear thongs!

Peggy asks about the Chos’ www.alittlekarma.com tee shirts. They say it’s their new company and they want to do “random acts of kindness” and help companies that help others. Wow. This is weird because I worked on a product this past year which is a “random acts of kindness” collectible (see www.angelquest.com for more info on that, if you're so inclined)! Peggy says it’s a great idea, but she wonders if you have to do random acts of kindness when you’re racing for a million dollars. The brothers say that friendships last a lifetime and a million doesn’t go very far in the San Francisco area. Erwin goes on to say that they all agreed to stay as an alliance until the final three, then they would be on their own. That way, all of them would have gotten the full experience of the race.

On that note, Peggy takes us to the clip of Erwin & Godwin getting Philiminated this week. The brothers were obviously emotional on the mat and are also emotional as they watch the clip now! They have tears in their eyes, but Godwin says it was from Phil stepping on his foot. He’s obviously kidding. Jon says that he and Al also wanted to be honorable when they raced, but you need to head to the Pit Stop. That’s not a bad thing to do. Jon notes that Lyn & Karlyn broke off on their own. Erwin says that he wishes Lyn & Karlyn had told them that they were breaking off from them, but they don’t mind that they did it.

Marina from Louisiana now calls in for the Chos. She says she was upset at how humble and polite the Chos were this week. She wants to know why they were so nice to the Alabama girls when they were not as nice. Erwin says that their Mom needs to take the blame for the Chos being so humble. Peggy asks if they feel a bit differently about Lyn & Karlyn now that they’ve seen what the girls were saying about them. The Chos say they didn’t know the way Lyn & Karlyn were talking until they saw the show. They’re keeping an open mind, but they do want to talk to the Alabama girls. Godwin notes that Peter has been skewered in the press, but they believe he’s really a nice guy. Jon notes that whenever they go to a break on the show, the Chos go nuts! They’re crazy men!

We now see a Wikipedia fact about Kiev on screen. “The name Kiev comes from the name of Kyi, one of four legendary founders of the city brothers – Kyi, Shcheck, Khoryv, and sister Lybid.” After that historic tidbit, Peggy asks what the brothers thought of Kiev and the tank. Godwin says the tank was incredible. You just don’t get those kinds of experience in normal life! He says that the producers wanted him to hit that water hard for some reason, giving him a nice tank shower. Peggy notes that Kandice was all clean and sparkly as she bounced out of her tank. We now see the racers dealing with the tank Roadblock from this week. Did you notice that Kimberly looks somewhat deranged while she’s in the tank? Rob’s description of her as a “superhuman, alien creature” doesn’t seem far off. After the clip, Peggy says the whole thing was like Flashdance, but in a tank. Ooookay, Peggy. Godwin says the inside of the tank is really confined and it’s hard to see once the mud starts flying.

We now take a call from Barbara in Texas who says “hi y’all!” She notes that the Barbies and Models both ran red lights in the race this week. She wants to know if they’ll get penalized for that or only if they get caught. Jon says he thinks it’s only if they get caught. Godwin says that when people said he was driving slowly, he was actually going the speed limit. He says many of the teams just ignored the limit, but they wanted to respect the local laws. Jon says that was true in his season as well. He notes the rules say you must obey local laws, but most people speed. Hmmm… I remember that in the earliest seasons of the race teams actually got time penalties for speeding on the race. I wonder why they stopped giving those? Peggy asks the Chos if they got an actual ticket when the police officer stopped them for accidentally going down a closed street in Kiev. Erwin says that they were only a block or so from the Conservatory at the time. They only had three bucks on them, so he wouldn’t help.

Joe from Land O’ Lakes, Florida calls in and asks how long they were detained by the police officer. He also says he was impressed by the Chos classy race. Godwin says they don’t really know how long it took, but it took awhile. They didn’t have the right papers, and that really slowed them down. Peggy notes it’s always a bad sign when a team gets to the Pit Stop in the dark.

Hey! Tom & Terry now call in to the show. Everyone giggles about Tom & Terry’s hair and Terry says he’s ironing David’s jock strap. The Chos congratulate Tom on his “fiftieth birthday.” Everyone laughs and Tom notes he’s only forty. Tom then compliments the Chos on their new kindness website and on how they ran the race. He also notes that models called the Chos “brainiacs” this week. He also wants to hear the Chos thoughts on Tyler & James’ “giddyapping” and slapping in Finland. The Chos say they don’t normally do that with their friends. Peggy speaks up for the Models and says that everyone knows they’re just friends. Terry jumps in and says, “or Brokeback models.” More chuckles before Tom changes to a more serious note and asks about the original back pack alliance (which Tom & Terry were part of originally). He knows they would go to great lengths for David & Mary, but he wants to know why the Alabama girls were in that pack. The Chos are momentarily stymied by the question, but Godwin says they spent a lot of time with the Alabama girls early and that gave them a bond.