Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Goodbye, honeys
By Miss Alli | Season 2 | Episode 11 | Aired on 05.07.2002
You know, it's really kind of fascinating -- the keys to not getting knocked out in the first half of the race appear to be consistency and luck. Don't make a mistake, and don't get the wrong cab driver. That sort of thing. The key in the second half, though, is endurance, not only in the more obvious physical sense, but also in the emotional sense. Most of the teams that have been eliminated in the second half of both seasons have been eliminated because in one way or another, they ran out of steam. They lost their focus, they got worn out -- basically, they did something that they probably never would have done earlier. In other words, it's not just the racing aspect, it's the interruption of your routines. You fight sleep deprivation and irregular mealtimes and separation from everyone you know except your partner, and those are really the things that you have to overcome in the last half of the race or so. In fact, for those people who are surprised that Cha-Cha-Cha made it as far as they did, given their relative lack of racing intensity, I think this is part of how they did it. They were fairly good at finding ways to minimize the effects that the conditions had on them, which is why their whole "fabulousness" thing wasn't just cute, it was strategically significant. They sort of refused to admit that they felt dirty and tired and stressed out, and I think it sustained them for quite a while when they otherwise might have been knocked out. Anyway.
Tara and the Weasel drive grimly to the pit stop. They drive up to the airfield, hop out, and run inside the hangar to the mat. "Welcome to Auckland, New Zealand," says an older guy in a classic aviator hat, who has just become the season's cutest greeter. "Tara and Wil," Phil says. "Oh, no!" Tara says anxiously, wondering if Phil's weekly mindfuck is about to kick her in the teeth. Unfortunately, it's not. He tells them they're the first team to arrive. They high-five, and Wil jumps up and down. Phil also tells them that they are the winners of yet another vacation, provided by the World Wildlife Fund, the League of Women Voters, Doctors Without Borders, Camp Heartland, AMFAR, Project Vote-Smart, the Public Interest Law Project, and Habitat for Humanity. Bite me, corporate product-placement hookers.
Anyway, Tara hugs Phil. Wil says that he and Tara are going to win, and she raises her fists in triumphant agreement. There must have been quite a little conversation here, because somewhere, Tara has time to put her hair up between when she lands on the mat and when she does the fist-raise. She interviews that the race has confirmed to her that she and Wil are not exactly two peas in a pod. Wil interviews that he has, in fact, been sort of hoping that there was a teeny chance that they'd get back together, but he's finally deciding that maybe that's not such a hot idea. "It's time for me to move on," he says. The single women of America feel a wave of nausea wash over them. Tara says that she and Wil are still friends (what in the hell does that word mean to her, do you suppose?), and that they can still count on each other (for what?), and he says he cares for her (how?), and that they're going to work together (in what sense?). Here's The Wil Quote Of The Week: "I feel like the cocoon that has just…hatched into a butterfly, and now I'm able to kind of fly away and do my own thing." (Miss Alli's Mom: "Yeah, as opposed to the worm you've been up until now!" Miss Alli: "Oooh, good one." Miss Alli's Mom: "Thank you.")
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19Next