Episode Report Card Miss Alli: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Go
By Miss Alli | Season 8 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.10.2005
In another one of those love/hate moments, the Gaghans are getting ready to leave, and Billy is leading Carissa in some sort of meditative exercise involving breathing in and out and chanting, "You can do this." My favorite part is how his mom looks down at him at one point like, "I love that weird little turkey," which is pretty much what all neat kids' parents say about them when they're young. And then she kind of looks at some off-screen production person, like, "Oh, I know."
At 2:43 AM, they rip their clue. In what I think has to be a bit of a cobbled bite, Tammy says, "Bill and I have tried to raise our children more like little adults on this race, and not like children that are going to hold us back." Considering that she's giving this interview on the couch at home, it just doesn't make sense to me that she would have said they've "tried to raise" them "like little adults on this race." Like, at home. Before they left. Doesn't make sense. Doesn't matter much, because I think her point is the same -- they intend to treat the kids as assets, not liabilities. It's pretty clear their kids suffer from no absence of childlike silliness, so it's certainly not the bad kind of "little adults." Or, I should say, if it is, they're doing a terrible job, because you know what adults don't do, so much? Sing "She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain." Complete with "yee-ha"s. Carissa asks if they need a map, and Bill interviews that anyone who thinks kids have no place racing should look at these particular kids, who are doing a great job. Not really the issue, I don't think, for people who don't want to watch kids, but it's good that he's proud of them. I would be, too. In fact, if they were going to put kids in the race and make me watch them every week, I can't tell you how relieved I am that it was this particular family's kids.
The Weavers note that they're behind a big truck. In her car, Megan Linz remarks, "There's a huge Wide Load in front of us." This, predictably, sets her brothers off on "Wide Load" guffawing of the stupidest kind. It's not that they make fart jokes and fat jokes that I find so irritating -- it's that that seems to be the entire repertoire. That appears to be the entire Linz Brother Sense Of Humor. (1) Fart Jokes. (2) No Fat Chicks. That's how you make yourself an obnoxious cliché. What's more, after Tommy says it, and We Get It, Alex has to say it again, to make sure We Get It Some More. Because wide load, heh-heh. Fucking Chipsters.
In the Bransen car, we learn a new pronunciation: "Dull-lace." One of the Tonyas learns that a US Air flight arrives in Charleston at 10:06 AM. The Gaghans borrow their driver's cell phone as well. They get the same information on the US Air flight. Bill makes reservations on that flight.