Episode Report Card Miss Alli: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT In my beautiful (and slow) balloon
By Miss Alli | Season 8 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.28.2005
The Linzes crawl into the camper to get some sleep, since there are a few hours before anything happens. (And, of course, "happens" is kind of a strong word.) As Tommy goes into his dramatic reading of "Now I lay me down to sleep," Megan prays to the pink bottle of Pepto-Bismol on the sill beside her. So...not cramps, so much, unless Megan knows even less about the female body than Alex probably does. The Bransens arrive next and grab the second number. They get in their trailer to sleep as well. The Gadzookskis follow and get the third number. Wow, a few minutes into the show, and they're already sleeping! I may need a tranquilizer to handle the excitement.
5:02 AM. The Weavers, starting out more than four hours behind the Linzes, take off at last. As they leave, Mama says in an interview, again, that they were Yielded twice, and they've "never really been treated like this." Presumably, she knows that nobody really has a lot of experience with being Yielded. It's more like she just knows nothing about competition. Because as much of a non-fan of the Yield as I am, if you're going to have it in the show, then using it isn't remotely distasteful, it's just playing the game. Rebecca throws in something about how the whole thing is "down and dirty," but they won't be allowing the other bad, bad teams to "hold [them] back." Well, no. Not if they're getting saved by random events all the time, they won't. I'd note that the Yield is reportedly somewhere in the vicinity of 15 minutes to a half hour, so they managed to get at least three and a half hours or so behind the lead teams without the slightest amount of help from anyone. They just absolutely blew everything on that last leg. It's no wonder they were well aware that they'd come in last. At any rate, on their way to Park City High School, they stop and get some directions from a friendly Utah-dweller, to whom Rachel apparently does not say, "I am so sorry." She can say it next time, I guess. When the Weavers get to the high school, they honk their horn enthusiastically. Perhaps they saw one of those "Honk If You Love Jesus" bumper stickers…or perhaps they remembered one they saw previously at a time when they were unable to honk, so they're honking now to make up for it.
As the Linzes wake up, they ask Megan how she's feeling, and she says, "Better." She explains to the camera that her stomach was upset, and that the Pepto helped, as did the sleep. I half-expect to see Alex off to the side, silently pointing to Megan and mouthing the word "cramps."