TAR-AS: David v. Goliath

Thoughts on last night's episode, quite oddly titled "No Babies On The Race" since it came from Eric & Danielle, who granted finished quite nicely... but is that what we're talking about today?!

I haven't been yelled at about it yet, but if you have *NOT* seen this episode and/or want to avoid SPOILERS... go away!   But if you care about a reality show and surf the Web at all, you know you pretty much have to watch the show on the same night.

A bit ironic that for such a buzz-worthy episode, I found there was not much to "talk" about until the final moments.  Sure, we were given some advance warning about the a "water cooler"-worthy ending, but I didn't give that much weight since I am more often than not underwhelmed by "shocking" teasers or ads. Alas this one lived up to the hype.

But let's return to Charla and Mirna.  I don't know if this is their "official" team name, but I am very amused that Entertainment Weekly has started to referring to them as "Team Batsh&t" in their weekly recaps.  The are loony tunes for sure.  I would have loved to been in the room with the cousins last night when Mirna let out this gem... "Charla obviously wants to contribute, but I do more than any one single person has probably ever had to do on the Race to compensate for any shortcomings that we have.”  The first half is offensive enough, but then to have the cahones to use the word shortcomings!  Ay!

I was pretty amused with Amber's Rob-worthy "got it" clue fake-out... but as we learned later... in another deluded display from Mirna.. that much like Wonder Woman's magic lasso, she has the power to "tell when someone's lying."  So, if this doesn't work out maybe she can land a gig on Heroes. 

So as we approach the final minutes of the episode... and the hint from last week's teaser as well as some good, old-fashioned "karma's a bitch" editing of tonight's episode gives us all the clues we ned... we are about to witness a TAR upset of epic proportions.  You could not have paid me enough money to think Charla and Mirna would outlast Romber, let alone be the team that beats them out to the Philimination mat.

It was almost like when the #1 seed is knocked out in a sporting event... and funny enough, last night in the tennis world, Roger Federer lost in the first round of the Indian Wells tournament.  His first lost since August and breaking his 41 match win-streak  I was thinking I had been transported to some bizarro world, where everything was flipped... but as stunning as the Federer loss was, I'd still have put more money on that than last night's TAR finish!

I am sad to see Rob and Amber go... I have no shame in admitting that I like 'em.  And whether you did or not, you have to admit they were good sports in the end.  (Though their lackadaisical run to the mat and reaction was a tad suspicious, conspiracy theories anyone?!)  The season certainly loses a good deal of competitive fire, but perhaps with teams no longer obsessing about them, other teams will think they stand a chance.  Although they were listed as "Recently Married," their team description should have been "Professional Reality Show Couple"... and they didn't even gain their "fame" via TAR... so, despite being a Romber fan, I am glad a true "regular folk" TAR team will win All-Stars.  (And kind of lost in last night's episode was Danny and Oswald's cool, calm, collected first place finish... how great was that?!)

Comments

[Scott C]

Like them or hate them, Romber made the show quite interesting. I'll miss them, and hope the rest of the season is interesting.

[Bill]

Rob is the distillation of everything I hate about this world. And I'm not exactly cool with the homecoming queens who just must have the "bad boy" with all his "self-confidence." To see that asswipe undone by *spelling* was a very happy moment for me.

[jen maiser]

In the Early Show interview, they mentioned that they left the mail hut at least 10 minutes after Charla and Mirna. I think they just weren't running because they knew they'd lost ...