Raising Arizona: Paolo Family Philiminated

The redemption arc of the Paolo family came to a predictable conclusion tonight as the lovable bickerers were eliminated in Lake Powell, Arizona. The family made the fatal error of not asking for directions and wandering aimlessly and fell to last place behind the Bransens, who finished last in the previous (non-elimination) leg in tonight's two-part episode.

DJ Paolo went out on a low note-yelling "idiot!" to one of his family members as they pulled up to Phil. Although, once on the mat of doom, he was able to man up a bit and say some nice words about his mom. Good for him and good for Pa Paolo for reasserting himself within the family. At the start of the race it seemed like he was just along for the ride. By the end he was a much more integral part of the team.

Moving to the winners, the Godlewski sisters won both of tonight's legs. They won the first leg with some airport luck and the second leg basically because they weigh less than the Linzes. I'm kinda "meh" about the Godlewskis, but the fact that their success pisses off the Weavers makes me like them at least a little bit.

What I liked a lot more than a little bit was the nice glimpse of a shirtless Nick Linz. Mmmm...Nick Linz. Anyway, although Nick was quite impressive, the most impressive thing about that family tonight was the way the brothers let Megan do a roadblock that involved doing a 360 roll in a fighter plane. I was suprised, and pleased, that they would so readily give up a prime opportunity at adventure to their sister. Good for them. Megan did a great job and the team stands in second place. One of the new ongoing storylines is how the Linz family never finishes first. They don't finish last, but they've won a leg either. Hopefully that's foreshadowing for their eventual triumph.

Now, on to the Weavers. The Weavers don't understand why the other teams don't like them. They even went so far as to whine to Phil about how the other teams don't like them and how they're the only team trying to live a good, Christian life. Now, I only went to Catholic school for eight years, but I don't think that good Christians talk smack about people the way the Weavers do. I also don't think they pray to God to help them do well on reality shows. And finally, I don't think that good Christians approach all other people in the suspicious, we're-better-than-you manner that the Weavers do. Simply put, the other teams hate them because they've held themselves not only separate from the rest of the field, but they see themselves as better than the rest too. Who wants to hang out with people like that?

And let's be honest for a moment here, the other teams are hardly a pack of evil. The Godlewskis tried to comfort the Weavers when Ma Weaver was off on a go kart roadblock. They were trying to empathize with these poor kids who lost their father on a racetrack. Instead of accepting that empathy, the Weavers just bitched about the "Desperate Housewives" behind their backs. You catch more flies honey, dear Weavers.

Oh, and the Bransens were there tonight too.

Other highlights:

Marion Paolo mentioning how she'd rather be racing to New Zealand than Arizona. I hear ya, honey
Brian Paolo trying to rip on DJ and then immediately taking it all back. Obviously, DJ actually is the boss of him
Arizona is actually beautiful, it's just not very exotic
Good roadblocks: go kart racing and adventure flying. I would love to take one of those planes for a spin
Nick Linz:wet

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