Teri. Or, as they are collectively known, TerIan.
It is interesting to note that the Bransens are also a Christian family and yet somehow they managed to get through the race without shoving God down everyone’s throats for the whole race. In fact I don’t know if it was even mentioned at all on TV. (They are a local family and I know them through a friend-of-a-friend type of connection.) I love Wally. 
Ma Weaver prays the way that other people would rub a rabbit’s foot for luck. When they need a favor. You’d think she would have figured out by now that God does not seem to respond to her shrieking the way she wants. It only works for Ned Flanders, Ma!
I wonder how the Weavers are responding to seeing themselves on TV - do you think they are even more self-righteous now that they saw all the things people said about them or have they (not likely) been able to get a little distance and see how they are coming across? Poor Rolly - I think he may be ok yet but he has got to be embarrassed. I agree that poor kid is being shoved into the substitute father role. Not good. And I do have to agree that God wants the daughters to put on different shorts - it’s in the new edition Bible - thou shalt cover your ass.
Very well said, Velma. The Weavers made the Pharisees seem pious, while the Bransens reminded me St. Francis’s wise advice: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”
One last drool-at-the-guys post – I went to the fan-run finale party in New York this week, and ladies? I met the various Linz brothers. Also of note is that there are three more Linz brothers that we didn’t see on TV. All the Linz siblings various levels of good-looking (Megan is totally adorable), but even more important, they are all really, really nice. Especially Megan, who could not be persuaded to say a single bad word about the Weavers.
I also went to a lunch Tuesday, before the finale aired, to which the Gaghan family, including youngest child Kelley, came (she stayed with her grandparents and was, by all accounts, including hers, spoiled rotten the entire time), and actually ended up sitting between Bill and Billy while eating. That whole family is, without exception, the nicest people in the entire universe. I mean bar none. Billy will also bear some careful watching – several of us were teasing him, suggesting we’d bribe him to tell us who the winner was, and he grinned at me wickedly and said, “Tell you what – I’ll tell you at 11:00 p.m. tonight!” Love that kid!
I’m glad this season is over, though. Fortunately, it looks like our real TAR will be back next time! And hopefully the contestants will be great – TAR6’s Lena was also at the party (and equal opportunity time for the guys: That is one stunningly beautiful young woman!), and apparently told some of the folks that she’d actually helped cast TAR9. Which can only bode well for the show!
It was also confirmed the Weavers never did the geography puzzle. Although if you watch the “race after the race” video on cbs.com, you’ll see Wally place a surfboard representing their Costa Rican task somewhere in the southern portion of Mexico, and all the Weavers placing various other tasks in totally wrong parts of the country. Is anyone really surprised?
I so wanted to be posting Tuesday night, but I chopped the end off one of my fingers and was debating whether to go to the emergency room or watch the finale.
The finale won out, and hell am I glad! Every once in a while TAR delivers something that comes close to being a dream leg for me. The finale was my ultimate, never-to-be-matched leg.
Almost every location those teams went to was somewhere I’ve been, even the tunnels under the Big O and the trapezium. Every single place except the Bata shoe museum and Lewiston NY. How fricking awesome is that?
I kept wanting to scream advice at the TV. “Go to Toronto Bransen family! There are flights to Montreal every hour!”
I was laughing my ass off because all three teams drove past my high school on their way to my old college campus. And laughing because the Bransens unknowingly made the brilliant tactical decision to go to Morgan Arboretum, which is exactly the same distance from downtown as the McGill Arena-- but everyone knows where the Arboretum is, and nobody remembers that the McGill Arena is actually at John Abbott College. (BTW, there aren’t usually curling ends at the arena. It’s just for hockey. My brother-in-law drove the Zamboni there while he was in school. )
If the teams were paying $40/hour for the cabs, they got a hell of a deal. The drive to the detour and back is about an hour round-trip… and normally would cost north of $100.
The American pavillion shows up in the background in many of my wedding photos. My friend J. P. needed a couple lifts to and from the Trapezium when she was taking circus lessons. In my short career as an A/V technician, I delivered gear to both the Olympic stadium and that little airport in St. Hubert.
I’m telling ya, dream leg… Especially since Jesus de Montreal finally realized that the Weavers weren’t actually praying to him, and he decided their defeat should come in the Biggest White Elephant known to mankind. Their implosion was just spectacular.
Er, so is your finger okay?
I’m missing a dime-sized chunk from the end, including a bit of the fingernail. It’ll heal.
I saw them on The Early Show Wednesday and they seem to be just as clueless (and just as much in need of deep conditioning treatments) as ever. They insisted they were NOT separate from the other teams. They seemed to think there was no animosity going either way. How could they possibly have watched themselves and not been appalled?
Because they have no shame, or very little of it?
This is why I can only be a pretender to the title of Barbarian, and you remain the unqualified Barbarian!
I believe it’s more like they have no clue. Not one, between the four of 'em.
I always wonder what they think watching themselves, after the fact, with anyone who’s behaved horribly, not just the Weevils.
They may not have had a clue while running the race, and of course some of it’s due to stress and fatigue, but there have been some real doozies.
Are they truely appalled by their behavior? Do they see themselves and think, “Wow, I’m a bitch!”
Or do they see nothing wrong with it?
Do they, as some on Survivor have done, claim it’s bad editing?
I just always think about that when someone’s having a meltdown or acting like a spoiled brat.
I’ll have you know I’m fully qualified! 
In Weaver-land, their actions are fully justified. Their brand of christianity and all their actions good, everyone else is going to hell. It simply is that black and white for them, because they don’t view outsiders as real people.
That’s what Jonathan and Victoria did - on a Dr. Phil primetime special, no less! (Talk about clueless …) I think Colin also tried to say the Infamous Broken Ox Incident was taken “out of context.” I’m not saying they’re right or wrong - I just think some people don’t know how bad they really are. Still - hello! You’re on TV! Are you going to claim that you didn’t throw apple cores out the window at people? They caught it on tape. It might have been edited to look worse than it is, but the footage was not completely manufactured, you know?
I’m not entirely 100% proud of this fact, but: when my husband and I get into a dust-up at home, when I’m wrong and I know it, but I don’t want to admit it just yet, I’ve taken to saying, “It’s just the editing! I’m really the victim here!” Sometimes it helps the situation, because among the many things my husband claims to admire about me, my snark is near the top of the list, I think. But that sort of power needs to be wielded very carefully.
That’s why I, deep down, pity the Weavers. They’re so isolated in their little world. They can sense they’re isolated, but they don’t realize it’s their own doing.