Well Michel, I must admit that Ray and Yolanda certainly had the best edit of any of the teams this episode, and I am now convinced that they will be in the final three - although I pretty much always felt this, I just didnt see them winning. This episode convinced me that they could win - but I still just think that they are far too slow to win. They continually come out of tasks last after going in on an even footing. They were first this time, but only because the boys all failed to think about the fact that they wouldnt be hiking, or simply swimming a mile - they'd be crawling through water! Obviously a horrible choice. And even though Ray and Yolanda were WELL ahead of MoJo - MoJo caught up to them fairly well. Had MoJo not been yielded, they just may have beat Ray and Yolanda by a long shot.
In their favor though - they definitely were the only team shown to be above the fray - better than the pettiness and bickering of the other teams. This more than anything to me is in their favor towards their odds of being the winning team. I have always conceded that they got a much glossed over edit, so I will now admit that they could be our winners - but how they'll do that being the weakest team of the four, I'm not sure. Perhaps as Ray said, they've finally hit their stride after - well, almost the whole race! But great timing if thats the case!

Im beginning to think that my reactions to teams are different to other viewers, but for once I finally found the frat boys entertaining, and I didnt hate them this episode! I thought their cab-cancelling was evil, but very Rob M genius type. Yet I LOVED that karma came along and bit them right back! They were really the background team this episode though. Ray and Yolanda were important because they won the leg, but the main focus was the hippies/MoJo tension.

I stated a few weeks ago that I felt one of the male teams would go before the final three, and I stubbornly felt, and stuck with my feeling that it would be the frat boys. I am now revising that. With this past episode the editors so heightened and highlighted the hippies/MoJo clash that I think one of these teams absolutely has to leave next episode. That kind of tension is good telelvision for one or two episodes, but it will start to really turn viewers off if it goes on for too long. If both teams were to make it beyond the next episode, I dont think the feud would have been so glaringly highlighted, but rather just been a slowly continued buildup to the final. I still feel that MoJo is too good of a team, they always pull through to be the team that goes - not to mention yet again they've been shown as the mis-direction for the next episode.
Therefore, I think that BJ and Tyler are our next eliminations. For one, their edit has turned from fun and quirky to flat out annoying. My mother who is a regular viewer and doesnt pay attention to the boards is likely a good indicator. She loved BJ and Tyler at the beginning and commented after this past show that "they're really annoying me now. I dont want them to win any more." I think that the show got a lot of mileage out of them, but its their time. They've now had TWO benefitted from TWO non-elimination legs. That cant be edited out, but I dont see too many fans being satisfied with a team that benefitted from that winning. Personally I was up off my couch cheering that Monica beat them out.

Sorry if my train of thought is jumping all around - but I'm now on to the "theme" for this episode - karma. Without a doubt, that felt like what this episode was all about. Ray and Yolanda were above the fray (and the bad karma) and they finally won a leg! Eric and Jeremy played an evil trick (I really did get a kick out of it though), and karma came back to haunt them with exactly what were trying to dish out. Then with the hippies and their scheming against MoJo with the Yield and the flat out immature attempt to get Joseph jealous, well that came back to them at the mat by MoJo being the ones that beat them out for third.

Well, its lunch time I'll post more later today...