From the sublime to the ridiculous, we now arrive at Charla and Mirna (PBS: +2; Mirna was nice, and we had cake together), who are cousins. Charla is a little person, for those of you who live in bunkers and don't watch any pop-culture shows on VH1. Charla explains that since she was on the show, she's become a huge star and people pay attention to her everywhere she goes. And I believe that. They frolic in the leaves and run on the beach together, and Charla does a cartwheel. For some reason, all their background footage always looks like they're in love in a montage. Even the shot they used to have where Charla carried Mirna on her shoulders. And... I know I'm a bad person, but I still really, really don't like them. I dislike them two points less than I used to, because of the cake, but still. Mirna claims they're "going to win this time," and then she laughs along with the rest of America.

David and Mary (PBS: 0), a/k/a "Coalminer And Wife." Maybe the worst team caption of all time. He has a job; she is "Wife." They can't be "Married Parents." No: "Coalminer And Wife." Dave tells us that Mary is "more confident" since the race. Mary says that she doesn't intend on making any idiotic alliances this time. Alliances only will be adopted if they are beneficial. That would certainly be an improvement, considering that her last alliance seemed to depend on everyone's lack of gumption, and the only team to survive it was the team that ultimately decided to ditch it. Mary insists that furthermore, she can win without having it handed to her, and... I don't think that's so, but it's probably unrealistic for her to plan on having it handed it to her in this environment. Bill and Joe > Erwin and Godwin, and you're going to want to learn that real quick.

Teri and Ian (PBS: +6; he's really a good guy and a good sport, and she's totally terrifying in a way that's very much acceptable to me) are married parents from Florida. Ian points out in their interview that he and Teri came in second by only a couple of minutes in season three, and it occurs to me that I have no sense anymore of whether I would have preferred a Teri and Ian victory that season, because I'm not sure whether seeing Flo (PBS: +2) lose would have been good enough to make up for seeing Zach (PBS: +9) lose. At any rate, Ian says that bickering is "who we are," and that it works for them. Teri says that they're going to work harder, and they'll come in first this time.