I'm loving EW's take on last night's TAR, especially about Phil and his eyebrow:
In this episode there was a story bigger than all of the teams combined. I'm talking about, of course, the emergence of Phil's eyebrow as its own character. It used to be relegated to the first episode: Phil would raise his arm to start the race, the eyebrow would go up, and then the teams were off, and the eyebrow (or ''Browsie,'' as I've come to name him) would drop down to its normal position, where it would remain for the rest of the season.
But apparently Browsie has gotten a taste of the limelight and has expanded its range. The frat brothers — who emerged this episode as leering boobs who have based their entire personalities on what they've learned from Super Bowl beer commercials — placed second, and as they ran to the mat, one of them yelled, ''Phil, you know how cranky I am right now? I'm gonna spank you, woman!''
And just when you wondered how Phil would respond to such an affront, he did nothing. He let Browsie do all the work. Browsie crept higher on Phil's forehead than he ever had before, creating an expression that said so much more than just, ''The race is about to begin.'' It said, ''Phil is not a woman.'' It said, ''Please do not spank him.'' And it also said, ''This pit stop is a choice between two tasks: me kicking ass, or me taking names.''
Was this the end of Browsie's repertoire? I think not! Because when Fran and Barry finally stumbled over the mat — both of them having celebrated two more birthdays since they'd left the last mat — Phil gave his longest pause yet between the sad intoning of a team's name and an excited ''You're team number 9!'' And then Browsie did something astonishing: He did not travel alone. He said, ''Come with me, other eyebrow! And we shall travel to the heights of Phil's forehead together and convey a surprise the likes of which Jeff Probst's eyebrows have never seen!'' And Fran and Barry, though nearly suffering coronaries from Browsie's roller-coaster ride of emotions, felt that much more joy for it. And chest pain. But mostly joy.