Monday, January 21, 2008

Amazing Race Season Finale - TK & Rachel Win

As predicated last week ( and at least it didn't go all reverse karma on me) TK & Rachel won this round of the Race in a nail biting finale that zipped by at such speed I was almost happy it wasn't a 2 hour event. Still... this show deserves a big Finale night to get the respect it deserves.

Now on with that Finale... all of our teams go from Tapei to Anchorage Alaska and find out it's our final destination city. I feel slightly miffed as I think this is the first year the Race hasn't stopped in Canada and I wonder why? Just wondering...

Anyways... our final 3 teams arrive, and are off to a local Outdoor store for supplies and a clue. Here we have the first Challenge of the evening: The teams have a choice of searching for a tiny clue in huge Cod that they have to butcher, or search for a live crab with a label on it in a vat of not so happy crabs.

Daddy Dearest & Christina go for the cod and finish quickly. TK & Rachel go for the crabs, and Gramps & Nicholas realize that they forgot to get their gear at the Outdoor store and have to go back and get it.... this, of course, pisses Don off ( which I can understand but give the kid a break, I always assumed both members of the team would look at the clue) and they end up losing some time. Before you know it TK & Rachel have found their clue and are off and catching up to Ron & Christina who have gotten to the next challenge. Gramps & Nick are bring up the rear and pretty much stay there from that point.

The next Challenge is climbing a glacier... after this very fast boat ride that might not be too environmentally friendly but looked fun as anything both team members have climb to the top. It's pretty vertical and looks like a challenge in crampons and using these huge ice picks. It looks dangerous as hell and I would not be behind my partner (or anyone else) in case they slipped cause those boots are damn scary -- yikes!

Ron & Christina get through with TK & Rachel right behind them. Both teams are looking pretty strong and our final team starts to catch up. Don did very well on the glacier, and I thought Nick was a little worried about keeping up with gramps.

When we get to the final Roadblock, it's a doozy. It's one of the those complex logic puzzles that makes the competitor have to choose 10 items from a very complicated list of criteria, and you have items from all the different legs of the Race. It is very complicated, you can't write anything down and all of the teams are exhausted from doing all of the previous activities.

Christina, Rachel and Nick are our final 3, and Rachel is definitively the most impressive. She is so calm and logical about the whole situation and doesn't get caught up in the anxiety of the moment. She finishes first while Christina and Nick are banging their heads in frustration, and she and TK are off to the finish line.

There is some more clever editing to make us think that there is more tension for the final sprint (which wasn't really needed, I was already exhausted from everything that they had already done) and in the end, TK & Rachel win, they are followed by Ron & Christina (and Daddy Dearest tried to redeem himself and just fell flat with his " this is the first time I can say I love you and really mean it" remark to Christina, you are a dirty bastard-- and I am glad you didn't win) and then Don & Nick who ran a good race and should be proud of themselves. Yes .. you did come in 3rd but in the final round it means you came in last..... but congrats on being the oldest guy to go to the end.

I am just happy that the nice team who played nice and were so mellow and supportive of each other did so well. But I bet ya Nate & Jen were pissed silly over this....