No thread yet for the season finale? OK, I’ll start one.
But so as not to give anything away to the folks on the West Coast who haven’t seen it yet, I’ll just say I’m satisfied with the results.
Justice prevails. Although the vile little hosebeast (Marie) did kill on that robot-building Roadblock in Tokyo.
Oh, yeah…
Best. Speed Bump. Ever.
Travis is an ass. Travis is an ass. Travis is an ass.
And Nicole needs a good lawyer.
Ass.
ETA: I’m actually still angry at the ass 1/2 hour later.
Maybe it was the editing, but I thought the totem pole task was going to be a lot harder. All three teams seemed to get through it fairly quickly. I can remember similar tasks on final legs (like the one with the flags at the U.N. in the race the Beekmans won) taking hours.
Lasso the Rhino!!
My kids went to bed between the first and second halves, greatly upset that Travis and Nicole had beaten Leo and Jamal. (Like, seriously, crying upset. My husband and I were greatly bemused by this…). When I was tucking my daughter in, she was still really upset so I said, “Honey, even if they do win the million dollars, Leo and Jamal had an awesome time and are still great friends. Nicole, on the other hand, is stuck with a guy who doesn’t respect her at all, and money isn’t going to change that.”
It was his silent treatment in the helicopter that was hardest for me to watch.
True.
And Nicole needs a good [del]lawyer[/del] shrink.
Nicole isn’t just bad at solo tasks, she is completely incompetent. Completely. If it wasn’t for the Boston woman, she’d still be sitting in a park in Tokyo surrounded by tubes, with not a pair of them connected. Before figuring out how two were supposed to be connected, she’d try lighting them on fire first. “Hey, I tried! I tried!”
At least the dropping of flour bags had the potential for random luck to be successful. “That one was the right distance, but just 10 yards left of target. Maybe I should drop it at the same spot, just a little to the right. Or I could just randomly release it anywhere and miss the target by 60 yards.”
It would St. Jude as a race partner to make it through without tossing her into a lake somewhere.
The last four eps, Travis was a complete hole. Amy and Jay were fun to watch all the way thru the season. Pinky grew on me about halfway thru.
I liked how it ended. And I liked it being Afganimal-less for the final 3
That was a neat strategy by Amy, carrying Nicole completely on multiple legs (not just the robot this episode, but the musical scale thing a couple episodes back) toward the end to ensure a team you knew you could beat would make it to the final three.
Jay & Amy have been my favorites for at least the last five or six legs, so I was thrilled with the finale.
I’d kind of like to see Jay & Amy in a “coed all-stars” (no guy-guy teams) that includes the Marine and his wife, whose names I forget. I’m a total sucker for competent guy-girl teams.
I had rooted for the Doctors in the beginning, until all that self-righteousness and browbeating started (editing decision?). I switched to Jay and Amy a few episodes ago, and am very happy for them. Glad that Pinky and the Brain didn’t win, either. Though I do agree she seemed more reasonable in the last few episodes (also wonder if that was just editing).
What do you mean Tokyo? She’d still be in Indonesia trying to figure out what an octave is.
Her bizarre lack of spatial/mechanical ability makes me wonder about what she does in the ER. Were I to land in her ER, I’d be kind of scared that she’d sew something together backwards or flip an organ upside down.
Still, glad that Travis lost, if nothing else. What a horrible human being.
You think that forcing him to agree to a 60-40 split of the prize money was reasonable?
Yes, Travis was an utter ass. “Honey, I just don’t see why you don’t have more confidence in yourself when I browbeat you all the time and tell you how incompetent you are.”
The editing made it even more clear with all the clips of Jay telling Amy what an awesome job she was doing on the ice challenges. (Although earlier when he was sitting with Travis, I saw that he got infected with a bit of Travis’s “Stoopid wimmen, we shoulda done it our own selves” negativity.)
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Hoskote & Naina and Rowan & Shane and Chester & Ephraim and Brandon & Adam and Tim & Danny and Nicky & Kim and Ally & Ashley - Already eliminated.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Leo & Jamal (down from “Stopping”) - I very rarely think that opting for a flight with an extra leg is a good idea, particularly when the nominal time advantage is only ten minutes–Travis had it right, that separating from the cometition is often equal to volunteering for last place. However, I think Leo & Jamal did it right this time: they knew they had a Speed Bump coming up, and gambling on gaining some extra time was worth it to them. It didn’t pan out in the end, and the actual flight time they cut was only five minutes (plus some extra because of the taxi snafu), but they wound up essentially even at the Roadblock, and had a chance to make the final three. They didn’t, in part because Leo couldn’t quite figure out his mistakes in time, and in part because Amy and Nicole were working together.
“Rapido! Por Favor?” - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Travis & Nicole (down from “Passing”) - Yikes. At one time I thought Travis & Nicole were the best team out there, but they just imploded the last few episodes. Nicole seems to just freeze up when presented with something she doesn’t understand, which is a surprising and maladaptive trait in an ER doc. Travis turned into a textbook case of Not Helping, I guess so that later he could blame Nicole for Not Winning. I kind of get the play-to-win attitude that some people have, but a lot of times (and specifically in this case) they forget about the “play” part and concentrate on the “win” part. And even then, “winning” is a long-term strategic thing, and giving someone the silent treatment for “not performing” doesn’t help the team win…quite the oposite, in fact.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Tim & Marie (up from “Rapido!”) - I admit I’ve been liking Tim & Marie (or at least the way they got edited) more here at the end of the season. Maybe it’s just in contrast to Travis & Nicole. In any case, Marie powered through the robot-building task in impressive fashion to get them out of last place, and I think she just got a little unlucky with the flour task.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Jason & Amy (up from “Passing”) - Honestly, I think Amy got a little lucky on the flour-drop task…or maybe not - it looked like her first shot was close, but short; and she correctly compnsated on her second shot. Either way, getting so much farther ahead on the first task in Alaska meant Jason & Amy had a cushion on the other two teams. They didn’t screw anything else up, and they wound up with a win on the last leg. Good work.
PS: and if anyone missed it, next season (starting in February) is All-Stars.
Well, to be fair, that was before the season started, and not in the last few episodes. 
Seriously, though: kind of a dick move, yes, although I’d be more peeved about it if Marie had some kind of hold over Tim. As it was, he could have told her 50/50 or get stuffed.
I’m a little curious why Amy, Marie, and Nicole all did the Roadblock. According to Wikipedia those three did 7 Roadblocks to their partners’ 6. Now, Amy killed, obviously. And Marie wasn’t too bad. But if Travis was just gonna stand on the ground and complain about Nicole, why wasn’t he up there dropping flour bombs?
All I can figure is that since this was a non-physical task that they all had the female team members do it, figuring that the guys might be needed for something physical later in the leg.
Come to think of it, is this the first Race that ended with three male/female teams (and romantically paired, at that) in the final Leg?
I wondered the same thing, but it seemed like all three females grabbed it before their partners could say anything. I wonder if it’s because it wasn’t a physically taxing task…? It makes sense, as you said, saving the major strength for something more down the line.
{QUOTE]Come to think of it, is this the first Race that ended with three male/female teams (and romantically paired, at that) in the final Leg?
[/QUOTE]
Hmm…good question. Just quickly thinking of the last few seasons, I want to say yes, but since I didn’t watch the early TAR seasons, I could be wrong…?
Please please please don’t let Brendan and Rachel be in that. I don’t think I could put up with her again. I may have to skip a whole season (or at least until they are eliminated) if they are in the All-Stars race.
On the other hand, I would like to see Chester and Ephraim get a second chance. That leg where they got eliminated was a complete nightmare, and to some degree due to circumstances outside of their control.
Oh, thank you for starting the thread! I was offline for the majority of yesterday. To prove how exhausted I’ve been, I completely forgot last night was the finale until I turned it on :eek:
Anyway, congrats to Jason and Amy! I’m very happy they won. I’ve been rooting for them all along, not just because of their attitude, but also because they’re the hometown team 
I ad a hard time trying to decide if Amy’s helping Nicole was strictly strategic. I honestly don’t think it was. She said in an earlier episode IIRC that she looked at Nicole and Travis as “role models”. Plus she seems like a very genuine nice person.
My husband watched the finale with me, and midway through he started in on Travis’s behavior and “this is why I never watch reality competition shows because they bring out the worst in everybody.” I quickly recapped Nicole’s downward spiral and Travis’s escalating dickishness, and before you know it I found myself defending Travis: Yes, I don’t discount the fact that I greatly dislike his behavior, but their dynamic is a TAR trope by now, the overcompetitive guy and the girl who can never measure up to his standard because WE HAVE TO WIN AT ALL COSTS OR IT’LL EMASCULATE ME IN SOME WAY.
I’m not condoning his behavior in any way. I felt badly for Nicole. I think what happened is that she started choking under the pressure little by little, and it escalated with no thanks to his noticing it and browbeating her about it.
I started liking Pinky a little this episode too. Maybe she calmed down because she realized that hey, this is the finale, we can’t afford for me to keep flying off the handle…? But yeah, that 60-40 split: I don’t blame No Brains for not fighting her on it. He must have been the henpecked boyfriend back in the day.