# Amazing Race 12/8 - Season Finale **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872 "2013-12-09T03:19:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/21 "2013-12-09T14:09:09Z")
> [@zut](#): > > 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. Once it was clear that they were in the final three, he should have renegotiated the agreement on the plane to Alaska. 50-50 or he doesn’t leave the airport. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/22 "2013-12-09T14:37:23Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > 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. Unlike the “Hello/Goodbye” flag task, there was a lot of extra information on the totem poles - specifically the coloring of the decorations and the broken letters, which would make it easier to separate the pieces into the correct groups, and assemble each pole. So it was possible to just treat it as an assembly puzzle, and then you’d just have to get the words in the right order. > [@lorene](#): > > 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. My 9 year old was exactly the same way! Blinking back tears when the Afghanimals were eliminated. She said she didn’t even mind that she had to go bed, because she didn’t care who won now. My 11 year old wound up rooting for Jason & Amy just out of geographical proximity. > [@zut](#): > > **Taxi Assessment:** > > **Stopping for Gas** - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign. > _[Leo & Jamal](http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/cast/214741/)_ (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. I don’t think their flight had an extra leg. All 4 teams were on the same flight to Singapore. Then Leo & Jamal talked their way onto the booked earlier flight through Bangkok, while everyone else flew through Hong Kong. So different routing, but same number of stops. I wonder if the choice of pilots had anything to do with the flour drop task. If the plane comes in on the exact same approach each time, it should have been straightforward to zero in on the target - keep your head in the exact same spot (rest it on the doorway as a reference), line up the target with a piece of the plane, and drop at a given point. If your previous drop was too far, drop one second sooner on this run, etc. But if the pilot wasn’t maintaining the same speed & altitude on each run, then each attempt would just come down to luck. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/23 "2013-12-09T14:44:32Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I’m a little curious why Amy, Marie, and Nicole all did the Roadblock. According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race_23) 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? In the past, there have been double Roadblocks on the final leg, and I think the teams were expecting that would be the case here. Someone - I think it was Marie - said something to the effect of “OK, I’m choosing to do _this_ one.” The way she said it made it sound like they were divvying up the responsibility, and she thought Tim would then do the next one. At least a few times, the very final Roadblock has been the memory task (which this season was not a Roadblock), so there may have been some strategy in figuring out who would do the flour drop and who would do the expected memory task. It’s also possible that there was a second Roadblock task that was boring and not shown. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/24 "2013-12-09T15:11:10Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I wonder if the choice of pilots had anything to do with the flour drop task. If the plane comes in on the exact same approach each time, it should have been straightforward to zero in on the target - keep your head in the exact same spot (rest it on the doorway as a reference), line up the target with a piece of the plane, and drop at a given point. If your previous drop was too far, drop one second sooner on this run, etc. But if the pilot wasn’t maintaining the same speed & altitude on each run, then each attempt would just come down to luck. Do you really think, based on her performance in other solo tasks, that she was capable of that kind of analysis? If she did not have someone else in the plane explaining step-by-step exactly how to do it, and showing her, she had no shot of figuring out what to do on her own. If the task presented her with her own shoes with the laces undone and the clue read “tie your shoes” she’d run around yelling “tie then to WHAT? Tie them to this dog’s tail? Tie them on this flagpole? To this car’s windshield wipers? Someone help me!!!” ---
**Author:** ![HammerJoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a6a055/32.png) [@HammerJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HammerJoe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/25 "2013-12-09T15:54:51Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Do you really think, based on her performance in other solo tasks, that she was capable of that kind of analysis? If she did not have someone else in the plane explaining step-by-step exactly how to do it, and showing her, she had no shot of figuring out what to do on her own. > > If the task presented her with her own shoes with the laces undone and the clue read “tie your shoes” she’d run around yelling “tie then to WHAT? Tie them to this dog’s tail? Tie them on this flagpole? To this car’s windshield wipers? Someone help me!!!” I agree with Muldoonthief. It had to do with more than skill how else can we explain that it only took two shots for jen and 12 for Marie and 20 for Nicole? Pilot flying had to have a considerable impact to miss a target like that so many times. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/26 "2013-12-09T16:32:08Z")
> [@HammerJoe](#): > > Pilot flying had to have a considerable impact to miss a target like that so many times. Which is just like getting an idiot taxi driver. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/27 "2013-12-09T16:49:30Z")
How about this for a possible future stunt casting pairing… Amazing Race 20’s Vanessa (of the not really Dating Divorcees team) is now [dating the NBA’s Tim Duncan](http://blog.mysanantonio.com/jakle06/2013/12/tim-duncan-dating-ex-amazing-race-beauty/?cmpid=hptrendtop#4375101=0). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/28 "2013-12-09T16:50:11Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Which is just like getting an idiot taxi driver. Not really. Taxi drivers are just picked up on the street, and it’s up to the Racer to decide if there’s is a dud and get another one. But you’d expect that when the TAR producers provide experts for the Racers, they put some effort into making sure all experts are of similar skill level and have been briefed as to exactly how much assistance they’re supposed to provide in the task. There’s never been any indication that Racers are free to switch experts if they think theirs is a dud. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/29 "2013-12-09T17:06:06Z")
Hmmm… good point. On many taxi drops, tho, they already have several lined up, and the camera crews ready with them, so maybe some discretion exists in pre-choosing guides, boat runners, tree climbers, drivers, pilots, etc… But not having a lot to choose from to start with. So, they line up the 8 drivers that agreed to the terms, but maybe they aren’t the top half of who could be there. Of course, there are the ‘chase down a random taxi’ situations, too. . ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/30 "2013-12-09T17:31:04Z")
I actually think the 60/40 split was justified. Tim said Marie did all the work to get them on the race, so he wouldn’t have anything without her. StG ---
**Author:** ![HammerJoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a6a055/32.png) [@HammerJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HammerJoe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/31 "2013-12-09T17:34:26Z")
I hope what happened this season doesnt catch on, teams helping each other the way they did this season. Its one thing to provide a hint or tell where to go or how something its done but its a whole different ballgame having someone actually do the task for another team. Was it not for that the ER docs would never finish third and who knows even the winner would’ve been different too. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/32 "2013-12-09T17:36:26Z")
I didn’t watch this season but I have a question. Was it business as usual this season where it was all about alliances sharing answers or are they getting back to teams actually having to perform tasks themselves? ETA: Simulpost. How was it different this year. Every season teams will ride others’ coattails. One team won $1M doing that and only did one task on their own (Kesha & Jen) ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/33 "2013-12-09T18:05:56Z")
Every season my SO and I pick teams to root for. We have a very regimented system: we can’t pick the same team, and we have to pick before the start of episode 2. When our team gets eliminated, we pick a new one before the start of the next episode. Points for your team winning a leg, and points for your team winning the whole thing. You lose points for being forced to switch teams. Point values are nebulous and determined mostly by how we feel at the end. At the end of episode 1, I picked Travis and Nicole. My SO picked Chester and Ephraim. After the Portugal Incident, she switched to the Beards, who, I thought, were an excellent choice. They won the next leg, but were also next to be eliminated. From there she switched to Jason and Amy, who had just finished 2nd for the third time in a row. And who, as we now know, would go on to win the season. So from the start, I was rooting for Travis and Nicole, and thought they were both extremely strong racers. I was shocked therefore when Nicole started imploding in the last 3-4 episodes, and Travis started turning into such a jerk. I also don’t know whether I or my SO won this season: I picked a top-3 team from the start that also won three legs, but ultimately lost the season. Whereas my SO picked the winning team (who also won a leg after she picked them), and her teams won legs 2 (Ephraim & Chester) and 4 (Beards); but she had to switch teams twice. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/34 "2013-12-09T18:11:16Z")
Back at the snake-eating task, when Amy was talking about how hard it would be for her, she was self-depracating and determined. That was the first time I felt anything positive for her. I also noticed then that she’s cute when she smiles, which means I hadn’t seen her smile in the first six or seven episodes. Here’s my theory: She consciously positioned herself and Jason as the bickering couple in order to get cast. They kept it up for the first half of the race for whatever reason (standing out in the crowd, not wanting to bait-and-switch the producers, annoying the other teams, whatever), but dropped it completely toward the end. And yeah, I’d have taken 40-60 as well. Hell, I’d have done it for free. I know I’m not going to win, so why not? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/35 "2013-12-09T18:11:51Z")
> [@HammerJoe](#): > > I agree with Muldoonthief. It had to do with more than skill how else can we explain that it only took two shots for jen and 12 for Marie and 20 for Nicole? > Pilot flying had to have a considerable impact to miss a target like that so many times. We had a “weather advisory” graphic that was placed right over the graphic that showed the number of attempts, so I had no idea how many attempts each racer took. 20 for Nicole? That’s believable. Who was it, Jason? who asked the taxi driver in Juneau “Do you speak English?” That was fucking hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![flaming\_yawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@flaming\_yawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flaming_yawn)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/36 "2013-12-09T18:51:54Z")
I cracked when Pinky mimed pushing Tim off the boat in Alaska … that was cute. She grew on me in the end. I honestly think my news station on Sunday accidentally announced the winners before the show!!! All I heard were “the amazing race **winners** …Matt and Amy were in a parade today in their hometown…” I was like What??? I swear it is on tonight. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/37 "2013-12-09T18:52:10Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Who was it, Jason? who asked the taxi driver in Juneau “Do you speak English?” That was fucking hilarious. Yeah, they had been in so many different language areas, I had to think twice about that myself! Someone had a taxi driver that spoke almost no English at all. One of the Asian countries. And I think it was a pre-arranged taxi, too, not a grab one off the road. Do the contestants have any clues of what countries they might be in before the race? That way, they could bone up on some simple phrases. Kind of like how every contestant should learn how to drive a stick or how to swim. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/38 "2013-12-09T18:52:26Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > We had a “weather advisory” graphic that was placed right over the graphic that showed the number of attempts, so I had no idea how many attempts each racer took. 20 for Nicole? That’s believable. > > Who was it, Jason? who asked the taxi driver in Juneau “Do you speak English?” That was fucking hilarious. “All my life.” - yes, that was Jason. I also like the three Japanese cabbies who refused to split up, at least until they got to the park. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/39 "2013-12-09T19:03:53Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Who was it, Jason? who asked the taxi driver in Juneau “Do you speak English?” That was fucking hilarious. We laughed at that , too. For the rest of his life the first thing he’ll be asking a taxi driver is if he speaks English. LOL! ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872/40 "2013-12-09T19:53:39Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I don’t think their flight had an extra leg. All 4 teams were on the same flight to Singapore. Then Leo & Jamal talked their way onto the booked earlier flight through Bangkok, while everyone else flew through Hong Kong. So different routing, but same number of stops. Ooops. Yeah, you’re right; there wasn’t an extra leg to the flight. I misread the flight graphic last night. Still, I think teams should generally stick together, but Leo & Jamal had a legitimate strategic reason for seperating fro mthe pack in this instance. > [@HammerJoe](#): > > I hope what happened this season doesnt catch on, teams helping each other the way they did this season. > Its one thing to provide a hint or tell where to go or how something its done but its a whole different ballgame having someone actually do the task for another team. > > Was it not for that the ER docs would never finish third and who knows even the winner would’ve been different too. In the case of the robot assembly task, I think Amy and Nicole started out working together on the theory that with two sets of muscles they could build the two robots quicker than if they worked seperately. That may or may not have actually been the case (certainly Amy was pulling away at the end working by herself), but that’s pretty good strategic thinking when the objective is to not come in last. Later in the robot task (and in the musical instrument task) where Amy shows Nicole how to complete it, that was more of a pure gift. And that doesn’t really bother me: people are people, Amy likes Nicole and Travis more than the other two teams, and she gave them a leg up. Although I generally like TAR’s arrangement where teams are expected to be self-reliant, they do have shared experiences and real friendships. And the possibility of inter-team assistance tends to penalize people who are inter-team dicks, so I like that too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-race-12-8-season-finale/675872.md?page=3)