Amazing Race finale, in 15 minutes, **spoilers**

Cafe Society
21

I agree, but on the other hand the cowboys came out of the race looking better than anyone else. Even when they were sabotaging the brothers they were fun (“Jump in the air! Do a back flip! Pirouette!”) and they seem like really likeable guys.

On the other hand, Caite may have ruined her chances of being able to catch a cab easily and I’d say she got off easy. If someone threatened to punch me in the face, I’d kick her out of the cab and, if she protested, I’d offer to call the police so she could tell them what she told me. If she ever finds herself stuck in the pouring rain on the way to a key job interview as cab after cab passes her by, as far as I’m concerned, she’s got her behaviour on this race to blame.

22

Well, that’s disappointing. But I don’t think Jet and Cord really cared. I’m sure they would’ve loved the mil; but knowing them, it wouldn’t change their lives too much. And yeah, If it had to be between Jordan and Dan and Brent and Caite, I’m glad the whiners rather than the bitchers won.

StG

23

I saw the winners (meh) but missed the lesbian shit-sassing Catie at the end—I couldn’t stand the dark haired lesbian (Carol?) but I DO give her props for speaking her mind.

Catie is a spoiled bitch, and I am shocked her cab driver didn’t kick her hott lil’ ass out of the cab for speaking to him like that. (yes, the cab driver focked up but there is still no call to threaten him physically).

As an aside, I have actually spent considerable time in each task location featured tonight (The Great American Music hall on dozens of occasions) except for Industrial Light and Magic. It’s always cool seeing familiar places on The Amazing Race…

24

I think, after all this time traveling, Caite didn’t quite realize she was back in the States. Even if I were bitch enough to bawl out a cabdriver in another country who maybe didn’t speak English almost at all, I would hope I would remember when back in this country that it’s highly unlikely that you’d get a driver who doesn’t speak ANY English.

25

The cowboys were outplayed by the brothers this leg, but there was just too much damned reliance on cabbies. I know you can’t let the players drive in the last leg (for fear that they’ll go nuts) but you could have prepaid drivers who know that they need to go from here->there, or use public transportation, or bicycles or…heh segues (can you imagine people going insane as they have to ride their segues at 4 mph?) or something.

As far as I can tell, the brothers got about a 15 minute headstart from their “Move to first class” gambit (customs can kill you–they never show it, but it’s been mentioned a few times) and since both the brothers and the cowboys ran near-perfect races (the cowboys were a little slow figuring out the message in the video game, the brothers were a bit pokey carrying the trunk) there was no real chance for a catch-up. The race seemed to come down to “Who got off the plane first and didn’t get screwed by a bad cabbie?”

Heh–all that said, at least Brent and Caite got a winning edit on the bitchy lesbian. When all’s said and done, A) Caite is smarter than dark-haired lesbian (the “Yeah, but I’m up here and you’re not.” line was a major win and B) at least Caite and whatshisface had fun at least a few times on the race. The lesbians never seemed to. Sure they did the lip-service “Oh. What. A. Beautiful. Vista. I. Am. Glad.To.Be.On.The.Amazing.Race” lines when the cameras were on them but I never once got the feeling that they were having fun.

Finally, given the kind of uber-bitchy poor sport dark-haired lesbian was, I can only imagine what they were like on the race. I would have yielded them too if they were ruining my experience.

26

San Francisco would be IDEAL for a public transportation-only final leg.

That would be a great idea, forcing teams to race smart, it would also reward the savvy travelers, and cancel out the dreaded taxicab “random luck” factor…

27

The cowboys finished the VR maze just about as the brothers had written down the clue and were leaving; but by the time they had copied it, Brent & Caite had arrived, finished the maze, and copied most of the clue themselves. I think that killed the cowboys more than the head start at the airport.

Nobody seemed to have much trouble figuring out where the Yoda fountain was. Did they all just ask their cabbies to call the dispatchers and do a google search?

Yeah, but you’d replace Taxi Luck with Bus Luck. Suppose you get to a bus stop just as the bus you want is pulling away; you might lose a 15-minute lead waiting for the next one to arrive. Or if the lead team does get a bus by themselves, there won’t be much suspense about who’s going to arrive first. And maybe the Amazing Producers are trying to preserve some secrecy by not having the teams race to the finish with a hundred other people.

28

I would like to see the last leg with car and driver provided. The drivers must obey all laws and speed limits. And the racers do all the navigation.

29

Not too excited about the brothers winning. They just got more and more annoying every episode.

Probably a good thing the detectives didn’t make it. Between rope climbing, trunk-hauling, and even ball-suit-spinning, this was a very physical leg.

I wonder if the rules will get tweaked about flying first class. Do teams now try to get bumped up mid-flight? If not, I bet it’ll happen on every single flight for as long as that’s in effect. (I watched it with my sister and she thought it’d be awesome if they actually got a penalty at the final mat - we didn’t know if the rule was “flying First Class” or “buying First Class”).

30

Yeah, the private driver who only goes exactly where instructed by the racers (requiring them to do all the navigation) is what I’m a strong advocate of.

Another boring final leg, it’s a good thing I always enjoy the earlier legs or the fact that the last one is almost never interesting would kill it.

What’s the point of a memory test if you’re going to let people use notes? I was slightly thinking maybe that would be a penalty for them. Not to mention that compared to other memory tests it seemed super simple (as was everything in the leg).

Every single location they went to was somewhere no self-respecting San Francisco cab driver should have trouble finding and they weren’t even navigationally difficult except maybe from the airport to Langdon Court so it really required teams to completely screw up to allow for much position jostling. Coit Tower to Lucas Arts? 12 minute drive. Lucas Arts to the Tonga Room? 12 minute drive. Great American Music Hall to Candlestick? 15 minute drive. One bad cab driver with so little actual time in the leg and it’s a huge roadblock. The longest “transportation task” other than the trip from the airport was just about the 12 block walk from the Tonga Room to the music hall (and boy did they work hard to keep the big strip club next door out of all the shots).

31

I was wondering of they would show a quick shot of the Mitchell Brothers’ O’Farrell Theater in passing, but no such luck… :wink:

32

The clue said to find the Yoda statue (or was it “fountain”); is it common knowlege that there’s a Yoda statue at Lucas Arts?

I noticed that the characters in the VR maze looked like the players. I wonder how much advance work they had to do for that, and when. I don’t know when they might have done it during the Race, but if it was before the start then they must have done every Racer, not knowing who would make it to the final leg.

33

To any self respecting San Fransico cab driver it should be (as should any destination in the Presidio), and as shown even if you get one who isn’t self respecting, their dispatcher should know or quickly find out.

34

I don’t think they had to do that live at all. Because it looked like what the ‘directors’ saw was only the first-person view of the player. Creating the third-person view would have been done after the fact, mostly for our benefit and as a plug for LucasArts.

I didn’t know there was a Yoda fountain there, but that’s probably the first place I’d look.

35

In season five, during the airport bunching in Calgary, when teams knew that they were flying to Dallas, Colin & Christie called and arranged a limo for themselves for the Dallas tasks. I’m still not sure how they paid for it, as they were begging for money a leg before, but they did. It did not, however, enable them to win over Chip & Kim who used a taxi, even though Colin & Christie’s hired driver broke traffic laws (driving on the shoulder to pass a traffic jam) for them, probably under promise of a fat bonus if C&C won.

Because it’s not just a memory test, no task on the race is just anything. It’s always endurance + strategy, speed + luck, observational skills + organizational skills, gastric fortitude + psychological strength and the “memory” task is as much a test of observational skills and foresight (to keep a journal or notes) as pure memory.

Also, if they’re going to ban keeping notes for a potential memory task (which doesn’t always happen) then they’ll have to ban anything that could confer an advantage that other teams can’t access, like headlamps, workgloves, duct tape or paper underwear. And no more polyglots, all racers will have to be English monolingualists only.

36

I’ve only visited SF a few times and knew all of the riddles/clues. Those are pretty big, recognizable landmarks.

I love the idea of a segway on the final leg of the race.

37

Eh, for a finale it was overall anticlimatic. I’m sad about the cowboys, but, like everyone else, I’m happy the brothers won over Brent and Caite.

When the brothers moved up to first class, I had a feeling the cowboys were doomed. But hey, totally legal move. The other dick-ish behavior (cutting in front of the cowboys at the ticket counter, not moving out of the way at Lucasfilms) ruffled me, but I think the cowboys were too polite about it for their own good (OTOH I like that they never compromised their principles, but cripes, I would’ve been chomping at the bit to DO SOMETHING back at them. But that’s just me and my competitiveness).

Real class act, Carol. Yeah, I can see why some would congratulate you for not sucking up to the cameras and playing nice, but you know what? GET THE FUCK OVER IT, be nice, and at least applaud. You can hate Caite all you want, but if you had kept your mouth shut at the beginning, I’m betting you never would have been on their radar. I’m no fan of Caite and I chalk up most of her idiocy to age, but at least she didn’t prolong what could have escalated into a very ugly scene at the mat.

38

Last episode of Season 16:

Taxi Assessment:

Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Dana & Adrian and Jody & Shannon and Monique & Shawne and Joe & Heidi and Jordan & Jeff and Steve & Allie and Louie & Michael - were all there.
Carol & Brandy - (special reprise appearance) - Let’s count the number of ways Brandy was wrong: 1) Foremost: it’s a game; get over it. You don’t get this pissy when you lose at Risk, do you? 2) The U-Turn is part of the rules of the game. You may not like it, especially when you’re on the receiving end, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with another team using it, and you don’t get to make up rules that say it’s OK to use on ither teams but not you. 3) There are multiple reasons to use the U-Turn, some good, some bad, some logical, some not. One reason (and an overused one at that) is that a team might get annoyed by another team’s hateful bitchery. Therefore, logically, one way to minimize your team’s chance of getting U-Turned is to not be a hateful bitch. 4) An even better way to not be U-Turned is to Race well and be the first team there. That’s your responsibility, and no on else’s. 5) U-Turning the strongest team is a valid way to use the U-Turn, but is neither the only valid way nor the best valid way. The best way is to save yourself from elimination by U-Turning a team you’re sure won’t be able to pass you. Whether or not that was Caite’s reasoning (and…well…it wasn’t), insisting that Caite’s dumb because she didn’t follow your narrow strategy is…dumb. 6) This one’s complicated, so bear with me: At the end of the Race, either you win $1,000,000 or you don’t, right? And the strong teams will beat the weak teams, right? And Jet & Cord are stronger than Carol & Brandy, right? So, using Brandy’s logic, the U-Turn just means Carol & Brandy don’t win earlier, instead of not winning sometime later. So why is this an issue? 7) Finally, what Caite said: she’s on the podium and you’re not.
Brent & Caite (down from “Rapido!”) - Brent & Caite were kind of screwed by a bad taxi driver. Even though I was rooting against them, I’m unhappy when one team is out of the running due to some bad taxi luck. Sure, there’s an equal chance it could happen to anyone, but it still makes the competition less fierce. That being said, they might have battled back in had they kept their cool, but they reverted to form, freaking out and eventually forgetting their money bag, a critical mistake.
Jet & Cord (down from “Cruisin’”) - So close, Jet & Cord, so close. Dan & Jordan had the jump with their move to first class, but Jet & Cord edged up because they’d bought a guidebook and (apparently) done well at the tower climb. However, it looks like it took then quite a while to figure out how to extract the clue at the end of the ILM gaming task, which is surprising since Jet saw Jordan spinning in place. That extra time reallys sunk this team.

Flat Tire, Stopping for Gas, “Rapido! Por Favor?”, and In the Passing Lane
No one.

Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Dan & Jordan (up from “Passing”) - Last week I wondered if Dan & Jordan could switch out of “don’t finish last” mode and into “come in first mode.” It appears they could, and somewhat convincingly. I suspect their move into first class got them the win, because it looked like they were well ahead of Jet & Cord for the entire leg. Plus, Jordan took notes. Notes! You have to respect that–even though that final challenge was pretty easy, Dan & Jordan expected a recap challenge in the final, and rather than depend on memory, actually wrote shit down. Bottom line: Dan & Jordan ran their best leg of the Race when it counted.

[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Rating[/sub]

39

I can’t call this dickish. Jordan had to be in that exact spot to have the words visible. It’s not his fault that the designers of this task had their paths cross (Caite’s Goal didn’t seem to be right on top of Jet’s (or Cord…whichever one it was), but Jet’s was right on top of Jordan’s. If the task is designed that way, and if staying right there until we got the clue is crucial to staying out in front, then it’s simply part of the task, not a dickish move.

I really thought that part of the task design was poorly thought out. Blame it on the task designers.

40

Who said anything about banning taking notes? I’m guessing all teams there were taking notes throughout the game as they do every season. Go back to the surfboard memory test and one of the players mentioned several times how she’d been keeping notes throughout the game and studying them constantly so she should be able to do the challenge easily. But she didn’t actually use the notes to complete the task.

But then I guess if they’re going to make the memory task something that probably only took 5 minutes, reading the answer off your notes didn’t really make any difference.