I’m glad that they won. I thought the brother did an awesome job of the challenge though. He really ran down the building.
The last episode of this season! Elvis singing “Amazing Grace” was a nice touch.
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Eric and Lisa - Who?
Garrett and Jessica - They’ve done a good job “working on their relationship,” apparently.
Marcy and Ron - Still the token old couple.
Zev and Justin - Yay! Got a new passport!
Lance and Keri - At least had the courtesy not to kick over Meghan & Cheyne in a fit of pique.
Mika and Canaan - Hopefully can use this experience to parlay their new song, “I’m Afraid to Go Down the Slippy-Slide in My Water Wings Blues” to a top-10 C&W hit.
Maria and Tiffany - I sense a switch from poker to gold in their future.
Gary and Matt - Back to the farm (and, no snark intended, I think this is one of the few, if not the only, team who went on the Race to impove their relationship who actually seemed to improve their relationship).
Herbert and Nathaniel - Top pick from this season to return on TAR AS II.
Brian and Ericka (down from “Rapido!”) - Brian & Ericka had a chance. The teams were bunched because of their airline flight to Vegas, eliminating the other teams’ lead, and Brian & Ericka were first on the ground in Vegas, first to complete the Roadblock, and the only team that new “Monte Carlo”. But remember how Brian & Ericka have not won even one leg all season? And how they managed a second place only once? Right. Ericka rears her ugly head again and completely breaks down on the Cirque de Soleil task. I think the holdover emotions from that task soured their effort on the chip-counting, and may, possibly, have cost them the race. However, realistically, this was the weakest team of the three, and they needed a perfect leg win it all. They didn’t get it, and wound up, as predicted, far back in third.
Sam and Dan (down from “Passing”) - I appreciate Sam’s great job on the rappelling Roadblock, but their teamwork needs some improvement, That’s been their Achilles heel the entire race, and the chip-counting task was just a bit too much. It’s not that they completely broke down, but they weren’t quite on the same page doing the task, and it cost them both time and accuracy and allowed Meghan & Cheyne to pass them.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
No one until next season.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
No one until next season.
"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
No one until next season.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
No one until next season.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Meghan and Cheyne (holding steady) - Meghan & Cheyne win, and look: they totally deserved it. I thought their error of not recognizing the Monte Carlo was going to doom them, in part because they’re not used to catching up from behind in critical situations, and in part because they had lost just too much time. But not only were they the only team to do the chip-counting task right the first time, they also finished first despite arriving last. Impressive. That completely sealed their victory, and let’s face it: they might be a little bland, but they were clearly the best team this season, from start to finish. There were other teams who were physically stronger or smarter or more savvy, but none that were all those, and really none that had better teamwork. Kudos to them.
[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]
Their best strategy in that was ignoring the other teams there. Do what’s in front of you and don’t worry about anyone else.
I would have slapped her when she said that she wanted to completely scrap the piles they had and start over again. I can see how that might be helpful when you’re building something and maybe deconstructing the whole thing allows you to see one element in a different way, but numbers and values don’t change, so throwing all the chips back and fishing them out again would not help.
Right? Not exactly the most relaxing way to end a weekend, sitting on the edge of my seat and yelling at the TV.
I did think it was funny when Ericka was talking about the rapelling task and how she wanted to smash the stereotypes of what a Miss America would and would not do. I have fewer stereotypes in my head about Miss Americas than I do about entitled bitches who yell at their husbands nonstop and vbiew miscounting poker chips as typical of things “that always happen to us.”
Heh. The show really harped on the whole Brian-proving-himself-to-Ericka’s-family a bit too much, I think. At the end here I was starting to think that it’s about time Ericka start proving herself to Brian’s family.
Although BiblioCat had a plausible explanation, I think the idea of Zombie-Sinatra handing out a clue is hilarious.
That. I really thought that figuring out who Wayne Newton was would be part of the task. Although asking him to his face is a good strategy, it seems a little cheap.
I totally agree with this. *Every *task on *every *leg should be one where the completion time depends on the team’s performance. Te “sitting sompleplace for a set period of time” tasks grate on my nerves.
Is this the first season they’ve been doing that, rather than letting the Racers eat/sleep/mingle like during the first seasons?
Did we even see them finish that task? M & C got it on the first try, and scampered off to suite 88 at the MGM. Then the bros got the count right and took off in pursuit, and it was a race between those two teams. I don’t think we saw Brian & Ericka again until they came jogging to the Mat. I wonder if they got a give-it-up-and-just-go-to-the-Finish-Line clue instead of getting to meet Wayne.
How tough is it to count a million dollars worth of poker chips? Sort the chips into stacks of $10,000. Put ten stacks together to make a group worth $100,000. Do that ten times.
I would have loved to have seen the Cirque du Soleil folks demonstrate the hanging-flower task. The way the teams did it on the second bounce looked like kind of a lucky accident. I would have liked to have seen the expected technique.
I normally don’t buy into the “bad edit” theory, but after watching a bunch of the Sequesterville videos, I gotta say, I think he did get a bad edit. (They did this once before with that hyperactive little Southern dentist). Some of those edits before he did something stoopid-looking are pretty questionable. If, for instance, someone asked him if he could do a high-kick and then cut the question to make him look like a moron…
Heh–I’d argue this on two levels. 1) Mom & Emily in TAR 1 improved more, but 2) I don’t think Gary and Matt had any improvement needed. These aren’t Alan Alda-esque guys* and seemed perfectly happy with their relationship at every stage, but “We’re a father and son who get along great! We work well together” isn’t a hook that TAR producers like. 
*Really…can you imagine Matt bursting into tears as he angrily confronts Gary, bawling "Y…you never told me you LOVED me. < sob > "?
Yeah, early in the show they tried to play up the prodigal son angle, but from their cofessionals, it was clear that they were being very literal. Matt moved away after he turned 18 and they’ve literally not seen much of each other since.
Their relationship was likely just fine the entire time and I’ll bet Matt called home regularly.
Not to mention being able to make sure the cab drivers were taking the good shortcuts. Though it is kind of lame to have a leg that is essentially driving back and forth from one of the strip to the other and not make them do it around 9pm on a Friday night. Talk about traffic frustration just sitting there for half an hour waiting to cross Flamingo or something.
As mentioned it wasn’t entirely aimless since the Venetian was what one of the cab drivers confidently answered (though their own driver hadn’t a clue). But also what was not shown in the editing is that the Venetian is across the street from the Mirage. So that was at most a 10 minute detour (especially since they were at a service entrance to the Mirage where there aren’t exactly hundreds of tourists standing around to help).
Megan and Cheyne totally deserved the win. They remind me of Nick and Starr from TAR13 where they not only worked well together, they also managed to skirt the bullshit that normally trips up other teams.
I get the Ericka hate, but I don’t have as much dislike as I do irritation. People react differently under stress. I probably would have gone the screaming-in-frustration route while on the bungee cords. OTOH you have to hand it to her and Brian, as non-athletes, getting as far as they did.
Overall, a better finale than expected. I like the fact that they omitted the memory game task. My guess is (and correct me if I’m wrong) that, in past seasons, it was the memory game that prolonged everything. Didn’t it take the Frat Boys almost an entire day to figure it out? (I swore I heard/read that somewhere).
My favorite part of this episode? What I called the TAR Chorus as they sang along with Elvis 
Regarding the Pit Stop, it seems there were very few weeks this season where they mentioned that it was twelve hours or gave the teams’ arrival times. I think (at least this season) they scrapped the 12-hour pit stops and just timed the departures to fit the tasks (or flights) in the following legs – keeping the time differnce between the teams of course.
Wayne Newton made a cameo appearance in the show Las Vegas with James Caan a few years back.
I wonder if it’s really the case that you can get in any Las Vegas cab, say “Take me to Wayne Newton’s house” and they’d know exactly where to go.
I’ve been in many Vegas cabs but never tried that.
Oh, and any idea who one of the brothers called to find out the most famous casino in Moh-nah-co? I wonder what the rules are on who you can call. I assume you couldn’t just call your sister at home and ask her to look it up on the internet for you. But I also assume there isn’t a specific “We’ll Help You Identify Casinos from Clues” 1-800 number.
I was satisfied with the ending - I really hated the brothers and wouldn’t have minded them coming in behind Brian, but there was no question that the blondes were the best racers this season. They just worked together so well, had very few disagreements, showed little fatigue and no major breakdowns unlike the other teams. I would have liked to see the Globetrotters in the final, though.
The blandly blondes ran an outstanding race, and Meghan was the unexpected strength of that team. My wife and I both went from hating them to wanting them to win over the past 4 weeks, and would have been disappointed with any other outcome. While the other 2 teams sniped and bickered at the counting table, the blondes went about their business and encouraged each other the whole time.
Ericka may have been given a bit of a bad edit, but if you don’t consistently give yourself the opportunity for a bad edit, yo may not get it. She was a detestable person. When she mentioned that she hoped her family got to see a different side of Brian, I said I hope they saw a different side of her. Mrs. S replied immediately that she was sure that they had seen that side plenty of times, and just babied her through it.
The writers need to come up with a different thing for Phil to say to the losers at each elimination and to the winners at the end. I’m officially sick of, “Tell me how proud you are of ____ right now.”
Right. Is there anything you can say other than, “Phil, I’m just really proud of her, she ran an amazing race and I couldn’t be more proud and happy than I am right now, and I’m really glad she’s a part of my life and I wouldn’t’ve wanted to run the Race with anyone but her”? Maybe we could just simplify it and have the racers hand in pre-checked forms instead:
**Q:** How proud are you of your partner?
**A:** (check only one)
[ ] Not proud at all
[ ] Somewhat proud
[ ] Moderately proud
[ ] Above-average proud
[X] Phil, I'm just really proud of her, she ran an amazing race
and I couldn't be more proud and happy than I am right now,
and I'm really glad she's a part of my life and I wouldn't've
wanted to run the Race with anyone but her.
The problem with Ericka wasn’t that she was having difficulty with the bungees, it was that once they’d lost their lead, she mentally collapsed, unable to just cope and adapt to that reality, and keep going. Also, I wouldn’t describe Bryan as a non-athlete. He looked pretty buff to me.
I really wish they had made them drive themselves this episode. Although that might have given an unfair advantage to any of the teams that had been to Las Vegas before.
They almost never do drive-yourself final legs. You have six people vying for a million dollars, trying to get to the finish line first. That’s a recipe for automotive disaster.