Damn, first time I ever cried about a reality show. TK’s words to Rachael as she went to do the final roadblock, “Have fun,” summarize what this, my first race, came to mean. You are doing what an infantesimally small group of folks might ever do, so, win, lose or tie, have fun doing it.
Gave me a chance to turn to the love of my life and tell her, “Honey, we won’t ever be there, but know that as much as he loves her for what she is, I love you for what you are.” Corny, yeah, but none the less true.
As soon as Rachel agreed to do the final roadblock, I knew Team Woodstock was going to win. She was the one who figured out the Galileo puzzle in Italy quite quickly. Plus, she doesn’t panic when things go bad. Instead, she logically rethought the entire race until she figured it out.
Anyone wanna speculate how Jen would’ve handled that Roadblock. (“It’s not fair!”)
Oh I bawled my eyes out! I was so frustrated at poor Nick not even considering the gun. I do wonder just how far behind they were and how Nick & Don getting to the finish line played out. They were my favorite team almost from the beginning, and I just couldn’t believe how they kept coming in next to last over and over and over! So glad they made the final three!
Did anyone else notice the cute moment in the airport when Nick, Don, and TK were riding along the moving sidewalk while Rachel pranced along on the regular floor? I loved that!
Coolest final task! And to not even be able to have help in remembering what went with which leg. Whew. The cleaning guy was a cute touch too.
I know I’ve read that list of how much each team wins on wikipedia too, but can’t find it tonight. I wonder if it got taken down? I seem to remember it saying something about how the amounts have never been officially released.
Do the losing teams get any cash prizes?
Yes, the losing teams do get small cash prizes, staggered according to how long the team stayed in the race. For some reason, these amounts are kept very secret (much more so than the Sequesterville locations), but we have heard rumors that the second-place prize for some seasons has been $25,000 or $50,000, and third place was $10,000 or $25,000.
According to Aaron of TAR6, here’s the prize breakdown:
1st- 1,000,000
2nd- 25,000
3rd- 10,000
4th- 7,000
5th- 6,000
6th- 5,000
7th- 4,000
8th- 3,500
9th- 3,000
10th- 2,500
11th- 1,500
Really thought Ron & Christine had it in the bag until that final roadblock…which IMO was the second coolest roadblock ever! (Topped only by the robot camel jockeys, natch.)
There was a breakdown of winnings posted on the tarflies.com forum years ago, if anyone cares to search for it. From memory, I believe second place got $50K, third place got $25K, and the rest were paid the equivalent of actor’s union scale for their time “on the set”, which ranged from a few hundred to a couple thousand. Many TAR non-winners have said that they spent more money preparing for the race than they won.
Steve & Dave (the air traffic controllers from TAR4, who placed 8th) said they “won” exactly $1,725.
[ETA: RachelChristine found the list…well I was kinda sorta close.] :smack:
Gol’freakin’darnit! I missed it! I missed it! Waaah!
I so wanted to see it. I wanted to see them in Alaska. I wanted to see TK and Rachel win. Completely forgot about it until we pulled into the driveway at 9:22 PM. And then I thought it would be a two hour show so I hoped to see a bit of it at least. No such luck. Sigh.
Would someone please spoiler the heck out of it for me please? Thanks so much in advance.
I have to admit I was rooting for Don, even if his grandson is a doofus.
I was waiting for him to say something like “Well, a few years back I was training as a pilot for the Dyna-Soar program, so this Roadblock is a piece of cake.”
The thing I don’t understand is why they always seemed to pick the grandson (whose name I never bothered to remember) for the tasks that required brains. He obviously isn’t the braintrust/super-navigator of the team. However, I think he was more patient of Don’s physical limitations than Don was of his mental lapses.
I may be biased because I found her so charming, but didn’t she do a majority of the Roadblocks? I can’t find a list of who did what anywhere, but scanning the Wikipedia entry and trying to remember:
Pedal bike across ravine - TK
Pole vault over the muddy ditch - Rachel
Milk a camel - TK
Deliver a bunch of crap on bikes - Rachel
Deliver a package - TK
Fit stones in a wall - TK I think
Find clue on a field while flying over in a glider thing - TK, who really botched it
Deliver gas canisters - TK
Drive a cab - Rachel
Sit in a car - Rachel (not that it mattered)
Amazing Puzzle - Rachel, winning them the game.
Ok no majority, but five out of eleven aint bad. And she could have done a couple more as well as TK. Especially finding the clue in the field. Sure she’s no Kandace or Dustin, but she’s certainly no Flo either. And actually, looking at the recaps, Rachel saved the team with TK couldn’t figure out how to hoist furniture up to the apartment. And she nailed the aforementioned flower tasks as well. Best racer ever? No. But I thought she did damn good.
I think he was too moved emotionally to put his thoughts into words. I think he meant, “When I say ‘I love you’ now, I have more knowledge of my daughter and a more emotional value to the words.” I think he felt like the race had really brought them together as a family and he truly loved her with a deeper meaning.
Yeah Ron mangled phrases off and on throughout the race. In the last leg he said the other teams were blowing on their necks, which sounds vaguely sexual to me (he likely meant they were “breathing on/down their necks”). His love remark was weird, but I don’t take it to mean that he only now started loving her or anything negative like that.
Big ups to TK and Rachel! Slow and steady does win the race! Now that they won, I can say I would’ve been happy if any of the three had won. While watching it, I didn’t want Ron & Christine to win. Not sure why.
I watched the videos on the cbs.com website, which gave me a nice appreciation of the first 6 teams eliminated. (They are listed under Elimination Station) They looked like they had a lot of fun at some villa somewhere. Every time someone new joined them, they would say who they thought would win. TK and Rachel were talked about for a long time.
Anyway, another great season! Go check out the Elimination Station videos!
Actually, the “blowing on their necks” line makes the “Who’s your Daddy” T-shirt clearer and creepier.
And while I think Nick probably never finished the last puzzle, you still have to fault both of them for not picking up the bag at the outfitters. When you have an 8 hour flight and a cab ride to re-read the clue a couple of thousand times, there’s no excuse for screwing up such simple instructions.
I agree, it was kind of neat how that theme kept popping up…and I was satisfied with the outcome. 
