Am I the only one who watched? I’m disappointed with the results.
StG
I was satisfied with the results only in that there will be no Baby Brenchel in the near future. But I was disappointed in the finale. The tasks all seemed way too easy. For a final leg I expected things to be way more challenging.
No final puzzle, Dave & Connor’s roadblock ratio was all out of whack (yes, I’ve seen Phil’s explanation for that…not satisfied with it), the only real possibility of anyone breaking out of the airport order was one task (and taxi luck)…it was just a disappointing finale all around. That’s even without the baked-in disappointment over who the Final 3 were.
I was also unimpressed. To my mind, the least objectionable of the final 3 won, but that’s not saying much.
When it started last night, I turned to my SO and said, “Whoever wins, we all still lose”.
I didn’t want Team Achille’s Tendon and Cancer to win because they’ve been whiny for the last legs.
I didn’t want Team Flirty Blondes to win because they should’ve been gone so many times instead.
I didn’t want Brenchel to win because Brenchelitos would make everyone cringe.
jayjay - What was Phil’s explanation?
StG
Boring finish with teams I couldn’t care less about. Overall mediocre season.
I haven’t - what’s the explanation for it? Connor did WAY more of the roadblocks, it appeared.
True; but there were a lot of teams that annoyed me this season so I don’t know if I could have come up with a final three I would have been happy with. Probably the Cowboys and Afghanimals; but I don’t know who else. I was glad to see Brenchel finish third but irritated they lasted the whole season. The Blondes were lucky to survive two last place finishes - it would have been amusing and ironic to see them win, but not very satisfying. Dave and Connor have been whiny for a couple of legs, but I’m willing to credit that to stress and exhaustion.
Oh and I was NOT happy with the way Brenchel played this leg - first shoveling dirt into Dave & Connor’s pit; then later blatantly trying to steal another team’s cab. I also noticed that when Rachel screws up (the boot task last week) she gets all the blame, but when Brendon screws up (finding the hotel clue this week), suddenly “we’re a team.”
Worst season finale ever on TAR. It was just plain boring. Nothing was really challenging. No final puzzle. There wasn’t any one I really wanted to win. Though of the three, my least favorite did win. I will take whiny, dramatic and entertaining over smug and self-important any day.
I just hope it is many, many years before we have another all-star type season.
A poster on TWOP explained this last night, but like I said, it’s still not quite sitting right.
I think it would’ve made a better finale if Brenchel won this race although I didnt care of any of the teams to win so this finale was not exciting to watch.
Dave Connor won this race almost too easily… they never had any trouble getting to any of the challenges and never had any trouble completing the tasks… Weird.
Perfect example for this, on this last leg somehow they managed to get out of the airport in first place. How did they do it?
Also why didnt they end up with the crappy taxi that Brenchel got?
The outcome of the race would’ve been totally different.
These are the details that make or break this race.
After that with a competent cab driver and the outcome was traced, none of the challenges were of high difficulty thus not allowing for any team to gain ground.
There could not be any race to the mat.
What a weird season. The blondes true to their race end up on the bottom two. 
How they managed to finish this race is something I will never understand.
I think this is really the root of my discontent (aside from the issue of who the Final Three teams were). There was almost no way to change the order that the teams arrived at the helicopter place. And that linear kind of task led directly to the Finish Line. A puzzle task gives them a chance to shake things up. Even an eating task like the Chicago pizzeria way, way back at least has a CHANCE of breaking up the arrival order. This was just 1, 2, 3…no possible way to really change it. I mean, yes, they had to find the sign. Big whoop.
I hope they never do something like this again. Trading actually exciting for visually spectacular sucks.
Maybe the reason they had such lame tasks was because they blew their budget for the final leg on David Copperfield. 
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Natalie & Nadiya and [del]Bopper[/del] Mallory & Mark and Joey & Meghan and Margie & Luke and John & Jessica and Flight Time & Big Easy and Jet & Cord and Leo & Jamal (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.
No one
“Rapido! Por Favor?” - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Brendon & Rachel (down from “Passing”) - Brendon & Rachel were done in by a bad taxi driver - although, to be fair, they weren’t very good at finding the right sign in the boneyard or the cluebox at the employee entrance at the Mirage, either. The latter came despite the fact that Rachel apparently used that exact entrance when she worked in the hotel (although I also have to give Brendon some sort of anti-kudos for suggesting that searching the entire hotel was a logical course of action). Since finding those two clueboxes were basically 2/3 of the actual significant tasks on this episode, I think Brendon & Rachel deserve their third-place finish, taxi or not.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Caroline & Jennifer (up from “Rapido!”) - Caroline & Jennifer apparently had a legit shot to win, thanks to landing the best taxi driver of the night. Still, they always wound up taking just a little longer to do any actual task than Dave & Connor did.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Dave & Connor (holding steady) - I think it’s pretty clear Dave & Connor deserved to win. They were a little faster at pretty much everything in this episode than the other two teams were, and despite the limited complexity of the tasks and the interstitial taxi troubles wound up pulling away at the end.
Yeah; a really good TAR leg has multiple tasks where teams with some aptitude can breeze through and pass less skillful teams, so there can be numerous order changes and the best/fastest all-around teams rise to the top. That should be even more emphasized in the final leg, but about the only task in this entire episode where teams could pass each other was the lightbulb-screwing-in task, and that’s… come on. How esoteric a skill is screwing in a lightbulb? They make jokes about screwing in lightbulbs, for Chrissake. All the other tasks were just marking time. Marking time WITH FIRE!!! isn’t all that more exciting than marking time without.
David Copperfield was the lamest leg. WTF:confused:
Oh, yes. I almost forgot about that. There was NO WAY to tell who actually finished when on that task, because at some point, just by the very nature of the illusion, they had to have done a whole lot of video shenanigans to get them out of the box before their monitor-selves actually finished the unlockings. That whole task was just categorically wrong for this show. Completely. I kind of felt like the whole thing was scripted and planned, down to the non-task-performing partner’s reaction shots. I really felt cheated by that task more so than the assembly-line finish line “run”.
ETA: And old David Copperfield is starting to look like Craig Ferguson’s much more self-involved and unironic twin.
I can’t believe there was no Memory challenge. This would have been fine as a NEL or even a run of the mill leg but as a final leg? Bleech.
Of the three teams left, the one I wanted to win won, so there’s that.
I came into this season after sitting out the last few. Not sure I will be back next year.
I like to think that was Copperfield’s best trick ever. Sure, it was also lame. It can be both.
I don’t think needle is a haystack challenge is good for the last leg, but having to dig in a larger area, say 50 ft by 50 ft, is better than being told “Dig right here”. And they could have added a memory challenge as a way to unlock the box rather than using brute force.
Is this the only season to not end with a memory challenge (aka Recap challenge that quizzes you about all the legs)?