Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The Amazing Race 27 - Finale Recap

We Got A Chance Baby!

It's the season finale, baby! (Ha)

They gave us a review of the three remaining teams:
-The Green Team went from thinking they were going to be eliminated in the first leg to winning 7 legs and dominating the race.
-The Reporters made an early alliance with the Green team but never stopped trying to beat them, resulting in a record setting 5 second place finishes.
-The Paparazzi never stopped fighting but, for some reason, it works for them.  They were able to survive a U-Turn and even came in first in the last leg.

Which brings us to Logan & Chris being the first team out at 3:54am and reading the clue to fly to Long Island, NY.  "Justin & Diana who?  We're about to win the Amazing Race."
-Kelsey & Joey are right behind them heading out at 3:55am, and there is no urgency at this point, they will all be on the same flight.   Now it's just trying to keep calm and focused to bring it home.

-At the airport these first two teams were talking and know that Justin has said he knows New York (but I'm sure he's told them he knows everything about everywhere.)

-Justin & Diana - 5:37am - (shouldn't they only be 55 minutes behind the others, oh, I guess they got to the mat behind them, duh.)  Justin is crowing about heading to New York, he's lived in New York for 20 years, Diana cautions him not to be cocky, but does he ever listen to reason?

-On the plane, Justin says they are going to finish first, Joey & Kelsey second and Logan & Chris may not even finish, no, they'll be third. (Ho boy.) He said the fact that they are heading to NY just added a lot of pressure to the other teams.

New York, New York

-Plane lands and they are all heading to Randall's Island and the FDNY Training Academy.

-Justin & Diana are the first team to arrive and Justin acts like a New Yorker in the cab, dickering with the driver about how much he's going to pay him to stay, the guy wants $100 over the fare and Justin refuses, gives him $50 and sends him on his way. (Wow, that was stupid.)

-Logan & Chris get there right behind them, they paid their driver and asked him to wait. (That's what you need to do - it's the last leg, what are you saving money for?)

-As Justin & Diana run to the clue box, Phil tells us they will face the "Mother of all Drills" at the firefighter training academy.  ROADBLOCK: Who wants to play with fire?
Not surprisingly, the guys are doing this one.
-They will suit up in all the firefighting gear, climb a ladder into the (controlled) burning building and search the smokey interior for a dummy that they will then have to carry outside and load on a gurney.  Once the rescue is complete, they will face their first memory challenge (first? Oh, ho this could be interesting.)

-Joey & Kelsey get there and they also ask their cabdriver to stay (of course, cause they're not stupid).  Joey is also doing this Roadblock.

-Justin & Chris are all suited up and start up the ladder right after each other, they are not alone at any point in this whole thing, they have firefighters with them making sure they are correctly suited up and safe.
-Justin gets his dummy, Chris is winded and complaining that this is stupid but he gets his dummy and is right behind Justin... then he drops the dummy on it's head trying to put it on the gurney (oops.)
-Joey is coming up the rear but he's not that far behind.

-They get to take off the helmet, jacket and tank then face the next part of the challenge - there are 9 helmets with the capital cities of each country they visited on them - they have to arrange the helmets in the right order of the legs when they visited each country. (Plus there were two extra helmets just to mess them up - is the capital of Brazil Brasilia or Rio De Janeiro?)
-Justin gets it on his first try, and they get the next clue to make their way to the location of the final race of the triple crown - Justin knows that is the Belmont Stakes.
-Chris isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and he doesn't get the cities, or is it the order, right... he's wrong in his first attempt anyway.
-Joey is working through the cities methodically, calm and cool as is his way.

-Justin & Diana meanwhile are realizing their shortsighted error when they can't sweet talk either of the other teams cabs to take them to Belmont.  Okay, sweet talk was not how they went about it, Justin just says they are ready to go to Belmont, the one cab driver tells him he doesn't know where that is and the other one says he's waiting for someone else.  Justin & Diana start to get more aggressive in their manner, "Don't you have a GPS? Does nobody want to make money?" And rather than argue the one driver says he doesn't want to go to Belmont and he leaves (Oh great, so you screwed another team as well.) Finally they realize those cabs are not going to take them and they take off running.

-Joey gets a no on his first check but after just swapping the African capitals he gets the clue.  He takes the time to change out of the pants and boots which gives Chris & Logan the chance to finish and run for the cabs ahead of them... but Chris sees that their taxi is gone (cause Justin ran him off) and they try to steal Joey & Kelsey's cab... but as soon as they get in Joey & Kelsey come running and they still owe that driver money so he's going to wait for them - Joey wrenches open the door and tells them to get the hell out which Chris does (because he seems like he's a decent person) but Logan is berating him immediately, "why did you get out of the cab, he's allowed to take us..." and she just went on and on and on and on...

-Justin & Diana have found a bus stop but no cabs and they are kicking themselves, "Damn, we should have kept our cab!" (Ya think?)
-Logan won't shut up (I get it, that was possibly a million dollar mistake, but yelling at him will not change it or get you closer to winning.)
-Kelsey & Joey are the only team in a cab on their way to Belmont.

-Justin & Diana decide to take the bus to get them off the island and somewhere where they can catch a cab - back in the city.
-Logan & Chris find a different bus and also ask to be let off at the first taxi they see. Logan, "We had a taxi." Chris says he got out of the cab because he thought their taxi was there and she just won't hear it, "you're not admitting it." (OMG! I could not function in a relationship like that.)

-Meanwhile Justin & Diana are taking equal blame or at least are not blaming each other for letting their cab go, they know it was a stupid mistake.  And their bus takes them in a big circle, putting them behind Logan & Chris now to get off the island.
-Logan & Chris hop off the bus and get a cab as soon as they are in the city.  Justin & Diana do the same but are now in third place.  (The dreaded curse of the cabs on the last leg has struck again.)

Belmont
-Joey & Kelsey get to the racetrack and get their next route info clue from a jockey which tells them to take the next available helicopter to the Hamptons - there are helicopters inside the racetrack for them (cool.)  (And I just have to say, Kelsey has the worst posture ever, why did I never notice that before, she needs to stand up straight, ouch.)
-They are surprised to see that there are three helicopters... Joey whispers, "We might be in first." (Why are you whispering? - I know, he doesn't want to jinx it by saying it out loud, I get it.)

-Logan & Chris get to the racetrack and find the jockey with the flower draped horse - they get the clue and Chris says, "We're last!" Logan, "Shut up with that!"
-And they don't stop fighting even to notice that there are two helicopters there - Chris says he's taking his pants and boots off, she tells him he has to keep the boots, he can't run around NY city with no shoes and he says he can, watch him... (At least these two stayed true to form throughout the race.) Oh, and Logan finally notices there is another helicopter there but doesn't want to assume what that means.

-Justin & Diana get there and they know they are in last place when they see only one helicopter and the discarded pair of boots and pants.
Justin says some horses start slow but finish strong and that's going to be them this leg.

Southampton
-Joey & Kelsey get the clue to hop on a ski-doo and drive themselves out to a marked lobster boat.  Joey proves why these two deserve to win, he says he just wants to win to make his family proud. (Aww)... and he lets Kelsey drive the Ski-doo, because she loves it!
-Logan & Chris get to the cluebox and she's still surprised that there is another clue in the box (yes, you are not last) - and they make a smart decision in heading to where they saw the ski-doos from the helicopter - Chris gets on and leaves Logan to push it out while he fiddles with his compass and she's yelling at him to help her (Arghhh!)
-Justin & Diana are coming in right behind them - and no one knows what a lobster boat looks like but I think they got a picture or map of where they should be.

Lobster Boats
-Joey & Kelsey find the boat and Phil tells us they have to pull up seven lobster pots then replace them with new ones... then they will face their second memory challenge - having to arrange the flags of the countries they visited in the right order (again, there is an extra mystery flag to mess them up.) (Doing the memory thing right after a physical challenge would make them that much more difficult too.)
-Chris & Logan get on their lobster boat and Chris tells the captain they want to catch these bastards [Kelsey & Joey] because they stole our cab (what?)
-The pulling up of the lobster pots is no easy feat - though Justin thinks it sounds pretty easy which makes them that much more depressed - but they are going to keep pressing forward.

-Everyone soon realizes though that this is a very physically demanding task... Kelsey & Joey work together at it.  Logan is watching Chris struggle with it because she doesn't want to bend over and fall in (what?) and Justin is just sad (yes, I rolled my eyes so hard I was afraid they'd stay that way.)

-Kelsey & Joey get all their pots in then have to set the empty ones out and they are handed a box, which is the flag arranging portion of the challenge.  They knew something like this was possible so they actually studied the flags of each country (look at the brains on the Reporters!)
-They flew through putting the flags in order but the tenth bonus flag they didn't recognize so assumed it must be Macau and put it on the end. Wrong!
-Logan & Chris move on to the flag portion and they have no idea what any of the flags are... SMRT these two.
-Justin & Diana finish with the lobster pots and they know all the flags so it's a piece of cake for them - Justin just hopes the other teams are stuggling.   Oh you know Chris & Logan are.  Joey says what I was thinking, "They're not exactly the brightest crayons in the box." (Ha!)

-Diana notices that there is an extra flag in the box, so they have hope that will mess someone up.  Kelsey & Joey used that flag as their last one and were wrong - but then realizing they only needed nine flags, took off the last one and got the clue - they returned to shore and dune buggied to their next clue.
-Justin & Diana are the next team to finish the flags and they head back to the beach.
-Logan & Chris are beating themselves up about not learning the flags (because that helps a lot) but they do process of elimination to try and figure it out.

-Kelsey & Joey get to their dune buggy and get the next clue - they have to assemble six Adirondack chairs then arrange them in order by the pictures painted on the back of the chairs of places they had visited on the race. (Oh man, this one is tedious, having to put the chairs together properly takes time - if you rush you makes mistakes.)
-And when Justin & Diana show up, Diana is great at putting things together and Justin starts running his mouth to try and get under Kelsey & Joey's skin.

-Kelsey & Joey are the first to finish the chairs but on their first check the judge makes them redo the backs on a couple chairs as they are out of line.  This gives Justin & Diana hope.
-Kelsey & Joey fix the out-of-line chairs and then the judge tells them the seat on the yellow one is not right. (Arghh!! At least he's telling them which chairs to re-do, that's something.)  Justin says, "we still have a chance, baby!"
-There is lots of hammering, both teams working furiously and they are getting their chairs judged at the same time...
-Justin & Diana are told the back on the light blue one is out of line and Kelsey & Joey get a congratulations and the clue to the PIT STOP! (What?! No way, I felt like I had been holding my breath, when were Justin & Diana going to pull ahead?)

Kelsey & Joey take off running for the marked path that will take them to Phil and finish line at a gorgeous Hampton estate and the assembled teams all go crazy when they see that Justin & Diana are not the winning team (Cause lets face it, they all didn't care who won as long as it wasn't the Green team.)  Yeah, everyone was losing their minds... and Kelsey & Joey won the only leg that mattered - they are the winners are the Amazing Race.  Joey says they are going to buy a place together and Joey wants to pay off his parents mortgage (you only won a million dollars... I guess real estate is cheaper where they live.) 
-And Joey asked if he could wear Enoch's huge gold chain - ha! It looked hilarious, but he won, he can be a pimp if he wants I guess.

And with Kelsey & Joey winning the Amazing Race, the winners of our pool are: Carol-Anne D., Kim K., Emily H., Drew C., and Lindsay J.  Congratulations all you WSBC people!

Justin & Diana run in second, and Justin tearfully says they are truly heartbroken - if they had just paid the cab the extra hundred... Diana says, "when you can pinpoint the one thing you did wrong, it will be the one thing that will haunt you."  (You know Justin is going to be that person who will keep trying to get on the show again... whatever, they won enough, a honeymoon, a babymoon, a vacation and cash... but it's still not enough for him because they didn't win the whole thing.)

Meanwhile, Chris & Logan are still putting the chairs together and he says he hopes Kelsey & Joey won but Logan snaps she doesn't because that means they could have won if they had kept the cab (Really? Would that have made you know the flags any better?  You might have just let Justin & Diana win in that case.)  When they finally do get to the finish line where everyone is still waiting Phil asks them about their relationship and they know they have to learn to communicate better, maybe they should go to therapy - but they are not breaking up, she says, "Don't do this at home."

-Justin says after the heartbreak is over they will be able to look back and enjoy it... (You know he's not going to rest until they can try again.)

-Finally Kelsey says, "This just in, we just won the Amazing Race!" (And it was fantastic!)

Quick preview of the next season which starts in February, all eleven teams are couples that connect with millions through social media - now they will have to unplug to run the Amazing Race. "It just got real."

So, I'm debating if I'm going to continue to do these recaps.  I know a lot of you tell me you like to read them but often don't have time or don't bother if you haven't seen the show... It's a lot of work for me and I'm starting to find it a bit of a chore.
I'm taking a poll, everyone who reads the recaps, please reply to this email or comment on the blog and let me know if you want them to continue.

Thanks!

Coleen

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