An Amazing Race showdown in Chicago

Season 29, Episode 12

South Korea/Chicago – The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time in 108 years; an unlikely and cheerfully loathed team wins the Amazing Race. Who says that life isn’t full of surprises?

I mention the Cubs because the Race finished in Chicago (actually it finished before the Cubs took the Series, but it aired long after), the

three remaining teams having flown Prestige Class from Korea.

It wasn’t that Race fans thought that eventual race winners Brooke Camhi and Scott Flanery couldn’t defeat the other two duos. Team Mom and Dad (Tara Carr and Joey Covino) and Team LoLo (London Kaye and Logan Bauer) had had solid, but not spectacular seasons, but they were far from invincible. 

Brooke

No, the consensus was that Brooke and Scott shouldn’t win, mostly because she was a diva, whining and pouting and blaming through most of the other episodes.

On the other hand, there were some who felt that Scott deserved his half of the $1 million prize for putting up with Brooke.

Here’s my theory. Brooke and Scott added serious spice to the season. Take them out and what do you have? Some very worthy good citizens, especially Joey and Tara, the sort of people you want guarding the treasury of your local community players. Cast them in leading roles? Not so sure.

Scott

Don’t get me wrong, if life were fair, Joey and Tara should have won. They were enormously likeable, never blaming, never really gaming. Good heavens, even when they U-turned one team it was to help another.

And London and Logan had paid their dues, as well, always doing just enough. Beyond that, London every once in a while flashed a crazed, wide-eyed smile that made this viewer wonder if she had a bit of Chablis in her backpack.

But anyway, what about the finale? Truth be told, it was kind of dull.

There was a Chicago Motor Speedway challenge in which one person had to change a tire just the way they do at Daytona and all those other fast and noisy places. And the other person had to drive around the oval real, real fast. 

Then they had to go to downtown Chicago and translate some riddles and find some iconic structures.

Iconic Water Tower

Finally, the teams ended up at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs hadn’t yet won the World Series, but thanks to a little voiceover magic, Phil Keoghan said that they had.

With one person in the press box and the other person inside the old-fashioned scoreboard, the teams had to line up the race stops with their finish in each episode.

None of them had any real problem with this, just as the teams had no problem doing a little math to find their final clue in the stands.

Scoreboard

(How often in the Race are racers searching for clues among some seats? You tell me.)

Then Brooke and Scott jumped on then mat first and the million bucks was there. (And $100 bucks goes to Emily and Drew for picking B and S to win.)

Just to remind us of this season’s gimmick – none of the contestants knew each other at the start of the season – all the racers said that they had been paired with the best partner ever.

In a way, though, in choosing to link up strangers, the Race organizers sacrificed some of the subplots that give depth to a season. Couples who know each other -- husband/wife, mother/son, etc. – come to the race for different reasons. It could be to refresh or repair a relationship or just to test it in the heat of competition. There was always something besides the cash on the table.

This season's strangers were in it for the money and not much more. Scott kept reminding Brooke of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. That was it, money.

Nonetheless, if you take two unknowns, have them travel 36,000 miles, touching down in nine countries and 17 cities, it’s a triumph if they can still talk to each other, much less like each other. There’s a lot to be said  for the Stockholm Syndrome.

Overheard:

Scott: Grab your nuts, go fast, go fast.

Brooke: I want a million freaking dollars.

Scott:  Push through all that pain.

Joey (to some Cubs fans): Go Red Sox.

Brooke: Get your fanny down to home place.

Brooke:  As much as we bickered, we shared something most people never get to share.

Tara: I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in Giuseppe here.

London: We’re definitely leaving as the opposite of strangers.

Oder of finish:

1) Brooke and Scott

2) Tara and Joey

3) Logan and London

Pool results:

1): Emily and Drew (Brooke and Scott) $100

2): Team Walkworth (Joey and Tara) $50

3):  Dennis Doell (Logan and London) $30

Amazing Race finale to feature age (relative) vs. youth

Season 29, Episode 11

Viet Nam /South Korea  – After all the bungee jumping, local-food eating and desperate map reading of a solid Season 29, we’re near the end of the road.

Three teams remain. Who will win the $1 million?

Tara

Beats me. Obviously, any viewer with a heart will be rooting for Team Mom and Dad, aka Tara and Joey.

Like all the duos this year, they were strangers when they met, but they’ve proven to be compatible, encouraging each other, never criticizing even when mistakes were made.

They’ve conquered most of the challenges, though Tara was almost fatally awful in Episode 11’s  "Street Fighter V" video game test. 

Joey

But, all in all, the team did well despite being ancient by recent Amazing Race standards. (For the record, Joey is 46; Tara is 38. They’re older than any of the other contestants.) With age comes wisdom and a rich vocabulary: Give Tara, an Army major and Syracuse University grad, some credit for being bleeped more than the other contestants.  

Of course, most fans want Brooke and Scott

Broke

to lose because Brooke is such a whiner (though, take her out of the mix and the season would have been awfully dull). 

But Scott gets the Patience of Job Award for putting up with his partner’s pouts. To his credit also, his trash talking during the video game challenge was inspired, and, good grief, they won Episode 11, their first first place. So maybe 

Scott

they’ve got a chance.

I think viewers are just getting to know London and Logan. They seem steady, compatible, and their names are interchangeable. London’s the woman, right? 

Logan

Tough not a gamer, London did show some fierce intensity in the video game challenge. (Like Scott she adopted the Trumpian strategy of pretending she knew what she was doing even though she didn't have a clue. It worked.)

Sadly, Redmond and Matt were the last of the four teams to finish Episode 11, done in by their decision to take a train not a cab. That

London

was compounded later by a bad cab drive. So Phil gave them the boot. Did he have to? Haven’t some finales featured four teams? I forget.

I realize that the boys won no good sportsmanship awards early on, but they were terrific at most of the challenges. Matt could climb. Redmond could stack cups. They both made acceptable kimchi. And Redmond asked no favors despite his prosthetic leg, though he punned about his appendage on every leg of the race.

Now that it’s almost over, I think it’s safe to say that it was a good season. 

For what it's worth, I’m not sure the strangers-when-we-met gimmick made much of a difference.

The duos generally seemed on good behavior, with the exception maybe of Brooke and Scott, Michael and Liz and, way back, Sara and Shamir.  If anything, couples who have come into previous seasons knowing each other seemed quicker to quarrel. Go figure.

Time to thank and to bash CBS. The network announced that the Amazing Race has been renewed. That’s the good news. But the bad news is that the show is not on the fall lineup. 

In other words, it looks like it will be held in reserve, as it was last year, to be slotted in for a show that bombs. So we probably won’t see Episode 30 until next year. Sad.

Overheard:

Scott: You know what, a lot of winners have never won a leg.

Redmond: Everybody we talk to over here says, “Do not take a taxi.”

Scott: We are reminding Brooke that patience is a virtue.

Redmond: I’m not a professional cup stacker. You do it at parties. Impress the ladies.

Matt: The big guy can stack some cups.

London: I’ve never played video games in my life.

London: I will win, I will win, I will win.

Tara: I feel I’m going to walk out of here hating video games more than I hate them already.

Matt: You massage the cabbage. It’s all about the love.

Brooke: People underestimated us, and they were wrong.

Oder of Finish:

1) Brooke and Scott

2) Logan and London

3) Tara and Joey

4) Matt and Redmond