S28.E12: The Only First That Matters

[Supay]

Quote

The race concludes in Los Angeles.

As confirmed by the official schedule:

http://cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/shows/the-amazing-race/photos?episode=10191

[scrb]

Hope this is a quote of some racer other than Tyler or Korey, at the end of the race.

Could be what someone says during the last leg though.

[Supay]

On May 8, 2016 at 0:01 PM, scrb said:

Could be what someone says during the last leg though.

You mean as they're boarding to leave Asia?

[Thumper82003]

I think the mother/ son team said something like that last show. The son was talking about being last or next to last so often, said that the last one is the only one that matters.

[scrb]

53 minutes ago, Supay said:

Could be what someone says during the last leg though.

You mean as they're boarding to leave Asia?

On May 8, 2016 at 0:01 PM, scrb said:

Hope this is a quote of some racer other than Tyler or Korey, at the end of the race.

Could be what someone says during the last leg though.

What I mean is that if some other team says it after the results, it likely means Tyler and Korey lost, despite all those first-place finishes.  But if someone says it during the race, it could be just something to encourage themselves, that they could beat Tyler and Korey and win the only first-place finish that matters.

Edited May 11, 2016 by scrb

[Supay]

Ah, gotcha!

[Supay]

They'll end their journey like four seasons ago began it (i.e. in reverse order):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9wu6YjqMkEM

[Wandering Snark]

I can't believe they are touting Seasons 20 & 21 on DVD. Especially those two sets together. Yay! First I get to watch Brandon & Rachel in their green sequins and then follow that up with the TWINNNIEEEEEEE season? Where do I sign up?? *eyeroll*

If anyone can make it through a binge watch of those two (or either!) they are made of stronger stuff than I.

Edited May 14, 2016 by Wandering Snark

[truthaboutluv]

Whoever wins, this was a poorly designed final leg. They didn't do anything. Literally all they did was jump off a building and catch a clue, take a taxi to a harbor and just search for a boat that led them to another clue, then rappelled together down some mountain that really didn't look like it took much time and then the final task which always includes remembering stuff about the race. And judging by how quickly Dana just got through this, I'd say not even that was that hard. I guess congratulations to Matt and Dana who are clearly going to win but what an awful final leg. Seriously the editors couldn't even drum up some tension in those final seconds - wow, I cannot remember a duller final Amazing Race episode. 

Edited May 14, 2016 by truthaboutluv

[Browncoat]

Just out of curiosity, has a team that has been listed first in the credits ever won?  I don't remember, but since Tyler and Korey were first in the credits, I doubted they'd win. 

I didn't really care who won, in the end, but I did dig the final challenge with the wine barrels.  And I have to say that Cole and Sheri really stepped up -- particularly Cole -- with the heights things. 

Overall, meh, but I'll be back next season for sure!

[Pepper the Cat]

Sherri was freaking awesome on this leg. I loved it when she turned to Cole and said "I jumped off a building for you!"

[NYGirl]

Of course the team I hated the most won!  Well at least Tyler and Korey came out third.  Did we have to spend 10 minutes talking about how cute Brandon is?

Sheri rocks!

Dana really won this leg for Matt.

What a boring finale..ugh

[mtlchick]

So...they won. Congrats?

As far as finales go, this is definitely at the lower end of the scale.  Lots of jumping and climbing. (And Phil in a harness...TWICE. The kiwi berries must be thankful that's over.)  And...that's it.  MEH.

Show, you're starting to show your age.  We may need to talk.  

See you for The Price Is Right TAR Spectacular! 

[ByaNose]

I'm so happy Tyler lost. Is that wrong? What a last leg to lose. It's the only leg that matters.

[weightyghost]

My least favourite thing is absolutely no changes to the order throughout the entire episode. Makes it so boring. Like really, Corey/Tyler not finding the clue at the beginning really was the one thing that set them behind? Even with Tyler missing the clue on the jump, they were still only minutes behind the dancers. 

The dancers were my least fav team going into this, so it doesnt surprise me that they won. They were competent but I hated how she treated him.

Once I heard she had 8 kids, I hoped they won... she will need that money for those college educations.

[raven]

Well that figures.  I was hoping for Sheri & Cole.  Oh well, good try from them to place 2nd.

I knew it was Matt/Dana; first off in the copter and they didn't really bump up against anyone at any of the tasks, then the editing and how happy/calm they were in their interviews, so no real suspense. 

LOVED the gorge task.  Having the pulley system was just brutal (having to basically pull your partner up; going down was not as difficult). 

Not a terrible season but not overly memorable either, except for the beautiful kite task. 

[Boilergal]

i'm okay with the dancers winning. 

Seemed to be shenanigans going on with Sheri and Cole's course.  Sheri's second jump looked as close as Tyler's third jump.  Shei didn't seem like she struggled at all coming up the hill - she didn't seem as winded and worn out as the dancer did. 

[spanana]

That last memory task didn't seem hard enough for a final race task.  They all breezed through it quickly (seemingly) and they all even seemed like they were expecting it.  

[thefog]

Karma came back and bite Tyler and Korey - with their douche behavior the last few legs.

Matt deserved to win for having to put up with Dana, lol.

Sheri and Cole #2 - should be very proud.  They were the under dog team.

[Lantern7]

Well. That was an ending. Sucks that there's no TARCon, because this season of Racers would've made for hours of entertainment, even more so than on TV.

The fourth-best team ended up winning. I can live with Dana & Matt winning despite their bickering because they're not Logan & Chris. Man, can you imagine what would've happened if those two nimrods won last season? Lots of stuff fell into place for the Dancers, and their mistakes weren't big enough for Sheri & Cole to make up.

Those two? Most unlikely second-place finishers since Teri & Ian. They never struck me as hapless (see: Andrew & Dan), but they were in over their heads too often. I liked their intro in the credits, where it looks like Sheri is picking up her son by the scruff of his neck.

I feel a little bad for Tyler & Korey, who were the best overall team statistically. Tyler needed three shots at the clue, and they got a bum cabbie. If they weren't social media stars, they'd probably have lit into her. They showed more patience than I would have in that situation.

As okay as TAR28 was, I'm hoping for a kickass season come September.

ETA: Could have done without the airline upgrade. The only time I remember that happening for a team was with Reichen & Chip at the end of their season.

[sinycalone]

Not the team I wanted to win....but oh, well.

 

Sheri and Cole grew on me as the race progressed... particularly Sheri.  But they both fought height fears and won....so happy for them in that sense.  As she said, what an experience to have with your son!

[Wandering Snark]

Random notes:

On the boat: "Okay, we're going to go... we're still attached. You want to get that?"

Ugh, NEVER let your taxi go!! Rookies... *shakes head*  Well, unlesss your cabbie has no idea where you are going. Ironic to get back to the States and then have language issues! Couldn't happen to a better team.

I also may have cheered when Sheri got her clue and laughed when Tyler missed his. Why aren't you laughing your laugh now, huh Tyler? *grins*

Sheri is like a superwoman.

Whoa Dana f'n KILLED that final task.

Maybe follow the sign that says LAKE on it??

So:

Well, at least Tyler and Kory finished last like I was hoping; but something seemed hallow about this episode though. Not sure why.

Well, see you next season Race. Two stuntcast heavy years lets go back Old School next time, eh? Peace out.

Edited May 14, 2016 by Wandering Snark

[ByaNose]

Did they plug the airline for the upgrade? Seemed like a weird perk if they didn't. The dancers weren't the worst couple to ever race so I'm not too upset that they won. Sherri & Cole grew on me but I hate when racers talk how they are afraid of heights, can't drive stick over & can't swim over & over & over. If that's the case what the hell are you dong on The Amazing Race? Rant over. See everyone next season. Now, it's time to listen RHAP for a wrap up of the season.

[blackwing]

I'm so happy that Matt and Dana won.  Matt has been my favourite contestant on the race, he is so calm and level headed.  I'm very happy that they won in part because Dana got through that last task so easily.  Good for her to remember everything so easily.

So happy that Tyler lost.  I loathe that little turd.  He was so overconfident and I'm glad that their error in finding the first clue and him taking three tries ended up costing them.  

Sheri rocks.

[danm]

Yawn.  Well, that's over.  Not nearly as bad as I feared it would be.  And it didn't ever really cave into the "social media star" premise that was being pushed at the start of the season, so hooray for that.  It was at the beginning of this episode, during all the "we're gonna do whatever it takes to win, and we're gonna win" talks that I realized that I really didn't care who won or not.  Please, show, step it up a notch for the next season -- I'll be there, and I hope that you show up too.

Then I looked at my watch at 14 minutes until the top of the hour and thought "huh, what, no memory/review task?" to then learn that they tried to have one but it apparently wasn't that difficult and wasn't presented as being very suspenseful. LA never looked so good, and it's kind of nice for the teams to get the clue "welcome to LA, now get on a helicopter and leave this place."  

It was an OK season for me.  For entertainment I have started to watch S21 again and have quickly re-learned what an "annoying team" looks like on this show.  So.. this season kind of won for not having any _Really_Annoying_ teams... but ho hum, please do better next season.

[alexa]

I am okay with the ending but I really wanted Tyler and Korey to win.  As said above I didn't like that there was no room for movement in the order of the teams.  It feels like an easy win for the team who starts out in first after the first task.

[Sister Havana]

Of course my least favorite team of the top 3 won. To be fair, they are nowhere near my most hated team to win. (I'm looking at you, Freddy and Kendra.) I too was pulling for Tyler and Korey. (That surprised me - when I first found out they were cast I was prepared to hate them. But I liked them from the beginning - they worked well together and seemed like they were having fun throughout the race.)

This really was an anticlimactic finale. As soon as Dana and Matt finished the first task, I knew they would win. I'd be interested to know how much further ahead they were of the other two teams - it didn't seem like it was close.

[buttersister]

Impressed that Sheri and Cole came in second----good for them. Tyler annoyed me, too, so third was good for them. And the winners? I'm torn between doffing a hat to a winning team and still reeling from weeks of Dana's shrieking. Basta!

[PhD-Purgatory15]

If anything this was a call back to some finale legs from the earliest seasons. Once it took Tyler three jumps (after wandering around for who knows how long at the beginning)....the third place team never saw the 1st place team the rest of the way to the finish line. That even includes M/D having to wait on a cab, and missing the clue at the Winery....so they bled time after finding the Theresa Ann. It still didn't matter.

And 2nd place S/C just barely saw M/D after Sherri made her jump on her second try. That was only when they were arriving at the tandem RB at Gibraltar Hill just as M/D were leaving.

I'm sure this has been a subject that gets a lot of coverage, but I almost think TAR needs to rethink how they set up the final memory task (if that even has to be a thing)....Dana said she had figured it out on Leg 1. That's a mite bit too obvious given the Social Media theme of the season w/ the hashtags inside the freaking clues.

Edited May 14, 2016 by PhD-Purgatory15

[blackwing]

21 minutes ago, alexa said:

I am okay with the ending but I really wanted Tyler and Korey to win.  As said above I didn't like that there was no room for movement in the order of the teams.  It feels like an easy win for the team who starts out in first after the first task.

I don't agree, there was room for movement from the very start.  If Matt had taken three tries and Tyler only one then there could be movement.  It's not fair to say there was no room for movement after task 1 when the whole reason why Tyler and Korey were so far behind is because of his poor performance on task 1.

There was room for movement at the Teresa Ann task. That was a needle in a haystack and it could have taken a long time. Dana was smart to think it would be near the actual museum building.  Sheri and Cole missed it several times.

Dana and Matt bled about 10-15 minutes with their cab error and still maintained their lead. Tyler also got unlucky with a cab driver that had more issues than the others with the directions.  Dana and Matt were smart, they looked it up on the guy's phone and told him to go there.  Tyler asked her to look it up and she was confused.

Lastly, that last task could have had movement depending on how quickly teams got through it and how well they remembered things.  Dana rocked.

So in sum, I don't think it's fair to cry there was no room for movement just because your favourite team made multiple errors and the winner made only one.

[QuantumMechanic]

So glad to see Korey and douchey Tyler come in last.

However, that was about the only good thing about the episode.  Soooooooooo boring.

The person upthread had it right -- they didn't DO anything.  Yawn.

Fingers crossed we get something better next season.

[ByaNose]

I do agree that Tyler should have read the directions off the phone himself. That's allowed, right? The poor female taxi driver had no clue or idea where they needed to go. The racers still live & die by the taxi driver. I think the final task was a little too easy. There wasn't any red herrings or extra letters to throw them off. That said, everyone had equal chance to be first across the finish line.

Edited May 14, 2016 by ByaNose

[Rinaldo]

12 minutes ago, blackwing said:

So in sum, I don't think it's fair to cry there was no room for movement just because your favourite team made multiple errors and the winner made only one.

I had been thinking the same thing. Just because there wasn't a change in the ordering doesn't mean there couldn't have been. But as it happened, the team that needed only one try to jump off the building and get the clue was already in first place; the team that had communication and direction problems with its cabdriver was already in third place; and so on. Things could have been shaken up at several points; it just turned out that they weren't.

[alexa]

That's fine you don't agree blackwing.  I don't agree with you either.  I think you gave examples that actually led to my feeling of not much movement. Even when a team made up some time while another team had an issue there was no remote chance of the order changing.  I didn't feel that way just because the team I liked didn't win.  Other legs of the race were much more interesting and competitive in my mind.

[chaifan]

I called Matt & Dana as the winners after their 2nd talking head interview segment, which were obviously filmed post-race.  Dana was actually in a good mood, not biting Matt's head off, and I figured there could only be one reason for that.  And when there were only about 15 minutes left and they hadn't even started the final task I figured no one was going to be challenged by it.  This was one of the more boring final legs, and the final task comes in second only to the "let's count poker chips" on the lame scale. 

[mojoween]

Blowouts are BORING.

Matt is fine and seems pretty chill.  Dana is...not.

When they did the recap at the beginning I refuse to believe that some of those teams were ever truly on this race.

[Rick Kitchen]

1 hour ago, escape said:

Karma came back and bite Tyler and Korey - with their douche behavior the last few legs.

Matt deserved to win for having to put up with Dana, lol.

Sheri and Cole #2 - should be very proud.  They were the under dog team.

 

What douche behavior?

 

Dammit, I really didn't like Dana.  #FreeMatt

Gee, going home to Los Angeles?  I don't know where Dana and Matt are from, but Korey and Tyler live in LA.

Sheri said she needs to put eight kids through school.  I wonder how much Cole makes on Vine.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Well I totally agree with your last statement, alexa. By some metric (Burnie and Ashley expounded on this in their various recap podcasts) this was the closest or most bunched up season in TAR history. Burnie and Ashley said there was only one leg in their entire race where they finished on the mat alone....and you had legs like Chamonix that were incredibly close. Really Dubai was one of the few legs where they had legitimate stragglers hours behind (M/D and S/C), and whattayaknow that happened to be the only self-navigating they did on the entire race which is just totally unacceptable in my eyes.

The problem was the crucial mistake that T/K made happened at the very beginning (struggling for a while to find the initial clue) and choosing Tyler who struggled at the jumping RB. They had to be at least 40 minutes behind M/D at that point. The helicopter ride kept the teams spaced out evenly (I'm assuming) and from the Boat task to the pit stop T/K got hammered with bad taxi luck (something they pretty much avoided most of the season IMO) whereas M/D didn't, and Dana was the ace in hole and absolutely slayed the final memory challenge. Who's to say if Dana had talked herself into jumping like it almost looked like she was going to, and Matt had to do the memory task it might have been more suspenseful.

Sherri and Cole had an opportunity to catch up a bit, but didn't understand the Theresa Ann clue at first and they didn't find the boat until they had driven past it a couple times. They also tried to unsuccessfully to grab T/K's taxi coming out of the challenge which must have burned them some time. Still I think the tandem RB would have been their downfall....or they would have been hard pressed to keep their time elapsed on that challenge close to even with the other teams...

Is it too early to speculate which teams from this season might be asked back (if as expected) S30 next spring ends up being a returnee season? I'd say Brodie and Kurt probably are 1st choice....then T/K, and then maybe Burnie and Ashley.

Edited May 14, 2016 by PhD-Purgatory15

[LotusFlower]

I didn't like Matt saying that "they" were a fiery and passionate couple.  Fiery might apply to Dana (more like obnoxious and nasty), but Matt was incredibly low-key and passive.  I guess he was covering for her, so I think #FreeMatt still applies.

[Ducky]

Disappointed with this leg.. was mostly boring.. and not just because of who won (though I don't care for Dana... Matt was... okay).  The leg felt way too linear... with little room for movement/switching (Yes I read the above post about that--- we'll agree to disagree there).

   Hardly any exciting tasks except for the Gibralter Rock one.  Sheri and Cole kicked ass- both did very little moaning/complaining this time about height.  The whole mentioning of the fear of height-- my guess is production probably probed- led them to talk about that AND edited to       include those tiny snippets of their conversations. 

Sad that Tyler and Korey didn't win (yes I liked them... sue me... laugh at me ha.. ;) ) or that Sheri/Cole didn't either but they put up a great showing of 2nd.

What a whimper of an end to a great season in general.

[Madding crowd]

I didn't mind the tasks exactly, but it seemed obvious who would win. It really seemed that even with if they encountered bad taxi luck, no one could catch up the Matt and Dana. Tyler and Korey did have a few missteps and  a bad taxi , but outside of missing the boat initially, Sheri and Cole completed the tasks pretty quickly and still were way behind Matt and Dana. I kept hoping for something to happen so I wouldn't know who was racing towards the finish line-but they just didn't have any way to even pretend the finish was close.

I give credit to both Sheri and Cole for overcoming their fears. I know someone said they shouldn't go on the race if they had those fears but I disagree. Facing your fears and being successful is still success in my book. I actually thought Tyler and Korey should have won based on their overall experiences in the race, but I secretly hoped for Sheri and Cole. 

[Artsda]

Sheri and Cole coming in second was great. I was happy for them to see them come that far and make it all all the height tasks. Cole did great on the repelling across task when he could barley handle the same earlier in the season.

Congrats to Matt and Dana.

[Pepperminty]

I'm glad Matt won but not happy that such an abusive bitch like Dana won. Let's hope Matt dumps her soon.

Sheri was awesome! She really came through.

[Primetimer]

Racers throw themselves off of buildings and heave themselves over chasms in their final pursuit of the million dollars, but the most amazing feat of all is that they actually manage to make that stuff look pretty boring.

View the full article

[Maharincess]

2 hours ago, weightyghost said:

My least favourite thing is absolutely no changes to the order throughout the entire episode. Makes it so boring. Like really, Corey/Tyler not finding the clue at the beginning really was the one thing that set them behind? Even with Tyler missing the clue on the jump, they were still only minutes behind the dancers. 

The dancers were my least fav team going into this, so it doesnt surprise me that they won. They were competent but I hated how she treated him.

Once I heard she had 8 kids, I hoped they won... she will need that money for those college educations.

Dana has 8 kids?  I didn't know that but I haven't seen every episode. How old is she? She doesn't look old enough to have so many kids. 

[millennium]

2 hours ago, NYGirl said:

Did we have to spend 10 minutes talking about how cute Brandon is?

 

Yup, because Tyler and Korey have made a point of repeatedly reminding the audience that they are gay, from talking about how attractive the men at the challenges are (the last one was at the cliff jump, where Tyler rhapsodized about how the instructor stretched him out), to crowing "Pink is our color" or Tyler joking that he is "the fruit of the loom" (his words, not mine).  

Really glad they lost, just because I think Tyler's incredibly obnoxious.

I feel the first challenge was unfair.   Matt got the clue on the first leap, at the original distance.   The other two teams didn't, so to accommodate them the clue was moved closer to the building.    By the time Tyler grabbed it, the clue looked about three feet away.  Matt received no such advantage.   It reminds me of last week's uni-thing challenge where Sherry and Cole were permitted to advance even though they couldn't complete the stretch without falling off the thing multiple times.    

[Ducky]

3 minutes ago, Maharincess said:

Dana has 8 kids?  I didn't know that but I haven't seen every episode. How old is she? She doesn't look old enough to have so many kids. 

No Sheri is the one with 8 kids.  2 in college and one about to go to college then the younger bunch.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Well for the jumping challenge, they probably had to either bring it closer on each subsequent attempt (a la the headstart all the teams except Brodie and Kurt got on the 2nd attempt at racing the camels) or if they had chose to leave the clue at the original distance, then they could have capped it at maybe two attempts and if both were fails, then maybe that person would have been able to proceed after taking an additional 15 minute penalty. Because you for sure could have had contestants physically unable to ever reach the clue at the original distance and you wouldn't have wanted their race to end right there at the beginning of the leg...

Edited May 14, 2016 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Jamoche]

Youtube disappoints - there is no supercut of all the times the Amazing Cameracrew catches racers going right past the clue. Those few seconds of Team #whichever going past that truck were the only bit of tension in the whole episode.

[futurechemist]

I thought this finale was anticlimactic. Either it was poor task design that started with the teams having to jump off the building 1 at a time. Or it was that the lead team didn't make any obvious mistakes. Either way there wasn't much excitement.

As for Tyler and Korey emphasizing their gayness. I do wonder if editing is at work. Do they actually talk about cute guys more often than other teams? Or is the editing overemphasizing it relative to other teams? Or might they talk about it just as much as other teams, but viewer heteronormativity kicks in and it seems like more than it really is.