S29.E12: We're Going To Victory Lane

[Souris]

50 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

That was underwhelming. That being said, it WAS a brutal leg. None of those landmarks are that close to each other. 

Kendra is still the worst winner for me.

KKKendra won the last time they finished in Chicago!

Clearly TAR should never finish in Chicago again.

[ByaNose]

Just now, F. M. said:

Very dissapointing, very! 

 

. I was spoilt last week ,( complete accident by another poster )and oh how I hoped it wasn't true.
I also read Brooke was on instagram ,eating at fancy restaurants and showing off new clothes. She was told to take then down. I'm happy for Scott, if she had another partner, I'm really not sure they could have put up with her, or pushed her so hard.

I loved the race car challenge, Tara did well.


Roll on next season, because this was very dissapointing.:(

Who told her to take them down? CBS? 

[Wandering Snark]

7 minutes ago, absolutelyido said:

Multiple teams handed Brooke and Scott $1M by helping her with that ladle. 

Just imagine what the rest of the race would have been like without Brooke for that long... yikes. Talk about a "million dollar decision".

[Rinaldo]

12 minutes ago, absolutelyido said:

It seems like quite often on the last leg the order in which the teams leave the airport is the order in which they finish. Makes for a boring finale.

Not necessarily. There are other things that make a leg interesting besides a surprise outcome. Some of the most enjoyable TAR legs have had thoroughly predictable finishes. (And, as I've probably said already, there were plenty of times in this leg when the order could have changed... but it didn't, because Scott & Brooke started at the front and never messed up in any significant way.)

12 minutes ago, TheFinalRose said:

I do think running back and forth between those sights was hard .... it's a hike from the Water Tower to Buckingham Fountain. 

It is. I mean, it's thoroughly walkable as part of a leisurely day of shopping/sightseeing/snacking, but to cover the ground under time pressure is no joke (and one reason why I let Brooke off the hook a bit this time -- it was legitimately hard to cover so much ground at a jog, the way Scott was). The two of them were smart to work out their route on a map in advance, and to take the subway to the furthest point (as they'd already paid to enter the station).

Edited June 2, 2017 by Rinaldo

[AftermathTV]

Glad the passionate people won. Hopefully pairing up strangers is the new norm.

My buddy actually took me out in his race car on Saturday. I could not relax at all, so it would've been extra terrifying here.

I've always wondered how their eating breaks on the race works. I would've just eaten a hotdog while running.

Brooke's voice was very calm, soothing, and friendly on the radio. :) She should do ASMR videos! :D

It's sexist to say Scott deserves more money than Brooke, they both finished each of what was thrown at them, even if Brooke had some unique venting.

See everybody in 2018 for Season 30!

[backformore]

5 minutes ago, AftermathTV said:

It's sexist to say Scott deserves more money than Brooke, they both finished each of what was thrown at them, even if Brooke had some unique venting.

Sorry, sexism has nothing to do with it.  People are just venting about the fact that Scott pushed through his fear of heights and RACED, while Brooke did a whole lot of whining "I CAN'T," asking other racers for help,  and blaming Scott when they fell behind. 

[LittleIggy]

I don't mind Brooke and Scott winning. After Team Fun left, I didn't care who won.

[Primetimer]

Teetering on the brink of cancellation, the show takes its best shot at going out on a high note, but fails in more ways than one.

View the full article

[fib]

Scott was right to ditch the backpacks - clearly the move of a race fan.  Why oh why would you want to run around Chicago with an extra 30 pounds? Everytime I saw everyone else toting them, I cringed. 

LOLO were clearly not racing toward the end, but why would you when you know the other teams are ahead of you on a final task? I liked her appreciation for everything. 

Brooke is the Worst. Her comments about the money being gravy? Pretty shitty talk from a lawyer in a season of American Heroes (cops, firefighters, and veterans) who really could use the money.  

I wish Tara and Joey had won, but was frustrated to see that none of the racers read out a list of "okay, from top to bottom, 4-3-1-5-... to save their partner some trips.  Seemed like a way to make up time, though I guess, by that point, no one had to. 

[ByaNose]

4 minutes ago, fib said:

Scott was right to ditch the backpacks - clearly the move of a race fan.  Why oh why would you want to run around Chicago with an extra 30 pounds? Everytime I saw everyone else toting them, I cringed. 

LOLO were clearly not racing toward the end, but why would you when you know the other teams are ahead of you on a final task? I liked her appreciation for everything. 

Brooke is the Worst. Her comments about the money being gravy? Pretty shitty talk from a lawyer in a season of American Heroes (cops, firefighters, and veterans) who really could use the money.  

I wish Tara and Joey had won, but was frustrated to see that none of the racers read out a list of "okay, from top to bottom, 4-3-1-5-... to save their partner some trips.  Seemed like a way to make up time, though I guess, by that point, no one had to. 

They probably could only do one at a time, right? Yeah, Brooke is the worst. I'm sure she'll have all the perfect words in her exit interviews. Bleh!

[Scatterbrained]

Boo!  Hiss!  That is all.

[NeverLate]

36 minutes ago, ByaNose said:

Who told her to take them down? CBS? 

I expect so. All of a sudden she had nothing on Instagram

Quote

It's sexist to say Scott deserves more money than Brooke, they both finished each of what was thrown at them, even if Brooke had some unique venting

Hmm, Okay, and?? 

[fib]

There should have been more animals this season.  Do you think the Amazing Producers had less buddget for animlas this season, because they blew all their funds toting an ass like Brooke from start to finish?

[Silver Raven]

It's common for the final teams to check their bags at the final destination?  I never knew that.

God, Brooke is disgusting.

Aw, they didn't have to do bees. I wanted bees.

Did London really have the lens caps on the binoculars?

Oh, God, I knew that harpy Brooke was going to win.  NOT happy.

"The race made me a better person."  Does that mean she was an even more horrible person before?

[PhD-Purgatory15]

You get back to America, and don't have one self-driving task (other than the raceway lap)? Boo. Maybe logistically they aren't allowed to rent cars at the airport (I'm not sure why that would be)....but it seems a missed opportunity in a season where there actually were multiple self-driving legs..

Honestly, I thought Scott was going to be the villain of the season prior to the season starting. But man does he deserve some kind of medal. He only really lost his mind (according to the edit monkeys) twice on Brooke in the entire season. Kudos.

How do you not know to check your bags and get rid of that extra weight? Was it the difference in the race? Maybe not, but considering how much ground in Chicago they had to cover getting the postcards....it had to help Brooke and Scott at least a little to not have that extra weight to run with.

The Final Leg design of TAR with a few exceptions always has the show ending a little flat. I don't love insta-bunches, but without one you always run the risk of a flat episode like this (The dancers won in a similar fashion) where the first team out of the airport to the first challenge never is really challenged right up to the meeting Phil on the mat. The closest the other teams got was Brook and Scott seeing Tara Joey running toward their third postcard location after making their fatal error of the leg....

Maybe change it up and have a mega detour with the teams picking two out of three choices. Or a two part detour where what you pick first directly affects what they have to do second. Or some sort of simultaneous roadblock (similar to the raceway task I guess)....just something new to jazz it up. Most teams are ready for some variation of the dreaded memory challenge....so they seem to lack the ummph they had in early seasons. Because the teams are prepared and don't struggle near as much.

Fingers crossed if 30 is the end, it goes out with a bang instead a whimper like this season.

Edited June 2, 2017 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Lingo]

Scott said that tower was where the racers went on Season 9, when it was actually Season 6! Some superfan HE is!  /sarcasm

I kid, I kid. I'm actually impressed that he remembered that tower. I'm a fan (first 20 seasons on VHS), but I wouldn't have remembered that even if I was there.

I don't mind Scott and Brooke winning. They were somehow entertaining. Brooke can be a little bit charming when she's got it together. She wasn't nearly as bad as Flo, who was ready to throw Zach under the bus the moment they appeared to be losing. Scott was funny. It helps that I wasn't rooting strongly for either of the other teams. I was rooting for Mom/Dad but their self-seriousness (especially their comments about the Korean video game task) turned me off. And LoLo ... are very hot but complete ciphers and how the hell are they so bad at racing?!

This last leg and especially this final task are like so many other finales, where on paper it looks like it could be really challenging and exciting if the racers happened to be neck-and-neck ... but they weren't, so it wasn't. I think they must have thought that keeping them on foot for much of the leg would have kept them close together, but it didn't work out like that. I was surprised that they had a judge confirm their scoreboard was correct before they were given the formula to their clue in the stands. It would have been particularly grueling if the racers would have been forced to go back into the scoreboard if after looking in the stands for their clue, they decided they got it wrong. But I suppose they didn't want another case of heatstroke.

Perhaps LoLo fell behind because the last postcard they got was at the location farthest from City Hall? I don't know Chicago geography but I'm just guessing.

As far as these fucking gimmick casting seasons go, here's how I rank them now:

1) the Social Media Season (28)

2) the Complete Strangers Season (29)

3) "All"-"Stars" (24)

4) the Dating Game Season (26)

I'm ready for another regular season. Or cast Bill Murray on the final season and call it a day.

[blackwing]

Scott and Brooke deserved the win.  They ran a flawless leg.  I am happy for Scott.  He is clearly a fan of the Race, I am surprised that he was the only one to ditch the backpacks at the airport.  Everyone does that in every TAR finale.  How is it that Joey and Tara and Logan and London didn't do it?  I saw that Logan even had a straw hat, which I am assuming is some souvenir he picked up along the way.  Scott and Brooke won because they took the time to find the answers to all three riddles and then looked on a map and made a plan.   I have no idea how Tara and Joey ended up at the Chicago Temple   If they had bothered to ask any local, surely that first clue was obviously the Water Tower.  Even an elementary school kid knows it survived the Great Fire.

I was impressed by Scott instantly saying "that's where they went in Season 9" when he realised they were going to the Water Tower.  Definitely a student of the show, even if he might have gotten the number wrong.   I wouldn't have been able to identify the season even remotely within close range.

I thought the tasks were good.   Although I have lived in the Chicagoland area almost my entire life, and I have never heard of the Chicagoland Speedway.  O'Hare to Joliet is one long ass cab ride.  I'm wondering if once they got downtown if there was a restriction against taking cabs.  Water Tower to Buckingham Fountain to City Hall is quite a long ways to run.  Logan and London took the red line from Water Tower back south to go to City Hall, and that definitely put them in last.  I would definitely have taken a cab from Water Tower to Buckingham Fountain.  And maybe even from there to City Hall.

I definitely didn't need to see Cindy again.  She looked so sour and unhappy to be there.  She was so high strung and unpleasant on their Race.  I always thought Ernie was a nice guy, he was basically her doormat and pack mule.  But he has to be in his mid to late 30s.  Too old for that stupid hair.   I thought it was funny that none of the racers seemed to recognise or acknowledge them.  Joey gave Ernie a hug, but maybe just in a "thanks for the clue" way.

I was impressed by Brooke this leg.  She whined about running but she also mostly worried about making Scott lose.  She was calm and competent at the final task.  It didn't seem like racers were allowed to use notes, that was all apparently from memory.

So happy we will get another season, apparently next spring.  Any TAR is better than no TAR at all.

Wouldn't mind seeing Seth and Olive and Logan and Sara on a future Second Chances edition.  Don't need Tara and Joey ever again.  His accent was working my last nerve.  Pahty, cah, etc.

[DrScottie]

1 hour ago, ShadowSixx said:

Did y'all see at the end when all teams were jumping up and down and celebrating and smiling. Shamir was jumping but he wasn't smiling lol. He wasn't feeling it.

His balls probably still hurt. 

11 minutes ago, Lingo said:

As far as these fucking gimmick casting seasons go, here's how I rank them now:

1) the Social Media Season (28)

2) the Complete Strangers Season (29)

3) "All"-"Stars" (24)

4) the Dating Game Season (26)

I'm ready for another regular season. Or cast Bill Murray on the final season and call it a day.

Does the "Family" season count?

Edited June 2, 2017 by DrScottie

[CoyoteBlue]

4 minutes ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

You get back to America, and don't have one self-driving task (other than the raceway lap)? Boo.

I was kinda hoping they'd be given Divvy bike fobs to ride around the Loop. :)

Way too much map information time!

The three-landmark part of the leg decided everything. Run the most efficiently, it's still 20+ city blocks.  (CTA map - got the clue at the Red Line Monroe stop)

• Scott - Tower-Bridge-Fountain
• LoLo - Bridge-Fountain-Tower
• Tara&Joey - Fountain-the Wuh-BAHSH St Bridge-Temple!-Tower

Scott&Brooke got on the Red Line, took it up to the Chicago stop and the Tower, and then it's (mostly) straight down Michigan to the bridge and then the Fountain, which puts you back in the heart of the Loop where the next stop most likely is (and City Hall indeed was). I have no idea WTF LoLo were doing. "Let's go up to the middle, then back down to where we were, then up to the top! Then all the way back down to the middle of the Loop." And T&J just... temple? Tara literally reads the "147 feet" aloud and Joey's all nah, nah, this is the place.

Actually, I'm impressed about the Wabash St Bridge because Michigan Ave around the riverfront is two levels with like, GAPS, so if you don't cut over to Wabash by Ohio (from Water Tower), you end up on a street that ends abruptly, looking down on the (same) street you want to be on, all "How the fuck do I get over there?" (On the map, look at Michigan and Hubbard. You have to go down a level to reach Hubbard to get to over Wabash and then back up a level. Easy if you know to run down the pathway between the Wrigley Building halves (on the left of the pic), possibly confusing as fuck if you don't (plaza on the right overlooking Hubbard St. why is the road down there?)

[CoyoteBlue]

20 minutes ago, blackwing said:

 Logan and London took the red line from Water Tower back south to go to City Hall, and that definitely put them in last.  I would definitely have taken a cab from Water Tower to Buckingham Fountain.  And maybe even from there to City Hall.

I'm guessing they couldn't use cabs, otherwise there's no way in hell Brooke would have run 25 city blocks when you can't swing a dead city rat for hitting cabs in the Loop. See my previous post about how that leg was played, geographically. Scott & Brooke also took the red line to the Tower.

[NeverLate]

37 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

It's common for the final teams to check their bags at the final destination?  I never knew that.

God, Brooke is disgusting.

Aw, they didn't have to do bees. I wanted bees.

Did London really have the lens caps on the binoculars?

Oh, God, I knew that harpy Brooke was going to win.  NOT happy.

"The race made me a better person."  Does that mean she was an even more horrible person before?

LOL.I love the bolded. Thanks! :) 

[piequinn35]

Boo! Yuck! Puke! :))

See you at TAR Canada forum on July 4th!

Edited June 2, 2017 by piequinn35

[Lingo]

32 minutes ago, DrScottie said:

His balls probably still hurt. 

Does the "Family" season count?

Heh. I didn't think of that one because I was just thinking of all these recent casting gimmicks they've done in the last few years as a desperate ratings grab. But I guess the Family season counts as a gimmick too, which I would probably put ... hmm. On the one hand: boring route, boring tasks. On the other hand, teams I liked better than the ones on 24 or 26. So maybe I'd put it in the middle?

Then there's the first two All-Star seasons, which didn't really feel like gimmicks to me. Season 18 is definitely my favorite of the bunch, I put it on top. Season 11 ... was often anticlimactic and the worst team won. But it didn't feel like a "gimmick" because all reality shows have all-stars seasons, and by that point we were asking for one. So I still put it near the top of this short list.

[aradia22]

Quote

This X 1,000. Multiple teams handed Brooke and Scott $1M by helping her with that ladle. 

Meh. This has been a season of helping. I'm not thrilled with it but I think we need to let the ladle go. And I'm including Mike whining about it when Brooke and Scott U-turned them. One team (maybe it was Brooke and Scott) straight up gave (I think) Team Fun a key during that challenge looking through the chests. It's not like it happened late in the season. They ran a whiny, loud race but Brooke and Scott ran their race and completed all their challenges. 

Quote

  1 HOUR AGO, AFTERMATHTV SAID:

It's sexist to say Scott deserves more money than Brooke, they both finished each of what was thrown at them, even if Brooke had some unique venting.

Sorry, sexism has nothing to do with it.  People are just venting about the fact that Scott pushed through his fear of heights and RACED, while Brooke did a whole lot of whining "I CAN'T," asking other racers for help,  and blaming Scott when they fell behind. 

I'm defending her because the debate seems lopsided (and also I grew to like them once the pettiness with Vanck and Ashton stopped) but I don't love her and I do think she exhibited some pretty annoying behavior during the race. That said, I have noticed that women get the brunt of the criticism regardless of the reality show and that criticism tends to be highly gendered and that's all I'll say about that. 

[Artsda]

36 minutes ago, backformore said:

I know you're all really salty that the season ended on a good note

I disagree this season ended on a good note, it ended with the worst team imaginable winning this disaster of a season concept.

Mom and Dad winning they could have spun positive.  Redmond winning after losing his leg in Afghanistan they could have majorly spun positive.

The 2 rich lawyers winning? The girl who basically screeched the entire season at every single task,  the pair who fought the entire way. I don't see this as a good note.

[GaT]

Friggin' Brooke won, the entire season is ruined for me.

So why could Logan yell “drop the gun, drop the gun!” to London, but Becca couldn’t tell Floyd when he dropped the traps? 

[ShadowSixx]

It wasn't a roadblock, both team members participated.

[DaisyFields500]

I enjoyed this season but with a slight disappointment.  I love seeing how a team wins the game; however, I was not fully excited that the winning team won.  Brooke whining to get others to do her work throughout the competition made it a letdown for me.  

Edited June 2, 2017 by DaisyFields500

[biakbiak]

3 hours ago, absolutelyido said:

It seems like quite often on the last leg the order in which the teams leave the airport is the order in which they finish. Makes for a boring finale. 

True but the reason that Brooke and Scott left the airport first is because they were smart enough to gate check their luggage which the others didn't. 

Also, Scott and Brooke were smart enough to figure out "hey, we are in a metro station maybe taking the metro would speed up the task" whereas Tara and Joey ran/walked the entire thing with a brief detour to the temple and L/L left the station and then came back after they got a one of the clues for some weird ass reason.

It took me a bit to place Olive with her hair and makeup!

[holly4755]

I am trying to remember all the roadblocks, I am pretty sure that Brooke received help on more than one, but she never would have finished the ladle and we would have had Shamir for a while longer.  I don't recall her every helping anyone. 

[ChiefWiggum9-1-2]

I'm glad I checked  who won first, now I don't have to watch. 

[greyhorse]

While I don't like the thought that whiny screechy Brooke is now 500K richer, I'm happy that Scott won.  He truly is a superfan and has studied the show thoroughly.  I can't believe the other teams didn't ditch their backpacks, as Scott mentioned in the cab.  Surely running around Chicago without lugging your huge heavy backpack helped them tremendously.  I was also impressed that he recalled that a past season went to the Water Tower.  I've watched every season, have lived in Chicago, and I don't think I can recall that they ever went there during a race.  Then again, I didn't watch every single season in preparation for running the race, so maybe that's part of it.  Either that or he has a very good memory.

Riddle challenges are not interesting anymore since pretty much any local has a cellphone.  Not sure if there could be a stipulation in the clue saying you can't ask anybody for help.  Make the racers find an Internet cafe or a tour book.  Google pretty much takes away any challenge of a riddle.

Like the other Chicagoans that have posted, the order in which you did the landmarks was likely the make or break part of this leg.  Scott/Brooke went Water Tower, Wabash bridge, Buckingham Fountain, and then they were close to City Hall which is in the Loop.  Tara and Joey went the opposite direction - Fountain, Bridge, and Water Tower, then had to come all the way back to City Hall.  Logan and London had seemingly no plan - start in the middle at the bridge, down to the Fountain, and then back up to the Water Tower, then all the way back to City Hall.  Granted, the racers had no idea where they would need to end up after the end of collecting all three postcards, but it would seem to make sense to do them in one direction.  If the destination after the three postcards was Oak Street Beach, then Tara/Joey and Logan/London would have had an advantage.  Still don't understand how Logan and London got to City Hall third.  Red Line vs running all those blocks back to the Loop?  Gosh, who knew.

I thought the hot dog "challenge" was meh.  How come they didn't at least have to make the 10 hot dogs?  At least talk a little bit more about what goes into a Chicago dog (poppy seed bun, pickle spear, no ketchup, etc.).  Or why not a challenge of having to eat 5 Chicago dogs or a whole deep dish Giordano's pizza?  That would have been more challenging than just taking 10 already made hot dogs to the Wrigley rooftops.

I'm not sure if any team recognized Ernie and the annoying Cindy.  Looks like they obviously had a baby, congrats to them.  I don't recall many cameos from past racers on the show.  I'm surprised that Scott being such a student of the show didn't seem to have any recognition of Ernie.

The "memory task".  This being season 29, teams are all prepared for these now that it's almost not challenging any more.  They probably keep extensive notebooks that they study over and over when they have any free time.  They probably know things like how many times they pooped in a day or what they ate for each meal.  That said, I was impressed with how calm Brooke was and nailed the challenge.  They were the only team that went down the list from top to bottom.  In terms of efficiency, I'm not sure it mattered that much since it seemed like Scott would still run down to the numbers each time.  I suppose it did make it less confusing which opening to place the next number in.  I wonder if the numbers are heavy?  If not, why don't you just take a huge stack up there with you and then hopefully you have the right numbers to put as you come on down.  Perhaps you can't hear the radio from the very top.

Glad there will be another season.  Still enjoy watching this show after all these years.

[SnideAsides]

6 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

Not a thrilling finale but, I have to admit, I didn't mind the strangers concept at all. It added an interesting new dynamic. I'd be happy to see them do it again sometime.

Agreed. I don't need to see it again for a while - maybe, like, TAR35 at the earliest - but I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Mostly I just hope that they realise the biggest success of this season (and last season, and every other good TAR season) was developing the cast as characters rather than forcing us to view them through the one-dimensional prisms of their hooks.

Also that they really need to make the finales actual legs instead of just one decent task, a dull filler "local experience" bucket list thing, and a half-assed memory challenge that's only there because people complain if you don't have one. Like just create a normal - but harder and more frustrating - leg of the race that happens to take place in Chicago or LA or New York or Salt Lake City, you know?

[Nalan]

Sigh.  It wasn't the most exciting of results.  I was rooting for Tara & Joey or London & Logan.  But I give credit where it's due.  Brooke & Scott (though especially Scott) earned it based on this final leg alone.

So for the last time, the teams:

Brooke & Scott: Once again, I have to admit it.  They dropped the hammer and just killed this final leg.  Neither was perfect at the racetrack, but Brooke didn't let the frustration get to her.  She just changed the tires after four tries.  Scott stayed calm and finished his lap in three.  Then, they solved the riddles in a timely manner, got their postcards, delivered their hotdogs, and Brooke did a great job in directing Scott at the final task.  All that added up to a well-earned win of the whole race.  Congratulations to Scott, who deserves every penny!  I hope Brooke is indeed embarrassed watching herself, especially if her firm has been keeping up with the season, as well.

Tara & Joey: They also killed this final leg, I thought, though not to the same extent that Brooke & Scott did.  Joey was an ace at the racetrack by changing the tires quickly, but Tara slowed them down by not completing her lap quickly enough.  They only seemed to have trouble with one of the landmarks in the riddle, but otherwise seemed to get theirs done quickly enough.  They might've gotten lost between the hotdog task and Wrigley Field, but once they were there, Tara did a good job remembering their placements and getting Joey to fill them in.  After that, I'd say second place was earned.  But without those stumbles, they might've won, and this season might've had a much better outcome.

London & Logan: They've been slow almost the entire season.  And that really came out here.  London was slow in changing the tire at the racetrack, even though Logan was fast in completing his lap (he only needed two tries to Scott and Tara's three).  Then, they solved the riddles way too slowly and relied on a map rather than a smartphone like Brooke & Scott and Tara & Joey did.  They didn't do the hotdogs quickly enough, either, and it seemed like they were clueless at the final task.  Third place was deserved.  With more urgency, they might've had a shot of taking this.  But good on them for getting this far.  I hope they're friends for a long time after the race, though Logan's expressions tell me otherwise.

So . . . yeah.  Sucky result, for sure.  I hope next season provides a great palate cleanser for this season.  Will it be returnees (as seasons divisible by six typically are) or new teams?  Time will tell.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

4 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

You get back to America, and don't have one self-driving task (other than the raceway lap)? Boo. Maybe logistically they aren't allowed to rent cars at the airport (I'm not sure why that would be)....but it seems a missed opportunity in a season where there actually were multiple self-driving legs..

 

This is an off-the-top-of-my-head guess, but I am guessing the logistics of finding parking in a major city like Chicago is part of the reason they didn't design the leg as self-driving.  Trying to find parking along with the landmarks was probably something the producers felt was not a good idea.

Yeah I can't wait until London has her recap to find out WTH happened between getting the third postcard and getting to City Hall.

And yeah, they are going to have to do something much different for the final challenge, these memory challenges are becoming too easy for the racers.  I thought place of finish would stump them, but obviously they remembered to put that down too. 

Edited June 2, 2017 by HawaiiTVGuy

[mertensia]

I don't think they've ever let them drive in the final leg, have they? 

Well, Brooke might not win the award for best contestant ever, but at least (unlike seasons 1-5) she did her fair share of roadblocks. 

[ByaNose]

When Brooke and Scott were on the mat everyone else at the finish line looked so bored. I'm guessing they were annoyed Brooke won and wanted Tara & Joey to win.

[MyAimIsTrue]

I enjoyed the final leg because I'm a baseball fanatic (and I was in Cubs territory for a work trip when they won the World Series last year) but the winning team was completely unsatisfying for me.  Well, Brooke was as I was ambivalent about Scott.  

At least the Amazing Editors didn't try to create fake suspense as to who would win when it was clear no one else was in the running.

[Haleth]

3 hours ago, ChiefWiggum9-1-2 said:

I'm glad I checked  who won first, now I don't have to watch. 

I'll only watch because I love Chicago.  

[xcrayon2215x]

I was shocked that Brooke and Scott won, it was pretty funny when Joey said Go Red Sox and the Cubs fans booed.

[TaraS1]

8 hours ago, Artsda said:

I guess Scott earned that by putting up with her all season.

I feel like we earned it by having to put up with her screeching and bitching and whining all season.  Where's our million dollars?? lol

Congrats to Scott, though.

[TheRabbi]

Decent finale. I think it was an ok-designed leg, as it did boil down to how you performed on the tasks, and there were opportunities for places to shuffle, but it just didn't work out that way. Was still more exciting than last year's complete snoozer LA finale.

I wonder if CBS aired this season so late, with the finale in the summer tv season, because they figured Brooke and scott might be the least popular winners ever. Wouldn't surprise me. I'm kind of ambivalent towards them. Scott seems excited about the show and a decent guy. 

Clever editing trick: this filmed months before the MLB playoffs last year, yet through the magic of television, they visited the home of the world champion Chicago cubs. Yes, I'm bitter, as a lifelong die hard Indians fan (was in attendance for games 6 and 7 in Cleveland).

Looking forward to TAR30. I'm hoping for a lack of gimmicks. I'm not entirely opposed to another All Stars season at some point, but really would like another TAR classic season.

[TheFinalRose]

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This is an off-the-top-of-my-head guess, but I am guessing the logistics of finding parking in a major city like Chicago is part of the reason they didn't design the leg as self-driving.

I am sure the Chicago film office or whoever assists in filming (and there is a lot of filming that goes on in Chicago) could have cleared a reserved area for them to park in the loop near the Monroe station ... they really missed an opportunity there for some excitement. There are people in Chicago who will never drive into the loop because of the traffic and the cavernous feel and the stress. Except if you take a wrong turn on the way up from the Speedway in Joliet you could end up in Indiana, and they probably didn't want one team out of the running so quickly.

Quote

They might've gotten lost between the hotdog task and Wrigley Field, but once they were there, 

The cab drive from downtown to Wrigleyville dogs would most likely have driven them right past the park. The most that could have gone wrong from the hot dog stand to the delivery point is that they had to circle the park to find the Sheffield entrance to the stands, but that is not time-consuming as you can circle Wrigley pretty quickly. The hot dog stand, the Sheffield stands and then Wrigley are all right there.

[Rinaldo]

7 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

You get back to America, and don't have one self-driving task (other than the raceway lap)? Boo.

Are self-driving tasks that common in final legs in major US cities? Not in my memory, which I admit may be incomplete. But I do know Chicago, and I can say that in the parts of the city where they had tasks -- the Loop, the Magnificent Mile, Wrigley Field -- finding a parking space midday is out of the question.

4 hours ago, greyhorse said:

Riddle challenges are not interesting anymore since pretty much any local has a cellphone.  Not sure if there could be a stipulation in the clue saying you can't ask anybody for help.  Make the racers find an Internet cafe or a tour book.  Google pretty much takes away any challenge of a riddle.

I'm afraid that's just a fact that has to be lived with. Being polite and pleasant enough to persuade a total stranger to share their phone is a skill of sorts, I suppose. (Though the omnipresent CBS camera must help.) Finding an internet cafe (are those still a thing?) or a tour book just adds more time to the process of determining the locations, with no added value, so I don't see the benefit.

[TheRabbi]

2 hours ago, mertensia said:

I don't think they've ever let them drive in the final leg, have they? 

Through 29 seasons, they have let teams drive themselves in the final city exactly once (season 25 in LA). I imagine it's for liability issues. Teams are much more likely to cut corners and drive crazy in the final city when the million dollars is that close. 

I appreciated the self driving legs this season though. Panama, Norway, and Greece all made teams drive, and showed the navigational abilities, or lack thereof, of several teams.

[luvmylabs]

9 hours ago, Miss Chevious said:

Of the three teams left, I didn't care who won, as long as it wasn't Brooke/Scott. Couldn't stand her whiny ass. And wouldn't you know it, they won. Ugh what a letdown.

 

9 hours ago, sinycalone said:

The only reason Brooke seemed calm and focused at the scoreboard:  she couldn't screech for help because Scott couldn't answer, and no one else was around to beg for assistance.  

I wanted Joey/Tara to win....so I'm just going to pretend that they did.  With LoLo second.  And Brooke/Scott stuck at O'Hare.

I didn't mind the strangers aspect...in fact it was fun once we got to know the teams enough for them have clear cut personalities.  However, this is the second time the finish in Chicago offered some lame final challenges:  Kendra anyone?

I totally agree.  I could not stand Brooke and she's from my hometown.  Not a good representative at all.  I was rooting for Joey/Tara or Lo/Lo.  I've watched TAR from day 1, every season, and I can't remember ever being this disappointed.  Waiting for season 30.

[Bryce Lynch]

I never would have thought it, earlier in the season, but I was very, happy to see Scott and Brooke win.  I would have been fine with Team LoLo as well.   I was anyone but Tara & Joey.  Those two were insufferable with their sense of entitlement ("why won't that egotistical 16 year old just let Tara win?") and their hypocrisy in blasting other teams for using U-turns, when they used 2 U-turns themselves.  

I really grew to like Scott and Brooke (well mostly Scott).  Scott really carried her (almost literally in this leg) both physically and emotionally.  His snarky patience and supportiveness towards Brooke was remarkable.  

I also enjoyed the irony of Brooke winning in a season where the prior 2 legs had questionable leg design that caused my 2 favorite teams to be eliminated.  

To her credit, she showed a surprising level of competence in the final 2 legs.  She nailed the cup stacking last week and this week she did a great job googling all the riddles in the subway station and remembering all their finishes for the final challenge.  

8 hours ago, AftermathTV said:

Glad the passionate people won. Hopefully pairing up strangers is the new norm.

My buddy actually took me out in his race car on Saturday. I could not relax at all, so it would've been extra terrifying here.

I've always wondered how their eating breaks on the race works. I would've just eaten a hotdog while running.

Brooke's voice was very calm, soothing, and friendly on the radio. :) She should do ASMR videos! :D

It's sexist to say Scott deserves more money than Brooke, they both finished each of what was thrown at them, even if Brooke had some unique venting.

See everybody in 2018 for Season 30!

If Scott had actually put Brooke on his back and carried her I would say he should get $750K and Brooke $250K, but it didn't quite come to that.  :)

[TheFinalRose]

Sorry to keep harping on the parking, but the Millennium Park underground parking garage is right there, it's enormous, and they could easily have instructed them to drive down there and park. 

[ByaNose]

I was disapointed because I knew Brook and Scott were going to win at 9:45 est. There was no way anyone else was going to catch up. It was a great season until the final episode.

[Whimsy]

In case you haven't noticed, I've hidden a LOT of posts this morning.  There is WAY too much snipping back and forth between some posters.  There's also too much "preaching" and telling others how they should be posting or feeling.  That is not ok.  Our #1 rule is to Be Civil to our fellow posters.  I know Brooke is a polarizing contestant, but you can make your points without fighting with each other.  Please and thank you.