S24.E12: Do You Believe In Magic?

[NutMeg]

The fuzzy roadblock rule was a major part of me NOT enjoying the finale. Besides finding the last leg blah I was at least hoping that D&C would be penalized for their unbalanced number of RBs. And in addition, I disliked D&C - well mostly Dave, insufferable for his lame mocking of Dave and Rachel, his insistence that his son do all the RB (I was soooo hoping that it would bite him in the ass and he'd have to face a severely physical challenge before the end), and his lame tendon/old guy shtick (and it turned out he's not even 60, as he claimed all season long).

 

I hate that only one team seem to have been informed of this new roadblock rule (maybe all were, but it didn't seem so in editing, because they all made sure they were pretty even going into the final leg). Coupled with how the Amazing Super Idol rules were not made clear to contestants in Survivor, I'm not happy with CBS right now.  

[backformore]

Byryce Lynch :  As for his achilles injury and his age being mentioned so often, both of those things were a big part of D&C's story line.  I look at AR as sort of like a sporting event, and if a player is old, or hurt, or a cancer survivor, or whatever, it gets talked about a lot.  Also, not all viewers watch every episode like most of us do, so many probably tuned in last night and in every other episode knowing anything about the racers.  Does anyone get annoyed with the constant mentions that Caroline and Jennifer are country singers, that Jet and Cord are cowboys or that Herb and Nate are Globetrotters?

 

I disagree with this, because it wasn't just part of the story line.  Dave himself kept mentining it, not just in voice-overs, but WHILE RACING -  They U-turned a 60 year old man!   I'm 60 years old and I have to do this!  I hope I don't hurt my achilles running!   etc, etc.    other teams might ave used their "stories"  to say they had experience with something, but none of them used it to whine about the tasks. 

The comparison I would make is when the country singers said that they couldn't build things because girls aren't good at building, and that they follow male teams because guys are good at directions.  That equivalent to Dave's "60 years old!!"  complaints.

[ozlsn]

Well that was a blah ending to a blah season.  I spent most of the episode hoping that the final three teams would end up in firstly a shallow grave, or later a firey death (and, by the end, hoping the course designers and people responsible for casting this season would join them.  Just to go all Hunger Games for a sec). 

 

What the hell was going on with the RB rules?  I saw Phil's tweet, but was that new for this season?

 

Also since when have racers been able to just randomly keep throwing out numbers on a counting challenge until they get it right?  I thought Dave and Connor should at least have had to go back to the top and down again before they were allowed a second guess. 

 

The best part of this season for me was the first couple of minutes with the band playing the theme tune.  It all went rapidly downhill from there, and this finale was probably the worst one I've ever seen.  Very few places teams could catch up or change position, no chance that anyone could actually pass on the way to the finish line once they were in the helicopters.  The David Copperfield thing did nothing for me (other than causing me to chant "firey death! firey death!" at the TV) - I couldn't work out what the hell was actually supposed to be going on.  There was no advantage in opening the box before you got to the location, and no penalty for not opening the box before you got there.  The hardest challenge was screwing in and counting lightbulbs.  Worst final episode ever.

[fishcakes]

What the hell was going on with the RB rules?  I saw Phil's tweet, but was that new for this season?

 

It was new this season. Someone asked Phil if it was a change in the rules and he tweeted back only "yes" with no explanation. I generally ignore all conspiracy theorists, but it does seem peculiar that the only team that seemed to know about the alleged rule change was Dave and Connor.

[millennium]

 

They U-turned a 60 year old man!   I'm 60 years old and I have to do this!  I hope I don't hurt my achilles running!   etc, etc.

 

I hated his complaining because it contributes to one of America's few remaining socially acceptable biases: ageism.   The idea that people over 50 are incapable of being physically fit, having fresh ideas or are even worth employing.    I felt like tearing off his bad leg and beating him with it every time he blathered about being "the oldest to win the Amazing Race."   I have no problem with Dave and Connor's win -- in fact, after their cancer battles, I'm glad something good happened for them -- but that whining about his age really pissed me off.

[ozlsn]

 

I generally ignore all conspiracy theorists, but it does seem peculiar that the only team that seemed to know about the alleged rule change was Dave and Connor.

 

Same.  I tend to think that there was a screwup by production letting Connor do more RBs rather than a last minute rule change though.  I mean, you can argue that the other two teams were quite similar physically and so divided the roadblocks more evenly, but I can't imagine that Brendon (at the very least) wouldn't have done one more roadblock just to neutralize Rachael's panicking.  It's noticeable that every other team with the exception of the Globetrotters have divided evenly, and the Globetrotters only haven't because Big Easy's size stopped him doing at least one of them.   Dave certainly seemed to think that Connor could do every RB in the last leg.

[Bryce Lynch]

Regarding Dave & Connor:

1) At least 3 of the road blocks that Connor performed required no physical prowess whatsoever. (Welsh poem, calligraphy, balloon shaving). There was no need for any "conspiracy" with the rules to help Dave. Since so many RB's required some brain power and/or composure, if anything the new RB rules would favor a team with one panicky moron, like Brenchel.

2) Dave and Connor were taped nearly all their waking hours for 3 weeks, and that footage was edited. It is not surprising that Dave mentioned his injury and age a few times in those hundreds of hours.

3) TAR rules have always been "fuzzy" and have been constantly evolving.

4) If there was any "conspiracy" it was to hand the race to Brenchel. The RB rules were good for them, the Finale was held in their hometown, a task was held at a place where Rachel used to work, and there was no memory task or other intellectually challenging or stressful task to trip up Rachel.

It seemed like TPTB did everything they could to make "The Amazing race fun and good" for Brenchel.

[dolphincorn]

 

At least 3 of the road blocks that Connor performed required no physical prowess whatsoever. (Welsh poem, calligraphy, balloon shaving). There was no need for any "conspiracy" with the rules to help Dave. Since so many RB's required some brain power and/or composure, if anything the new RB rules would favor a team with one panicky moron, like Brenchel.

 

I'm not sure what you mean here.  If other posters believe that Dave should have done more of these types of roadblocks so that the numbers were even, then why didn't he choose to do them?  And wasn't Connor the panicky moron during both the calligraphy task and the reading of the poem?  I didn't see Rachel and Brendan behaving any differently then they have on the ten other reality shows they've been on.

Edited May 26, 2014 by dolphincorn

[green]

Best season in a long time.  Great to finally see a parent/kid team win and an older winner too.

 

I've seen every episode from every season from the very beginning.  I don't think any season can ever again equal Seasons 2, 3 and 5 (tie), and 1 (my personal favorites order).  But on the latter, non-classic seasons this was one of the best.  Good work, TAR production guys.  I really enjoyed it.  Except for all the artificial U-Turn nonsense junk and lack of FF on every leg except the last one which basically took the whole show down a notch starting with season 6 (season 5's cast overcame the big change that started that season cause... well  ... the cast was pretty damn awesome).

 

Interesting that the old TAR classic "curse of the hometown finishing line" popped up in this episode too.  Hurt to see it happen with Frank & Margarita and was hilarious to see it happen with Wil and was down right heart-warming to see it with that annoying big brother team.

[MarkHB]

We finally watched the finale tonight, and believe it or not, I managed to remain unspoiled.  I was rooting for Brendan and Rachel (not just because of their apparent affinity for the Red Sox but because I do admire the way they compete hard once she stops crying), and the "they U-Turned an old man!" thing really turned me off of Dave & Connor.  But beyond that, and without rehashing everything you all discussed 3 months ago, there was one thing I did notice: the finale was the only episode this year that gave us the full opening titles, with the cast names!  I'm glad they finally showed it, and I hope they don't keep the truncated versions going in future series.

 

Also, to be honest, it having been so long since the start of the race (which we watched back around the time it aired), I had forgotten all about Mark having to leave the race.  I had hoped he'd have been at the end with Mallory and Bopper.

[dgpolo]

Re-watch thoughts. This really wasn't a good finale and because this was supposed to b ALL STARS, that pushed it into bad for me. Yep, a bad finale. Missed a memory task, really any task that had the potential to mix things up.

[TheRabbi]

On 8/7/2019 at 4:25 PM, dgpolo said:

Re-watch thoughts. This really wasn't a good finale and because this was supposed to b ALL STARS, that pushed it into bad for me. Yep, a bad finale. Missed a memory task, really any task that had the potential to mix things up.

Agreed. I rewatched this within the last year or two. I don't mind Dave and Connor as much as some, but this finale is awful. Way too many linear tasks that you can't swap order on. The top 2 teams got to the final task seconds apart and yet it was still a yawner of a finish since we know the skydivers are first come first serve. Should have been a memory task when they landed in the racetrack.

Prior to that though, the season on the whole isn't as bad as its reputation IMO. The route map is terrible, but the show is decent on an episode to episode basis.