IMHO "The Amazing Race" (14.12): The finish line

The latest season of The Amazing Race crossed the finish line last night and, overall, the season ended on a strong note, one that matched a very satisfying Race. While everything didn't turn out as I hoped it would, we got a finale that gave the racers a good challenge for the big prize.

Thus, no matter how things may have turned out, this Amazing Race finale earns an up arrow, but read any further and you'll run into some SPOILERS below.

The Race quickly moved from China to Maui where their first challenge was a test of physical strength and endurance. It required each team to take a pig, season it with "island flavoring" (which, if my memory of Kalua Pig is correct, would be the exotic combination of oil and sea salt) and carry it to a traditional-style fire pit and prepare it for roasting. Luke and Margie handle the task amazingly, never showing any signs of struggle until the end, while the other two teams have a really hard time with the burden.

Luke and Margie pass Jaime and Cara, then Victor and Tammy

The second challenge was one of those needle-in-the-haystack tasks where they had to find a clue hidden among a bunch of buoys. While this one seemed to offer everyone an equal amount of challenge, this kind of test of visual sharpness is found throughout the Race, though I think in most cases teams try to avoid it (see: Luke's annoyance with Margie for picking the cake-throwing task).

Navigating the Maui traffic turned out to be this leg's stealth challenge, as Victor and Tammy end up behind a slow-moving SUV on a two-lane highway with "Do Not Pass" signs. Meanwhile, Jaime and Cara's driver can't find their destination, a moment that leads to Jaime's getting told off by the taxi dispatcher. It wasn't the colossal moment of karma I was hoping to see, but it does eventually lead to the first time we get to see her apologizing to a driver for her behavior.

The final Road Block tested everyone's memory by having them pick out surfboards decorated to represent the locations and challenges seen throughout this Race and put them in order. With a huge head-start, Luke starts strong on the task and it looks like he might be a strong contender for the win, but he gets stuck on the last two boards. Since they represented the two legs to come after his fight with Jen, I wonder if this can be taken as an sign that the conflict threw off his game. Unfortunately, those last two pieces of the puzzle keep him occupied as Victor arrives and quickly finishes the challenge, sending him and Tammy racing for the finish line ahead of everybody else. Ah, well, at least we got to see Luke and Victor do most of the challenge with no pants ... and the return of Luke's "adorable when frustrated" look.

Luke and Victor in the pants-off, memory-off and the return of the frustrated Luke

More importantly, this last leg had some really touching behavior. There was tension within teams, definitely, but everyone remembered that, in the end, the only thing they were guaranteed to leave the Race with were their relationships. Sure, Victor got snapish with Tammy when she was struggling to carry the pig, but he eventually took an encouraging tone. Margie certainly got testy with Luke in the buoy task, but as they headed to their third-place finish they were focused on how well they ran the Race overall. (It reminded me of the sweet ending the third-place siblings got in season two.) Finally, while there were several points when it seemed certain that Jaime and Cara's friendship wouldn't survive losing, by the end it seemed pretty strong.

While they didn't win, I would like to stop to note the various ways Luke and Margie made for great Amazing Race contestants.

4. Remembering to enjoy the experience

Watching Luke cheer at the thrill of riding a water craft, I'm reminded of how many times we saw him stop and enjoy the task at hand before getting focused on the challenge. Remember how he got his groove on as he headed towards the frustrating Chekhov challenge?

3. Thick and thin, they remembered to be a team

Sure, towards the end their communication hurdles added stress to their dynamic, but they never let those tensions throw off their game. They may have tested each other's patience, but they clearly never forgot they were a team.

2. The Bionic Margie

In most seasons, there's usually a point where we're reminded that the younger competitors have an advantage for the Race's most physical tasks. Margie frequently showed us how she was one of the strongest competitors. Most recently, we saw that in how she carried the pig but we also saw her haul Luke on a rickshaw and drag coffins around Dracula's castle. Equally importantly, she smoked mental challenges like the "Broken Teeth" challenge and assembled the propeller for a long-tail boat.

1. Luke: TAR scholar

Luke came into The Amazing Race a fan of the show and he put his years of watching to good use. He used his knowledge of how the game works to keep himself from straying too far in the last leg (knowing that a U-Turn should be close to both Detour tasks) and in the final leg Margie mentioned how he studied for the memory task, most likely due to his being aware that kind of challenge usually comes at the end of the Race.

What did you think? Was this a satisfying season for The Amazing Race? Did the hopes for a low-drama season at the start of the game survive to the finish line?