16.12 - Huger Than Huge

[Rachel RSL]

I'm starting this thread early because most of the gang is in NYC (or will be on Sunday) and my computer at home is totally dead so I won't be able to do it on Sunday. You can post here before Sunday if you'd like but ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS please!

[rockhpi]

I'm disappointed it wasn't the cowboys but I'm OK that it was the brothers. Even though they got a bit frustrated and emotional at times, at least we had a winner that was a huge fan and had a lifelong dream of being on the Race. And I do believe that they had more fun than frustration.

Pretty decent final leg (loved the stormtroopers!) but a weak memory task. I liked the art design of the posters, but it was way too easy. I did NOT appreciate them showing the tiff at the finish line. That's not a time for drama. Maybe I take the Race too seriously, but the end of the Race is a time for reflection on the trip around the world and congratulation. It's not a time to show pointless bitterness, even if it occurred.

Having said that, and with a reminder that I really don't like either team, I did think Caite got the better of the exchange. "...if you can't handle it-" "Oh I handled it, I'm up here." Ha. She handled you right out of the Race, there, pixie-lady.

[grubsneerg]

Agreed on all counts!

[Tea-time]

It was apparent for most of the leg that it was a race between the two teams of brothers, but I wonder what would have happened at the mat if Brent&Caite had finished better than third - Brent did the last Roadblock, but he had already done his six, so there should have been a penalty of some sort.

I'm okay with Dan&Jordan winning - it's a change from the dominant teams of the last few seasons.

[rockhpi]

Wow, I would not have guessed it but Dan & Jordan are the worst-scoring winning team ever, beating only 42% of the teams possible to beat throughout the entire Race. That's 1% below Freddy & Kendra! I guess it makes sense as they scored pretty poorly in early legs, but I'm surprised.

Jet & Cord scored 72%. Had they won, they would have had 74% and tied for 4th best-ever winners with Nick & Starr and Tyler & James.

Had Brent & Caite won, they would also have been one of the worst teams, with 45%.

[Rachel RSL]

A great season but the finale was a little underwhelming. Despite what the editing tried to make us believe, it was clear once Brent & Caite caught up to the Cowboys, that they were way too far behind to catch up to Dan & Jordan. So bummed about that! No buckles for them. Although, I'm totally ok with the brothers winning. It's good to see an actual fan of the show win the whole thing.

I was also really disappointed in the tasks. The Star Wars non-Detour was very cool but I find it very annoying that, in the final leg of the Race, they included a task where one team can impede the progress of another team. (Plus, it would have been infinitely better if they actually had to sashay and do ballet moves.) And while I usually LOVE final tasks that involve using your knowledge of the Race, this was the lamest memory challenge ever! As soon as I saw how easy it was, I knew the Cowboys had no chance.

Nice to see Brent and Caite keeping up their xenophobia to the very end. Right along with Brandy being classy to the very end. "You should have U-Turned the Cowboys." stopped being a valid point when they didn't win.

Favourite Cowboys line of the night? As they're carrying the trunk: "Excuse me ma'am, we got kicked out."

[rockhpi]

And I guess I feel this way every year, but there's a transportation problem in final leg. I understand if you let them drive themselves, they'll drive 120mph for a million dollars but taxicab luck is SUCH a determining factor on the final leg that it almost turns the whole thing into a crapshoot. I'm not a Brent & Caite fan but if there was a reason they lost other than a bad taxi driver, they didn't show it.

[PhilG]

I thought there was a rule against flying in anything but coach...

[Rachel RSL]

You can't purchase first class tickets but the airline can upgrade you. In this case, that wasn't the issue. They simply asked if they could sit there. A move which probably won them a million dollars. Smart kids!

[PhilG]

As far as the confrontation at the end goes, I have no problem with TPTB showing it. I have a problem with Brandy confronting Caite like that (and from her body language it seems Carol wasn't very happy about Brandy's behavior either), but it happened, Caite deflected it perfectly, and I think it was altogether proper for us to see it.

To omit it and pretend it didn't happen and everyone was all kumbaya woulda been dishonest.

[Kauna]

Wow, I would not have guessed it but Dan & Jordan are the worst-scoring winning team ever, beating only 42% of the teams possible to beat throughout the entire Race. That's 1% below Freddy & Kendra! I guess it makes sense as they scored pretty poorly in early legs, but I'm surprised.

Hey Rockhpi....what site do you find these stats on? That's very interesting.

[Rachel RSL]

Well of course they're going to show the drama at the Finish Line. It's reality tv, they probably live for moments like that. As unpleasant as it was, it's not like Brandy ran up on stage and started yelling at Caite. Phil was the one who stirred the pot by asking about the U-Turn, which you know he did simply for the sake of drama. I wish he would leave that shit to lesser reality shows like Survivor!

[evening]

I was happy with the outcome. Would have been happy with the Cowboy win too. Loved the altercation in the end. You could tell Brandy was just itching to say something - and Phil provoked it by bringing it up again... If he didnt say anything, they would have probably had an off air discussion later.

Not sure why, but by the end of the race, I was instinctively going for the brothers, not the Cowboy brothers. The scene in the cab was ugly last week (how much Mandarin do you speak Dan?) but otherwise, the brothers weren't THAT whiney....

[rockhpi]

Hey Rockhpi....what site do you find these stats on? That's very interesting.

I go to Wikipedia and I put the results into an Excel program, in addition to # of teams per leg. It calculates number of teams beaten divided by # of teams possible to beat. The whole list is over on the Whimsy & Fantasy thread.

For example, if you are one of 11 teams in a leg, the most you can beat are 10 teams. If you come in first you get 100% (beat 10 out of 10) for that leg. If you come in 10th, you get 10% (you beat 1 team out of 10).

[PhilG]

I suspect Brandy told Phil beforehand that she had something she wanted to say to Caite when they arrived.