TV: Amazing Race 9 - Finale

Better late to post than never.

The hometown Hippies (though I guess only one member of the team is from San Francisco) win The Amazing Race. After racing around the world, it came down to remembering the flags of every country they had visited in the correct order faster than the Frat Boys. I probably would have gotten stuck on Russia as well, since I was used to seeing the Soviet Union flag. The geography puzzle at the end of the Family Edition was one of the few things I liked about that race, so it was nice to see a variation of that end this one.

The winning team showed up on the CBS Morning Show the next day to collect their check. BJ stayed in character by wearing royal garb now that he was rich. I wonder how hard it must be to win a million dollars but have to wait a few months before you could talk to anybody about it or even spend the money. Also on “live television” (tape delayed on the West coast), Ray proposed to Yolanda. Fortunately, she accepted because all the other teams appearing that morning showed up with cake and champagne. MoJo also says they will get married one day but will wait until they are older. So I suppose some people out there can still hope for a break up. Or MoJo may follow the path of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn and just remain partners forever.

The final leg of the race started in Thailand with an overt plug for a cell phone service company. It gave the racers another chance to work with animals. This season may have been a record for beasts, and I’ve lost track of them all (camels, crocodiles, spiders, monkeys, crickets, grasshoppers, and elephants, oh my).

After that, they were off to Tokyo (and the first city on the race that I’ve been to before). After a couple of weeks of having a good sense of direction, Ray and Yolanda were going to spend the rest of race pretty much lost. If there had been more flight choices at the airports, they could have easily fallen a day behind (which did happen a couple of times to third place teams in the past). I think I’ve been to that same intersection in Tokyo and I don’t know if the TV cameras captured just how mesmerizing all those signs can be. The closest was looking at the Frat Boys blank stare as they looked for a clue among those signs. Times Square in NYC still has a way to go to produce similar sensory overload. It was funny that the teams spotted the man who held the next clue wearing the yellow and orange scarf easier than the statue he was sitting next to. I wonder how long it takes to stop going to things of that color after the race ends.

The capsule hotel looked crazy and I’d only heard of them briefly before. Fortunately, the company I work for has not decided to cut costs that much yet, so I’ve gotten to stay at a decent hotel in Tokyo. I was amused that the Frats brought up the idea of time capsules. The teams remained pretty friendly at that rest stop despite the stakes.

I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Mt Fuji. I’ve only seen it from an airplane that practically flew right over the top of that volcano. It was always too smoggy and cloudy to see it from Tokyo itself, and I don’t know if Fuji would be as visible on a clear day as Mt. Rainier is around Seattle. Ray made an interesting observation that he had to talk fast for Japanese to understand him. It does seem kind of true. It was just tragic to see them lose their toll road ticket. Their cameraman (or the editors) did not reveal how it could have been misplaced. To add insult to injury, Ray got patted on the butt when he least expected it.

Were the Frat boys actually checking out schoolgirls at the Amusement park or just suffering from withdrawal pains? The rides looked kind of tame but it was funny to hear Tyler say that he might be regurgitating the crickets he ate earlier. Then the biggest upset of the race occurred when the Hippies beat the Frats in the paddleboats. Those things must have been rigged with speed restraints.

Team RaYo finished last and lost their possessions, but the Hippies did leave them some money. Then they got lucky and ran into some inebriated and generous businessmen at some random restaurant. They were at least 3 hours behind but caught up at the airport. The Frat boys copied a comedian whose name escaped me (and also a gag on Wayne’s World 2) by performing a decently funny fake “poorly dubbed movie” routine. The Hippies meanwhile lied like crazy about the Internet access at the hotel. Not sure how they got the hotel lobby employees to play along. It was almost as good as a Romber tactic but it would not pay off.

The teams were still pretty much tied arriving in Anchorage. Somehow RoYo scored some pretty heavy coats. Perhaps the producers bend the rules a little (or they just didn’t want any teams to die from frostbite). The Detour ended up not being much of a detour at all since the weather was too had for flying. RoYo showed their unintentionally psychic abilities again by describing how they just had to keep “grinding” to stay in the race not knowing that they would literally be doing that later. Then the Hippies temporarily started to “channel” Fran and Barry by walking right past a bunch of snowshoes several times.

Finally, the teams pretty much ended the race where they started with the aforementioned puzzle separating the men from the boys and favoring brain over brawn. The final funny moment happened during the victory speech. The Hippies mentioned the race could be like couples therapy, and suddenly they cut to a shot of Lake. Hilarious.

Hopefully the ratings, while lower, still encourage CBS to fund more races in the future.