The Amazing Race Recap: Finale Part 2
By Daron Aldridge
December 11, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Here we go again for the last time this year at a Pit Stop.
Au revoir, France. It’s 1:33 a.m. and Team Beefcake of Ja(y)meses is excitedly the first to leave. The final destination city is New York City. The teams have to decipher that the postcard/clue is directing them to the Coney Island Boardwalk and a somewhat hidden clue on a Houdini poster pointing them to the navy yard.
About ten minutes later, Team Longhorn Trey & Lexi leave. Lexi gets all reflective about how the Race has brought them closer together and more in love. It’s not difficult to notice that the longing look she gives Trey is not wholly reciprocated. His gaze is more of the “blank stare” variety at the camera.
In the cab, the unimportance of the uncertainty whether it’s Team Beekman or Team Despicable in the finals sets in, because both of those teams actually hail from or have roots in New York. First, Josh gets to dust off his French and now they are essentially going home. This may be the leg that Josh & Brent don’t come in last or second to last but actually win…HAHAHA…who am I kidding? As directionally challenged as Team Beekman is, they would likely get lost if one of the clues was to their front door step at home.
Speaking of Beekmans, they leave a little more than an hour after the Texans and are stoked at the prospect of “home field advantage.” Please see my comment above for how I feel about that. When Josh & Brent stroll into the airport to get on the same flight as the other two teams, they are met with hugs but both members of Team Longhorn don’t feel threatened by them, which is understandable given their less than stellar Race track record.
All the teams are no longer encumbered with backpacks, since they wisely ditched them in France, thus allowing them to full-on sprint through the airport to the awaiting NYC taxi cab. The order doesn’t really matter since they all converge on Coney Island within minutes. With the hidden message not in the normal red and yellow but rather black and yellow, Teams Longhorn and Beefcake are like a quartet of lost children on the boardwalk. I’m halfway expecting an Amber Alert to be issued on them because they are THAT lost.
Team Beekman is at least standing near the vantage point of the postcard, but the blank look on their faces is just as discouraging as the wandering. Jaymes & James are now at the beach, as Lexi is the first to notice the signs pointing them to the Navy Yard. To be discreet, she and Trey just try to remember the clue instead of writing it down. Team Beekman notices it right after them and doesn’t care if they are seen writing, probably because they have messed up enough times on the Race to know better.
While Trey laments that the Beekmans saw them find the clue, Lexi is quick to dismiss Josh & Brent as not their competition but rather Jaymes & James as the ones to worry about. The inclusion of this line leads me to think that Team Beekman will be pulling off an upset victory on Amazing Race 21.
Here’s a southern colloquialism to describe how Team Beefcake is doing: If the clue was a snake, it would’ve bit them. That’s right, the guys are literally staring at all the signs on the boardwalk and nothing is clicking. So, a commercial break is in order.
Back from Microsoft trying to sell me on the merits of Windows 8, Jaymes approaches the signs to examine them more closely and he finally gets it. They estimate the other teams have about a 15 minute lead on them at this point.
Team Longhorn is the first at the next clue and it’s the Roadblock. In the tradition of Houdini, the team member is put in a straightjacket and suspended upside down 15 stories in the air. Once they have freed themselves from the straightjacket, they will be dropped…forcing them to perform a bungee jump.
Trey and his extreme fear of heights are nominated for the task by his not-so-understanding team mate Lexi. Team Beekman is there and Brent chooses to do it. He expresses more concern with escaping the jacket than the heights.
As Trey is hoisted into the sky, Team Beefcake arrives and Jaymes (blond one) is overjoyed and giddy that he volunteers for this task. When Trey is suspended by his feet, he mimics Houdini’s method by sliding his arms over his head and then working on the buckles. No sooner does he drop the straightjacket to the ground when he is dropped straight down himself. The shock on his face lets us know that the teams were not made aware of that bungee drop-related detail of the challenge.
Trey is back with his feet firmly on the ground and their next clue points them to Lombardi’s Pizza, which is billed as the first pizzeria in New York.
Brent begins his Roadblock next but before he can finish, Jaymes is already in place for his turn. Overcoming the anxiety of the task, Brent is able to retain an oh-so-slight lead over Team Beefcake. The enthusiasm that Jaymes initially exhibited at the Roadblock has translated over to him blazing through the task and narrowing an already narrow gap.
The Texans are at the pizza parlor and they are to assume the role of pizza delivery guys. Using only their memory and feet, they have to deliver ten different pizzas to three separate addresses in Little Italy before getting the next clue.
As Trey & Lexi are venturing out with their orders, Team Beekman arrives. Josh & Brent take deliberate steps to order the pizzas to be delivered in groups according to the address. Their excessive strategizing doesn’t seem too necessary since it appears that both Beekmans and Longhorns are making solid progress on the task. Meanwhile, Team Beefcake is finally in a cab heading to Lombardi’s. The guys decide that their slow cabbie is not really working out for them and they decide to bail on him and run the last couple blocks to the pizza place. As they arrive, Trey & Lexi get their next clue, which is a cryptic blue card with just the United Nations emblem on it. The teams have to figure that out on their own.
Overthinking the challenge is exactly what Team Beekman did. They have delivered the wrong order to two different addresses and when Josh expresses concern that he hopes the orders were right, Brent tells him if they weren’t right, “there will be hell to pay.” I find this funny because it seemed like Brent was the one driving this method.
The owner of the pizzeria points out that Josh & Brent messed up the orders and the task must be redone. Of course, Brent takes this opportunity to berate Josh for being the reason they are redoing it. Both teams had better hurry because Trey & Lexi have found out they are heading to the UN headquarters.
As they both plug away at the deliveries, Brent’s tone has changed and he says that they should focus on the positive. Well, at this point, I am positive that it’s gonna take an epic collapse on the part of Trey & Lexi for anyone to beat them. But I don’t think that’s what Brent meant.
Team Beekman has corrected their deliveries and are now on their way to the UN also, with Team Beefcake right behind them.
Trey & Lexi hit the UN with gusto and are faced with another Roadblock. It’s a twist on the old “how well you remember the places you visited” task. If they played the part of Houdini in the previous Roadblock, then the other person has to do this one. So Lexi is up and here’s the challenge: They have to identify the nine different ways they heard “Hello” and “Good-bye” at the Pit Stops on each leg of the Race. When it’s done and correct, they raise the UN flag and get their final clue.
For it to be a Race for a million bucks there doesn’t seem to be much of a sense of urgency on Lexi’s part. Well, that is until Josh arrives to do the Roadblock for the Beekmans. And then there’s the added pressure of James being on the Roadblock scene now as well.
It really is a three-way race and all the teams are taking the approach of getting French and Spanish out of the way first before moving on to the more difficult ones, which should be interesting. I don’t see anyone, in particular, excelling at this task and it could be a long day at the UN. There may be peace in the Middle East before these guys finish.
Since they don’t have the recall necessary to tear through this challenge with confidence, each of them uses the right method of just trying every combination possible for each flag until it is correct. Lexi’s frustration has manifested itself into many, many tears. I do find it humorous that she keeps lamenting the fact that this is a challenge they can’t control. Well, Lexi, technically, you could’ve controlled it if over the last several weeks, you picked up even the most basic vocabulary on the Race.
They have burned through about two and a half hours and Beekmans and Beefcakes are neck-and-neck. Team Beekman edges out the other two teams and gets the clue pointing them to Gotham Hall. They are scrambling looking for a phone to get directions but Jaymes & James are right behind them. Both have the location and the directions in hand and are duking it out for the million dollars.
Before we get to the finish line, let’s check in with the mentally exhausted Lexi. I would say she is on the verge of tears again but I don’t think there has been a time where she has NOT been on the verge or actually in tears during this task. Back to the cabs.
With applause filling Gotham Hall, the winners of the Amazing Race 21 are Josh & Brent. Josh falls to his knees out of joy and they explain that winning the Race actually brings them closer together because financially Josh no longer will have to work in the city while Brent runs the farm. For a team that teetered on the brink of elimination several times, Team Beekman proved that the only first place finish that truly matters is the one at the end for a million dollars. Everyone underestimated them, including me after I saw them race. Pre-season premiere, I predicted they might be a spoiler team but as soon as the Race got under way, I too wrote them off regularly as a hapless team with one foot out the door.
Jaymes & James run in next and they express appreciation for all the Race has meant to them but the expression on Jaymes’ face on the mat next to Phil speaks volumes. It’s easy to tell that he is disappointed that he couldn’t bring home the money for his sick dad and that is perfectly natural. They keep it classy to the end. Well, as classy as a pair of lovable lunkheads can keep it.
Trey & Lexi arrive last, tears are shed and Lexi tells us (and more likely, Trey) that they are ready for the next step in their relationship, “whenever Trey is ready.” At least she is not completely trying to entrap the boy.
So there you have it. The ultimate Race underdogs took home the big money. It was a pretty nice, dramatic ending to a season that left a lot to be desired. Have a good New Year and be thankful that the evil that was the twins didn’t triumph, but who knows what’s in store for us next season. See you in February 2013.