The Amazing Race 23: Episode 11, Part 1
By Daron Aldridge
December 9, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com

At least they can hang out with the ice bunnies.

Settle in kiddos, because it’s time for the whopping two-hour finale of the Amazing Race 23. Last week, we got bad news and bad news. The first bad news is that we endured our last non-elimination of the season and the other bad news is that the team that survived because of said non-elimination was Leo & Jamal.

You know I am no fan of these wild and crazy guys but I really don’t like the possibility that they will survive into the final three. The worst case scenario for me would be the Afghanimals and Tim & Marie occupying two-thirds of the final three. And the fall from grace (at least in likability) of Travis & Nicole doesn’t exactly make me clamor for them to claim victory, either.

Heading into this episode, my last set of rankings holds strong as the teams actually finished the non-elimination leg in the order of their rankings. Nothing cataclysmic happened with them, so I stand by my assertion that the teams stack up like this:

1. Jason & Amy
2. Tim & Marie
3. Travis & Nicole
4. Leo & Jamal

Well, let’s dive into Part 1 of the finale recap. Phil schools us on the expansive island network that makes up Indonesia (more than 17,000, if you are interested) and picks up with Jason & Amy finally leaving from a first place finish.

It’s 1:25 a.m. and the daters are being directed to Tokyo and the Gotokuji Temple, which is occupied with thousands of ceramic cat statues. Otherwise known as a crazy cat lady nirvana.

With an ever elusive first place finish in their pocket, Jason finally acknowledges that they really only needed one first place and that is the one at the end. True story, big guy. I just hope that you can pull out that victory, as you are the only team I can 100% root for at this point.

The New Englanders head to a travel agency and find out that there are two flights that arrive in Tokyo only ten minutes apart. The one that arrives at 6:10 a.m. has no seats available and instead of trying for standby, they want everyone to fly together. This will keep them in each other’s sights. A fairly solid plan and not shocking at all since the co-dependent alliance with the doctors and daters has been on full display the last couple legs - even more so than what the Ice girls and Afghanimals had.

Surprisingly, the next two teams leave the Pitstop an hour later, which shows how miserable Tim & Marie and Travis & Nicole performed during last week’s makeup Detour.

When they convene at the travel agency, the three teams make a tenuous agreement that they will work together to ensure that Leo & Jamal are sent home. Once again, Travis & Nicole play the sanctimonious card that they want the cousins gone because they lie and play dirty. I wish that we could pause and let them see the play back on how pathetic Nicole was at previous Roadblock where she melted down and tried to copy Leo’s work. And Travis’ increasingly short fuse with Nicole’s inability on tasks isn’t putting him in a great light, either.


Tim & Marie seem kind of on board with the plan but they have really only been working with teams that can help them, so I suspect this will be short-lived. The three teams suspect that the cousins will gamble on getting the earlier flight.

In the order they arrived at the agency, they all depart, with the doctors leaving as Leo & Jamal arrive. Neither team even acknowledges the other. It’s a bit icy between these guys and it makes me wonder if there have been behind the scenes interactions that are fueling this anger. The reasons given by both teams don’t seem to be enough of an issue to cause this deep of acrimony. The Afghanimals opt for the same flight but admit that they will search for a better flight at the airport.

Hanging around the airport are the doctors, exes and daters and lurching around the airport are the cousins, as they explore other options. They discover the flight that arrives ten minutes earlier and get seats on it. For some strange reason, they feel that the ten minutes will be a game changer for them. They do have the impending Speed Bump but they do seem to be thinking this flight is a better scenario than it really is.

Of course, the guys’ absence on the other teams’ plane just ratchets up their anxiety about being able to keep an eye on the cousins. Now they just get to stew about the fact they either got an earlier flight or missed this flight. Maybe the producers could levy this stress into a Maalox promotional tie-in.

No delays means that the fellas touch down in Tokyo at 6:12 a.m. and are headed for the crazy cat lady temple. According to the onscreen stamp, the second flight actually lands at 6:17 a.m., so Leo & Jamal’s precious 10-minute lead is already cut in half.

But they are unaware that the Japanese taxis are about to give them a bit more breathing room. When the trio of teams approaches the cab stand, there are only two cabs there, with the exes as the last ones out the terminal. When the cabbies on site don’t know the location, Marie is unwilling to give them the address of the temple she researched because they were quick to just leave them behind. I must admit that Marie has a valid point and it was foolish on the other teams’ part that they didn’t think to get the address of the destination ahead of time. It’s like these people haven’t just spent the last few weeks on a Race.

It worked in the exes’ favor because the other two cabbies are unwilling to leave without the third team; so they just wait for that last cab to arrive.

Leo & Jamal pounce on the grounds of the temple and get their next clue. It’s the Detour – Knock It Off or Call It Up. For Knock, the team goes to Tokyo Media City and will partake in a game of Human Bowling. They have to don kimonos and ride a tubing sled down a ramp and get a strike of 10 five-foot tall bowling pins. For Call, they go to park and use a phone booth filled with water and goldfish to call a number. Then relay the message to their partner, who then retrieves the clue from the local woman.


Leo & Jamal jump for joy over the chance to be on a Japanese game show like past contestants have. Off to the television studio they go.

While they commute to the studio, the others have hit the temple and a snag. The three stooges/cabbies refuse to separate; so when Jason & Amy and Tim & Marie want to do Knock and the docs want to do Call, they just head to whichever location they get to first. These might be the most irrational drivers we’ve seen this season.

Well, they end up at the park but it is not clearly marked that it’s the right one. So Tim & Marie hang back by the cabs while the others ask for the location of the phone booths. After getting the directions, they conspire to play coy and look confused. Since only two teams can perform the task at a time, they want to make sure that the exes don’t get one of those slots.

While they work on their subterfuge improv, Marie gets a local woman to point them to Tokyo Media City. The shaky alliance of three is officially dissolved. As soon as the exes get into their cab, the others sprint to the phone booths.

At the studio already are the cousins, who are hamming it up for the studio audience. I know you are shocked these two models of reservation and low-key behavior would act so over-the-top. After several failed attempts to treat the tube like a real bowling ball and curve it into the pins, they finally adjust and aim straight down the middle. And it works. They have their next clue, which sends them to a fountain at Shinjuku Chuo Koen.

In a stroke of sneaky brilliance, Leo & Jamal return their Detour costumes to the starting point to throw off any team that comes in behind them. As long as the others think that the cousins aren't around, the less the sense of urgency.

At Call, Travis and Amy are donning the skimpiest of speedos, which is nice for the male viewers but not so much for the female ones. Amy stumbles a bit in her first attempt because she didn't get enough air to stay under long enough to dial and listen to the message. It's a very minor stumble, though, as she gets the message and Jason relays it correctly. They are in second and heading to the fountain. Travis doesn't encounter any issue and the doctors are barely trailing their allies.

While they drive, Leo & Jamal have hit their Speed Bump and it is about as silly as the Human Bowling they just did. They must participate in a mock rhino escape. It involves about a dozen people with nets and one guy with a nerf gun. After the "rhino" (rather, two people in a rhino costume) has been subdued, they get their clue. The enthusiasm of the boys trips them up here because they mess up the first attempt because they weren't following the lead of the team. Escaped rhino recapture is serious business.

While this happens, the exes have arrived at the Knock detour and fallen for the Afghanimals' ruse, believing the boys are way behind. After they try their hands a couple of times at Human Bowling and fail, they correct their strategy and use Tim as the ball since he is heavier and gets more speed. Strike!! Now all the teams are at or heading to the next location.

When Jason & Amy and Travis & Nicole arrive, they are a bit disheartened to see Leo & Jamal tackling their rhino Speed Bump. The next task is the Roadblock. The teammate has to reconstruct a seven-foot tall robot figure out of piping. The model for reference is about three inches tall and sitting on a pedestal. Nicole and Amy are up for their teams but their respective partners immediately doubt this selection. Of course, the most vocal dissident is Travis, who hasn’t been shy about masking his frustration with Nicole’s lack of skill on challenges. We got a taste of it early on with the biking task but he was fine when they were winning. But as soon as they fall behind (usually because of Nicole, honestly), he doesn’t miss the chance to point out her shortcomings.

The girls opt to work together on the Roadblock. They assemble a section of one robot and then do the same on the other one. The cousins have finally "captured" their rhino and Leo starts in on the Roadblock.

Of course, he chimes in with not knowing that this was a “Team Roadblock” with the girls working in tandem. Nicole rationalizes that by approaching it this way, they get both correct at the same time but this actually appears to put them behind, as Leo has gained on their progress. Examining the partnership, clearly Nicole is the one benefiting from this arrangement because Amy would've been quicker along and Nicole is easily the weak link.

As they all three work, Marie is now at the Roadblock for her team. She doesn’t spot the miniature model and asks her supposed alliance where it is. The girls pretend not to hear her but shockingly, Leo points her to the pedestal. He doesn’t hesitate to help her which makes me think that he just might be an inherently good guy as long as he denies the urges to being sneaky.

Leo is the first one to attempt an inspection but is given a "no." He has reversed a section in the middle so it is on backward. The team of girls is next with a pair of “no's” because they have switched the hip and shoulder piping. None of these three actually pinpoint their error and in vain they try to "correct" their sections.

Just one spot over, we have Marie, who is apparently a robot building beast. She is plowing through the task and forcing pieces into place like she forces Tim to bend to her will. Her progression and the prodding of their male counterparts is all Amy and Nicole need to start to crumble under pressure. Marie not only gets a thumbs-up on her first attempt, she is also the last one in and the first one out.

The next clue points them to a busy traffic square where they must locate a roaming vending machine that is marked with Race colors.

Amy finally steps away from Nicole for long enough to see what is wrong. She sees the switch needed and points it out to Nicole. They are now working on correcting their own. You need more evidence that Nicole is the weaker of the two? Amy is able to fix hers, get the clue and still help the doctor some before Jason has understandably gotten her to leave. This is a Race and he recognizes that they will have to separate from Travis & Nicole at some point. He is not willing to sacrifice their Race for their new friends. As he shouldn’t. Jason points out that they lost about 10 minutes just by helping Nicole at the end.

Tim & Marie have found the vending machine and gotten the clue. The next Pitstop is located at Konno Hachimangu shrine and the ex-couple hustles to Phil. They hit the mat in first place to the shock of no one and are awarded a trip to Hawaii. The exes explain that they will draw names as to which one gets which of the two trips they won on the Race. That not only seems fair but actually pleasant that Tim isn’t subjected to even more travels with Marie.

While Nicole still struggles and gets faux encouragement from Travis, who is yelling for her to be more decisive, Leo has finally moved beyond focusing on angles of the pieces to see that his center section is backward.

The New Englanders now have their Pitstop clue and hit the mat not too long after Tim & Marie. It appears that they are intentionally leaving all the teams on the mat for one big final three group shot. Jason gives proper kudos to Marie for dominating that Roadblock. I don’t like it anymore than you do, but she really did own that task. I was expecting her to lay on the bragging thick but she is silent. Who is this not-as-abrasive-but-still-unlikable person that Marie has become?

Nicole has powered through Travis’s venting and gotten the clue. He admonishes her again that she really needs to learn to build stuff while on the cab ride to the traffic square. Of course, the producers try to edit and wring drama where there is none by showing Leo also finishing the Roadblock.

Quick edits and split screens can’t hide the fact that Travis & Nicole are now team number three, which means that Leo & Jamal are the eliminated team. So the cousins just miss the final three, which if I may channel Marie as braggart, is exactly where I predicted they would finish based solely upon their pre-season interviews. So, it’s a double win for me that I was right and that the team I ultimately don’t like won’t have a chance at a million dollars.

So who’s ready for the last leg? Well, check back tomorrow for the recap and the winners of the Amazing Race 23.