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Well, this is it. Another season of the Amazing Race is about to conclude. The hook this week is that there has never been a bigger mismatch in the final three than in season 13. Nick & Starr have won six out of ten legs to date, making them the TAR equivalent of the 2008 New England Patriots...and we all know how that turned out.

Speaking of the NFL, seeking to pull off the upset are Ken & Tina, an unhappily married couple who have been attempting to reconcile through the magic of competitive travel abroad. Ken, a former first round draft pick, has been a mostly good guy throughout, although he has shown too short a fuse with his wife on occasion. The reason for that is, well, she can be kind of annoying. A month into this season, we hated Tina's guts. She was exhibiting every aspect of the Ugly American cliche. Over time, we were surprised to discover that she has a generous heart. Whenever any opposing competitor has asked Ken & Tina for assistance, they have been the rare (if not first) team to aid others even to their own detriment. A couple of episodes ago, they were barely ahead of Dan & Andrew, yet they showed the hapless duo exactly how to complete a challenge. Such selflessness is rare on any reality program, and it forces us to reevaluate our possibly incorrect opinion about who Tina is.

We know all too well who Dan & Andrew are, though. The magic word is "pathetic". Readers of BOP over the past few years know that we generally avoid snarky hatemongering in our reality show recaps, but these guys have pushed us to our limit. There just isn't much to praise about them. To date, the highlight of their Amazing Race season is not getting paint bombed as badly as some other teams. Well, that and the fact that they have managed to hold on to their passports, which is not as easy as you might think. They also have some bitchin' new sneakers.

Nick & Starr are the first team set to leave Moscow at 10:56 p.m. Their destination? Portland, Oregon. And isn't it a little bit ominous that the text on the clue says "Fly to your final destination?" Well, there is a sequel coming up in that franchise. The two take a 7:05 p.m. flight on Lufthansa with a stopover in Frankfort. Kim has had a stopover in that airport before. It is not fun.

The second team to depart is Dan & Andrew. They're leaving a full three and a half hours later at 2:28 a.m. The good news for them is that they should expect bunching.

Posted without comment: "Andrew and I deserve to be in the final three. We've been resilient and we've persevered through a lot of tough times. People who just think we're gonna be chicken feed for Nick and Starr and Ken and Tina I think are severely mistaken." Question: Does "Bwahahahahaha!" count as a comment?

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