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We pick up where we left off at the scene of the bogus elimination of Team Dude in Panama. Jeremy & Sandy have the honor of being the first to depart on the last leg. Simply by listing the final destination city of Atlanta, the producers suck the wind from the sails of the dating couple. Why? Well, because Amani & Marcus live in Atlanta.

This seems a bit unfair but I’d wager that the producers had the final city locked in long before knowing who the final three would be. I actually find it more unfair when the race starts in a city that some teams hail from.

Rightfully, and, I must add, astutely, Jeremy acknowledges the need to use everything they learned on the race and piece it together for a flawless leg. I agree with him that it’s their only path to victory.

Ernie & Cindy have a similar apprehension about battling against the Pollards on their home turf. The excitement on the faces of Amani & Marcus appears to stem from just getting to go "home" and not necessarily being in familiar surroundings.

I think that the leg is far from a foregone conclusion because of geography. Here are just two of the possible scenarios: Team NFL gets cocky about knowing where to go and it allows the others to get by them (a la runners-up Frank & Margarita from The Amazing Race Season 1 in their hometown of NYC) and the other two teams recognize that this is their final chance to put all their energy into the race. Given that Amani lets out a cautious “I hope so” to Marcus’ suggestion of home field advantage, I don’t think former scenario will play out.

As expected for dramatic purposes, all the teams are on the same flight. This is thanks to the ticket counters of a certain Atlanta-based airline, which I refuse to name (they know what they did), being closed in the wee hours of the morning. This means we get another round of teams’ pep talk that we just witnessed on the taxi ride to the airport. Ernie professes that they will be working some magic this leg. Cindy chimes in that she’s been doing that the entire race. I agree with that because she magically went from likeable to despicable in my eyes with a single trip to Malawi.

For the final time this season, we get the 100-yard dash to the airport cab stand. Ernie & Cindy strike out with several cabbies unaware of where the generically named Atlanta Learning Center is. Amani & Marcus, on the other hand, ask for the kindness of a local and his smartphone to get the address.

But it’s Jeremy & Sandy who get to the center and the Flight Safety International flight school first for the challenge, but just by a few minutes. This challenge is brought to by Learjet and their very expensive, snazzy flight simulators.

Working together, they have to complete the landing of a jet in the simulator to the satisfaction of their instructor. As Phil points out, this is just one more taste of air ‘travel’ on the race.

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