The Amazing Race Philippines Wrap-up, Leg 12
Well my goodness. This is definitely a first for me. Since watching the very first episode on September 5, 2001, this is the very first time I have not one single team or even person to root for in the final 3 of an Amazing Race season.
21 seasons of The Amazing Race US, four seasons of The Amazing Race Asia and two seasons of The Amazing Race Australia; I’ve always had at least one team I could hope to win. With Sheena & Gee’s horrible elimination, this final 3 of Marc & Kat, Fausto & Dayal and LJ & CJ is leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth.
And here I was hoping TARPh could help rid the bad taste from Josh & Brent winning TAR21 on Sunday.
So first, let’s talk about the Leg. That first Route Marker with the clue box inside a roving tricycle was genius. I loved it. Boo to the locals who had to point it out to them. (Mga pakialameros. Hmph. lol) But I thought it was a nice and different way to present a cluebox to the teams. And judging from the huge crowd that formed just to watch teams count fish (and really, anytime there are cameras around in the Philippines), maybe having the cluebox not out in the open was the best idea.
The Detour was definitely typical TAR. But I think it was pretty unbalanced. The delivery side of the Detour did not look difficult at all. For one, there weren’t dozens of locals screaming at you and making asar.
Kudos to Sheena & Gee for actually finishing the fish counting side of the Detour though.
Thinking about it now, this was a pretty short Leg, especially compared to the last one. The Road Block was okay. It was actually a fresh take on the usual needle in a haystack task. Unless another TAR has done it before and I’m not aware of one.
But that infamous “Match your answers” tasks. Ugh!!! It’s definitely provided lots of drama in the past. I should have expected this task to play into TARPh. Sheena misreading the question is also a common mistake teams make with this one. And to think, if she had not misread that last question, they might have survived. Argh.
And so, we have our final 3. This was the final 3 I feared most and the only thing that would’ve made it worse was if Boom & Cheng were one of them. But this one that we got, it’s pretty close.
Only two hours of TARPh left. But I definitely have no excitement left and am already looking forward to, hopefully, TARPh2.
TV5! Please get on TARPh2 soon!
My Subjective Team Rankings for Leg 12
HUGE GAP
Sheena & Gee – Nooooo! They were my only hope for the final 3 and now they’re done. Done in by an invisible “ak” in the word “malas.” Malas indeed. They definitely grew on my as the Race went on and as other teams started falling off the awesome list or were eliminated, Sheena & Gee picked up the slack and stepped it up. *sigh* So now what?
*HUGE gap*
LJ & CJ – Ugh. I usually love rooting for TAR fans but I can’t bring myself to root for LJ & CJ. Their catty and for-TV behavior has been annoying and they haven’t even Raced particularly well. And to think I felt sorry for them when they were unjustly Yielded by the poor man’s version of Jose & Wally.
Marc & Kat – It is pretty much a done deal that they win the grand prize? It is never interesting to see someone dominate in a particular competition. And it is no different here. Especially when they’ve gotten a lot of help along the way. (Bad Leg design, lack of parity among the teams.) *yawn*
Fausto & Dayal – So the entertainment level of Dayal’s drama queen-ness has run its course. Now that they’ve actually got a legitimate shot at the grand prize, we must look at how horrible they Raced for the half the course then benefited from other, more horrible teams and a Fast Forward. TAR20’s Art & JJ have suddenly come to mind. Shit-stirrers who are so full of themselves.