Recap: The Amazing Race (24) All-Stars 2, Episode 12 – “Do You Believe in Magic?”
The final Leg of the 2nd Amazing Race All-Stars begins and teams must fly to their final destination city of Las Vegas, Nevada. They’re all on the same flight and upon running out of the airport, they must hop into a black Ford Explorer where they’ll be taken for a ride.
On the way to the next Route Marker in the darkness, the teams talk about a little tussle between Rachel and the Country Girls. Caroline & Jennifer say Rachel pushed them and cut in front of them in the Customs line. They say they were waiting for her dirty side to come out and it finally did. Rachel says that’s absurd, it’s final 3.
“I would not push someone. And if I did push her, she would know because she’d be knocked over.”
The Ford Explorers stop somewhere in the outskirts of town and the kidnappers drivers tell the teams to get out and dig.
Dave & Connor tell Brendon & Rachel to stop throwing dirt at them. Then they ask to stop throwing stuff in their hole.
“Shut up, we’re not,” Rachel replies. Yes you are! Dave & Connor insist. Caroline & Jennifer tell Brendon & Rachel, Fine, go ahead and play nasty and dirty. Brendon says the Country Singers are just pissed Rachel is faster than them.
Dave & Connor find a crate in their hole first, with Brendon & Rachel and Caroline & Jennifer close behind. The crate says it is the Property of David Copperfield. They must open the box and return the contents.
The drivers take them back into the city. On the way, Brendon & Rachel manage to open their crate and they find a huge set of keys.
Dave & Connor get dropped off at the MGM Grand and they find the next clue, the Road Block.
In this Road Block, teams will take part in a David Copperfield-designed stunt. One team member is shackled inside a crate and must use the keys they dug up in the desert to unlock themselves. Then, after reaching out the top to pick the lock on the chains around the crate, they’ll be let out.
Connor, Jennifer and Rachel decide to do the Road Block.
The non-participating team members will hand their partners the keys once they’re inside the box. David Copperfield brings each of the non-participating team members to video monitors to watch their partners while they’re inside the crates. He tells them to flip a bunch of switches when their partners unlock the chains to allow the fire crews to get them out.
Connor unlocks the handcuffs then starts to pick the outside locks, but suddenly the crews set the crate on fire as it rises off the platform. Connor says he’s unlocked everything and David Copperfield tells Dave to flip the switches. That sends the crate falling and it explodes in a big ball of fire.
Dave thinks his son is dead, but in walks Connor in a fireman’s uniform.
They get the next clue pointing them to the Neon Boneyard Museum.
Rachel is next and Jennifer finishes in last.
Dave & Connor arrive at the Neon Boneyard and start looking for the cluebox. Brendon & Rachel, meanwhile, ask their taxi driver to go faster but she laughs, no, she’ll get a ticket!
Dave & Connor find the next clue telling them to grab a bulb from the red and silver question mark behind them and take it to the employee entrance of The Mirage Hotel and Casino. Brendon & Rachel arrive just as Dave & Connor leave and Caroline & Jennifer arrive just as Brendon & Rachel leave.
Wanting to ditch their slow taxi driver, Brendon tries to steal Caroline & Jennifer’s cab and offers the guy $25 extra, but he won’t bite. So Brendon & Rachel have to stick with their taxi who continues to drive slowly.
The first team to arrive at The Mirage though is Caroline & Jennifer. They open the clue telling them to jump into a window washer basket to make their way up to replace the light bulbs in the “I” of The Mirage sign. After the lights are fully lit and they say the correct number of bubs used, they’ll get the next clue.
Dave & Connor arrive next and are just minutes behind Caroline & Jennifer.
Brendon & Rachel get into the employee entrance, but don’t see the cluebox. They run into the hotel and back out where they finally see it. Their frustration grows knowing they are in last.
Dave & Connor manage to finish screwing in their light bulbs first and they tell their crew member the number of bulbs they used is 240. That is incorrect. They decide to guess again and say 241. That is correct.
They start down as Caroline & Jennifer also finish and are right behind them. Teams must now head to Maverick Helicopters in Henderson.
Dave & Connor take a wrong turn and when they make a U-Turn, they see Caroline & Jennifer in front of them. They order their taxi driver to get ahead, so he speeds off in front of the Country Girls’ taxi.
They find the clue box and it’s the final Road Block.
In this Road Block, teams will put on a futuristic jump suit and hop into a helicopter that will fly along the Las Vegas Strip. Teams must spot an electronic sign that displays the location of their landing zone, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Once they’ve relayed the information, they will freefall to reunite with their partners.
Dave and Caroline must do this Road Block. Connor and Jennifer are driven ahead to the racetrack.
Brendon & Rachel arrive last and Rachel gets emotional saying they can still win this, hoping the others make a mistake
Dave and Caroline spot the sign and they prepare to jump. Connor and Jennifer are already at the Finish Line and Phil announces it’s between Dave and Caroline as the teams look up at the sky, wondering who it will be.
They see a fireball dropping out of the helicopter. And it’s Dave.
Dave reunites with Connor and they run to the Finish Line where Phil officially declares them the winners of The Amazing Race. Phil adds that Dave is the oldest winner ever and that they are the first (American) parent-child winners.
Caroline arrives and she and Jennifer run to the Finish Line where Phil checks them in as Team #2. They are happy for Dave & Connor and vice-versa. Dave starts crying.
Half an hour later, Rachel is alone, crying waiting for Brendon to fall out of the sky. She tells him they are last and he says it’s okay. Rachel puts on a happy face as they run to the Finish Line where Phil tells them they are Team #3.
He asks about their baby making and Rachel says they’ll just have to wait until Brendon graduates.
The other teams step on the Big Mat to give hugs and kisses. Phil tosses the Cowboys’ hat away and season 24 officially comes to a close. (Thankfully.)
Episode Thoughts
Oh dear. Well. That had to be one of the most unexciting finales in a long time.
The worst finales still have to be TAR10’s absolutely flat finale and TAR7’s odd three-country mess. But this finale has to be right up there (or down there). For being the first TAR finale to take place completely after sunset, they sure sucked all the fun and excitement from it.
I guess the teams competing in the Leg contributed to that blah feeling. But the tasks themselves this Leg were really lackluster.
First, taking the teams out into the desert to get whacked was pretty good.
But then the David Copperfield task was surprisingly uninteresting. It could’ve been really fun, but David Copperfield’s describing every little thing and the lack of clever editing sucked all the fun out of it. They didn’t even try to build suspense at that ZOMGTHEYDIED moment at the end where they explode. It was just horribly edited together or worse, horribly executed.
The Route Marker at the Neon Boneyard was fine. And the task at The Mirage would’ve been a good use of the nighttime setting, but the trek up and down was so slow. And they included the entire rides up and down!
And finally the that helicopter ride and jump to the Finish Line. First of all, there should not be a first come, first served anything right before the Finish Line. Phil hyped this finish up as something that comes close to being as exciting as the TAR2 Race to the Finish Line. WHAT!? Come on now Phil. This was nowhere near that footrace. While it could’ve been a pretty cool entrance for the winning team to fall out of the sky, having the non-participating team member already ON the Mat was horrible. It took away any excitement that was left.
The Leg was horribly linear, of course, and that did not help with that final “task” being the way it was. Oh, and that newfangled Road Block rule? Yeah, I’ll talk about that in my Season Wrap-Up.
Anyway, this episode was a complete waste of a good location and a perfect nighttime setting. Definitely one of the least exciting, if not THE least, exciting finales of TAR ever. Just like TAR10, the lackluster final Leg could’ve been helped by airing as the 2nd hour of a two-hour finale. So basically, CBS scheduling squeezed all the juice out of the finale of what was an already bad season.
My Subjective Team Rankings
GAP 
GAP 
At least Brendon & Rachel didn’t screw up their chances like they did in TAR20’s finale. A faster taxi driver and they might have had a shot. People will probably whine about Rachel’s crying this Leg, but like she said, this is the Final Leg. It’s no time to just dilly-dally and hand other teams the Race. Trying to steal Caroline & Jen’s cab was fine. Again, as long as you don’t touch other teams’ possessions, steal all the cabs you want.
Caroline & Jen had some incredible luck this Leg. Luck, as in, an amazing taxi driver. Otherwise, they would’ve floundered like they’ve done all Race.
And Dave & Connor, taking their animosity toward Brendon & Rachel all the way home. They got a great Ford Explorer, a great taxi driver and a final task that sealed their fates and prevented Caroline & Jen from sneaking an improbable (but more tolerable than them) win. Ugh. More ranting on them in the Wrap-Up.
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I agree about all you said but I don’t think TAR 7 had a horrible finale. It had one of the most unpredictable finish and deserving winners. Now to the Final 3 teams:
It must sucked that Brendon & Rachel end up in 3rd place again. Seeing Rachel crying was incredibly heartbreaking considering that she and Brendon wanted a baby. I think overall the Country girls were a good and fun team they had some questionable behavior (i.e Accidental Alliance) but they did earn their way to 2nd place and would have been a more tolerable winners than Dave & Connor. Speaking of Dave & Connor, they are now officially my most hated winners. They are also the worst parent-child team ever. Dave is the most annoying person on TAR right next to TAR 3’s Flo. Speaking of Flo, she is also the first ever female winner of TAR and Dave is the oldest winner of TAR so far. Two of them making history. Ugh. So insufferable.
I will definitely be re-assessing a lot of my rankings soon. =]