Recap: The Amazing Race 25, Episode 12 – Season Finale – "I had my knickers in a twist from the beginning."


Recap: The Amazing Race 25, Episode 12 – Season Finale – “All or Nothing”

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The finale of the Silver Anniversary season of The Amazing Race picks up where we left off last week as teams must immediately continue racing from Manila, Philippines to Los Angeles, California.

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The other teams are frustrated to see Amy & Maya at the airport. Brooke is definitely the most upset. Jim tries to say Amy & Maya are most likely to be eliminated during the Leg anyway. Maybe give Amy a kick in the shin to slow them down.

Teams are on the same flight via Narita to LAX.

Once at LAX, teams must choose a Ford Explorer Sport and use Ford’s Sync to get their next clue. Teams must bring their manila envelope to Downtown City Hall and get the film permit inside of the envelope approved.

Jim is upset they are going the wrong direction. Brooke & Robbie stop to get directions.

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Amy & Maya and Adam & Bethany arrive at City Hall and get their permits stamped.

Teams must now drive to Southwest Marine Warehouse on Terminal Island where they will hand over their film permit to the assistant director for their next clue.

Amy & Maya ask a local to use their Smartphone for directions while Adam & Bethany hop into their Ford Explorer and leave. Misti & Jim arrive at City Hall 3rd. Adam & Bethany stop at a fire department for directions. The firefighter recognizes Bethany.

But Amy & Maya arrive at the warehouse first and open the next clue revealing the Road Block.

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For this Road Block, teams will work with a stunt coordinator to learn a stunt involving them jumping out of a plate glass window while carrying a satchel.

Maya decides to do it as Adam & Bethany arrive. Misti tries to calm Jim down as she senses him growing frustrated. Brooke & Robbie are lost and are going the wrong direction. They don’t understand why the guy they asked earlier gave them the wrong directions.

Brooke & Robbie argue out of frustration.

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Meanwhile, Maya and Adam start training at the Road Block when Misti & Jim finally arrive. Jim decides to do it.

Amy sits in a director’s chair to prepare to watch Maya “kick some alien ass.” Countdown begins and Maya runs through the window and lands on the cushions.

The next clue is inside the satchel. Teams must now run to the US Coast Guard Base at Terminal Island and choose a marked boat.

Adam jumps through the glass and they try to catch up. Amy stops Maya when she rereads the clue. Maya did not change out of the costume before leaving the location. They run back and Adam & Bethany run past them.

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Brooke & Robbie finally arrive at City Hall as Adam & Bethany open the next clue.

Teams will hop into a Coast Guard RBS, Response Boat Small and they will take part in a search and rescue training exercise.

Maya undresses and she and Amy run while Jim has trouble finding the clue in the satchel.

Brooke & Robbie are still having trouble with directions. Brooke wishes Amy & Maya were eliminated when they were supposed to.

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Adam & Bethany jump into the water and swim over to Oscar who needs to be saved. Amy & Maya and Misti & Jim are on their way as Adam & Bethany hurry Oscar back to the rescue boat.

Amy & Maya and Misti & Jim finish their rescue and head back to shore.

Adam & Bethany open their next clue directing them to take a taxi to ConGlobal Industries. Misti & Jim are in 2nd and Amy & Maya are now in 3rd.

Brooke & Robbie arrive at the Road Block. They are watching someone perform the stunt when suddenly Phil walks out from behind a crate.

Phil says they missed their call time and unfortunately, they are eliminated.

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At ConGlobal Industries, Adam & Bethany find the clue and it is a Road Block.

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For this 2nd Road Block, teams must find 9 containers representing 9 cities they visited on the Race. Each container has color-coded numbers for each team and they must write those numbers down on a requisition form in the correct order they visited them. The numbers will form a combination and if they have the right combination, the foreman will call in their next clue. Teams cannot take notes, so they must memorize the numbers.

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Bethany, Amy and Misti are doing the Road Block. Jim says they’ve been here for 4-5 hours.

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All three ladies have finally found all 9 shipping containers.

And it is Amy who arrive first. She gets the requisition form and writes down the numbers. She is correct. The foreman calls down the shipping container.

Bethany and Misti arrive and start writing down the numbers.

They can now make their way to the Finish Line at Point Vincente Lighthouse at Rancho Palos Verdes.

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Amy & Maya’s taxi driver does not know where it is.

Bethany and Misti’s first combinations are wrong. And Misti is the one that gets it next. She and Jim leave in 2nd. Bethany finally gets the number and she and Adam leave in 3rd.

All teams are on their way to the Finish Line.

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A taxi arrives and running to the Finish Line are Amy & Maya!

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Maya jumps on Phil and Amy collapses on the Mat. Maya joins her as the teams cheer them on.

Phil officially declares them the winners of The Amazing Race. Maya does a victory lap and this time Amy joins her.

Phil says this is only the 3rd time in (American) Amazing Race history that an all-female team has won the Race.

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Misti & Jim come running in and Phil officially checks them in as Team #2. Phil compliments them on their teeth one more time.

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Adam & Bethany run to the Mat and they are officially Team #3.

The teams all hop on the Big Mat and congratulate each other as season 25 officially comes to a close.

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Episode Thoughts

Okay, let’s just set that horrible preview for TAR26 aside and talk about this great finale.

Now, part of my love for this season and this finale definitely comes from the horrific TAR24. But even forgetting that mess of a season, TAR25 will stand as one of the better seasons in a long time. And this finale was a good one to end the season with.

There were just enough tasks (and good tasks) to help give the Final Leg opportunities for good competition.

And self driving! In the Final Leg! That was a great surprise. After 24 seasons of Bertram & Co. fearing safety concerns of having teams drive in the final Leg, teams drove on this Leg no problem. Hope to see that continue. Though the waiting taxis does present a possible “Hmm…” moment if one team mysteriously fell behind on the way to the Finish Line. lol

The manila envelope (from Manila) was a good first Route Marker. And it was great to have something carry over Leg-to-Leg. Plus it was directly part of that first Road Block. And that first Road Block was very fun.

Usually though, the first Road Block on a Leg with a memory challenge Road Block is just there to (hopefully) screw a team over when someone has to be forced to do the memory task even though the other team member is the “memory” person. So the stunt Road Block was simple, yet still fun.

Running over to the Coast Guard task was great as well and a fine extra task.

And thank goodness for the memory Final Road Block. TAR24 sorely needed one (as do most TAR finales). This one was creative and had that extra bit of challenge with needing to memorize the numbers instead of just simply placing cities in order.

Overall, this was a great final Leg. One of the better final Legs in recent memory and of course a great pair of winners as well.

My Subjective Team Rankings

Very happy to see Amy & Maya win! Finally, a team I’m rooting for in the finale actually wins. That does not happen often! They were definitely lucky in the last Leg and that might rub some people the wrong way (they should have been eliminated), but they still fought their way to the big win. They really stepped it up this Leg and went full force. And they’ve been a great team all season long, so it’s well deserved. Definitely more well deserved than many other winners of the past.

Misti & Jim had a subdued Leg. It felt like they weren’t in full gear or something. We’ve seen them do very well all season, but they were kinda flat this Leg, which was surprising to see. It was, however, great to see Misti do fine at the Road Block.

Adam & Bethany are no doubt an inspirational story, but that doesn’t mean they should be handed a million bucks. They also had a pretty flat Leg compared to Amy & Maya who were on full throttle the entire time, I think. Them placing third does not take away from their big accomplishments this Race.

Brooke & Robbie definitely fought their way to the Final Leg and I can completely understand if they ever felt screwed over by the new twist. But they just had a very bad Leg. It wasn’t the new twist that did them in, it was the bad directions. They still would’ve lost even if Amy & Maya were eliminated in Leg 11. It was sad though to see them so defeated right from the start. You expect them to go all in.

Episode Quotes

Maya: “I should’ve tasted it.”

Maya: “Not taking my clothes off cost us first place.”

Misti: “I had my knickers in a twist from the beginning.”


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3 thoughts on “Recap: The Amazing Race 25, Episode 12 – Season Finale – "I had my knickers in a twist from the beginning."

  1. “that might rub some people the wrong way (they should have been eliminated), but they still fought their way to the big win. ”

    It more than rubbed me the wrong way when they had no speed bump to speak of. So much so, that I wouldn’t even watch the finale (my first in 25 seasons) as I felt cheated by the producers’ changing of the rules without informing the viewers that now 4 teams (out of a whopping 11) will be racing to the end. If anything, “The Amazing Race” should now be called, “The Not-so Amazing Race.”

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