Amazing Race Review

Spoilers ahead, of course.

And we go from the Alps to Rio de Janeiro. Only four teams are left. Two of them found flights that would get them into Rio at 730a and the other two were set to come in at 540p. Ten hour advantage? That's a big deal. But (not surprisingly) the two later ones found out about the earlier flight and voila, everyone was together. The whole season has fit this mold. Each of the opening flights has been a bunching point and there has been little advantage in the flights. (Well, except for Kent and Vyxin's Japanese adventure.) I'm fine with this.
Into Rio and on to the taxis! The Globetrotters drew the short straw here and ended up missing a tram. The next one didn't come by for a half hour. They were fortunate though, they were able to catch up at a samba challenge. After everyone got a Brazilian wax (ouch!) each team had to choose between making 100 mixed drinks or selling bikinis on the beach. Poor Zev and Justin tried the bikini approach and failed miserably.
Then it was off to the Pit Stop at the Contemporary Art Museum. Gary and Mallory got their first, followed by Jen and Kisha. The Globetrotters came in third and Zev and Justin were eliminated. We learned some things here. A) Rio de Janeiro is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and B) the bikinis in Rio make the CBS blur machine busy.

This was a two parter so we also got to see the finale. The remaining teams all took the same flight to Miami. Once there they had to go to a marina and move some boats with a forklift. This time Gary and Mallory the slow cab and it basically sunk them. The Globetrotters and Sisters were neck and neck throughout. Well, almost. The Sisters were simply a little bit faster.
From the marina they went to Key Largo where one member of each team used a personal sub to hunt in treasure chests for a clue. These tasks really punish later teams as there are fewer and fewer clues left.
Then they went to a camp where they had to wade through shallow water to a scrub island and find a clue box. The wind picked up here and it looked kind of tough. Next was a speed boat to a trailer park (seriously) where each team had to set up a trailer tableau to match a picture. The wind made this very tough.
The Sisters got this done first and they were off to Seven Mile bridge. There they found big tricycles to ride across with. The Globetrotters weren't far behind them but they just couldn't make up the distance. Kisha and Jen won despite never having won a leg before this one. They were a strong team and I wasn't sad to see them win. (Really, I liked all of the final four teams.)

And now comes the long sad time between the end of this season and the start of the new one next fall.