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spiderbraidsTime to bring it home, sort of :-)
Ep 10
- Next stop on the megaleg is a picture on a postcard, and asking around reveals that it is the small town of Ronda, about a 90 minute drive... Derek and Claire get lost and have a problem making a U-Turn in a narrow road, to the point that there's a screen with a caption saying "5 Minutes Later..." during the U-Turn LOL, which thankfully they manage OK, but it drops them down to 3rd (We also get to see the twins and military bros finish their grilled fish)
- At a bridge, a tour guide with a flag (remember this for later) is the clue pickup for the Detour: Bend over Backwards (make a brick arch) or Dress for Success (memorize the accessories of a flamenco dancer and get the stuff from a nearby shop) Miami are having enough issues with the details (shawl, shawl pin, castanets, flowers, earrings) that BB and team ballroom (the only team left without a leg win) arrive in Ronda and of curse team ballroom will do the dance task :-) And BB decide to work with them, because they helped team ballroom at the fish grilling Detour (replete with helpful flashback :-))
- The twins take a wrong exit but still arrive in Ronda ahead of the military bros, but end up having problems finding the dance task... Meanwhile, Miami are still first after the Detour and head off to "Paseo de Kazunori Yamauchi" (show gives no explanation why this place has a Japanese name) for a Roadblock: "Who's been paying attention?" Walk a tightrope under the bridge, and get the envelope with the flag that the tour guide from earlier has holding... Michelle is laughing at getting this challenge, because she's such a thrillseeker LOL!
- The military bros decide to Bend over Backwards, so we get to see this side of the Detour, being held at Arab baths (where these arches have traditionally been used), where they're provided with a wooden arch to lay the bricks before their arch will be weight-tested :-) Meanwhile, Miami gets the correct envelope first go (the envelopes have completely different color flags, one of which is for Spain) to get the clue for the Pitstop, between busts of Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway at some park... And Miami have a brief flamenco dance break after getting the clue, LOL.
Ep 11
- After losing the military bros, it's the Final 4 in Iceland, where we start with a pre-start helicopter ride from the get-go... Derek compares himself to James Bond on a mission prompting Claire to call herself a Bond Girl, and of course helicopter engineer David loves the helicopter ride :-) Leg proper starts at a glacier with a ice wall climb at a place with a hard-to-pronounce name, with Miami and team ballroom in group 1, and the twins and BB in group 2, and look at Molly going faster than Derek, even though she's the one with the knee issues (at least I think that's right?)
- Next will be a drive to another hard to pronounce name, and it's a long walk to the the jeeps that they'll be driving, so Emily is trying to distract Molly from the pain with flowers growing in the lava rock (they pick what looks like a dandelion, and they struggle to blow away the seeds LOL) After scenes of everyone strugging with stick (because of course they're stick, and Derek compares them to a spaceship LOL) and everyone following everyone even after wrong turns, BB are first at the Roadblock called "Who's feeling misty-eyed?" and the clue even notes that Derek has to do this one... It's a whole lot like the canyoning task we had last season (and then two seasons before that); here we have contestants abseil into a cave, find a clue there, then drop into a river and swim back to the partner... Derek likes this task because there's no mental stuff needed; David, let's just say not so much, as he has no swimming skills
- Next stop is Silfra inThingvellirÞingvellir National Park, and it's a product-placed Expedia Experience, involving swimming into the fissure between the America and Eurasia tectonic plates: Find and memorize 14 volcanoes and years they erupted (some have erupted more than once), and then match them on a board at the end, and swim as many times as it takes to get them all right... This prompts Derek to switch from glasses to contacts, and Claire has always loved swimming so she's looking forward to a swimming challenge... The remaining teams show up while BB and Miami are on the course and of course David is not so excited about the task LOL, while one of the twins quip "Hopefully my memory card is good" before heading into the task... Miami have to go swimming again, but BB get it right on the first go, so they can drive to the Pitstop at Gullfoss... meanwhile, while the others are working the task, we get a sight gag of a zebra crossing sign with a snorkeler pictogram LOL.
Ep 12
- Before we head into the final episode proper, as far as I remember, I've only missed two finishes in the first-run broadcast across the previous 33 seasons (so this will be the 3rd, though one of those I caught later in off-season reruns), and it feels surreal to see the broadcaster's "this month's programming" promo include "Season Premiere: TAR" AFTER they've already shown the season finale :-\
- Anyways, we're rid of team ballroom, and the final stop is Nashville, but first, a trip to the Jack Daniel's factory in Lynchburg for a labeling and crating task, to serve as the pre-title prologue: One player puts the labels on the bottles, the other crates after passing QC... Twins and Big Brother are 1st and 2nd, while Miami fall behind after having a lot of Michele's bottles fail QC because the top label wasn't flush :-\ (So our local broadcaster wouldn't show Will/James' finish line wedding proposal 2 years ago, but a task revolving around America's most famous whiskey is A-OK with them LOL) Teams then all end up stopping at the same gas station to get directions to Nashville proper; meanwhile, the twins quip that they're the shortest, oldest, and "female-est" team left LOL.
- More specifically, they're looking for the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge, where a Roadblock simply called "Climb and Rappel" awaits, and clue apparently only lists who's doing the task, and BB have the advantage here because the other two have girls climbing, and Michele gets so winded that Emily overtakes her (more on why the twins were in last after finishing the whiskey task in 1st anon), though Molly notes that Emily does do plenty of climbing back home, and even did the castle rappel in this race :-) Clue is in the form of a guitar pick marked with the name "Gibson Garage", taken out of a guitar bag on top of the arch
- The "Garage" turns out to be a guitar shop for the iconic guitar brand, with a special appearance from S22 and 24's Caroline/Jennifer (!) After having their star-struck moment, everyone has to deliver three guitars to honkytonk bars on Broadway on foot, but first, the twins end up getting to the "Garage" in last after finding out they've crossed the bridge over to the wrong side of the river (and this after also missing the turn for parking at the Roadblock [!]) Incidentally, Nashville has more musicians per capita than any city in the world, that's why it's called the Music City :-)
- Like its New York namesake, Nashville's Broadway is a pretty bustling thoroughfare, where, in Derek's own words, every tourist in America is getting drunk LOL, and everyone has to get around tourists and ask around to find the bars, "Tootsie's", "Whiskey Bent", and "Wild Horse", where a person is waiting to give them a paper wristband, and if they have all three bands, a ticket to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium... (Miami briefly think they have to return to get the clue from C/J, but then they read the ticket)
- ...for the obligatory final memory task called "Keys to Success", which fittingly enough for the Music City is somewhat music-themed: press a key on a giant "Big"-style floor keyboard, bring up a picture, and play the ones that correspond to the legs in their given order, and it's clearly going to come down to Big Brother (arrived first, Derek can read music and memorize notes) and Miami (Michelle remembers well, but arrived second and aren't so good with music) And there's also a whole string section playing the iconic theme song live, which Phil Keoghan reveals was composed by John King in 2001 :-) (Obligatory observation that for the past few seasons, we've only gotten the full titles at the start of the season [though we got it in ep 2 this season as well]) Hoping that I can catch reruns to see how it all ends (as well as the other legs, too :-))
Ep 10
- Next stop on the megaleg is a picture on a postcard, and asking around reveals that it is the small town of Ronda, about a 90 minute drive... Derek and Claire get lost and have a problem making a U-Turn in a narrow road, to the point that there's a screen with a caption saying "5 Minutes Later..." during the U-Turn LOL, which thankfully they manage OK, but it drops them down to 3rd (We also get to see the twins and military bros finish their grilled fish)
- At a bridge, a tour guide with a flag (remember this for later) is the clue pickup for the Detour: Bend over Backwards (make a brick arch) or Dress for Success (memorize the accessories of a flamenco dancer and get the stuff from a nearby shop) Miami are having enough issues with the details (shawl, shawl pin, castanets, flowers, earrings) that BB and team ballroom (the only team left without a leg win) arrive in Ronda and of curse team ballroom will do the dance task :-) And BB decide to work with them, because they helped team ballroom at the fish grilling Detour (replete with helpful flashback :-))
- The twins take a wrong exit but still arrive in Ronda ahead of the military bros, but end up having problems finding the dance task... Meanwhile, Miami are still first after the Detour and head off to "Paseo de Kazunori Yamauchi" (show gives no explanation why this place has a Japanese name) for a Roadblock: "Who's been paying attention?" Walk a tightrope under the bridge, and get the envelope with the flag that the tour guide from earlier has holding... Michelle is laughing at getting this challenge, because she's such a thrillseeker LOL!
- The military bros decide to Bend over Backwards, so we get to see this side of the Detour, being held at Arab baths (where these arches have traditionally been used), where they're provided with a wooden arch to lay the bricks before their arch will be weight-tested :-) Meanwhile, Miami gets the correct envelope first go (the envelopes have completely different color flags, one of which is for Spain) to get the clue for the Pitstop, between busts of Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway at some park... And Miami have a brief flamenco dance break after getting the clue, LOL.
Ep 11
- After losing the military bros, it's the Final 4 in Iceland, where we start with a pre-start helicopter ride from the get-go... Derek compares himself to James Bond on a mission prompting Claire to call herself a Bond Girl, and of course helicopter engineer David loves the helicopter ride :-) Leg proper starts at a glacier with a ice wall climb at a place with a hard-to-pronounce name, with Miami and team ballroom in group 1, and the twins and BB in group 2, and look at Molly going faster than Derek, even though she's the one with the knee issues (at least I think that's right?)
- Next will be a drive to another hard to pronounce name, and it's a long walk to the the jeeps that they'll be driving, so Emily is trying to distract Molly from the pain with flowers growing in the lava rock (they pick what looks like a dandelion, and they struggle to blow away the seeds LOL) After scenes of everyone strugging with stick (because of course they're stick, and Derek compares them to a spaceship LOL) and everyone following everyone even after wrong turns, BB are first at the Roadblock called "Who's feeling misty-eyed?" and the clue even notes that Derek has to do this one... It's a whole lot like the canyoning task we had last season (and then two seasons before that); here we have contestants abseil into a cave, find a clue there, then drop into a river and swim back to the partner... Derek likes this task because there's no mental stuff needed; David, let's just say not so much, as he has no swimming skills
- Next stop is Silfra in
Ep 12
- Before we head into the final episode proper, as far as I remember, I've only missed two finishes in the first-run broadcast across the previous 33 seasons (so this will be the 3rd, though one of those I caught later in off-season reruns), and it feels surreal to see the broadcaster's "this month's programming" promo include "Season Premiere: TAR" AFTER they've already shown the season finale :-\
- Anyways, we're rid of team ballroom, and the final stop is Nashville, but first, a trip to the Jack Daniel's factory in Lynchburg for a labeling and crating task, to serve as the pre-title prologue: One player puts the labels on the bottles, the other crates after passing QC... Twins and Big Brother are 1st and 2nd, while Miami fall behind after having a lot of Michele's bottles fail QC because the top label wasn't flush :-\ (So our local broadcaster wouldn't show Will/James' finish line wedding proposal 2 years ago, but a task revolving around America's most famous whiskey is A-OK with them LOL) Teams then all end up stopping at the same gas station to get directions to Nashville proper; meanwhile, the twins quip that they're the shortest, oldest, and "female-est" team left LOL.
- More specifically, they're looking for the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge, where a Roadblock simply called "Climb and Rappel" awaits, and clue apparently only lists who's doing the task, and BB have the advantage here because the other two have girls climbing, and Michele gets so winded that Emily overtakes her (more on why the twins were in last after finishing the whiskey task in 1st anon), though Molly notes that Emily does do plenty of climbing back home, and even did the castle rappel in this race :-) Clue is in the form of a guitar pick marked with the name "Gibson Garage", taken out of a guitar bag on top of the arch
- The "Garage" turns out to be a guitar shop for the iconic guitar brand, with a special appearance from S22 and 24's Caroline/Jennifer (!) After having their star-struck moment, everyone has to deliver three guitars to honkytonk bars on Broadway on foot, but first, the twins end up getting to the "Garage" in last after finding out they've crossed the bridge over to the wrong side of the river (and this after also missing the turn for parking at the Roadblock [!]) Incidentally, Nashville has more musicians per capita than any city in the world, that's why it's called the Music City :-)
- Like its New York namesake, Nashville's Broadway is a pretty bustling thoroughfare, where, in Derek's own words, every tourist in America is getting drunk LOL, and everyone has to get around tourists and ask around to find the bars, "Tootsie's", "Whiskey Bent", and "Wild Horse", where a person is waiting to give them a paper wristband, and if they have all three bands, a ticket to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium... (Miami briefly think they have to return to get the clue from C/J, but then they read the ticket)
- ...for the obligatory final memory task called "Keys to Success", which fittingly enough for the Music City is somewhat music-themed: press a key on a giant "Big"-style floor keyboard, bring up a picture, and play the ones that correspond to the legs in their given order, and it's clearly going to come down to Big Brother (arrived first, Derek can read music and memorize notes) and Miami (Michelle remembers well, but arrived second and aren't so good with music) And there's also a whole string section playing the iconic theme song live, which Phil Keoghan reveals was composed by John King in 2001 :-) (Obligatory observation that for the past few seasons, we've only gotten the full titles at the start of the season [though we got it in ep 2 this season as well]) Hoping that I can catch reruns to see how it all ends (as well as the other legs, too :-))
