Well, after this week there will be a huge void until Jack Bauer comes back from the “dead” to give the columists something to talk about. So I’d expect this to be my last long column for the year.
Bits and Pieces
… will return.
‘The Amazing Race’ in Hindsight
Well, a poor season ends off with a stellar finale, and good conquered evil as the Linzes won the Amazing Race, and the Weavers finished a distant third.
The airport was interesting, as the Linzes seemed to explore all the options to get to Montreal, the Bransens looked for direct connections from Minneapolis, and the Weavers… looked for a direct flight (from Montana?) and then lucked out with a helpful Agent in Toronto. I actually liked that the teams were assigned tickets, but were under no obligation to use them. I suppose that it was done for production reasons, but it allowed for teams to be more aggressive in looking for flights.
An incredibly helpful cab driver, Ted, allowed the Weavers to take the lead in Montreal, but they pissed that away as they circled around Olympic Park looking for The Big O. In fact, once Ted said “au revoir”, the Weavers seemed lost and unable to work well.
In Toronto, the Weavers experienced trouble trying to figure out what “La Tour CN” was. Which I kind of understand – coming from Florida, the chances of them knowing of the CN Tower is less than the Bransens and Linzes, as they live in Illinois and Ohio.
Detour (Montreal): Curling can be difficult to master, but as the Weavers and Linzes showed, it’s easy to learn. The difficulty with the “Slide It” option actually turned out to be finding the curling rink, which was not at the main (downtown) campus but rather at a second campus further out. The logging task was a lot more physical, and it seemed to wear the Bransens down more. However, given that they arrived in Montreal in third place (although they didn’t realize it), it was actually a smart move to do the Roll It, as doing the opposite task afforded them the opportunity to catch up.
Detour (Toronto): Ship was the faster option, but only if you were the first team out there. Being second, the Bransens opted for Shoe, which was a luck-based option, and it paid off for them as they ended up only a few minutes behind the Linzes. The Weavers, being a bit behind, should’ve taken Shoe, and ended up with a significant time deficit that they couldn’t overcome. My wife also tells me that the Ship Detour would’ve taken place very close to her office, where she has a view of the harbour and Toronto Island (where the teams flew into).
Roadblock (Montreal): This should not have been a difficult task, except that Alex Linz (who was the largest of the siblings) took the task when Megan or Tommy were much better suited for it.
Roadblock (Lewiston): I’m assuming that the Weavers were allowed to skip the task. This was actually a good Roadblock, as puzzles require a lot of mental fortitude, but with the Finish Line only a short sprint away, nerves would certainly play a factor in the assembly.
Final Standings:
10. Black (Lancaster, PA)
9. Rogers (Middleburg, VA)
8. Aiello (Huntsville, AL)
7. Schroeder (New Orleans, LA)
6. Gaghan (Quepos, Costa Rica)
5. Paolo (FF, Y, 2) (Lake Powell, AZ)
4. Godlewski (3) (Absarokee, MT)
Final Three (Lewiston, NY):
3. Weaver (1) – When asked for comments, God said, “Hey, I gave them Ted, and they STILL couldn’t win. As far as I was concerned, My job was done there, y’know? I’ve got other concerns, like wars, poverty, and the Minnesota Vikings.”
2. Bransen (3) – With the final Roadblock being so close, there was little chance that they’d outrace the Linzes at the end. But full credit to Wally for keeping up with his energetic daughters.
1. Linz (Y, 2) – Who dey? Who dey? Who dey beat dem Linzes? Noone, apparently, and a classy move to split the winnings with their parents (half) and three other siblings (the rest), meaning that after tax they’re probably only getting around $40,000 each.
Ranking The Shows:
8. Season 3 – Miami, FL to Seattle, WA (41,000 miles) – One word: Flo
7. Season 8 (Family Edition) – New York, NY to Lewiston, NY (11,000 miles) – Involving kids was a good idea in theory, but not even travelling outside of North and Central America hurts the appeal of the Race.
6. Season 6 – Chicago, IL to Chicago, IL (40,000 miles) – Halfway through the race, all the likeable teams except Kris and Jon were gone. And then we had to see Freddy and Kendra win.
5. Season 4 – Los Angeles, CA to Phoenix, AZ (44,000 miles) – Aside from the Clowns and Kelly and Jon, there really wasn’t much to this season. I never really warmed to Reichen and Chip, although in hindsight, they WERE nicer than Lynn and Alex.
4. Season 5 – Santa Monica, CA to Dallas, TX (72,000 miles) – It was an absolute blast to watch Chip and Kim win this season, as Colin self-destructed after he and Christie domininated most of the Race.
3. Season 1 – New York, NY to New York, NY (35,000 miles) – It’s actually hard to watch this season as the show is still trying to find it’s legs, but the drama is top notch. Plus, Team Guido.
2. Season 7 – Long Beach, CA to Fort Lauderdale, FL (40,000 miles) – Boston Rob makes this a fun one to watch
1. Season 2 – Las Vegas, NV to San Francisco, CA (52,000 miles) – By far the best season of the show (sorry Murtz) as the original “guess where you have to go” clues were there, the teams had very diverse relationships, and everything just seemed to gel.
‘Survivor: Guatemala’ in Hindsight
Final Standings:
Pre-Merge:
18. Jim Lynch
17. Morgan McDevitt
16. Brianna Varela
15. Brooke Struck
14. Blake Towsley
13. Margaret Bobnich
12. Brian Corridan
11. Amy O’Hara
Merge Boot:
10. Brandon Bellinger
Post-Merge:
9. Bobby Jon Drinkard
8. Jamie Newton (1 IC)
7. Gary Hogeboom (1 IC)
6. Judd Sergeant
5. Cindy Hall
Final Four:
4. Lydia Morales
3. Rafe Judkins (4 IC)
2. Stephanie La Grossa (1 IC)
1. Danni Boatwright (2 IC)
After Cindy was voted out last week, two things became pretty apparent. One, that Steph or Lydia would finish second, and two, that there was no chance of a Rafe/Danni final. Given my championing of Danni as the winner ever since Brian was voted out, I had predicted in the IP forums (as starvenger) that Danni would win, with Lydia second, Rafe third and Steph fourth. So not too shabby there. Of course, it helps that I can change my mind every week if I want :).
Immunity Challenges:
– That was one awesome Maze for the Final Four immunity. Endurance played a large factor in Rafe and Steph pulling ahead of the others, but Danni kept things close and Lydia did surprisingly well considering how she normally sucks at challenges.
– To my recollection, this was the second Final Three Endurance challenge that was designed to be short – the first was in Thailand – and I’m not sure if the challenge designers had thought of it, but all three competitors managed to end up leaning against a pole with their feet on the wobble board. After Rafe made the mental error and was eliminated, my wife and I noted that it was just a matter of time before Steph lost, due to Danni’s obvious length advantage allowing her to stay straight.
Tribal Council:
The final Tribal Council was one of the best ones I’ve seen as far as questions go. It can’t match the emotion of some previous seasons, but the Jury (except Judd) asked solid questions, and were rewarded with mostly solid answers. However, I get the feeling that the questions were unimportant, as Steph was probably assured of not getting votes from Judd, Jamie and Cindy, while Danni was probably getting Gary’s vote. The end result, of course, was a slam dunk victory for Danni.
Ranking The Winners:
11. Amber Brkich, All Stars – If she doesn’t hook up with Boston Rob, she doesn’t win.
10. Jenna Morasca, Amazon – Winning the critical final immunity was the key to Jenna becoming Sole Survivor. By winning, she votes Rob Cesterino out and takes crazy Matt with her, leading to the victory.
9. Sandra Diaz-Twine, Pearl Islands – Sandra played a good game, but without Lil taking her to the finals, she doesn’t win. I won’t deny that she knew when to switch her vote to someone else, but everyone – and this includes Lil – knew that Lil had zero chance of being Sole Survivor, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let Fairplay win it.
8. Vecepia Towery, Marquesas – Vecepia is a step above Sandra because she overcame a minority situation to win Sole Survivor. Sure, she had the benefit of people (unjustifiably) pissed off at Neleh, but like Sandra she knew when to make deals and switch her vote.
7. Tina Wesson, Australian Outback – Tina outright stole the victory from Colby, but you can’t really blame anyone but Colby for that. Similar to Amber, she rode her alliance to the Final Two, and allowed Colby to shoulder most of the heat for the ouster of their tribemates.
6. Chris Daugherty, Vanuatu – Chris overcame heavy odds to win, but his brilliance really shone through during final Tribal Council, where he managed to say all the right things to claim the title.
5. Danni Boatwright, Guatemala – Like Chris, overcame the odds but I felt she had tougher competition to beat.
4. Ethan Zohn, Africa – Won with quiet grace.
3. Tom Westman, Palau – Gave hope to everyone who wanted to win the game with positive morals and by just being themselves.
2. Brian Hedik, Thailand – He dominated his season with mostly solid gameplay and physical prowess.
1. Richard Hatch, Borneo – The guy who helped define how people played the game is still the most worthy winner ever.
Ranking the Shows:
11. Vanuatu – Zzzzzzz… sorry Eliza, it’s true.
10. Africa – I give Ethan and Kim Johnson all the credit in the world – 39 days sitting in a protective circle would drive me nuts.
9. Amazon – Notable only for Rob Cesterino’s gameplay.
8. Marquesas – Boston Rob, good. Power shift, good. Everything else, not so much.
7. Thailand – While Brian’s gameplay was brilliant, the rest of the show wasn’t, except for moments of idiocy from Robb and moments of snarkiness from Shii An.
6. Pearl Islands – The Outcasts gave us an interesting twist, and Fairplay was obviously quite entertaining.
5. All Stars – It was a good idea, but without Boston Rob, this was pretty boring.
4. Australia – The mystique of the show was still there, and it was interesting to see if people would adapt strategies similar to Rich Hatch or try something completely different.
3. Guatemala – A tough, physical game filled with interesting characters and a great comeback by Danni to win.
2. Palau – Action from the get-go, and the futility of Ulong carried the first half of the season, while the saga of Stephanie and Tom virtually running the table to win carried the second half.
1. Borneo – The original and still the best.
That’s it for this week.
