In Hindsight: The Amazing Race All Stars – Episode 11-12

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LEADERBOARD (Final Standings)
Pos &nbsp Name RB Name RB 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
1 &nbsp Eric 6 Danielle 4 4 4 3 2 6 5 5 5 3 4 3 2 1
2 Beauty Queens Dustin 5 Kandice 5 6 7 4 5 2 4 1 3 1 2 1 1 2
3 Teletubbies Charla 6 Mirna 4 8 8 8 7 1 1 4 4 2 3 2 3 3
4 Cha Cha Cha Danny 3 Oswald 4 2 2 5 1 3 2 2 1 4 1 4 4
5 &nbsp Uchenna 3 Joyce 2 7 5 2 6 7 3 3 1 5
6 Team Guido Joe 2 Bill 4 5 3 7 4 5 6 6 6
7 &nbsp Teri 2 Ian 3 3 6 6 3 4 7
8 Romber Rob 1 Amber 2 1 1 1 8
9 Kentucky David 1 Mary 1 9 9 9
10 &nbsp Kevin 1 Drew 0 10 10
11 &nbsp John Vito 0 Jill 0 11

NOTES:

L5 Non-Elimination Leg, Uchenna and Joyce came in last and were Marked for Elimination
L7 Non-Elimination Leg, Joe and Bill came in last and were Marked for Elimination
L8 Danny, Oswald, Uchenna and Joyce used the Fast Forward
L9 Dustin and Kandice Yielded Eric and Danielle
L10 Danny and Oswald used the Fast Forward
Non-Elimination Leg, Eric and Danielle came in last and were Marked for Elimination
L11 Danny and Oswald Yielded Eric and Danielle
Non-Elimination Leg, Danny and Oswald came in last and were Marked for Elimination

Travel
Teams went from Guam to Hawaii. Charla and Mirna knew that they couldn’t beat the other teams in a footrace, so they tried to do whatever they could to gain an advantage at the airports, knowing that minutes here could win the race. They lucked out in Tokyo, finding a United flight that got in earlier than the previously booked Northwest flight, and those 20 minutes (the NWA flight got in early) helped them to get the first charter helicopter to Lanai. And that’s where it all seemed to break down for them on this part of the leg.

Detour – Under Water or Above Water
The paddling was obviously not as tough as it initially seemed to be, but still, the diving task appeared to be the easier of the two. Eric and Danielle started about ten minutes behind the cousins, and appeared to gain a slight time advantage. Of course I could be wrong about that, as the cousins seemed to have lost time traveling to Shipwreck Beach anyway.

Shipwreck Beach
As I previously mentioned, the cousins were not going to win if things came down to a footrace, and the one mile walk across the rocky beach helped to illustrate this point. Both of the other teams managed to catch up and pass Charla and Mirna, and were well on their way to the clue by the time the cousins launched their kayak.

This task was a punishing physical task that really required the teams to work together. I can understand the frustration of the Beauty Queens when they were trying to move the kayak against the current but seemingly not getting anywhere. But they lost valuable time trying to “walk” towards the kayak. Luckily for them, they were able to catch up at the heliport and weren’t far behind for the final flight. Still, this led to an argument between the two that lasted… what, one minute? That friendship is SO over now.

Travel
The final flight had all three teams traveling from Honolulu to San Francisco (via Oakland). I wonder if teams were instructed to fly to Oakland airport, or if flights to San Francisco were simply all booked or slower. Regardless, Charla and Mirna worked very hard to find a faster flight, to no avail. Which meant that they REALLY needed to blitz the final task or face a footrace to the finish.

Safe Cracker
This was an… interesting final task. Essentially, with the teams so close together, the one that could crack the code within the allotted ten minutes had a very strong chance of winning. And so it was, as Danielle figured out her code early and brought home the victory for her team. And she FINALLY finished first – when it mattered most. Beauty Queens were a well-deserved second, and Charla certainly earned her third place finish.

Final Thoughts
As far as seasons go, The Amazing Race All Stars was not a particularly great one, which has been par for the course with CBS’ “All Star” reality competitions. There were definitely moments of greatness, and I think the Beauty Queens and Cha Cha Cha really left their mark on the show, but I think that teams which could have really made this show interesting were either eliminated early or not on the show at all – a Romber/Colin and Christie conflict would have added some drama here.

In addition, John Vito and Jill were bland this time around. The Frat Brothers simply didn’t want to be there – Kevin and Drew seemed to be competing only because they didn’t want to let their fans down by NOT being there. And Kentucky… I think David and Mary are great, but I still don’t know why they were competing again – the Rupert corollary?

Still, the show has bounced back from disappointing seasons and I’m sure that this will be no exception. I guess we’ll see in the fall.

Sir Linksalot: The Amazing Race: All Stars

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).