Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Ladies First
By M. Giant | Season 17 | Episode 12 | Aired on 12.12.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The final three teams run the last leg in Los Angeles -- we should have known that if this race didn't begin there, it was sure to end there -- and race to the Port of Long Beach. There, they have to do a tandem bungee swing off a giant crane, which finally hits Nat right in her fear of heights. Of course she does it anyway, allowing her and Kat to hold onto their lead. Then it's a helicopter ride across town to the Rose Bowl, where they race to decorate sections of a huge Tournament of Roses parade float, putting Thomas in an awkward position when he does the last Road Block like he and Jill planned. Team @ are still in the lead when they get an actual puzzle-type clue leading them to Quixote Studios, where Bob Eubanks runs them through a memory challenge involving this season's greeters (and their hats) on a game-show set. Nat and Kat ace that while Jill and Thomas find themselves stranded in a corridor of L.A that has no internet. And that's it before the Finish Line, Graystone Mansion. Nat and Kat overcome L.A. traffic to become the first all-female team to win the race, followed by Team QVC and Jill and Thomas in third. Then there's an announcement of the "Unfinished Business" season starting in February, which is at least more accurate than the "All-Stars" phrase we've been hearing tossed around.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Welcome back to this, this being Seoul, South Korea. "Its name means 'capital city,'" Phil tells us, which immediately makes it seem a lot less exotic. Next he's going to tell me that Mumbai means "crowded" and Sao Paolo is "St. Paul" and Bangkok means "Wear a condom." Phil tries to save Seoul by talking up its "highly advanced infrastructure" and "dedication to the development of cutting-edge technology," concluding that "Seoul has become a world capital of extreme significance." Well, with that name, it damn well better have. Phil reminds us that the city's Temple of Heaven was built for Korea's first and only emperor, and was the eleventh Pit Stop in a race around the world. Which means we're just about done here.
Jill and Thomas, the first team to arrive, are leaving on this final leg at 3:57 AM, which, ouch. Sleepy. Thomas is looking pretty nervous as Jill tells him, "All right, honey, good luck." Thomas reads that they'll now fly to their final destination city, Los Angeles. So it's a race around the world minus three thousand miles or so. Suddenly Katy Perry is playing on the soundtrack for the second time in three Amazing Race finales (this time it's "California Gurls") as Phil says they'll be flying more than 6,000 miles. "When they land, they must travel to the Port of Long Beach and find Pier J, where they'll receive their next clue." As they get into a taxi to the airport, Jill interviews, "The girls have a chance to make Amazing Race history, but I don't think it's going to happen." Thomas plans to keep alive the sixteen-season streak of dudes winning the race. "I could care less about any type of history," we hear him say again. That must not have been his major at Notre Dame. He also tells Jill in the cab that when they return to L.A., he'll finally be able to use his Spanish skills. We'll see how that goes.
Brook and Claire are leaving at 4:23 AM, which is 26 minutes after Jill and Thomas. That must make that half-hour penalty from the previous leg sting even more. But they appear to be numbing the pain by dressing up in matching leopard-skin shorts and pink headband corsages. I know that works for me every time. They have $400 for this leg, but with those shorts on they could probably double it in a hurry. Brook interviews that she and Claire are best at working under pressure all the time. Claire says that if they "stay focused and run a clean leg and use our communication skills that we are blessed with, then we will take first place." Even though their communication skills have lately focused on Claire finally starting to tell Brook to quit rushing her all the time. In the cab to the airport, Brook says that their biggest threat is Thomas. "He's just so hungry. We need to be more hungry than Thomas. And I'm starving." I was going to say.