The Amazing Race has its final three, and this episode certainly shook things up by the time it was all over.
Was it by design or sheer coincidence that the first task on this leg involved finding Tintin? They never made mention of the new movie in the episode, so I’d like to think it was just a coincidence, but it also could have been a clever stealth marketing campaign. Hmmm. It was still kind of a fun challenge as the teams had to dress like characters from the Tintin comic strip, figure out who they were, then find a mural and a real life Tintin to get the next clue.
Unfortunately, Andy & Tommy (with an hour lead on last place team Marcus & Amani) seemed to be confusing the locals by asking about a comic instead of a comic strip, leading one person to tell them they were Charlie Chaplin. All the other teams got the right names, so Andy & Tommy were the last team to figure out who they were. But, it didn’t matter because they all ended up on the same train to Amsterdam and then the same flight to Panama City, where Andy & Tommy were first out of the airport, and the first to the next location where they had to sign up for a tattoo the next morning.
Andy & Tommy got the first tattoo, Jeremy & Sandy were 20-minutes behind them, and Ernie & Cindy and Marcus & Amani were 40-minutes behind Andy & Tommy. The next task was an old school Amazing Race task, with a little bit of Fear Factor thrown in (I actually just saw this on a UK version of Fear Factor last week), that required one team member to walk a tightrope between two 36-storey skyscrapers. Sandy was terrified of the height, but with the contraption they were all harnessed into, they weren’t going anywhere if they slipped off the tightrope. It would have been more interesting if they had a rig that let them drop if they had fallen and then had to start over, so everyone finished the walk on the first try.
The Detour had teams either construct a pair of sandals from a single piece of leather and one leather strip, or deliver fish to various stalls in a fish market. Three teams chose the sandals while Marcus & Amani went for the fish, which seemed a lot more complicated than originally presented. They had to deliver specific amounts of fish to a stall and any extra had to be delivered to another stall but they had to get the weight balances perfect. I don’t know how they did it, but Marcus & Amani actually finished the Detour second behind … Andy & Tommy, who got their sandals right on the first try.
Things took an interesting and really unfair turn at the last clue before the Pit Stop. The teams had to find the name of the Pit Stop location, Panama Viejo, printed on the dress of one dancer or find an engraving on the jewelry they were all wearing. Andy & Tommy only saw the word Balboa and went in search of a statue of Balboa. Jeremy & Sandy sketched the building and their cab driver knew where to go. Ernie & Cindy and Marcus & Amani also went for Balboa as the clue even as Andy & Tommy discovered they were in the wrong place and had to go back to the square. But, it seems that all of the other teams’ cab drivers were working together, so when Jeremy & Sandy’s driver knew where to go, he called the other drivers and told them, giving the other two teams a really unfair advantage. It’s not the teams’ faults, but had Ernie & Cindy and Marcus & Amani gone to the same Balboa statue that Andy & Tommy had just returned from, they would have all been in a race for the last two spots.
As it turned out, Jeremy & Sandy found the Pit Stop on their own and took first place, with Ernie & Cindy and Marcus & Amani only a minute or two behind them, leaving Andy & Tommy in last place and eliminated. You know, it’s one thing when a team shares information with another team, like Andy & Tommy did with Marcus & Amani, but to be taken out of the game by cab drivers sharing information is another matter altogether. I might not have liked them sharing answers (with a team that may not have made it this far if they hadn’t) or not giving Ernie & Cindy that one first place finish, but I really think Andy & Tommy got screwed out of competing in the last leg … by a cab driver! And as we’ve often seen, who wins and loses the race can come down to a good or bad cab driver. I don’t know why they don’t let the contestants drive themselves around as much as they used to, but I think it’s time to start putting the racers’ fates back into their own hands.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Dec 04, 2011 @ 23:56 EST5EDT
I’m so annoyed at the cab drivers. Yes, a cab driver can make or break a team but thats when it comes to driving, directions etc. Sharing the answer like that — not cool. It should have been a race between the 3 teams who didn’t have the answer. This, this is just disappointing.
(I like ernie/cindy, marcus/amani but that’s beside the point).
Of course, I’m also annoyed that jeremy & sandy figured it out. Of the four teams, they’re the one I don’t care about, find least appealing & can’t understand how they’ve survived.
I hope the finale in Atlanta plays up the nightmare of actually driving in Atlanta.
This reminds me of how Jet and Cord were cheated the last season – the deliberate sharing of information between teams (in this case, their cab drivers) EXCEPT for one other team. It is very unfair, I wonder how Andy and Tommy will feel when they watch the episode at home and realize how royally screwed they were by this ONE blabbermouth cab driver! I was so hoping Cindy and Ernie would have been the ones eliminated – I like Ernie o.k. but I get tired of Cindy’s constant whining. At least Andy and Tommy did win some really nice prizes, including the two Ford Mustangs! I wonder if their 6-leg win broke or tied the record for one team having won the most legs on a race? If they ever do another all-stars version, they should certainly include Andy and Tommy (as well as Jet and Cord).
In hindsight, it is too bad that Andy and Tommy rushed so much in trying to interpret the clues as the next pit stop, Jeremy and Sandy seemed to be a bit more deliberate and not as rushed in examining every aspect of the dancers’ costumes – it’s too bad their effort was not rewarded with THEM being the ONLY ones who would have gone to the right location. I think this sort of thing is what hurts ratings for TAR – viewers have a sense that the producers really don’t care about the teams having any sort of sense of fair play – one teams gets a clue right, the other teams can more or less cheat by following them and not have to guess the clue correctly on their own.
I don’t really care who wins the race at this point – I wouldn’t mind seeing Jeremy and Sandy winning because they seem to be the underdogs, I like Marcus and his wife o.k., I just don’t think they really need the money as much, with him having been a professional football player and I do NOT want Ernie and Cindy to win! But at this point, it really doesn’t matter all that much to me, as much as I did like Andy and Tommy I could never muster quite the same enthusiasm as I have in past seasons (especially the one with the Home Shopping Network hosts!).
Never trust the cab drivers, man. They will screw ya.
I guess now I’m rooting for Amani & Marcus? Not my first choice, but the best of the teams that are left.
lame sauce cbc lame sauce…. the boys deserve to be in it… i won’t watch the fanale.. who cares anymore
I don’t see how asking about a “comic” instead of a “comic strip” could confused the locals here, especially since “Tintin” *is* a comic and not a comic strip, so that should have help not hindered them. On the contrary, knowing Tintin I found it confusing that it was called a comic strip in the clue.
It was so unfair. The taxi drivers basically determined who won by excluding Adam’s driver. You could even see how happy the groups were because the Snowboarders weren’t there.
The Amazing Race should have allowed them to remain because this was excessive cheating by members outside of the race. It’s like if one man decides to be nice by giving away his mercedes or private plane so that all but one team can finish the tasks quicker.
The amazing race episode in Panama where Andy and Tommy got eliminated was a disgrace to fair competition. How is it that three of the teams told the taxi driver to take them to Balboa but two teams were taken to Panama Viejo instead without ever hearing the name of that location. How is that the three taxi drivers in league with each other took Panama Viejo to be the correct location when two teams stated Balboa as the correct location. They should of had no better knowledge of the correct destination than the contestants. Unless the correct destination was already known to them they would have listened to their faires. How coincidental the cab drivers had each others phone numbers but not Andy and Tommy’s drivers. I know the show has already wrapped but this should have been seen by producers and made a non elimination round!!!!
I disagree with the comments here. Cabs and cab luck play a huge factor in the amazing race, some times you get an amazing cab driver, sometimes your cab driver sucks, sometimes they share information, that is part of the race. The cabs are no different than any sort of route that the teams have to take, if the teams asked for directions and got bad directions would it be unfair? Shouldn’t the show girls have been insta-eliminated when one of them lost their passport in LA? The race needs skill and luck, cabs factor into that. As for Andy and Tommy, those guys got what they deserved. They have been poor winners the whole race.
*POST AUTHOR*
I have to respectfully disagree. Not being able to read a map when you have to drive yourself and then taking a chance on getting directions from a local is entirely in the hands of the team who needs the help. Ernie & Cindy and Amani & Marcus told their drivers where to go, just like Andy & Tommy did. Even Cindy said on camera that they were going to the Balboa statue and suddenly the cab driver got a call that they were supposed to go to Panama Viejo, therefore neither of those teams made their own choice as to where to go at that point. Their fate was taken out of their own hands. They told the driver where to go, he made the decision to go somewhere else (which actually could have been wrong as well, and then everyone would be saying how unfair it was for those teams). So, when the teams have to drive themselves, everyone has the same advantage to read the map or depend on locals for directions, and wherever they drive is up to them. Sitting in the back of the cab takes that decision-making out of the teams’ hands if the driver chooses to go elsewhere. Should the teams have insisted on continuing to Balboa? Sure (and they might have, but we’ll never know if that was edited out). Should the drivers have done what they were told? Absolutely. So, no, it wasn’t fair to Andy & Tommy at all, no matter what you think of them. And I don’t know which Andy & Tommy you’re referring to. I only saw them behave badly that one time (which I have pointed out a few times), but they’ve been nothing but good-natured, even asking to give their prize to Zak and Lawrence that time they won first because of the other team’s penalty. I don’t really see them as poor winners at all. They’re pro athletes, so they’re competitive but they’ve never been mean-spirited in the competition that I can remember.
All cab drivers are not equal, some are good, some are bad, good ones will call some one some times, and the bad ones will too when they get lost. It is part of the race, it is part of what makes the race fun. Some time the language barrier plays in, some times not. Andy and Tommy didn’t have a destination, they said Balboa, and the cab driver went with it. They had no clue. Team choose to keep the cab drivers that are good. There are a lot of factors. You can’t say the race is unfair, I would say it eventually balances out. In this case 6 time leg winners got a bad cab, it happens and it is part of the race. It is much more exciting to watch cab trauma then a series of bunches at a challenge or airport. With the cabs like driving there is some risk… That makes for drama.
When I call Andy and Tommy poor winners, I am referring specifically to the time they used their wives as excuses for claiming first on the winner mat. Then when they tried to psych Sandy out on the high wire that was just plain mean (i won’t even mention the closet christian reveal). At least with the other teams, you know Cindy is annoying, Sandy and Jeremy bicker, and Marcus has funny football analogies. Andy and Tommy had their moments, but they had their demons as well, and it felt like the producers did everything in their power to give them the nice guy edit, instead of the villain edit. Again I don’t think they are bad guys but I wasn’t sad to see them go, and I don’t think the cab situation was grossly unfair. We will see how nice they are in person post TARCON (where Jett and Cord were jerks).
I also have to disagree! They were very gratious winners at every leg, should they have raced so hard to beat Cindy and Ernie in that leg… YES! It is a competition and I for one would never want to win something because the person who could have beat me laid down.
Had the two teams who were taken to the pit stop after asking to be taken elsewhere asked to “follow the other cabs” or “can you call the other drivers to see where they are going” I’d be giving them high fives for thinking on the fly, but they did not. They specifically asked to be taken to the Balboa Statue, that is where they should have been taken.
What irks me I guess is that outside influences determined the race winners, not mistakes of the contestants or mechanical failures. They should have deemed that leg a non elimination round, or at the very least, invite them back so they can win they way they were supposed to.
*POST AUTHOR*
Exactly! They did not ask the drivers to follow Jeremy and Sandy. They were being taken somewhere they did not ask to go (and the editing, of course, doesn’t show us if either team did insist on going to Balboa Statue, so we’re left to assume they were just along for the ride at that point), and that it happened to be the right place (which the teams themselves did not determine, and Jeremy & Sandy told their driver not to call the others!), so that’s why it makes the situation unfair to Andy & Tommy. In earlier seasons, a lot of the driving was left up to the teams (anyone remember when one team accidentally drove into the DMZ between the North and South Korean border?!), and especially when they get back to the States for the final leg, a team’s fate should not be left in the hands of a cab driver! Too many first placers have lost because of a bad cab ride. Maybe Phil or the producers will see all of the complaints and invite Andy & Tommy to compete in next fall’s season (the spring season is already filming).
Completely agree with you ‘Nooooooo’ !
Had the teams have had some sort of contribution to the outcome (eg: asking the cab driver to follow the others) then I would be satisfied that they had given their best efforts to get into the final 3 and would say good on them. This is a race which is based around success and hard work by the competitors. Yes luck plays a part of it… LUCK! I wouldn’t call asking a cab driver to take them to the Balboa statue, having him talk with the other cabbies and have them taken to a different place LUCK…Jeremy and Sandy didnt get the recognition they deserved for working out the clue either, the other two teams just reaped up their rewards… Not that it’s cheating because obviously it wasn’t the teams’ fault but how disgraceful was it to see the first and second teams shouting out to the third team to hurry up cos they have beaten the boys, they were all just beaming over the fact that they weren’t in the final three. And someone actually stated above that Andy and Tommy were sore winners?! Please. Open your eyes!
Never saw the final and never cared to… There was no appeal to the show after this disappointing finish. Andy and Tommy were the best team and should’ve had the chance to have taken home the money on top of all of their other prizes. Shame shame shame.