Leo & Jamal were another surprise elimination in The Amazing Race 24 Episode 11, leaving us with a final three I don’t think anyone saw coming.
I had counted Dave & Connor out early, but they have proved to be one of this season’s strongest teams, though they still think they deserve preferential treatment of not being U-turned because there is an old man on their team. I suspected Caroline & Jennifer would go far, if for no other reason that they can flirt their way to the top, though I also did not think we would be seeing them in the final three. Brendon & Rachel are no strangers to this position, having placed 3rd the last time they raced, and a couple of meltdowns notwithstanding proved to be one of the stronger, albeit not the most liked, teams.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Dave & Connor – 4:31AM
Second: Caroline & Jennifer – 4:38AM
Third: Brendon & Rachel – 4:52AM
Teams must now fly to their final destination city, Las Vegas, Nevada. Brendon & Rachel live there, and one of the country girls went to high school there.
They hop in a car in the airport and, upon arrival, are instructed to get out and dig. Even this leads to an argument between the teams. This should be a fun leg. Their task is to dig up a box that says property of David Copperfield. Brendon manages to pry his box open, and it contains a bunch of keys (50). The other teams await further instructions instead. They’ll find out at the road block that they need to open that box, which they should already know based on the instructions written on it.
The road block requires teams to be lokced inside a wooden crate, then free themselves using the keys they just dug up.
Road block (in order of arrival): Connor, Jennifer, Rachel
Though this is more interesting than most because of the magic and fire involved, it is ultimately just a dumb luck task of seeing who can get the right key first, though going through 50 keys does not seem particularly difficult regardless. Having opened up their box before arrival, Brendon & Rachel manage to jump into second place ahead of Caroline & Jennifer, with Dave & Connor still leading based on their early luck in the airport.
Brendon & Rachel have such a bad cab driver that they try to steal Caroline & Jennifer’s cab, but he does not take the bait. They were good judges of this driver because he manages to give the girls the lead, while the Brenchels fall back into last.
Upon arrival at The Mirage, their task is to replace all of the lights in the sign at the top of the building and count the number of bulbs used. Rachel used to work at this hotel, but the hometown advantage seems to be turning into a disadvantage.
Dave & Connor manage to jump back into the lead by a couple minutes by completing the task quicker than the country girls. Not wanting to deal with the other one again, Brendon & Rachel have dismissed their cab driver and will find another one.
The final road block requires teams to skydive from a helicopter at 10,000 feet after spotting the sign with their landing zone.
Road block (in order of arrival): Dave, Caroline, Brendon
At this point, there does not seem to be anything Brendon & Rachel can do to catch up to the two lead teams, who are neck and neck. This task does not seem to lend itself to catching up, and for that matter, the landing zone is the pit stop, meaning there is no time to be made up. Both of these road blocks, while spectacular, aren’t what I would expect in a race oriented show.
The Amazing Race season 24 winners are Dave & Connor. They were a strong team right from the beginning, despite their U-turn whining. Caroline & Jennifer have placed second, and Brendon & Rachel once again come in third.
The Amazing Race has been renewed for season 25. After 8 years in the Sunday at 8PM time slot, the show will now move to Fridays at 8. This is the night where networks send their shows to die. If there is good news in this announcement, it’s that there will no longer be concerns about football overruns, so the show will actually start on time for a change. CBS is also arguably more reliable on Friday nights than some of these other networks that cancel half their lineups every season.