I do not wish for this thread to become a repository of recaps, but this one was so good that I wanted to put it here
Who Won The Amazing Race 19?
The Amazing Race 19 Finale – Atlanta, Georgia
Dec.11, 2011
Written by The Analyzer,
http://www.theamazingraceanalysis.com/2011/12/the-amazing-race-19-finale-%E2%80%93-atlanta-georgia/Another exciting finale of The Amazing Race! This season, the racers finished up in Atlanta, Georgia, which is where one of the teams, Amani and Marcus, call home. Marcus was quick to put this in basketball terms “This gives them the home-court advantage” and then he remembered that he is a former football player, and changed it to “home field advantage.”
The other teams, Ernie and Cindy and Jeremy and Sandy immediately noted this, with Sandy saying that “This sucks” several times. I first had the impression that Sandy didn’t like Atlanta for some reason, but it turns out they were aware of Amani and Marcus’ home-court/field/city advantage.
The perils of the flight simulator
All of the teams took the same flight from Panama to Atlanta, so there was no drama or differentiation in which flight was taken. In finales, the choice of cab driver is crucial, and this was observed by the different teams – the teams were checking for full tanks of gas, accessibility to phones, and getting buy-in to race for the full day.
The first location the teams had to go was a Flight School with three full-sized flight simulators. The teams had to take the role of pilot and co-pilot, take off a simulated Leer Jet, and then land it from an altitude of 2500 feet. I like this task a lot, because it has the following elements:
1. Requires both team members to participate
2. Forces the choice between a pilot and a co-pilot
3. Requires communication between teammates
4. Requires trust between teammates
5. Requires patience between teammates
6. Requires precision between teammates
7. Segregates the teams from the others, so the teams can focus only on their own performance.
8. Has a good visual representation of success and failure (there’s nothing more dramatic than landing a plane that goes off the runway)
Kudos to the TAR Producers for coming up with a great challenge in the final leg.
All three teams chose the male counterpart as the pilot, and this surprises me. I would have thought that self-proclaimed “Control Freak” Cindy would be the pilot. Also, from a strategic perspective, I would have recommended Amani do any task, for, as I have noted in this blog previously, she has proven to be a strategic differentiator in completing tasks.
One team – Jeremy and Sandy – successfully landed the plane on the first try. Ernie and Cindy took, it appeared, two tries (I’m to assume that if Cindy was the pilot, perhaps they would have done this in one try).
Amani and Marcus, bless them, struggled. Marcus kept making procedural mistakes (“illegal procedure”) and frequently skidded the plane off the edge of the runway. Unlike the NFL, when the plane goes out of bounds, the clock keeps running. It’s unclear how many tries Marcus took to land the plane, but Amani demonstrated the patience of a saint, while Marcus got increasingly frustrated in his “Super Bowl.” I’m telling you – Team NFL should have made a strategic decision to have Amani do any of the tasks. She’s very good! In any case, they fell way behind, and were out of the running. Sorry Marcus – there’s always next year (OK, so this cliché doesn’t apply).
Finding “The Dump”
The next big differentiator between the teams was finding the “Former residence known as The Dump.” Here the TAR Producers have once again demonstrated their interest in increasing the degree of difficulty via what I call “Unstructured Clues.” Usually, a clue has a fairly well known locale – sometimes even addresses – that make it easy to determine (at least for cab drivers) where to go next. This season, the TAR Producers have frequently required racers to make inferences and do further investigation to get the full clue. In this case, the “Unstructured Clue” did-in Jeremy and Sandy. Team “Jerandy” asked a a kind Southern Gentleman where “The Dump” is, and lo and behold, there was a store in Atlanta called, “The Dump” and he guided them to this locale – “It used to be a Home Depot.” Wrong move!
Team Jerandy must have experienced total desperation and bewilderment upon arrival at “The Dump.” They kept repeating the clue “Former residence known as ‘The Dump,’” as they wandered around a used furniture store. Eventually they figured out that this was not a former residence, and had the temerity to ask someone to use a “Smart Phone” to further research the matter. (I’m wondering if the teams are coached not to use brand names like, say, “iPhone”, when racing. For example, they refer to places like “The Hotel” instead of, say, “The Hilton.” It must be strange to walk up to someone and say, “Do you have a smart phone?” when you really want to ask if they have an iPhone.)
In any case, team Jerandy were way behind.
The typing Road Block
At Margaret Mitchell’s house (also known as “The Dump”), teams found the road block. At this point, Ernie and Cindy had a big lead, and upon arrival, the teams needed to choose whom to perform the roadblock based on the clue, “Who gives a damn.”
Now, all season long we’ve heard about how Cindy is the ‘A student’ and Ernie is the ‘B student.’ They are at Margaret Mitchell’s house, so we know it has something to do with literary endeavors. The “Give a Damn” clue was clearly a reference to “Gone With the Wind” and they should have once again guessed this was an intellectual/literary challenge. Also, the house didn’t appear to be any extreme sporting equipment around (or mountains to climb), so having a strong person do the roadblock didn’t seem necessary. It’s hard to imagine what Cindy was thinking by deferring to Ernie to do the task.
Sure enough, the task at hand was to type out the next clue using a manual typewriter. It was charming to see those Gen-Y’ers try to figure out the typewriter. (Ernie asked for “Support” from the Southern Gentleman evaluator.)
The TAR Producers tried to throw another curveball in there by forcing the teams to figure out that there was no “1” on the typewriter, and they had to use the lower-case “l” as a replacement. I fully support this, as the challenge and requirement to think through things during the stressful situation should be incorporated into the finale.
Ernie, with his “faux-hawk” hairdo, seemed to struggle in the task, while Cindy fretted outside, wondering herself why she didn’t opt to do this task. Next time, Cindy! (Oh yeah, there is no next time.)
Alas, Team “Erndy” had such a huge lead, that it didn’t really matter how slowly Ernie completed the task. To his credit, he did, indeed, complete the task while Jeremy and Sandy were still wandering around “The Dump” and Amani and Marcus were trying to land a simulated plane. Time for the next clue!
Hank Aaron club and a “Massive Mental Map”
Again, the next clue was appropriately cryptic. Teams needed to figure out that the clue 44-715-74 was a reference to Henry Aaron’s home-run record. Upon getting to the hotel, where Cindy took over the Internet, she figured out this sports reference. It even appears that she’s familiar enough with Hank Aaron! So good job to Cindy here. Keep being smart!
Upon arriving at Turner Field, the teams (actually, just Ernie and Cindy) had to complete a cool task where they climb up a big map several feet off the ground, and chart their course across the globe during The Amazing Race.
This time, Team “Erndy” chose Cindy to perform the task. Good move. She looked great on the climbing wall, and knew exactly where to put the rope for each country. I’m sure that the TAR Producers would have liked some more drama, as happened back in Season 9, when BJ and Tyler made a stunning finale comeback during the “Flag Sorting” challenge just outside the final Pit Stop.
This task did not prove to be difficult, just cool looking — I think all rock walls should have a map on them! Cindy completed the task in short order.
Sure, the TAR Editors tried to make it look like Jeremy and Sandy were right behind them, but this proved hard to do, because teams were never at the same task the whole leg.
“Recalulating GPS” adds a hint of drama
While Jeremy and Sandy completed their “Massive Mental Map”, the TAR Editors made it look like Ernie and Cindy were hopelessly lost just outside the final Pit Stop at the “Swan House,” as the cab driver’s GPS kept “recalculating.” Nice try!
Ernie and Cindy were the clear winners as they entered the gates, jumped on the huge “finale mat”. Upon being told they were the winners, they made a statement about setting up some sort of charitable foundation (but without specifying how much of their winnings would go to it).
Still, great job to Ernie and Cindy! They never finished below 5th the entire race, making for a very strong outing with very few mistakes. Their victory was well-deserved, as they always proved to be the next-best competition to the dominant Andy and Tommy. (Although in Panama they were super-lucky their cab driver in Panama didn’t listen to them and followed Jeremy and Sandy to the Pit Stop.)
Ernie and Cindy are the second engaged couple to win it all (after Freddy and Kendra in Season 6). Upon winning, I have to say that Ernie’s hair looked particularly well-quaffed. I believe that his hair grew out a lot during the race, and he had to use more gel as the race continued. Now he’ll be able to afford lots of gel!
Jeremy and Sandy finished in second, with Amani and Marcus finishing third (I still think that “Team NFL would have had a shot if Amani did all the tasks).
Prior to the race, I said that the stats looked good for Ernie and Cindy, and they didn’t disappoint. I hope your wedding is terrific, Team “Erndy!”
