The Amazing Race 20 Season Finale Spoiler Spectacular Review of Doom!

The finale kicked off with the traditional 10 minute recap of the entire season's highlights - but the weirdest part was the promotional bit for the Amazing Race on DVD - Season 5 and Season 6. And this is Season 20. Yeah.

So the teams are off to Hiroshima, Japan. Team Big Brother had trouble buying bus tickets from a vending machine and the other teams made fun of them for it. They missed the bus and had to take another bus. Rachel casually did her makeup and yelled at Brendon on the bus. From there is was onto the subway and then a ferry. Geez, I can't even get around Edmonton this well, nevermind watch these people navigate a foreign country in another language and alphabet. Team America (Rachel and Dave) didn't make it onto the the last ferry of the night that the other teams were on, and had an eight hour weight for the first ferry of the morning. Dave handled it with his usual calm demeano-HAHAHAHAHAHAH! No, he basically lectured Rachel on everything that went wrong.

As an aside, we have 4 teams remaining, and both Rachels are still in the race. Annoying.

The teams who were on the ferry had to wait until the "rising sun" (geddit?) to retrieve their clue. So Rachel and Dave managed to catch up. Teams made their way to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. From there, onto the bullet train to Osaka and the TV studio. Wacky Japanese game shows ahoy! Bring That Chicken Home! The racers had to grab hanging rubber chickens while running on against a moving treadmill. Art and JJ finished the task before anyone else arrived.

The other three teams did the task together. Vanessa had to do this roadblock on her injured, bruised, purple sprained ankle, which she wasn't terribly happy with. But it did make for some Wipeout-style falls. Ralph wanted Vanessa to take the penalty. But, as is usually the case with the dramatic editing, she persevered and completed the task, albeit in tremendous pain. And with her dangling foot dangling behind her by a tiny tendon. Just kidding. Kinda.

The Detour was a choice between being a street photographer or doing sushi bingo. Which appears to be a legitimate game.

Rachel and Dave were the only team to do the street photography and they were the first to complete the task. Art and JJ were the first to finish sushi bingo.

Brendon and Rachel struggled with the sushi bingo and Rachel looked like she was going to have one of her trademark meltdowns.

Rachel and Dave were Team No. 1 at the pit stop and one of the three teams in the finals. They won a trip to New Zealand, which I hear is quite nice, particularly since they got that Orc problem cleaned up.

Art and JJ were Team No. 2.

Brendon and Rachel were Team. No. 3.

Vanessa and Ralph were Philiminated. Holy cheese and crackers.

So ... on to Part 2 of the finale!

Teams flew to Honolulu, Hawaii (I've been there!) to look for two office towers facing the ocean. Teams had to wire climb up the town and then rappel down.
Art and JJ didn't understand their clue and ended up on Waikiki beach (and I recognized the statue to which they wrongly went).

Teams then had to find their clue at Sand Island where they had to make "shave ice" - my kids ate about a thousand dollars worth of this stuff in Hawaii. Rachel and Dave finished quickly and then it was to a helicopter.

Brendon and Rachel took a cab to the helicopters, while the clue said that they had to make their way on foot. Remember, he's a PhD student, everyone! And they went to the wrong stadium, to boot. So they had to go back.

On the north shore, teams had to do a stranded swimmer rescue. Rachel and Dave, as usual, finished quickly. Meanwhile, back at the helicopter pad, Rachel of Big Brother, as usual, had a meltdown.

Rachel and Dave made it to a task but did not take the marked path there. Nor did they do the roadblock of sledding down a mountain and then rolling a lava rock into a goal. So I'm betting that they're the ones who get turned back at the finish line.

Meanwhile, Rachel and Dave paddle boarded to the final pit stop where, sure enough, Phil announced they were the first team to arrive ... BUT they didn't do the roadblock. DRAMA!

Dave and Rachel showed up to the mountain sledding and Art and JJ realized that they were in the lead and still in the game. Rachel completed her sled quickly (does this sound familiar?) while Art had 16 failures under his belt by that point. Rachel scored her lava rock goal, and her and Dave were back off to the finish line.

Art and JJ had to endure further pain when Big Brother's Rachel passed them, too.

So, Rachel and Dave won Amazing Race twice in 20 minutes. Boy, they're good. And they have the new record for the most first-place finishes with 8 legs.

Art and JJ were second. Team Big Brother were third.

And that's it for another season.