Starting positions:
1. Dustin and Kandace (D&K)
2. Eric and Danielle (E&D)
3. Charla and Mirna (C&M)

First Clue:

The teams started from Fort Solidad on Guam. They had to drive to the airport and then catch a flight to Honolulu, Hawaii. From the airport they had to travel to the Kamaka Air Hanger and take a helicopter to the Island of Lanai. There were three helicopter flights reserved, each 10 minutes apart. Once there, they had to drive themselves to the harbor and find a man in ceremonial Hawaiian dress to receive their next clue.

D&K caught the first flight to HI but the other teams were on a later flight that would catch up to them during the layover in Tokyo, so it looked like all three teams would arrive together in Hawaii at the same time. Or so everyone thought. C&M found another flight on a different airline in Tokyo which arrived 40 minutes earlier. The other teams freaked out when C&M weren’t on the flight with them. As a result C&M caught the first helicopter (which is not surprising) followed by E&D and finally D&K.

Detour:
The teams then had a choice of two detours:

Over - Take a boat to the inlet where each of the team members had to stand on a paddle board and paddle themselves to a buoy to get the next clue.
Under - Take a boat to a submerged cave, then swim under the rocks and into the cave to get the next clue.

C&M - Over
E&D - Under
D&K - Under

C&M whipped through this which was shocking because watching these guys balance on what were basically over sized surf boards and use Kayak oars to row themselves around looked really hard to me. For E&D and D&K the trick was to time their entrance and exit from the cave with the surge which was quite powerful. Then of course there was overcoming the claustrophobia this challenge brought out in the competitors. Overall, I would say none of the teams had much trouble with this detour so in the end the teams stayed in the same order, with the separation between them about the same as well.

Next Clue:
The teams now had to drive to Shipwreck Beach named for the WWII liberty ship wreck just off shore. The teams had to make their way a mile up beach, then kayak out to a buoy moored just off the boy of the wreck to get the next clue.

C&M arrived first with a good lead. Charla had a lot of trouble making her way along the rocky beach. D&K caught up to E&D at the beach. Both of these teams passed C&M as they ran up the beach. There was a very strong current. It didn’t seem to bother E&D, but D&K and C&M struggled to get the kayaks out to the buoy, with both teams arguing the whole way. D&K finished second and the finally C&M. As we saw in the preview last week D&K were really catty during the drive back but CBS essentially showed their entire fight in the preview. They made up almost immediately.

Next Clue:
The next clue took our teams to San Francisco, their final destination city. Once in San Francisco, the teams had to take a cab to the Old Mint. Here the teams faced their final challenge which was supposed to test how well the teammates knew each other. One of them had to go into the vault and answer four questions. The answers were all of the other teams which had competed in the Amazing Race All-Stars, numbered 1 though 9 (e.g., which team is the least trustworthy?). After answering the question they would have four numbers which would become the combination to a safe in the room which contained the last clue. The other teammate then had to figure out the combination by guessing how their teammate answered the questions and then trying the code to open the safe. They had up to 10 minutes to open the safe. If they didn’t open it they were allowed to leave at the end of the time limit.

After all the competition all three teams ended up on the same flight to San Francisco. That annoyed me. The teams always fight so hard for a lead and then they only to lose it at the airport. The teams arrived in this order E&D, D&K, and C&M. Eric, Dustin, and Mirna went in to answer the questions while Danielle, Kandice, and Charla attempted to open the safe once they were done. Danielle was the only one of the three to actually open the safe so E&D had a jump on he other teams. Both Kandice and Charla spent their full 10 minutes trying to open the safe unsuccessfully.

Finish Line
The teams then raced by taxi tot the San Francisco Botanical gardens and the Finish Line. CBS did there best to make you wonder who was going to win but, in the end the teams arrived in the order they left the Old Mint. Eric had to call information to get the address. Mirna was showing cab driver the map. In the end, the arrived in the same order they left the Old Mint. E&D were the big winners, tasking home the $1,000,000. D&K second team to arrive. C&M arrived last.

At the finish line they had all of the teams waiting for the final three. They cheered politely but I would question the sincerity of some (Rob of Rob and Amber). They made a big deal of E&D having met on the Amazing Race 9. Luckily Phil just happened to have a cell phone from a major cell provider handy (product placement) with which Eric could call his teammate from the Amazing Race 9 Jeremy who happened to have a camera crew at his house. Boy, wasn’t that lucky ;).

I was rooting for D&K but I was OK with E&D winning. Just so long as it wasn’t C&M. Mirna made the comment at the end that at least everyone got to know the real Mirna and Charla. I wouldn’t be crowing about that. They were annoying and worse throughout the whole race.

I have to say I was a little disappointed. This episode seemed very rushed. It was almost as if they packed enough clues and stops for a two hour season finale and then cut it down to fit a one hour time slot. The finish line seemed like a let down too. I’m not sure what I expected but, I flipped over to the Sopranos feeling very unsatisfied.

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