Amazing last race

Go hippies! They start, recapping the season; I've seen every episode but the first and part of the Germany segment. Frats around the front, hippies usually close; Ray/Yolanda have been middling until the last few episodes. Really, frats have been the superior team all year, but hippies would be a worthy winner; RY are the wild card. Hippies and RY have some sortof friendship, will be interesting to see if they'll come into play.

Hippies should have a pretty good headstart, but pattern of final leg is they try to even it up early to make it more exciting. Oh, forgot Ray and Yolanda got to stay in a hotel, with Internet access. Hippies off at 11:18 p.m., taxi to small pavilion, elephants will give them product placement. Hippies have some problem finding a cab, get one after a while. Two hours later frats get going; hippies at the elphant place already, but not open until 4 a.m. R/Y a few minutes behind frats, who they call the frat girls. Frats show up, tell cabbie to wait; R/Y too, tell their cabbie to wait too. R/Y call them cricket boys, they exchange hugs. They all get product placement at about the same time, off to Tokyo. World's biggest intersection, scan video screens to look for next clue. Ray writes down the clue. Hippies already speak Japanese, and are totally psyched. Tyler says he knows it really well, Japanese girlfriend and all. Hmm, overconfidence.

R/Y at airport first, trying to get on an early flight. Hippies ask for ANA, which isn't the earliest flight. United flihgt for frats, 2:15 p.m., hippies figure it out too, R/Y too; very full flight though. R/Y get on, so are frats. But hippies... it's full already. They're in Thailand, so language skills are of no use. I'm sure they'll get on, they cut to commercial. And flight takes off without them, they try Thai airlines, later flight, 1.5 hours afterwards. They keep trumpeting ability to speak Japanese.

R/Y get a map, then off to hotel, they take a bus together. R/Y in car already, off they go--while frats smartly ask at front desk for directions; guy prints them up a map. These guys actually deserve to win, have been the smartest. R/Y ask for directions, gotta backtrack; find expressway, meanwhile hippies land, smartly get map on bus and ask for directions. Frats are impressed by lights, happy they have map; R/Y going by signs. Hippies on highway. Frats stubmle across right building, in intersection, R/Y still on highway. Tyler keeps exalting about how at home he feels. R/Y lost; frats in square already.

They start looking, find it pretty quickly. Find Hachiko, statue of a dog. Get directions, get clue from guy. Detour: maiden: either to tea garden, carry palaquin 1/3rd of mile; or messenger, put together bike, deliver packages to two buildings. Obviously maiden, directions a bit hard. Get cab, hippies show up second, find sign, find dog, speak Japanese to guy, off they go. They do the bikes, ugh.

Frats already doing their task; Tyler's using his Japanese, they assemble bike pretty fast, off they go to delivery. It's funny, small bikes, they look very natural though. And Tyler totally knows where they're going. R/Y still stuck in traffic.

Frats are good at spending a few minutes now to save lotsof time down the road; R/Y just run head-first into things. They ask directions, frats are done with their task. To capsule land hotel, to get next clue. Hippies yell 'crazy foreigners coming through, please excuse us'; deliver first package, off to second. R/Y still driving, finally park. Like 2 hours behind? Don't see their clue. Hippies get second package done, advantage is they're already in town. R/Y find clue on sign, find statue, and clue, do carry task. Frats find cab, off to hotel. Hippies just finish, off they go. R/Y show up at gardens, start carrying. Frats at hotel already, gotta stay till 9 a.m., so lead is gone, they crack up when they see capsules. R/Y chanting as they carry palaquin, hit a tree. Finish, off to hotel, say goodbye to girl; cabbie knows where to go.

Hippies get to hotel, leave 15 minutes behind frats. Not bad, saved 2 hours; R/Y are 30 minutes behind frats, join the party--pretty warm greeting. All three teams seem to like each other. Frats have to drive to amusement park at base of Mt. Fuji; get directions first, onto highway. Hippies don't seem to get much in the way of directions; R/Y go to Denny's, to try and get directions. All they understand is highway, but get on the correct lane. Ray's practicing asking diretions, he says. Frats still in lead, ask for directions, van guy says follow me. Hippies keep talking about how this is their ideal last leg. Hippies have caught frats, just follow them, then pass them. Frats are funny; tie at clue box.

Road block--someone's gotta take three rides in a row. And must see a message along the way--othewise, gotta do all three again, wow. This could suck for someone. Tyler asks others to help him on the ride. Frat guy says how can you read anything from here?! It's a pretty crazy ride. Hippy and frat are together; R/Y show up at toll booth, can't find their ticket....

A lot more commercials than usual for the finale. R/Y gotta go to some guy on the side, pay a bunch, ask him for directions. Hippy lets someone touch his beard on a ride, frats mutters you're an idiot. One's having fun, the other not so much. Middle rid e is probably where sign is, roller coaster. Nope, nothing. Third ride, Another roller coaster, they both see the sign. They both get clue, dumb, can hear each other say what they saw. Now to Lake Yamanka, at base of Mt. Fuji--gotta pedal a boat across to giant swan, pit stop. They're off, R/Y not even at amusement park; frats follow hippies. R/Y beginning to bicker, just get to park. Yolanda totally talking trash now, gotta do the rides, maybe she'll get it out of her system.

Hippies driving, both teams talking about how Tyler tried to psych frat boy out with false sign sighting. Yolanda sees sign, off they go; she seems to be in a much better mood. They find lake on map, off they go. More bickering.

Hippies at lake, totally happy. Hippies get to boat first, frats are just mocking them, hippies forget to untie boat, frats are gonna be much better at this. Hippies are totally going too fast, frats are just going steady. Not sure why they're both going crazy, who cares--hippies get there first, are happy. Win product placement. Frats say hippies are playing dirty, hippies say makes up for the cab. R/Y show up, last but still in the race.

Hour two. So great. 12th pit stop, mandatory rest; they eat a meal together. Hippies leave at 12:18 a.m. Fly to Anchorage next. They leave some money for R/Y. Hippies say they've been training for this their whole life; scrape off their cars, off they go. 2 minutes later frats go. Hippies are off, frats right behind them. Frats and hippiees go two different ways. Three hours later, R/Y take off, with just hippies' money, say it's nice of them. Gotta go begging still.

Hippies at hotel already, shuttle leaves at 6:10 a.m., get Internet access. Frats ask about Internet, guy at front desk lies, per hippies' directions. R/Y go to restuarant, ask for money, good luck in racist Japan. Some drunk guys says she looks like Janet Jackson, they give them money and stuff. It's hilarious actually.

Hippies researching flights, find Northwest flight, 10:53 a.m. Frats use telephone, get 7:50 a.m. to Alaska--earlier than hippies, on Air Nippon. So hippie trick of denying them Internet access didn't work. Hippies pretend they just showed up, frats are like we've been here for an hour, frats tell hippies there's no Internet, front desk people are laughing. On the bus, no R/Y yet; they're still paying tolls.

Bus at airport, frats ditch hippies, hide from them. R/Y show up at hotel, bright daylight. Frats get on their flight, off they go; smart. Hippies find out earlier flight, at airport, get on later flight to Taipei, but same flight to Alask. R/Y show up at airport, get on 2:40 p.m. to Anchorage, they're totally screwed. Check another airline.... Frats in Taipei, watching counter to see if anyone shows up. R/Y try to get to Taipei outof Japan, run, people say it's closed, they ask again if they can get on--how come you didn't tell us earlier--sorry... ah, racism, gotta love it.

Commercial breaks getting shorter, 45 minutes left. R/Y ask airline people to try, they do, and they get on flight. Hippies and R/Y on same flight, all get into Taipei--why didn't frats try stand-by or something? Everyone's on the same flight to Alaska; totally mad that R/Y show up too.

What a great race. Land in Anchorage, heavy snow. Frats run to cars, hippies get in first; gotta go to Mirror Lake, cluebox in the middle of the snow. R/Y 2nd, frats in last for once. Hippies get directions from guy at ticket booth; R/Y ask the brother same, frats same. Stewart highway, R/Y ask for directions just to be safe; frats in second now, I think. Hippies in front, frats pass. frats first, hippies right behind them. All get to cluebox around same time, detour: Drill it, ice fishing on a lake, drill 10 holes, push shack to cover two holes. Deliver it, load plane with medical supplies, then fly 150 miles to airfield roundtrip to airfield, deliver supplies--who's crazy enough to do that?!

Well, the hippies... weather bad, so they gotta drill it too. Hippies watching frats; in the lead; frats faster, hippies pretend they've got four done already. R/Y lost, as always; turns out they need to just go straight. Hippies at 8, frats at 9; frats done, hippies much slower. Frats already pushing shack, just stronger; almost done pushing, hippies still drilling. Frats done; hippies haven't even started push.

To Kincaid park, find chalet, put on snow shoes, search park for cluebox. Where are R/Y? Hippies done, like 10 minutes back I'd say. R/Y show up, hippies are leaving. Ray drilling super-fast. R/Y not having fun in the cold, counting on catching them at the airport. Finally done. Frats at park, hippies right behind; go right past snow shoes, can't see them; keep passing them, idiots.

Back from commercials, hippies finally find them. R/Y putting pressure on themselves in the car. Frats on the trail, hippies too. Element of luck here; frats find the cluebox, pretty fast. Now just fly to Denver... to Clear Creek History park for next clue. Frats already grab a cab, on way to airport. Hippies get cluebox, finally. To airpotr too. R/Y just showing up, it's dark, so much later. Frats get on 11:10 p.m. flight, earliest. Hippies borrow cabbies' cell phone, on same flight. R/Y finishing, keep saying they'll catch 'em at the airport. Hippies follow frats, to other terminal on bus. Night, R/Y get cab; at airport, everyone's on the same flight.

Denver, frats as usual in front. All in cabs to Golden; frats look for clue, find it first; off to Red Rocks. hippies show up as frats are leaving; Jeremy yells to cabbie do you know Red Rocks, hippies may have heard--find clue, maybe a bit behind. R/Y show up, have problems finding clue, they're out of it. Frats in a fast cab, they urge the driver on, in the lead by a matter of minutes.

Frats there, find box already; roadblock. Run into field of 285 flags, find flag of each of the nine countries they visited during the race; must put flags in the order in which they visited. Placard has flag guide, with extra flags; teammate can help by yelling, no physical assistance. Eric gets Brazil first, doing it smartly. Hippies show finally, frats already have done two. Brain game though. Eric's put a flag incorrectly. BJ doesn't recognize Russian flag, also wrong order. Frats smartly go backwards. R/Y haven't found clue yet, finally do in hen house.

Both flag teams are one off. Tyler totally encouraging BJ; frats having trouble. Frat has last three right; finishes, but doesn't have right order. They rethink; change up, still wrong. Frats only have two wrong, slowly getting it. BJ doing it backwards, getting them right. Jeremy tells Eric to go find another flag, he does, still wrong. Hippies are done, and are right!

They run, total victory lap, everyone's there cheering; and... did they do everything right--they're hugging, Phil wants to talk to them. And says they're the official winners.

Ah, brains over brawn in the end. So exciting. Phi says it did come down to brains. The world is a beautiful place, Tyler says, talks about the people they met. What great winners. Frats next, they don't show them figuring the flags out. And they're not at all happy. Eric says those guys are smart; Jeremy make a funny joke, didn't know the last one would be brains. They're good-natured kids.

Four of them shake hands, they're really pretty decend guys. Ray and Yolanda finish, lotsof cheering for them too. And they seem to have wound up on a good note, both strong-willed people. Hippies say being smart doesn't help as much as being aware in the moment.

I'm glad the hippies won, but really, if the frats had won I'd be happy too. What a great season. What a great show.