Season 26 of “The Amazing Race” wraps up on Friday (May 15) night with an episode that takes the four remaining teams from Peru to Dallas for that climactic rush to Phil Keoghan at the mat.
Yes, for the second straight season, it's a Top 4 in the “Amazing Race” finale, as Mike & Rochelle were saved from elimination at the end of last week's episode, but they've been told that one team will be sent home during this closing Leg.
This season's twist has been the introduction of a quintet of pairs featuring strangers on a hypothetical blind date around the world.
Has that twist worked? Well, it depends on how you look at things.
Of the four remaining teams, only Mike & Rochelle were dating previously and they've been quantifiably the weakest of the last quartet. They're going up against Laura & Tyler, Jelani & Jenny and Hayley & Blair, all “blind-dating” couples, though there have been no demonstrable indications of romance from any of those pairs.
So do we think that the 75 percent Top 4 representation of blind daters is a validation of the idea that strangers can concentrate only on The Race and not on established dynamics and that that's a good way of racing? Or is it a validation of the idea that all three groups of blind daters are composed of young, in-shape competitors with solid intellectual backgrounds, including two layers and a doctor-nurse duo?
We'll see who comes out on top in tonight's “Amazing Race” finale in a few hours, but first, check out this exclusive clip from tonight's episode featuring what appears to be a genuinely nutty Roadblock hoisting competitors to the top of Dallas Cowboys stadium (AT&T Stadium, if you happen to prefer branding). It looks both nauseating and kinda awesome.
Watch the clip above. And check back later for HitFix's recap of the finale.