The Amazing Race: All-Stars Finale

Rush to Paradise

The first stop in the final leg of the race is Honolulu, Hawai'i.

Finally. . .A Lucky Connection

Eric/Danielle and Dustin/Kandice end up on the same flight to Hawai'i (with a connection in Tokyo), while Charla/Mirna end up on a second flight. But with a lot of persistence (and a little luck), Charla/Mirna somehow ended up on the earlier connecting flight from Tokyo. That might well be the first time a last minute connecting flight actually worked to a team's benefit on this race.

Over or Under?

The Detour gave teams the choice between diving underwater in a cave or using a surfboard and paddle to go around a buoy. Eric/Danielle and Dustin/Kandice chose the diving task, which looked a little scary as the closer they got to the cave, the more treacherous the waves appeared. Charla/Mirna chose the paddle task, with Mirna in her typical fashion, screeching at Charla that they couldn't do it because it required a lot of 'technique.' Ironically enough, Charla rocked on that task, handling her surfboard like a pro, while it was Mirna struggled. Perhaps she should have screeched less, and paddled more.

Mad Dash on Shipwreck Beach

Thanks in part to Charla's amazing performance on the Detour, Charla/Mirna are in first place heading to their next clue, but that lead was effectively wiped out when they had to climb down a rocky beach, which allowed Eric/Danielle and Dustin/Kandice to catch up (and in Eric/Danielle's case, overtake them).

Kayaking Fun. . .Not

Teams had to kayak out to a shipwreck to retrieve their next clue. All the teams struggled with this physically grueling task, particularly Charla/Mirna, who fell to last place. And Dustin/Kandice had a slight falling out when their frustration during the task, spilled over to them accusing the other of not being 'good teammates' and saying 'hateful things.' Their little tiff didn't last long, however, with them making up by the time they reached the Honolulu airport.

Final Destination

The final city in this race is San Francisco, California.

All Aboard

There is no drama at the airport as all 3 teams managed to snag seats on the same flight to Oakland, which is just across the bay from San Francisco.

Mind Meld

The final task required one member of the team to answer a series of questions about the other racers (sample question - which team is the least trustworthy?) and then based on the numbers corresponding to their answers, enter that code into a locked safe. Then, they must exit their vault and their teammate must go in and answer the same questions and match up the answers to find the correct code to open that safe. Only Eric/Danielle managed to find their 'mental connection' and open their safe, while Dustin/Kandice and Charla/Mirna had to wait out their allotted 10 minutes.

Redemption

Eric had stated (many times) during the course of the race that he was seeking redemption from his prior race (with a different partner) where he came in second place. . .losing the million dollar prize by minutes. So it was with much joy that he and Danielle crossed the finish line first this time to win the million dollars. While we found a lot of what Eric did and said (along with Danielle) objectionable, we do give them props for hanging in there. They were marked for elimination, yielded twice and lingered near the bottom two for much of the race, so to pull out a win deserves some snaps.