The Amazing Race 10: The Finish Line, Episode 13

Well, after four days and nights without power – and five without Internet service! Oh, the horror! – I finally can watch The Finish Line. So let’s get on with it before western Washington gets hit by another storm!

Jon looks jaunty in a dark jacket, while Peggy is all gussied up in a layered deep blue blouse as she introduces us to the final Finish Line of the season. Peggy and Jon both seem excited about the show. Jon says that it was neck-and-neck all the way... until the last episode. Um, yeah, Jon, as often happens, a team was ditched early in the episode. (Bama, for those of you who didn’t see them unsuccessfully trying to make the flight to New York City.)

Peggy goes on to claim that it was a super-exciting final episode, and Jon says it was a nail biter. I have to wonder if these two saw the same finale I did! It was pretty clear from the time Tyler & James’ cab went through the EZ Pass lane that they would win. Yeesh.

Peggy and Jon now turn to Lyn & Karlyn. They both think it was great to finally get an all-female team into the final three. We then see the Bama girls get to the final Pit Stop with Phil. They are both emotional and it’s really nice to see Karlyn describe herself as a “butterfly leaving the cocoon” after the race. After the clip, Lyn & Karlyn join us! Both ladies look nice and happy to be on the show. Lyn says that watching herself on the race was surreal. Karlyn says she can’t believe she did it! It was the chance of a lifetime to show people she CAN do what she puts her mind to in life. Both gals tear up talking about the race.

Peggy says that a lot of times Lyn & Karlyn said they were racing for their kids. Lyn says she has three kids, and she needed to show them that when she tells them to do their best and have integrity, she needed to do the same on the race – to show it’s not a double standard. Karlyn gets bubbly when she talks about her daughter. She says she’s the most conscientious little girl you’d ever meet. Sometimes it makes Karlyn wonder whose kid she is – she’s so sweet! Aw, it’s nice to see Karlyn so bubbly.

America from Washington, D.C. now calls in to say the ladies look great! Then she apologizes to them because she and her girlfriend are black single mothers and they kept saying how Lyn & Karlyn “ain’t gonna make it!” in the race. They were wrong. The Bama girls represented! America then asks Karlyn if it was hard to control her temper. Lyn laughs and Karlyn says she doesn’t think so. But there are a few things that make her go off... and all of those things happened on the race. The emotional part of the race was hard. She didn’t think people would be so cruel to them. She says that people came up to them and said, “Aw! How are you guys doing? You’re so weak!” She already had a chip on her shoulder racing as a single black mother, and she didn’t want to hear people calling her weak.

Jon asks Karlyn if it made her a stronger person. She says definitely. She had to learn that some of the things she’s sensitive about, she shouldn’t be so sensitive about! Peggy asks the ladies if they “felt the heat” racing for other single parents. Karlyn says she doesn’t think so. They were confident in their abilities. Karlyn built her daughter’s loft bed herself, put her own garbage disposal and satellite dishes in and everything. She knew she could do it, she just had to show other people she could.

Peggy now goes to a clip of Lyn & Karlyn completing the skydiving Detour in France in the finale. Lyn’s face is priceless as the plane goes into a dive and Karlyn looks absolutely delighted by the whole experience. After the clip, Lyn says that she had to hold herself up as they did the nosedive. The pilot didn’t tell her about the nosedive before it happened and her whole body lifted up in the air! Karlyn says she loved the skydive, but the best part was being strapped to the front of a French guy. Heh!

After everyone stops laughing, Jarrod calls in from New York. He congratulates Lyn & Karlyn and then says that not since Rob & Amber has he seen as much animosity to another team as the animosity they had towards Dustin & Kandice. Lyn says that she thinks a better word for it would be “dislike.” They don’t really know why it started, but they think it got worse and worse as they both progressed in the race. It got worse when people started to perceive Bama as a threat. They both wanted to be the first female team in the final three. Karlyn says that earlier in the race, the Beauty Queens were quite nice. Kandice shared her snack with Karlyn on the first plane. Karlyn theorizes that James & Tyler are to blame for the whole thing. The guys egged Dustin & Kandice on whenever Lyn & Karlyn got ahead of the beauty queens.

Peggy asks what would happen if the teams ran into each other on the street now. Lyn says it would be cordial, but that would be it. Karlyn says that there really wasn’t a problem with Kandice – only with Dustin. But Karlyn admits that she’ll hold onto something “like a pit bull” once someone wrongs her.

Michelle from Washington, D.C. calls in and asks Lyn how the camel meat was on her Roadblock. Lyn says it was good, like a lean beef, but it wasn’t very well seasoned. Lyn says she’s not queasy about trying new things at least once.

Now Arnoldo from Toronto calls in and says he’s really happy Lyn & Karlyn got to the end. They were all cheering for the girls. He and his friends are hoping for a Canadian version of The Amazing Race sometime. He asks what it’s like to go back to reality once you do the race. Lyn says there isn’t really a way to go back after going on “this ride.” She relives it sometimes or creates her own race in her mind, thinking of different places she could go in the world. Karlyn says she can’t get away with saying something “sounds dangerous” anymore!