The season finale of The Amazing Race is next week, but I no longer care much who wins. Not in that Big Brother-style you-all-suck-and-I-hope-someone-blows-up-the-house-with-you-in-it (thank you Ben Elton) way, but in an I-like-you-all-and-can-hardly-choose way.

Nathan and Jennifer, alias the Bickersons, managed to get eliminated on her birthday (and really, she laid into that one so hard I should have seen it as foreshadowing.) Not only that, but a spoiler over on TelevisionWithoutPity had me convinced those two were going to win, and I've been trying to prepare myself for the awful eventuality for weeks. And, in truth, they have moments of non-awfulness: their interview segment early in the show, where Nathan was talking about "Hulking out" and Jennifer was laughing, was cute. The trouble is that as soon as they're under pressure they go back to sniping and shrieking at each other. Although with that said, they really truly are courteous to innocent bystanders in the form of locals, and for a team that does not strike me as well-travelled (when Nathan was talking like he thought "Taiwan" and "Thailand" were the same place, I could only pray the cabbie didn't speak enough English to understand him) they betrayed almost no "Ugly North American" characteristics and always seemed respectful and interested in the places and people they met.

It was just they were so ugly to each other and their fellow racers...

TK and Rachel are still my favourites, but Nick and Don, the grandson-grandpa team, are so lovable that I think I'll buy a CD by Nick's dad Robbie Fulks to celebrate their spot in the final three.

Regarding the way the show was set up and edited, I notice they only showed Rachel and TK wandering around outside the first building looking for the "Floating Garden" that turned out to be a rooftop observatory. I suspect they were not the only team to make that mistake, but the other all arrived hours before opening time so any wandering would have not wasted any valuable time.

I'm sure the Garden spot was chosen to create a bunch-up for the final leg, just so nobody would be likely to end up hopelessly behind. I'm pleased that it benefited the team I like best, but really, I'm glad the show did it anyway: if one team out of the four was three hours behind the whole way, and the next show was final three, well, the rest of the show would pretty much have been moot. As it was the frighteningly competent Ron and (especially) Christina got way out in front, but the other three teams fighting it out for the last two spots were so close they kept shuffling their placements and that, my friends, made for some exciting television in my house.

Other stuff of note:

TK and Rachel did in fact have one of their infrequent fights in the elevator going up to the Floating Garden. Only unlike Nate and Jen, who can shriek at each other over the colour of the sky ("It's blue!" "It's azure!") Rachel and TK's fighting takes the form of quietly expressing disagreement, being a little grumpy, and then moving on.

This might have been the only episode in which Rachel was polysyllabic. And how cute was she, all fired up and filled with determination? It was a bit like seeing Tinkerbell kick ass.

I notice that the two old dudes were pretty scared of the truck-teeter-totter stunt, while the twenty-somethings shrieked with glee. I attribute that to the old dudes being a great deal more aware of their own mortality.

Speaking of old dudes, there was that great moment on the high-speed train, when TK and Rachel caught up yet again. Actually, the friendly-competitor vibe between them and Nick/Don was enjoyable throughout the entire episode, but when Nathan and Jennifer got all offended that the two "slackers" had allegedly lollygagged their way back into contention (and really, did even Jennifer think that statement made sense? Did she think they were being excused tasks because the production team favoured them, or something?) and Nick and Don finally had enough and went to sit with TK and Rachel--okay, I honestly think when Nick relayed Jennifer's comments, he probably expected the other two to consider the source and be amused. And then when it looked like hearing this actually sort of hurt their feelings, there was Gramps as the voice of reason, reminding them that Jennifer was just acting out because she was stressed.

And that made me do the math and realize, if Don is nearly 69 and the others are 22 (TK), 23 (Rachel) and 24 (Nick)--Don is as old as all of them put together!

Anyway, great episode, and the suspense was such that when Don and Nick hit the mat in third place I let out a shriek that scared Vladimir.

As I say, I don't even care who wins, now that Ron has shown signs of truly repenting his assholery and sincerely trying to do better. But I'm still looking forward to the finale!