Three teams form an alliance to get rid of Leo and Jamall in the first leg, but it's the Speed Bump that gets the cousins left behind.
- Dec 9, 2013
AceShowbiz - After almost a month on the road, the contestants of "The Amazing Race" season 23 made a trip back to the U.S. In the first leg, the remaining four teams left Indonesia for Tokyo, Japan. Jason and Amy were the first to leave. They formed an alliance with Tim & Marie and Travis & Nicole to try to get rid of Leo and Jamall, who would face a Speed Bump for arriving the last in the previous leg.
Leo and Jamall were on a different flight with the three teams, but the cousins arrived first. They headed to the Gotokuji temple where they faced a Detour. It's a choice between Knock It Down and Call It Up. For the former, both team members would become human bowling balls, while for the latter, one person would get in a phone booth full of water and goldfish and make a phone call. They had to tell their teammate what they heard on the phone.
Leo & Jamal went with the bowling challenge and got a strike and had to contain an escaped rhino for the Speed Bump. Tim & Marie also chose the bowling challenge, while Jason & Amy and Nicole & Travis opted for the phone challenge.
Once they completed the Detour, the teams except for Leo & Jamal continued with the Roadblock, which was to build a robot. Tim & Marie couldn't find a tiny model for it and Nicole & Amy wouldn't help them. After completing the robot, they got it checked and Tim & Marie's robot was the first to be declared correct.
Tim & Marie arrived first at the pit stop which was located at the Konno Hachimangu Shrine. They won a trip to Aruba. Amy & Jason arrived second, followed by Nicole & Travis. Leo & Jamal managed to catch up and complete their robot, but arrived in the last place, so they're eliminated at the end of this leg.
In the second leg of the two-hour finale, the final three teams flew to Juneau, Alaska and took a speedboat to Grizzly Bar. They had to do a Roadblock, in which they had to drop a flour bag on the target from a plane. Amy did it on her second try, Marie got it on her 12 attempt and Nicole had to do it 21 times to get it right.
They later took a kayak to get the next clue, which led them to Juneau, to Blueberry Hills Trailhead. The last challenge was to build totem poles for the currency of every country they visited chronologically.
Jason & Amy completed it first and headed to the finish line at the end of North Douglas Highway. Upon arriving, they were declared the winner and took home the $1 million grand prize. "This is definitely the beginning of my happy ending," Amy gushed.
Tim & Marie finished in the second place and host Phil Keoghan made them reveal the 60/40 split arrangement of the money they won, with Marie getting the 60|percent|. Travis & Nicole arrived as team No. 3.
At the end of the finale, a sneak peek from the upcoming 24th installment was shared. It's apparently going to be an all-star season.
