So I'm putting TAR7 on my DVD list after all

Admittedly, TAR 7 is not my favorite season. Nowhere close. However, it's amazing that just one episode can actually endear you to the whole series. Probably that's what Season Six viewers felt when Freddy and Kendra won. Who?

I always try to look at each series as a whole. The novelty of challenges, the diversity of locations, and the dynamics of the contestants. Season Seven had its standouts: the mini-CSI clue running, native bushman challenges; jolly old England, intercontinental Istanbul, old Incan grounds, and the african safari. There are also downsides, with very physical challenges (where can you get a 70 year old woman scaling walls?), India (haven't we had enough?) and, most of all, the bland contestants.Rob and Amber were there to constantly raise the bar, but that was basically it.

But, its finale made up for it all. It's about time that the race went to the Carribean, to experience a non-mainland Latin America. Most of all, a winner that I liked. No, Uchenna and Joyce did not do much to keep their competition scrambling, but they had a back story that made them a sentimental favorite. Childless, and both victims of Enron (forgot the other company), they were literally begging for money at the gates of a million dollar prize.

I particlarly loved Joyce just for shaving her Rageddy Anne hair. Honestly, she looked more beautiful with a shaved head.

Deserving, maybe, maybe not, the most cutthroat racers racers usually ended second: Frank/Margarita, Tara/Wil, Colin/christie, Kris/Jon and now Rob/Amber, but I was throughly satisfied (so did all their co-competitors) that Uchenna and Joyce won.

Winning a race is not just a million dollars, it's the morale boost that gives you the confidence to have a fresh perspective in life. And that one really counts.