On the surface, this season of The Amazing Race has been a slight disappointment, but there’s one thing really keeping me intrigued for the grand finale on May 8^th. I haven’t the faintest idea who’ll be walking away a million dollars richer. In trying to look at the final four teams (yes, four, as the race did away with the traditional top 4 non-elimination leg) and analyzing each from every angle to try and get even a slight favorite, I came to the conclusion that trying to break these four teams apart would be splitting the finest of hairs. Instead of making this a more clinical, qualitative look at the last four teams remaining, here’s how I’ve perceived each team as a viewer and how I think Sunday will go.

Team: Kisha & Jen
Number of Wins: 0 (with two 2^nd places)
Strengths: They may not be the flashiest team out there, but they’re steady and sometimes steadiness is what wins.
Weaknesses: I’m not sure they can make a big enough move to challenge for the top spot if they get behind. There are teams here better in all aspects.
Going into the finale…: Do the sisters have what it takes to step their game up at the race’s most crucial point?
Predicted Finish: 4^th place

Team: Flight Time & Big Easy
Number of Wins: 2 (with two 2^nd places)
Strengths: The Globetrotters are great athletes and if the race comes down to a foot race, they win this 100 times out of 100.
Weaknesses: They’re the least skilled team when it comes to mental tasks, so if they miss the little details like they have in the past, it won’t matter how strong they are.
Going into the finale…: Can the Globetrotters run a clean final leg and avoid tripping up on the puzzle?
Predicted Finish: 3^rd place

Team: Gary & Mallory
Number of Wins: 2 (with two 2^nd places)
Strengths: They’re a mix of everything I like about The Amazing Race: they never argue, they know their roles, they’re enjoying themselves, and they’re a deceptively strong team.
Weaknesses: They’re the least physical team in the race, despite Gary’s continued awesomeness, and that may come back to bite ‘em in a close moment.
Going into the finale…: Can the father-daughter team keep up physically with the other teams in the race?
Predicted Finish: 2^nd place

Team: Zev & Justin
Number of Wins: 4 (with another 2^nd place)
Strengths: They’ve won the most legs this season and they’ve made big moves in the past. When they’re working well together, they’re incredibly efficient. Plus they're both ridiculously likable.
Weaknesses: They’re starting the finale in last place and when they get down, they can sometimes get down on themselves/each other.
Going into the finale…: Can the two friends dig out of the hole they find themselves in?
Predicted Finish: 1^st place

Now that the show is in the final episode, I have a feeling that the alliance that these four teams had will disintegrate and the last leg will be won by the team who has ran the best race overall, which is Zev and Justin. They’re a little down and out in 4^th place going into the finale, but if they can make it to the top 3, the other teams have to look out because they’re smart, they work well together, and they can be very efficient when need be. I won’t count them out until another team crosses the finish line ahead of them, so here’s hoping a hard working nice couple of guys take this thing home. Gary has proven to be a hoss for yet another season of the race and Mallory is a clean racer who doesn’t make a whole lot of mistakes, so they’ll be a force in the finale, as well. If they can get a good enough lead on the other teams, I think they can keep that distance the entire leg, but they’re the least physically gifted team of the bunch and that worries me.

The Globetrotters are an interesting case for me. While I despise them pretty actively, they’re fantastic athletes and they’ll have to be completely buried in order to not be at least somewhat of a factor in the finale. I’m not sure how they’ll fare on the memory challenge because the basketball players have tended to fizzle out on the less physically demanding tasks they’ve faced, but if they can make it at least respectable, they’ve got a shot to catch up. Kisha and Jen are such a mystery to me because I didn’t watch their season of the race and they’ve not really gotten any camera time for me to be able to form that strong of an opinion about them. They seem to be just alright; they’re alright athletes, they’re alright on mental tasks, and they’re alright teammates. They’ve made it to the final four by surviving and outlasting teams (they’ve yet to win a leg this season), so that type of tenacity could lead them to sneak past the Globetrotters or Gary and Mallory if they stumble in the leg. However, Kisha and Jen haven’t shown me nearly enough for me to comfortably put them very high on this list.

At this point, it’s pretty much anybody’s game, so I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if any of these four teams were to win. Maybe that’s what’s really amazing about this season?

Alright, guys. Let me know who you think will win, who you think should win, and who you wish was in the final episode in the comments below. What has your overall opinion been on The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business?