Ahoj, dobry den and what an interesting leg this was in Kutna Hora. I am finally back home in London so I am able to do this episode justice today. I had just been traveling throughout Asia for 3 weeks (Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Singapore) and you can find more of my travel content on Instagram, but as much as I like traveling it is certainly nice to be back home after so long. And as for why I feel I'm in a position to judge these racers on TAR, I've done it myself having been in 007: Road to a Million S2 which is like our British version of TAR and more importantly, I've lived and worked in Czechia, it is a county I know really well having spent some time there. You see, not all reality TV stars are made equal - some of us have actually done a lot with our lives, having traveled a lot, worked in different countries before our reality TV debut and some really haven't, that was evident in this episode. But as always, let me start with the average ranking statistics.
Average ranking after leg 3 in Kutna Hora
- Jas & Jag 1.33
- Tucker & Eric 3
- Natalie & Stephanie 4
- Joseph & Adam 4.66
- Izzy & Paige 5
- Hannah & Simone 5.66
- Kristine & Rubina 6.33
- Jack & Chelsie 7
- Kyland & Taylor 9
- Kat & Alex 10.33
- Megan & Matt 11.33 (eliminated in Kutna Hora)
I note that there has been very little movement in these statistics, this is mainly because the teams were racing on in the same country and this was a self-drive leg, so there wasn't any waiting around for public transport at all that may have served as an equalizer. That meant that the teams at the front of the pack were so far in front that the teams at the back had practically no chance of catching up with those at the front, even if the brewery only opened at 9 am and the first three teams spent some time waiting there for it to open having arrived there so early. This did frustrate me as it meant that this leg was always going to be quite predictable - surely enough, my predictions from last week were correct. Jas & Jag could have won first place again but they chose to give it away to Natalie & Stephanie as it was Natalie's birthday the next day. I don't think any of the other teams would see Jas & Jag as the obvious team to beat even after this gesture (which cost them $2,500 each as that was the prize for the winning team in this leg). I still have no doubt that Jas & Jag are definitely going to win this season and whilst they might give away a few wins like that to try to win some goodwill from the other teams along the way, they'll certainly have no problems making it to the finals and winning in style there.
Were we surprised that Megan & Matt got Philiminated?
Oh yes, we got a Philimination - that's when the last team is so far behind that Phil leaves the pit stop and goes to meet them to eliminate them. Megan & Matt didn't even get to complete the leg. They got so hopelessly lost on the way to the ploughing challenge in Kostel sv. Anny that it gave Kat & Alex enough time to finish their leg (despite the fact that Alex really struggled on the ice hockey challenge). According to Google maps, the distance between the brewery to the field where they did the ploughing is 4.8 km (3 miles) and would have been just an 8 minute drive. Yet somehow they took a wrong turn coming out of Kutna Hora and drove for a long time in the wrong direction despite having asked a taxi driver for directions before setting out. The route I found on Google maps was really straightforward, once you got out of Kutna Hora, it was a straight drive down highway 2, which meant that instead of turning left towards Kostel, they must have turned right in the opposite direction, traveling away from their destination. Oh dear. Megan & Matt remind me of Hayley & Jeff from American Dad, yeah they're funny and lovable, they might even be funny and entertaining to watch on such a program but I wouldn't want to rely on them for anything now that I've seen how they function so chaotically on the race.
What did the sv. in Kostel sv. Anny mean?
It means Saint, like Saint Anne. There are two forms: Svatý for a male saint and Svatá for a female saint but in Czech that will be shortened to just sv. regardless of gender, the same way you might write Saint Nicholas as "St Nicholas".
Wait, there were two roadblocks but no detour?
That's right, I found that a bit weird as well. Both team members had to work on the ploughing task together but the other two tasks were roadblocks. Both the beer bottling and ice hockey tasks had some element of skill involved and could have easily functioned as a detour, but perhaps they had not found another task to do in a small town like Kutna Hora. I found the ploughing task totally underwhelming, it wasn't that hard, whilst it involved some effort but really, the teams left in the order they had arrived in. It was never going to be so hard that it was going to throw a spanner in the works and change the order of the teams even if it was quite evident that some racers like Alex really struggled with this challenge.
The Driver's Seat was a non-event.
We see the return of the Driver's Seat but the three teams who got to the brewery first had plenty of time to plan out exactly what they were going to do and this was not what the producers had expected. There was a lot of collaboration amongst the top three teams when really, this element of the game was meant to allow one team to sabotage another team, like a rival you want to get rid of but Jas & Jag volunteered to be assigned 3 cases because it was a walk in the park for them and ultimately, the time taken to complete the task didn't really have an impact on the final outcome. Megan & Matt were eliminated because they got hopelessly lost, it had nothing to do with the Driver's Seat. Natalie & Stephanie only won because of that very generous gesture by Jas & Jag, so unlike TAR S37 when it caused a lot more drama, this time round it barely caused a ripple. From a production point of view, I think that was a massive fail. When you put something like that in the race, you would expect it to cause a lot of drama but that just didn't happen this time.
Did this episode do rural Czechia any justice?
No. Sorry but it was a bit of a meh episode for me. Let's compare this to the current season of TAR Australia S9 E6 when they did an episode in a small village in rural Uzbekistan called Tersak, up in the mountains. That was mind blowing, it demonstrates that you can have an exciting TAR episode in a very rural setting as long as you have the right elements to create an unpredictable outcome - in that episode (spoiler alert), one of the strongest teams Dom & Marx got eliminated because they chose to take a time penalty on a really tricky detour that required a high level of skill. It didn't pay off and they ended up getting eliminated, so it was not the kind of outcome one expected as I thought they were one of the strongest teams in that season. You need fiendishly difficult tasks on TAR to create unpredictable, unexpected outcomes to create drama like that Whilst both detours in this episode in Czechia involved a certain level of skill, there wasn't a single team that cracked under pressure or even considered taking a time penalty. Again, I blame the production team for this, I hope that they are all watching TAR Australia S9 and learning a thing or two from the Australian TAR producers.
Will there be an equalizer on the next leg?
There might just be! The teams will travel from Kutna Hora to Budapest, Hungary in the next leg. There are no direct trains from Kutna Hora as it is a rather small town, so instead teams will have to get a local train to the nearest big town called Kolin and from there, they can get the next train to Budapest. There may be some waiting around for the local trains to Kolin as well as at Kolin for the next connection to Budapest, but these trains are fairly frequent so unless there is some kind of train cancellation, the teams will remain fairly spaced out though we will probably see a few teams arriving in Budapest together and thus the winner will come from the group that arrives first and the loser will come from those that arrive in the last group - kinda similar to what has happened thus far but we'll see. It is a fairly long journey.
None of the racers spoke a word of Czech in these last two legs.
Sigh. No one made any effort to even say hello or thank you in Czech, it takes a moment just to learn the basics. At least in TAR Australia, the teams are always taught the very basics and whilst they were in Uzbekistan, at least the racers could say hello and thank you in the local Uzbek language. I don't doubt for a moment that this was a direct result of the producers teaching the racers what to say in order to appear less ignorant. Yes I know most people in Czechia speak English quite well, especially the younger ones but it's just a simple gesture of respect by trying to speak a few words of the local language when you're in their country. And before you wanna point the finger back at me, yes I've done this all before and I always spoke the local language of the country I was racing in when I was on 007: Road to a Million S2.
Who will win the next leg, who will be next to go?
Is there any doubt Jas & Jag will win again? Of course not. But as for the team that will be eliminated next, it will be Kat & Alex. They are statistically the weakest team so far and so far, we have not had any shock elimination results yet (I refer you to TAR Australia S9 E6 if that's what you're after). Kat & Alex are nice people but are statistically the weakest team. They only survived this leg because Megan & Matt got terribly lost and they are so far behind everyone else the odds are simply stacked against them I'm afraid. They need some kind of miracle like a train cancellation for them to catch up with the rest of the pack otherwise they will be struggling against elimination again. If it is not them, then the one racer that stands out this episode is Rubina, she had a major emotional breakdown and cracked under stress when they got lost. So having done a very similar reality TV programme before, I can judge her and before y'all say, you don't know what is it like to be in that kind of situation - well guess what? I have actually, having taken part in our UK version of TAR so yes, I have been in that kind of stressful situation before many times. I remember what it is like to feel that kind of pressure in very difficult situations before but I know that cracking under pressure solves nothing. I refer you to the clip below for a taste of what I had to do. Sorry for stating the obvious but if crying would solve my problems, I'll be the first to start crying. I have learnt to hold my nerve and then cry later if I have to but I'll save that for after the job is done. Even in my everyday life, I run my own business and when I run into trouble, the first thing I will do is calm down and try to find a solution for the problem rather than just give in to pressure. I'm afraid Rubina cracking like that is a sign that she doesn't have the emotional maturity to cope with the race and if Kat & Alex don't go next, she might be the one who will self-destruct and plain give up when things get too tough. Sorry Kristine & Rubina, despite the fact that they may be in the middle of the pack for now, this is nothing personal but I'm afraid that is a very clear sign that a team will not last in TAR.
Okay everyone, so that is it from me on this episode and what do you guys think? Thank you very much for reading.
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