Bonjour and لاباس! In this latest leg of TAR, the racers go to Marrakech in Morocco. This is a city I have been to before and I know for some of you Americans, it may look exotic to you but for Europeans, it has been a city that has been full of European tourists for decades. The proximity to Europe and the massive boom in budget airlines has meant that millions of Europeans have flocked to Marrakech for their holidays (including myself). This place is interesting, vibrant, exotic - everything you'd expect from Morocco. This is the fifth time TAR US has visited Morocco and they have visited Marrakech twice before: back in S3 and S25. But first, as always, here's the average rankings after leg 3 in Marrakech.
Average rankings after leg 3 in Marrakech
- Michelle & Matthew 3.67
- Ali & Joanna 4.67
- Ann-Marie & Riley 4
- Conner & Garrett 5
- Erin & Javi 5.33
- Jody & Jenn 6.5 (not confirmed yet - cliffhanger)
- Anuar & Andrea 5.33
- Cody & Jaime 6.33
- Doug & Dylan = 7 (not confirmed yet - cliffhanger)
- Daisha & Dalton 9
- Dafina & Saran 9
Why is it pronounced Marra-keSH and not keCH?
This is because the name of the city written in French and a CH in French produces a 'sh' sound. In some English translations, it is spelt Marrakesh instead of Marrakech. But since this part of Morocco was a former French colony, the locals use the French name for the city and everyone just follows how the locals choose to spell the name of their city.
They tried to make Marrakech look a lot more exotic than it really is!
Aah, we have the desert, camels, bedouin men in traditional costumes serving tea in tents, the the colourful bazaar but that's just what tourists want to see when on holiday in Morocco. Marrakech is in fact a big, modern city - it is the fifth largest city of Morocco with just over a million inhabitants. There are parts of the old town where the tourists love exploring but there are also sprawling suburbs with modern apartment blocks and posh upper class neighbourhoods with a very French feel. I remember walking down one of these streets in Marrakech thinking, I could easily be in any major French city here and forget that I'm actually in Africa. But it is a fascinating place to visit and I do recommend a visit.
Talk about bad luck for Jody & Jenn.
The first task at the pottery factory depended a little on stamina but mostly on luck. The racer had to find a clue hidden in a pot marked for recycling and there's no skill involved, you just had to hope to stumble upon the clue sooner rather than later. I don't like tasks like that - I'd rather see a team be punished for making some kind of tactical error or for their lack of skill in completing the task but Jody & Jenn were simply unlucky in this case. There was nothing they could have really done that differently apart from using their express pass which they had wasted in Madrid. See? I told you this would come back to haunt them. The express pass is for such occasions when you need it to deal with plain old bad luck.
The roadside assist - a new twist (inspired by Desjardins?)
Well the roadside assist certainly went to the right team - Dafina & Saran given that Dafina had pulled her hamstring running out of the airport in Marrakech. Yes it does remind me of The Assist from TAR Canada where a random team will get 'the Assist' during a task and have to complete an easier version of the task and this has been sponsored by Canadian garden centre Desjardins for many seasons. Now what this means is that even if Dafina can barely walk, Saran can effectively do most of the roadblock on Dafina's behal and whilst this may save them once, how long would Dafina's injury hold her back? We shall see, but she did manage to finish this leg in a rather respectable 7th place.
Walk or Talk - the detour in the desert
I was really surprised that so few teams oped for the memorization detour, opting for hard labour instead. Look if you are super strong like Ali & Joanna, then sure, by all means, do the hard labour but it was painful too watch Daisha struggle so much with the big tyres and Dalton insisting that she must somehow do it - that was foolish of them. So they ought to have switched at once or at least pushed each tyre together and accept that she just was never going to be able to do it on her own. By being so stubborn, they wasted so much time.I didn't understand why the racers were so afraid of a memory challenge as the phrases were relatively easy and doing hard labour in the hot desert was not an easier option. I would have gladly chosen the memory challenge - not that I speak Amazigh language at all but those three phrases were actually quite easy. Mind you, driving across desert sand dunes in those dune buggies is a very popular activity for tourists and it can be very fun, certainly it would be a lot more fun than doing hard labour in the very hot desert sun!
The alliance between Cody & Jaime and Daisha & Dalton.
When Cody & Jaime struggled at the memory detour, Daisha & Dalton helped them out and later at the bazaar when Daisha & Dalton struggled with the fruit stacking task, Cody & Jaime returned the favour, cementing the friendship in this alliance. Why does this alliance anger Erin of all people? Putting aside our messy human emotions, let's just look at the statistics. Cody & Jaime are statistically much stronger than Daisha & Dalton. Erin could have been annoyed at the fact that Daisha & Dalton are working to keep a stronger team in the race when they could have simply left Cody & Jaime behind in the desert, unable to complete the memory detour and possibly get eliminated as a result. There's nothing wrong with helping a weaker team as you want to keep weaker teams around in this process, but helping a stronger team can come back to bite you later when they easily beat you in a later leg. Ultimately, whilst I can see why Erin might have evaluated the situation like that, it was still not her decision to make whether or not Daisha & Dalton helped Cody & Jaime out in the desert - that decision proved to be a good one as that kindness was returned within the same leg! This begs the question: should teams make a greater effort to form more alliances on the race? My simple answer to this is "yes of course, but only if that relationship benefits you". With a million dollars on the line, this is not a popularity contest.
Jemaa El-Fnaa square - one of the most touristy places in Morocco.
This is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Morocco, do a google image search for the word Marrakech and chances are the images you will see would be of this bazaar. It is massive, it is vibrant and it is full of tourists who love it. There are sections selling you non-food items, especially souvenirs for the tourists but mosts people go there for a meal and just walking through the bazaar is really quite an experience because the hawkers are usually young men who are desperate for you to spend some money with them. They know that if you walk away, you'll likely not return so they will try to establish some kind of rapport with you through language and culture. They will ask you in English where you are from, then if you said something like "I'm Dutch, I'm from Amsterdam", the young man will switch to fluent Dutch and engage you in a chat about their favourite Dutch TV programmes are or start singing Dutch pop songs to you in a hope that you'll be so amazed that you'll stop and eat there. Like these guys work in the bazaar selling street food - they don't have the money to travel, yet they learn so much about every country from the internet just to engage the customers. I tried the same thing, I wanted to really see just how far they would go - I'm British Chinese from London, English is my first language but I do speak Mandarin. So I said to the young man there, "I'm from China, I speak Chinese." And sure enough, this Moroccan man switched to Mandarin to engage me and started singing a folk song in Mandarin, getting all the lyrics right. I'm not usually easily impressed but my jaw did hit the floor at that very moment (and yeah I ended up getting a snack there). It might sound very friendly but it can also be very predatory for some tourists. We befriended two older British ladies - Grace and Nadia - because they just couldn't say no to the friendly English-speaking locals and ended up spending an insane amount of money on their first day because they friended a English speaking guide who was taking them to expensive restaurants and cultural shows. I was like, ladies, we're going to explore Marrakech together and you have got to learn to say no to the locals no matter how friendly they are. I speak French and a little Arabic and I'll make sure we say no to most things, we'll plan exactly what we want to do before we leave the hotel so we have a very clear plan. Look, Morocco is a truly fascinating country but you must plan your trip properly before you go.
Was the fruit stacking task too hard?
I liked hat task. It was hard enough to scramble the order of the teams and these fruit juice stands are very popular all over Morocco, so it is showcasing an element of the local culture. Though a display like that was deliberately engineered for TAR and not every fruit juice seller would set up something so delicate - imagine if a customer accidentally bumps against a pineapple, sending everything crashing to the ground whilst you're in the middle of a busy day. Such a display may be beautiful but it just isn't practical in the world of catering. It looked like it was a simple matter of more haste less speed, the teams that kept their cool and didn't rush through the task were the ones who got through it a lot faster.
Two more express passes were used this leg.
I think Anuar & Andrea would regret wasting their express pass on the detour. Firstly, they picked the wrong side of the detour by opting for the very physical task, struggled with it and instead of switching to the memory challenge, they simply used their express pass but only after having wasted so much time on it. I'm sorry but that does just sound like incredibly poor judgment. They really should have just avoided the physical hard labour altogether and opted for the memory challenge in the first place and kept their express pass. Or at the very least if they were going to use it, use it immediately once they realized just how hard the physical detour was - I hate to point out the obvious but Anuar is 58 and not in great shape, so when offered a choice between a physical and a mental detour the choice ought to be obvious. At least when Ann-Marie & Riley used their express pass, they were rewarded with a very nice prize - they're off to Singapore for a trip of a lifetime so even if they don't win this season, they are at least walking away with a nice prize.
So what happened at the very end of this episode?
Having been to Marrakech before and I am familiar with that whole area, I analyzed what happened and here's my analysis. Both teams left the bazaar within seconds of each other, with Doug & Dylan having a small lead over Jody & Jennn. Doug couldn't run as fast as Jody & Jenn, so they fell behind slightly in the run between the bazaar and the Koutoubia gardens. According to Google maps, we're talking about a distance of approximately 180 meters which would be roughly a 3 minute walk, not far at all. The clue only tells the teams to head to the Koutoubia gardens, with mention of exactly where in the gardens they may find Phil. Upon entering the gardens, there are many paths to choose from and trees obscuring your view, so it is not at all obvious which way to go. Both teams pass by the main Koutoubia mosque, then Dylan then decides to ask two tourists for help with directions (in a location very close to the mosque) and we see a shot of Jody & Jenn running by, overtaking Doug & Dylan - at that point, Jody & Jenn had taken the lead especially since you have to bear in mind the fact that the crew will have to ask those two tourists to sign a release form, this would not be shown in the episode but it is a process that can take a few minutes at what is a very tight foot race to the pit stop mat. We can see then from the footage that the two teams take different paths - Jody & Jenn turn right whilst Doug & Dylan continue down the main path. Ironically, both paths are possible routes to the pit stop (disclaimer: this is based on Google maps). Jody & Jenn turned right into the park and would then have to turn left to the fountains whilst Doug & Dylan would simply have to turn right into fountains a little further on. The episode ends with Doug & Dylan looking lost and quite dejected as they fail to find Phil - it doesn't bode well for them. As the crow flies, the pit stop mat was only 150 meters away from the mosque so that's like a 2 to 3 minute walk/run if you knew were you were going, but neither of the teams knew and also because of the very dense vegetation in the park, it wasn't easy to spot Phil and/or the film crew.
This was edited to look ambiguous to stage a cliffhanger
Having been in a competitive reality TV programme before, I know how they can deliberately create drama when there is none. Forgive me if you have heard this example before - I won my leg in Vienna with a margin of 11 minutes 38 seconds (with that margin I could have gone for an ice cream and still won that leg) yet in the final edit, they deliberately made it look very close, like we were seconds apart. Why? For more drama I guess? My point is simple, these edits are not there to be objective but to maximize the viewer experience by creating drama and tension when there might be none at all. Footage can be edited together out of sequence, out of context to create the narrative that these two teams were so close it was impossible to tell who was going to win but based on what I have seen and what the internet has been discussing, my calculated guess is that Jody & Jenn did beat Doug & Douglas for the following reasons: they did take a correct turn after the mosque whilst the production crew would have had to get the two tourists who helped Doug & Douglas to sign a release form. In my analysis of Google maps, the route Jody & Jenn had taken would give them a higher chance of spotting Phil and the pit stop but all that may be a moot point as I am also guessing that this would be a non-elimination leg since we have not had one yet and the next leg still continues in Marrakech. And this is not just my personal opinion, I have been through some other discussions on Reddit where people have gone to great lengths producing step by step analysis backed up by Google maps on the routes that were taken by the two teams and I filtered out the useless comments (by people who like a team but have never been to Marrakech) and focused on the comments by people who have actually been to the Koutoubia gardens (and that includes me, I've been there) so the overall conclusion is that with 99% certainty, I can say that Jody & Jenn took a more direct route to the pit stop mat when the two teams diverged and Doug & Dylan went the longer way when they had already fallen behind, thus sealing their fate.
If they really wanted to make it ambiguous, why would they have left us any clues then?
If they have left us enough clues, that increases audience engagement as people fire up their Google maps and start analysing every frame, sharing their findings on social media. We are talking, debating, discussing - that's exactly what the producers want. But if we have absolutely no reliable evidence, then there's nothing to analyze, nothing to talk about, nothing to base our guesses on - that means no engagement. Remember, the producers want us to be engaged, they want us to talk about what will happen next so they have to leave us a trail of breadcrumbs. To be fair, unless you know those gardens really well, it is not really obvious what will happen next. But I have been through enough threads on Reddit to know that the kind of analysis that has reliably predicted the outcome is exactly the kind of engagement the producers wanted to engineer. They have got to get that balance right: if they give us nothing at all, we can't even have a discussion about what may happen. If they tell us everything by showing us the outcome, we know exactly what happened. By making us play the guessing game, they wanted to stimulate maximum interaction and engagement.
What did I say about squandering your express pass huh?
I was challenged (choosing my words carefully) that I had been too harsh in judging the teams who had used their express passes in the first two legs of the race and now we have a situation where two teams are desperately fighting for their survival in the last few moments of this leg. Now if either teams had an express pass to use at the fruit stacking task, they would have easily saved themselves. Instead both teams in question had foolishly squandered their express pass on a relatively easy task instead of saving it for a rainy day when they really needed it. I stand by what I said, both teams mad errors of judgment when it came to using their express passses. And this is not just me being a bitch, cruel or harsh - look, I have been through this process myself okay? The producers really, really, really want you all to get involved this way by thinking, "what would I have done if I had been on the race? When would I want to use the express pass?" This is called audience engagement. If you're watching the episode and that question never ever pops into your head or if you think "nah I don't have the right to judge these racers" then the producers have failed in engaging you emotionally. Part of this reality TV formula is to draw the viewers in emotionally like that and yes, at times, even if it means the viewer judging the racers very harshly and thinking things like, "what an idiot, what a dumb decision, I'd never have done that!" Then the producers have succeeded in soliciting an emotional response to what you have watched - so this is not me being nasty, this is just me acknowledging the formula and the emotional response I had been prompted to give in this case. I too have been on the other side of that formula, I made a really dumb mistake on the leg in Bahamas and wasted a lot of time - and yeah, I knew people were going to judge me for that mistake I made, I knew exactly what I had signed up for. I took part in a reality TV type competition knowing that every stupid mistake I made will be judged.
There can really be two practical uses for the express pass.
If I may be pragmatic on this issue, the use of the express pass should really only be justified in two circumstances. Firstly, you're in last place, facing elimination and you use it to bypass a task, overtake a team ahead of you and avoid finishing last. Secondly, you're not in first place but you know that if you use it, you could overtake the team(s) ahead of you and win the leg, claiming a really nice prize. A waste of the express pass would be to finish in the middle of the pack as a result, because using it didn't help you win a prize and you weren't really in danger of elimination if you were in the middle of the pack, so you could have saved the express pass for another occasion. By that token, only Erin & Javi and Ann-Marie & Riley have cashed in their express pass for a win that came with a lovely holiday and arguably Daina & Saran used it wisely to avoid elimination on the first leg - therefore all the other teams who used their wasted it foolishly.
Can we talk about Michelle & Matthew - the strongest team right now? Will they win in leg 4?
I'm not keen on them, but then again, this is not a popularity contest. They are statistically the strongest team right now and they still have their express pass with them, which they have to use before leg 6. I am no doubt they'll do well and probably get to the finals but my favourite team right now is Joanna & Ali as well as Conner & Garrett. These three teams still have their express passes going into leg 4 and they might not use it yet. Of course they could use it to win this next leg but if they don't, then that leaves Ann-Marie & Riley with a substantial lead going into this next leg, allowing them to win this next leg with ease since there will be no 'equalizer' like all teams waiting at the airport for the very same flight.
Who will be eliminated next?
Based on the analysis above, Doug & Dylan will be eliminated next - either at the fountains in Koutoubia Gardens or in the next leg if it is a non-elimination leg. Because the teams are still in the same city, those teams at the front of the pack will keep their lead and thus the teams at the back will struggle to catch up with that time deficit. Even if Doug & Dylan are thrown a lifeline in the form of a non-elimination, they will still have to do a speed bump and I just don't see how they will recover from that. The other team at the back of the pack is Jody & Jenn and I definitely think that Jody & Jenn have the edge over Doug & Dylan. Like I know the whole grandfather-grandson dynamic is cute and all that but I'm sorry, they have not been performing well in the first three legs and I think there's just no way they are going to survive this next leg.
And if you wanna judge me, here's a 5 minute clip I have put on Youtube.
I've talked so much about how I've been through the same process on 007: Road to a Million S2 and I have put together a 5 minute montage. Geez, I started with a clip that was like 20-something minutes long and thought, no one is going to have the patience to wanna watch that. Then I edited it down to just 5 minutes and put it on Youtube - but I will also create a 2 minute or 90 second version for social media as well. Given how long it took me to create the 5-minute edit, you'll have to be patient for the even shorter version, but here is the 5 minute version below so you too can judge me.
Okay guys, that's it from me for this episode, I really hope you have enjoyed my analysis here, many thanks for reading.
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