Tom & Tyler: 1
Viv & Joey: 2
Hayley & Mikayla: 3.67
Tim & Rod: 3.67
Jasmine & Jerome: 5
Femi & Nick: 7
Chris & Adrienne: 7
Sid & Ash: 7.33
Rowah & Amani: 8.33 (spared elimination by NEL in Hoa Lu)
Tom & Tyler just keep winning don't they? I did think that Viv & Joey made a strategic error by telling them to look out for the Vietnamese words on the water dragons' necks, but who knows if Tom & Tyler would have figured that out by themselves anyway - there was one stage when Viv & Joey were the very first to have figured that puzzle out, none of teams in the first group had a clue what the hell they were doing. They had little to gain by helping Tom & Tyler - the same thing can be said about Tim & Rod who found out that they had to go to the Giáp Bát bus station, but hung around hesitating and confused and then decided to share the information with Sid & Ash who would have probably lost a lot more time if not for Tim & Rod's help. What did Tim & Rod get out of it? Nothing; if they had done it deliberately to keep a weaker team in the race, then fair enough, it would have been a calculated decision. But they didn't seem to know what the hell they were doing, they just looked incredibly confused and needed Sid to tell them what to do next. Sid certainly took advantage of the situation and they had everything to gain by getting Tim & Rod to help them. I'm beginning to wonder just how far sheer muscle-power can propel Tim & Rod because they seem fairly clueless when it comes to the strategic side of the game. They are clearly very fit, but can that compensate for their lack of strategy? So really, a lot of these so-called 'alliances' so far have been very much one-sided, with only one team in the alliance reaping the benefits.
For those of you who are big fans of TAR, you would remember Ninh Binh from TAR US S29 E10, when teams also had to get the bus from Hanoi to Ninh Binh and did some of the same tasks except that time, the pit stop was indeed at the top of the mountain (Hang Mua peak) that Sid & Ash climbed by mistake. It is such an iconic, beautiful tourist destination in Northern Vietnam and is a popular day trip out of Hanoi for many tourists. Likewise, some of you may remember the evil rice cake detour from TAR Asia S5 E5 where it was featured as a fast forward - the only difference was that the teams had to eat a rice cake that had been baked in a small clay pot, if they opened the clay pot and there wasn't a gold coin in there, then they had to eat the rice cake before moving onto the next pot. It was a brutal challenge - the Malaysian brothers Will & Alex valiantly tried their best but eventually gave up, a decision that plunged them to last place and led to their elimination that leg. I thought TAR was done with these gross eating challenges where so many racers would eat till they throw up, is that really what us viewers want to see? Vomiting in the name of reality TV? Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of having a challenge which involves an element of luck to try to change things up in the race, but simply making the racers eat vast quantities of rice till they throw up is just in bad taste. How about making them eat something unpleasant, such as the wasabi bomb from TAR S15 E1 in Tokyo - eating a that much wasabi is unpleasant but at least it isn't a huge amount to stomach. Or how about the detour from TAR France S1 E2, where teams had to eat a bowl of fried insects in Bangkok? It wasn't a huge amount of insects on that plate, but enough to totally freak the French racers out!
Given the choice between the two, I would have chosen the boating challenge as it involved skill rather than just plain hard labour. The distance the racers had to row isn't too far at all and it was simply a question of watching how the local experts did it, then trying to replicate the same motion. Mind you, when I was in Ninh Binh, I did take a lovely boat ride in one of those boats but the moment I got into the boat, I was handled an oar and expected to help the little old lady propel the boat along. She was just barking orders at me in Vietnamese through the trip as well and then she demanded a tip at the end of that? This was back in 2011 and if I were to do it today, I would have insisted on trying to row it with my feet rather than doing it the conventional way! The snail side of the detour looked relatively straightforward, one can only assume that the padi fields were full of snails. Notably the top five teams in this leg of the race all chose to do the snail side of the detour, I am surprised that none of them were even tempted by the rowing challenge given that it is a sporting challenge that requires a high degree of co-ordination. That's the kind of thing that Tom & Tyler would probably be very good at! Nonetheless, getting very muddy on a hot and muggy day in Vietnam would not be my idea of fun. Those of you who follow TAR US and TAR Canada would remember they both have had racers collapse from heat exhaustion in Vietnam - the summers there are very hot but I suppose if you're from Australia, you have pretty ferocious summers too.
In this episode, the racers had to eat Vietnamese green rice, that is immature rice kernels roasted over very low heat then pounded in a mortar and pestle until flattened. That is very different from the ordinary rice you would be served in a Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant. I have encountered various forms of it in Vietnamese cuisine and let's just say to eat it that way with chili is at best an acquired taste. If you're thinking ooh is it like that kind of sticky rice desert that I would fine at Thai restaurants? No, it isn't - it really is as dry as the racers claim it is. And good grief, you have to feel for Amani and Mikayla who both had so much bad luck in that challenge. There was no skill involved - just plain dumb luck and I would have at least liked to have seen some of the weaker teams get a lucky break in that challenge, but no, it had to be two of the strongest teams, Tom & Tyler along with Tim & Rod who found the lucky gold coin in the first packet of rice cake that they unwrapped. Of course, TAR fans would be reminded of one of the most brutal of all roadblocks which involved a huge element of luck from TAR US S6 where one team member had to find a clue hidden in a bale of hay which they had to unroll - there were 270 bales of hay on the field but only 20 clues, but those odds are still better than what we had in this leg of the race, where there were 300 rice cake packets and only 9 contained the coin! Lena was out in that field for 8 hours, went through over 100 hay bales - that was when Phil had to step in and put them out of their misery. When they brought the roadblock back in S15, there were 186 hay bales in which there were hidden 7 race flags.
Yes, I have indeed complained that the challenges on this season (the flyboarding and the cup stacking) were a lot easier than the Canadian and American versions, but let's look at the numbers here to try to put things in perspective:
Hay bale detour S6: 20 in 270 = 1 in 13.5
Hay bale detour S15: 7 in 186 = 1 in 26.57
Rice cake challenge: 9 in 300 = 1 in 33.33
The odds were brutal in this challenge and I am surprised nobody took a penalty, for a while I thought Amani wasn't going to be able to do it anymore and she was going to give up. Did they have to make that challenge quite this unforgiving, especially if it involved quite a few teams eating till they threw up? I also really liked the water dragon show where the teams had to figure out the next location from the names around the dragons' neck - that wasn't obvious at all and I would say that at least in this episode, the production team did come up with some interesting challenges to satisfy us.
Sid & Ash only sabotaged themselves in this leg - they were clueless after the water puppet show, they were late coming into Ninh Binh, they lost a lot of precious time switching between detours and on top of that, they hiked up a mountain for nothing, that was so similar to the mistake they did at Nam San Tower in leg 1 . It was nothing short of a comedy of errors and it was only Sid's good luck in the rice cakes detour that kept them in the race despite being U-turned. So whilst they didn't try to sabotage anyone in this leg (maybe the opportunity just didn't present itself), they did get U-turned by Jasmine & Jerome. I am wondering if it was a wise move by Jasmine & Jerome because they did it out of spite, my readers will know that I did a whole post on Sid's recent arrest and ADVO for domestic violence against Ash, he is a horrible person, no doubt about that. However, if we're strictly talking about race strategy here, they are one of the weakest teams around who have made a lot of silly mistakes, more than any other team. Were Jasmine & Jerome aware of how the other teams performed in the previous two legs? Surely the teams were on the same flight from Seoul to Hanoi, so there must have been opportunities to chat to the other teams in the airport, whilst waiting for the flights or did the production team keep them all isolated from each other? Putting aside personal feelings, it is silly to waste a U-turn on a weak team and you want to use it to get rid of a stronger team. But by the time they got to the U-turn board, the four stronger teams were all ahead of Jasmine & Jerome already at that point, thus they may as well punish Sid & Ash.
We have to talk about Sid's arrest.
Look, I've already done a whole post on it over the weekend but allow me to recap the reaction I got on social media. Many people have expressed that they were concerned about Ash, if she had been in an abusive relationship than regardless of how she had behaved on the race, she needs protection and help from an abusive partner. Likewise, many of you pointed out that Sid's arrest came after filming had wrapped on this season, so it was not like they had knowingly cast someone with a criminal record of domestic abuse to be on the race with the very partner he abused - that would just be too much risk, putting them in a high pressure situation and you don't want racers who are unable to keep their emotions in check on the race. Likewise, fellow TAR enthusiast Michael Harmstone pointed out to me that, "Married at First Sight NZ cut someone out this year for having been convicted of domestic abuse." So, that confirms that these TV production companies would never knowingly cast someone like Sid on TAR if they knew he had abused Ash - however, when you participate in a programme like that, you have to sign an NDA and you're not allowed to say anything that might be detrimental to the progamme. This would explain the radio silence from Sid & Ash on the issue but as for Channel 10, they have yet to say anything as well. Are they just going to say nothing and hope that people loose interest in the story after Sid & Ash get eliminated - which given their poor performance, can't be long now? Well, that's my guess anyway: he was cast and the filming was completed before the arrest happened, he is going to get eliminated very soon.
Femi & Nick were the last team to leave Hanoi - at least the other teams like like Rowah & Amani realized that they had messed up and returned to the water puppet theatre to watch the show again but Femi & Nick sure did take their time before doing that! But nothing can match Sid & Ash in this leg - they messed up at the water puppet show, they wasted time switching detours, they made enemies which ended up in their U-turn and then they charged up a mountain for nothing - this brings the total tally of stupid mistakes in this season for Femi & Nick to 3 but for Sid & Ash to 8! Rowah & Amani may be statistically the weakest team right now, but I am so glad they were spared elimination in this leg. I am somewhat surprised that there was no mention on a speed bump for them in the next leg, as is customary in other versions of TAR but we shall find out very soon. I do like Rowah & Amani and hope that they will survive a few more legs!
What, no prize for this leg?
Oh dear. There wasn't a price for Tom & Tyler for winning this leg, but they did get A$1,000 each for winning the second leg and then they get nothing for winning this leg. Oh well, I'm not fussed at all, they didn't really earn this victory - they got a lot of help from Viv & Joey in Hanoi and they just plain got lucky with the rice cakes. But it has been a long time since we've seen a team dominate a season like this: the record for the most number of legs won in one season of TAR is from TAR S20 when Rachel & Dave blasted all the other teams out of the water by winning 8 legs, including the final one of course. Would Tom & Tyler be able to continue their winning stream and either equal or break Rachel & Dave's record? I'm not sure they would, but the statistics don't lie: they won the first three legs in this season quite comfortably.
I had a watch of the sneak preview and it was very hard to tell whom would be eliminated next, there weren't any obvious clues - Adrienne did lose her temper with the other teams over a joss stick challenge. As long as the challenges in the next leg are skill based rather than luck based, I would say that the two teams that have consistently been messing up are Femi & Nick and Sid & Ash - it would have to be one of them who will get eliminated. And as for who will win, well, the statistics don't lie - it will be probably be Tom & Tyler again but let's see if the ability to speak the local language will give Viv & Joey their first ever win. They have been second for three legs in a row, so it is now time for them to triumph!
So, that's it from me on this episode, I had to rush this out before the next episode on Tuesday so I hope I have done this episode justice. The quality of this season is indeed improving indeed and thus I live in hope! Many thanks for reading.
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