Tom & Tyler: 1.5
Tim & Rod: 3.125
Jasmine & Jerome: 3.875
Viv & Joey: 4.125
Sid & Ash: 5.25 (eliminated in Mpala, Zimbabwe)
Femi & Nick. 5.75
I think it is always interesting when the weakest team doesn't get eliminated - in this case, Sid & Ash were by far not the weakest team (they had even won a leg) and if it hadn't been for their bad decision to exceed the speed limit whilst overtaking the other teams, it would have been Viv & Joey who were eliminated after E8. The natural order of things would be for the weakest team to be eliminated in each leg, but somehow Femi & Nick have picked up the pace and have finished in the middle of the pack in these two legs in 4th place. And of course, once the tasks are dependent on skill rather than luck, it has been business as usual with Tom & Tyler winning these two legs yet again. It doesn't even look like these two are trying too hard - they were fooling around playing with the animal dung during the fast forward in E8 and yet they can still win these two legs as long as the element of luck is removed from the equation. Whilst some viewers may think it is somewhat predictable and hence boring to have the golden boys win yet again, as a hardcore fan of TAR, I say, credit where credit is due, they earned those victories and that should be the natural order of things in the world of TAR - so congratulations to Tom & Tyler for their amazing performances. Therefore that is six wins so far and with four more legs to go, they could go on to win a total of ten legs in this season which would be a record for TAR Australia and to put things in perspective, even in TAR US S20, Rachel & Dave who dominated that season only won eight legs. Marc & Rovilson who dominated TAR Asia S2 won eight legs (but failed at the final memory challenge), so Tom & Tyler only need to win two more legs to equal that record of eight legs won and three to break that all-time record.
Yeah, I can't help but feel that the casting for this season has been poor in this aspect. Don't get me wrong, I think they genuinely tried to make the casting a statement for diversity: we have older nuns, a gay couple, a hijab wearing mother & daughter team, a black team, an Asian brother & sister team, immigrants are represented - in fact that cast in this season is far more diverse than Australian society actually is. However, surely the casting directors could have been more careful in picking the right racers to make the playing field a bit more level, instead of having one team simply blow everyone else right out of the water like Tom & Tyler. Don't get me wrong, like I said, Tom & Tyler played the game fair and square, they are just so much better than everyone else when it comes to all the challenges - but allow me to compare that to TAR US 31 (which concluded earlier this year): there were the weaker teams which got eliminated very early on in the process, but by the time you got to the last six teams it was pretty hard to pick a winner and even on the final leg, nobody could have predicted which team was going to win given how close it was between Tyler & Korey and Colin & Christie, because both teams were incredibly strong and equally matched. Contrast this to this season whereby no other team is close to Tom & Tyler - Tim & Rod are statistically the second strongest team right now but they have made so many fundamental mistakes this season in terms of strategy and it was only due to their physical ability that have kept them at the front of the pack. Jasmine & Jerome come across as very intelligent and hungry for victory, but again, they have made so many mistakes as well unlike Tom & Tyler. Right now, it looks like victory for Tom & Tyler is a forgone conclusion and the race now is really only for second place but in TAR, there simply isn't a slightly smaller prize for the team in 2nd.
Sid & Ash are eliminated at last!
Oh I had tears in my eyes and I was jumping in joy in my hotel room in Fes when Viv finally made it to the pit stop mat with under a minute to spare. One would have to go back to TAR US S29 to find teams more despicable and unlikable, I was so delighted to see them eliminated at last. The fact is, they could have easily stayed in the race if they didn't make that silly decision to exceed the speed limit. It got them a tiny advantage of at best a few minutes but incurred a one hour penalty - if they have done any research into TAR they would know that the speeding rule is there for a reason: the producers don't want any nasty accidents as a result of dangerous driving and besides, you could be stopped by the local police for breaking the law. When you're in Zimbabwe, you jolly well adhere by their speed limit. Sid's rather cavalier attitude towards the speed limit is summed up by what he said, "rules are made to be broken". Yeah, like I can beat up my girlfriend Ash in private, but as long as it is in the house and there are no witnesses, there are no consequences. No you dumbass, it is called domestic violence and Ash called the police, you've been arrested and are now going to face the consequences of your actions. So both in E8 and in real life, Sid has demonstrated that he would willfully break the law and still thinks that he can get away with it - I hope they throw his fat ass in jail for a very long time for domestic abuse and Ash can get the help she needs but at the same time, I am aghast that channel 10 can use his anger as promotion click bait for TAR Australia. Really? It is in such bad taste, given what has recently happened in Sydney with his arrest. There are so many other more positive aspects of the race to attract viewers to tune in, yet you want to focus on Sid's anger, knowing that he has been arrested for domestic abuse? That's in such awful taste, shame on channel 10.
Let me get this off my chest, I totally hate Sid - holy shit, he's just so awful, it is impossible to find any redeeming features with Sid. He's one of the ugliest, nastiest characters in the global TAR franchise. However, in E7 at the intersection, Jasmine & Jerome had the opportunity to sabotage Tom & Tyler by working with Sid & Ash instead but because of what happened in E1 in Seoul when Sid tried to mislead them, Jasmine & Jerome chose to work with Tom & Tyler. Yes I get it, I hate Sid too but let's put our personal feelings aside. Put yourself in Jasmine & Jerome's shoes for a moment at that intersection: if you had the choice to work with either the strongest team or the second weakest team, I would actually work with Sid & Ash because I would that would put me ahead of Tom & Tyler - I would actually feel far more confident about beating Sid & Ash than Tom & Tyler for the rest of the leg. It wasn't a decision that worked out well for Jasmine & Jerome - they finished 5th in that leg after some navigation errors and were somehow thrown a lifeline when Sid & Ash took quite a while getting their bags out of the car at the car park near the pit stop. So on one hand, yeah I was happy to see Sid & Ash snubbed by Jasmine & Jerome, but ultimately, that decision merely paved the way for Tom & Tyler to win yet another leg. Strategically, it wasn't a wise move I'm afraid - the basic principle is that you want to take weaker teams with you into the final whilst trying to eliminate the stronger teams whenever you get the opportunity to do so. Jasmine & Jerome had an opportunity to try to slow down Tom & Tyler but they missed it. Not that it would have made that much of a difference since the two teams struggling at the end of the pack did pick the slower detour in building the thatch fence.
How do you pick a roadblock?
At the beginning of E7, the teams encountered a roadblock which was to do a swing into the massive Batoka Gorge. Whilst it may look spectacular, it is a fairly meaningless roadblock as the teams merely departed in the order they arrived - there is no way for a team to overtake another team by performing it better or quicker than the rest because they can only swing one at a time. So perhaps the production team thought they could get some amazing footage of the gorge and show some awesome scenery, in the scheme of TAR challenges, it was a very bad choice. Of course, there is always the possibility of a racer being so afraid of a height related challenge that they simply refuse to do the task and then get hit with a time penalty, but in this case, nobody backed out - which was somewhat disappointing since that meant that teams merely departed in the order they arrived in. Even with both Sid & Ash having to do the swing as their speed bump, it didn't seem to take that long and delayed them at best by a few minutes. Racers should be able to use their skills, brains, courage, strength and resources to overtake another team by perform a roadblock better than the others hence that is why I find such roadblocks fairly meaningless and inappropriate for TAR. You're not doing a travel programme to show the viewers the fund things to do in Zimbabwe, this is TAR. We have already seen a number of rather poor decisions on the part of the producers in this season and this is yet another bad decision. There is certainly no shortage of vibrant, interesting activities in that part of Zimbabwe yet they had to choose this one? Very bad choice!
I was very surprised at the detour in E7 when the teams had to choose between ploughing the field and building the fence because the ploughing task turned out to be easier! Normally, when you have to work with animals on TAR, you are taking a risk because you're handing control of the task partially over to the animal and they're not always going to do what you want them to do. In this case, the cows were fairly cooperative and thus the teams that chose that side of the detour completed it fairly quickly. Over the long history of TAR, teams have worked with all kinds of animals including camels, rabbits, cows, goats, sheep, snakes, water buffalo, donkeys, llamas, tortoises, ducks, horses, elephants, even lions and tigers. It's really nothing new to TAR and personally, I'm okay with it as long as there is no distressed caused to the animals during the tasks. Although this does remind me of Colin (of Colin & Christie, TAR US S5 and S31) working with a water buffalo in the Philippines during TAR S5 E11 and he totally lost it (video below) when his water buffalo decided not to cooperate. So that's how badly wrong a ploughing challenge can go but we didn't have any of that drama.
I am still amazed that Tim & Rod managed to finish 2nd twice in this episode, despite some really poor decisions. Don't get me wrong, I really like them - I think they're really nice people I'd love to hang out with, but goodness me, this is a race and they keep making poor decisions. Interestingly enough, Tom & Tyler chose to help Tim & Rod out during the roadblock in E7 when Rod didn't get all 6 letters to form the word 'Mukuni' - now this is interesting, why did Tom & Tyler choose to help them? Did they did it out of goodwill and friendship or was this more a calculated decision based on the fact that Tim & Rod had consistently made some poor decisions, such as giving up on the fast forward in Ninh Binh, Vietnam in leg 4? Then interestingly enough, Tim & Rod chose to help Sid & Ash in E8 during the illegal poaching challenge - thus allowing them to leapfrog to the front of the pack, overtaking Tim & Rod. It was of course, a really poor decision because you don't want to help a team only for them to get ahead of you - you always want to help them just enough to maintain some kind of goodwill in the alliance whilst making sure that you are always ahead of them because you don't want to be the last team to arrive at the pit stop. There were still two tasks to go at that stage and Sid & Ash took a far more aggressive stance towards getting ahead, even resorting to speeding on the drive to the primary school. Viv & Joey struggled with the physical challenge, Sid & Ash were hit with a penalty for speeding and that left the door wide open for Tim & Rod to come in 2nd in that leg. So really, these two have enjoyed super huge amount of luck so far.
Continuity error with the school principal
I am not sure if any of you noticed the continuity error with the school principal in the primary school in E8: the production team did a shot of him handing over the clue without wearing a tie. But when the teams arrived, he decided that it was his big moment for Australian television and he put on a tie to look smart - so when you see Jasmine & Jerome completing their task, first you see the school principal inspecting it wearing a tie, but when he hands the clue over he is suddenly tie-less, then when he shakes their hands as they thank him, he is suddenly wearing a tie again. Yeah, this is a classic continuity error - it goes to show that the production team do try to get a lot of extra shots whilst waiting around for the teams to complete their detour but I am so surprised this continuity error didn't get picked up in post production at all.
Okay, this was one issue of contention on social media: whilst practically everyone agreed that Sid & Ash should have been penalized for speeding, some also argued that Viv & Joey didn't complete the task properly and hence should have been penalized as well. Viv stopped several times to rest as the load was very heavy for her and I stopped to review the information for that task - Beau explained that they had to deliver two containers of water to the village chief the traditional way, but there was no mention that the racers had to do it without actually stopping or taking the buckets off their heads along the way. I suppose it would then be up to the production team to decide whether or not to penalize Viv & Joey - I think it is right that they weren't penalized: if they had specifically stated that teams were not allowed to take the buckets of water off their heads the moment they started their walk, then fair enough, give them a penalty. But since it wasn't specifically stated that stopping would incur a penalty, I think the production team probably decided that having little Viv triumph against the odds would make far more compelling reality TV then having them arrive at the pit stop, only to be eliminated because of a technicality like that. By this point in any case, I am sure many of the viewers would have warmed to Viv & Joey far more than Sid & Ash, who had been portrayed as the villains of this season from the very start.
Should Viv & Joey have attempted the fast forward?
Good question. Two teams could have attempted the fast forward simultaneously, but that meant that the team that doesn't succeed first would almost certainly be in last place given how much time they would have wasted. It would have been a high risk strategy given that Tom & Tyler had a head start, but given the nature of the fast forward, there was an element of luck involved, there would be of course the possibility of Viv & Joey getting the fast forward before Tom & Tyler did. Mind you, if Tom & Tyler saw another team arriving to attempt the fast forward, they probably would have taken it far more seriously and worked faster, instead of fooling around, throwing poo at each other. Viv & Joey did the sensible thing - you should not attempt the fast forward when you know there's a team in front of you who have probably gone for it already and it was just handed over to Tom & Tyler on a silver platter. Poor Viv did struggle for over an hour, struggling to get that huge bucket of water to the pit stop slowly; this was one task that was really harder for shorter people whilst Tim & Rod who were much taller found it relatively easy. Well, hindsight is 2020 of course but I still think Viv & Joey made the right decision not to go for the fast forward as they took the less risky option and fortunately it did work out for them.
Okay look away now or hit page down if you don't want to see a spoiler which channel 10 had released on social media. There is a U-turn by vote in the next episode, so everyone has to vote and the team that gets the most vote is U-turned: this has been done recently in TAR US S31 E8 but it has also been done in the China and Israel versions of TAR. Allow me to cut & paste from the Wikipedia page: "On Leg 9, the final five teams participated in a U-Turn vote. The format of the U-Turn vote was different to the U-Turn vote held on The Amazing Race Australia 2. Teams met with Beau Ryan one at a time to cast a secret ballot vote for the team they wished to U-Turn with the voting order determined by a random draw. The team with the most votes was penalised with the U-Turn." It was revealed that the teams voted unanimously to U-turn Tim & Rod and that shocked me - why? They are only the second strongest team and on top of that, they've made plenty of silly errors along the way. The obvious team to try to get rid of would be Tom & Tyler given how they have won 6 legs so far, I would be very interested to see why Tim & Rod were targeted rather than the obvious choice of Tom & Tyler - so did Tom & Tyler somehow manage to convince the others that Tim & Rod were a bigger threat? But more to the point, this is a major spoiler - why did channel 10 think that it was a good idea to let the viewers know the outcome of the U-turn vote then? After all, the team that gets U-turned is most likely the team to get eliminated next; unless of course, it really isn't that straightforward and another team make another really silly mistake like get hopelessly lost in the next leg?
As discussed above, it looks like Tim & Rod are going to be the most likely team to get eliminated as a result of the U-turn. But of course, that's by no means a forgone conclusion - the task in the preview causing Tim & Rod a lot of trouble is a sewing task using a traditional sewing machine. Heck, I would most definitely struggle with that given I had never used a sewing machine like that before - but then again, that actually does put all the teams on a level playing field, having to use a machine like that and another team may easily struggle even more than Tim & Rod. Otherwise, statistically, the weakest team left now is Nick & Femi, so if Tim & Rod are not eliminated, it would probably be Nick & Femi then. Furthermore, I feel that the trailer did try pretty hard to give us the impression that it wasn't a forgone conclusion that Tom & Tyler are going to win every single leg from now on, breaking all TAR records with their incredible winning streak - such a predictable result would make the season somewhat boring. So was it just a marketing gimmick? As for who will win next, come on, just look at the statistics: Tom & Tyler are so much stronger than anyone else and the second strongest team are going to be U-turned, so who else is going to win? I guess a lot would depend on which team would be good with the sewing machine and perhaps someone like Jasmine or Viv (sorry, I know I am being sexist here in even suggesting that women may be better at sewing than men) might be brilliant at a task like that. No, I can't quite see Tom & Tyler spending their weekends sewing quilts and pillow cases instead of playing football or computer games.
So that's it from me for now, very sorry for the delay but I promise I will be on time next week! Many thanks for reading.
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