The Amazing Race Australia 2, Episode 6
The Leg
  
Paul & Steve start out on the sixth leg of the Race and teams must head to the Hürrem Hamami, a 16th century Turkish bathhouse where they will have to wash and scrub each other with a bar of soap until it revealed their next clue.
They strip down and rub each other until they get next clue revealing the Detour.
In Shine, teams head to a marked shoe shine stall at Yeni Camii where they must convince 10 locals to have their shoes shined for at least 4 Turkish lira each to receive their next clue.
In Design, teams must find a marked carpet stall in the Egyptian Bazaar and choose a piece of fabric from an exotic Turkish pattern then find a perfect match among the full sized carpets for their next clue.
  
At the end of the clue, Paul & Steve find out there’s a Yield coming up. They run over to it and decide to Yield Michelle & Jo who are right behind them just to maintain their first place lead.
As Paul & Steve try to attract the locals, the rest of the teams catch up to Michelle & Jo at the bathouse. They stay ahead of the others, but run over to find their faces on the Yield.
As the sand runs out in their hourglass, Paul & Steve finish the Detour. Teams must now head to Rumeli Castle where they will encounter an Intersection. Two teams must mutually agree to work together until told otherwise starting here.
  
While Paul & Steve wait, Michelle & Jo have no trouble getting customers to line up to them. On the other hand, Grace’s surefire plan to flirt with the locals goes up in smoke. At the other Detour, Shane & Andrew and Sticky & Sam begin digging through the carpets. The coppers find Sticky & Sam’s carpet and hands it over to them. (!) Sticky & Sam bring the carpet to the judge and they are handed their next clue. But to repay the cops for basically doing the Detour for them, they return upstairs to help them out.
After spending what they say is half an hour or more helping, Shane & Andrew attempt with a carpet they think is the correct one, but it’s wrong so they decide to switch. Sticky & Sam, after the fact, say they would’ve stayed with them until they found it.
At the other side of the Detour, Lucy & Emilia’s flirtations work a little better than Grace’s as they have people lining up. Meanwhile, back at the Pit Stop (!), James & Sarah and Tarryn & Ross finally begin their leg. They get to the bathhouse together and laugh it up sliding around.
  
Across town at the Castle, Michelle & Jo arrive and decide to put the Yield aside and work with Paul & Steve as it would be to both their benefits to do so.
For their task during the Intersection, teams have to work together to break through a line of Turkish oil wrestlers to get to an antique lamp on a table.
The four of them change into skimpy outfits and rub each other (again!) with oil before trying to get past the wrestlers. In the scuffle, Michelle gets clotheslined by one of the wrestlers and falls to the floor, shaking in shock. She sucks it up and they exchange the lamp for the next clue.
Teams are now released from the Intersection and now must complete a Road Block.
For this Road Block, teams head to Darüzziyafe Restaurant where they would join Whirling Dervishes and take part in a Sufi meditation ritual that involves them spinning continuously for five minutes.
  
While Paul & Steve and Michelle & Jo head to the Road Block, Sticky & Sam and Joseph & Grace Intersect. Lucy & Emilia wait for Shane & Andrew, who give a little boy a key chain from Australia before heading off. Next at the shoe shine are James & Sarah and Ross & Tarryn who understand their battling to keep from being last.
Over at the Road Block, Steve and Jo dress in traditional robes before getting a lesson in the proper way to spin. They give it a go and Steve does well, but Jo can’t keep her balance, quickly becomes dizzy and collapses on her back. She now has to start over again, allowing Steve to finish and he and Paul to head to the Pit Stop, Beyazit Square.
  
They boys officially check-in first for the 2nd leg in a row and claim a $5000 computer package from Bing Lee. Michelle & Jo come running in to finish 2nd for the 2nd leg in a row as well.
At the shoe shine, Sarah attracts customers by giving them a bonus shoulder massage. But Ross & Tarryn finish before them… only to have to wait for them at the Intersection.
Joseph & Grace and Sticky & Sam arrive at the Pit Stop to officially finish 3rd and 4th respectively. Shane & Andrew’s bad taxi luck continues, allowing Lucy & Emilia to get ahead of them to the Road Block. That gives the sisters the opportunity to arrive at the Mat 5th with the cops officially finishing 6th.
It’s down to James & Sarah and Ross & Tarryn. From the castle, Ross & Tarryn leave first, but James & Sarah’s taxi driver manages to sneak past the father and daughter giving them that advantage at the Road Block.
James finishes before Ross and he and Sarah run to the Pit Stop to check-in 7th. That leaves Ross & Tarryn in last and eliminated.
  
Episode Thoughts
Overall, it was a great episode. Both the odd, awkward, yet cultural excuses for gratuitous skin at the Turkish bath and the oil wrestling were amusing enough. The Detour, at least the shoe shine side of it, allowed teams to interact with the locals. And the Road Block was a great way for teams to immerse themselves in the local customs.
Despite those positives, the leg was completely linear, evidenced by the nearly exact same team placements from the last leg. It was actually thanks to the Intersection that the middle pair of teams managed to switch placements at all. Speaking of, it’s nice to see the Intersection again, though it’s risky putting it on a leg without an equalizer. And it was kind of unfair to put an Intersection on a leg after a non-elimination.
The unusual circumstance of the four hour penalty from last leg played a little into that as well, but looking at the departure times, it looks more like they were issued two hour penalties instead or were simply negated for logistics sake.
The Yield was refreshing to have too, but I think since the introduction of the U-Turn, the Yield would become more of a drama-inciter instead of a strategic game piece.
Again, overall, a good episode, but the leg design could’ve used a little more work.
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