Teams must now head to the Newport Performing Arts Theater at Resorts World Manila and perform the drag sequence of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
Dancing is Vince & Ed’s weakness. Jet & Yna are happy to have moved up to 2nd. AJ is frustrated Jody didn’t do better with the Japanese. And Luz is hungry.
But AJ is at least very excited about getting to sing and dance.
Vince & Ed and Jet & Yna start learning the choreography. AJ tells Jody not to be embarrassed about changing out in the open and having people see his underwear.
“What the hell are you talking about?!”
Vince & Ed go on stage first. But they fail their first attempt. The judge tells Edmer that his fly is open. Jet & Yna are next, but halfway through, the judges just cover their eyes.
Jody is a little annoyed AJ is having so much trouble learning the routine. That allows Luz & Chen to go on stage before them. But the one judge tells them they really sucked.
AJ & Jody go up on stage for their turn and they manage to get through it well. But the judge fails them, saying this is a performance and Jody shouldn’t be counting out loud or teaching AJ the steps on stage.
They head back to the dressing room.
AJ is frustrated. “T****na naman. What the f*** is this?”
Jody is telling the camera what they did wrong and this only annoys AJ even more. “T****na, shut the f*** up, will ya? Hindi nakakatulong ginagawa mo.”
“Then I’ll shut the f*** up! I’m just saying!” Jody says it wasn’t his fault they were too slow at the Detour, but now AJ is upset when it’s him getting scolded.
AJ says Jody’s “blabbing” just got him even more heated.
“T****na talaga oh.”
Matt & Phoebe are next to arrive at Resorts World, but fail their first attempt. Vince & Ed go up for their 2nd attempt. The judges are smiling now and they get the next clue. They mumble through the clue, but we can assume it tells them to head to the Pit Stop.
Tina & Avy are wading through Chino Roces Creek to get to their taxi which ends up having cockroaches in it.
Jet & Yna go up for their 2nd attempt and they get approved. Matt & Phoebe are next and are able to get it on their 2nd try before Luz & Chen and AJ & Jody.
It’s time for Kelvin & JP and before they start, the judge asks if they are twins. Kelvin answers “Straight.” The judge asks again and Kelvin answers that they are just friends and brothers. “Brotherhood!”
They may be hard of hearing, but they perform well and get approved on their first attempt. Eji’s boobs pop out, but he and Roch get the thumbs up on their 2nd attempt.
The teams read the clue out loud saying the last team to arrive at the Pit Stop may get sent to their respective homes.
Tina & Avy get passed on their first attempt and they leave.
Daniel & Charlie arrive and get dressed up. And even though they left the restaurant last, Zarah & Osang arrive at Resorts World in 10th.
Zarah & Osang get approved and the judges say Daniel & Charlie were just good enough.
That means RR & Jeck are now in last place as all teams head to the Pit Stop at the Manila Post Office.
Episode Thoughts
Finally! It’s been a rough few days for TARPh, but this was a great episode. Maybe even the best of the week so far. It had everything you could want in a TAR episode: comedy, drama, even dancing and floods!
Like I mentioned yesterday, with this one Route Marker-an-episode format, the task for that episode must deliver, otherwise the entire episode is a bust. So, what made this episode so great compared to the last three?
First, the task was great fun. Like many TAR tasks of the past, who doesn’t like teams dressing up, especially guys in women’s clothes? And then having to dance? It easily filled the half-hour.
Next, we were able to actually see some RACING. We saw constantly changing team placements with several teams falling behind and others catching up and even passing others. We didn’t see that with the other tasks at all. (Well, except for the horrible forced duels.) This episode, we actually some competition.
And with all the sharing of information and dealmaking, we hardly got any individual team insights. There’s a reason TAR requires pre-existing relationships for teams. One of the biggest parts of TAR is seeing how parents and children, couples, best friends, siblings deal with the pressures of the Race. How the Race itself and the challenges they go through affect their relationships for better or worse. Sure we may see a lot of that in the future, (Hello Matt & Phoebe cupcake wars!) but that fundamental TAR element was missing these first couple of episodes.
That’s why it was great to see Tina & Avy and Zarah & Osang encouraging each other when both teams were pushed down to the bottom, Kelvin & JP’s moment of asaran yesterday and see AJ & Jody’s frustration come out in a big way this episode. Relationships with other teams are of course important as well, but even more important is what we see from each individual team. This is a Race between 11 teams, after all. One team gets eliminated each Leg and only one team wins the grand prize.
Finally, maybe best of all, teams actually completed a task without needing help from others! Imagine that!
One glaring mistake though:
The graphics person needs to probably check their work before finalizing each episode. First the horrible Detour graphics, now this? Eeek.
My Subjective Team Rankings
Not much to say this episode with the teams, other than AJ & Jody were the stars of this one, thanks to their hilarious bickering.
The All-Star of all five episodes though is definitely Luz. Even through the rough patch in the middle of the week, she still continued to naturally deliver some hilariously awesome one-liners and brought a great energy.
Episode Quotes
Luz: “Ang feeling ko, ako si Jennifer Lopez.”
AJ: “I’m an Emmy winner now!”
AJ: “Wag kang mahihiya makikita nila underwear mo. Okay?”
Jody: “What the hell are you talking about?!”
Colin Kerr: “Are you twins?”
Kelvin: “Straight.”
Colin Kerr: “‘Twins!’ I said. Are you twins?”
Kelvin: “Oh, I thought ‘Are you trans?'”
Colin Kerr: “So are you guys twins?”
Kelvin: “Nope! We’re just friends. We’re brothers.”
Menchu Lauchengco: “You’re friends… but brothers?”
Kelvin: “Brothers. Brotherhood, you know.”
Colin Kerr: “Must be the makeup.”