From Pavia National High School, teams must make their way to La Paz Public Market. After finding the famous Netongs Batchoy Restaurant, each team member will eat one bowl of authentic batchoy and search for their next clue.
“BABALA! Kapag natuklasan na ang susunod na clue, wag ibahagi ang sagot sa ibang team. WAG gagawin ang pagkakamaling ito.”
“WARNING! Once you’ve found the next clue, do not share the answer with other teams. DO NOT make this mistake.”
Before teams leave the high school, they must also stop at the Must Vote board.
Matt & Phoebe vote for AJ & Jody because it is unfair that they get a 2nd chance when they thought they were already in the Top 5. AJ & Jody vote for Eji & Roch because they are the first team.
Matt & Phoebe find a taxi quickly. AJ & Jody hop on a jeepney that drops them off at a terminal where they can grab a taxi.
At the Market, Matt & Phoebe ask their taxi to wait as they find the restaurant. They are each served a bowl. They expect the clue to be at the bottom of the bowl or under it or under the table. But it’s nowhere.
They decide to start looking all over the restaurant as AJ & Jody arrive. They start eating and they are careful not to swallow the possible clue.
Back at the Road Block, Kelvin & JP vote for AJ & Jody. There’s no taxi passing by, so they hop into a pedicab. Jet & Yna vote for AJ & Jody because they are too lucky to have been given a 2nd chance when they haven’t gotten a 2nd chance on the Race yet. They quickly find a taxi.
Roch & Eji vote for AJ & Jody. Roch wants to complete the “first 5” while Eji wants AJ to rest.
Kelvin & JP arrive at the highway and wait for a taxi to pass by, knowing other teams could have passed them already.
In last, Vince & Ed leave the high school after voting for AJ & Jody.
AJ & Jody finish their batchoy as Jet & Yna arrive.
After searching the restaurant, Phoebe orders one more bowl of batchoy. AJ & Jody do the “Meron ka bang clue para sa akin?” but no one has one. They decide to take their bowls outside and ask around for the clue.
Roch & Eji arrive at Netongs as AJ starts crawling on the floor hoping to find a clue.
Kelvin & JP arrive at Netongs and Vince & Ed complete the teams.
Meanwhile, Matt & Phoebe see an advertisement on the window for a beach resort. They ask some locals in the market who say the resort is pretty far, so they are not sure if they should risk going all that way and end up being wrong. They see Jet & Yna are also looking at the ad.
Jet & Yna decide to write down the info and go.
Matt & Phoebe see Jet & Yna leave after looking at the ad so they decide to go as well, thinking if this is wrong, at least they have another team with them.
Both teams are on their way to Sunset Royal Beach Resort in Anhawan, Oton.
Jody sees the ad and he and AJ quickly leave to try it. Roch & Eji are next and think about it. Eji thinks they need to look for a cluebox, so they walk around the market before ultimately deciding to go.
That leaves Kelvin & JP and Vince & Ed. Vince & Ed walk around the market while Kelvin & JP look around their table.
Vince & Ed are pointed to the home of Netongs’ founder. Still in the restaurant, Kelvin & JP see the ad and decide to give it a try.
Vince & Ed return to the restaurant and keep looking until Vince reads the whole poster and sees where it says specifically that they will find their clue at the resort.
Episode Thoughts
Not as good an episode as Monday’s, but still solid. The task reminded me of one of season 1’s most poorly executed Active Route Info tasks. For that one, teams needed to eat a bowl of halo halo and find their clue stuck on the bottom of the bowl. Instead of actually seeing the clue, teams just walked around the market until they found the stall they needed to go to.
So that defeated the purpose of the entire task.
For this batchoy version, it was different, yet still kinda similar. Everyone except Vince & Ed (kudos!) saw the poster, yet they didn’t see the little bit of information that told them specifically that this was the clue they were looking for.
I definitely loved that teams couldn’t tell each other the answer. But I think the task itself was a not-as-good modification of similar TAR tasks of the past. The one I remember the most was TAR12’s task in India, I think, where teams had to find their next clue printed as an ad in a newspaper.
It’s a task that looks great on paper, but other than losing time walking around the market, teams didn’t have to take a big risk since they weren’t going to be going to some location completely out of the way.
Anyway, I love how “Meron ka bang clue para sa akin?” from Pangasinan has stuck with the teams. lol
After so many linear Legs, we now have 4! equalizers in this Leg so far. First the overnight ferry, then the Double Battle Road Block, then arguably the batchoy eating and now an Intersection! It’s nice to have equalizers, but it sucks that they’re only appearing now when all the first legs were completely linear.
I also giggle at Jet & Yna’s reasoning for voting AJ & Jody saying they never got a 2nd chance like them. Well, Jet & Yna haven’t really needed a 2nd chance since they’ve consistently been in the Top 3, as they’ve pointed out.
Also interesting that teams didn’t have a problem with RR & Jeck not getting eliminated in Ilocos because of the Superleg. They still voted for Matt & Phoebe and not RR & Jeck.
Episode Quotes
Phoebe: “Gutom ka ba? Okay, very good.”