Recap: The Amazing Race Australia 4, Episode 8 – “We are fluent in talking crap.”


The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap

Teams begin the next Leg with the first clue revealing the Road Block: Who’s ready to gorge themselves? For this Road Block, teams will leap into into Batoka Gorge.

Tom takes the leap first and the next clue he and Tyler open up contains the Fast Forward: Who gives a crap? For this Fast Forward, teams will have to identify different types of African animal dung. They Footy Bros decide to go for it.

The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap

Joey jumps next and she and Viv decide not to attempt the Fast Forward. They must instead head to Victoria Falls Private Game Reserve where they will work with an anti-poaching unit to find five items left behind by illegal poachers: cigarettes, an axe, bullets, matches and a fire pit.

Rod, Femi and Jerome are the other Road Block participants. Sid originally chose to do the Road Block, but their Speed Bump is here at the jump and it requires both he and Ash to leap into Batoka Gorge.

The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap

Tim & Rod finish the anti-poaching task first just as Sid & Ash arrive. Tim & Rod decide to tell Sid & Ash some of the items, but not all. The Influencers immediately find the other items though. Femi & Nick, Viv & Joey and Sid & Ash all leave at the same time.

Teams must now drive to Chisuma Primary School. And on the drive, Ash decides to overtake Nick and Joey who are minding the speed limit according to Amazing Race rules.

Sid & Ash don’t care that they have broken the rules.

Meanwhile, Jasmin & Jerome are still at the anti-poaching location and are now in last place among the non-Footy Bro Fast Forward-attempting teams.

The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap

Over at the school, teams find the Detour: Build Up or Serve Up. In Build Up, teams must assemble two of three playground equipments: swing, seesaw or monkey bars. In Serve Up, teams must cook a traditional Zimbabwean meal for the kids according to a strict recipe.

Tim & Rod and Femi & Nick choose Build Up while Sid & Ash and Viv & Joey choose Serve Up.

Back at the Fast Forward, Tom & Tyler finally get the thumbs up and can now make their way to the Pit Stop at Mpala Village.

Jasmin & Jerome arrive at the Detour and also choose the playground sets.

Viv & Joey and Sid & Ash serve their meals and can hurry off to the Pit Stop. But when they arrive at the Mpala Village, teams must first carry water the traditional way, on their head, to deliver to the village chief waiting with Beau on the Mat.

The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap

Tim & Rod, Femi & Nick and Jasmin & Jerome finish their equipments and also make their way to the Pit Stop.

Viv & Joey arrive at the village and fill their buckets. Sid & Ash are right behind them, but notice Viv & Joey are going the wrong way.

Viv & Joey realize their mistake and are now behind Sid & Ash. Tim & Rod arrive at the village and are able to pass Viv & Joey who are having trouble with their buckets.

The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap

Tom & Tyler arrive and are able to go straight to the Mat where they claim another Leg win. (Beau: “No way!”)

Sid & Ash arrive at the Mat. Beau tells them they are the 2nd team to arrive. However, because of their speeding, they will have to wait out a one-hour penalty.

That allows Tim & Rod to check in as Team #2.

The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap

Meanwhile, Viv is absolutely struggling with her bucket. They decide to take a rest for a moment and are helped by a local as well.

After another break, Jasmin & Jerome are able to pass Viv & Joey to step on the Mat as Team #3. Sid & Ash still have 31 minutes left on their penalty.

With 15 minutes left, Femi & Nick check in as Team #4.

The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap The Amazing Race Australia Season 4 Episode 8 Recap

With 50 seconds left on the penalty, Viv & Joey step on the Mat and are officially Team #5.

That means Sid & Ash are last and officially eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

One of the things I love about TARAu, from the beginning, is how different it looks from TARUS. I’m not well versed in video production. But it has to be something with the frame rate or color grading or something like that. I have no idea lol One thing this season has over the first three seasons of TARAu is how visually stunning it looks. This film-like visual quality. It’s awesome and I wish all TARs had it.

Now for this Leg. The Batoka Gorge jump is obviously a must for any visit to Zimbabwe and Zambia. And it’s a good task to put right at the start of the Leg. Plus I don’t remember ever seeing teams get thrown into a jump, HURLED over the side (lol) instead of just stepping off. lol

Also a good Speed Bump. I think we’re at a point where TAR budgets are tight and having whole extra tasks for Speed Bumps are just not feasible. So these Speed Bumps like this where teams have to repeat a task are good alternatives.

The Fast Forward was pretty awesome. This was definitely NOT a typical TAR task. lol And it was a great, creative and different task at that. It shouldn’t take that long though. So perhaps not much of a risk to attempt it. It actually would’ve been a good task to have different teams attempting it since it’s really a wild guess kind of situation. Any team could’ve gotten lucky here.

With the anti-poaching task, what was interesting is teams didn’t know what to look for. They weren’t given a list, I believe. So teams just had to find things that didn’t belong. It also didn’t seem like that much of a time consuming task.

The Detour was very good. Any interaction with locals and local kids is great. And both tasks had their own share of challenges. Both were time consuming and both needed different skill sets to power through them.

The extra water delivery task reminds me of the bed delivery in Malawi on TAR19 to the Pit Stop. It’s a good extra task at the end of the Leg and can really up the tension and pressure for teams having to hurry to the Mat while making sure to finish the task as well. Obviously it played a major role in making this the most exciting finish of the season so far.

I do however doubt the penalty times they flashed during the episode. lol I think all the teams were close enough that one hour seemed too long for any of the teams, let alone Viv & Joey who arrived at the same time as Sid & Ash.

Overall, I think this was a better Leg than yesterday’s. Definitely more competitive with more opportunities for teams to get ahead or fall behind. As we witnessed.

But what in the world was in that preview. Did I see Beau conducting a U-Turn Vote ceremony?!?! NO NO NO. Please no. I really hope TARAu has not adopted TARUS’ absurd U-Turn Vote format. They used the normal voting board in TARAu2. Why changed it up with TARUS’ horrible public vote. Yuck!

My Subjective Team Rankings

The Amazing Race Australia 4 Viv Joey The Amazing Race Australia 4 Tom Tyler The Amazing Race Australia 4 Sid Ash The Amazing Race Australia 4 Jasmin Jerome The Amazing Race Australia 4 Tim Rod The Amazing Race Australia 4 Femi Nick

Much kudos to Viv & Joey of course for powering through that last task to the Mat. They haven’t been Racing at their best these last few Legs. But they proved they still have the drive to keep going. They now have a 1 in 5 shot at the grand prize. So you definitely can’t count them out yet.

Of course Tom & Tyler win the Fast Forward and win another Leg. Anyone else winning this season would be considered an upset at this point.

Sid & Ash really threw away a golden opportunity. Speeding is of course a TAR no-no. And to think if they hadn’t, they would’ve been comfortably in #2. At the very least, not eliminated even without Tim & Rod’s help. They ran an otherwise great Leg and FINALLY showing they have what it takes to Race with the rest of the teams. But just one bad decision (that is, to break TAR rules) cost them. That’s too bad.

I certainly hope the other teams pick up the slack with competitive drama and tension now.

Despite their good finish, I felt like Jasmin & Jerome had a horrible Leg. Like, they were so defeated all Leg and it was very jarring to see. No doubt frustration crept in after that anti-poaching task. But after such an inspiring Leg from them yesterday, it was so weird to see them so defeated and lifeless this Leg. The surprising finish certainly perked them up though and now without their biggest rivals, they could turn it back up a notch now.

Tim & Rod certainly should not have told Sid & Ash the answers at the anti-poaching task. It really could’ve cost them the Race instead. It was a close Leg and Sid & Ash having gotten that huge bit of help from them really could’ve been a fatal mistake. I know they’ve gotten along well. But now it’s time for them to really take the spotlight. They’re really stepping it up at the right time.

Femi & Nick themselves admit that they have navigation troubles. The show seems to be dropping some heavy foreshadowing that they either get eliminated eventually for bad directions OR they end up winning because other teams get lost while they don’t. We’ll see!

Episode Quotes

Tyler: “We are fluent in talking crap.”

Tom: “What do your shits look like?”

Ash: “Oh my God. I’m going to piss myself.”

Tyler: “You’re such a dick. That’s why no one likes you.”

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