Recap: The Amazing Race Australia 5, Episode 18 – “Where is my husband?!”

The 18th Leg begins back in Hobart as teams must drive themselves to the historic town of Ross. Brendon & Jackson’s Salvage is that they are required to only complete half of each task. Chris & Aleisha’s Sabotage, meanwhile, is to have to balloons tied to themselves all day.

Jaskirat & Anurag are eager to eliminate Chris & Aleisha and MJ & Chelsea, who are not in their alliance, so they can have the perfect friendly Final Four.

Upon arrival in Ross, teams will honor the town’s past and the convicts who build Ross Bridge. Teams will dress up and get shackled while they transport ten sandstone bricks, weighing 10 kilos each, across town and over the bridge. Teams can only carry two at a time.

MJ & Chelsea are killing the task and move into the lead. Last place Chris & Aleisha are struggling a little as exhaustion hits Aleisha hard.

Even with Brendon & Jackson’s half-task requirement, MJ & Chelsea maintain their lead and open the next clue revealing the Road Block: Who’s a cheeky little devil?

For this Road Block, teams must drive 135km to Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary. Here, teams will feed a group of Tasmanian devils by first leading them through a marked course. Along the way, teams will need to find their next clue in one of the satchels as well.

On the way to Trowunna, teams run into a bad traffic jam. MJ & Chelsea don’t think there’s another route. Jaskirat & Anurag decide to take another exit to avoid the traffic. Skye-Blue & Jake decide to follow.

Chris & Aleisha finish the blocks, but Chris has lost Rhonda and Aleisha has to blow up another balloon. They hope they can catch up to the other teams.

Meanwhile, the Super Sikhs arrive at Trowunna first. Anurag gets started as he drags a dead wallaby through the course. The Tasmanian devils follow him through.

As Skye-Blue & Jake get dressed waiting for the Road Block, MJ & Chelsea arrive and are shocked that they did not arrive first.

Jaskirat & Anurag finish the Road Block and open the next clue revealing the Detour: Small Cows or Big Cheese. In Small Cows, teams must find four small calves with ear tags containing black dots. In Big Cheese, teams must successfully guestimate 7.4 kilos of cheese by chopping up cheese and carry it to the top of the hill to be weighed.

Also, teams are warned that there is a U-Turn ahead. And the first team to complete the Detour must U-Turn another team. Jaskirat & Anurag, sure they will be first, go through their possible choices for the U-Turn and wonder if they should target their biggest competition: MJ & Chelsea.

The Super Sikhs arrive at the farm and choose to do the cheese side of the Detour. MJ & Chelsea choose the cows.

Jaskirat & Anurag finish the cheese and when they run into Skye-Blue & Jake on the way back down the hill, they hand them their cheese blocks so they can just present them to weigh themselves.

Before leaving, Jaskirat & Anurag head to the U-Turn and decide to U-Turn to MJ & Chelsea. After that, they can drive themselves to the Pit Stop at Duck Reach Power Station in Launceston.

Brendon & Jackson find their two dotted cows and leave the farm in 2nd. Skye-Blue & Jake, using Jaskirat & Anurag’s cheese, leave in 3rd.

MJ & Chelsea, after having trouble finding any dots, finally get the four calves. They present their four sets of numbers and hurry over to the U-Turn board to learn of their fate. They grow emotional and frustrated over the situation.

Jaskirat & Anurag check-in as Team #1 and win a trip to Shangri La Cairns. Beau points out how they started out strong this season and then sucked the rest of the Race until returning to the top this Leg.

Brendon & Jackson check-in as Team #2. Skye-Blue & Jake are Team #3.

It’s down to the last two teams. Chris & Aleisha choose the cows and get started. MJ & Chelsea, meanwhile, are exhausted as they have to run up and down the hill more than once.

MJ & Chelsea get their cheese approved before Chris & Aleisha find their four cows. It’s a Race to the Pit Stop.

MJ & Chelsea ask a local for directions and he offers to guide them to the location and point them in the right direction. But they find they are going the wrong way.

That allows Chris & Aleisha to arrive at the Power Station and step on the Mat as Team #4.

MJ & Chelsea come running across the hanging bridge and see Chris & Aleisha just as they step off the Mat. They know what’s about to happen as they continue on to the Mat. Beau officially checks them in and confirms that they are eliminated from the Race.

Episode Thoughts

While I’m happy Chris & Aleisha’s Sabotage was lame, the difference in level of difficulty for each Sabotage (as well as varied benefits of the Salavage) is so absurd. I can’t forget how one of the Mums couldn’t speak for their Sabotage. Compare that to the Super Sikhs carrying around a stuffed toy. WTF! Absolutely horrible.

We still have 47 Legs left this season, but I can safely say that the First Class Pass, Salvage and Sabotage are absolute nonsense and dumb.

Anyway, the bricks task was a good physical task to start the Leg off with. Is it a disadvantage to less-physically fit teams? Sure. But there’s a whole Leg left after it. So teams can certainly catch up.

A long driving Leg with the one hour+ drive to the Tasmanian devils. But I would say it was worth it. I might have seen a picture of a non-Looney Tunes Tasmanian devil maybe once in my life. So seeing them on screen in real life was great for an American like me. Lol It was maybe just an okay task. But just seeing those devils in the flesh, so to speak, was really fun.

This “first team must U-Turn” rule is another absurd thing about this season. I don’t see the reason for this. Just to force the U-Turn to be used? To provoke drama? If Network Ten really wanted Survivor-like drama, why not have the voting U-Turn instead? (Do I really want to see that though on a season with a four-team alliance that wants to target people outside their clique? *cringe* lol Maybe not.)

But this is the 18th Leg and only the 2nd U-Turn? How strange. I’d much rather have more U-Turns and ZERO First Class Sabotalvage Legs. Let’s be real.

The Detour was very straightforward. Both were just tedious tasks. So I guess okay for a U-Turn. Especially when both are at the same location.

BUT! What in the TAR32 was that? I blame the show as much as I cringe at Jaskirat & Anurag giving Skye-Blue & Jake their cheese. The rules should state that they can’t just give another team their work. I wanted to say it’s worse than giving answers, but it’s really the same thing. In both cases, one or more teams get out of having to perform the tasks themselves. And like I annoyingly nagged all season during TAR32, what’s the point of the show putting together tasks if teams aren’t going to actually complete them? When teams can get the next clue by exploiting loopholes that allow them to give each other answers, or in this case, give each other cheese, why even have tasks in the first place?

I honestly wouldn’t have minded if they went back to the cutting table and had Skye-Blue & Jake cut cheese to match Jaskirat & Anurag’s cheese. Essentially copying the size and shape, but needing to cut their own blocks. Which then makes me think, why did teams have to run back down with their cheese? Why not leave their approved cheese up at the scale?

Oh brother.

Anyway, while I wasn’t shocked at MJ & Chelsea getting eliminated, I was definitely shocked that it looked like they were no more than a few minutes behind Chris & Aleisha. That guy that pointed them in the wrong way really made the difference. When they got lost, I didn’t think it would be a big deal and that they were so far behind regardless. But it would appear that the bad directions were the deciding factor. Wow!

That shot of a shocked Chris & Aleisha walking off the Mat as MJ & Chelsea come running across the bridge – definitely the toughest elimination so far this season.

Overall, an above average Leg and episode.

My Subjective Team Rankings

GAP GAP ?

Definitely happy Chris & Aleisha barely survived this Leg. They definitely fell behind at the blocks, but still kept fighting all Leg. They are the only team I am rooting for at this point. And they had lots of funny moments this episode. Not the least of which was Chris missing Aleisha’s entire Road Block performance because he was in the restroom. lol

Leg Stowaways Larry & Rhonda were pretty fun. They looked like they enjoyed their short-lived time on the Race. And they had no interest in making alliances. They just minded their own business and focused on themselves. Which is great. I wouldn’t mind seeing them continue on the Race all the way to the end.

While I’m sad MJ & Chelsea are eliminated, I’m also not sad. I’m sad because they were great competitors. Definitely strong competitors. They absolutely should’ve been in the cast from the beginning. And that’s why I’m not sad. I honestly wouldn’t have liked to see them in the Final Leg. There’s just something about having teams Race the entire Race and not just randomly come in after other teams have already been eliminated. It’s not their fault. It’s all TARAu and Network Ten’s fault. And I’m sad I feel that way. But when it comes to just the Footy Mates on their own, they were a great team.

Brendon & Jackson move up merely because they were the most invisible team of the Leg. (Other than the actual invisible team who were off golfing.) Having to do only half of each task is a HUGE advantage though.

Jaskirat & Anurag GIVING Skye-Blue & Jake their cheese was just so cringeworthy. That’s the kind of nonsense that made a lot of TAR32 insufferable. And I cannot believe I’m seeing such things on TARAu. Just horrible. And honestly Skye-Blue & Jake don’t need that kind of help. They can do just fine on their own. They showed that before the alliance was formed.

Though I guess I should be grateful to the Super Sikhs for helping to save the only team left that I like. lol

It was actually kind of nice not having Amanda & Ashleigh around. Didn’t miss them one bit.

Episode Quotes

Aleisha: “Where is my husband?!”

MJ: “I feel like I’ve stepped in so much cow poop.”

Chelsea: “Calm your farm.”