Recap: The Amazing Race Australia 6, Episode 4 – “It is not sandal weather in Greece.”

The 4th Leg begins at the Chefchaouen Clock and teams learn they will be flying to the snowy Athens, Greece. Unfortunately, Kathy & Chace will pause their Race due to COVID-19 and will resume once they gain medical clearance.

Upon arrival in Greece, teams will depart from the airport in the order they arrived at the last Pit Stop. They will hop into taxis to take them to Attica Grove Theatre where they must use a bow and arrow to hit a bullseye.

Flick & Gabby maintain their lead when Gabby hits the target. They can now make their way to the Temple of Poseidon where they must memorize and perform five verses from an Aesop fable in unison. If a team fails an attempt, they must go to the back of the line.

Other teams start hitting bullseyes one after the other in quick succession and they begin memorizing the fable on the drive over. Tiffany & Cynthia, Jodie & Claire and a far behind Sam & Alex are last.

Pako & Mori, Lauren & Steph and Fliss & Tottie all arrive at the temple before Flick & Gabby. But the Barista Sisters get the thumbs up on their first attempt, putting them back in the lead.

They open the next clue revealing the Detour: Step Up or Step Down. In Step Up, teams must learn and perform Greece’s traditional Presidential Guard routine. In Step Down, teams must make two pairs of classic Greek sandals and use them for a 3-legged Race.

Flick & Gabby tell Lauren & Steph to “Go girls!” as they leave. “Not us? Okay.” Angel quips. Flick says of course them too. The Cop Couple are next in line, but decide not to go. The Church Friends give it a shot and they get the thumbs up. While in the taxi back to Athens, Flick says Angel is a “savage bitch.”

As Pako & Mori and Lauren & Steph get the thumbs up on their second attempts, last place team Sam & Alex are still on their way to the temple. They talk about how Dragon Boat Mums Jodie & Claire will probably struggle the most with this memorization task because they are old and their memories are “shot.” Alex says they probably have dementia.

Chelsea & Jamus, Crystal & Reem, Tammy & Vincent and Kelly & Georgia are next to successfully perform the fable. The Flamboyant Friends arrive at the temple and pass a few teams when they get the thumbs up on their first attempt. As snow begins falling, Stuart & Glennon have moved into last place.

Night has fallen in Greece. Pako & Mori and Lauren & Steph arrive at the Step Down Detour first followed by Flick & Gabby, Chelsea & Jamus and Angel & Frankie. While other teams also choose the performance, Crystal & Reem, Kelly & Georgia, Tammy & Vincent, Jodie & Claire decide on the sandals instead. Sam & Alex initially choose the routine, but decide to switch to sandals. They say that while other people will think they’re too loud, they know what they’re doing. Tiffany & Cynthia, Sam & Stu, Fliss & Tottie get started with the sandals.

Pako & Mori take two attempts for the final performance and while the soldier says they are “borderline,” he gives them the clue anyway.

After the Detour, teams must make their way to Taverna Platanos where they will feed each other one half of a spanakopita that Beau has made with his friend Nikos.

Meanwhile, there’s more tension between Flick & Gabby and Angel & Frankie when there’s confusion as to who is next in line for a one-on-one lesson. Stuart & Glennon arrive in last.

Flick & Gabby go for their first attempt and are borderline passed. Lauren & Steph do a “good effort” and get the thumbs up as do Angel & Frankie. Crystal & Reem get the thumbs up at the sandals.

Flick & Gabby arrive at the taverna first followed by Lauren & Steph and Angel & Frankie. They all get started munching on the spanakopita while Pako & Mori get lost.

Flick & Gabby maintain their lead and can now make their way to Athens Town Hall in Kotzia Square, the Pit Stop for this Leg. Lauren & Steph and Angel & Frankie are close behind. And it ends up being the Church Friends as the winners of the Leg when they pass Lauren & Steph who settle for 2nd. Flick & Gabby are 3rd.

Sam & Alex decide to switch back to the other Detour. The other sandal teams finish and get the thumbs up.

Over at the Pit Stop, Pako & Mori are 4th, Crystal & Reem are 5th, Tiffany & Cynthia are 6th. Previously last place Stuart & Glennon are Team #7.
Chelsea & Jamus are 8th, Jodie & Claire are 9th. Team #10 is Kelly & Georgia. 11th is Heath & Toni followed by Fliss & Tottie and Morgan & Lilli as Teams 12 and 13, respectively. Sam & Stu are 14th.

Tammy & Vincent initially hop into a taxi, but they hop out when they read their clue more carefully. They step on the Mat as Team #15.

That means Sam & Alex are last and thankfully eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

First, and I hope it’s the last time to whine about it, I have to roll my eyes at Network 10 and TARAu being able to claim “world first” on the two separate Starting Lines by specifically mentioning that it was “ten teams” each or now that there are 18 teams Racing. That is to distinguish from the actual “world first” which was HaMerotz LaMillion doing it with two groups of seven to result in the normal 12 coming together.

Lol at those opening credits squeezing in 17 teams in a shorter time too.

I don’t know what to say about these stops and starts when teams test positive for COVID. So, they get a free pass for a few Legs? How is that fair? One could argue that it isn’t fair to immediately eliminate them if they catch COVID either. But I think on that point, everyone agreed to Race during these COVID times. So everyone understands that it’s not going to be a normal Amazing Race. With that, I would think teams should have no problem if they are eliminated if they catch COVID. They know the risk since they’re traveling around the world. If they have someone or something to be mad at in the event of a COVID elimination, it’s COVID itself.

Tough luck, but if Amazing Race productions insist on Racing in a world where COVID is here to stay, they’ll have to adjust accordingly. Does that mean letting COVID-positive teams continue Racing? Or immediate elimination? That’s the difficult question that I don’t think anyone has the answer to. But the people behind TAR anywhere in the world definitely need to find better answers soon.

I remember during filming, there was a social media post showing a team have to shoot a reading of the clue from several angles. And it brought up the idea of reality TV not being too real. I thought about that with the editing in this episode. Particularly during the archery task where it was obviously snowing while teams were there, but in some of the close-ups of the targets, it was a bright, sunny day. Lol Obviously they won’t have 18 cameras on the teams and then another 18 cameras on the targets plus whatever other extra cameras for wide shots.

But anyway, what’s the point with these tasks where only one team member has to complete it? Yet, they’re not Road Blocks. For tasks like this and the spice challenge, either make both team members do it. Or make them a Road Block. You have 32 teams anyway, it’s not crazy to have more than one Road Block in a Leg.

Or in this case, one Road Block. I mean, why not add to the drama by forcing one team member do the task?

Speaking of editing, the processional feeling of the tasks become much more evident when they just go and show teams finishing one after the other. Partly because they just have to get past 31 teams in order to move on to the next thing. They show all the teams attempting each task, then *poof*, they’re all finished one after the other. It’s hard to get a sense of time when random teams start popping up out of nowhere during the Leg.

But it was obvious that the trailing teams weren’t that far behind going from Temple of Poseidon to the Detour. Leading teams were starting the Detour after dark while teams were still reciting the fables with a reasonable amount of light. So Stuart & Glennon, who were last at the fable, couldn’t have been too far behind.

It kind of even makes you question if the placements they show on screen are even real. What if they’re just putting random placements for each team as even the show can’t keep track. lol

Anyway, it’s nice to finally see both Detours get chosen this time. Lol

But was there really a line to LEARN the routine?! And did teams have to learn different routines? Or were teams just completely “borderline” that they passed them even if they actually didn’t do the routine correctly. WTF?

TAR China’s version of this task was much better executed. Especially with the icon Jin Xing making it even more fun.

Both Detours were fine though and probably the most challenging part of the Leg.

I did appreciate this Leg being a night Leg. I was worried they were going to hold teams until the morning after that memorization task. But seeing teams running around at night was great.

I kind of sideeye the teams gagging at the spanakopita as if they were eating balut or something. What was that? Unless they were shoving the entire thing down their throats, it felt a bit overdramatic. Lol

Overall, it was a fine episode. Still too crazy to fully absorb and enjoy. But it’s something to just get used to.

Team Thoughts

I like this Flick & Gabby/Angel & Frankie rivalry. I hope it gets even more spicy as they get further into the Race’s 63 Legs. I think they’re the two strongest teams so far and it’s nice to watch evenly matched teams go at it.

Most of the teams were under the radar this episode. Or merely shown in passing. Pako & Mori are one of the stronger teams, but it’s interesting how much they faded into the background even when they finished 4th.

Part of that is probably thanks to Chelsea & Jamus who are settling into their bickering couple position and it’s a fun dynamic to have. Especially being able to set themselves apart from all the other 41 teams.

I was so worried for Tammy & Vincent! Happy to see them survive.

Nice to see Crystal & Reem and Tiffany & Cynthia leap up to the top half of the list this Leg. And like I mentioned earlier, Stuart & Glennon likely weren’t as far behind as the show made it seem, which allowed them to jump back in the middle of the pack.

If you want to talk about truly fading into the background, that’s Kelly & Georgia, Heath & Toni, Fliss & Tonottie, Sam & Stu and especially Morgan & Lilli who I think was shown just once all day.

Finally, probably one of the most disgusting remarks from a team I’ve ever heard on TAR against another team is Sam & Alex (mostly Alex) joking that Jodie & Claire might have dementia because they’re old. WTF? Sam seemed to be shocked by Alex’s comments. But he was implying the same thing just seconds before.

Jodie & Claire have done quite well for themselves so far. Even better than the supposedly capable (“We know what we’re doing.”) Sam & Alex. I hope the Dragon Boat Mums make it all the way to the end just to make Sam & Alex’s comments look even worse than they already do. Just disgusting. I hope TARAu doesn’t even think about bringing them back for some horrible twist. Bring Jake & Holly back before them! Even Paul & Rachel and the Vegan Warriors would be better choices.

Episode Quotes

Tammy: “When I think of Greece, I think of beautiful turquoise waters, beautiful Adonis men, good food… not snow.”

Jamus: “Take those pants off.”

Crystal: “She’s the boss.”
Reem: “Aww! Thank you for finally admitting it!”

Reem: “It is not sandal weather in Greece.”

Gabby: “I hope there is a challenge that flirting is involved.”

Chelsea: “This has been the worst night ever.”
Jamus: “Just be nice Chelsea. You’re being a dick.”
Chelsea: “You’re being a dick.”