Recap: The Amazing Race Australia 6, Episode 15 – “It’s just a twerk, really.”

Steph & Lauren randomly returns to the Race out of nowhere and the 15th Leg begins with the teams all released by claxon to catch one of two boats departing 15 minutes apart to Caye Caulker. On the first boat are of course Angel & Frankie, Pako & Mori, Heath & Toni and Kelly & Georgia.

Upon arrival on the island, teams must put a sardine between their thumb and finger to feed a tarpon. Afterwards, they will encounter the Road Block: Who wants to come out of their shell?

For this Road Block, teams will travel to Shark Ray Alley where they will dive amongst the sharks to search for marked conch shells to find one with a red and yellow stripe.

Angel, Pako, Kelly and Heath decide to do the Road Block. Of the second boat, Chelsea refuses to do it so it’s Jamus along with Lauren, Cynthia and Jodie.

Kelly is the first to find the correct shell followed by Heath and Pako. Lauren, Cynthia, Jodie and Jamus are next to find the shell they need, pushing Angel & Frankie into last place. Frankie comforts Angel who had been running in the water and was frightened by the stingrays.

After the shells, teams open the next clue revealing the Detour: Twirl It or Twerk It. In Twirl It, teams must braid a woman’s hair into eight tight rows and finish them off with four beads. In Twerk It, teams must head to the Lazy Lizard and learn and perform the traditional soca dance.

Kelly & Georgia, Lauren & Steph, Tiffany & Cynthia and Jodie & Claire choose the braiding while Heath & Toni, Pako & Mori, Angel & Frankie and Chelsea & Jamus choose the dancing.

Pako & Mori finish the Detour first, followed by Heath & Toni. They open the next clue revealing another Road Block: Who’s on Caye Caulker time? Teams must ride a bike for at least two and half minutes down a bumpy road. Because the road is not long, teams must ride very slowly without touching the ground. If they drop a coconut or fall off, they must start over.

Mori and Toni decide to do the Road Block.

Back at the twerking, Angel & Frankie and Chelsea & Jamus finish next. Tiffany & Cynthia are the first to finish the braids. Kelly & Georgia and Lauren & Steph are next, leaving Jodie & Claire in last.

Toni, meanwhile, gets the Road Block done on her second attempt. She and Heath open the Pit Stop clue directing them to Northside Beach Bar which they can reach by crossing the famous The Split. Pako & Mori are right behind them and both teams get on the same boat. It is a footrace to the Mat and Heath & Toni are able to pass Pako & Mori to claim another win and a pair of Samsung 4K Frame TVs. Pako & Mori are Team #2.

Angel & Frankie, Tiffany & Cynthia, Kelly & Georgia and Chelsea & Jamus are next to finish the biking. Angel & Frankie are Team #3 and Tiffany & Cynthia are Team #4. Kelly & Georgia take 5th and Chelsea & Jamus are 6th.

It’s down to the last two teams, For their Speed Bump, Lauren & Steph must both complete the bike Detour. That allows Jodie & Claire to catch up and both teams end up on the same boat.

It’s a footrace and Lauren & Steph take 7th. That means Jodie & Claire are last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

Yay for normal-feeling Legs! This was an okay Leg and episode. It’s interesting because there are obviously two groups of teams. And even if the Leg itself was designed well and tightly packed to allow teams to move ahead or fall behind, the teams really mostly stayed in their same perceived positions.

First, meh to starting teams off at the same time again. But perhaps putting a task before the boat ride would’ve allowed it to be more than just who are the fittest teams who can run.

The tarpon feeding was an okay extra task to fill out the Leg. The first Road Block was a typical needle in the haystack task with an extra nice location.

The Detour was unique. We’ve had hairstyling tasks before, but not braiding, I think. And though “twerking” added an extra bit of fun, it was still a typical dancing task. Though maybe not as strict as other performance-type tasks would have been.

The second Road Block seemed difficult at first, but teams could apparently just do laps on the road and it’d be okay. So it turned out to be much easier than it looked.

Interesting to put the Speed Bump right before the Pit Stop again. That’s as opposed to last Leg where teams had plenty of time to catch up after the Speed Bump. But all Lauren & Steph needed was to be a faster runner than the last team. And perhaps they were lucky Jodie & Claire were who they ran against because they probably would’ve lost against any other team.

The boat ride to the Pit Stop definitely adds to that possibility of again giving advantage to “fit” teams over “non-fit” teams. But it is what it is.

That’s really the kind of attitude you need to have with Network 10’s TARAu. “It is what it is.”

And omg, we still have SIX episodes left?!?!?

Team Thoughts

Well, finally all teams are back in the Race. So no more nonsense to have to deal with.

Jodie & Claire were a fun team who did reasonably well. But I think it was the time for them to go. Slow and steady is a good philosophy to have. But there are definitely times when you just gotta go full speed. And after last Leg too, it just seemed like they were over it, to be honest. Perhaps if it were a regular 12/13-Leg Race, they could’ve done much better.

Just based on what we’ve seen, the top contenders at the moment seem to be Angel & Frankie (obviously), Pako & Mori and Heath & Toni. Chelsea & Jamus are the fun darkhorses, but I can only assume one bickering moment too many will doom them. Kelly & Georgia had started off fast until they got sidelined with COVID. So if they can get back to that level from the early Race, they can sneak into that Final 3 as well. Tiffany & Cynthia and Lauren & Steph don’t seem too long for TARAu judging from editing. And as we’ve seen this season, editing never fails to spoil the results of episodes.