Recap: The Amazing Race Australia 7 (Celebrity Edition), Episode 6 – “Jimmy Choo wasn’t built in a day.”

Teams begin the 6th Leg with a clue under their hotel room doors telling them to make their way by trishaw to Penang’s oldest fire station on Beach Street for their next clue. Teams will be given 200 ringgit ($64 dollars) for this Leg.

At Central Fire Station, the next clue reveals the Detour: Treats or Eats. In Treats, teams will head to Michelin star restaurant Moh Teng Pheow Nyonya Koay where they will replicate a traditional Malaysian Kuih dessert platter. In Eats, teams will head to a favorite local restaurant Sup Hameed where they must order a Chef’s Special. What teams don’t know is that the special is a soup including bull’s tongue and penis.

Alli & Angie, Bec & Kate, Jana & Cor and Darren & Tristan choose Eats and they are all disgusted by the soup. And they all vomit as well.

Angie ends up vomiting a little on Allie. Tristan says he sadistically enjoys watching everyone vomit.

Meanwhile, the other three teams have to settle for Treats in this Limited Stations Detour. George & Pam are a bit lost at how to even start cutting the rice cakes, much to the amusement of Harry & Teddy and Emma & Hayley.

Jana & Cor, Alli & Angie, Bec & Kate and Darren & Tristan finish their soup first. Back at the Treats, Emma & Hayley serve their Kuih platter with Harry & Teddy close behind.

Teams open the next clue revealing the Road Block: Who will walk in Jimmy Choo’s shoes? For this Road Block, teams must head to Hong Kong Shoe Store where Jimmy Choo learned his craft from Mr. Wong. Teams will need to construct a pair of shoes. When Mr. Wong’s son approves of their creations, they will get the next clue.

Alli, Jana, Bec and Tristan get started with the Road Block. Emma and Harry arrive just as Alli fixes her heels and gets the thumbs up from Mr. Wong on her 2nd attempt. Jana and Bec get the thumbs up as well.

When George arrives, he decides to use his self-proclaimed best in the world Survivor skills. Waiting until a camera is on him and Darren, he loudly says that if Pam can overtake Harry & Teddy, Darren & Tristan’s toughest masculine threats will be gone. Darren reminds George that this is not Survivor.

When Emma gets her shoes approved, she leaves them saying they would never wear such things. Tristan finishes right after her. George continues to try and intimidate Harry & Teddy. George thinks Harry is being rude to him.

When both are ready to get their shoes checked, Pam cuts in front of Harry.

After the Road Block, teams must travel by trishaw to Penang’s floating temple, Hean Boo Thean Kuan Yun. Teams must search the lanterns for a Race colored tag with an English word on it and then whisper it to the temple keeper for the next clue.

Alli & Angie and Jana & Cor find the “Dragon” tag and can now head to the Pit Stop atop Penang Hill and the Curtis Crest Treetop Walk. Bec & Kate go up the stairs where the other two teams came from and quickly find the word.

Emma & Hayley and Darren & Tristan are close behind.

But at the Mat, it is a footrace and Jana & Cor are the ones that get to Beau first. Alli & Angie settle for 2nd. Bec & Kate, Darren & Tristan and Emma & Hayley are Teams 3 through 5, respectively.

It is down to the last two teams. Harry & Teddy are first to find the dragon with George & Pam now having to catch up. Harry & Teddy get on the Mat to officially claim 6th. George & Pam are last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

Oooo! I think this might be the best, most complete episode of the season so far. I like to determine a Network 10 TARAu episode’s quality based on how “normal” it is. And this episode was definitely the closest to “normal” I think the show has been since season 4. A Detour, a Road Block and an extra task. That’s fine for an episode with a 48-minute runtime. (NOT 90 minutes. *cough*TAR35*cough*)

First up was the Limited Stations Detour. I get the need for limiting how many teams can do each Detour. But perhaps not having the tickets at the cluebox to add more drama would be nice. Seeing teams go to a Detour, but then having to either wait or switch is always good TAR drama.

Though maybe this also disallows teams to switch. So the soup teams wouldn’t be able to switch over if they were too disgusted. Which is good!

As for the tasks, both typical TAR tasks. But resulting in good moments from the teams. Of course teams are going to think local food is disgusting. It wouldn’t be The Amazing Race without teams being wildly disgusted by a local delicacy lol It can also be kinda mean. But what it shows is it doesn’t matter if you’re a celebrity or a regular person on TAR. You’ll still be offensive to locals lol

The Kuih task was actually a great attention to detail task. Tedious, but certainly friendlier to one’s body than the vomiting lol So a good pairing of tasks.

The Road Block was so cool. I had no idea about Jimmy Choo getting his start in Penang. What an interesting bit of history and a perfect task to have here then. Also wonderful having Mr. Wong’s son still keeping the shop up and running. These are the kinds of great moments that make TAR special. Loved seeing some of the teams really appreciate their time here.

The three tasks were actually fresh ones I think. No other TAR has done them before here in Penang? Of course, the easy thing would be to recycle old tasks from TARUS or TARA. But it was nice to see some new things on the Race. And for it to come from Network 10 TARAu is even crazier! Lol

Finally, this episode mirroring TAR35 with the needle in a haystack task before the Pit Stop. It was a bit better here though since it wasn’t edited horribly and teams actually had to go somewhere else for the Pit Stop. Which ended up being another task as well needing to find it and having to walk up to the viewpoint. Unlike TAR35.

As a sidenote, I really like seeing the crew in shots and am happy TARs have become more relaxed with not cutting them out.

Overall, a really good episode. A solid Leg. And Network 10 TARAu rolls on!

Team Thoughts

Happy for Jana & Cor. A well-deserved win for them. Alli & Angie and Bec & Kate continuing to do well also.

Darren & Tristan have toned their shtick down a little bit which is very refreshing. And seeing them not at the top also has made them much more tolerable, entertainment-wise lol

I was a little turned off with Emma & Hayley after the Road Block. The way they tossed the shoes aside like they were gross or cheap was not a good look. Not very Wiggles-like.lol It’s possible they just thought that way because she thinks her own creation sucked. But the way it was presented made it seem like they wouldn’t wear such cheap shoes from a random shop in Malaysia and would only wear actual Jimmy Choos. And it didn’t help that other teams said they wanted to keep their shoes.

Harry & Teddy definitely need to step it up soon. They’re really looking like they’re in danger. Of course, one mistake could doom any other team. But the other teams have become much more consistent while Harry & Teddy are going in the wrong direction.

Finally, George & Pam. It’s the perfect time to leave I think. They don’t seem like they’d make it far anyway. And George’s shtick has gotten quite old. Last Leg when they were toned down and more normal, they were actually pleasant to watch. But George resorting back to his reality TV persona (I assume) this episode I think signaled it was time for them to go. He was fun 75% of the time. But the other 25% was enough to justify them being the next team eliminated.

Episode Quotes

Allie: “Mum projectile-vomited on me!”

Bec: “Just vomiting on each other’s heads!”

Tristan: “Jimmy Choo wasn’t built in a day.”